Russia

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/: Russia’s S-300V4 air defense systems deployed on the Kuril Islands and S-400 surface-to-air launchers on the Sakhalin Island and MiG-31BM interceptor-fighters in Chukotka have reliably protected the Russian Far Eastern frontiers from the Chukchi Sea to the Sea of Japan, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday.

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/: The number of NATO spy plane flights near Russia’s state border grew by over 30% in 2021 and the Russian air defenses timely spotted the reconnaissance aircraft in all the cases, Head of the Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee, Aerospace Force Ex-Chief Viktor Bondarev said on Thursday.

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has no side effects after getting vaccinated with the first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

"The president has no side effects, he is feeling well, he has taken to the vaccine well," the spokesman said.

On Tuesday evening, Peskov said that Putin had been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus. He added that Putin was well, but kept quiet about the vaccine the president used.

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/: The West’s policy aimed at containing and suppressing Russia has remain unchanged, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

When asked if the Kremlin shared the opinion that Russia was facing "a psychological war," he said, going on to point out, "a deliberate policy aimed at containing and suppressing Russia is clear enough." "Indeed, it is ongoing and is visible to the naked eye," Peskov added.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United States and other Western countries are waging a psychological war on Russia to try to undermine President Vladimir Putin and state institutions, an adviser to Russia’s defence minister said.

The aide, Andrei Ilnitsky, also said in comments widely reported by Russian media that Washington also wanted to alter how Russians think in a “war...for people’s minds”.

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/: Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev has said that, if the United States created "tough days" in relations with Russia, it would be responsible for that.

"Since they [Americans - TASS] predict that, that means that they are planning that. And if they are planning that, they can implement that, but then they will be responsible for the steps that they would take," he told reporters on Wednesday commenting on remarks by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/: Russia may need a few additional ground stations to receive information from the Arktika satellites, Deputy Head of the Section for Multispectral Scanners Development at the Russian Space Systems Company Yuri Gektin told TASS on Tuesday

"For the stable inflow of information from those space apparatuses, we may need to build a few stations in higher latitudes," he said.

Presently, one Arktika-M satellite transmits data from the orbit. Scientists will have to analyze new tasks and to decide in which direction to develop the equipment, he added.

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/: Russian businessman and Concord CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin sent a written request to FBI Director Christopher Wray, demanding to delete the $250,000 reward offer for information that would assist in Prigozhin’s arrest from the FBI website, Concord press service announced on its VK page Wednesday.

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/: Russia’s State Duma (the lower house of parliament) has passed the third reading of a bill allowing Vladimir Putin to run for president again.

According to one of the amended provisions of the Russian Constitution, presidential term limits apply to the incumbent head of state without regard to his previous terms in office. That said, it makes Vladimir Putin eligible for two more presidential terms.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Armenia’s parliament voted on Wednesday to lift martial law, the RIA news agency reported, ahead of an early parliamentary election planned in June.

Armenia brought in martial law in September when war broke out between ethnic Armenians in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeri forces. The conflict that erupted on Sept. 27 was brought to a halt on Nov. 10 by a Russian-brokered peace deal.