Russia

MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/: The Russian-Turkish memorandum on jointly settling the situation in northeastern Syria has helped to prevent massive bloodshed, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Rossiya-24 TV channel on Friday.

"When it comes to the situation in general, the agreements that were reached in Sochi undoubtedly helped to prevent massive bloodshed, turned the problem of confrontation between Turks and Kurds into the framework of measures on trust-building," Lavrov said.

MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/: Air trials of Angara carrier rockets will continue, a source in the press service of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos told TASS on Saturday, adding that serial production is planned to start in 2023.

"According to production plans of the state corporation Roscosmos, serial production of Angara carrier rockets is being set up and will be started in 2023 at the Polyot Production Association (Omsk). Currently resumption of air trials of that promising rocket is being prepared," the source said.

MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/: The possibility of Russia’s participation in the reconstruction of Donbass depends on how the conflict in this region will be settled, but Kiev’s idea Moscow should pay reparations is inappropriate, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Friday.

In this way he replied to a remark by Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Vladislav Krikly to the effect Russia after the end of hostilities in Donbass should pay reparations to Ukraine.

MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/: The Kurdish issue in Syria must not exacerbate tensions in the region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Rossiya-24 TV channel on Friday.

"The Kurds are living in Iraq and in Iran, and certainly, a huge number of the Kurds are living in Turkey. Nobody wants this region to "explode" over tensions around the Kurdish issue, and no one wants the Kurds to feel like they are secondary citizens," Lavrov said.

CHITA, November 1. /TASS/: A delegation of the Arctic Palladium Company, which Nornickel and Russian Platinum have organized for implementation of a new project in the Norilsk industrial district, visited the Bystrinsky Mining and Processing Plant (a part of Nornickel) in the Trans-Baikal Region’s south-east. The Bystrinsky plant is Nornickel’s most advance asset, the plant’s press service told TASS on Friday.

MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/: Turkey has handed over to Russia18 Syrian servicemen captured by groups supporting Ankara in the north of Syria, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense said on Friday.

"Eighteen [Syrian] servicemen detained during search, reconnaissance and military activities to the south-east of Ras al-Ayna on October 29, were handed over [to the Russian side] as a result of coordination with the Russian authorities," the ministry wrote on its official Twitter account.

MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/: Russia’s state arms seller Rosoboronexport has exported weapons worth over $11 billion to 43 countries this year and signed more than 800 contracts for future deliveries, Company CEO Alexander Mikheyev said on Friday.

MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/: There is no genetic material that would make it possible to conclude that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State (IS, terror group, outlawed in Russia), was killed in a US raid, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin told TASS on Friday.

"There is no genetic material, which would allow us to say that with 100-percent certainty," he emphasized.

MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/: The Baltic Fleet’s army corps has received the latest Tor-M2 surface-to-air missile systems, the Fleet’s press office reported on Thursday.

MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/: Total household debt in Russia has hit an all-time high and reached 10.6% as of October 1, 2019, according to the presentation of head of the Central Bank’s Financial Stability Department Elizaveta Danilova. In the previous month, total household debt reached the record high of 2014 of 10.4%.

The dynamics of household debt (the ratio of monthly debt payments to monthly income of borrowers) is largely due to the growth of unsecured consumer lending, the presentation says.