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Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif over the phone on Friday to discuss the killing of Iran's military chief Qassem Soleimani, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. "Lavrov expressed his condolences over the killing," the statement said. "The ministers stressed that such actions by the United States grossly violate the norms of international law."

Russia’s population could drop by more than 12 million by 2035, the national statistics office said in its annual forecast published Friday. Russia’s overall population dropped for the first time in a decade last year, totaling 146.8 million as migration inflows hit record lows. It totaled 146.7 million so far in 2019, the State Statistics Service Rosstat said this month, as Russia experienced its highest natural population decline in 11 years. Here are the three population scenarios that Rosstat predicted for the next 15 years. In all cases, Russia’s natural population is expected to continue to decline — meaning deaths...

Hundreds of millions of dollars in cash has been shipped from Russia to Venezuela, providing a lifeline to the South American country as U.S. sanctions limit its access to the global financial system. A total of $315 million of U.S. dollar and euro notes were sent in six separate shipments from Moscow to Caracas from May 2018 to April 2019, according to data reviewed by Bloomberg from ImportGenius, which compiled Russian customs records it obtains through private sources. ...As a consequence of the scrutiny, the central bank is conducting more transactions in cash, sometimes offering local clients access to euro...

The city of Novosibirsk in Siberia has unveiled a memorial plaque Friday honoring Kim Jong Il, the father and predecessor of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Kim, who led the secretive state until his death in 2011, visited the Russian city on Aug. 11, 2001, after talks with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. A youth talent foundation marked Kim’s visit with the plaque ahead of Novosibirsk conservatory students’ trip to North Korea on Friday. Kim’s visit to Novosibirsk “was an unconventional event in the life of the city,” said Novosibirsk Mayor Anatoly Lokot. “We supported the initiative to install...

Hong Kong activists announced on Wednesday that protests would be suspended to observe the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. China’s state-run media accused the protesters of planning 9/11-style terrorist attacks themselves, complete with photos of the planes hitting the World Trade Center in 2001. “In solidarity against terrorism, all forms of protest in Hong Kong will be suspended on Sept. 11, apart from potential singing and chanting,” protest organizers said in a statement.The statement went on to denounce Beijing’s state-run China Daily for a Facebook post warning that “anti-government fanatics are planning massive terror attacks,...

An unauthorized protest is taking place in Moscow today. “Unauthorized” means that those participating will risk arrest and possibly time in jail. More than 1300 protesters were detained a week ago, during another unauthorized rally. Scores were brutally beaten by the riot police. The authorities have signaled their intention to crack down hard in the hope of deterring citizens from turning up at today’s protest. Let me explain my reasons for going. This is a protest against the government’s decision to prevent independent candidates from running in the local elections. But the elections are not really the issue. When putting...

Trump told reporters Thursday that he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin about ways to improve trade and wildfires blazing in Siberia. He made no mention of either the new sanctions or whether they came up during the phone call. President Donald Trump slapped new sanctions on Russia for its poisoning of an ex-spy in the United Kingdom in 2018...Trump, who signed the executive order Thursday, has been reluctant to impose sanctions against Russia in his efforts to improve relations between Washington and Moscow.

Lionsgate's Hellboy made a sly reference to Baba Yaga's history as a threat to the world when the titular paranormal investigator revealed she had previously tried to raise the spirit of Russian dictator Josef Stalin back from the dead. However, the reference was removed in the Russian version of the film. According to the BBC, the Russian release of Hellboy censored the reference to Stalin. The audio was bleeped out, and the subtitles instead indicated that Baba Yaga had previously tried to raise the spirit of German despot Adolf Hitler instead.

Andrey Melnikov, the editor of NG-Religii, reports on a conference this week at the Russian Cultural Center in Budapest devoted to the growth of conservative national consciousness in the members of the European Union and the rest of the world. The meeting, which attracted representatives from 24 different countries, is formally the 25th Conference of the International Foundation for the Unity of Orthodox Peoples, a group that, in Melnikov’s words, has “positioned itself as an international conservative organization” which criticizes globalization from the perspective of “fundamentalist Christianity.” The meeting is taking place in Budapest, the Moscow journalist says, because Hungary...

A record 70 percent of Russians approve of Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s role in Russian history, according to a poll published by the independent Levada Center pollster on Tuesday. Stalin’s image has been gradually rehabilitated in the 2000s from that of a bloody autocrat to an “outstanding leader.” President Vladimir Putin has revived the Soviet anthem, Soviet-style military parades and a Soviet-era medal for labor during his presidency. A record low of 19 percent viewed Stalin’s role negatively, down from 32 percent in 2016. “Stalin begins to be perceived as a symbol of justice and an alternative to the current...

– Since 1991, Moscow has sought to retain its influence and control in the post-Soviet space at a lower cost than it paid in Soviet times, thus leaving the non-Russian countries around it in worse shape than they would otherwise be and rapidly leading ever more of them to seek ties with other centers of power, Anton Yevstratov says. That approach which relies on the continuation of past ties, the use of frozen conflicts, and the absence of outside influence has worked well in some places; but it is failing in many and will fail in more, not because these...

KIEV - A comedian with no political experience is tipped to win the first round of Ukraine’s presidential election on Sunday amid discontent over corruption and five years of war against pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country. Here is a timeline of the main events in Ukraine’s political history since the country’s independence in 1991. ** 1991: Leonid Kravchuk, leader of the Soviet republic of Ukraine, declares Kiev’s independence from Moscow. In a referendum and presidential election Ukrainians approve independence by 92 percent and elect Kravchuk president. ** 1994: Kravchuk loses presidential election to Leonid Kuchma in elections...