Russia

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/: Afghanistan’s Shiite minority, the Hazara community, will resume armed confrontation with the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) if the radicals renege on their promises and do not refrain from tyranny, former Vice President Karim Khalili, who leads the Hazaras, one of the country’s main ethnic groups, said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/: Russia's federal security service FSB has said a group of Central Asia-born terrorist recruiters has been detained in Yekaterinburg. The detainees had contacts with terrorists in the Middle East and were persuading labor migrants to join terrorist activities, the FSB said in a news release received by TASS.

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/: Washington’s refusal to issue a visa to Leonid Slutsky, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, is a gross violation of international law and will be responded to in kind, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that "the US authorities, which pursue a now longstanding and quite deliberate line, continue to obstruct the issuance of visas for Russian representatives traveling to events at the UN Headquarters in New York."

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/: Russia is not going to use the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline for geopolitical purposes, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said in an interview with TASS, adding that the project would remain solely an economic one for Moscow.

"For us, Nord Stream 2 remains solely an economic project. We are not going to use it, as the Ukrainians say, in any geopolitical calculations. We do not need that," the high-ranked diplomat noted.

MOSCOW, Sept 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Russian An-26 military transport aircraft with six people on board disappeared Wednesday near the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk, the emergencies ministry said. 

   The ministry said that at 6:45 pm local time (0845 GMT) it learned that “an An-26 aircraft had disappeared from radar 38 kilometres (23 miles) from Khabarovsk airport”. 

“According to preliminary data, there are six people on board,” the ministry added on its Telegram channel. 

   The ministry said that a helicopter had been dispatched to search for the aircraft. 

MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/: Moscow expects that the United State will comply with its duty to issue visas to all Russian delegates for participation in the UN General Assembly session, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Tuesday.

"We expect the US side will comply with its obligations as the United Nations' host country to issue visas to all Russian participants. I am referring to the Russian delegation to the UN General Assembly session," she said.

MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/: Russia slams all attempts of the UK to put the responsibility for the Skripal case onto Moscow and will continue to demand comprehensive information from London, spokeswoman for Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Tuesday.

"We resolutely condemn all attempts by London to lay the blame for the Salisbury incident on Moscow and insist that it should be investigated professionally, objectively and impartially," she said.

MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/: Russia will never revise its stance on Crimea and there is no going back on this topic since it’s a done deal, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained to the media on Tuesday.

"There is no chance the Russian side might revise its stance on Crimea," Peskov said. "By and large, Crimea is a subject that is beyond the scope of any potential discussion. It essential to help our counterparts realize (and we will be doing this) the essence of what happened the moment the Crimeans made their choice."

SIMFEROPOL, September 21. /TASS/: The Kerch Shipyard in Crimea has floated out the Project 22800 latest missile corvette Askold built on order from Russia’s Defense Ministry, the Crimean State Council’s press office reported on Tuesday.

"The launch ceremony was held under the direction of Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov who also inspected the course of surface shipbuilding at the Shipyard and its production capacities," the statement sways.

MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/: The resumption of Kabul airport’s operations creates the conditions for a return to normal life in Afghanistan, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.

"We hail the reopening of Kabul international airport announced on September 20. It creates positive conditions for the country’s return to a normal, peaceful life," the diplomat said.