Russia

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/: NATO’s F-18 jet tried to approach the plane of Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu over the international waters of the Baltic Sea only to be forced away by Russia’s Sukhoi-27 fighters, a TASS correspondent reported from onboard the Russian defense minister’s plane.

Shoigu’s plane was on the way from Kaliningrad to Moscow with an escort of two Sukhoi-27 of the Baltic Fleet. NATO’s F-18 tried to approach it over the international waters of the Baltic Sea but Russian fighters forced the jet away.

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/: Moscow believes that the Russian missile systems are unique and outshine their foreign rivals, despite the development of such weapons in the United States, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

The Russian presidential spokesman thus responded to a question about whether Moscow was aware of such development work in the United States.

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/: The level of radiation in Severodvinsk following the August 8 incident at a military test site was 4-16 times above the natural background, the Russian weather watching service Rosgidromet said on its website referring to the northern directorate for hydrometeorology and monitoring of the environment as its primary source.

"As at 12:00 on August 8, 2019 the Arkhangelsk territorial system of radiation control registered gamma radiation levels 4-16 times above the background rate of the ambient dose equivalent for the given territory," the report says.

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/: The Kremlin believes that the disproportionate use of force by police is unacceptable, but justifies tough actions of law enforcement agencies for curbing riots, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

"We believe that it is absolutely unacceptable when there is disproportionate use of force by the representatives of authorities and believe it is absolutely justified when law enforcement agencies take tough actions in order to curb civil disorder," Peskov said.

13 August 2019; DW: A video clip of a Russian riot policeman punching a female protester has gone viral, provoking outrage on social networks. Russia's Interior Ministry has promised that the "guilty will have to face responsibility."

MOSCOW (AP) — Thousands of people attended the funerals Monday of five Russian nuclear engineers killed by an explosion as they tested a new rocket engine, a tragedy that fueled radiation fears and raised questions about a secretive weapons program.

MOSCOW, August 12. /TASS/: The Russian Navy’s team has won the Depth multi-discipline diving competition at the 2019 International Army Games in Iran, the Games’ press office told TASS on Monday.

"The board of referees has summed up the scores gained for fulfilling the competition’s exercises. The Russian Navy’s diving team has scored a convincing victory in the Depth contest, with 7,415.04 out of 8,000 possible points," the statement reads.

The Chinese team won the second place with 4,922.09 points followed by the frogmen from the Iranian Navy (4,754.88 points).

MOSOW, August 12. /TASS/: Russia’s State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Council will hold a special meeting on August 19 to discuss foreign interference in the country’s domestic affairs, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin told reporters on Monday following a meeting with State Duma Security and Anti-Corruption Committee Chairman Vasily Piskarev.

MOSCOW, August 12. /TASS/: Russia’s low-cost airline Pobeda said on Monday its website came under a DDoS-attack during a major sale of its flight tickets.

"A serious DDoS-attack has been recorded," a spokesman for the airline said, commenting on reports that its website was down on Monday. "At 14.15 our IT department registered a powerful DDoS-attack. But within an hour the website will resume operations. After the resumption, our specialists will carry out an investigation and find out who had masterminded the attack."

YAKUTSK, August 12. /TASS/: An incident at the Sarylakh-Surma company’s mine in Northeastern Yakutia, where an employee died in a rockfall, will not affect gold-antimony ore mining plans, the regional Ministry of Industry and Geology told TASS on Monday.

"A roof fall occurred in the unit where ore crushing was underway at the mine of Sarylakh-Surma. All the required activities will be implemented. The incident will not affect the company's mining plans," the ministry said.