Russia

17 June 2020; MEMO: The Russian United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) said yesterday that it had sent two Be-200ES amphibious planes to Turkey on firefighting missions.

MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/: Russia is observing an intention of some states to politicize the issue of transnational threats and challenges instead of addressing them jointly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday as a press conference following a special Russia-ASEAN meeting held via video conference.

MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/: The US authorities may make a decision to redeploy part of their military contingent from Germany to Poland, thus triggering another arms race cycle in Europe, the Deputy Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University-Higher School of Economics, member of the Valdai discussion club Dmitry Suslov has said.

MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/: Russia’s state arms seller Rosoboronexport (part of the state hi-tech corporation Rostec) will demonstrate the latest military hardware for all the segments of the global arms market to potential foreign customers at the Army-2020 international arms show, the Rosoboronexport press office announced on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/: The Kremlin is concerned over a clash between the military on the border between China and India but believes that the two countries could resolve this conflict themselves, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/: Four Tupolev Tu-95MS strategic missile-carrying bombers of Russia’s Aerospace Force performed a planned flight over the neutral waters of the Chukchi, Bering and Okhotsk Seas and the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, the Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 7,843 new COVID-19 daily cases, the lowest growth since April 30, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Wednesday.

According to the crisis center, the number of new coronavirus cases was lower than 8,000 for the first time since May 1. The daily growth reached 1.4% versus 1.5% a day earlier. A total of 553,301 coronavirus cases have been recorded in Russia.

MOSCOW, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. attempts to force Iran nuclear deal participants to renounce their obligations and to punish Tehran by illegitimate initiatives, including the arms embargo, have no prospects from the point of view of international law, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

"We will use all the opportunities this international law provides to make sure that justice is served," Lavrov said during a news conference following talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.

(AP) --- A Kremlin-linked social media disinformation operation that sought to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election has continued its work to divide and discredit Western democracies, a new report finds — but its effectiveness has been limited by its own cautious tactics.

MOSCOW, June 16./TASS/: The possibility of exchanging US citizen Paul Whelan, accused of espionage and sentenced to 16 years behind bars, for Russian nationals incarcerated in American prisons is not being looked into, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told journalists on Tuesday.

"The participation of Mr. Whelan in such schemes is not discussed," the senior diplomat said. There are no grounds for speaking about ‘politicization’ of Whelan’s case and the verdict, Ryabkov pointed out. "He is guilty of committing a serious crime, he received a long jail term," he added.