Russia

MOSCOW, Dec 28 (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's 10-point peace plan, saying that proposals to end the conflict in Ukraine must take into account what it calls "today's realities" of four Ukrainian regions having joined Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today's realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia. Plans that do not take these realities into account cannot be peaceful."

27 Dec 2022; MEMO: iFly Airlines has notified tour operator Tez Tour about the forced cancellation of all international flights from Russia to Egypt due to the lack of permission to use Jordan's airspace and restrictions on overflight imposed by several other countries, Russia's TASS news agency reported.

iFly airline asked the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency to allow it to fly through Syria, but the agency refused, considering it unsafe.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Russia will keep screening films, despite the departure of Hollywood majors from the country, but it will need to produce some 300 movies domestically, including 60 major motion picture releases for that, Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova told TASS.

ST. PETRERSBURG, December 27. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that on Monday evening his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and he had dotted the i’s and many issues were finally agreed upon. Now it is up to the governments of the two countries to put the finishing touches.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: The next year will be fairly challenging from Russia from the standpoint of finance and the deficit budget, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov said on the air with the Rossiya-24 TV Channel.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Ukraine is still not ready for negotiations with Russia, including on the UN platform, says head of the Russian State Duma Committee on international affairs, member of the Russian delegation to talks with Ukraine Leonid Slutsky.

"Ukraine is still not ready to hold peace negotiations; all the statements made by [Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry] Kuleba are a smoke screen," Slutsky said, commenting on the statement by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres regarding his readiness to mediate at a "peace summit," proposed by Kuleba earlier.

Dec 27 (Reuters) - Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, an arch loyalist of Vladimir Putin given a new job this week, predicted war between Germany and France next year and a civil war in the United States that would lead to Elon Musk becoming president.

Medvedev, deputy head of Putin's advisory security council, served as president during a four-year spell when Putin held the office of prime minister. He appears to have seen his fortune rise in the Kremlin, which said on Monday he would now serve as Putin's deputy on a body overseeing the military industry.

Dec 27 (Reuters) - Moscow's proposals for settlement in Ukraine are well known to Kyiv and either Ukraine fulfils them for their own good or the Russian army will decide the issue, TASS agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying.

"Our proposals for the demilitarization and denazification of the territories controlled by the regime, the elimination of threats to Russia's security emanating from there, including our new lands, are well known to the enemy," the state news agency quoted Lavrov as saying late on Monday.

MOSCOW, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Western policy of containing Russia is extremely dangerous and fraught with risk of a direct armed clash between nuclear powers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

"Irresponsible speculation" that Russia is about to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine is unceasingly unfolding in the West, Lavrov said in an interview with TASS news agency published on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: The state-of-the-art Chukavin sniper rifle is already being supplied to Russian troops in the special military operation zone in Ukraine and the Kalashnikov arms manufacturer is studying the input by the military of its combat use, Kalashnikov Group President Alan Lushnikov said on Monday.