Russia

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on Western countries to abandon unfair competition practices such as sanctions.

Responding to a question from a journalist from Iceland, who stated the negative impact of anti-Russian sanctions on his country's economy, Lavrov explained why Russia decided to use counter sanctions in relation to European agricultural products.

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Russia’s Investigative Committee has found evidence proving a gas leak triggered an explosion in a residential building in the southern Russian town of Shakhty, but no residues of explosive devices were spotted at the scene, the committee’s Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told reporters on Wednesday.

"Staff members of the Investigative Committee’s Main Forensics Department did not find any residues of explosives while searching the crime scene with a gas analyzer. Chemical examinations are to be done on collected wipe samples," she said.

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Specialists will try once again to regain control over Spektr-R radio telescope on January 21 when the distance to the apparatus will be minimal, science advisor to the Roscosmos's chief Alexander Bloshenko told TASS on Wednesday.

"The next step is to repeat today's program on Monday when the distance to the spacecraft will be minimal. The distance currently stands at around 300,000 km," Bloshenko said.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s foreign minister says that the U.S. has ignored Moscow’s proposal to inspect a Russian missile that Washington says has violated a nuclear arms treaty.

Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that Russia offered during talks in Geneva earlier this week that U.S. experts see the missile. He said the U.S. negotiators stonewalled the offer, repeating Washington’s demand that Russia destroys the weapon it claimed violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev has said that Ukraine could lose its statehood, if Kiev continues to pursue its current policy.

"The continuation of such policy by the Kiev authorities can contribute to the loss of Ukraine’s statehood," he said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta. According to Patrushev, "the Kiev authorities are doing everything to split Ukraine, implementing the West’s scenario to break Ukraine away from Russia, while ignoring the interests of its own people."

MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. Russia and Zimbabwe signed a range of agreements for implementation of a joint project on development of the Darwendale platinum group metals deposit. Documents were signed in presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa after their talks.

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Attempts of the United States and some other Western nations to assert their dominant role in the Balkan region have become a serious destabilizing factor, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Serbia’s Vecernje Novosti newspaper ahead of his visit to Belgrade.

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Rescuers have pulled the fifth body from the rubble of a house in South Russia’s city of Shakhty, a spokesperson for the Russian Emergencies Ministry told TASS on Wednesday.

"Rescuers have found and retrieved the body of the fifth and last victim. The search operation is over," the source said.

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Russia urges Western powers to refrain from blackmail, threats and provocations in international politics and to build the dialogue on the basis of principles enshrined in the UN Charter, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Serbia’s Politika newspaper in the run-up to his visit to Belgrade.

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. The second contract to manufacture 13 Su-57 fighter jets for the Russian Aerospace Forces is to be signed next year, a source in Russia’s aircraft-making industry told TASS on Wednesday.

"In 2020, we plan to sign the second contract to manufacture and deliver 13 Su-57 fighter jets, some of them equipped with the second-stage engines," he said. "The preliminary timeframe for the new contract is five years."

The first contract envisages the delivery of two fifth-generation aircraft in 2019-2020.