Russia

MOSCOW, Sept 24 (Reuters) - More than 730 people were detained across Russia at protests against a mobilisation order on Saturday, a rights group said, three days after President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's first military draft since World War Two for the conflict in Ukraine.

The independent OVD-Info protest monitoring group said it was aware of detentions in 32 different cities, from St Petersburg to Siberia.

Unsanctioned rallies are illegal under Russian law, which also forbids any activity considered to defame the armed forces.

MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/: Russia will regard Ukraine’s attempts to retake Donbass and other territories as attacks on its lands, if the referendums held there produce positive results, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Friday.

"It goes without saying," he said, when asked if in case of a positive outcome of the referendums all of Kiev’s attempts to retake these territories would be regarded as attacks on Russia.

MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/: Toyota closes its car assembly plant in St. Petersburg, the press service of Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry reported. The company will fulfill all obligations to employees and provide compensation payments, they noted.

TASS-DOSSIER: On September 23-27, 2022, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as well as the liberated territories of the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions will hold referendums on uniting with Russia.

MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/: Moscow wants to believe that relations with Washington have not degenerated to the point of escalating into a full-fledged nuclear conflict, Russian envoy to the US Anatoly Antonov said on Friday in a video address to participants of the Diplomatic Academy’s international scientific conference devoted to the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

"I would like to believe that despite all the difficulties, we have not approached the dangerous threshold of falling into the abyss of a nuclear conflict with the Americans," he said.

MOSCOW, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday that Moscow was not threatening anybody with nuclear weapons, and that open confrontation with the United States and NATO was not in Russia's interests, state news agencies reported.

"We are not threatening anyone with nuclear weapons," the Interfax agency quoted Ryabkov as saying at a conference on Friday. "The criteria for their use are outlined in Russia's military doctrine."

Sept 23 (Reuters) - Ukraine will never forgive Russia for a shameful conflict which has thrown back Russia's development by half a century to Soviet times predating Mikhail Gorbachev, journalist and Nobel Peace laureate Dmitry Muratov told Reuters.

Russia's military campaign in Ukraine has killed tens of thousands, left some Ukrainian cities wastelands and triggered Moscow's biggest confrontation with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/: The intercontinental ballistic missile Sarmat carries maneuvering warheads, the CEO of the JSC Makeyev Design Bureau (an affiliate of Roscosmos) Vladimir Degtyar, has told TASS.

"The Sarmat is equipped with the most advanced maneuvering warheads," Degtyar said.

The missile is unique in terms of its unsurpassed speed, record-breaking range, the highest accuracy and complete invulnerability while penetrating anti-missile defense systems.

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/: Moscow has banned entry to 87 Canadian nationals as a retaliatory measure, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/: Russia’s envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said EU officials told him as he left Brussels that they want to keep open the communications lines with Russia.

"This doesn’t mean that relations with the EU ended with my departure. No. Even during my final contacts in Brussels, I heard officials express the desire to keep the lines of communication open," he said at a news conference.

"Somehow, apparently, they will go on, although almost every day, they come up with new sanctions or some stupid announcement," the diplomat said.