Russia

Feb 26 (Reuters) - A Russian spacecraft on a mission to bring back to Earth a crew stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) has docked at the station, Russian space agency Roscosmos said early on Sunday.

The Soyuz MS-23, which lifted off from Baikonour space centre in Kazakhstan on Friday, is to bring back Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, and U.S. astronaut Francisco Rubio in September.

MOSCOW, Feb 26 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin cast the confrontation with the West over the Ukraine war as an existential battle for the survival of Russia and the Russian people - and said he was forced to take into account NATO's nuclear capabilities.

A year since ordering the invasion of Ukraine, Putin is increasingly presenting the war as a make-or-break moment in Russian history - and saying that he believes the very future of Russia and its people is in peril.

MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/: History repeats itself and Russia is again confronted with an empire of diverse enemies 80 years after the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad, Russia’s Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said in an article, Year of Defending Fatherland, published in the National Defense magazine on Saturday.

MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/: The Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs on Wednesday recommended to the lower house the adoption of a bill suspending Russia's participation in the Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START, New START).

MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/: Switzerland can no longer claim the role of a mediator in the Ukraine crisis after joining the anti-Russia sanctions, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis earlier stated that Switzerland was ready at any time to organize a meeting between the parties concerned to discuss peaceful settlement in Ukraine.

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he held a long conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday, the one-year anniversary of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. "I'll tell you a secret, last night he and I spoke for a long time on various topics," a social media channel linked to Lukashenko's press service quoted him as telling reporters, without giving details.

The Kremlin has yet to provide any statement about the conversation.

MOSCOW, February 24. /TASS/: Russian and Turkish Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, discussed the situation around Ukraine and the implementation of the Istanbul agreements, the Kremlin press service said on Friday after their telephone conversation.

Feb 24 (Reuters) - Russia told the West on Friday that it would view as an attack on itself any actions that threatened Russian peacekeepers in Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region, one day after Moscow accused Ukraine of deploying troops near the region's border.

The warning comes amid increased concerns in Moldova, a small ex-Soviet republic bordering Ukraine, of a possible Russian threat to its own independence. Its pro-European president, Maia Sandu, this month accused Moscow of plotting to overthrow Moldova's government.

MOSCOW, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Thursday greeted the first group of Chinese tourists with grand ceremony here, after three years of suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, Russian performers donning traditional costumes sang songs and danced around the Chinese tourists, who were presented with bread and salt, a sign of a friendly welcome in the Russian tradition.

Russia launched a rescue ship on Friday for two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut whose original ride home sprang a dangerous leak while parked at the International Space Station.

The new, empty Soyuz capsule should arrive at the orbiting lab on Sunday.

The capsule leak in December was blamed on a micrometeorite that punctured an external radiator, draining it of coolant. The same thing appeared to happen again earlier this month, this time on a docked Russian cargo ship. Camera views showed a small hole in each spacecraft.