Russia

MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/: Russia’s Soyuz MS-16 manned spacecraft with three crewmembers docked to the Poisk module of the International Space Station (ISS) in the automatic mode, the State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced in its live broadcast on Thursday.

The spacecraft delivered the members of a new long-term expedition to the orbital outpost: Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy.

MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/: Russia has received requests from Belarus for assistance in the fight against the spread of coronavirus and is considering them, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told TASS.

"Yes, such requests from the Belarusian side have been received," he said answering a question on the issue. "We are considering them in the spirit of allied and fraternal relations between our countries."

MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/: The online meeting of OPEC+ ministers to discuss the oil production cuts has started, a source in OPEC told TASS on Thursday.

"They have started," the source said. The meeting is being held in private and the opening statements will be shared only after it ends, TASS reported earlier.

The meeting is not restricted in terms of the duration, the source added. It is difficult to forecast the length of the negotiations now because live meetings often last 8-10 hours.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Putin has no plans as of Thursday to discuss oil markets with U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s leadership, a Kremlin spokesman told Reuters.

“There are no such plans for today,” the Kremlin spokesman said when asked about such a possibility.

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/: Moscow is not going to change its stance on Crimea and the Ukrainian crisis no matter what, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, commenting on the remarks by former US ambassadors to Kiev.

"This viewpoint [that Russia could change its position] is unrealistic and absurd in many ways," Peskov said, commenting on a suggestion that the coronavirus outbreak and the plunging oil prices could force Moscow to review its stance on the Ukrainian settlement and hand over Crimea to Ukraine.

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/. Russia has supplied its coronavirus test systems to over 30 countries, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a session of the presidium of the Government’s Anti-Coronavirus Coordination Council on Wednesday.

"The Russian Federation has already supplied its test systems to over 30 countries of the world, first of all, to its partners in the Eurasian Economic Union, the CIS and other countries," the premier noted.

"These measures are required, first of all, to minimize the threat of the infection’s penetration into our country," Mishustin said.

MOSCOW, Apr 7 (NNN-TASS) – Russia and Saudi Arabia are “very close” to a deal on oil production cuts, Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russian Direct Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund managing 10 billion U.S. dollars, said, Monday.

“I think the whole market understands that, this deal is important and it will bring lots of stability, so much important stability to the market, and we are very close,” Dmitriev said, in an online interview with CNBC.

MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/: Four MiG-31K attack aircraft in the role of Kinzhal missile carriers and four Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jets will take part in an aerial display to be held as part of the May 9 Victory Day celebrations on Moscow's Red Square, a military source told TASS on Tuesday.

"The aerial display of the parade will involve 55 planes and 20 helicopters: 75 aircraft in total to mark the 75th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War, including four Kinzhal systems and four Su-57," he said.

MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/: The United States demonstrates a non-pragmatic approach when it refuses to ease sanctions against Iran amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/: The obligatory self-isolation for all residents has been declared in 84 out of 85 Russian administrative entities as of Tuesday, with the Central Russian region of Tver being the only exception, according to regional legislative acts.

So far, the region stays on high alert, but its government has stopped short of declaring obligatory self-isolation for everyone. Earlier, Tver officials said only eight cases of the novel coronavirus infection had been registered there so far.