Russia

MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/: Moscow is grateful to all countries that offer mediation in negotiations with Kiev, but it is important not just to opt for a venue for a meeting, but also to make Ukraine more cooperative, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/: Moscow is terminating peace treaty talks with Tokyo in the light of Japan’s newly-introduced unilateral restrictions against Russia over the situation in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

March 21 (Reuters) - Russia's ambassador said on Monday he hoped that efforts to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear accord would resume after the Nowruz Persian New Year holidays, TASS news agency reported.

Efforts to clinch a new deal have been left in limbo after a last-minute demand by Russia, which now at odds with the West over its invasion of Ukraine, forced world powers to pause talks for despite having a largely completed text.

"Immediately after that, I really hope the negotiation process will resume," Russia's ambassador to Iran, Levan Dzhagaryan, was quoted as saying.

March 21 (Reuters) - Russia's foreign ministry said on Monday it had summoned U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan to tell him that remarks by President Joe Biden about Russian President Vladimir Putin had pushed bilateral ties to the brink of collapse.

President Biden said last week that Putin was a "war criminal" for sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. 

"Such statements from the American president, unworthy of a statesman of such high rank, put Russian-American relations on the verge of rupture," the ministry said in a statement.

MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia grew by 31,035 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infected to 17,582,692, the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Sunday.

The increase in new cases totaled 0.18% in relative terms.

Some 2,551 patients were taken to hospital in the past 24 hours.

Recoveries

As many as 74,675 coronavirus patients recovered in Russia over the past day, bringing the total number of recoveries to 16,209,942, the crisis center told reporters.

MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/: Russia’s forces are completing the defeat of the Donbass nationalist battalion and have advanced 12 more kilometers in the course of the special military operation in Ukraine, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday.

"Russian army units are completing the defeat of the Donbass nationalist battalion. During the day, Russian troops advance 12 kilometers to reach Nikolskoye and jointly with units of the Donetsk People’s Republic blocked the settlement of Sladkoye from three sides," he said.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/: The West is waging an information war against Russia, it includes elements of information terrorism, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday in an interview with the RT TV channel.

"Substitution of notions often takes place. When something happens, like mass protests, demonstrations that they [the West] don’t like, they immediately call it domestic terrorism. It’s a war. It’s a war which involves methods of information terrorism. There is no doubt about this," he said.

MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/: There are no shortages in supplies of vital medicines, neither are there price hikes on medicines, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Saturday.

"Companies confirm that supplies of medicines to the Russian market continue. There are no shortages of vital medicines and price regulation is ensured. So, there are no price hikes," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

Murashko said earlier that the situation on the Russian pharmaceutical market was stable, with all manufacturers continuing to operate.

MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/: Russia’s economy will never collapse because of the sanctions, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday.

MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has held another phone call with Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, the second one in a week, the Kremlin press service said in a statement on Saturday.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin and Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel have held a telephone conversation, initiated by Luxembourg. In a continuation of their previous call, the parties discussed the situation in Ukraine and Donbass with regard to Russia’s special military operation," the statement reads.