Russia

MOSCOW, July 27. /TASS/: Russia is calling on the parties to the conflict in Niger to settle their dispute through dialogue, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a comment on Thursday.

"We are calling on the conflicting parties to refrain from the use of force and resolve all controversies through a peaceful and constructive dialogue," the Russian diplomat said.

MOSCOW, July 27. /TASS/: Trade turnover between Russia and Africa reached $18 bln in 2022, which is one of the results of the Russia-Africa summit in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a plenary session of the Russia-Africa forum.

"I would like to note that last year trade turnover between Russia and Africa reached $18 bln," he said. "This is one of obvious results of the Russia-Africa summit in Sochi," Putin added.

"I am confident that we all can scale up trade more massively in the foreseeable future," he stressed.

MOSCOW/LONDON/NEW DELHI, July 27 (Reuters) - A Liberian-flagged oil tanker set sail in May from Russia's Ust-Luga port carrying crude on behalf of a little-known trading company based in Hong Kong. Before the ship had even reached its destination in India, the cargo changed hands.

The new owner of the 100,000 tonnes of Urals crude carried on the Leopard I was a similarly low-profile outfit, Guron Trading, also based in Hong Kong, according to two trading sources.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Some African leaders arrived in Russia for a summit with President Vladimir Putin as he seeks allies amid the fighting in Ukraine, while the Kremlin accused Western powers of “outrageous” efforts to pressure other African heads of state not to attend.

Putin has billed the two-day summit that opens Thursday in St. Petersburg as a major event that would help bolster ties with a continent of 1.3 billion people that is increasingly assertive on the global stage.

MOSCOW (AP) — Sometime this summer, if President Vladimir Putin can be believed, Russia moved some of its short-range nuclear weapons into Belarus, closer to Ukraine and onto NATO’s doorstep.

The declared deployment of the Russian weapons on the territory of its neighbor and loyal ally marks a new stage in the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling over its invasion of Ukraine and another bid to discourage the West from increasing military support to Kyiv.

MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/: Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko has called the Ukrainian shelling of Russian reporters a despicable murder and atrocity.

MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/: The Russian State Duma passed a bill increasing the maximum conscription age to 30 years, while keeping the minimum age at 18.

The bill was introduced by a group of lawmakers, led by Chairman of the Duma Committee on Defense Andrey Kartapolov, in March. The bill stipulates that the minimum conscription age remains at 18 years, while the maximum age is being increased from 27 to 30 starting on January 1, 2024. There will be no gradual increase of the maximum conscription age.

MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/: Coming back to the grain deal is now impossible, since its conditions regarding Russia have not been met, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/: Russia's GDP growth rate has accelerated from month to month this year, and there is every reason to assume that growth will fully offset last year's decline in 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday

"For the entire 2022, GDP decreased by 2.1% and in January-May of 2023 it grew by 0.6$, and from month to month the pace accelerated: in May - up to 5.4%," he said.

"We expect GDP to grow by more than 2% by the end of the year," Putin said, adding that "this growth will completely offset last year's decline."

MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/: Russian air defense forces intercepted a rocket of the US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system and downed 35 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Monday.