Russia

MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/: The strike capabilities of the Pacific Fleet’s Project 949A ‘Antey’ multi-purpose nuclear-powered submarine Irkutsk will grow at least two-fold after its upgrade, a source in the shipbuilding industry told TASS on Tuesday.

ST. PETERSBURG, December 29. /TASS/: The Project 20385 lead corvette Gremyashchiy has been accepted for service in the Russian Navy.

The ceremony of raising the Russian Navy’s St. Andrew’s flag was held at the Severnaya Shipyard in St. Petersburg.

Moscow, Dec 29 (AP-PTI) Russia's federal penitentiary service has given top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny one day to report to its office or face imprisonment, if he comes back to Russia after the deadline.

Navalny is convalescing in Germany after his August poisoning with a nerve agent, which he has blamed on the Kremlin.

Russian authorities have denied their involvement.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will scale down its state support of the economy in 2021, eyeing rising costs on servicing burgeoning state debt in the fallout of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the collapse of oil prices, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

Running out of options to bolster public finances, Russia has more than doubled its domestic borrowing in 2020, raised some taxes and increased state spending as it relaxed its budget rule that shields the economy from external shocks.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia sentenced a former board member of state energy holding company Inter RAO to 15 years in jail on Tuesday after finding her guilty of spying for Moldova at a trial held behind closed doors, her defence team said.

Karina Tsurkan, who denied any wrongdoing, was detained in June 2018. Some of the details of her case are not publicly known and are classified due to the sensitive nature of the allegations.

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto have exchanged congratulations on the upcoming holidays and reiterated their commitment to strengthening mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation in a telephone conversation, the Kremlin press service said on Monday.

"The heads of state exchanged congratulations and warm wishes on the occasion of the New Year holidays," the report reads.

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/: The emergence of coronavirus vaccines on the global market is helping to restore oil demand, and the market may return to pre-crisis parameters during 2021, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel.

"Before the end of 2020, we have already seen a recovery in demand, but, nevertheless, we did not reach the parameters that we had before the crisis. We hope that throughout 2021 we will, however, reach pre-pandemic figures," he said.

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/: Russia’s Defense Ministry presented two 2021 calendars, with one of them showing the Orion long-range drone in its strike and reconnaissance version (the ‘Inokhodets’ experimental design work) for the first time.

"The Defense Ministry of Russia shows the ‘Inokhodets’ reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial vehicle," the ministry said in a statement.

In the photo, the drone is shown with beam holders under the wings for fastening the armament and the attached ammunition. The drone has a desert camouflage color.

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s delayed decision to get the coronavirus vaccine does not reflect badly in any way on the Russian vaccine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/: Russia is expelling the Bulgarian military attache’s aide Lieutenant-Colonel Mitko Borisov in retaliation for the expulsion of a Russian diplomat from Sofia. A note to this effect was handed to Bulgaria’s ambassador in Moscow Atanas Krastin, who was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday.