Russia

MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/: Syria’s government forces are strengthening their positions along the Turkish border in the country’s north, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on Monday.

According to the agency, Syrian troops are expanding their presence in the 90-km area between the cities of Ras al-Ayn and Qamishli.

MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/: Two-thirds of Muscovites consider the Russian capital to be a safe city to live, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at a meeting on crime prevention on Monday.

"I must say that a few years ago, the rate of Muscovites who viewed our city as safe was less than one-third," he pointed out.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump will have made a major contribution to the fight against international terrorism if a U.S. assertion that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead is true.

Trump on Sunday announced that Baghdadi had killed himself during a daring overnight raid by elite U.S. special operations forces in Syria.

MOSCOW, October 27. /TASS/: The talks between US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and diplomats from Russia, China and Pakistan held in Moscow on Friday were "positive and constructive," the US Embassy in Russia said on its website.

TASS, October 27: Twenty people were involved in a shootout in Kazan, Russia’s Tatarstan Republic, and 14 of them have been hauled off, the local Interior Ministry’s press service said on Sunday.

The incident occurred at around midnight on October 25. According to eyewitnesses and CCTV footage, the shootout’s participants were traveling in eight vehicles. "At some moment, one of the conflict’s participants fired several shots, and after that everyone fled the scene."

GROZNY, October 27. /TASS/: The killing of leader of the Islamic State (terror group, outlawed in Russia) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is unlikely to bring any crucial changes if the world continues dividing terrorists into "good and bad guys," Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Sunday.

"Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is again killed?" Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel, commenting on media reports that the US had conducted an operation to kill "the high-value target."

MOSCOW, October 27. /TASS/: Il-76 military aircrafts have delivered several armored vehicles to the Khmeimim base in Syria in order to assist the units of the Russian military police tasked with patrolling the Syrian-Turkish border, the Russian Defense Ministry informed.

TASS, October 27: The Syrian Democratic Forces coalition, led by the Kurdish militias, has fully supported the terms of a deal that Russia and Turkey reached in Sochi, and has started withdrawing forces from the Syrian-Turkish border, Firat News Agency has reported.

The SDF coalition said in a statement that it "agrees to implement the Russian initiative" on halting the Turkish military operation in northeastern Syria. The decision was made after intensive consultations with Russia, it noted.

SIMFEROPOL, October 26. /TASS/: Egypt is interested in beginning to purchase Russian grain through Crimea’s ports, Crimean Deputy Prime Minister Georgy Muradov told TASS.

"We met with the Egyptians. They say they are very interested in increasing Russian grain supplies. The fact that grain will be transported through Crimea’s ports suits them," he said.

According to Muradov, Crimea’s ports have necessary capabilities for that. There are grain elevators near Kerch, Yevpatoria and other districts of Crimea.

MOSCOW, October 25. /TASS/: Russia’s first upgraded Tupolev Tu-22M3M strategic missile-carrying bomber performed 18 successful flights as part of its trials by the end of October, a source in the domestic defense ministry told TASS on Friday.

"By now, the Tu-22M3M has performed 18 flights as part of factory flight tests," the source said, adding that the flights took place in the daytime and at night.