Russia

ST. PETERSBURG, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Electric vehicles can continue to drive free of charge on federal toll highways in 2024, the Russian government's press service said Thursday.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, who supervises the federal project "Electric and hydrogen car," said that the privilege for electric vehicles will resume on Jan. 19.

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/: Russia is gaining allies around the world, as most countries support the idea of a multipolar world, so Russian parliamentarians need to build and develop relations with them, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said, speaking at the first plenary session of the chamber's spring meeting.

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with the foreign ministers of Russia and North Korea, Sergey Lavrov and Choe Son Hui, who earlier in the day held talks in Moscow, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin received at the Kremlin DPRK Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui," Peskov said.

According to him, the top diplomats informed the Russian president of the agreements reached.

MOSCOW, Jan 16 (Reuters) - A court on Tuesday sentenced a former senior officer in the National Guard to six years in a prison colony after convicting him of buying equipment unable to protect the bridge which links southern Russia to Crimea, the TASS state news agency reported.

TASS said that Colonel Sergei Volkov had purchased two radar-based air defence systems for 395 million roubles ($4.5 million) which were meant to be able to bring down Ukrainian attack drones by suppressing their signal.

MOSCOW, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Ukraine's statehood could suffer an "irreparable blow" if the pattern of the war continued, and Russia would never be forced to abandon the gains it had made.

Putin made his televised comments a day after Switzerland agreed to host a global summit at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Putin dismissed "so-called peace formulas" being discussed in the West and Ukraine and what he called the "prohibitive demands" they entailed.

MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/: The development of Russia’s Far East has advanced, the most difficult initial stage has been passed, now it is necessary to increase the pace, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"At the first stage it was quite difficult to implement a lot of things that had been frozen for decades. In my opinion, the work has continued, we have advanced, the most difficult stage is over, now we just need to increase the pace," he said, answering reporters’ questions.

MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/: If the West wants talks on Ukraine it should stop supplying Kiev with weapons, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, commenting on Swiss Federal Councillor for Foreign Affairs Ignazio Cassis’ statement that Russia should be included into peace discussions.

Addressing a news conference in Davos earlier in the day, Cassis said that efforts are being made to bring Russia into peace discussions on Ukraine mediated by other countries and stressed that a peace conference could not be held without Russia’s participation.

MOSCOW, Jan 13 (Reuters) - A huge fire tore through a warehouse belonging to one of Russia's biggest online retailers in St. Petersburg on Saturday, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said, saying firefighters had succeeded in halting it spreading further.

The warehouse's owner, Wildberries, said in a statement that all its staff had been evacuated. Nobody was reported to have been hurt.

There was no immediate word on how the fire, which covered 70,000 square metres and was rated as a category five, the most serious, had started in the suburb of Russia's second city.

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: World Health Organization representative Melita Vujnovic, who wraps up her mission to Russia, believes that the world will become better in 2024, and diplomacy will prevail.

"I hope that the world will become better in 2024. I am an irredeemable optimist. And I hope that diplomacy will once again be able to speak louder than something else," she told TASS.

She added that not everything depends on Russia in this business, but admitted that the high standards of the Russian diplomacy make her optimistic.

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: Three civilians have been injured as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack on fuel and energy sector facilities in Orel, governor of the Orel Region Andrey Klychkov said.

"During an attack of enemy unmanned aerial vehicles on fuel and energy sector facilities in the Orel Region, three people were hurt. They are receiving necessary assistance," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Two of these three refused to be taken to hospital.