Russia

MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/: Secretary General of the Russian Football Union (RFU) Alexander Alayev was unanimously elected on Tuesday the president of the Russian Premier League (RPL) for the term of five years.

PATRIOT PARK, August 16. /TASS/: China's People's Liberation Army is not afraid of its enemies, and it is ready to fight for the country’s sovereignty amid attempts by the United States to undermine stability in the Asia-Pacific Region, China’s Defense Minister Wei Fenghe said on Tuesday.

PATRIOT PARK /Moscow Region/, August 16. /TASS/: The launch of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine has put an end to the unipolar world order. Moscow is being confronted by the West collectively, but no one, not even NATO, has any doubt that the operation’s objectives will be attained, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at the opening of the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/: Tehran supports the non-nuclear status of the Middle East and will continue to apply efforts in this direction, Deputy Chief of General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Ali Abdollahi said at the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security on Tuesday.

"We will continue to apply efforts to create a region free from nuclear weapons," he said.

KUBINKA /Moscow region/, August 16. /TASS/: Russian and Syrian forces are successfully fighting against international terrorism, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday at a meeting with his Syrian counterpart, Ali Mahmoud Abbas, on the sidelines of the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security.

MOSCOW, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Russia's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that Britain has requested permission for its RC-135 spy plane to fly over Russia, a move it termed "a deliberate provocation".

A U.K. Ministry of Defence source denied that Britain had asked permission to fly a spy plane over Russia.

The Russian Defence Ministry said that Russia's airforce had been tasked with preventing any violations of Russian airspace.

MOSCOW, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Russia has "no need" to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, its defence minister said on Tuesday, describing media speculation that Moscow might deploy nuclear or chemical weapons in the conflict as "absolute lies".

"From a military point of view, there is no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine to achieve the set goals. The main purpose of Russian nuclear weapons is to deter a nuclear attack," Sergei Shoigu said during a speech at an international security conference in Moscow.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of trying to encourage extended hostilities in Ukraine as part of what he described Tuesday as Washington’s alleged efforts to maintain its global hegemony.

Addressing a security conference attended by military officials from Africa,, Asia and Latin America, Putin reaffirmed his long-held claim that he sent troops into Ukraine in response to Washington turning the country into an “anti-Russia” bulwark.

MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/: Foreigners demonstrate interest to Russian developments, such as COVID vaccines and medicines, and are trying to replicate them, head of Russia’s Federal Medical Biological Agency Veronika Skvortsova said on Monday.

PATRIOT PARK /Moscow Region/, August 15. /TASS/: The prototype of the first self-driving military truck Ural was presented at the Army-2022 Forum on Monday, TASS reports.

The vehicle was developed on the Ural-432067-73 chassis with the 4x4 wheel configuration. The self-driving truck can carry goods with the weight up to 5 tonnes. The vehicle can travel with the speed up to 80 km per hour and overcome various obstacles, including a 70-cm ford. The Ural track can be controlled remotely or in an autonomous mode