Russia

MOSCOW, May 18 (Reuters) - Rail traffic has been suspended between Simferopol, capital of the Crimean peninsula, and the city of Sevastopol, after a freight train carrying grain derailed, the region's Russian-installed leader said on Thursday.

The derailment was caused by "interference by outsiders", Crimean railways said in a statement.

In a statement posted on Telegram, Sergei Aksyonov said that wagons loaded with grain had derailed and no one was injured.

17 May 2023; MEMO: Russia confirmed on Wednesday that a deal to allow Ukraine to export its grain safely across the Black Sea, despite Russia's war in Ukraine, had been extended for two months, Reuters reports.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said the deal had been extended to help countries in need, but added that Russia's overall assessment of the situation regarding the deal had not changed.

MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev have held a phone call, reaffirming their determination to boost relations between the two countries, the Kremlin press service said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The parties reaffirmed their determination to further boost allied Russian-Kazakh relations and expand mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas," the statement reads.

According to the Kremlin, Putin also wished Tokayev a happy 70th birthday.

MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/: The conclusion of the agreement between Russia and Iran on the joint construction of the Rasht-Astara railway section is a landmark moment for the entire global transport infrastructure, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the signing ceremony of the relevant agreement on Wednesday. The ceremony was held via a video link.

The Russian leader thanked Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi for his personal involvement in the project. "This is indeed a great event for the region, for the entire world transport infrastructure, for our countries," Putin stressed.

MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/: Reckless NATO expansion and the bloc’s absorption of neutral countries will undermine any prospect for dialogue on European security, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference following Moscow talks with his Belarusian counterpart Sergey Aleinik on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, May 17 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday oversaw, via video-link, the signing of a deal to finance and build an Iranian railway line as part of an embryonic international North–South Transport Corridor.

The Rasht-Astara railway is seen as an important link in the corridor, intended to connect India, Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan and other countries via railways and sea - a route that Russia says can rival the Suez Canal as a major global trade route.

MOSCOW, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, has formally denounced the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), according to a statement published on its website Tuesday.

"Deputies of the State Duma, guided by the interests of our citizens, decided to denounce the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe to ensure the security of the Russian Federation," said Chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin.

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/: Western countries have reacted to Russia’s withdrawal from the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) with some measure of alarm, but there is nothing to discuss here, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/: After denouncing the no longer relevant treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe (CFE Treaty), Russia is free to deploy weapons wherever necessary to protect its national interests, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said on his Telegram account on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/: The United States has repeatedly failed to find any signs of Russian interference in its affairs, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

When asked to comment on Monday’s report by US Special Counsel John Durham who concluded that the FBI should never have launched a probe into ties between former US President Donald Trump and Russia, Peskov said, "This is not the first time that the Americans have launched a thorough, large-scale investigation only to find a lack of any Russian interference [in US affairs]."