Russia

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/: Russia’s Rostec State Corporation has branded its inclusion in the US sanctions list as another spiral of unfriendly steps, which will become an additional impetus to work.

"We have already forgotten what it means to live without sanctions. So, there is nothing new here. This is another spiral of unfriendly steps and an additional impetus for us to work even better," the state corporation, which promotes the development, production and export of high-tech industrial products, said.

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/: Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev believes that the United States abuses the notion of national security to please the American establishment that gains heft by fanning the flames of Russophobia and Sinophobia, he wrote in his social media accounts to comment on the US sanctions against Russia and China.

"Essentially, this [sanctions] is abusing the notion of national security to accommodate the part of the US establishment that scores points for inciting Russophobia and Sinophobia in the US," he noted.

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/: The live TV vaccination of US President-elect Joe Biden against COVID-19 doesn’t serve as a justification for Russian leader Vladimir Putin to be inoculated in public, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

"Absolutely [not]," he replied, when asked whether Biden’s example could prompt Putin to go through that procedure in public. "We are a country that can stand on its own two feet, we have a completely self-reliant president who is just as experienced as Mr. Biden," Peskov insisted.

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/: Russia has confirmed 28,776 cases of COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in the past 24 hours, with the total case count going up to 2,906,503, the anti-coronavirus crisis center informed reporters on Tuesday.

The day before, 29,350 daily cases were recorded, which was the highest daily figure since the start of the pandemic.

In the past seven days, 19.3 daily cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents in Russia were recorded.

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/: Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov is of the opinion that Russian opposition figurehead Alexey Navalny has delusions of grandeur and delusions of persecution, he told reporters on Tuesday, stressing that this is his personal opinion.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday it had expanded its list of European Union officials barred from the country in response to what it described as “unacceptable” sanctions against Moscow over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Russia’s foreign ministry did not name the officials, but called in senior diplomats from the German, Swedish and French embassies to notify them of the move following EU sanctions imposed in mid-October, the TASS news agency reported.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the new round of U.S. sanctions against Russia marked another hostile act by the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump and would further harm already poor ties between Moscow and Washington.

The Trump administration on Monday published a list of Chinese and Russian companies with alleged military ties that restrict them from buying a wide range of U.S. goods and technology.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Monday released a recording of a phone call he said he made to an alleged state security operative, who revealed some details of how the politician was supposedly poisoned and media identified as a member of a team that has reportedly trailed Navalny for years.

MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/: Russian presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov agreed with the opinion of Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska and called sanctions against Nord Stream 2 one of the elements of hybrid warfare.

"In general, we can agree with him [Deripaska]. This is indeed a variant of hybrid warfare, it is used as a hybrid war by the United States," Peskov said. "Let's take the sanctions against Nord Stream - it is a pure hybrid war that goes on like a war accompanied by unfair competition," he added.

MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/: The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) may negotiate the creation of a free trade zone with India in the first half of 2021, Deputy Director of the EEC (Eurasian Economic Commission) Trade Policy Department Mikhail Cherekaev said on Monday.

"The decision to begin the negotiations was taken back in 2016. However, we have not started a substantive discussion of the content of the agreement with the Indian side thus far. We plan to hold a round of talks in the first half of next year," he said.