Russia

MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a customary year-end news conference on December 19, the Kremlin’s press service has said. Accreditation for the event has been announced.

"The Presidential Press and Information Office’s Department of Accreditation and Briefings is beginning accreditation for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference," the press service announced in a news release on Friday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has handed top state awards to the widows of five scientists killed in an accident while testing what he called an advanced weapons system without equal in the world.

The five men died on Aug. 8 in what their employer, state nuclear agency Rosatom, said was an accident during a rocket test on a sea platform off northern Russia, an incident which caused radiation levels in the surrounding area to briefly spike.

ST. PETERSBURG, November 21. /TASS/: The Northern Fleet’s most advanced warship Admiral Gorshkov will sail from the Barents to the White Sea for trials, the press office of Russia’s Western Military District reported on Thursday.

"The ship has started its transit to the Belomorsk naval base. The frigate will arrive in Severodvinsk on November 23. The weather forecast for the route of the ship’s transit from the Barents to the White Sea is favorable," the press office said.

SEVASTOPOL, November 21. /TASS/: A group of the Black Sea Fleet’s warships led by the missile frigate Admiral Essen repelled a notional enemy’s air attack during drills, the Fleet’s press office reported on Thursday.

"At the first stage of the drills, the crew of the frigate Admiral Essen practiced the algorithm of measures to detect air targets, apportion them among the tactical group’s ships and simultaneously destroy them," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/: The United States will quit the International Space Station project as soon as it has tested its own manned spacecraft, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Ryazansky said in an interview to the Yandex.Efir video hosting service (Russia’s counterpart of YouTube).

"I am certain that as soon as the Americans have tested their manned spacecraft, they will quit the ISS program," Ryazansky told talk show host Sophie Shevardnadze.

After that, he speculated, the United States will begin to invest in a Moon orbiter.

MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/: The M11 highway, a toll road linking the capital Moscow with the second largest city of St. Petersburg, will be opened next week, a source close to the Russian Ministry of Transport told TASS on Thursday.

"The construction of the M11 Moscow - St. Petersburg highway has been fully completed. Its opening will take place in a week," the source said.

MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said Ukraine would request Moscow to return the equipment that went missing from the Ukrainian Navy ships released by Russia earlier this week, the UkrInform agency quoted the president as saying on Thursday.

MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/: An online project that is being created based on the Great Russian Encyclopedia will be fully launched by the summer of 2022, Executive Editor of the Great Russian Encyclopedia and scholarly publisher Sergei Kravets said in an interview with TASS.

"The project, which began in July, is anticipated to take 33 months. It will be completed by the spring or summer of 2022," he specified.

According to Kravets, the online encyclopedia does not have a name yet, but its creators would like its name to refer to the Great Russian Encyclopedia.

MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/: Russia is making a significant contribution to the regulation of the refugee issue, head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) mission to Russia Vanno Noupech said at the opening of the exhibition dedicated to refugees at the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament).

MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/: Russia and Bahrain have established partner relations based on trust, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday during a meeting with his Bahraini colleague Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa.

"We value our relations very much, the relations based on trust and partnership in accordance with the agreements reached between [Bahraini] King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and [Russian] President Vladimir Putin," he stated.