Russia

06 Feb 2021; MEMO: Senior Hamas leaders have met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Presidential Special Envoy for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov to discuss political developments, Hamas disclosed on Thursday.

In a statement posted on Hamas's official website, the Palestinian movement announced that the delegation comprised members of Hamas Political Bureau Dr Mousa Abu Marzouq and Zaher Jabarin, as well as Hamas's representative in Moscow.

MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/: Russia and the EU view the US’s illegitimate unilateral sanctions against Cuba negatively, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during the press conference in the wake of his talks EU High Representative on Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell Friday.

MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/: Russian airspace control systems detected over 30 reconnaissance planes and eight unmanned aerial vehicles near the country’s borders in the past week, the Krasnaya Zvezda (or Red Star) newspaper reported on Friday.

"As many as 33 reconnaissance planes and eight reconnaissance drones conducted flights near Russia’s borders and were tracked by radar," the newspaper said.

According to Krasnaya Zvezda, a fighter jet of the air defense quick reaction alert forces was scrambled to prevent border violations.

MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/: The number of coronavirus cases in Russia rose by 16,688 to 3,934,606 in the past 24 hours, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Friday.

The coronavirus growth rate stands at 0.43%.

The rate is the lowest in the Tuva region (0.08%), the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region, the Jewish autonomous region, the Magadan region, the Sakhalin region, the Kostroma region and Moscow (0.2%).

MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/: The demand of US President Joe Biden to release blogger Alexey Navalny comes down to "aggressive and unconstructive rhetoric," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated.

"This is a very aggressive and unconstructive rhetoric, unfortunately," the spokesman told reporters on Friday. "Any hints of an ultimatum are absolutely unacceptable to us."

The spokesman stressed that Moscow would not pay attention to such statements.

05 Feb 2021; MEMO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called on his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi to expel members of the Syria Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets, from Jordan, during a press conference held by the officials in Moscow.

MOSCOW (AP) — In a note from jail, opposition leader Alexei Navalny urged Russians Thursday to overcome their fear and “free” the country from a “bunch of thieves,” while the Kremlin cast the arrests of thousands of protesters as a due response to the unsanctioned rallies.

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 16,714 new coronavirus cases in the past day and the total caseload hit 3,917,918, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Thursday.

The average growth rate in new cases reached 0.43%.

The lowest growth rates were recorded over the past day in the Tuva Republic (0.06%), the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Magadan, Sakhalin and Kostroma Regions (0.2%).

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/: The Russian Federation Council (upper house) Commission on Information Policy and Cooperation with the Media considers it necessary to provide a legal option to block social media over calls for participation in unauthorized rallies, the commission said in a statement, presented by chairman Alexey Pushkov Thursday.

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov disagrees that the large number of apprehensions during unauthorized rallies could be called repressions.

"There are no repressions, there are only measures taken by the police against the violators of law - against participants of unauthorized rallies," the spokesman said Thursday.