Russia

MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/: Russia’s state-run space corporation Roscosmos is in talks with its Chinese colleagues to determine scientific tasks for a lunar base and to discuss technical aspects of the project’s implementation, Deputy Director General for International Cooperation at the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos Sergey Savelyev told TASS.

"At present, work is under way to determine possible scientific tasks of mutual interest in the Moon research. Besides, possible technical implementation of the project is being analyzed," he said.

MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 16,474 coronavirus cases in the past day and the total case tally hit 3,901,204, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Wednesday.

The average growth rate reached 0.42%.

The lowest growth rates were registered in the past day in the Tuva Republic (0.03%), the Altai Republic, the Pskov Region (0.1%), the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Magadan Region, the Chechen Republic and Khakassia (0.2%).

MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/: The United States always comes up with various excuses for imposing anti-Russian sanctions, and it does not need any specific reasons to do so, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Soloviev Live YouTube channel, commenting on remarks by Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah, about slapping sanctions on "those responsible" because of blogger Alexey Navalny’s case.

MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/: The sentence on Alexey Navalny’s case is unlikely to significantly affect the political situation in Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

"The political situation in the country is rather multifaceted. The country prepares for parliamentary elections in September, a lot of different processes take place, new political parties form. This is a very multifaceted process, so, it is unlikely that there will be any significant effect," Peskov said.

MOSCOW, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Moscow court on Tuesday sentenced Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to 3.5 years in real jail time in defiance of pressure from domestic protesters and Western countries.

Navalny got a suspended sentence of 3.5 years behind bars in December 2014 for a fraud case concerning French cosmetics company Yves Rocher, and he was required to show up at Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) regularly during the probation period until the end of 2020.

MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/: Saudi Arabia, which promised early in January to further reduce oil production by 1 mln barrels per day more in February - March 2021, has initiated implementation of its plan, an OPEC delegate told TASS on Tuesday.

"That’s right, Saudi Arabia has started the reduction by 1 mln barrels daily since February start," the delegate said. The Saudi Ministry of Energy has not yet commented on this piece of information.

Oil production by Saudi Arabia will therefore go down to 8.1 mln barrels per day in February - March of this year.

MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/: Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade has announced plans to supply 300,000 respirators from a Russian factory to Germany in February-March 2021.

"Russian respirators from Kimrskaya Gorky factory will be delivered to Germany…The total number of respirators for German consumers exceeds 300,000. They will be shipped under two contracts in February-March 2021," the ministry said.

The first contract implies the supply of 170,000 respirators and the second one - 150,000.

MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/: It is important to build up the production of Il-76MD-90A heavy military transport planes and Su-57 fifth-generation fighters for the Russian troops, Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu said at the ministry’s conference call on Tuesday.

"This year, it is important to build up the production of advanced types of armament: Su-57 fifth-generation multirole fighters and new Il-76MD-90A heavy military transport planes," the defense chief said.

MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/: Moscow has reasons to believe that the Alexey Navalny incident was a sham, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a joint press conference with his Swedish counterpart Ann Linde on Tuesday.

"As for the Navalny case, no information has been provided to us to prove accusations against the Russian authorities," Lavrov pointed out. "If you make accusations against someone, then prove their guilt. And if you say: ‘I won’t tell you anything because it’s a secret,’ we have reasons to believe that it’s a sham," he added.

MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/: The Kremlin expects that the European Union won’t link the future of its relations with Russia to Alexey Navalny’s case, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

"We hope that the future of Russia-EU relations won’t be linked to the remand prisoner’s case, which would be a stupid thing to do," he said, commenting on EU top diplomat Josep Borrell’s upcoming visit to Russia.