Europe

SIMFEROPOL, October 26. /TASS/: Egypt is interested in beginning to purchase Russian grain through Crimea’s ports, Crimean Deputy Prime Minister Georgy Muradov told TASS.

"We met with the Egyptians. They say they are very interested in increasing Russian grain supplies. The fact that grain will be transported through Crimea’s ports suits them," he said.

According to Muradov, Crimea’s ports have necessary capabilities for that. There are grain elevators near Kerch, Yevpatoria and other districts of Crimea.

MOSCOW, October 25. /TASS/: Russia’s first upgraded Tupolev Tu-22M3M strategic missile-carrying bomber performed 18 successful flights as part of its trials by the end of October, a source in the domestic defense ministry told TASS on Friday.

"By now, the Tu-22M3M has performed 18 flights as part of factory flight tests," the source said, adding that the flights took place in the daytime and at night.

MOSCOW, October 25. /TASS/: Russia has sent around 300 more military police officers from Chechnya to Syria to perform special tasks in the 30-kilometer zone on the Syrian-Turkish border, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.

"Around 300 military police officers from the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation stationed in the Chechen Repubic have arrived in the Syrian Arab Republic to carry out special tasks," the defense ministry said adding that military police officers departed Russia from an aerodrome in North Ossetia.

MOSCOW, October 24. /TASS/: A third Rezonans-N radar capable of spotting stealth targets, cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles will assume combat duty on Russia’s Novaya Zemlya Arctic Archipelago in November 2019, Rezonans Research Center CEO Ivan Nazarenko told TASS on Thursday.

"The third Rezonans-N radar in the Arctic has been deployed on Novaya Zemlya. The radar will go on combat duty in November this year," the chief executive said.

GENEVA, October 25. /TASS/: Switzerland has taken note of the Russian-Turkish memorandum on joint actions to settle the situation in northeastern Syria and calls on all concerned parties to take efforts towards further de-escalation, Swiss Foreign Ministry Spokesman Pierre-Alain Eltschinger told TASS on Friday.

MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/: Russian national Maria Butina who was released from a US prison on Friday has thanked the diplomats who worked hard to secure her release and those Russians who provided financial and moral support.

MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has discussed with the permanent members of Russia’s Security Council the implementation of the memorandum on Syria agreed on by Moscow and Ankara on October 22 and his contacts at the Russia-Africa Summit, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/: The United States smuggles Syrian oil to other countries, the convoys are guarded by US private military companies and special operations forces, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

"Tank trucks guarded by US military servicemen and private military companies smuggle oil from fields in eastern Syria to other countries. In the event of any attack on such a convoy, US special operations forces and combat aviation are immediately used to protect it," Konashenkov stressed.

LONDON (Reuters) - European Union leaders are willing to delay Brexit past next week’s Oct. 31 deadline, but have not agreed on how long the extension should be, Latvia’s foreign minister, Edgars Rinkevics, said on Saturday.

“There has been unanimous agreement that we need to extend the Brexit discussion. There is a big discussion of what is the best deadline, and I wouldn’t make drama out of it,” Rinkevics told the BBC in a radio interview.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian national Maria Butina, who was jailed in the United States in April after admitting to working as a Russian agent, arrived in Moscow on Saturday, greeted by her father and Russian journalists who handed her flowers.

Butina pleaded guilty in December last year to one count of conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Russia by infiltrating a gun rights group and influencing U.S. conservative activists and Republicans.