Russia

MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 5,680 over the past day to 21,520,021, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Thursday.

A day earlier 5,380 daily cases were registered.

As many as 1,113 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, down 8.7% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients increased in 29 regions, while in 44 regions the figure decreased. The situation remained unchanged in 12 regions. A day earlier, 1,219 people were rushed to hospitals.

MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/: The special military operation in Ukraine does not depend on weather conditions, it is continuing and its goals will be achieved, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Thursday.

"The special military operation is continuing, it does not depend on climatic or weather conditions," Peskov said. He added that "its goals must be achieved."

MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/: The Western countries are trying to accuse Russia of non-existent intentions to use nuclear weapons, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with RTVI on Thursday.

"Regardless of the posture we may take on this issue to explain the obvious things they are trying to accuse us of some non-existent intentions [to use nuclear weapons]. This is just a reflection of the course towards the demonization of Russia," Ryabkov said.

MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/: Legendary Russian figure skater and President of the Russian Figure Skating Federation (RFSF) Alexander Gorshkov passed away at the age of 76, the federation’s director general, Alexander Kogan, told TASS on Wednesday.

"Alexander Georgiyevich devoted his whole life to the sport of figure skating," Kogan said. "A bright man has left us, it is hard to find words, this is a huge loss."

MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/: Russia and China launched traffic on the first-ever railway bridge across the Amur River at the interborder section Nizhneleninskoye-Tongjiang, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a press release on Wednesday.

"The launch of traffic on the bridge opens a new transport corridor between Russia and China, which removes a number of existing infrastructure restrictions. The distance for transporting goods to the northern provinces of China will be reduced by more than 700 km compared to existing routes," RDIF noted.

MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/: The fragments of the missile that fell in Poland on Tuesday do not give any reason for an escalation. Warsaw could immediately say that those were fragments of an S-300 missile having nothing to do with Russia, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Wednesday.

"No, I don’t know anything about this," he said in response to a question whether the Russian authorities had contacted the United States and NATO in order to prevent an escalation.

Nov 16 (Reuters) - The world's largest satellite ground station, on the Svalbard archipelago off Norway, is used by Western space agencies to gather vital signals from polar-orbiting satellites. This January, one of two fibre-optic cables on the Arctic seabed connecting Svalbard to the mainland was severed. Norway was forced to rely on a back-up link.

In April 2021, another cable – one used by a Norwegian research laboratory to monitor activity on the Arctic seafloor – was ripped away.

MOSCOW, November 15. /TASS/. Having passed the resolution on Russia’s "reparations" to Ukraine, the United Nations General Assembly should now call for the United States’ reparation of damage inflicted on Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Yugoslavia and other countries, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.

MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the emergence of nuclear weapons in Ukraine would be a "golden dream" for Washington.

MOSCOW, November 14. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has made his country bankrupt and deprived its citizens of a future, a top Russian lawmaker said on Monday.

Vyacheslav Volodin, Russian State Duma Speaker, wrote on his Telegram channel, "Today, Kiev is spending more than half of its revenues, or 57.9%, on debt servicing, this is why it is forced to ask for new loans. Ukraine is a bankrupt state."