Russia

SIMFEROPOL, September 29. / TASS /: The Strategy for De-occupation of Crimea, approved on Wednesday by the Ukrainian government, has been developed to shift the focus of the citizens from pressing problems, Head of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov said on Wednesday, noting that Kiev was incapable of perceiving reality.

The Strategy for De-occupation of Crimea was upheld by the members of Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers. According to Prime Minister Denis Shmygal, the document represents a comprehensive roadmap, which will allow it to regain control over the peninsula.

SOCHI, September 29./TASS/: The presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have finished their talks in Sochi. The talks began at approximately 13:30 Moscow time and lasted about three hours.

"[The talks] have ended," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS when asked whether the talks were still in progress.

MOSCOW, September 28. /TASS/: Russia and Vietnam have expressed the mutual intention to enhance strategic partnership, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference following talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, September 28. /TASS/: Russia's crewed spacecraft Yuri Gagarin (Soyuz MS-18) has been docked to the multipurpose laboratory module Nauka.

This is the first-ever crewed spacecraft to have been docked with Nauka, which became part of the ISS on July 29. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov and NASA' Mark Vande Hei are on board. The docking was manual.

MOSCOW, September 28. /TASS/: Moscow is raising alarm bells over the mounting strife in Kosovo’s north, since the developments there have been going "from bad to worse", Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated in an official commentary.

MOSCOW, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Russia sharply escalated a campaign against jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday, opening a new criminal case against President Putin's fiercest domestic critic that could allow the authorities to hand him another decade in jail.

In a case condemned by the West, Navalny, 45, is already serving two-and-a-half years in prison for parole violations he says were trumped up to thwart his political ambitions.

MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/: Russia is closely following Germany's elections and hopes for the continuity of Berlin's policy in bilateral relations, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Monday.

"It goes without saying that the elections in Europe's largest country are a process, an event that rivets the attention of the whole world. We, too, have been watching with great attention what is happening and what the results are. It goes without saying that we hope for continuity in our bilateral relations," he stressed.

MOSCOW, September 27./TASS/: The commission for international cooperation and support for compatriots abroad that will be led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will engage in the implementation of the foreign policy section of the party’s national program, the deputy secretary of the United Russia Party General Council, Andrei Klimov, told TASS on Monday.

MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/: The Houthi movement carried out an armed attack in the Al-Abdiyah district in the south of Marib in Yemen, resulting in a humanitarian catastrophe in the region, a statement by the Embassy of Yemen in Moscow reported on Monday.

ST. PETERSBURG, September 26./TASS/: The new president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), Luc Tardif, told TASS that he would possibly return to Russia in two months, making a working trip.