Russia

MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/: Moscow has received signals from Paris and Berlin regarding the possibility of a meeting on Afghanistan, but holding it in the G7 format was not discussed, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS on Sunday.

MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/: Crimea’s status cannot an issue on the agenda of a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, so there is no progress in preparing the Putin-Zelensky summit, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Rossiya 1 TV channel.

"The matter is that the Crimea issue does not exist for us, while, as we are told by the Ukrainian president’s office, Zelensky wants to discuss Crimea. From what viewpoint? Obviously, not from the viewpoint that it is a region of the Russian Federation," he said.

MOSCOW, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The United States is using its investigation into the origins of COVID-19 as a political tool to pressure China and preserve hegemony, according to an article published recently on the portal Geopolitika.ru.

In a workshop that took place in the Russian city of Novosibirsk in August, experts from Germany, Austria, Turkey, Russia and Kazakhstan gathered to discuss Washington's geopolitical motives behind its investigation into the pandemic's origins, according to the article.

MOSCOW, September 3. /TASS/: The situation in Afghanistan has demonstrated that neither the United States nor NATO are capable of coordinating their actions, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

VOSTOCHNY SPACEPORT, September 4. /TASS/: The next launch of British OneWeb communications satellites from the Vostochny spaceport is scheduled for October 14, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin reported to President Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW, September 3. /TASS/: Twenty-one out of twenty-four missiles fired by Israeli fighter jets at targets in Syria were downed by Syria’s air-defense forces, Vadim Kulit, deputy chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria, said on Friday.

"At about 01:30 on September 3, four Israeli F-15 tactical fighter jets fired 24 guided missiles at targets on Syrian territory from Lebanon’s airspace," he said. "Russian-made Buk-M2E and Pantsyr-S systems on duty in the Syrian air defense units downed 21 missiles."

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia increased by 18,780 per day to 6,993,954, the federal operational headquarters for the fight against coronavirus told reporters on Saturday.

In relative terms, the number of cases increased by 0.27%.

In particular, 1,494 cases were detected per day in St. Petersburg, 756 - in the Moscow region, 512 - in the Sverdlovsk region, 479 - in the Rostov region, 462 - in the Perm region and the Voronezh region.

Currently, 552,072 people are continuing treatment in Russia.

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/: Telegram, Facebook, and Twitter are facing fines totaling 72 mln rubles ($988,605) for refusing to remove prohibited content, the corresponding court hearing will be held on September 14, the world court No. 422 of the Tagansky district of Moscow, which will consider the relevant protocols on an administrative offense, told TASS.

VLADIVOSTOK, September 3. /TASS/: Russia welcomes the interest of other countries in using the Northern Sea Route and is not going to impose any restrictions on them, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday at a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum.

MOSCOW, September 3. /TASS/: Ukraine and Western countries did not show the relevant level of respect to deploying a group of OSCE observers at the Russian initiative on the Gukovo and Donetsk checkpoints located on the Russian-Ukrainian border, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said in a statement issued on Friday after this group stopped operating.