Russia

MOSCOW, July 13 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it hoped President Joe Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia would not be used to try to foster anti-Russian relations, just as the United States seeks to convince Riyadh to boost oil production amid soaring prices.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday that Biden will make the case for greater oil production from OPEC nations to bring down gasoline prices when he meets Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia this week. 

MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/: After all scrap metal is removed from the Kildin Island in the Barents Sea, the island may become a national park and a destination for responsible ecology tourism, the Russian Geographical Society’s press service said on Monday.

MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/: A split in the global sports is likely to be widened further in case athletes from Russia are barred from the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, Russia’s senior sports official said on Tuesday.

"I am not giving assessments at the moment seeing how some of the sports federations are dabbling saying that it is unacceptable to do so based on the nationality," Igor Artemyev, the chair of the Supreme Council of the Russian Rugby Federation (RRF), said addressing a news briefing on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/: Kiev is using any pretexts not to let a mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visit the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Energodar, which is controlled by the Zaporozhye region military-civilian administration, an official of this administration said on Tuesday after Ukraine’s strike at Energodar.

"Kiev is looking for and creating any pretexts to prevent a visit of IAEA inspectors to the Zaporozhye NPP," Vladimir Rogov, a member of the council of the region’s military-civilian administration, wrote on his Telegram channel.

MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/: Poland is seeking to conceal its expansion to Western Ukraine and is taking nervously the leak of its plans of dismembering Ukraine, director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin said on Tuesday.

"Information coming to the Service indicates a nervous reaction of Poland’s leadership to the fact that its plans of dismembering Ukraine have come in the public eye," the Service’s press bureau quoted him as saying.

MOSCOW, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Russia has registered its first confirmed case of monkeypox, Rospotrebnadzor, the country's consumer rights and human well-being watchdog, said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Russia has confirmed its first case of monkeypox. A young man, who had returned to Russia after a trip from European countries, turned to medical treatment because of a characteristic rash," it said.

The patient has been isolated and is under medical supervision with mild symptoms but no life-threatening risks.

Moscow, Jul 12 (AP-PTI) The Kremlin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Iran next week.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin will travel to Tehran next Tuesday to attend a trilateral meeting with the leaders of Iran and Turkey, the so-called Astana format of meetings for Syria-related talks.

Peskov told reporters Tuesday that during the visit, Putin will also have a separate meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/: The presidents of Russia and Belarus, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, discussed a possible joint response the blockade of transit to Kaliningrad by Lithuania, the Kremlin said on Monday.

"Emphasis was placed on the situation relating to the illegal restrictions imposed by Lithuania on the transit of goods to the Kaliningrad Region. In this context, some possible joint steps were discussed," the Kremlin said in a statement.

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/: The State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications is pursuing a ban on LGBT propaganda in the media, on the net and in movies regardless of the audience’s age, head of the committee Alexander Khinshtein said on Monday.

"I fully support the stance of [State Duma Speaker] Vyacheslav Volodin on prohibiting propaganda for non-traditional values. Earlier, the State Duma committee on information policy has already begun working out corresponding initiatives," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/: Buenos Aires is hoping that joining BRICS will help its further multilateral development and is looking forward to membership, the country’s ambassador in Moscow, Eduardo Zuain, told TASS on Monday.

"One of our desires is to finally start working side by side with the big countries [BRICS], and our chancellor (Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero - TASS) expressed the same point of view. We look forward to the day when we finally join this group and multilateral development will help us to move forward," he said.