Russia

March 19 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin is healthy, sane and "in better shape than ever", his close ally Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has said in an interview with the Japanese television channel TBS.

"He and I haven't only met as heads of state, we're on friendly terms," Lukashenko said in a recording of the interview shared by state news agency BelTA. "I'm absolutely privy to all his details, as far as possible, both state and personal."

Russia used Belarusian territory as a staging post for its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

March 19 (Reuters) - Russia's space agency on Saturday dismissed Western media reports suggesting Russian cosmonauts joining the International Space Station (ISS) had chosen to wear yellow suits with a blue trim in support of Ukraine. 

"Sometimes yellow is just yellow," Roscosmos's press service said on its Telegram channel.

"The flight suits of the new crew are made in the colours of the emblem of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, which all three cosmonauts graduated from ... To see the Ukrainian flag everywhere and in everything is crazy."

MOSCOW, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed on Saturday "the unacceptable nature of the military-biological activities of the United States in Ukraine" in a phone conversation with Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Such activities pose a huge danger to both Russia and the whole Europe, Putin said.

The two leaders discussed Russia's military operation in Ukraine, and Putin noted the missile attacks by the Ukrainian security forces on cities in Donbass, said the statement.

About three dozen would-be asylum seekers from Russia found themselves blocked from entering the U.S. on Friday while a group of Ukrainians flashed passports and were escorted across the border.

The scene reflected a quiet but unmistakable shift in the differing treatment of Russians and Ukrainians who enter Mexico as tourists and fly to Tijuana, hoping to enter the U.S. for a chance at asylum.

The Russians — 34 as of Friday — had been camped several days at the busiest U.S border crossing with Mexico, two days after city of Tijuana officials gently urged them to leave.

New York, Mar 19 (AP) Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station on Friday wearing yellow flight suits with blue accents, colors that appeared to match the Ukrainian flag. The men were the first new arrivals on the space station since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine last month.

Russian space corporation Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov blasted off successfully from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan in their Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft at 8:55 p.m. Friday (11:55 a.m. EDT).

18 March 2022; MEMO: Ukrainian intelligence yesterday announced that a large number of "Syrian mercenaries" arrived in Russia to fight alongside the Russian army.

Ukrainian intelligence stated that 150 Syrian mercenaries had been transferred from the Hmeimim Air Base to Russia on Tuesday, noting that Moscow is planning to transfer weapons and military equipment from Syria to Russia and Belarus to use in the war against Ukraine.

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 18. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 34,442 over the past day to 17,518,699, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Friday.

In relative terms, the growth rate reached 0.2%.

As many as 5,513 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, up 10.1% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients increased in 49 regions, while in 36 other regions the figure decreased. A day earlier, 5,008 people were rushed to hospitals.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/: India is aware of the goals of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine and takes a balanced position on this issue, Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov said in an interview with the Russia-24 TV channel.

"India is well aware of not only the goals of the operation, but also the origin of the security situation in Europe, all circumstances of Russian-Ukrainian relations in recent years and decades. This is one of the purposes why India is taking a fairly balanced position in relation to the aggravation that we are witnessing," Alipov noted.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/: US President Joe Biden’s remarks addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin are in fact personal insults, but the Kremlin will not respond to them with strong comments, bearing in mind the US leader’s fatigue, irritability and forgetfulness, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media.

"We do hear and see statements addressed to President Putin that in fact constitute a personal insult," he stated.

The Kremlin official said that Biden took the liberty of making such statements virtually every day.