Russia

MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/: The Design Bureau Fifth Generation (a resident of the Skolkovo hi-tech hub in Moscow and the Academpark technology park in Novosibirsk) plans to launch a group of small satellites for the Internet of things, the design bureau’s press office told TASS on Monday.

"Our future plans envisage launching a cluster of small satellites for establishing communications in the M2M (machine-to-machine) segment," the design bureau said, without specifying the timeframe of creating the orbital constellation.

MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/: Twenty people were killed and 15 others were wounded as a group of armed individuals attacked a university in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul, Qatar’s TV channel Al Jazeera reported citing its sources.

All casualties are students of Kabul University.

Earlier an explosion occurred on the premises of the university in Kabul, after which a group of armed persons opened fire near the law faculty. An opening ceremony for a book fair was being held there, which was attended by Iran’s representatives.

MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/: Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin has emphasized that Russia and China are effectively fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

"The pandemic of the coronavirus infection became a serious trial for all countries this year. Russia and China counteract this challenge effectively," he said on Monday at a video conference of the inter-parliamentary commission on cooperation of the Russian Federal Assembly and the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China (NPC).

MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/: Moldova’s presidential runoff will be quite tough, there are many voters still undecided, so it is too early to make prediction on the election’s outcomes, Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) Director General Andrey Kortunov told TASS on Monday.

"I think that the fight in the runoff will be tough, and both sides believe that. It is too early to predict the results of the runoff, as the gap between the presidential candidates is not that big," Kortunov said.

MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/: The Russian authorities are managing to minimize the volatility of the ruble exchange rate and to maintain macroeconomic stability, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

"The ruble is breaching psychological thresholds, but volatility is minimized by the efforts of our regulator," a Kremlin spokesman said, commenting on the depreciation of the ruble.

He drew attention to the fact that "now any world currency is under serious negative pressure from a number of circumstances in the global economy."

MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/: Russia’s coronavirus cases rose by 18,257 in the past day to 1,655,038, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Monday.

The average growth rate dropped to 1.1%.

The lowest growth rate in the past day was recorded in the Chechen Republic, the Republics of Tatarstan and Dagestan (0.5%), the Moscow Region and the Chuvash Republic (0.6%).

MOSCOW, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden said Monday he wishes to apply for dual U.S.-Russian citizenship in a post on his Twitter account.

"After years of separation from our parents, my wife and I have no desire to be separated from our son. That's why, in this era of pandemics and closed borders, we're applying for dual U.S.-Russian citizenship," Snowden expressed on Twitter.

"And I look forward to the day I can return to the States, so the whole family can be reunited," he added.

MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/: The second test launch of the Angara-A5 heavy rocket from the Plesetsk space center in northwestern Russia was tentatively postponed from November 24 to November 28, a rocket and space industry source told TASS.

"The launch is tentatively scheduled for November 28," the source said.

At the same time, the source added that the launch window has been set for November 20-29, and "the final decision about the date of the blastoff will be made later."

MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/: The number of novel coronavirus cases in Russia will peak in the first half of November, depending on the region, Deputy Director of Russia’s Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing Alexander Gorelov told TASS.

MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/: A man attacked two police officers at the entrance to the building of the Russian Interior Ministry’s department for Moscow on Saturday, but was later apprehended, a law enforcement source told TASS.

"A man attacked two police officers at the entrance to the building of the Interior Ministry’s Main Department for Moscow. They sustained light injuries. The assailant was immediately detained. According to preliminary information, he is a native of Dagestan. This offense was not related to extremism," the source said.