Russia

MOSCOW, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Yekaterina Duntsova, who wants to run for president, said the Kremlin should end the conflict in Ukraine, free political prisoners and undertake major reform to halt the slide towards a new era of "barbed wire" division between Russia and the West.

Nearly 32 years since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union stoked hopes that Russia would blossom into an open democracy, Duntsova, 40, said she was afraid as she spoke to Reuters in Moscow.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that he plans to travel to North Macedonia later this week to attend a conference, a trip that would mark his first visit to a NATO member country since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine.

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/: The Russian Air Defense means destroyed four more Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over Bryansk, Smolensk and Tula Regions, the Defense Ministry reported.

The number of drones downed on Sunday climbed therefore to twenty-four.

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/: Gazprom set a new record of gas supplies to China over the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, the gas giant reports.

The previous maximum was achieved on November 23.

"On November 25, the nomination of the Chinese side for Russian gas supplies over the Power of Siberia gas pipeline was again above daily contractual commitments. Gazprom supplied all the requested volumes and set a new historical record of daily gas supplies to China," the company informed.

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/: Certain Western countries are attempting to destabilize the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh and are openly struggling against Russia in the region, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview on the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/: The integrated air defense (AD) system of member-states of the Collective Security Organization (CSTO) has actually been created, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on the air with the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"It [the integrated AD system - TASS] has actually been created, created at a bilateral level. We have an agreement <...> with each country. This is with Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and naturally with Belarus," the minister said.

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/: The coup occurred in Kiev a decade ago and the legitimate power was overthrown, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview on the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"It brought the flourishing of ultranationalist and then overtly Nazi sentiment to Ukraine. Then it brought emergency of such regime in Kiev that turned out to be dangerous for us, became dangerous for a portion of its people - the Russians are met - and [it] regrettably continues by tragedies we observing every day in Ukraine," Peskov said.

MOSCOW, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Defense Ministry announced Sunday that the country's air defense forces had downed nine Ukrainian drones attempting to attack several regions in Russia, including Moscow, Tula, Kaluga and Bryansk.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on his social media channel that the air defense forces had intercepted and destroyed several drones flying towards Moscow over the Moscow region early Sunday morning. There were no casualties or property damage, he added.

MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/: Russian forces delivered 31 strikes by precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles against Ukrainian military sites, wiping out deployment areas of Neo-Nazi Azov formations and foreign mercenaries over the past week in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Friday.

MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/: Russia will not leave unanswered the decision of Moldova to side with anti-Russian sanctions of the European Union, official spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said.

"The decision of the Moldovan side will not be left unanswered. Measures undertaken will be communicated further," the diplomat said.