Russia

MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/: Two Russian Tu-22M3 long-range bombers practiced interoperability with command posts of the Russian and Belarusian armed forces and checked the Union State’s air defenses, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

As the ministry specified, the two Tu-22M3 bombers of the Russian Aerospace Force conducted a patrol in the Belarusian airspace.

"During the flight, the aircraft practiced interoperability with the ground command posts of the armed forces of Russia and the Republic of Belarus," the statement says.

MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/: Contacts between the Russian Health Ministry and the World Health Organization over the recognition of Russia’s anti-COVID vaccine Sputnik V are moving in the positive direction, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told the media on Wednesday.

"The process is underway and contacts with the WHO are moving in the positive direction," he said.

Murashko added that dates for a visit by international experts to Russia were being discussed.

MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/: A fragment of China’s Fengyun-1C weather satellite will approach the International Space Station (ISS) on November 12, the Russian space agency Roscosmos reported on Wednesday.

"According to preliminary data, a fragment of the Fengyun-1C satellite will fly close to the International Space Station at about 4 hours in the morning Moscow time on November 12. Currently, trajectories are being calculated and near-miss parameters are being specified," Roscosmos said.

MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/: The Ukrainian leadership is giving the appearance that it is working in the Contact Group on settling the crisis in eastern Ukraine, however Moscow doesn’t hold any hopes for a meeting of its specialized subgroups, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reported on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Russia took the rare step of dispatching two nuclear-capable strategic bombers to patrol Belarusian airspace on Wednesday in a show of support to close ally Belarus at a time when it is locked in a migrant standoff with the European Union.

Moscow's decision to up the ante came as the 27-nation bloc considered sanctions on Wednesday to punish Minsk for what it calls an artificially created crisis, something Belarus denies.

MOSCOW, November 9. /TASS/: The service life of the Pacific Fleet’s Project 949A ‘Antey’ multirole nuclear-powered submarine Irkutsk will be extended by at least ten years after its repairs and upgrade at the Zvezda Ship Repair Plant in Russia’s Far East, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at the ministry’s conference call on Tuesday.

"The modernization of the [underwater] cruiser will make it possible to extend its service life by at least ten years and expand the Pacific Fleet’s combat potential," the defense chief said.

MOSCOW, November 9./TASS/: Moscow and the Vatican have agreed to bolster bilateral cooperation within international and European agencies in order to protect Christians, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference on Tuesday, following talks with the Secretary of the Holy See for Relations with States, Paul Richard Gallagher.

MOSCOW, November 9. /TASS/: Sberbank continues looking for ways to sell their subsidiary bank in Ukraine but the situation remains challenging, Chief Executive Officer of the Russian bank Herman Gref told reporters on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, November 9. /TASS/: Tensions in Europe have been on the rise for many years and the situation with migrants on the EU eastern border is just a part of the big picture, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, said on Telegram in response to comments by Lukasz Jasina, the Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman, who said that Russia is allegedly taking advantage of the crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border and is lying and twisting the facts, which heightens tensions in Europe.

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian island north of Japan has become a testing ground for Moscow’s efforts to reconcile its prized fossil fuel industry with the need to do something about climate change.

More than two-thirds of Sakhalin Island is forested. With the Kremlin’s blessing, authorities there have set an ambitious goal of making the island — Russia’s largest — carbon neutral by 2025.