Russia

MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry have discussed bilateral relations and coordination of efforts to resolve conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa over the phone, including Syria and Libya, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/: Both coronavirus vaccine components have been received by 10,000 participants in the trials in Moscow, Moscow Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova said Friday.

"We can currently say that we are past the equator, first component was received by 20,000 participants, and 10,000 of them had the second one. In other words, 10,000 [people] have already received the full vaccine," she noted. According to Rakova, doctors are dynamically watching all the participants, they all feel well and report no significant side effects.

KAZAN, October 30. /TASS/: Police officers of the Kukmorsky District of Russia’s Tatarstan have shot dead a man who threw bottles with explosive liquid at police vehicles and attacked one of the officers with a knife, the region’s interior ministry department informed.

MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/: The attack carried out by a teenager on police officers in Tatarstan and the attack on church goers in France’s Nice have no connection between them, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov believes. According to him, the nature of the crimes is totally different.

"The events in France are events in France. Here we have one of the crimes, absolutely a criminal offence. What connection is there?" he said Friday when asked whether the incidents are connected in any way.

MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/: Moscow is not losing hope that after the presidential elections the United States will realize that the anti-Russian policy harms itself, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova told a briefing Thursday.

MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/: Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry have discussed fight against terrorism, fight against coronavirus and other aspects of bilateral cooperation at a meeting in Moscow Thursday, the Security Council reported.

"Various aspects of the Russian-Egyptian security cooperation were discussed. Separate emphasis was placed on anti-terrorist cooperation and in the sphere of countering spread of the coronavirus infection," the statement says.

MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/: The statements by US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien on Washington’s readiness to deploy hypersonic missiles in Europe for deterring Russia cause bewilderment, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

"Considering the statements US politicians allow themselves, I would like to advise the American political elite to deter itself rather than Russia," the diplomat said.

MOSCOW, October 29: Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran presented Tehran’s Nagorno-Karabakh settlement plan, based on a regional approach, to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Iranian Embassy in Moscow told TASS Thursday.

MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/: President Vladimir Putin excoriated schemes to "put a spoke in the wheel" of Russia’s gas projects branding them a non-market way to restrict the competitiveness of the Russian economy, during a speech on Thursday at the Russia Calling! VTB Capital Investment Forum.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko partially closed the country’s land borders and replaced his interior minister and named three security hawks to new roles on Thursday in an attempt to tighten his grip after months of mass protests.

Minsk announced restrictions at its borders with Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. Poland said only Belarusian citizens and trucks were being allowed to travel to Belarus at some of its border.