Europe

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.

MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/: Washington frequently threatens African countries with sanctions demanding they should avoid purchasing Russian military hardware, the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS on Thursday.

MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/: Russia and India have settled the issue of the Indian side’s advance payment for the delivery of S-400 long-range surface-to-air missile systems, the press office of Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation told TASS on Thursday.

"The contract for S-400s will be implemented in compliance with the accords reached and the documents signed. The issue of making an advance payment under the contract has been resolved. We are not commenting on the details," the press office said.

MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/: Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, convicted in Russia of plotting terrorist attacks in Crimea, has been transferred to Moscow from a penal colony in Labytnangi, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, in order to be exchanged, a source familiar with the situation told TASS.

"Sentsov has been transferred to Moscow from the Labytnangi colony and taken to a pre-trial detention center," the source said without going into detail.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today began an official visit to Germany, where he will meet his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Palestinian Ambassador to Germany, Khouloud Daibes, told the official Voice of Palestine radio: “Abbas is discussing with his German counterpart and the German chancellor the latest political developments in the Palestinian arena.”

LONDON, Aug 29 (NNN-Xinhua) — Thousands of people gathered in city squares across Britain to protest against Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement he is to suspend the House of Commons.

Protestors, waving banners, accused Johnson of staging a political coup.

Opponents of Johnson claimed his decision, sanctioned by Queen Elizabeth, is a move deliberately aimed at curtailing the ability of MPs to stop him from taking Britain out of the European Union on Oct. 31 without a deal.