Russia

MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/: Two people were killed in a crash landing of an An-2 aircraft on Friday near Lake Silyan-Kuel in Russia's Yakutia, the press service of the Emergencies Ministry's regional directorate informed.

Earlier reports informed of one killed and five injured.

"According to the latest information, there are two people killed. There were seven people on board. The aircraft carrying the injured will land in Yakutsk at around 21:20 (15:20 Moscow time). Psychologists are attending to the injured," the message by the ministry reads.

MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a separate meeting with Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum on September 5, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on Friday.

"A separate meeting [will be] with the Prime Minister of Malaysia and this will be a fairly important meeting," Ushakov said. Moscow expects that the visit of the Malaysian Prime Minister to Vladivostok "will give an impetus to cooperation, including in the Far East," he added.

ZHUKOVSKY /Moscow Region/, August 29. /TASS/: Six foreign customers have sent in requests for purchasing Russia’s Mi-28NE attack helicopter since 2015, the press-service of the federal service for military technical cooperation said at the international aerospace show MAKS-2019 on Friday.

"Since 2015 the federal service for military-technical cooperation has received six requests for the helicopter Mi-28NE. Among the partners who have shown interest in this machine are countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East and CSTO members-states," the press-service said.

MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/: A Tu-22M3 missile bomber has been transferred to the Russian Defense Ministry after repair, the press service of the Tupolev aerospace and defense company said in a statement on Friday.

"Tupolev, which is part of the United Aircraft Corporation, reports about the transfer of another Tu-22M3 to the Russian Aerospace Force’s long-range aviation after major overhaul," says the report.

"After being transferred to the customer, the aircraft flew to its base," the report says.

ZHUKOVSKY /Moscow Region/, August 30. /TASS/: Russia’s holding company Shvabe has developed a new, lighter version of the thermal night vision weapon sight, which is to complement the soldier’s field combat gear Ratnik, Shvabe’s first deputy CEO for research and development and innovations, Sergei Popov, told TASS in an interview.

Currently Shvabe provides older versions of thermal night and day vision sights for the gear Ratnik and keeps working on their upgrade. As far as thermal vision sights are concerned, it is essential to reduce their mass.

MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/: Moscow hails the release of Kirill Vyshinsky, RIA Novosti Ukraine editor-in-chief, from detention in Kiev but still expects the Ukrainian authorities to take concrete steps towards implementation of the Minsk agreements, Russian president’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

ZHUKOVSKY /Moscow Region/, August 29. /TASS/: Combat planes made up 47% in Russia’s arms exports in 2018, the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation told TASS at the MAKS-2019 international aerospace show on Thursday.

"The aircraft market segment is a key item in Russia’s military hardware exports. This kind of hardware traditionally prevails, with its share in export deliveries never falling below 40%: it made up 51% in 2015, 47% in 2016, 57% in 2017 and 47% in 2018," the defense agency said.

MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/: Russia is interested in developing contacts with the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a government meeting on Thursday before submitting a cooperation agreement with CERN for ratification by the Russian State Duma (lower parliament house).

"I have recently been there. I saw how work is organized, spoke with researchers. Of course, it is impressing," he told the government members. He noted that Russia had been successfully cooperating with CERN for decades.

ZHUKOVSKY /Moscow Region/, August 29. /TASS/: Russia is ready to upgrade Su-30MKM and MiG-29N fighter jets operational in the Malaysian Air Force, the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation told TASS on the sidelines of the MAKS-2019 international aerospace show on Thursday.

"No work is being done to modernize Su-30MKM and MiG-29N fighters delivered to Malaysia but the Russian side is ready for cooperation in this sphere, if our partners show interest," the defense agency said.

MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/: The JSC Kamov (an affiliate of the holding company Helicopters of Russia) has devised a solution to increase the speed of its combat helicopter to 600 kilometers per hour, the company’s general designer, Sergei Mikheyev, said on the sidelines of the international aerospace show MAKS-2019 near Moscow.