Contents tagged with Russia

  • BBC: 'Russian mercenaries' involved in Sudan conflict

    Mercenaries from the Russian private military companies that were previously involved in the conflicts in the Donbas and in Syria have gone to fight in Sudan on the side of dictator Oman al-Bashir’s government, reported the BBC Russian service with reference to Oleg Krinitsyn, head of the RSB Group private military company.

    “I heard that people have gone there and have even come back with a severe form of malaria,” Krinitsyn said. According to him, the company he heads “has interests there”, …

  • Pentagon: Syria was liberated by the Us-led coalition, not by Russia

    Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said that the liberation of most of the territories in Iraq and Syria from Islamic State militants is because of the efforts of the coalition and its partners, not Russia, reported Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

    “The Syrian regime and the Russian Federation have not demonstrated a serious approach or commitment to defeat ISIS. They carried out only a small part of the operations against ISIS, and most of the territory liberated in Iraq and Syria was liberated …

  • Russia indignant that OSCE 'does not protect the rights of Russian speakers' in Ukraine and Baltics

    Andrei Kelin, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of European Cooperation (DEC) has stated that the Russian Foreign Ministry is in favor of reforming the OSCE over bias in the organization’s work, reports Gazeta.ru.

    "We are concerned about the way the specialized institutions of the OSCE work. The bulk of their activities are concentrated in the field of human rights, and are implemented in relation to countries east of Vienna," Kelin said.

    According to Kelin, the …

  • New head of LPR speaks about close cooperation with the Kremlin

    Leonid Pasechnik, who replaced Igor Plotnitsky as head of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), has reported on "well-established" cooperation with Moscow.

    Pasechnik said that "I personally, and the entire leadership of the LPR, have constructive interaction with all Russian structures that render humanitarian assistance to our Republic at such a difficult time. I am confident that our cooperation will continue in the future,” reports Luhansk Information Centre.

    According to Pasechnik, the …

  • European Parliament MP Rebecca Harms called for boycott of 2018 World Cup in Russia

    In an interview with the German publication Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung , Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Rebecca Harms has urged politicians and visitors to boycott the World Cup in Russia.

    "Politicians and visitors should stay away from the 2018 World Cup," Harms said.

    The MEP added that Russia is not a country where it is worth holding such competitions. She named former German President Joachim Gauck, who refused to attend the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014, as a model example. …

  • US general: Russia and China working on new weapons to challenge the US

    Russia and China are creating anti-satellite weapons to reduce the United States’ capabilities and to shift the balance of power in the world, said the Head of the US Strategic Command, General John E. Hyten, Interfax reports.

    "They have been building weapons, testing space weapons that can be controlled from Earth, electronic warfare weapons, laser weapons… and they make no secret of it," noted Hyten and added that in doing so, Moscow and Beijing defy the United States and its allies, …

  • American warplane conducts reconnaissance flight near annexed Crimea

    On Saturday, a U.S. Navy anti-submarine aircraft made a reconnaissance flight near the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea, reports Interfax, citing aviation websites.

    According to their information, the U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft, with tail number 168437 and call sign PS026, departed from the Naval Air Base Sigonella on the Italian island of Sicily and patrolled in the area to the southwest of Sevastopol for several hours.

    After taking off from Italy, the plane’s route took it over …

  • Media: Russian air strikes leave dozens of victims in Syria

    In Syria, as a result of the bombing that was carried out on December 3 by the Syrian military aircraft with the support of the Russian warplanes, at least 19 civilians were killed in the area of East Ghouta, located near the capital of Damascus, reports DW, citing as a source the Syrian Monitoring Center for Human Rights Observance.

    According to observers, the air strikes were inflicted on several cities in Eastern Ghouta. Most of the victims of the bombings were in the city of Hammuria, …

  • Russia armed the Black Sea Fleet with more than 50 warships since annexation of Crimea

    During an interview with the Interfax news agency, Aleksandr Vitko, Commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, stated that Moscow has transferred more than 50 new warships, boats and auxiliary vessels for "tasks in the Mediterranean and Black Seas” since 2014.

    "Over the past three years, we have received more than 50 new warships, boats and auxiliary vessels, which without a long commissioning period immediately began realization of tasks ", Interfax quotes Vitko as saying.

    According to Vitko, …

  • Lavrov: US used Russian Zapad-2017 exercises as a pretext to deploy more troops to Poland and Baltics

    Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview for Belarusian television that the US and NATO fears over the Zapad-2017 military exercises were just a pretext for the deployment of troops in Poland and the Baltic States.

    According to Lavrov, "the West was not so much afraid but tried to use the exercises as an excuse to start hysteria."

    "Everyone who wanted to come to these exercises found that everything was transparent. But, amid the growing hysteria, our American colleagues …