Russia

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) is outraged over the detention of Khabarovsk Region Governor Sergei Furgal, and it aims to defend its fellow party member, LDPR head Vladimir Zhirinovsky said on Thursday ahead of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) plenary session.

"We are outraged by the fact that our governor Sergei Ivanovich Furgal was arrested in the morning. We will continue to defend him, to take part in all elections and seek victory," Zhirinovsky said. "This is a very big political case."

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: The Central Military District’s air defense missile regiment stationed in the Irkutsk Region in Eastern Siberia will get upgraded S-300PM-2 ‘Favorit’ surface-to-air missile systems by the end of the year, Anti-Aircraft Missile Troops Commander of the 14th Air Force and Air Defense Army Colonel Gennady Shlag said on Thursday.

"Until the end of the year, the Angara air defense missile regiment is due to complete accepting the upgraded S-300PM-2 ‘Favorit’ systems for service," the colonel said.

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists Thursday that it was utterly illogical to tie the murder of a Chechen national in Austria to Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: The work of the Kremlin pool of journalists is organized in a way to prevent violations of the law on state secrets, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, commenting on the case of national space agency advisor Ivan Safronov, who used to be part of the pool and has recently been detained on suspicion of high treason.

"As for the presidential pool, the work is organized in a way to prevent violations of the law on state secrets," he noted. 

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: Russia’s Progress MS-13 space freighter will undock from the Pirs module of the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday to be deorbited early on Thursday, a spokesperson for Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos said.

"The undocking of the Progress MS-13 space freighter from the Pirs module of the Russian ISS segment is scheduled for 21:22 Moscow time on July 8," Roscosmos said.

The spacecraft will perform the deorbit burn at 00:31 Moscow time on Thursday, with subsequent re-entry at 01:05 Moscow time.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: The consequences of the US election scheduled for November 3, 2020, and the trade war between the United States and China may adversely affect the Russian economy, according to experts interviewed by TASS.

"On the one hand, the Russian economy might face negative influence from economic turbulence, and on the other hand, a slowdown in the global economy and a corresponding decrease in demand for raw materials due to the US-China trade war," Director of HSE Centre for Business Tendencies Studies Georgy Ostapkovich believes.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: Russia’s confirmed COVID-19 cases rose by 6,562, reaching 700,792, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Wednesday.

Over the past 13 days the new daily cases did not surpass 7,000, according to the report. In the past two days the daily growth rate did not exceed 0.9%.

The number of patients who are currently receiving treatment for the coronavirus declined to 217,614.

07 July 2020; MEMO: Russia’s Kremlin yesterday called on Turkey to maintain Hagia Sophia’s status as a UNESCO world heritage site and not to return it into a mosque as it was before the end of the Othman Empire, TASS news agency reported.

Speaking to reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We by all means hope that Hagia Sophia’s status as a world heritage site will be taken into consideration.”

MOSCOW, July 7. /TASS/: Russia does not regard the United States as a partner who is able to negotiate and lost trust in Washington as a contractor, but there is the need to start restoring it by small steps, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Izvestiya TV on Monday.

SIMFEROPOL, July 7. /TASS/: Law enforcement officials in Crimea have detained six people suspected of belonging to the Hizb ut-Tahrir (outlawed in Russia) international terrorist organization, defense attorney Emil Kurbedinov told TASS on Tuesday.

A source in Crimea’s law enforcement earlier reported to TASS that raids related to the Hizb ut-Tahrir case had been conducted in the region. Lawyer Islyam Velilyaev said that his client, a resident of the Oktyabrskoye settlement of the Krasnogvardeisky District, was transferred after the bust to Simferopol.