Russia

23 July 2022; MEMO: Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, will begin an African tour in Egypt on Sunday, seeking to draw on demand for non-Western alliances as Moscow pushes back against international censure over the war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.

In Egypt, Lavrov will meet officials trying to square deep links to Russia with their close relationship to the United States which, along with other Western powers, sought to isolate Russia with tough sanctions after its 24 February invasion of Ukraine.

MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/: Any blame directed at Russia due to the delayed return of the turbine for the Nord Stream pipeline from Canada is groundless, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

Earlier Reuters reported citing sources that the turbine got stuck during transit in Germany, allegedly because of lack of a permit from Russia.

Peskov recalled the statement by President Vladimir Putin, on the night of July 20 in Tehran, that as of that time, Moscow had not received any legal, technological, or any other documentation on this turbine.

MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. The agreement on cross spaceflights signed between Roscosmos and NASA earlier provides for three flights of Russian cosmonauts on the US Crew Dragon spacecraft, Roscosmos cosmonaut team commander Oleg Kononenko said Friday.

"The agreement provides for three integrated flights: on fifth, sixth and tenth [Crew] Dragon missions," Kononeko said on the Gagarin cosmonaut training center Telegram channel.

MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/: The Bank of Russia reduced its key rate by 1.5 percentage points to 8% per annum, noting low rates of consumer price growth, according to a press release published on Friday.

July 22 (Reuters) - Late last month, a Russian-flagged cargo ship carrying corn pulled into the Turkish port of Izmir on the Aegean Sea. The SV Nikolay had loaded the grain at Port Kavkaz, in Russia, six days earlier on June 18, according to documentation provided by an employee of the Russian company that owns the ship.

MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/: The 5+2 format on the Transnistrian settlement de facto is not working but there are no better alternatives to it on this issue, Alexey Polishchuk, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's second CIS department, said on Thursday.

MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/: Russia has sent an appeal to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over the Ukrainian army’s attacks on the Zaporozhye NPP and is awaiting its reaction, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.

"We have already addressed the leadership of the IAEA’s Secretariat over this incident and are expecting the appropriate reaction on the part of the agency," she said.

MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin's health is fine, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"[Everything] is fine, he is in good health," the Kremlin spokesman assured reporters on Thursday.

According to him, "both Ukrainian, American and British information 'specialists' have been throwing in various fakes about the president's health in recent months." "These are nothing but fakes, we assure," Peskov said.

MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/: Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom started construction of the El-Dabaa nuclear power plant in Egypt on Wednesday, an official at Rosatom told TASS.

"We have started [the construction of a nuclear power plant in Egypt]," the official said.

El-Dabaa will be the first nuclear power plant in Egypt and the first major project of Rosatom in Africa.

MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to head the supervisory board of a national movement of children and youth during a video conference meeting with the finalists of the Bolshaya Peremena (or the Great Change) contest on Wednesday.

"I am happy to accept the proposal. I hope that my interaction with the new movement will benefit me, my colleagues who will be involved in the movement’s activities one way or another, as well as all of its members," Putin said.