• Russian recruitment offices refuse to grant veteran status to soldiers fighting in Syria

    Russian soldiers who have participated in combat in Syria are fighting to obtain official recognition as combat veterans and pension supplements for their families, Kommersant reports.

    In the Russian city of Vladimir, a court has awarded a lawsuit filed by the widow of a Russian officer killed in Syria against the local recruitment office, which refused to pay her pension supplements for the loss the family breadwinner. The issue is that the recruitment offices in Russia refuse to recognize …

  • Media: three subsidiaries of Russian Space Agency are in a financial crisis

    RIA Novosti reports,citing materials presented at the meeting between the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin and Russian President Vladimir Putin, that the financial condition of three subsidiaries of the Russian State Space Corporation, Roscosmos is in a crisis. 

    According to  Roscosmos’  documents, measures are being taken to improve the financial state of the State Organization "Gagarin Research & Test Cosmonaut Training Center", Federal governmental enterprise "Scientific-and-testing center …

  • Media: Russia detained hundreds of Iranian military in Syria

    A large number of Iranian troops and representatives of the Shiite armed groups supporting Bashar Assad are detained in the Russian base in Khmeimim (Syria). The number of detained is in the hundreds, reports Saudi television channel Al-Arabia citing the Syrian center for human rights monitoring. 

    Among the detained are dozens of commanders. 

    Al-Arabia suggests that the wave of arrests may be in connection with a battle in the Syrian city Sha’ta. 

    According to German outlet Spiegel, Moscow …

  • Kremlin complains German representatives refused to attend the conference in Russia because of participants from Crimea

    German representatives refused to participate in the fifth meeting of the heads of Russian and German educational and research organizations that should have taken place in Kazan on February 4 to 6, reported the Russian Foreign Ministry. 

    The Ministry noted that the German representatives objected to the participation of the Crimean Federal University’s Principal, Andrei Falaleev at the conference. 

    “Just a week before the forum, German Foreign Ministry and the conference of principals of …

  • Russian media: Aircraft belonging to ‘Putin’s chef’ flies frequently to Syria and Africa

    A private jet believed to belong to the Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, also known as “Putin’s chef”, has been flying nearly every month to the Near East and Africa, where Russian mercenaries are known to be fighting, according to an investigation by the Russian news outlet Novaya Gazeta and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

    The aircraft, a Raytheon HAWKER 800XP with the registration number M-VITO, officially belongs to a company in the Seychelles with an …