Russia

MOSCOW (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed arms control and other issues Friday as Moscow has signaled readiness to include some of its latest nuclear weapons in the last remaining arms control pact between the two countries if Washington accepts the Kremlin’s offer to extend it.

NOVO-OGARYOVO, April 17. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin gave instructions on Friday to launch preparations for the coronavirus vaccine production in Russia.

"One of the aspects is the production. It is not enough just to find the corresponding medicinal preparation. It is also necessary to produce it in required amounts and it is necessary to take care about that already now. Now it is necessary to start preparations for the process of the [vaccine] production," Putin said at a meeting on building and repurposing health care institutions in the regions.

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/: The Kremlin believes that Google’s moves to block the accounts of Russian media outlets are unacceptable, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/: A gene sequence in the novel coronavirus indicates that the virus was imported to China’s Wuhan, instead of emerging there, China’s Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui told TASS Friday.

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/: The effect of the new OPEC+ deal will definitely come in, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, adding that it is expected after practical implementation of the agreement starts in May 2020.

"The deal has not been activated though, it has been finalized, but technologically its implementation is to start, which will take some time," he said, adding that "the effect will definitely come in."

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/: Washington claims that out of 80 Russian schoolchildren who were studying in the US through educational programs 51 kids already arrived back home, but the Russian Foreign Ministry is only aware of six such children, spokeswoman for the Russian diplomatic agency Maria Zakharova said Friday.

MOSCOW, April 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday rejected as counterproductive attempts to blame Beijing for delaying informing the world about the coronavirus, the Kremlin said.

Putin and Xi spoke after US President Donald Trump’s administration berated China for not sharing data more quickly.

Washington is also investigating the origins of the coronavirus – which has killed more than 140,000 people worldwide – saying it doesn’t rule out that the disease came from a laboratory researching bats in Wuhan, China.

MOSCOW, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday postponed the Victory Day parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of the World War II victory amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The risks associated with the epidemic, the peak of which is not passed, are still extremely high. And this does not give me the right to begin preparations for the parade and other public events," Putin said at an online meeting with the country's Security Council.

MOSCOW (AP) — An International Space Station crew has landed safely in Kazakhstan after more than 200 days in space.

The Soyuz capsule carrying NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan, Jessica Meir and Russian space agency Roscosmos’ Oleg Skripochka touched down on Friday near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 11:16 a.m. (0516 GMT).

The crew returned to Earth exactly 50 years after the Apollo 13 astronauts splashed down in the Pacific after an oxygen tank explosion aborted the moon-landing mission.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: The Executive Committee of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is set to discuss via a videoconference next week recent developments regarding the ongoing global spread of the novel coronavirus and its impact on football in Europe, the UEFA press service said in a statement on Thursday.

"The UEFA Executive Committee will meet via videoconference next Thursday 23 April for an update meeting to discuss the latest developments regarding the impact caused by the coronavirus outbreak on European football," the statement reads.