Russia

MOSCOW, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of Defense was directly involved in developing biological weapon components in Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.

Documents received from Ukrainian employees working at the laboratories were studied by Russian experts and have shown that Ukrainian biological projects were directly developed and approved by the Pentagon, the ministry's spokesman Igor Konashenkov said during a briefing.

MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/: European countries demonstrated its unreliability as partners and Moscow will be considering possible cooperation proposals based on a "qualitatively new stance," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.

"We are not shutting our door if Europe changes its mind," he said. "However, there must be an understanding, as I have said before, that we will not be dependent on anyone. Europe showed its unreliability as a partner."

MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/: Russian publishing house AST, which has a contract with American writer Stephen King for the release of his books in Russian, has received official notification from the author’s agent about the temporary suspension of cooperation on new contracts, the press service of the publisher told TASS on Wednesday.

NOVO-OGAREVO, March 23. /TASS/: Russia will refuse to accept payment for natural gas supplies in ‘compromised’ currencies, including the dollar and the euro, and will move to payments in rubles, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday at the meeting with the Cabinet.

"I made the decision to implement within the shortest possible time the package of measures to transfer payments - we will start with that - for our natural gas supplied to the so-called ‘unfriendly’ states to Russian rubles," the President said.

MOSCOW, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday held a phone conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, during which they discussed the situation in Ukraine.

"A thorough exchange of views on the situation in Ukraine, including on the ongoing negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian representatives, continued," the Kremlin said in a statement.

The phone conversation was held at the initiative of the French side, it added.

MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/: A Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying a Meridian-M communication satellite was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk Region, Russian Defense Ministry announced Tuesday.

"On March 22, at 15:48 Moscow time, a Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying a Meridian-M spacecraft was successfully launched from the launch pad number 3 of site 43 of the Plesetsk Cosmodrome," the Ministry said.

Russian Space Forces started tracking the rocket three minutes after the launch.

MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/: The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) suspends operation of a one more single point mooring (SPM) at the marine terminal near Novorossiysk due to critical damages, the pipeline operator says. Oil shipments from the terminal may drop threefold.

MOSCOW, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Washington must stop escalating tensions if it wishes to normalize ties with Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Tuesday.

"They need to stop their escalation, both verbally and in terms of pumping the Kiev regime with weapons," Ryabkov said, adding that the United States must also stop threatening Russia, according to Russian media reports.

"In the meantime, we are seeing a downward trend in relations," said Ryabkov, who faults the United States for the state of ties.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was convicted of fraud and contempt of court and sentenced to nine years in a maximum security prison on Tuesday, in a trial Kremlin critics see as an attempt to keep President Vladimir Putin’s most ardent foe in prison for as long as possible.

A judge also ruled that Navalny would have to pay a fine of 1.2 million rubles (about $11,500). Navalny can appeal the ruling.

MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/: The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan and issued a demarche and a note of protest to him over the recent "unacceptable" remarks by President Joe Biden regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"On March 21, US Ambassador John Sullivan was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry where he was issued a demarche and handed a note of protest in connection with the recent unacceptable remarks by the head of the White House Joe Biden regarding the president of Russia," the ministry said in a statement.