Russia

MOSCOW, January 30. /TASS/: The Kremlin continues to analyze the US "deal of the century" on the Middle East settlement process after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held on January 30, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS.

"We continue to analyze [it]," he said when asked whether Putin backed the US initiative.

MOSCOW, January 30. /TASS/: The Black Sea Fleet submarine Stary Oskol arrived at the Kronstadt Marine Plant for planned repairs after its deployment in the Russian Navy’s permanent Mediterranean taskforce, a source in Crimean defense circles told TASS on Wednesday.

"Last night, an operation was fulfilled to place the submarine into the dock of the Kronstadt Marine Plant," the source said, adding that the sub’s planned repairs would last up to four months.

MOSCOW, January 30. /TASS/: Russia’s Defense Ministry has denied reports saying that the Russian Aerospace Forces' aircraft carried out airstrikes on a hospital and a bakery in the Syrian city of Idlib.

"Foreign media reports alleging that on the morning of January 30, an aircraft from the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out airstrikes on a hospital and a bakery in a southern suburb of the Syrian city of Idlib are an instigation," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the ministry, Russian aircraft did not carry out any combat tasks in the area.

MOSCOW, January 30. /TASS/: Russia’s authorities have no plans to provide law enforcement agencies with unlimited access to the personal data of the country’s citizens, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a cabinet meeting.

"As for reports saying that law enforcement agencies will get unlimited access to people’s online personal data, the way it was presented has nothing to do with the real state of things. There was no discussion of such a plan," Mishustin pointed out.

MOSCOW, January 30. /TASS/: Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has signed an instruction to close the state border in the Far East as a measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

"A corresponding instruction was signed today. Work on it is already in progress. We will inform all those concerned properly about the measures to close the border in the Far Eastern region and other steps the government has taken [to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Russia]," Mishustin said in his opening remarks at the Cabinet’s meeting on Thursday.

MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/: The Vodokhod (water travel) Company will organize in 2021 cruises along the Northern Sea Route, and later on - trips to the Antarctica, the company’s representative Igor Yasinsky said at a conference devoted to the 200th anniversary of Antarctica’s discovery.

MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/: US Department of State’s policies are the chief obstruction to restoring peaceful life in Syria, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told the media on Wednesday.

"The Department of State is the root cause of the main problems hindering the Syrians’ return to peaceful life. It stops at nothing to impose the harshest sanctions that block any food, medical, material or financial aid to truly innocent peaceful Syrians in the territories of their country retaken from terrorists," Konashenkov said.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, January 29. /TASS/: About 2,000 troops of Russia’s Southern Military District have started large-scale drills with a live-fire exercise in Armenia, the District’s press office reported on Wednesday.

"The servicemen of the Southern Military District’s Russian military base stationed in Armenia have started qualifying live-fire drills employing small arms and combat vehicles in mountains," the press office said in a statement.

The qualifying exercise involves about 2,000 troops and more than 500 motor and armored vehicles, the statement says.

KRASNOYARSK, January 29. /TASS/: A nationwide vote on amendments to the Russian constitution will be accessible to the public and procedurally transparent, Andrey Klishas, co-chair of the working group drafting the constitutional amendments, told journalists Wednesday.

MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/: The measures announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his State of the Nation Address will require another 4.128 trillion rubles ($65.8 bln), of which 3.77 trillion rubles ($60.09 bln) would be federal budget funds, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters on Wednesday.