Russia

(AP) --- Just five days after staging a short-lived rebellion, mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin ‘s commanders met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and pledged loyalty to the government, a senior government spokesman said Monday, the latest twist in a baffling episode that has raised questions about the power and influence both men wield.

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian parliament’s upper chamber, is expected to visit China on July 9-12, the country’s Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

Federation Council Speaker Matviyenko is expected to lead the Russian delegation to the 8th meeting of the China-Russia committee for parliamentary cooperation, the agency reported.

The visit will be held at the invitation of Zhao Leji, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China.

The report gives no further details of the visit.

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: A delegation of the Federal Assembly headed by Speaker of the Russian parliament’s upper chamber Valentina Matviyenko is heading to China with a visit, the press service of the Federation Council said in a statement on Sunday.

"A delegation of the Federal Assembly headed by Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko is heading to the People’s Republic of China with a visit at the invitation of the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China Zhao Leji," the statement reads.

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent greetings to participants, organizers and guests of the Future Technologies Forum that is taking place under the motto ‘Ahead of Time’, according to a statement released on the Kremlin’s website on Sunday.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, July 9. /TASS/: The air defense forces in the Rostov Region have shot down a Ukrainian missile in the area between Rostov’s Donetsk and Kamensk, the region’s governor Vasily Golubev reported on Sunday, adding that no casualties were reported.

"Our air defense system worked swiftly today around midday. A Ukrainian missile was shot down in the area between Kamensk and Donetsk. No casualties. Fragments partially damaged the roofs of several buildings," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has told his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, that the course toward continuing weapons supplies to Kiev is destructive, the Russian foreign ministry said on Sunday after their telephone conversation.

"Ankara’s attention was drawn to the destructiveness of the course toward continuing weapons supplies to the Kiev regime. It was stressed that such steps could only lead to negative consequences," the ministry said.

July 9 (Reuters) - The foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey spoke by telephone on Sunday, a day after Ankara angered Moscow by sending five Ukrainian commanders home with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in what Russia called a violation of a prisoner exchange agreement.

The Russian and Turkish foreign ministries said Sergei Lavrov and Hakan Fidan discussed the situation in Ukraine, as well as a Black Sea grain export agreement that lifted a Russian de facto blockade of Ukrainian ports last year.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: US President Joe Biden on Friday said the US had completed the destruction of its chemical weapons stockpile.

"Today, I am proud to announce that the United States has safely destroyed the final munition in that stockpile—bringing us one step closer to a world free from the horrors of chemical weapons," he said in a statement released by the White House.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: A one-on-one meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is possible, but the exact dates for such meeting have not been defined as of yet, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday.

Turkish President Erdogan announced on Friday said that his Russian counterpart Putin could visit Turkey next month.

"Such contact is possible. No exact dates set as of yet," Peskov said.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: The lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, is set to decide in July on the draft law banning gender reassignment surgery, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Saturday.

"Traditional family values are of great importance for each of us," Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel. "Czech President [Petr Pavel] said yesterday that ‘if, God forbid, Russia wins, all Western values will be tarnished’."