RIA Novosti

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree prohibiting airlines from July 8 from transporting Russians to Georgia and recommended that tour operators not sell packages for excursions to the Caucasus state. The head of state also ordered the government to secure the return of the Russians temporarily residing in Georgia.

Democracy is the best form of government, says the spiritual leader, quoted by NOVA TV. 

Russia must join the European Union to strengthen the peace of the planet, Dalai Lama said in an exclusive interview with RIA Novosti, quoted by BGNES.

I periodically say that Russia must join the European Union, said Dalai Lama.

The AGERPRES National News Agency joined European Data News Hub (EDNH), a benchmark website for major European issues, subsidised by the European Commission, but with total editorial independence. AGERPRES is part of the news agencies consortium which produce the website - the AFP agency based in Paris, the Italian news agency ANSA and the German press agency dpa.

At least 37 people are confirmed to have died after a block of flats collapsed in a gas explosion in eastern Russia, reported SKY News. 

Twenty-two of the dead have been identified following the blast on New Year's Eve, which caused part of the 10-storey building to collapse in Magnitogorsk, a city of about 400,000 just over 1,000 miles from Moscow.

At least 14 people are confirmed dead from the New Year's Eve explosion at a high-rise apartment building in the Russian city of Magnitogorsk, news agencies reported Wednesday.

Citing local emergency officials, the RIA Novosti, TASS and Interfax news agencies said the number of dead had risen to 14 as rescuers pulled more bodies from the rubble of the collapsed building.

A railway station and 12 shopping malls in Moscow were evacuated on Wednesday after anonymous tip-offs were called in about bomb threats, the RIA news agency reported, citing emergency services.

A spate of such calls in 2017 and this summer during the soccer World Cup proved to be hoaxes.

President Donald Trump discussed several key issues with Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a lunch at Élysée Palace, according to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, reported CNN. 

Russia's Ministry of Defense said on Sept. 18 that the Syrian military had accidentally shot down a Russian military plane over Syria, but said it blamed the incident on Israel, the RIA news agency reported.

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the Russian Far Eastern city of Vladivostok in September, RIA news agency reported on Monday, citing diplomatic sources.

Other possible locations and dates are also being discussed, RIA said.

UK broadcast regulator Ofcom has opened seven new investigations into the due impartiality of news and current affairs programmes on the RT news channel.

The investigations form part of an Ofcom update into the licences held by TV Novosti, the company that broadcasts RT.