Russia

MOSCOW, March 11./TASS/: Contacts with the new US administration are maintained on a regular basis through diplomatic channels, but numerous crucial disagreements are seen at this level, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

"Of course, working contacts [with the US administration] are maintained through diplomatic channels. They are not easy. However, they continue. And this is the main thing," the spokesman stressed.

Peskov specified that the difficulty was in the existence of "numerous crucial disagreements".

MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/: The flight by US astronaut Mark Vande Hei aboard a Russian manned Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft has nothing to do with cross flights by Roscosmos and NASA crews and will be a one-time event, Roscosmos Executive Director for Piloted Space Programs Sergei Krikalyov said in a live broadcast of the Rossiya-24 TV Channel on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/: Moscow is confident that in time, Turkey will understand that Russia’s position on Crimea is correct, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

The spokesman said that the reunification of Crimea with Russia "is a matter that does not relate to the disagreements [between Russia and Turkey]." "We do not accept Turkey’s stance on Crimea, but we continue patiently explaining our position," he stressed.

MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/: Moscow police shut down more than 360 cafes and retail stores for violating coronavirus restrictions last year, according to a video shown to Moscow City Council members before an address by head of the Main Moscow Department of the Russian Interior Ministry Oleg Baranov.

"Police officers played an important role in ensuring compliance with sanitary rules in the city. They identified and shut down over 360 cafes, hookah bars, tobacco shops and retail stores that were in breach of restrictions," the video said.

MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/: Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said he has no information about some new plan for a peace settlement in Donbass the Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has announced.

"I have no information about the existence of such a plan," Peskov told the media on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Armenian government said the dismissal of a top army general at the centre of a political crisis had come into force on Wednesday almost two weeks after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan fired him as he accused the military of a coup attempt.

The army’s general staff and senior military figures demanded Pashinyan leave power on Feb. 25 in the ex-Soviet republic of less than 3 million.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday it was slowing down the speed of Twitter in retaliation for its alleged failure to remove banned content and threatened a total block if the U.S. platform did not comply with its deletion demands.

The move, which escalates a growing stand-off between Moscow and U.S. social media, comes weeks after Russian authorities accused Twitter and others of failing to delete posts it said illegally urged children to take part in anti-Kremlin protests.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

MOSCOW, March 9. /TASS/: Russia appreciates cooperation with the United States in outer space and hopes it will be continued, the Russian president’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"We appreciate the Russian-US cooperation in the outer space. We hope it will be continued and hope it will not fall victim to various Russophobic manifestations," he said, commenting on the words by General John Raymond, US Space Force's chief of space operations, that Russia’s and China’s capabilities in outer space cause serious concern to Washington.

MOSCOW, March 9. /TASS/: The administration of US President Joe Biden will increase pressure on China in a number of areas, Director of the Institute of the Far East at the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Maslov said during an online conference organized by the Valdai Discussion Club and the Center for Russia-China Strategic Interaction under the CITIC Foundation for Reform and Development Studies of China.

MOSCOW, March 9. /TASS/: Russia’s coronavirus cases rose by 9,445 to 4,342,747 in the past 24 hours, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Tuesday. The number of daily coronavirus cases dropped below 10,000 for the first time since October 3.

Russia’s coronavirus growth rate stands at 0.22%.

The rate is the lowest in the Altai region (0.01%) and the Tuva region (0.03%).