Russia

MOSCOW, October 4. /TASS/: Tatneft is conducting exploration at new blocks in Libya, General Director of Tatneft Nail Maganov said at the Russian Energy Week.

"We are working in Libya, this is exploration. All new blocks," he said.

Tatneft operated in Libya under a concession agreement from 2005 until 2014. In 2017, after the annual meeting of the company’s shareholders, Maganov announced that Tatneft had no plans to resume production activities in Libya until the situation in the country stabilized completely.

MOSCOW, October 4. /TASS/: Industry and Trade Ministry considers it possible to improve the schedule of entering the production of Russia’s first gas turbine through enticing several enterprises into the project, Minister Denis Manturov said at the Russian Energy Week forum on Friday.

"(Russia) is ready to cooperate, attract all enterprises to improve the schedule and enter production in 2021," he said.

The ministry expects the main turbine production to be based at enterprises of Rostec, Manturov added.

TULA, October 4. /TASS/: Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev stated that migrants become involved in terrorist activity in Central Russia more often due to the expansion of hidden extremist cells.

During a session in Tula on security issues in Central Russia, Patrushev informed that the number of crimes committed by migrants remains high.

ST. PETERSBURG, October 4. /TASS/: The delivery team of the Severnaya Shipyard in St. Petersburg in northwest Russia has carried out 70% of all the work as part of the shipbuilders sea trials of the Project 20385 lead corvette Gremyashchiy, the Shipyard’s press office reported on Friday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s foreign ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador on Friday over the detention of a Russian journalist in Tehran, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Moscow has close economic and political ties with Tehran, and it is unusual for the latter to target Russian citizens.

MOSCOW, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte expressed on Thursday common readiness to strengthen bilateral cooperation.

"The Philippines is an important partner of Russia in Asia. Bilateral cooperation is constructive and mutually beneficial," Putin said at a meeting with Duterte in Russia's Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: The personnel of a special forces unit from Russia’s Central Military District destroyed a notional enemy’s satellite communications basic mobile stations during drills near Samara in the Volga area, the district’s press office reported on Thursday.

KALININGRAD, October 3. /TASS/: A naval strike group of Russia’s Baltic Fleet destroyed a notional enemy’s submarine in joint drills with a Ka-27PL anti-submarine warfare helicopter, the Fleet’s press office reported on Thursday.

"As part of a tactical exercise of the Baltic Fleet’s anti-submarine warfare forces at the training ranges in the Baltic Sea, the crews of the corvette Stoiky and the small anti-subsurface warfare ships Aleksin, Urengoi and Kazanets practiced assignments to search for and strike a notional enemy’s sub," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: The remaining US presence in Syria raises eyebrows and Moscow hopes that US President Donald Trump will fulfill his pledge on withdrawing troops, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper on Thursday.

According to Lavrov, only a request by the country’s legitimate authorities or the UN Security Council’s resolution could serve as a legal basis for external actors on Syrian soil. "Iran is in Syria at the request of Damascus, unlike the United States," he said.

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: Three other suspects were arrested by Moscow’s Basmanny Court on Wednesday alongside Vladimir Alexandrov, the deputy CEO of the flagship Russian air carrier Aeroflot, on charges of the 250 mln rubles ($3.8 mln) theft, a court source told TASS.

Fraud charges amounting to 250 mln rubles ($3.8 mln) are brought against Alexandrov, an investigator said on Wednesday at the session in the court.

The remaining three arrested suspects were identified as Aeroflot legal department head Tatyana Davydova and lawyers Dina Kibets and Alexander Slivko.