The “Flying Squad” Chechen special forces division has been operating periodically in Norway, Novaya Gazeta reports, based on an analysis of information gathered from social networks.

The Russian news outlet gathered information from Instagram posts, especially photographs and videos of the presumed commandos, as well as geolocations and comments. Novaya Gazeta believes that they have been conducting operations in the Arctic since 2016.

On March 2 last year, a user called bes_600 posted a …

Russian President Vladimir Putin could have visited Washington at the start of the year, and US President Donald Trump could have visited Russia in the second half, retiring US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman told Kommersant in an interview.

When asked whether such an option was actually considered, Huntsman nodded.

The two leaders’ plans changed due to the incident at the Kerch Strait in which Ukrainian sailors were captured by Russian border guards. “Yes. I won’t go into the details, but …

The bodies of mercenaries from the Wagner private military company (PMC) who have been killed in Libya have started arriving in Russia, Meduza reports, citing sources and relatives of the deceased. According to the sources, as many as several dozen mercenaries may have been killed in an airstrike by the Government of National Accord against the forces of Russia-backed Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

“From the [Sverdlovsk] province a total of 15 people [were killed], and from the entire country, 3 …

The ringleaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) have demanded that certain conditions be met before local elections can be held. In particular, they want to be involved in the formulation of the new law on the special status of the Donbas that was announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday.

“Otherwise we will consider them a direct and gross violation of the Minsk Agreements, and they will be legally null and void to us. We want …

Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said in an interview with RBC news agency, that "there is no practical, political, or military" need in the deployment of the Russian Air Force military base in Belarus.

Various media have repeatedly raised this topic. Moscow and Minsk previously confirmed that they are discussing this possibility.

Makei said that the issue is becoming irrelevant due to the development of modern technologies and expressed doubt that the deployment of Russian military …

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 …