Russia

MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/: Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has seized the largest weapons arsenal from a group of underground arms makers that included residents of Moscow and three Russian regions, the FSB’s press office told TASS on Thursday.

"The FSB acting jointly with the Interior Ministry of Russia foiled the criminal activity of residents of Moscow, the Moscow, Tyumen and Chelyabinsk Regions complicit in the illegal trade in firearms, including weapons upgraded from civil to combat guns," the press office said.

MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/: The euro on the Moscow Exchange grew by 2.3% to 84.02 rubles, as of 11:09 Moscow time.

The last time the euro exceeded the 84-ruble mark in February 2016.

At the same time, the price of futures contract for Brent crude oil with May delivery on the London’s ICE declined by 3.6% to $34.5 per barrel.

MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that in Soviet times he was occasionally cheated by vendors, but always chose not to make a scene.

"Well, of course," he said in reply to a question while being interviewed for the TASS project entitled "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin". He added, though, that he preferred "not to lock horns", so the swindlers usually got away with it.

MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/: The structure of the small business sector in Russia is changing gradually and becoming ever more high-tech-oriented, Russian President Vladimir Putin told TASS in an interview for the project entitled "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin".

MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/: Foreign tour operators and tourists have canceled nearly all trips to Russia from March to May amid the novel coronavirus threat, with the losses estimated at 500 million rubles ($6.8 mln), the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) has reported.

"According to ATOR’s analytical service, the total value of cancelled applications for the period from March to May 2020 now is at least 500 mln rubles," the statement said.

MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/: The former head of the oil company Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was a fraudster whose entourage was involved in contract killings, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

"Khodorkovsky is a fraudster. His people were involved not just in fraudulent transactions, but in murders," Putin told TASS in an interview for the project entitled "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin".

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian lawmakers on Wednesday rapidly rubber-stamped sweeping constitutional changes that could keep President Vladimir Putin in power until 2036.

If Putin won and completed two more terms as president, it would make him the ruler of Russia for 36 years — longer than any other leader in its modern history.

SIMFEROPOL, March 11. /TASS/: Law enforcement officers have detained five suspects tied to the Hizb ut-Tahrir religious extremist organization (outlawed in Russia) in the Crimean city of Bakhchisaray, Defense Attorney Nikolai Polozov informed TASS.

"Five individuals accused of involvement in the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir have been detained. Lawyers are working at the scene," he said.

Polozov earlier told TASS that law enforcers had conducted searches in six apartments in Bakhchisaray.

MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/: The volume of vodka exports from Russia in January 2020 in monetary terms decreased by 31.6% compared with the same period last year and amounted to $6.1 mln, according to the Federal Customs Service.

At the same time, in the reporting period, deliveries of vodka in kind amounted to 83.056 mln deciliters, which is 33% less than a year earlier.

MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/: Sporadic violations of a ceasefire agreed by Moscow and Ankara are taking place in Syria’s Idlib de-escalation zone, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.