Russia

Antibody tests for COVID-19 remain popular in Russia

MOSCOW (AP) — When Russians talk about the coronavirus over dinner or in hair salons, the conversation often turns to “antitela,” the Russian word for antibodies — the proteins produced by the body to fight infection.

Even President Vladimir Putin referred to them this week in a conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, bragging about why he avoided infection even though dozens of people around him caught the coronavirus, including someone who spent a whole day with the Kremlin leader.

Russian Justice Ministry lists two Scientology organizations, ENEMO as undesirable

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/: The Russian Ministry of Justice has included two US Scientology organizations as well as the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) in the list of undesirable entities, the ministry’s website reported.

On October 1, the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises International, L. Ron Hubbard Library as well as the ENEMO were added to the list of organizations whose activity is deemed undesirable in Russia by the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Russia: Kremlin slams Minsk's decision to deny access to Komsomolskaya Pravda website

MOSCOW, October 1. / TASS /: The Kremlin strongly opposes the Belarusian government’s move to restrict access to the Russian Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper’s website, as this is a violation of media freedom, the presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Friday.

"We strongly disagree with this. We believe that it violates freedom of the press," the Kremlin spokesman insisted.

"Of course, we expect that the Belarusian side will create a conducive environment for our media to operate in," Peskov emphasized.

New Italian ambassador hails Russia as major economic partner

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/: Russia is Italy's major economic and trading partner, and the two countries are bound by deep historical and cultural ties, new Italian Ambassador to Moscow Giorgio Starace said in a statement provided to TASS by the embassy's press service.

"For Italy, Russia is a major economic and trading partner. Our country has made strategic investments here, a great many Italian businessmen are active on this market," the statement reads.

Turkey's Russian air defence systems and U.S. response

Oct 1 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan this week flagged potential further cooperation with Russia on defence industry projects including fighter jets and submarines even as the United States warned it could respond with more sanctions. 

Turkey received the first deliveries of the S-400 surface-to-air systems in July 2019, prompting Washington to begin removing the NATO ally from its F-35 stealth fighter programme over security concerns.

The following timeline presents the main developments in the programme and Ankara's relations with the United States.

Gas prices in Europe almost reach $1,190 per 1,000 cubic meters

MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/: The gas price in Europe during the September 30 bidding again renewed its historical record and came close to $ 1,190 per 1,000 cubic meters, according to the ICE exchange data.

The cost of November futures on the TTF hub in the Netherlands reached $ 1,187.45 per 1,000 cubic meters or 99 euros per MWh (based on the current exchange rate of the euro to the dollar, prices for ICE are presented in euros per MWh). The overall rise in gas prices since the beginning of the day is more than 13%.

US military equipment shipments to Moldova complicate Transnistrian settlement — diplomat

MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/: Shipments of US military equipment to Moldova additionally complicate the settlement of the Transnistria conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesman Alexey Zaytsev said Thursday.

"We believe that such steps that fit in the general line of Washington and Brussels of pulling Moldova in Euro-Atlantic structures are unlikely to improve the trust between the two shores of Dniester, and will additionally complicate the already stalling settlement process," he said.

Russia declares editor who delved into Navalny poisoning a wanted man, he says

MOSCOW, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The editor of a Russian news outlet that angered the Kremlin with its investigations, including into the poisoning of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, said the authorities had declared him a wanted man.

Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of The Insider, told Reuters the authorities had accused him of illegally crossing the border to leave Russia.

He said he was currently outside Russia and did not want to disclose his location. He did not say how he had left Russia.

Russia considers North Korea’s new hypersonic missile launches provocation — diplomat

MOSCOW, September 29. /TASS/: Moscow will not support North Korea’s attempts to use new missile launches in order to aggravate the situation on the Korean Peninsula, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated on Wednesday.

"We will not support North Korea’s moot attempts to use certain test launches for further escalation," the senior diplomat said.

Russia: Crews of reconnaissance aircraft and fighter jets conduct exercises over Crimea

SEVASTOPOL, September 29. /TASS/: The crews of the aircraft of a separate naval assault regiment from the naval aviation of the Black Sea Fleet conducted combat exercises at a practice range in the Crimea, the Fleet’s press office reported on Wednesday.

"According to the scenario, a Su-24MP tactical bomber while performing reconnaissance tasks, detects objects of a conventional enemy in a mountainous area. Su-24M fighter jets and Su-30SM multirole fighters took to the sky to eliminate the "enemy", the press service noted.

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