Russia

MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/: Competent authorities in Russia and the United States are in talks to discuss potential prisoner swaps, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Spokesman Ivan Nechayev said at a briefing on Thursday.

MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/: The Parliament of Latvia (the Saeima) has declared Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, the parliament said in a statement published on its official website on Thursday.

On August 11, the Saeima adopted a statement, which recognizes activities of Russian troops in Ukraine as terrorism and declares "Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism."

"The Saeima's statement calls on EU countries to immediately suspend the issuance of tourist and entry visas to Russian and Belarusian citizens," the statement reads.

(AP) --- The prisoners at the penal colony in St. Petersburg were expecting a visit by officials, thinking it would be some sort of inspection. Instead, men in uniform arrived and offered them amnesty — if they agreed to fight alongside the Russian army in Ukraine.

11 August 2022; MEMO: The Russian Embassy in Egypt on Tuesday slammed Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid's hypocrisy for attacking Gaza while condemning Moscow's alleged crimes in Ukraine, stressing that Lapid disregards the lives of Palestinians.

MOSCOW, August 10. /TASS/: NATO will be eagerly fighting against Russia on the territory of Ukraine "to the last Ukrainian," the first deputy chief of the Russian presidential staff, Sergey Kiriyenko, said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, August 10. /TASS/: The United States has not learned a lesson from its failed line in Ukraine and tried to do the same in Taiwan; Washington will suffer a crushing defeat here, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui said in an exclusive interview with TASS.

MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/: Russia is ready to render assistance to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in order to grant its mission an access to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP), the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

"We hope that under current conditions the UN Secretary General [Antonio Guterres] will come to realize his full scope of responsibility and will not be hindering the IAEA mission by using either his subordinate department of the Secretariat or other links in the UN mechanism," the statement reads.

MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/: The Kremlin is not witnessing any positive change in attitudes of German and Austrian politicians towards Russia yet, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, commenting on German media reports alleging a surge in public support for Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin in Germany and Austria.

"Unfortunately, we are not witnessing any such change," Peskov said, when asked if the Kremlin could see any behavioral change in the two countries’ politicians.

MOSCOW, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Moscow accused the United States on Tuesday of "unreasonable and unnecessary escalation" in announcing an inspection on Russian territory under the New START nuclear arms reduction pact, knowing that it would not let Russia carry out reciprocal inspections.

Russia had said on Monday that it would not allow its weapons to be inspected under the treaty for the time being because of travel restrictions imposed by Washington and its allies. 

MOSCOW, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Ukraine has suspended Russian oil pipeline flows to parts of central Europe since early this month because Western sanctions prevented it from accepting transit fees from Moscow, Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft said on Tuesday.

International benchmark Brent crude jumped by $2 per barrel to trade near $98 as the news added to energy supply concerns, but turned negative later in the day.