Free Republic

The head of Iran's atomic energy organisation, Mohammad Eslami, has arrived in Moscow for talks, Russia's state-run RIA news agency quoted the Iranian embassy as saying on Monday. The 15-member UN Security Council earlier opted not to permanently lift sanctions on Tehran, after three European countries launched a 30-day process last month to reimpose them, accusing Tehran of failing to abide by a 2015 deal with world powers aimed at preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon. Iran denies having any such intention, and Russia says it supports Tehran's right to peaceful nuclear energy. Eslami is also Iran's vice president....

Russia’s gasoline sales hit a two-year low on Tuesday as Ukrainian drone strikes and surging harvest-season demand intensify the country’s fuel shortage. Data from the St. Petersburg Exchange, reported by Kommersant on Wednesday, shows that sales of A-92 petrol dropped 21.7 percent to 15,600 metric tons on Tuesday, the lowest level since 2023. Sales of A-95 petrol fell 15.5 percent to 12,060 tons compared with the previous day, bringing total gasoline sales on the exchange down 19.1 percent to 27,700 tons. The sharp decline comes amid unscheduled shutdowns at several large Russian refineries, as Kyiv reportedly escalated its campaign against...

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia is deliberately slowing its economic growth in order to suppress inflation. "As for the decline from more than 4% GDP growth: this is not a decline, it is a deliberate action. It is a slowdown in growth in exchange for curbing inflation and maintaining macroeconomic stability," Putin said during a televised meeting with top lawmakers. A graph published in Russian central bank's report earlier in September showed two consecutive quarters of gross domestic product (GDP) decline in quarter-on-quarter terms, aligning with the common definition of a technical recession.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced the number of Russian servicemen currently in the war zone in Ukraine, APA's Moscow bureau reports. He noted at a meeting with the leaders of the State Duma factions that more than 700,000 Russian servicemen are currently on the line of contact.