Russia

MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/: Two employees of the Czech Embassy in Moscow have been declared personae non gratae as a tit-for-tat measure in response to the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the Czech Republic, they must leave Russia by the end of June 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry informed in a message on the outcomes of the meeting with the Czech ambassador.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. ambassador to Russia John Sullivan said on Monday that Russia’s sentencing of former U.S. marine Paul Whelan to 16 years in jail for spying would harm relations between Moscow and Washington, the Interfax news agency reported.

Whelan’s lawyer said after the verdict that his client had been told he would be part of a prisoner swap with a Russian national held in the United States, something the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had proposed on many occasions.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - State prosecutors have charged a prominent Russian scientist with treason after accusing him of passing state secrets to China, his lawyer said on Monday, adding that his client could serve up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

Valery Mitko, president of the Arctic Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, has been under house arrest since authorities charged him with high treason in February.

MOSCOW, June 15 (NNN-Xinhua) — Russia has always supported the black community’s struggle for equal rights but is against violent demonstrations, President Vladimir Putin has said.

Russia now has, and the Soviet Union in the past had, always backed “the fight of African Americans” for their rights, Putin said in an interview with the “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin” TV program aired on Sunday.

If the struggle for natural rights, for legal rights, turns violent and brutal, then “I see nothing good for the country here. We have never supported that,” he added.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is suggesting that he was a key figure in the takeover of Kosovo’s airport by Russian troops at the end of the 1999 war.

The occupation of the Slatina airport outside the capital Pristina produced one of the most tense standoffs between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.

MOSCOW, June 14. /TASS/: Russia’s coronavirus cases rose by 8,835 in the past day, reaching 528,964, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Sunday.

According to the crisis center, the daily growth rate reached 1.7% like a day earlier.

New 1,477 cases were recorded in Moscow, 717 in the Moscow Region, 256 in St. Petersburg, 254 in the Sverdlovsk Region and 229 in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District.

Currently, 241,966 people are undergoing treatment for the coronavirus in Russia.

MOSCOW, June 14. /TASS/: The chances that US President Donald Trump will be reelected at the November election will not lower due to the unrest gripping the United States after the death of Afro-American George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but on the contrary, the unrest will mobilize his electorate, Dmitry Suslov, Deputy Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Russian Higher School of Economics (HSE) and an expert of the Valdai Discussion Club, told TASS on Saturday.

MOSCOW, June 14. /TASS/: The riots in the United States show deep internal crises in this country, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" posted on Instagram page of the program’s host Pavel Zarubin on Sunday.

MOSCOW, June 14. /TASS/: It’s important to include the issues of social support for citizens in the Russian Constitution so that they are not removed from practical life, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Pavel Zarubin, the host of "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program on Rossiya-1 television.

Although many these norms written down in the constitutional amendments are working now, it is necessary to include them in the key law so that they continue working in the future, the president said.

MOSCOW, June 14. /TASS/: Two passenger planes collided tangentially at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg, a source in the emergencies services told TASS on Sunday.

"On June 14, a grazing collision occurred between flights St. Petersburg-Irkutsk and St. Petersburg-Kaliningrad during the taxiing on the runway," the source said. No casualties were reported.

The airport is working as normal.