Russia

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/: The West does not want to rupture relations with Russia completely, which is fraught with World War III, so they prod Kiev into holding talks with Moscow, but Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky does not want them in order not to acknowledge the fact of Ukraine’s break-up, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday.

MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/: The 2022 FIFA World Cup is set to start in Qatar on Sunday, marking the 22nd edition of the global football tournament supervised by FIFA.

The opening match of the championship in Qatar is scheduled to start tonight at 7:00 p.m. local time [19:00 Moscow time] between Group A teams Qatar and the national squad of Ecuador. The match will be played at the 60,000-seat capacity Al-Bayt Stadium.

MOSCOW, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- China and Russia kicked off the "audio-visual communication week-2022," a major cultural exchange program, via video link on Sunday.

Deputy head of China's National Radio and Television Administration Le Yucheng, Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of Russia Bella Cherkesova, and Russian Ambassador to China Igor Morgulov delivered video messages during a ceremony.

MOSCOW (AP) — Towering clouds of ash and glowing lava are spewing from two volcanoes on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and scientists say major eruptions could be on the way.

The peninsula, which extends into the Pacific Ocean about 6,600 kilometers (4,000 miles) east of Moscow, is one of the world’s most concentrated areas of geothermal activity, with about 30 active volcanoes.

The sudden new activity followed a strong earthquake on Saturday, news reports said.

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/: Confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Russia grew by 5,445 in the past day with 62 fatalities, the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday.

A day before, Russia registered 5,546 new daily COVID-19 cases and 60 fatalities, totaling 21,531,012 and 391,395, respectively, the latest data suggest.

Russia’s COVID-19 recoveries increased by 6,621 in the past day compared to 6,888 a day before, totaling 20,939,481, the crisis center reported.

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/: The ideas that EU top diplomat Josep Borrell disseminates among member states of the European Union show no sign of the bloc’s strategic vision on the Russian track and provoke a new prolonged split in Europe, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on Saturday.

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/: Warsaw’s decision to deny Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov his participation in a meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in the Polish city of Lodz on December 1-2 is unprecedented and provocative and incompatible with the status of the organization’s chair, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/: The West does not want to rupture relations with Russia completely, which is fraught with World War III, so they prod Kiev into holding talks with Moscow, but Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky does not want them in order not to acknowledge the fact of Ukraine’s break-up, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday.

VLADIVOSTOK, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- A gas explosion in a residential building has killed seven, including three children, and injured nine others in the Tymovskoye village of Russia's far eastern Sakhalin region on early Saturday.

Valery Limarenko, governor of the Sakhalin Region, said the rescuers are still searching for another three people.

The local Tymovskoye government said on social media that improper storage and use of household natural gas tanks caused the explosion.

MOSCOW, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a phone conversation on Friday to discuss the prospects of creating a gas hub in Türkiye and the extension of the Black Sea grain export deal.

Erdogan supports the initiative proposed by Putin in October of establishing a major natural gas hub in Türkiye, the Kremlin said in a statement.