Russia

MOSCOW, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) Security Council did not take any action that would lead to the resumption of the previous sanctions against Iran, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday.

The statement came shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that "the United States welcomes the return of virtually all previously terminated UN sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran" and "Sanctions are being re-imposed on Iran pursuant to the snapback process under UN Security Council resolution (UNSCR) 2231."

20 Sep 2020; MEMO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday criticised the US’ “demonisation” of Iran and stressed that US sanctions on the country “will not work”.

Speaking in a lengthy interview with Sputnik, Lavrov indicated that the problem with Iran is that the “US authorities have demonised it” and it “got labelled as the main problem of the region in question.”

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: A pre-investigation check into the hospitalization of Russian blogger Alexei Navalny will not be limited to 30 days, a law enforcement source told TASS.

"The check into Navalny’s hospitalization will not be completed on September 20. It will continue until a procedural decision is made to launch or not to launch criminal proceedings," the source said.

According to the source, no reasons to launch a criminal case have been established so far.

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: About 66,000 people are being tested for novel coronavirus in Moscow every day, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"First of all, it [the growth in novel coronavirus cases in Moscow] is linked to the increased number of tests made. The number of tests reaches 66,000 daily, which is a huge number. This means that we test about one million people every two weeks," he said.

According to the mayor, the share of positive tests remains the same as 2-3 weeks ago.

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/: A Russian Su-27 fighter jet was scrambled to intercept a US maritime patrol plane approaching the Russian border over the Black Sea, Russia’s National Defense Management Center reported on Friday.

According to the Center, Russian airspace control systems of the Southern Military District detected an aerial target over the Black Sea approaching Russia’s state border.

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: The Russian government approved the draft federal budget for 2021 and for the planning period of 2022 and 2023, as well as a forecast of socio-economic development, the government said on its website.

19 Sep 2020; MEMO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced today that his country is willing to mediate in the crisis between Qatar and the Gulf countries led by Saudi Arabia, if a request is made for him to do so, Anadolu has reported.

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/: The European Parliament’s statements indicate that foreign intelligence agencies are behind the Alexey Navalny incident, Russian State Duma (parliament's lower house) speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said Friday.

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/: The attempts by Western countries to use sanctions against Russia will only increase while Moscow won’t leave them without response, Spokeswoman for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova stated on the Solovyev Live YouTube channel, quoting the soon to be published interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"He used a wonderful metaphor there: "What we are observing now is a sanction itch and it is only increasing," she said.

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/: Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there are too many absurd inconsistencies in the alleged poisoning of Russian blogger Alexey Navalny to take anyone's word for it.

"There is too much absurdity about this whole situation to take anyone’s word on trust, so we are not going to take anyone’s word," Peskov told journalists Friday.