Russia

Moscow, Dec 28 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — Russia reiterated its call to support the process of dialogue in Venezuela and its rejection of foreign interference in the South American nation, where opposition forces continue to promote acts of violence.

Spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, María Zakharova, recalled that last Sunday, a plan was foiled to assault garrisons in the Venezuelan state of Bolívar.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Russia as signed 39 agreements in the military sphere with countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin told the Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper on Friday.

Fomin was responding to a question on whether freezing military contacts with NATO five years ago has led to the international isolation of the Russian Defense Ministry.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Director General of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) Yury Ganus has notified the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that he disagrees with sanctions against Russian sports.

Participants of the RUSADA General Meeting on December 24 approved a recommendation of the agency’s Supervisory Board to issue a disagreement to sanctions against Russian sports proposed by WADA. RUSADA needed to send this notification to WADA by December 30. Now WADA will take this case to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) plans to produce at least 30 Sukhoi Superjet (SSJ 100) jets per year starting 2021, UAC's President Yuri Slyusar said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel on Friday.

"Next year we plan to produce around 20 jets. We are going to produce around 150 jets by 2024-2025. Our target from 2021 is to return to production of at least 30 jets per year," he said.

ST. PETERSBURG, December 27. /TASS/: St. Petersburg courts received bomb threat letters on Friday morning, and evacuations are underway, the joint press service of the city courts told journalists.

"The Primorsky, Leninsky, Kolpinsky, Sestroretsky, Krasnogvardeisky, Dzerzhinsky, Kuibyshevsky and Oktyabrsky district courts are being evacuated," the press service said in a statement.

In addition, the letters contained bomb threats at almost 100 schools and college prep institutions around the city.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: A Sukhoi Superjet passenger plane has skidded off a runway at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, a source in the emergency services informed TASS.

The plane was en route to Samara. "While preparing for takeoff during taxiing, it skidded off the runway," the source said. There were 74 passengers and five crew members aboard the plane. Nobody was injured.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Russia has sent one ship and two auxiliary vessels to the joint naval drills with China and Iran in the Gulf of Oman, the Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper reported on Friday citing the Russian Defense Ministry.

"From 27 to 30 December 2019, the group of military ships of the Baltic Fleet — including the Yaroslav Mudry frigate, the Elnya tanker and the Viktor Konetsky tugboat — will take part in the Russian-Iranian-Chinese naval drills which will be held in the northern part of the Indian Ocean," the defense ministry said.

MOSCOW, Dec 27 (NNN-TASS) – Representatives of Russian state space corporation, Roscosmos, and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), will meet “closer to spring,” to discuss Russia’s joining the Lunar Gateway project, Roscosmos head, Dmitry Rogozin, said.

Russia could contribute a backup transport system, since “you never know what can happen, if there is only one,” Rogozin was quoted as saying.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: The Black Sea Fleet’s naval taskforce comprising frigates and submarines held drills to search for, track and destroy a notional enemy’s subs, the Fleet’s press office reported on Thursday.

The submarines Veliky Novgorod and Kolpino alternately simulated the adversary force that was seeking to get away from the chase. The crews of the frigates Admiral Makarov and Admiral Grigorovich fulfilled the tasks of searching for submarines jointly with small anti-submarine warfare ships," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov doubts that negotiations similar to the Normandy format can help improve Russian-Georgian relations.

"The Normandy format is unique. It was formed proceeding from the need to resolve the conflict in southeastern Ukraine, the intra-Ukrainian conflict, while here the issue at hand is bilateral relations between Russia and Georgia, which, unfortunately, leave a lot to be desired now, putting it mildly," he told reporters on Thursday.