Russia

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) monitoring of fulfillment of Russia's commitments is discriminatory, Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin wrote in an article for the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily on Tuesday.

Volodin reminded that "common sense recently prevailed" in PACE, and the organization adopted a resolution on guaranteeing the rights of national delegations to vote, make speeches and participate in PACE's work.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: Pressure on Iran from Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States will continue, a Russian expert said on Monday, commenting on the situation around the Iranian nuclear deal.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: Aeroflot’s flight SU 1893, that departed from Tbilisi earlier on Monday, has landed at Sheremetyevo Airport, according to the airport’s online information.

The plane reportedly landed at 4:51 Moscow time.

It is the last flight of a Russian airline company from Tbilisi, which closes the flight program between Russia and Georgia.

Georgian airliners Georgian Airways and MyWay Airlines ended flight to Russia on July 7. Six airline companies flew from Russia to Georgia: Aeroflot, S7, Ural Airlines, Pobeda, Red Wings and Nordavia.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, July 8. /TASS/: A Utair flight en route from Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi to the Siberian city of Nizhnevartovsk made an emergency landing at Rostov-on-Don’s Platov International Airport, an airport spokesperson told TASS on Monday.

"I can confirm that the flight made an unscheduled landing," the spokesperson said.

According to medical sources, one of the flight’s passengers was hospitalized.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: Russia is not ready to give a response to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s offer on holding talks to settle the crisis in Donbass, to be mediated by the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, but will definitely study this proposal, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

"I’m not ready to answer now, this is an absolutely new format," Peskov said. "We need to understand if the meeting has any prospects and what kind of a format is being suggested," Peskov explained.

MOSCOW, July 7. /TASS/: Russia’s moon base project envisages the use of 3D printing technologies and lunar soil, a spokesperson for Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos told TASS on Sunday.

According to the source, the third stage of Russia’s moon program, which will follow short-term missions to the Earth’s natural satellite, will see "the launch of construction of large-scale structures with the use of additive technologies and local resources."

MOSCOW, July 7. /TASS/: In a phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blamed European partners for the decision to suspend some of his country's obligations under the nuclear deal, the Al-Mayadeen TV reported.

"The European Union should act in compliance with its obligations stemming from international agreements and UN resolutions," the Iranian leader said.

In the phone conversation with Macron, the Iranian leader described the US pressure on his country as "terrorism and economic warfare."

KRASNOYARSK, July 7. /TASS/: Russian state-run space corporation Roscosmos and the Defense Ministry are discussing conversion of R-36M2 Voyevoda (NATO reporting name SS-18 Satan) intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) for satellite launches, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin has said.

"The matter is now being discussed, first of all with the Defense Ministry, because they are the number one here," Rogozin said on Saturday, answering to a question about the possibility of converting Voyevoda ICBMs.

YEKATERINBURG, July 7. /TASS/: Three people were killed and five injured when a tanker truck exploded in the Sverdlovsk Region in the Urals, the chief spokesperson for the regional interior ministry department, Valery Gorelykh, told TASS on Sunday.

"According to preliminary information, the driver of the Ural fuel truck, loaded with about 4.5 tonnes of fuel, headed to the town of Kytlym to refuel heavy equipment for rock excavation. The driver permitted about seven tourists to climb on top of the tank," he said.

MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/: Russia’s Foreign Ministry has called on the United States to recollect imposing its own sanctions instead of condemning the measures taken by Russia against Georgia, the ministry wrote on Facebook on Saturday.