Russia

MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/: Foreign investors are invited to participate in the jubilee St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) to be held on June 15-18, 2022, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Monday at the Foreign Investment Advisory Council’s meeting.

"Certainly, our communication is not limited to the Advisory Council’s framework. I would like to take an opportunity and invite you, dear participants in today’s meeting, and your colleagues, business partners, in early summer of the next year to our northern capital, St. Petersburg," Mishustin said.

MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/: An envoy from a NATO member state in Moscow may maintain urgent contacts with the Russian side on the bloc’s behalf, following Russia’s tit-for-tat response to the alliance’s decision to withdraw the accreditation of eight Russian diplomats, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia said in a statement on Monday.

MOSCOW, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Russia said on Monday it would halt the activities of its diplomatic mission to NATO after the Western military alliance expelled eight Russians saying they were spies.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said staff at NATO's military mission in Moscow would be stripped of their accreditation from Nov. 1, and the alliance's information office in the Russian capital would be shuttered.

"If NATO members have any urgent matters, they can contact our ambassador in Belgium on these questions," Lavrov told a news conference.

MOSCOW, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry announced Monday that Moscow has decided to suspend the operation of the Russian Permanent Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in retaliation for the alliance's "unfriendly actions."

Russia's ambassador to Belgium will be authorized for emergency contacts with the NATO headquarters, while an ambassador of the NATO member states in Moscow can perform similar functions, the ministry said in a statement.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s foreign minister said Monday that the country is suspending its mission to NATO.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the move is in response to last week’s expulsion by NATO of eight members of Russia’s mission to the military alliance.

NATO said that they were secretly working as intelligence officers and halved the size of Moscow’s team able to work at its headquarters. Lavrov also announced that NATO’s military liaison and information offices in Moscow would be closed.

MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/: The reentry module of Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, carrying cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko, landed in Kazakhstan on Sunday, according to a live broadcast by Russia’s state-run space corporation Roscosmos.

Rescuers helped the crew members out. The actress and the film director arrived to the ISS on October 5 and spent 12 days in orbit. Novitsky’s space mission began on April 9.

MOSCOW, October 17. / TASS /: The Nobel Peace Prize has been discredited by the fact that it was awarded to the politicians, who allowed their countries to collapse and unleashed conflicts and wars, Chairman of the State Duma (lower house) Vyacheslav Volodin stated on his Telegram channel, noting that the trust could be regained after introducing a procedure for withdrawing the award.

The Russian lawmaker noted that "the credibility of the Nobel Prize in the field of fundamental sciences was beyond the question" since it was awarded for real achievements.

MOSCOW, October 17. / TASS /: The Russian Mikoyan MiG-31 was scrambled to escort the US B-1B Lancer bomber over the Sea of Japan, Russia’s National Defense Management Center reported on Sunday.

According to the Center, Russian airspace control system detected an aerial target over the neutral waters of the Sea of Japan approaching the state border. The Russian Mikoyan MiG-31 from the Eastern Military District’s air defense quick reaction alert forces was scrambled to identify it.

MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 cases climbed by 34,303 in the last 24 hours to 7,992,687, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Sunday.

MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/: There are yet no prospects for a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky, since Kiev seeks to withdraw from the Minsk agreements, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"So far, no prospects for these talks are seen because of the Ukrainian leadership’s actions. It is the Kiev authorities that do not fulfill the Minsk agreements," Peskov said.