Russia

MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/: Iran must ensure security in the Persian Gulf, which it considers as its sovereign territory, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Friday.

"Iran has historic responsibility for protecting the Persian Gulf. We consider it as part of our territory and believe that the presence of foreign forces there is unacceptable," Mousavi was quoted by the IRNA news agency as saying.

MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/: The Northern Fleet’s warships have deployed to the boundary of the Barents and Norwegian Seas in naval maneuvers to search for a notional enemy’s submarines, the Fleet’s press office reported on Friday.

MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has welcomed Kiev’s decision to allow a Russian aircraft to enter Ukraine’s airspace to avoid a thunderstorm.

"Great news! Thank you!" Zakharova wrote on Facebook.

On Thursday, Ukraine’s aviation authority said that on August 7, a Globus flight en route from Italy’s Bari to Moscow had been allowed to enter Ukraine’s airspace to avoid a thunderstorm that threatened the safety of the aircraft. The plane spent 26 minutes in Ukraine’s airspace.

MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/: Russian investigators are going to press charges against the first person suspected of organizing mass riots in Moscow, the Investigative Committee told reporters on Thursday.

Sergei Fomin, who earlier turned himself in to the police, became the first person detained in connection with masterminding mass riots. "Fomin was detained under Article 91 of the Russian Criminal Procedure Code. He will be charged with committing a crime under Article 212 of the Russian Criminal Code (organizing mass riots), the Investigative Committee said.

MAGAS, August 7. /TASS/: Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has declared a counter-terrorist operation regime in the Voznesenskaya settlement in the North Caucasian Ingushetia region.

"Head of the FSB branch in Ingushetia announced a start of a counter-terrorist operation in the Voznesenskaya settlement in the Malgobeksky District at 4.30am Moscow time," the regional FSB headquarters said.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov is due to pay a visit to Pyongyang next week to hold consultations, North Korea’s Embassy in Moscow told TASS on Wednesday.

"Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Morgulov is due to depart for Pyongyang next week to hold meetings with his counterparts," a spokesperson said.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: Turkey has launched the process to accept the first batch of Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile systems at the Murted airbase in Ankara, a source in military and diplomatic circles told TASS on Wednesday.

"The Russian technicians who flew to Turkey in early August and the Turkish military personnel who have been trained in Russia have started the delivery/acceptance of the first batch of the S-400 regiment set delivered by air transport to Ankara in July this year," the source said, specifying that this process "would last about two months."

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: Firefighters are working on extinguishing wildfires in Russian regions on a territory of 163,100 hectares, the Aerial Forest Protection Service said on Wednesday.

"As of 12am on August 7, active firefighting efforts are underway to extinguish wildfires on a territory of 163,175 hectares in Russian regions, including 78 wildfires on an area of 110,082 hectares in the Irkutsk Region and 69 wildfires on an area of 46,976 hectares in the Krasnoyarsk Region," the service reported.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: A gunman who plotted a terror attack has been killed by the law enforcement personnel in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) told TASS on Wednesday.

"A counterterrorism operation has been carried out in Ingushetia, during which a gunman who had been plotting a terror attack was neutralized," the NAC reported.

MOSCOW, Aug 6 (NNN-TELESUR) – Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Monday that Moscow would start developing short and intermediate-range land-based nuclear missiles if the United States does so as well.

“If Russia obtains reliable information that the United States has finished developing these systems and started to produce them, Russia will have no option other than to engage in a full-scale effort to develop similar missiles,” Putin said in a statement.