Russia

02 Oct 2020; MEMO: Russia is planning to recruit Syrian mercenaries to deploy to Belarus to protect dictator Alexandr Lukashenko, a Syrian news outlet has reported.

According to a source with knowledge of the case who informed Syrian opposition newspaper Zaman Al-Wasl, Russia is to train and send fighters from Syria to Belarus through the Russian military contractor and mercenary Wagner Group.

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/: The Russian military will get a new line of artillery pieces and mortars on different types of chassis, being developed within the framework of the research and development program Nabrosok (Sketch), the ground forces' commander-in-chief, General of the Army Oleg Salyukov, told the government-published Rossiyskaya Gazeta in an interview.

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/: Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Donald Trump of the United States and Emmanuel Macron of France in a joint statement have called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to resume talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict without preconditions.

"We also call on the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to commit without delay to resuming substantive negotiations, in good faith and without preconditions, under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs," the statement reads.

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/: Western intelligence agencies, namely the US Central Intelligence Agency, are working with blogger Alexey Navalny, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

"It’s not the patient [Navalny] that is working with Western intelligence agencies but Western intelligence agencies are working with him," Peskov said.

"Indeed, there is information about it and I can specify that experts from the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency are working with him," the Kremlin spokesman emphasized.

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/: A small-size missile for the air defense system Tor-M2 is being created in Russia as a counter-weapon against tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), the commander-in-chief of Russia's ground forces, General of the Army Oleg Salyukov, told the government-published daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta in an interview.

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/: The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) issued a permit to Nord Stream 2 AG for operation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline on the country’s shelf subject to certain conditions providing for safe operation of gas pipelines, the regulator said on Thursday.

"The Danish Energy Agency has granted a permit to Nord Stream 2 AG to operate a section of the Nord Stream 2 pipelines on a number of conditions to ensure a safe operation of the pipelines," DEA said.

30 Sep 2020; MEMO: The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) yesterday announced that it had agreed to supply Egypt with 25 million doses of its Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine through Pharco, one of the leading pharmaceutical groups in Egypt.

MOSCOW, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday confirmed Moscow's readiness to provide a platform for organizing contacts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts.

Lavrov made separate phone calls with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, during which the Russian foreign minister expressed serious concerns over the ongoing hostilities.

MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/: Moscow doesn’t think that Minsk has withdrawn its statements on constitutional reform, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday in an interview with TASS, answering the question whether Russia is alarmed that statements on constitutional reform have been voiced more and more seldom by Belarus.

"I think nobody went back on anybody’s word. At least, I haven’t seen it yet," she said.

YEKATERINBURG, September 30. /TASS/: Crews of generation 4++ multifunctional fighter-bombers Sukhoi Su-34 from an aviation division of the Central Military District, in the Chelyabinsk Region, carried out a night-time flight into the lower stratosphere and destroyed a hypothetical enemy at a supersonic speed, the district's press service said.