The Russian defense minister has shared concerns with his French counterpart about a possible Ukrainian provocation involving the use of a “dirty bomb”.

Russian security services have arrested eight people, including five Russian nationals, for their alleged connection to the attack on the Kerch Bridge on Saturday, which Moscow has blamed on Ukrainian military intelligence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed on Friday the formal treaties on the accession to the country of the territories of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, following the results of the referendums held.

Pressure in the Nord Stream 2 undersea gas pipeline, which was intended to pump gas from Russia to Germany, dropped from 300 to 7 bars overnight

It will be able to bring up to 50 billion cubic meters of gas to China annually, according to Gazprom.

Washington becomes “complicit in war crimes” by supplying weapons to Kiev, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a media briefing on Thursday. If the US decides to supply longer-range missiles to Ukraine, “it would cross the red line and become an actual party to the conflict,” she added.

The country is examining the possibility of cooperation with companies from friendly countries and the establishment of its own insurer. This was announced by Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov.

Due to technical failures, the Russian energy giant Gazprom announced on Friday the suspension of the supply of natural gas to the EU through the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, indefinitely.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and only president of the Soviet Union, has died at the age of 91, in Moscow.

Only a fifth of the possible gas supply volume has been flowing through Nord Stream 1 for weeks. At the end of August, the Baltic Sea pipeline will be idle for three days for maintenance work.