Russia

NOVO-OGARYOVO, April 19. /TASS/: Relations between Russia and Armenia are at their highest level, including cooperation in all key industries of both countries, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 9,434 over the past day to 18,084,151, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Monday.

The country reports less than 10,000 daily cases for the first time since June 8, 2021. In relative terms, the growth rate reached 0.05%.

NOVO-OGARYOVO, April 18. /TASS/: The situation in the Russian economy is stabilizing, while the ruble’s exchange rate is returning to the levels of early February, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting on economic issues on Monday.

"Russia has withstood this unprecedented pressure. The situation is stabilizing, the ruble’s exchange rate has returned to the levels of the first half of February and is being defined by the objectively strong payment balance," he said.

18 April 2022; MEMO: Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned on Sunday Israeli Ambassador in Moscow, Alexander Ben Zvi, to rebuke him over Foreign Minister Yair Lapid's remarks on Russia, Haaretz reported.

The meeting is scheduled for today, Monday,and according to the Israeli media, would be a normal diplomatic reprimand over criticism of Russia's war in Ukraine.

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/: Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree to boost the export quotas for fertilizers until May 31, the cabinet said on its website on Sunday.

"Current export quotas for Russian fertilizer producers have been temporarily increased by almost 700,000 tons," the cabinet said in a statement. "Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has signed an order to that effect."

"The decision will be in force through May 31, 2022," the statement said.

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/: Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin on Sunday said Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky wants to buy time by expressing readiness for talks while also seeking help from NATO.

Volodin was reacting to Zelensky’s statement that Ukraine is ready to discuss abandoning its bid to join NATO and the status of Crimea with Russia, but not until Moscow halts hostilities and withdraws its troops.

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/: Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov on Sunday said Russian special forces freed hostages that were held in a Turkish mosque in Mariupol.

"A special operation to free hostages, who were held in Turkish mosque by Ukrainian Nazis, was conducted on April 16 during offensive actions to liberate Mariupol and at the request of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan," the spokesman said.

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/: Russia is concerned about the involvement of NATO’s non-Arctic states in the alliance’s military activity in northern areas and notes risks of unintentional clashes with the alliance’ forces in the Arctic, Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador-at-Large Nikolay Korchunov told TASS.

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/: Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he’s sure Russia will endure the current confrontation with the West.

"We can," he said on Rossiya-1 television on Sunday, when asked by the host if Russia, unlike the USSR, can survive the standoff with the West.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that in modern conditions, a single country won’t be able to maintain its dominance. According to the president, the unipolar world, which took shape after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is falling into pieces at the moment.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: Helicopters of the Russian Guards have destroyed a group of Ukrainian nationalists and military equipment on the enemy territory, the press service of the Russian Guards told TASS.

"A few days ago, an air group of the Russian Guards performed a secret approach to the combat area and conducted an airstrike targeting nationalist units it had detected. As a result, an armed group of the adversary and three pieces of military equipment were destroyed," a spokesperson said.

The press service said that its helicopters carry out combat tasks every day.