Europe

MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/: The Vodokhod (water travel) Company will organize in 2021 cruises along the Northern Sea Route, and later on - trips to the Antarctica, the company’s representative Igor Yasinsky said at a conference devoted to the 200th anniversary of Antarctica’s discovery.

MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/: US Department of State’s policies are the chief obstruction to restoring peaceful life in Syria, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told the media on Wednesday.

"The Department of State is the root cause of the main problems hindering the Syrians’ return to peaceful life. It stops at nothing to impose the harshest sanctions that block any food, medical, material or financial aid to truly innocent peaceful Syrians in the territories of their country retaken from terrorists," Konashenkov said.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, January 29. /TASS/: About 2,000 troops of Russia’s Southern Military District have started large-scale drills with a live-fire exercise in Armenia, the District’s press office reported on Wednesday.

"The servicemen of the Southern Military District’s Russian military base stationed in Armenia have started qualifying live-fire drills employing small arms and combat vehicles in mountains," the press office said in a statement.

The qualifying exercise involves about 2,000 troops and more than 500 motor and armored vehicles, the statement says.

KRASNOYARSK, January 29. /TASS/: A nationwide vote on amendments to the Russian constitution will be accessible to the public and procedurally transparent, Andrey Klishas, co-chair of the working group drafting the constitutional amendments, told journalists Wednesday.

MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/: The measures announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his State of the Nation Address will require another 4.128 trillion rubles ($65.8 bln), of which 3.77 trillion rubles ($60.09 bln) would be federal budget funds, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/: Russia’s Pantsyr-S anti-aircraft missile/gun system has received the latest hypersonic missile, Chief Designer for Air Defense Systems at the Shipunov Design Bureau of Instrument-Making (part of High Precision Systems Company within the state hi-tech corporation Rostec) Valery Slugin told TASS on Wednesday.

"There are two missiles that fight the entire range of targets. One is standard while the other has been developed recently and is hypersonic: it can develop a speed of Mach 5 and more," the chief designer said.

MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/: The Russian Pantsir-S air defense missile system took down some 100 drones around the world over the course of its service, says Valery Slugin - the chief air defense designer KBP JSC, a division of Rostec’s High Precision Weapons JSC.

"About one hundred, maybe more," Slugin said in interview for TASS. "That includes Syria and other regions."

Slugin reminded that there are two Pantsir divisions deployed in Syria: the Russian one, located at Hmeimim airbase, and a Syrian one.

MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/: The Kremlin has no plans to interfere in the Russian Investigative Committee’s work in the case of Meduza news website reporter Ivan Golunov, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

PARIS (Reuters) - France said on Wednesday it could approve a Brexit trade deal quickly if Britain committed to maintaining regulations in line with those in Europe, but it would not rush into a deal before the end of the year if its red lines on “dumping” were not met.

“On trade issues, we must ensure conditions for fair competition are maintained,” French European Affairs minister Amelie de Montchalin told reporters.

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday urged Britain to look again at its decision to allow China’s Huawei a limited role in 5G networks, cautioning that American information should only pass across trusted networks.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson granted Huawei a limited role in Britain’s 5G mobile network on Tuesday, frustrating a global attempt by the United States to exclude the Chinese telecoms giant from the West’s next-generation communications.