Russia

MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will respond to his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky’s proposal to meet in Donbass if he deems it necessary, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

"The president will give a response himself if he deems it necessary," he said, adding that Putin had been informed of Zelensky’s proposal.

MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to establish international cooperation on monitoring all types of harmful emissions.

(Reuters) --- Russia's Federal Security Service arrested a man in Crimea on Thursday on suspicion of treason for allegedly handing over secret information to Ukraine about Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the RIA news agency reported.

The arrest comes amid acute tensions with Ukraine as Moscow has built up military forces near their shared border. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in Crimea on Thursday to oversee large-scale military drills. 

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to host his Belarusian counterpart on Thursday for talks on closer integration between the two ex-Soviet neighbors.

The meeting follows allegations of a failed plot to assassinate Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko, allegedly involving a blockade of the country’s capital, power cuts and cyberattacks. Belarusian and Russian security agencies arrested the alleged coup plotters in Moscow earlier this month.

MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/: Unfriendly actions against Moscow continue unabated and it looks like some countries have turned it into a new sport, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his annual State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly on Wednesday.

"Unfriendly actions against Russia are continuing non-stop. Some countries have developed a very bad habit of taking digs at Russia whenever an opportunity arises, and most often without any reason at all. It looks like a new sport: who will manage to say something louder than the others."

MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/: Speaker of the Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Valentina Matviyenko is certain that it will be possible to lift COVID-19 restrictions by the fall in the event of mass vaccination in Russia. At the same time, she did not rule out that COVID-19 could become a seasonal illness in the future.

MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/: Hackers from abroad tried to steal Russian coronavirus vaccine inventions, Deputy Director of the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents set up by the Federal Security Service (FSB) Nikolai Murashov said on Wednesday.

"The perpetrators showed special interest in the results of scientific studies and Russian coronavirus vaccine inventions," he said at the conference on IT security Infoforum in Yaroslavl.

MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/: Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy Bart Gorman was handed a note on Wednesday declaring 10 employees of the US Embassy in Moscow persona non grata, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"Bart Gorman, Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy to the Russian Federation, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on April 21 to be handed a note declaring persona non grata 10 employees of the US Embassy in Moscow. Those individuals are ordered to leave our country by the end of May 21," the Foreign Ministry said.

(Reuters) --- President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he wanted Russia's total net greenhouse gas emissions to be less than the European Union's over the next 30 years, agoal he described as tough but doable.

The leader of the vast hydrocarbon-rich nation that is the world's fourth largest greenhouse gas emitter is set to deliver a speech at an online climate change summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday.

(Reuters) --- President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday not to cross Russia's "red lines", saying Moscow would respond swiftly and harshly to any provocations and those responsible would regret it.

At a time of acute crisis in ties with the United States and Europe, with Russian troops massed near Ukraine and opposition leader Alexei Navalny on hunger strike in jail, the Kremlin leader used his state of the nation speech to project a message of Russian strength and defiance in the face of outside threats.