Russia

MOSCOW, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Russia indicated on Friday that it was moving swiftly towards revoking its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) after President Vladimir Putin held out the possibility of resuming nuclear testing.

Putin said on Thursday Russia's nuclear doctrine - which sets out the conditions under which he would press the nuclear button - did not need updating but that he was not yet ready to say whether or not Moscow needed to resume nuclear tests.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian lawmakers will consider revoking the ratification of a global nuclear test ban, the parliament speaker said Friday.

The statement from Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house, the State Duma, followed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning that Moscow could consider rescinding the ratification of the international pact banning nuclear tests since the United States has never ratified it.

MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/: Russian forces struck Ukrainian army units in the Kupyansk area, killing and wounding roughly 170 enemy troops and destroying four pickup trucks and two US-made howitzers over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on the creation of an interdepartmental commission of the Russian Security Council that will be responsible for countering modern threats to biological security. It will be headed by Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev.

The same decree abolished another Security Council commission which was headed by Medvedev - responsible for creating a national system of defense against new infections. Its functions were transferred to the new entity.

SOCHI, October 5. /TASS/: Russia has to respond to constantly mounting geopolitical pressure, President Vladimir Putin said at a plenary session of the Valdai International Discussion Club on Thursday.

"It has to respond to constantly mounting military and political pressure [against Russia]," he said.

MOSCOW, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the West had lost touch with reality over the Ukraine war and warned that if its leaders had forgotten how to compromise then the world would have to see where such arrogance led.

Putin accused the West of fomenting the conflict in Ukraine, which he cast as part of a much larger struggle between Russia and an arrogant West which he said had lost a sense of reality.

(AP) --- Russian air defenses shot down 31 Ukrainian drones during a concerted nighttime attack by Kyiv’s forces on border regions, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday, as uncertainty grew over Ukraine’s future access to weapons and ammunition from Western allies.

The drone attack appeared to be Kyiv’s largest single cross-border drone assault reported by Moscow since the Kremlin launched its invasion 20 months ago. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

Moscow, IRNA – The share of national currencies in commercial transactions between Russia and Iran has increased to 90 percent, according to the head of Russia’s Federation Council Committee on the Budget and Financial Markets.

Speaking at a meeting with the head members of the Iranian Parliament’s Planning, Budget and Research Committee in Moscow on Tuesday, Anatoly Artamonov said the two countries settle their mutual payments using national currencies.

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: Russian air defenses have detected and destroyed a Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missile over the northwestern part of the Black Sea near Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"At about 8:30 p.m. Moscow time on October 3, success was accomplished in stopping an attempt by the Kiev regime to perpetrate a terrorist attack with a Neptune anti-ship missile on facilities on the territory of the Russian Federation," the ministry said.

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: Russia views Armenia’s ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an ill-considered move in terms of bilateral relations, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"We doubt - and we have harbored doubts about this from the very start - that Armenia’s move to join the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is a sound decision in terms of bilateral relations. We still believe that it was an ill-considered decision," he noted.