Russia

(AP) --- Several countries in Europe dependent on Russian energy suffered another blow with confirmation Tuesday that oil shipments have stopped through a critical pipeline.

Russian state pipeline operator Transneft said it halted shipments through the southern branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline, which flows through Ukraine to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

Transneft cited complications due to European Union sanctions for its action on Aug. 4, saying its payment to the company’s Ukrainian counterpart was refused.

MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Monday said the Kiev regime ‘effectively takes all of Europe hostage’ by shelling the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/: Latvian legislators’ idea to declare Russia as a "terrorist state" is a hostile action and part and parcel of the overall anti-Russian hysteria, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on Monday.

MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will lead the country’s delegation to the 77th United Nations General Assembly in September, according to President Vladimir Putin’s order published on Monday.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS that Putin had no plans to visit New York or make a video address to the event.

MOSCOW, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Russia has told the United States it is suspending inspection activities under the START arms control treaty, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday, adding that Moscow remains committed to all provisions of the treaty.

Russia has been forced to "resort to this measure as a result of Washington's insistence that it will inevitably seek to restart inspection activities on conditions that do not take current realities into account", the ministry said.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: Russian journalist Daria Aslamova, who was earlier detained in Kosovo, has contacted the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper she works for, saying that she was released, the paper wrote on its website on Sunday.

The journalist said that Kosovo authorities released her last night, after which she made it alone to the Serbia-Kosovo border. She is currently in the town of Raska in Serbia. "I got to the border by 4 am. The Serbian border guards also questioned me to clarify why there was no deportation stamp," the newspaper quoted its journalist as saying.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: Russia’s Arkady Dvorkovich has been reelected as president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE).

The election was held during the FIDE General Assembly in India’s Chennai on Sunday.

The other registered candidate running in the election was Ukraine’s Andrey Barishpolets. Inalbek Sheripov of Belarus and Bachar Kouatly from France withdrew as candidates.

MOSCOW, August 7./TASS/: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases grew by 20,303 across Russia in the past 24 hours, up from 19,974 a day earlier, the coronavirus crisis center told journalists on Sunday.

This is the highest daily tally since March 30, when over 20,000 cases were recorded in one day. Overall, Russia has recorded 18,712,699 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: Russia’s foreign ministry is in contact with the Cuban side to coordinate efforts to put out fire at an oil storage facility in the Matanzas province, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday.

"Following the disaster, Cuba has requested international assistance. Russia’s foreign ministry and relevant agencies are in contact with the Cuban side to coordinate possible joint actions and necessary assistance," she said.

MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/: Russia recorded 19,974 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the highest number since March 30, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Saturday. The total number of cases has reached 18,692,396.

As many as 2,141 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, up from 1,906 the day before. Hospitalizations declined in 40 regions of the country and rose in 41 regions.

Moscow’s COVID-19 cases surged by 5,997 to 2,852,583 in the past day, St. Petersburg’s coronavirus cases increased by 2,303 to 1,565,084.