Russia

MOSCOW, Jan 10 (Reuters) - One of President Vladimir Putin's closest allies said on Tuesday that Moscow was now fighting the U.S.-led NATO military alliance in Ukraine and that the West was trying to wipe Russia from the political map of the world.

Putin casts the war in Ukraine as an existential battle with an aggressive and arrogant West, and has said that Russia will use all available means to protect itself and its people against any aggressor.

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev has said in an interview with aif.ru that Moscow isn’t at war with Kiev, but instead, the confrontation is an attempt by the West to use Ukrainians in its standoff with Russia.

"The events in Ukraine aren’t a clash between Moscow and Kiev. It’s a military confrontation of NATO, first of all the US and Britain, with Russia. Fearing a direct engagement, NATO instructors push Ukrainian men to certain death," he said.

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: Russian forces have destroyed 200 Ukrainian combat helicopters since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Monday.

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted a bill denouncing the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption to the State Duma (the lower house of parliament).

The document appeared in the State Duma’s digital database on Monday.

"The Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, signed on behalf of the Russian Federation in the city of Strasbourg on January 27, 1999, is to be denounced," the document reads.

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his newly appointed Chinese counterpart Qin Gang agreed in a telephone conversation on Monday that the US policy of igniting a confrontation between Beijing and Moscow was unacceptable, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Jan 9 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday that new deliveries of Western weapons, including French-made armoured vehicles, to Kyiv would "deepen the suffering of the Ukrainian people" and would not change the course of the conflict.

France and Germany announced last week that they would send light combat vehicles to Ukraine, ramping up their military support for Kyiv. The United States said it would also provide armoured fighting vehicles to Ukraine.

"This supply will not be able to change anything", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

MOSCOW, January 7. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova branded Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s decision revoking Ukrainian citizenship of 13 priests of the canonic Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) as Satanism.

"And this is on Orthodox Christmas! This is pure Satanism," she wrote on her Telegram channel on Saturday commenting on information on the relevant decree by the Ukrainian leader.

MOSCOW, January 8. /TASS/: The Western aid to Ukraine is a working money laundering scheme, Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov said on his Telegram channel Sunday.

"I see that some are worried about the foreign aid to Ukraine. Do not worry! This is a working money laundering scheme. Western and Ukrainian officials will embezzle these funds, and no more than 15% of the entire aid will reach the trenches," he said.

Kadyrov also noted that there is no need to worry about hostilities currently happening on Russian territory.

MOSCOW, January 8. /TASS/: Many investors have already expressed their interest in investing in the development and infrastructure of the new city in Kherson Region’s Arabat Spit, says First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Presidential Administration Sergey Kiriyenko.

"The Arabat Spit territory is, in my opinion, unique in terms of combination of natural and therapeutic factors. There will definitely be a resort area, but, I think, not only that. There are many opportunities for development: agriculture and modern scientific technologies," Kiriyenko told reporters.

GROZNY, January 8. /TASS/: About 300 fighters of the Special Purpose Mobile Unit (OMON) from Chechnya have been deployed to the zone of the special military operation, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday.

"Today, to help their brothers on the frontline, about 300 OMON Akhmat-1 fighters of the National Guard directorate for the Chechen Republic have been deployed from Grozny International Airport named after Hero of Russia Akhmad-Khadzhi Kadyrov," he wrote.