Russia

12 Jan 2023; MEMO: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Ibrahim Raisi have discussed bilateral cooperation and the Syrian issue, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. Issues of mutual benefit on the agenda included energy projects, transportation and logistics.

MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/: The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft will launch in unpiloted mode to the International Space Station (ISS) on February 20 to return the crew to Earth, Roscosmos Chief Yury Borisov said on Wednesday, following the results of a state commission meeting.

"The state commission has made a decision to launch the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft in unpiloted mode on February 20, 2023 with the delivery of supplies to the International Space Station," Borisov said.

NOVO-OGAREVO, January 11. /TASS/:  Extra 200 bln rubles ($3 bln) of non-oil and gas revenues of Russia enable the country to solve required issues, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday at the first meeting with Cabinet members in this year.

"We know additional budget revenues, associated exactly with non-oil and gas revenues and not with oil or with gas ones, [stand] at 200 bln rubles provisionally. This provides us with an opportunity to solve all tasks we set for development and for matters being current yet very serious and important," the head of state said.

Jan 11 (Reuters) - Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu appointed Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov on Wednesday to oversee the military campaign in Ukraine, in the latest shake-up of Moscow's military leadership.

Gerasimov, like Shoigu, has faced sharp criticism from Russia's hawkish military bloggers for multiple setbacks on the battlefield and Moscow's failure to secure victory in a campaign the Kremlin had expected to take just a short time.

MOSCOW, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Russia will focus on its development despite any external pressures, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday during his first meeting with government members this year.

"In the near future, we certainly need to find (solutions) to issues related to sovereign and independent development, despite any external pressure or threats," Putin said, according to a statement published by the Kremlin.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian space corporation Roscosmos said Wednesday that it will launch a new spacecraft to take some of the International Space Station’s crew back to Earth after their capsule was damaged and leaked coolant.

Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio arrived at the station in September on board a Soyuz MS-22 and planned to use the capsule to return to Earth. But it leaked coolant last month, resulting in higher cabin temperatures.

MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/: A corporate trail can be traced in all assassinations of US presidents, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said in an interview for aif.ru.

"All four assassinations of American leaders are tied to a corporate trail," he said in an interview published Tuesday.

MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/: Russian forces destroyed two US-made counter-battery radar stations in the Donetsk People’s Republic over the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Tuesday.

"In addition, two US-made AN/TPQ-50 and AN/TPQ-36 counter-battery radar stations were destroyed in the counter-battery warfare in areas near the communities of Artyomovsk and Dzerzhinsk in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.

MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/: Russia’s Military Industrial Commission has set up a working group on armament production control, Security Council Deputy Chairman, Military Industrial Commission First Deputy Head Dmitry Medvedev announced on Tuesday.

‘Within the scope of the powers now vested in me, I have signed a resolution on setting up the Commission’s working group on control of the production of needed armaments, military and special equipment, weapons, combat gear and outfits," Medvedev said.

The politician held a meeting of this working group on Tuesday.

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.