Russia

MOSCOW, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The Kremlin denounced as "absurd" on Friday a resolution proposed by U.S. lawmakers to stop recognising Vladimir Putin as Russia's president if he stays in power after 2024, and described it as U.S. meddling in Russian affairs.

Putin's term as president is due to end in 2024 and he can seek two more terms under constitutional amendments made during his presidency. Under the previous constitutional limits, he would have been barred from running again.

Moscow, Nov 18 (AP) Coronavirus deaths in Russia hit record highs for the second straight day Thursday, while new daily cases appeared to be taking a downward trend but still remained higher than during previous waves of the pandemic.

Russia's state coronavirus task force reported that 1,251 people died of COVID-19 since the day before, the most since Russia had its first virus outbreak in March 2020. The previous record of 1,247 deaths was recorded Wednesday.

MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/: Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the successful test-launch of a Tsirkon hypersonic missile in the White Sea, the Defense Ministry announced on Thursday.

"Defense Minister Army General Sergey Shoigu reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that a Tsirkon hypersonic missile was successfully test-fired in the White Sea from the frigate Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov," the statement says.

MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/: A Tsirkon hypersonic missile test-launched from the Northern Fleet’s frigate Admiral Gorshkov struck a naval target in the White Sea with a direct hit, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

"The recording equipment data show that the hypersonic missile’s flight complied with the designated parameters. The target was destroyed by a direct hit," the ministry said.

As Russia’s Defense Ministry specified, the hypersonic missile was test-fired against a sea target position in the White Sea.

MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/: Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has referred to speculation about the timing of the possible launch of Nord Stream 2 as a ‘thankless job’.

"Guessing the timing now is a thankless job. And we would not want to do that," he said.

Earlier, Reuters, citing sources in the German government, reported that the suspension of the certification procedure for Nord Stream 2 AG by the German regulator could delay the pipeline’s commissioning until March 2022.

MOSCOW, Nov 18 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the West was not taking Russia's warnings not to cross its "red lines" seriously enough and that Moscow needed to obtain serious security guarantees from the West.

In a speech to foreign policy officials in Moscow, Putin said that talks to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine were moving towards a dead end and accused the West of using a migrant crisis in Belarus against Moscow's ally Minsk.

He said NATO - with which Moscow severed ties last month - had destroyed all mechanisms for dialogue.

MOSCOW, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Thursday that a phone call this week between top U.S and Russian security officials was part of preparations for talks between presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, the latest in a series of signals that Moscow is keen for a second summit between the two leaders.

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan discussed cybersecurity, Ukraine and the migrant crisis on the Belarus border in their phone call on Wednesday, the Kremlin said.

Nov 18 (Reuters) - A Chinese envoy has lobbied Southeast Asian nations to let Myanmar's military ruler attend a regional summit being hosted by China's president next week but has met stiff opposition, diplomatic sources said on Thursday.

Myanmar's standing as a member of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been thrown into the spotlight by a Feb. 1 coup, when its military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking bloody turmoil.

MOSCOW (AP) — More than 400 Iraqis sought to fly home from Belarus on Thursday, abandoning their hopes of reaching the European Union following more than a week of tensions at the bloc’s eastern border where hundreds of migrants remain stuck.

A plane carrying an unknown number is expected to depart from Minsk in the early afternoon and make two stops — one in the city of Erbil and another in the capital, Baghdad. A total of 430 Iraqis have registered for flights home, and most of those were already at the airport, according to Iraq’s consul in Russia Majid al-Kilani.

MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/: Russia has offered its assistance to twenty African Union nations in combating the coronavirus pandemic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday after talks with African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat.

"Naturally, we touched upon the topic of combating the coronavirus pandemic in response to the request of African Union nations. Russia has offered assistance to nearly twenty countries, have supplied vaccines, medicines, and individual protection gear and have sent highly-qualified specialists," he said.