Contents tagged with Putin

  • Putin visits annexed Crimea

    Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the annexed Crimea to have a number of working meetings and take part in a meeting of the State Council Presidium, reported press Secretary of Russian President Dmitry Peskov.

     “The president will most likely stay longer here to hold a number of meetings with the members of the government, deputy prime ministers, and the leadership of the Kremlin administration,” the Russian news agency TASS quoted Peskov.

    He added that after this kind of meetings, " …

  • Russia considers changing conditions for use of nuclear weapons

    Participants in the round table of the Russian Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee have advised the Russian Security Council to update its conditions for the use of nuclear weapons, Deutsche Welle reports, citing the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

    “The interdepartmental commission of the Security Council of the Russian Federation on military security proposes that the following matters be considered: the drafting of a new version of ‘Basis of the Russian Federation’s policy …

  • Russian National Guard buys laser weapons to disperse protests

    The Russian National Guard will soon have laser weapons at its disposal. According to a report by Open Media and RBC based on current state procurements, the Russian Guard is purchasing laser emitters which can deafen and blind people. The non-lethal systems will be mounted on GAZelle vehicles and colored “mouse-gray” at the client’s request. The laser emitters can create “acoustic pressure” which exceeds the human pain threshold. At 10 meters, the volume is an ear-splitting 135 dB.

    In …

  • Putin: Russia will respond if US withdraws from Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

    Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the United States withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), promising that this move by Washington will not remain unanswered by Moscow, TASS reports.

    “Today I propose to discuss our steps related to the possible United States withdrawal from the medium and shorter missiles treaty. The United States decision to withdraw from this treaty, of course, cannot remain and will not remain unanswered on our part,” said Putin.

    The …

  • Russia denies it reached a deal with Japan on the return of Kuril islands

    The press secretary for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov stated that a deal between Russia and Japan about the return of the Kuril Islands is not possible, and anything said to the contrary is speculation, Interfax news agency reports.

    “During the last few days, we have seen numerous arguments, political speculation that there is already some deal on the transfer of the islands and so on. It is not so,” he said.

    According to him, the Russian leader and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō …

  • Kremlin prepares for Putin-Trump meeting

    Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov said that Kremlin experts plan to prepare the agenda for the meeting of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump during the coming G-20 Summit in Argentina, Interfax News reported. He said that during their meeting in Paris, the leaders of the two countries confirmed their intention to hold a meeting in Buenos Aires.

     “Saying goodbye in Paris, Trump said, “Well, see you in Buenos Aires!” Our president expressed an approval,” Ushakov said in an interview with the “ …

  • Putin: Normandy format meetings before the elections in Ukraine meaningless

    Russian President Vladimir Putin, during his briefing to the Russian media, stated that meetings in the Normandy format before the presidential elections in Ukraine, which will take place on March 31, are meaningless.

    “At the moment, meeting in the Normandy format during the election campaign that is taking place in Ukraine, is pretty much meaningless because today’s Ukrainian authorities have not shown any desire to comply with the Minsk agreements. They do nothing to implement these …

  • Armenia accuses Gazprom of multi-billion tax evasion

    The Armenian authorities have conducted an audit on the local Gazprom subsidiary and uncovered colossal tax violations, the Armenian State Revenue Committee (SRC) reported on Wednesday.

    Gazprom Armenia, the country’s sole gas provider, gave the tax authorities “deliberately false information” in its reports for 2016-2017, as a result of which it paid “several billion” too little tax on profit and VAT, according to the SRC.

    In addition, the company was involved in shady gas selling schemes. …

  • Putin forced to go through metal detector in Singapore

    The security services at the ASEAN summit forced the Russian president to go through a metal detector, which is not usually the case for heads of state, who are normally given a separate passage without control. Despite the customary practice, Vladimir Putin was made to walk through a metal detector, Kommersant newspaper reported on Wednesday, November 14.

    “He arrived at the summit at the Suntec trade exhibition center and wanted to pass by the metal detector frame as usual, which under such …

  • Kremlin: Putin managed to speak with many world leaders in Paris

    More than seventy heads of state were present at the celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of Armistice Day in Paris and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with many of them, said Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.

    “He briefly exchanged a few words with the President of the United States, Donald Trump,” said Peskov. According to him, the leaders agreed that they had “something to talk about” including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. They agreed to target [for the …