Kremlin hits NATO, Kiev:

The Kremlin on Friday slammed NATO and Ukraine for misinterpreting a remark by President Vladimir Putin as a virtual admission of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.

The Russian president on Thursday once again denied the presence of regular Russian troops in Ukraine but admitted that some people have been carrying out military tasks there.

A woman decorates a Christmas shop window in Kiev, Ukraine, Dec 18. (AP)

Russia expels Polish reporter:

Russia is expelling a Moscow-based correspondent for a leading Polish newspaper in a retaliatory move after a Russian reporter was stripped of his right to reside in Poland amid suspicions of espionage.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday ordered Waclaw Radziwinowicz, a correspondent for the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, to leave Russia within 30 days. The ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Polish journalist was ordered out of Russia “on the principle of reciprocity.”

Poland’s Foreign Ministry denounced the expulsion of Radziwinowicz as “unjustified” and “purely retaliatory” and said it would have “negative consequences” for relations between the two countries, which are already deeply strained over Russia’s actions in Ukraine and other matters.

Roman Imielski, managing editor for the Gazeta Wyborcza, and the Polish Foreign Ministry said the move was in response to the expulsion from Poland of Leonid Sviridov, a Russian reporter with the Kremlin-funded Rossiya Segodnya news service. He left Poland last Saturday.

Poland’s Internal Security Agency said last year that Sviridov was a threat to Poland’s security, though it never revealed what evidence it had against him. Polish media said Sviridov was suspected of spying for Russia, something Sviridov denied.

Although Poland’s security agency declared Sviridov a “danger to the Polish state” in 2014, authorities allowed him to remain in Poland for 14 more months while the administrative case against him ran its course. (AP)