Russia

MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/: Moscow is interested in having good relations with Washington and will make every effort to improve dialogue, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Wednesday.

"Russia is interested in having positive relations with America and will make every effort to that end," he said.

According to the senior Russian diplomat, Moscow made its approach clear during US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s visit to Sochi on May 14.

MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/: The United States is fanning tensions in the Persian Gulf in the hope somebody may lose one’s nerve, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the media on Wednesday.

"It is essential to avoid fanning tensions, contrary to what the United States and some of its allies in the Persian Gulf have been doing in the hope that somebody will lose one’s nerve," Ryabkov said.

MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/: US-backed attempts to stage a coup in Venezuela will continue, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Wednesday.

"We will continue to resist attempts to stage a coup in Venezuela that have been a failure so far. However, these attempts will continue at the US behest," he said.

21 May 2019; DW: A senior aide to Russia's opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been detained over a rally organized by the opposition last year. In 2018, Navalny himself served two stints in jail for violating protest laws.

Police in Moscow on Tuesday arrested a key ally of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. 

Leonid Volkov tweeted that he had been detained "according to Article 20.2.8 over the rally on September 9, 2018 against raising the pension age." 

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/: Russia will continue to provide assistance to Christians in the Middle East, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

"The Middle East is going through serious trials, with Christians fleeing Iraq, public executions of Coptic Christians staged in Libya, Christians being massacred by terrorists and extremists in Syria. It is only a small portion of consequences of geopolitical engineering by United States and their closest allies," Lavrov said at a reception in honor of Orthodox Christian Easter.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, May 21. /TASS/: The Caspian Flotilla's air defense forces have repelled an attack by an 'enemy' helicopter group during military drills, the press service of the Southern Military District said on Tuesday.

"Air defense forces of the flotilla's 10 ships have promptly prepared the equipment and detroyed an 'enemy' group of helicopters after locating and identifying them," the press service said.

The ships that took part in the drills included the Grad Sviyazhsk, the Uglich, the Velisky Ustyug, the Volgodonsk, the Makhachkala and the Astrakhan.

MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/: Multipurpose laboratory module Nauka will be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in the autumn of 2020 at the earliest, a source in the space rocket industry told TASS.

"The Nauka module will be launched at the end of October or November 2020 at the earliest," the source said. He added that the module will be delivered to the orbit by a Proton-M carrier rocket.

The source noted that "the relevant decree was signed by Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin."

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/: Terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra (outlawed in Russia) tried to attack Russia’s Hmeymim Airbase in Syria with a multiple launch rocket system. The air defense alert force repelled the attack and destroyed the target, the Russian Defense Ministry told journalists on Monday.

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS: Moscow expects that the talks with Kiev on the exchange of detained persons will continue under the new Ukrainian leader, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

"This issue was actively discussed within the framework of available channels and within the framework of the Contact Group and that is why we hope these discussions will continue. Russia has numerously expressed its interest in that," the Russian presidential spokesman said.

ULYANOVSK, May 19. /TASS/: Passengers of Aeroflot’s Sukhoi Superjet 100, which aborted takeoff from Ulyanovsk on Saturday due to technical reasons, flew to Moscow by Airbus A320 on Sunday morning, the airport’s Director-General Sergey Nakonechny told TASS.

Earlier a TASS source said that Sukhoi Superjet 100, which was scheduled to take off from Ulyanovsk to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport at 17:20 (16:20 Moscow Time) returned to the airport due to technical reasons.