Russia

MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/: Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told reporters that the Kremlin had noted Russians’ considerable interest in the vote on the constitutional amendments, but no preliminary conclusions will be drawn.

"We do not draw any conclusions based on first results. It’s obvious that the interest in the vote is substantial, but it is too early to draw conclusions. Wait, it has just begun," Peskov said.

MOSCOW, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Russian Rocket and Space Corporation Energia and U.S. space tourism company Space Adventures have signed a contract for a short-term expedition for two space tourists aboard the Russian Soyuz MS spacecraft to the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2023, Energia said in a statement on Thursday.

During the expedition, one of the tourists is scheduled to make a joint spacewalk with a professional Russian cosmonaut, the statement said.

MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/: Deputy Chairperson of the Russian Central Election Commission Nikolai Bulayev has revealed that more than 96,000 local election commissions have started conducting the nationwide constitutional amendment vote across the country, no failures in their operation have been detected.

MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/: Russia is not going to try to preserve the Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START treaty) at any cost, because Moscow needs it as much as Washington does, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said during an online session of the Primakov Readings forum entitled The US in the Whirlpool of Crises: Strategic Consequences.

MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/: Presidents of Russia and France, Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron, will discuss relations of Moscow and Paris, as well as various crisis situations at the video conference scheduled for Friday.

"The video conference of President Putin and the President of France is scheduled for Friday, they will talk privately," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. "We expect the very beginning of the conference to be open to the mass media, we will publish the footage," the spokesman said.

MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/: The adoption of constitutional amendments is aimed at confirming Russia’s social guarantees and sovereignty, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/: Russian presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov has denied Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s claims Russia is allegedly involved in meddling in elections in his country.

"There can be only an unequivocal answer Russia has never intervened, does not intervene and will not ever intervene in any country’s electoral processes, let alone electoral processes in our ally Belarus," Peskov said.

MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/: The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is considering the possibility of investing in several more Favipiravir-based drugs, Chief Executive Officer Kirill Dmitriev said on Thursday.

"Two more companies are finalizing clinical trials of Favipiravir-based drugs in Russia — our portfolio company R-Pharm and Promomed company, which will virtually produce Favipiravir-based drugs. We support those companies and plan to invest in production of those drugs," he said.

MOSCOW, June 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russians go to the polls Thursday to cast early votes in a nationwide ballot on constitutional reforms that could see President Vladimir Putin remain in power until 2036.

Election officials say they are opening polls ahead of the official July 1 vote to avoid overcrowding that could spread coronavirus infections.

Masks and disinfectant gels are being made available to 110 million voters across 10 time zones, from the Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the Pacific Ocean.

MOSCOW, June 24. /TASS/: The future of the world cannot be imagined, if the Red Army had not defended it, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the Victory Parade on Moscow’s Red Square on Wednesday.

"It is impossible even to imagine what would have become with the world, if the Red Army had not come to its defense," the head of state said.