Russia

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the economic situation on a number of key indicators is better than projected earlier.

"I would like to say at once that on a number of key indicators the situation is much better than previously projected," he said at a meeting on draft federal budget for 2024-2026.

Sept 16 (Reuters) - Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said on Saturday they planned to sell about 100 Ukrainian properties, including one belonging to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Vladimir Konstantinov, speaker of the Crimean parliament, said the nationalised properties would be sold "soon" and the authorities had held the first eight auctions for the properties of Ukrainian business figures.

The sale contracts amounted to more than 815 million roubles ($8.51 million), Konstantinov said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/: Russia is systematically discussing with the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides various solutions for the Lachin corridor, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/: The West is resorting to outright deception in its efforts to entice the countries of the global majority to back Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s so-called "peace formula," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/: Cash will not disappear from circulation and the demand for it does not go away, Governor of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina said at a press conference following a meeting of the regulator's board of directors.

"Our fundamental position is that people should be able to choose how to make payments. We are presenting choices. We are still developing cash, and we are even creating a new series of banknotes with a fresh design. So cash is not going away, there was and still is a demand for cash," she said.

SOCHI, September 15. /TASS/: As many as 300,000 volunteers have signed contracts with the Russian army since the beginning of this year, so Russia doesn’t need to recruit foreign mercenaries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday during his meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

He reiterated Moscow’s readiness for talks with Ukraine and called on the Kiev authorities to "stop dancing to the tune of others."

Below are Putin’s key remarks.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting Friday with his Belarusian ally, who suggested that Minsk could could join Moscow’s efforts to revive an old alliance with Pyongyang after this week’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko made the proposal as he met with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where the Russian leader said he would brief him about the talks with Kim on Wednesday at the Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s Far East.

MOSCOW (AP) — One American and two Russians blasted off Friday aboard a Russian spacecraft from a spaceport in Kazakhstan on a quick trip to the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. O’Hara will spend six months at the station while Kononenko and Chub will spend a year there.

MOSCOW, September 14. /TASS/: US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy has been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry and issued a diplomatic note stating that the actions of the embassy’s first and second secretaries were inconsistent with diplomatic status, the ministry said.

They were declared personae non gratae and have to leave the country within seven days, it said.

MOSCOW, September 14. /TASS/: Moscow will consider all serious proposals to settle the conflict in Ukraine if they meet Russia’s legitimate interests, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at talks with Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Than Swe.

"We are ready to consider any serious proposals that will take into account the realities on the ground and the basic legitimate interests of the Russian Federation," the Russian minister said in opening remarks.