Russia

MOSCOW, January 1. /TASS/: On January 1, Moscow is taking over the one-year chairmanship of the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Russia plans to carry out about 150 activities at various levels during its chairmanship, which will culminate in July, when St. Petersburg will host the next BRICS summit. The five countries’ leaders will hold another meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in November.

MOSCOW, January 1. /TASS/: Nearly 200,000 Donbass residents obtained fast-trace Russian citizenship in 2019, a Russian Interior Ministry spokesperson told TASS.

"More than 196,000 people have become Russian citizens," the spokesperson said, adding that 136,000 of them were residents of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR, LPR), while others came from other areas in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine.

MOSCOW, December 31. /TASS/: Russia and Belarus signed a protocol on gas prices for January-February 2020 and addenda to the contracts for transit and supply of Russian gas to Belarus, extending them until 2021, Gazprom said in a statement.

"[Gazprom CEO] Alexei Miller and [ambassador of Belarus to Russia] Vladimir Semashko signed a protocol on gas prices for the Republic of Belarus for January and February 2020," according to the statement.

Also, addenda to gas transit and gas supply contracts were signed with Gazprom Transgaz Belarus, extending them until 2021.

MOSCOW, December 31. /TASS/: The unity of the citizens of Russia is the foundation for reaching the country’s most ambitious goals, President Vladimir Putin said in his New Year’s address to the nation.

MOSCOW, December 31. /TASS/: Russia and Belarus have not yet agreed on gas issues, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"Now we should not exaggerate the risks, although, indeed, we have not managed yet to reach an agreement. Yesterday there was a very detailed discussion between the presidents of Russia and Belarus, they discussed integration issues as well as gas and oil issues. So far, no agreements have been reached," he said.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, December 31. /TASS/: Over 300 personnel of Russia’s Southern Military District held an exercise in North Ossetia to practice missile strike control, employing an Iskander tactical missile system, the District’s press office reported on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, December 31. /TASS/: The Russian engineering troops have received the first batch of portable electric power sources based on solar panels, the Defense Ministry of Russia reported on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, December 31. /TASS/: Russia has been able to reverse the negative trend of falling people’s living standards, that’s the major accomplishment of 2019, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"For objective reasons, Russians’ living standards were either stagnating or falling. This negative trend was observed over the past three or four years," he said. "This year, we were able to reverse that trend. So far, we cannot talk about any substantial growth. Nevertheless, this trend has been reversed."

MOSCOW, December 31. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky have exchanged New Year greetings and spoken out in favor of developing Russian-Ukrainian relations in 2020.

According to the Kremlin’s press service, Putin and Zelensky talked by telephone to exchange New Year greetings and speak out in favor of developing Russian-Ukrainian relations in 2020.

31 December 2019; AFP: Outgoing WADA President Craig Reedie says the Russian doping scandal shows that clean sport is under attack, but the anti-doping organization now has the tools to better weed out drug cheats.

Taking stock of his six years at the helm of the World Anti-Doping Agency, the 78-year-old Briton insists the group is "stronger" than ever as it faces the "unprecedented" challenge of the doping crisis in Russia.