Russia

MOSCOW, July 2 (Reuters) - Kremlin-controlled gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) has held off from booking additional capacity for gas supplies via Ukraine to meet surging demand in recent months, sending a clear sign it is waiting for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to be commissioned, analysts said.

Nord Stream 2, which runs on the bed of the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine, has faced criticism from the United States, which says it will increase European reliance on Russian gas. Washington imposed sanctions on the project in 2019, slowing its progress.

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/: Google is facing a fine of up to 6 mln rubles ($82,000) for refusing to localize the data of its Russian users in accordance with legislation currently in force, a source in the Justice of the Peace of Court No. 422 in Moscow’s Tagansky District, which received the respective files, told TASS.

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/: Czech Ambassador to Moscow Vitezslav Pivonka was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry amid the new Prague’s claims to the Russian Federation over the 2014 explosions at arms depots in Vrbetice, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

"We view the proposal of the Czech side to hold a discussion of its claims as unacceptable, of course. We will express our attitude to this politicized romp to the head of the Czech diplomatic mission in Moscow, who was summoned to the Foreign Ministry," she said. 

VOSTOCHNY COSMODROME /Amur Region/, July 1. /TASS/: A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Fregat booster and 36 British OneWeb communications satellites blasted off from the Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s Far East on Thursday.

The Fregat booster with the satellites successfully separated from the carrier rocket several minutes after the launch, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced in a live broadcast on its website.

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/: A major war is currently impossible because of the nuclear parity, Kremlins spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview Thursday, answering a question on a potential world war with the use of nuclear weapons.

"Can a war happen? Putin said it clearly [during the Direct Line] that this is unlikely. We are being safeguarded by the nuclear parity," Peskov said.

According to Peskov, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of nuclear parity because it is a mechanism that "stabilizes the entire system of international relations."

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/: Russia will keep providing fraternal Belarus with comprehensive support amid the challenging domestic political situation in that country and the external attempts to fuel tensions, Russian President Vladimir Putin told an online forum of Russian and Belarusian regions.

"We will continue providing our fraternal Belarusian people with comprehensive support in the current rather challenging domestic political situation in Belarus, amid the ongoing political and sanctions pressure and persistent attempts to rock the boat from overseas," Putin stressed.

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his annual Q&A session on Wednesday that he was deeply concerned over the military exploitation of Ukrainian territory by Western countries.

"I am concerned over another, more fundamental thing, namely that the military exploitation of Ukrainian territory is starting to unfold," Putin emphasized.

As the Russian leader stressed, the Ukrainian Constitution disallows the presence of foreign military bases there.

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 21,042 COVID-19 cases over the past day, bringing the total caseload to 5,514,599, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Wednesday.

The number of cases increased by 0.38% in relative terms. 

Moscow confirmed 5,823 COVID-19 cases over the past day. Some 2,583 cases were recorded in the Moscow Region, 1,503 in St. Petersburg, 358 in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, 324 in the Bryansk Region and 321 in the Republic of Buryatia.

Currently, as many as 378,992 COVID-19 patients are undergoing treatment in Russia.

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/: A group of the Russian Pacific Fleet’s ships held missile and artillery firings in the Pacific, repelling a notional enemy’s air attack and striking a sea target in drills, the Fleet’s press office reported on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/: Russia’s Progress MS-17 space freighter launched from the Baikonur spaceport will have a near-miss with a Falcon-9 rocket fragment and a Starlink satellite of Elon Musk’s SpaceX on July 2, the state space corporation Roscosmos reported on Wednesday.