Russia

MOSCOW, Dec 26 (NNN-TASS) – Russian President, Vladimir Putin and Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, discussed the deliveries of Russian natural gas to Serbia, during a phone conversation yesterday.

The presidents noted that, the two sides have organised work, to ensure stable supplies of heat and energy to Serbian households and industries, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The promise of sufficient gas supplies was made amid a natural gas shortage and rising energy prices in Europe.

MOSCOW, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI), the Pentagon's program to counter China, is doomed to fail before it even gets started, Scott Ritter, a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer, has said.

U.S. Congress has authorized 7 billion U.S. dollars for the PDI, which continues Washington's "flawed practice of throwing money at the military to solve problems created by bad policy," Ritter said in an article recently published by the Russian broadcaster RT.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday he would ponder a slew of options if the West fails to meet his push for security guarantees precluding NATO’s expansion to Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Moscow submitted draft security documents demanding that NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and roll back its military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe.

25 Dec 2021; MEMO: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that to insult the Prophet Muhammad is a violation of the freedom of religion, and that it should not be regarded as freedom of speech.

MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/: The newest Russian MC-21 passenger plane with a domestically-designed composite wing carried out its first flight, Rostec press office announced Saturday.

"Today, the MC-21-300 plane with a wing produced from Russian-made polymer composite materials has performed its first flight. The plane took off from the Irkutsk Aviation Plant airstrip. The flight proceeded as planned," the company said.

MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/: Russia would like to receive a reply from the US and NATO on its proposals regarding security guarantees as soon as possible, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS, adding that there is no deadline.

"No deadlines can be here. We would like it to occur as soon as possible," he noted.

MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/: In the past 24 hours, 981 patients died from Covid, which is the lowest daily fatality increase since October 12, the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center announced Saturday.

One day earlier, 998 deaths were reported. The relative lethality is 2.92%, according to the statistics.

In particular, 55 deaths were registered in the Moscow Region, 52 - in St. Petersburg, 35 - in the Krasnoyarsk Region, 32 - in the Voronezh Region, and 29 - in the Sverdlovsk Region.

MOSCOW, Dec 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — More than 10,000 Russian troops have been returning to their permanent bases after month-long drills near Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported on Saturday (Dec 25), citing the Russian military.

Interfax said that the drills were held in several regions near Ukraine, including in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, as well as in the southern Russian regions of Rostov and Kuban.

MOSCOW, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Friday Russia conducted a successful salvo launch of Tsirkon hypersonic missiles early Friday morning.

"A salvo launch of the Tsirkon hypersonic system was carried out last night, more precisely this morning," RIA Novosti news agency reported citing the president at a joint meeting of the State Council and the Council on Science and Education.

"This is our latest missile, which can hit both naval and ground targets," he added.

MOSCOW (AP) — People strolling across Moscow’s snowy Red Square on the evening of Dec. 25, 1991 were surprised to witness one of the 20th century’s most pivotal moments — the Soviet red flag over the Kremlin pulled down and replaced with the Russian Federation’s tricolor.

Just minutes earlier, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation in a live televised address to the nation, concluding 74 years of Soviet history.