Russia

MOSCOW, Aug 12 (NNN-TASS) – Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, and his Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi, discussed the expansion of cooperation in the trade and economic field, in a phone conversation yesterday.

Lavrov and Motegi paid particular attention to the implementation of joint projects, in the field of hydrogen energy in the Russian Far East, as well as, plans for joint economic activities on the four disputed islands, called the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.

MOSCOW (AP) — A helicopter carrying tourists plunged into a deep volcanic crater lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East early Thursday, and rescue workers were searching in the lake for up to eight people missing, officials said. At least eight others reportedly survived.

MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/: Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu held telephone talks with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

"The sides discussed the results of bilateral consultations on strategic stability and the issues of global and regional security," the statement says.

MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/: Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev held a telephone talk with Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Shamkhani to discuss security interaction and the situation in Afghanistan, the press office of the Russian Security Council reported on Wednesday.

"Nikolai Patrushev and Ali Shamkhani discussed the issues of continuing Russian-Iranian security interaction, and also the situation in Afghanistan," the statement says.

The talk was held at the initiative of the Iranian side, the press office specified.

MOSCOW, August 10. /TASS/: Speculations by Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Reznikov about reparations Russia might be urged to pay for Crimea's reunification indicate that the authorities in Kiev are becoming aware that the peninsula has been hopelessly lost, the chairman of the State Duma's committee for CIS affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, Leonid Kalashnikov, told TASS on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/: Western nations are seeking to use international structures, in particular, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to hinder parliamentary elections in Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/: Names of star constellations may be used to denote new strains of the novel coronavirus if Greek letters currently used for the purpose are not enough, WHO’s technical chief for COVID-19, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, told The Telegraph.

"We’re actually considering star constellations," she said, adding that the option of naming coronavirus variants after Greek gods and goddesses was also considered, but rejected.

In Kerkhove’s opinion, the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet may not be enough to denote emerging variants of interest or concern.

MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/: Russia has registered 22,866 new confirmed COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours. The total number of infections has reached 6,447,750 cases, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told journalists on Sunday.

According to the crisis center, the relative increase of new infections is at the level of 0.36%.

MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will participate in a video conference within the framework of the United Nations Security Council on maritime security conducted at the initiative of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, the Kremlin press service reported on Sunday.

MOSCOW, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Lyubov Sobol, a prominent ally of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, has left Russia days after being sentenced to parole-like restrictions amid a crackdown on the opposition, Russia's RT and REN TV channels cited sources as saying on Sunday.

Sobol could not be reached for comment. Her allies declined to speak on her behalf. The outlets said she had flown to Turkey on Saturday evening. The chief editor of the Ekho Moskvy radio station also said she had left the country.