The participants of the Istanbul summit on Syrian settlement did not discuss who would take over the post of the current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said Russian president Vladimir Putin at the press conference after the summit.

"We didn't discuss any personalities, of course," the Russian president said. He noted that such discussions are "counterproductive" if there is a desire to "achieve a positive result at the end of the journey".

At the same time, French President Emmanuel Macron …

The U.S. is "preparing a war," said the deputy head of the Department of Nonproliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Foreign Ministry Andrei Belousov at the UN General Assembly.

According to him, Washington recently accused Russia of preparing a war. But, as Belousov stressed, Russian citizens are preparing to defend their homeland, its territorial integrity, its principles and people.

Moscow and the United States have significant differences in this matter, he noted, including "in the …

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry protested the ongoing recruitment of Crimean residents to the Russian army. “Such actions are a blatant violation of the obligations according to the International Humanitarian law that prohibits Russia, as an occupying state, to force individuals to serve in its armed forces or reserve forces and to promote voluntary service in the army,” the Ministry’s statement reads.

The Ministry has also demanded that Russia stop persecuting Ukrainian citizens for …