Russia

MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/: The Russian government decided to withdraw Moscow's application for the right to host the Expo 2030 exhibition, the Cabinet’s press service reported on Monday. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin sent a letter announcing this decision to Dimitri Kerkentzes, Secretary General of the Bureau International Des Expositions (BIE), the intergovernmental organization in charge of overseeing and regulating World Expos.

MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/: Moscow will monitor the Moldovan authorities' reaction to possible NATO arms supplies to the republic, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko told reporters on Monday.

"We are not so much surprised by Britain’s statements as by Chisinau's possible reaction. But we will keep an eye on this reaction to these reports because Moldova's constitution clearly states its neutral status," the diplomat said, commenting on Britain’s statements about the possibility of NATO arms supplies to the republic.

MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/: The implementation of the chief of European diplomacy Josep Borrell’s idea of creating a European army will not improve security on the continent, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

"We know that Mr. Borrel is not a proponent of diplomatic methods of settling disputes. Contrary to the office he takes he constantly and publicly demonstrates his commitment to acting from the position of strength," Peskov told the media on Monday. He recalled Borrell’s statement to the effect the problem of Ukraine should be settled on the battlefield.

(AP) --- When Vladimir Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine, war seemed far away from Russian territory. Yet within days the conflict came home — not with cruise missiles and mortars but in the form of unprecedented and unexpectedly extensive volleys of sanctions by Western governments and economic punishment by corporations.

Three months after the Feb. 24 invasion, many ordinary Russians are reeling from those blows to their livelihoods and emotions. Moscow’s vast shopping malls have turned into eerie expanses of shuttered storefronts once occupied by Western retailers.

MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in the Eurasian Economic Forum in Bishkek at the end of May by video link, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Sunday.

"He will take part by video link," he said, when asked if Putin will participate.

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/: The US researched Ebola and smallpox viruses in Ukraine, says Irina Yarovaya, Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Commission on Investigation of US Biological Laboratories in Ukraine.

"Today, we presented an analysis of which pathogens the US was particularly interested in in Ukraine," she told reporters Friday. "Aside from the pathogens that are territorially bound to Ukraine, [the laboratories] researched viruses and pathogens that are endemically very far from Ukraine, such as Ebola and smallpox."

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/: Nearly all web applications (98%) can be subject to cyberattacks, with data leaks revealed in 91% of apps, according to a Positive Technologies study released at the Positive Hack Days practical cybersecurity forum on Friday.

"According to a Positive Technologies study, criminals had a possibility to stage attacks on users in 98% of web apps under study. <…> And unauthorized access and data leaks have been exposed in 84 and 91% of apps," it said.

MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/: Russian energy giant Gazprom confirms its full-stop to natural gas deliveries to Finland after Finnish company Gasum failed to pay in rubles for the previous supplies, Russia’s company said in a statement on Saturday.

"Gazprom has cut off its gas supplies to Gasum (Finland) due to a failure of the latter to pay for the gas deliveries in rubles," the statement reads. "As of the end of the work day on May 20, Gazprom Export did not receive a payment from Gasum for gas deliveries in April in line with the [Russian] presidential order…"

TASS, May 21: A Russian residential area of Tetkino in the Glushkovsky district of the country’s Kursk Region came under a fire of Ukrainian troops on Saturday, Kursk Region’s Governor Roman Starovoit said.

"Tetkino and nearby residential areas were subjected to Ukraine’s fire once again," he said. "Further details on the situation would be provided later."

The governor said that no casualties and inflicted damages to the infrastructure were reported as a result of the attack on Russia’s territory bordering on Ukraine.

MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/: The Russian Foreign Ministry has released a national stop list of 963 US citizens who, as a tit-for-tat measure, are banned to come to Russia.

"In the context of retaliatory measures to the anti-Russian sanctions continuously imposed by the United States and in response to incoming inquiries about the individuals on our national stop list, the Russian Foreign Ministry is publishing a list of US citizens who are permanently barred from entering the Russian Federation," says the statement posted on the ministry’s website on Saturday.