While the Russian Foreign Ministry urges countries in Asia to abandon dollar and calls on China to say "no" to Western payment systems, the Russian SWIFT alternative, which was established five years ago, still can not attract a significant number of banks from China.

The Financial Messaging System of the Bank of Russia (FMS), which was established in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea and the collapse of relations with the West, was designed to ensure uninterrupted payments in the event of a …

Russia will stand up for the residents of the Donbas if it is forced to do so, said Dmitry Kozak, the deputy head of the Russian presidential administration.

The decision, he said, will be made "depending on the scale of the conflict."

Kozak said that Russia intends to protect Russian citizens in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, where the Kremlin issues Russian passports en masse.

Back in 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on granting Russian …

Lebanon's Shiite group Hezbollah is conducting consultations on the possibility of opening an official representative office in Moscow to establish direct channels of communication and strengthen them, Iranian TV channel PressTV reported.

Negotiations began in mid-March after a delegation of the terrorist organization visited the Russian capital. At the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the sides "discussed the situation in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Palestine." At the same time, …

After the lockdown, which is in force during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kyiv will not send its delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) in Minsk for talks on settlement in the Donbas, stated the Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied, Oleksii Reznikov, on air of the Ukrainian TV channel ICTV, adding that Ukraine intends to look for another platform to continue negotiations.

"We have firmly informed that we will not participate in the TCG meetings if the quarantine is …

The Russian Defense Ministry announced the beginning of a large-scale inspection of the combat readiness of the armed forces, which will span all Russian military districts and the Northern Fleet.

According to Interfax, during the month of April, the Russian armed forces will hold 4,048 exercises of various scale at a hundred training sites and 520 training facilities. "All types of troops of the Armed Forces will be involved in the readiness checks," the Defense Ministry said.

The beginning …

The U.S. has reached out to Russia in connection with the situation in southeastern Ukraine, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

The contacts took place "at a high level" and the U.S. side "expressed concern” about “Moscow’s actions”, Ryabkov said.

The Pentagon estimated that 4,000 troops and equipment were transferred to the border with Ukraine.

"We are carrying out on our territory, on Russian territory, those steps that we consider necessary," Ryabkov reiterated the …

The Kremlin doubts that Ukraine's accession to NATO will help resolve the conflict in the Donbas, said the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov.

"We deeply doubt that this will help Ukraine somehow cope with its internal problem. From our point of view, this will make the situation even worse," he said. The Kremlin representative once again called the fighting in the Donbas an internal conflict of Ukraine, denying the military and financial participation of the Russian …

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky amid Russia's military build-up along Ukrainian borders, said Stoltenberg on Twitter.

"I called President Zelensky to express serious concern about Russia’s military activities in and around Ukraine & ongoing ceasefire violations. NATO firmly supports Ukraine’s sovereignty & territorial integrity. We remain committed to our close partnership," Stoltenberg wrote.

“During the conversation, Zelensky informed …