Russia

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the United States had betrayed and abandoned the Syrian Kurds and advised the Kurds to withdraw from the Syrian border as per a deal between Moscow and Ankara or be mauled by the Turkish army.

The comments by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov to Russian news agencies followed a deal agreed on Tuesday between Russia and Turkey that will see Syrian and Russian forces deploy to northeast Syria to remove Kurdish YPG fighters and their weapons from the border with Turkey.

MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/: Two Russian Tu-95MS strategic missile-carrying bombers performed a flight over the neutral waters of the Sea of Japan, the Yellow and East China Seas, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday.

"Two Tu-95MS strategic missile-carrying bombers of the Aerospace Force performed planned flights over the neutral waters of the Sea of Japan, the Yellow and East China Seas," the ministry said in a statement.

The bombers were escorted by Russian Su-35S fighter jets and A-50 long-range radar surveillance planes, the statement says.

MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/: Vitaly Naumkin, academic director of the Institute for Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, has told TASS that he had been appointed as senior political adviser to UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen.

"Yes, that’s right," he said on Tuesday. "I am going to Geneva in this connection."

Naumkin earlier served as senior political adviser to previous UN Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura.

On October 29, the first meeting of the Syrian Constitutional Committee is expected to be held in Geneva.

MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/: A safe containing 18 kilos of gold was found at the site of a dam collapse in the Krasnoyarsk Region in Russia’s Siberia, a source in law enforcement agencies told TASS.

"There are 18 kilos of gold in total in the safe discovered by Russian Emergencies Ministry rescuers," the source said.

According to the interlocutor, the safe was stored in one of the buildings destroyed by water flow. Overall, two temporary dormitories and three other facilities were washed away.

MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/: Russia is interested in opening a joint venture for arms production in the Philippines, Russia’s Ambassador to that country Igor Khovayev said at a news conference, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

"We are ready to organize the joint production of modern types of armaments and small arms here, in the Philippines. You, the Filipinos, will be producing Russian armaments. These will be Filipino products under Russian technologies," Xinhua quoted Khovayev as saying.

MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/: High-Precision Weapons Company (part of the state hi-tech corporation Rostec) has developed a new combat module for 57mm guns that has never been demonstrated before, Rostec Industrial Director of the Conventional Armament, Munitions and Special Chemistry Cluster Sergei Abramov told TASS on Tuesday.

SOCHI, October 22. /TASS/: The Kremlin expects that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will tell his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during the talks in Sochi about his further plans on carrying out Operation Peace Spring.

"Russia wants to discuss the situation in northeastern Syria in order to better understand the events and get information about Turkey’s plans and compare it with general plans on promoting political settlement in Syria," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/: Slowdown of global economic growth resulted in a certain drop in Russian exports, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin said on Monday in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV Channel on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meeting.

MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/: All modern global conflicts must be resolved in line with the resolutions of the UN Security Council, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a convention of the Russian International Studies Association at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).

MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Bulgaria Ekaterina Zakharieva regrets that Sofia failed to sign a program of cooperation with Moscow in the spheres of culture and education.

"I do regret that we did not manage to sign the program of cooperation in the spheres of education and culture. <...> We hope that the specified agreement will be ready for signing next year," she said at a joint news conference following negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.