Russia

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/: Russia’s budget in 2020 will be deficit, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at a meeting of the board of the Federal Treasury.

"Of course, this year we will transfer to a deficit budget. We will have to use the resources of our reserve, the National Wealth Fund, this is the reason it was formed," he said.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/: Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has instructed the Transport Ministry to introduce temporary restrictions on flights to the UK, USA and the UAE from March 20. The document was published on the website of the Cabinet on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/: Specialists will decide whether the epidemiological situation permits holding a nationwide vote on constitutional amendments on April 22, and it’s up to Russian President Vladimir Putin to make the final decision, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

"It’s obvious that this concerns an unfavorable development, and therefore if it turns out that participation in the vote will pose a threat to citizens’ health, then certainly, this is out of the question and a decision will be made on postponing the vote," Peskov said.

MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/: The Kremlin can understand the emotions of Belarusian authorities but refutes Minsk’s criticism of Moscow’s decision to close the Russian-Belarusian border amid the coronavirus spread as unfair, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/: Moscow has not received offers to conduct the G20 summit on coronavirus counteraction without personal presence yet, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

"I don’t know if something came through diplomatic channels, but we have not received any detailed information yet, we have only seen media reports," the spokesperson said.

MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/: More than 2,000 artillerymen from Russia’s Southern Military District, located at the North Caucasus, have conducted a massive military exercise at Krasnodar Region foothills, using the recently shipped Msta-S self-propelled howitzers, the District press service told TASS.

SEVASTOPOL, March 17. /TASS/: Russia has held drills on combating sabotage threats at the Syrian port of Tartus, the Black Sea Fleet said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the statement, anti-sabotage units "carried out a planned exercise to practice ways to detect and detain the simulated enemy’s subversive group."

During the drills, the crew of a Grachonok anti-sabotage boat detected an identified speed boat, which gave no response to requests and kept moving, ignoring demands to stop for inspection.

MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/: Current non-system opposition leaders in Russia are quite marginalized and do not display unification capability, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists Tuesday, answering a question regarding whom of non-system opposition does Kremlin consider significant politicians.

MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that any attempts to destabilize society must be foiled. Speaking at an extended meeting of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office Board, the head of state raised the issue of fighting extremism and terrorism.

"It is essential to continue to foil any actions aimed at destabilizing the situation in society, at violating traditional spiritual and moral values, provoking interethnic and interreligious discord," the president stated.

MOSCOW, March 15. /TASS/: No shelling attacks by Turkey-controlled armed groups were reported in Syria’s Idlib de-escalation zone in the past day while militants staged six shelling attacks, Oleg Zhuravlev, chief of the Russian Center for reconciliation of the conflicting sides in Syria, told reporters on Sunday.

"No shelling attacks by Turkey-controlled illegal armed groups were reported throughout the day," he said, adding that six shelling attacks by Jabhat al-Nusra (a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia) militants were reported from the Idlib and Latakia governorates.