Europe

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday declined to comment on slip-ups made by US President Joe Biden during his statement on Russia.

"I watched the address myself, and I didn’t notice any mispronunciations," he said in response to a corresponding question. "After all, we are talking about the head of state so let’s not talk about slips of the tongue. This is the media’s specialty and not ours."

Joe Biden during his speech on Russia after introducing sanctions mispronounced some words, in particular, Vladimir Putin’s last name.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: A two-week isolation experiment simulating a flight to the Moon aboard an Orlyonok spacecraft kicked off on the premises of the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Project Supervisor, Institute Staffer Sergei Ponomaryov told TASS on Friday.

"An isolation experiment, Eskiz, has begun on the premises of the Institute of Biomedical Problems. The crew of six has entered the ground-based compound," he said.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: Russia’s Energomash Research and Production Association (part of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos) handed over six RD-180 engines to the US side, Roscosmos announced on Friday.

"On Wednesday, April 14, 2021, a ceremony was held at the Energomash Association named after Academician Glushko to hand over six RD-180 engines to the US customers. Representatives of Pratt & Whitney, United Launch Alliance and RD Amross signed the record forms on the engines," Roscosmos said in a statement.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov has clarified the measures that Moscow will take in response to Washington’s new sanctions to US Ambassador John Sullivan, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

"Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov invited US Ambassador John Sullivan for a meeting on Friday and clarified the measures that Russia will take in response to the sanctions that the United States had announced yesterday," Peskov noted.

DUBLIN, Apr 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The United States replaced Britain, to be the largest source of Ireland’s imported goods, in the first two months of this year, according to the figures released by Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday.

During the period, Ireland imported a total of 2.3 billion euros (about 2.75 billion U.S. dollars) worth of goods from the United States, up 4.4 percent over a year ago, while its goods imports from Britain tumbled by over 46 percent, year-on-year, to 1.67 billion euros.

(Reuters) --- The Kremlin said on Friday that there were fewer ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine where Russian-backed separatists have faced off against Ukrainian government forces since 2014.

But Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said there were not yet grounds to fully relax and signalled Russia, which has massed troops nearby, would continue to watch the situation closely.

Ukraine blames a recent spike in violence in its eastern Donbass region on the Russian-backed separatists.

(Reuters) --- German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged lawmakers on Friday to approve new powers that would allow her to force coronavirus lockdowns and curfews on areas with high infection rates, saying a majority of Germans were in favour of stricter measures.

"The third wave of the pandemic has our country firmly in its grip," said Merkel, whose speech in parliament was interrupted by heckling from lawmakers of the far-right Alternative for Germany party opposed to lockdowns.

(Reuters) --- The European Union must pressure Moscow to allow Alexei Navalny to have access to his doctor, allies of the hunger-striking Kremlin critic wrote in a letter sent this week to EU foreign ministers.

Navalny, 44, a prominent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced a hunger strike at the end of March in protest at what he said was the refusal of prison authorities to treat him properly for acute back and leg pain.

(Reuters) --- Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Friday that prison authorities have threatened to put him in a straitjacket to force-feed him unless he abandons his hunger strike because of his seriously deteriorating health.

Navalny, 44, a prominent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced a hunger strike at the end of March in protest at what he said was the refusal of prison authorities to treat him properly for acute back and leg pain.

MOSCOW, April 16 (Xinhua) -- A Russian MiG-31 fighter intercepted a U.S. reconnaissance plane above the Pacific Ocean on Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Russian radars detected an air target approaching the Russian state border over the Pacific Ocean and an MiG-31 took off from an airfield in Russia's Kamchatka in response, the ministry said.

The crew of the Russian jet identified the air target as an RC-135 strategic reconnaissance aircraft of the U.S. Air Force and then escorted it over the Pacific Ocean.