Russia

MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree on cancelling regulatory enactments of the USSR and the RSFSR as part of the ‘regulatory guillotine' mechanism.

"I signed a decree earlier today on cancelling USSR and RSFSR regulations by the end of this year, more specifically - starting January 1, 2020," he said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel on Wednesday.

Medvedev did not rule out the pilot application of a number of approaches within the ‘regulatory guillotine' in certain Russian regions.

MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday he had no plans to predict how US National Security Adviser John Bolton’s dismissal could influence relations between Moscow and Washington.

Lavrov told reporters that he had known Bolton since 1990s. "When I was sent to work in New York, I contacted with him sometimes and we went out and had a cup of coffee. He is such good company, he is a competent and intelligent man, it’s pleasant to talk to him."

MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/: Russia’s first two amphibious assault ships will be laid down at the Zaliv shipyard in Crimea in May 2020, two sources in Russia’s shipbuilding industry told TASS on Wednesday.

"Two amphibious assault ships with water displacement of up to 15,000 tonnes will for the first time in the Russian history be laid down at the Zaliv shipyard in Kerch in 2020," the source said.

He added that the first helicopter carrier will be delivered to the Russian Navy before the current state armament program expires at the end of 2027.

MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/: Washington’s policy in Latin America is only aimed at pursuing selfish US interests in the region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the National Institute of Information of Suriname published on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, September 10. /TASS/: Russia won’t consider Western stance on the coup d’etat in Ukraine as an obstacle for strategic partnership with the European Union, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday.

"We don’t forget either what happened in 2014 or how the coup d’etat was backed, which was carried out despite the fact that the EU, represented by France, Germany and Poland, had guaranteed a deal between President Viktor Yanukovich and the opposition on February 20, 2014," Lavrov said.

MOSCOW, September 10. /TASS/: Moscow and Baghdad resolved issues related to contracts concluded by Rosneft and Iraqi Kurdistan, Deputy Foreign Minister Muayad Salih told TASS on Tuesday.

"The tension has been removed, today we have no questions left that we should talk about. Everything has been settled," he said.

MOSCOW, September 10. /TASS/: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and Director General of the Department of Arms Control and Disarmament of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fu Cong have discussed the situation around the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear deal in Moscow on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

MOSCOW, September 10. /TASS/: Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed that Oleg Smolenkov worked in the Russian Presidential Administration a few years ago but was fired under an internal directive.

“It is true, Smolenkov used to work in the Presidential Administration but a few years ago he was dismissed through an internal instruction,” Peskov told reporters. “His position did not belong to the category of high-ranking state officials.”

MOSCOW, September 10. /TASS/: Relations between Russia and the EU are "at zero level" and they need to be recovered without any preconditions, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated on the outcomes of the talks with his Slovenian colleague Marjan Sarec.

MOSCOW, September 10. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday he had never met former staff member of the Russian presidential administration Oleg Smolenkov, whom media reports refer to as a possible CIA agent.

"I have never seen him, I have never met him, and I have neither kept track of his career nor his movements," Lavrov said, stressing that he could only comment on the facts.