Tests of the S-500 Prometey Air Defense system took place in Syria, reports the newspaper Izvestia, citing sources in the Russian Defense Ministry, as well as Russian defense industry.

As noted, the testing of the system was successful. During the test, personnel found several problems in the equipment, but quickly fixed it.

"Syria is the perfect place for such tests because the temperature is always high and there is a lot of dust," said former deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian Air …

Before the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) summit in Yerevan, Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked a question about Russia's obligations with regards to Georgia and Abkhazia. A journalist of the Georgian TV channel Rustavi-2 asked Putin when he intends to start fulfilling the commitments made in 2008. Putin replied: "We always fulfill them."

The journalist then asked when the Russian troops are expected to be withdrawn from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, calling them "occupied territories of …

Iran stores its missiles and other attack systems in underground tunnels, said Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Aerospace Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), in a statement on October 1, as cited by the Tasnim news agency.

“We have underground tunnels around the country and under mountains for storing munitions, missiles, equipment and for protecting military personnel,” the commander said.

He claimed that the idea to build “underground missile cities” was developed …

Venezuela has made an interest payment on a $3.15 billion loan from Russia using Russian rubles. “We provide such a right and such an opportunity to all our debtors. It’s their choice,” Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak told RBC. The Russian Finance Ministry had already announced previously that Venezuela had made another tranche to service its debt, but without providing any specifics.

After the US imposed sanctions on the Venezuelan government, it became virtually impossible …

Russian oil has once again been found to contain levels of organochlorides significantly above European standards. In spring, such contamination resulted in more than a month of downtime on the Druzhba pipeline as EU buyers returned more than a million tons of substandard oil to Russia.

According to RIA Novosti, the Russian oil transport monopoly Transneft has discovered a high chloride content in the oil supplied by Bashneft, making it some of the dirtiest oil in the country.

Bashneft, which …

Ukraine, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia will not be attending the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the five delegations said in a statement published by the Ukrainian MP Elizaveta Yasko.

The démarche was prompted by PACE’s decision in June to restore the Russian delegation’s voting right, despite Russia’s ongoing occupation of Crimea and the eastern regions of Ukraine.

“We are announcing the creation of …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced during a press conference that Ukraine has approved the Steinmeier Formula, which was the “final obstacle” to a new Normandy Format summit.

He said that the Steinmeier Formula consists of several provisions. Approving these terms assumes that a special manner of local self-governance will be implemented in several Donbas regions and that elections will be held there. The details of the implementation of this plan will be formulated during the …

Brigadier General Dror Shalom, head of the Research Division of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate (“Aman”), told Israel Hayom in an interview that Israel has entered a “dangerous cycle” with Iran.

“We are in a far more complex reality than before, and it is only getting worse,” the head of research observed. According to him, Tehran only needs two years to build nuclear bombs. “The processes they are doing now enable them to strengthen their muscles, such that when they do decide, it …