Russia

THE HAGUE, October 10. /TASS/. Russia considers the UK’s insinuations over Russian chemical weapons as direct disrespect for the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and member states of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Russian Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Georgy Kalamanov said on Wednesday.

Kalamanov who is heading the Russian delegation made this statement at the 89th session of the OPCW Executive Committee.

THE HAGUE, October 10. /TASS/. Russia is urging the United States to eliminate its chemical weapons stockpiles ahead of the established deadline, Russia’s chief delegate, Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Georgy Kalamanov told the 89th session of the OPCW Executive Council.

"We insistently call upon Washington to consider its capabilities regarding the elimination of declared chemical weapons and to follow in our footsteps to do that ahead of the declared deadline in strict accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention," he said.

KOKTEBEL / Republic of Crimea/, October 10. /TASS/. Russia finds worrisome the situation in the eastern bank of the Euphrates, where the United States is creating some special administration with support from the Kurds, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Wednesday.

"Regrettably, the situation in the eastern bank of the Euphrates is causing growing alarm," she said. "As a matter of fact the Americans rule the roost in this zone with reliance on their Kurdish allies."

MOSCOW, October 10. /TASS/. Russia by the end of April 2019 will deploy in Cuba a mobile receiver of data from remote sensing satellites in the optical and infrared wavelength ranges, as follows from information available at the government purchases website.

The receiver, created in 2015, has passed government certification tests. The station is to go operational before April 30, 2019. It will be receiving data from the satellites Resurs-P, Kanopus-V and Kanopus-V-IK with an infrared camera and transmit them to Russia via Luch data relay satellites.

KOKTEBEL /Crimea/, October 10. /TASS/. The British special services’ instructions authorizing agents to commit crimes in foreign countries make the United Kingdom look like ‘the Evil Empire,’ Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday.

"The British public start asking questions about activity of their special services," she said. "Documents have been made public about the MI5 policy authorizing its agents to commit criminal acts."

MILAN, October 9. /TASS/. Russia will remain the global oil industry leader over the long term, Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Tuesday.

"Russia is currently the leader of the global oil industry and will remain as such on a long-term horizon. Our strategy provides for maintaining oil production at the current level, even with a small increase," the minister said.

Nevertheless, Russia needs to undertake incentivizing measures currently discussed by the government to maintain oil production, Novak added.

MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. Japan’s ELSA-d satellite intended to demonstrate the project of capturing and removing space junk from orbit is expected to be launched aboard a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket from the Baikonur spaceport in early 2020, the Glavkosmos Launch Services operator said on Monday.

"The Tokyo-based company Astroscale Japan has concluded a contract with Glavkosmos Launch Services to launch its ELSA-d satellite aboard a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Currently, the takeoff has been scheduled for early 2020," the Russian operator said.

MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. Russia has donated to Syria three battalion sets of S-300PM missile systems of eight launchers each, a military diplomatic source told TASS on Monday.

"On October 1, three battalion sets of S-300PM systems of eight launchers each were delivered to Syria," the source said.

MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. Russia has sent a note to the Dutch Ambassador to Russia Renee Jones-Bos, in which it stated that the expulsion of Russian citizens from the Netherlands in April is a provocation related to Moscow’s position in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Russian Foreign Ministry informed on Monday.

MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts global growth at 3.7% both for this year and next year, 0.2 percentage points below the last assessments, according to the World Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday.