Russia

MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/: Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin received the Serb member of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Presidium, Milorad Dodik in the Kremlin.

"We did not announce that. It is true that the leader of Republika Srpska did meet with Putin face to face. It was a very useful and detailed discussion," Peskov said.

MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/: Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin believes that 2028 will be critical for the continuation of activities on the International Space Station (ISS).

"The year 2028 will be a very critical one for the further work of the ISS, so we have already begun to work on the Russian orbital service station," he said on Friday.

MIASS, December 3. /TASS/: Ural motor vehicles produced in Russia have the demand in more than 40 countries, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said at the meeting with local authorities and plant management.

"Ural brand automobiles have demand among clients in more than 40 countries of the world at present. The company’s share on the Russian market of all-wheel drive trucks is about 30%," the deputy prime minister said.

Creation of a cluster to manufacture key components for trucks and road construction wheeled machines was also discussed at the meeting.

MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/: The countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are interested in the idea of creating the Eurasian Space Agency, Member of the Board - Minister in charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission Sergey Glazyev said at the EAEU business forum Space Integration on Friday.

"The idea of the Eurasian Space Agency is really relevant and in demand," he said, commenting on a proposal of Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin.

He added that, in his opinion, all countries of the union are interested in Roscosmos’ projects.

MOSCOW, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Belarusian state-run airline Belavia said on Friday it had been forced to reduce its fleet of planes by almost half after the European Union targeted it with sanctions.

The EU sanctioned Belavia on Thursday, accusing it of flying in migrants as a tactic to destabilise European states, punitive measures that were coordinated with Washington. 

The sanctions mean EU companies can no longer lease planes to the airline, EU officials have said.

MOSCOW, Dec 3 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Friday that Russia and the United States had a tentative date and time for a video summit between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden in the coming days, but that Moscow was waiting for Washington to finalise it.

Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov said Putin plans to tell Biden about a proposal for security guarantees that would halt the NATO military alliance's eastward expansion and end what Moscow describes as threatening weapons deployments to Russia's neighbours, including Ukraine.

MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a meeting in Stockholm that Russia would resort to reciprocal measures in case Moscow’s interests were ignored in regard to NATO’s further deployment of forces, the Russian ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/: The West will have regrets if it once again misses the opportunity to negotiate with Moscow over guarantees to halt NATO’s expansion eastward, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Russia’s Channel One on Thursday.

"We can’t bank on Brussels’ assurances, we witness what happens with vociferous promises. Everything turns upside down over the years. In the end, we get a radically worsened situation in Europe as a result of NATO expansion led by the United States, of territories directly adjacent to the Russian borders," he added.

MOSCOW, December 2./TASS/: Russia has imposed a 14-day quarantine for those who arrive from South Africa and the countries bordering it, sanitary watchdog chief Anna Popova said on Thursday.

"Today, Russia has imposed a two-week quarantine, but only for those who are returning from South Africa and the countries sharing the border with South Africa, and that’s all. This affects just a few people, according to Rostourism (Federal Agency for Tourism) and our Foreign Ministry, it’s several hundred people staying in South Africa," she told Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station.

MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/: December talks of OPEC+ countries ended and the OPEC Secretariat confirmed in its communique that OPEC+ member-states will continue increasing oil production by 400,000 barrels per day.

All the countries agreed to proceed with oil production recovery in January 2022 by 400,000 barrels per day, according to the communique posted on the OPEC’s website. The plan to compensate overproduction of oil is extended until June of the next year.

The next meeting of OPEC+ countries will be on January 4, 2022.