Main news of December 15

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours.

WORLD

 

*The opposition party BYT-Batkivschina sent to the Nobel Committee all the necessary documents in order to nominate former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for the Nobel Peace Prize, a deputy of the party Natalia Korolevskaya said.

*Russia and the EU have finally agreed to unblock a Russian Emergencies Ministry convoy carrying humanitarian aid on the border between Serbia and Kosovo, Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Konuzin said on Thursday.

*Russia’s participation in the 2012 Russia-NATO Council summit in Chicago has not been decided yet as it depends on the U.S. position concerning the missile defense shield, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

*Russian election protests did not come from the outside, U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton said in her first public response to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s accusations of interfering in Russia’s domestic affairs.

 

 

RUSSIA

 

*Prime Minister Vladimir Putin defended recent elections won by his party that critics charge were unfair, but also promised he would liberalize Russian politics if elected president next March.

*Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin answered 88 questions during his annual live Q&A session, which lasted for more than four and a half hours.

*Russia will help the European Union overcome its economic problems, President Dmitry Medvedev said.
*Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed to bring back governor elections which he abolished in 2004.
*Russia’s new anti-missile radar station in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad will become fully operational by the middle of 2014, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily.

*The Russian economy will grow 4.2-4.5 percent in 2011, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said during his Q&A session with the nation.

*Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has pledged to release former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky if he is elected president next March.