After writing off $140 billion owed by Syria, Vietnam, North Korea, countries in Africa and Latin America and former Soviet republics in Central Asia over the last 20 years, Russia is planning to drastically increase its lending to foreign governments over the next three years.

In the draft budget for 2020-2022, the Russian government has allocated $6 billion to loans to foreign governments and companies. This is the most in the country’s modern history, Bloomberg observes. The funds will be …

After a hiatus of 10 years, Russia has started importing radioactive waste from Europe once again. Between 2019 and 2022, Russia will receive 12,000 tons of depleted uranium from Germany, Die Tageszeitung reports.

The waste will comprise of so-called “uranium tailings”, byproducts of the enrichment process used to make fuel for nuclear power plants, GreenPeace notes. Russia actively imported these materials in the 2000s, but ended the practice in 2009 under pressure from eco-activists, when it …

The Russian Defense Ministry intends to transfer additional military police forces to Syria, RIA Novosti reports, citing a source in the Russian Defense Ministry.

"Within a week, two battalions of military police will be transferred to Syria," the source said.

According to the source, this will include 276 military policemen and 33 units of military equipment.

Plans to send additional units of Russian military police to Syria came to light after the presidents of Russia and Turkey agreed to …

Russia demanded that the United States leave the area of the Al-Tanf military base in southern Syria, reports RIA Novosti , citing Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin.

"I speak about territory with a diameter of 55 km. Also, it is the Syrian territory, and the US military is located there illegally. They are blocking the road that connects Iraq and Syria. We consider their presence illegal and demand that such occupation be stopped," said Vershinin.

In mid-October, the US …

Two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers arrived at the Waterkloof Air Base in South Africa, reports Interfax news agency, citing Russian Defense Ministry.

Russian Defense Ministry reports that the aircraft flew over the Caspian and Arabian seas, as well as the Indian ocean. The duration of the flight exceeded 13 hours.

In the last stages of the route, Russian bombers were accompanied by Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighters of the South African Air Force.

Russian air group consists of two Tu-160 aircraft …

Naftogaz of Ukraine has refuted reports of it resuming the natural gas supply to the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

“The news that we are going to supply gas to the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is a fake. If we are ordered to supply gas to these Ukrainian territories before they are liberated and without the ability to collect money for this, we’ll tell you,” Naftogaz wrote on Facebook.

At present, decree No. 867 …

Russia has written off more than $20 billion of debt owed by African countries, said Russian President Vladimir Putin at a plenary session of the Russia – Africa Economic Forum, reports finanz.ru.

This is 42% more than the annual budget of Russia’s entire higher education system ($14 billion), and more than the amount that will be allocated to the national healthcare project between now and 2024 ($18.8 billion), for example.

Putin said that Moscow is systematically contributing to the …

On Wednesday morning, an Israeli military drone crashed in Lebanon near the Israeli Lebanese border, reports Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on its Twitter.

IDF informs that the drone crashed during "another operation to secure the border," without specifying the cause of the accident. According to IDF, the drone landed in Lebanon, near the border between Israel and Lebanon.

In turn, the Al Manar TV channel of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement reports that the drone was intercepted during its …