Russia

ROSTOV-ON-DON, March 5. /TASS/: Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) busted an international terrorist organization’s clandestine cell in Rostov-on-Don in the country’s south, the FSB’s regional branch reported on Thursday.

"The FSB’s branch for the Rostov Region busted, with the coordinating role of the FSB’s central office, a clandestine cell of an international terrorist organization that was active in Rostov-on-Don. The suspects were detained at one of the apartments of a multi-storey residential building in the Temernik neighborhood," the statement reads.

MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/: Russia hopes that those responsible for murdering Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov will be punished, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"We are keeping a close eye on this case and want to be sure that the masterminds behind the murder and the perpetrators will be found and punished in accordance with the law," he said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A court in Russian-controlled Crimea jailed a Jehovah’s Witness for six years on Thursday after finding him guilty of organizing the activities of a banned extremist organization, part of a crackdown rights activists say violates religious freedom.

The court in the Crimean town of Dzhankoi explained in a statement why it had found Sergei Filatov, 47, guilty, saying he had knowingly ignored a 2017 decision from Russia’s Supreme Court which ruled the Christian denomination was an extremist organization and should disband.

MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/: Terrorists tried to explode several containers with toxic substances in northwestern Syria’s Saraqib, the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides in Syria told reporters on Wednesday.

"In an effort to stop the Syrian government forces from entering western quarters of the Saraqib settlement and further slapping accusations over using chemical weapons on March 2, a group of up to 15 terrorists carried out an attempt to set off high-explosive ammunition with containers filled with toxic chemical substances," the statement said.

MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/: The Kremlin cannot predict how the court will rule in the trial on the MH17 crash in Ukraine, but plans to thoroughly analyze its outcome, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

"We have always voiced doubts whether the investigative team’s work is unbiased because we have been stripped of the opportunity to join it," Peskov told reporters.

MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/: Russia does not rule out that the United States and its NATO allies may shortly deploy weapon components in outer space, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Vladimir Yermakov said at a news conference on Wednesday.

"It is not ruled out that we may soon witness the emergence of already weapon components of the US potential and, perhaps, the potential of other states that are US NATO allies, in outer space. We will continue taking all efforts to prevent this scenario," the Russian diplomat said.

MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/: Russian engineers have secured a patent for the new intellectual critical g-force protection system for military high-maneuver planes, the MiG Aircraft Corporation announced Wednesday.

According to the MiG Corporation, a pilot must always monitor the g-force, which might at times reach 9G, using dashboard indicators, while simultaneously conducting maneuvers during a dogfight. The new intellectual system, which works in conjunction with the helmet display system, would allow the pilot to not get distracted by the dashboard and concentrate on the mission.

MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/: The current economic situation in Russia is far from ideal, Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged in an interview for the TASS project entitled "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin".

Putin compared the current climate with the situation back in 2000, when 42 million Russians lived below the poverty line and public debt stood at $145 billion, and the gold and foreign exchange reserves totaled a meager $12.5 billion.

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/: The non-systemic opposition has contributed a great deal to the nation’s political life and daily affairs, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

"I believe that they [non-systemic opposition members] are needed very much. I can say that they do have an impact on daily life, locally in particular, on a municipal level in major cities, and so on," Putin told TASS in an interview for the project entitled "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin".

"God bless them," he remarked.

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/: The work on creating the Pion-NKS satellite as an integral part of the Liana radio-electronic reconnaissance system is at its final stage, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday.

"The Defense Ministry continues its work on creating and maintaining the orbital grouping of military satellites. In December last year, we approved the schedule of completing the work on the Pion-NKS. The timeframe of its launch largely depends on enterprises that are the developers of space rocketry," the defense minister said at a conference call.