Russia

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: All missile brigades of the Russian land troops have been rearmed with Iskander tactical ballistic missile systems, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday.

"Large-scale work on rearming all missile brigades of the land troops with Iskander systems is over," Shoigu reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Russian defense ministry board meeting.

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: Two buildings of Moscow State Linguistic University are currently undergoing a security sweep due to an anonymous bomb threat, over 600 people have been evacuated, a source in the emergency services informed TASS.

"We have received an anonymous message claiming that an explosive device has been placed in two buildings of Moscow State Linguistic University on Ostozhenka Street. Dog handlers are currently inspecting the buildings, 600 professors and students have been evacuated while the sweep is underway," the source informed.

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the resolution recently adopted by the European Parliament alleging that the Soviet Union bears responsibility for the Second World War outbreak as "complete nonsense."

The Russian leader noted at the annual Defense Ministry’s board meeting on Tuesday, "Certain European countries and those from overseas often try to pervert history and come up with some incredible scenarios of events unfolding in the world and Europe on the verge of World War 2."

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: One of Russia’s Meteor-M satellites has become uncontrollable following an external impact, presumably a micrometeorite strike, Russia’s Roscosmos state space corporation said on its website on Tuesday.

"On December 18, 2019, an emergency situation caused by external influence (presumably, a micrometeorite) was reported on board Meteor-M (identification number 2-2) spacecraft," the space agency said. "As a result, the parameters of the spacecraft’s orbit were changed, and it entered the non-directed flight mode with high angular velocity."

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: Russia’s fifth-generation Su-57 fighter jet crashed in the Khabarovsk Region in the Far East due to a technical failure of the aircraft control system, two sources in the defense industry told TASS on Tuesday.

"According to the preliminary information, the crash is due to a failure of the Su-57’s control system," one of the sources said.

As the other source noted, most likely, "the tail control failed."

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: The first regiment of Avangard hypersonic missile systems will go on combat alert this week, Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu said at the ministry’s enlarged board meeting with the participation of President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

"This week, the first missile regiment armed with the Avangard system with the hypersonic boost-glide vehicle will assume combat duty," the defense minister said.

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: Advanced weaponry in Russia’s nuclear triad has reached 82%, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

"The share of modern armament in the nuclear triad has reached 82% and the latest Avangard strategic hypersonic missile system with the boost-glide vehicle has started to arrive for the Strategic Missile Force," Putin told a Defense Ministry expanded board meeting.

Putin called the Avangard system the weapon of the future capable of overcoming both existing and promising missile defenses.

KERCH (Crimea), Dec 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Vladimir Putin has heralded the opening of a railway bridge to the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula by posing in the driver’s cab and praising construction workers.

But the opening of the railway was immediately condemned by the European Union as “another violation” by Russia of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territory.

Russia’s 19km bridge to Crimea first opened in May last year.

Putin marked that occasion by driving a lorry over it.

MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/: The Russian private company Laros will hold the firing tests of its liquid-propellant rocket engine prototype in the first quarter of 2020, Laros owner Oleg Larionov told TASS on Monday.

"In the first quarter of 2020, we are planning to hold the first firing tests of a prototype of our 20kg thrust liquid-propellant rocket engine," Larionov said. The tests will be conducted on a mobile bench also assembled by the company, he said.

MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/: There are over 320,000 licensed gun owners in the Moscow database of the Russian National Guard as of the end of 2019, the press service of the Moscow directorate of the National Guard informed TASS on Monday.

"On the outcomes of the year, there are over 320,000 licensed gun owners in Moscow. There are also over 3,000 private security firms licensed by the Moscow directorate of the National Guard," the message informs.