Russia

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/: The supersonic business jet (SBJ) under development can fly to the distance up to 8,000 km, Tupolev Company, an affiliate of the United Aircraft Corporation, said in its annual report.

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/: Russia doesn’t exclude any steps on its part during the upcoming conference of the signatories to the Treaty on Open Skies due to take place on July 6, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/: The Russian-US working group on strategic stability issues will hold its first consultations in mid-July, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS on Tuesday.

He noted that representatives had agreed on setting up several expert groups, including on space, at the consultations held in Vienna. "There are other areas that experts will work in," he went on to say. "These are both conceptual approaches to nuclear affairs and arms control and more mundane issues, which are quite numerous."

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/: Paul Whelan, convicted for espionage in Russia decided not to appeal his sentence, his lawyer Olga Karlova told TASS.

"We have just visited Paul in the Lefortovo detention facility, where he made his decision not to appeal his sentence and filed a corresponding statement. After the sentence comes in effect, our client and us, we will decide whether to file a pardon plea," she said.

According to Karlova, her client does not believe in successful outcome of the appeal and does not trust the Russian justice.

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/: In the past 24 hours, 7,425 new COVID-19 cases were registered in Russia, bringing the total case count to 599,705, coronavirus prevention operational headquarters told journalists Tuesday.

According to the HQ’s statistics, the daily increase rate is 1,25%, a slight decrease from 1.3% one day ago. The number of newly registered cases has stayed under 8,000 for a week now.

TASS, June 22: Specialists of the Tomsk University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics, the company Micran (Tomsk) and the Research Institute of Precision Instruments (Moscow) successfully tested a new airborne compact radar station designed to get high-resolution images, the University’s press office reported on Monday.

The project is being implemented with the support of Russia’s Science and Higher Education Ministry.

MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/: Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos plans to take part in the Army-2020 international military and technical forum that will be held near Moscow in August, the Roscosmos press office told TASS on Monday.

"As part of the upcoming Army-2020 forum, a united exposition of Roscosmos and space industry enterprises is planned," the press office said.

MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/: Technopromexport engineering company can use the Russian high-capacity GTD-110M turbine at the Udarnaya Thermal Power Plant in the Krasnodar Region, a source in the energy industry told TASS on Monday.

"Considering readiness of the first domestic high-capacity turbine for serial production, this is a logical step. It is necessary to expedite import substitution in this sphere and refocus the market on the Russian equipment in the environment of sanctions and limited access to foreign technologies," the source said.

MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/: Russia’s paratroopers will get around ten 1K144 Sektant robotized reconnaissance systems by the end of 2020, the Defense Ministry reported on Monday.

"About ten 1K144 Sektant small-size robotized monitoring systems will arrive for units of the Airborne Force by the end of 2020. The systems will arrive for separate Guards air assault large units in Ulan-Ude and Ussuriysk," the ministry said in a statement.

MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/: Two Orlan-10 multi-purpose drones will arrive for Russia’s Kant air base in Kyrgyzstan by the end of 2020, the press office of the Central Military District reported on Monday.

Russia’s Central Military District Commander Colonel-General Alexander Lapin announced on February 27 that a squad of short- and medium-range unmanned aerial vehicles had been set up at the Kant air base in Kyrgyzstan.