Colonel General Khalil Arslanov, Deputy Head of Russia’s General Staff, has been charged with large-scale fraud, the Interfax news agency reported, citing an informed source.

One of the fraud cases involves supplying the Russian Armed Forces with Chinese equipment disguised as domestically produced equipment, Kommersant writes. The investigators believe that this was done through a simple change of labels. The damage is estimated at 2.2 billion rubles, approximately $34.47 million at current …

The Lithuanian Defense Ministry has decided to buy six new American UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters. The cost of the deal is estimated at €300 million, but part of this amount will be covered by Lithuania’s ally – the US, writes the Lithuanian news outlet Delfi.

The Lithuanian military will be purchasing the six new Black Hawks to replace the Soviet-era Mi-8 helicopters currently in the armament. According to the Defense Ministry, the Soviet helicopters are already old and extremely difficult to …

The Russian government has decided to recognize Ukrainians and Belarusians as native Russian speakers and allow them to forego the language interview when applying for Russian citizenship, the Russian government announced in a statement on its website.

“The draft of the federal law On introducing changes to article 331 of the federal law On Russian citizenship has been approved and will be introduced in the State Duma in the established manner,” the statement reads.

The bill will allow …

Oleksiy Taran, Deputy Chief of Ukraine’s General Staff, told Tyzhden.ua in an interview that Russia is preparing for large-scale military aggression.

“These plans are completely obvious. Accordingly, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are preparing to repel military aggression along Ukraine’s entire border,” Taran remarked.

He said that this applies not only to the demarcation line, but also to other regions, including the border with Belarus and around Crimea and Bessarabia. The “prepared governing …

There is a high probability that Turkey will be interested in the Russian combat aircraft of the new generation, but it will depend on many factors, reports RIA Novosti citing Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov.

The Deputy Prime Minister did not rule out that Turkey would turn to Russia in the future for the purchase of modern warplanes, but this will depend on further relations between Ankara and Washington. According to him, Turkish officials expressed great interest in the Russian …

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced on Saturday that Russia had not made a decision yet whether to allocate $600 million government loan to Belarus. Siluanov noted that Belarus might not receive a loan in all, reports Interfax news agency.

According to the Russian Finance Minister, the difficulties with the allocation of funds will not affect the plan of the two countries to integrate the economies. Now, a "road map" is developed, which will determine the specific tasks for the …

Russian Deputy Finance Minister Yuriy Zubarev and Serbian Finance Minister Siniša Mali signed an agreement on providing the export credit to Belgrade, reports TASS news agency. The document was signed during the visit of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to Serbia.

Earlier, the First Deputy Head of the Russian Government Office Sergei Prikhodko said that the total amount of the loan is €172.5 million. According to him, the agreement on the government loan will create conditions for Russia' …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that he will discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin the deployment of the Syrian army in a "security zone" in Northern Syria.

Urgent talks between Putin and Erdoğan on further steps in the region are scheduled for the next week in Sochi, reports Voice of America.

Erdoğan warned that Ankara would continue to "implement its plans in Syria" if Turkey and Russia fail to agree on any further steps.

The Turkish authorities, after talks with the …