Russia

MOSCOW (AP) — Both houses of Russia’s parliament on Wednesday quickly endorsed President Vladimir Putin’s move to suspend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the United States, with officials and lawmakers casting it as an eleventh-hour warning to Washington amid the tensions over Ukraine.

Russia and China showcased their deepening ties Wednesday in a series of meetings closely watched for signs that Beijing might offer stronger support to the Kremlin for its war in Ukraine.

The visit by Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, to Moscow comes as the conflict in Ukraine continues to upend the global diplomatic order.

MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 11,277 over the past day to 22,189,988, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Tuesday.

A day earlier, 12,076 daily cases were recorded.

As many as 1,830 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, up 186.4% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients decreased in ten regions, while in 71 regions the figure increased. The situation remained unchanged in four regions. A day earlier, 639 people were rushed to hospitals.

MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/: Russia may look at denouncing the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) if the United States ignores its message to reconsider the way it is implemented, a Russian lawmaker told TASS on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/: Russia and China have good possibilities to continue strategic cooperation and contacts to defend their interests, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and member of the CCP Politburo Wang Yi said on Tuesday.

"I think that today we have very good possibilities to continue our close strategic dialogue and contacts to defend our common strategic interests," he said at a meeting with Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolay Patrushev.

Feb 21 (Reuters) - Outspoken Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin accused the country's top brass on Tuesday of deliberately starving his Wagner fighters of munitions in what he said was a treasonous attempt to destroy his private military company.

A catering tycoon who has used his wealth to build a private army, Prigozhin has assumed a more public role since the start of the war in Ukraine a year ago, with his Wagner Group spearheading the battle for the town of Bakhmut in Ukraine's Donetsk region.

MOSCOW, Feb 21 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday delivered a warning to the West over Ukraine by suspending a landmark nuclear arms control treaty, announcing that new strategic systems had been put on combat duty, and threatening to resume nuclear tests.

Nearly a year after ordering an invasion that has triggered the biggest confrontation with the West in six decades, Putin said Russia would achieve its aims and accused the West of trying to destroy it.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that Moscow was suspending its participation in the New START treaty — the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States — sharply upping the ante amid tensions with Washington over the fighting in Ukraine.

Speaking in his state-of-the-nation address, Putin also said that Russia should stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the U.S. does so, a move that would end a global ban on nuclear weapons tests in place since Cold War times.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Western countries Tuesday of igniting and sustaining the war in Ukraine, refusing any blame for Moscow almost a year after the Kremlin’s invasion of its neighbor that has killed tens of thousands of people.

In his long-delayed state-of-the-nation address, Putin cast his country — and Ukraine — as victims of Western double-dealing and said it was Russia, not Ukraine, fighting for its very existence.

MOSCOW/BEIJING, Feb 20 (Reuters) - China's top diplomat is due to visit Moscow shortly, and may possibly even meet President Vladimir Putin, as the United States says it is concerned Beijing may be considering supplying weapons to Russia.

Chinese weapons supplies to Russia would risk a potential escalation of the Ukraine war into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one side and Ukraine and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance on the other.