Russia

MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/: US President Joe Biden’s claims that the pullout of his country’s forces from Afghanistan was a success sounded unconvincing and were just an attempt to boost his rating, the chairman of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, said in his Telegram channel on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/: Omsktransmash (part of the Uralvagonzavod defense manufacturer within the state tech corporation Rostec) is holding talks with potential customers on upgrading Soviet T-55 main battle tanks, Company CEO Igor Lobov told TASS at the Army-2021 international arms show that ended outside Moscow.

MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/: Ukrainian politicians are dabbling in verbal gymnastics, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday, adding their remarks on various historical topics, along with President Vladimir Zelensky’s snipe over Russian gas being "the dirtiest in the world" are made due to their lack of intelligence.

MOSCOW, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan had achieved nothing but tragedy and loss of life on all sides and showed it was impossible to foist foreign values on other nations.

Speaking to teenagers at an educational facility in the Russian far east, Putin made clear that he deemed the U.S. approach to a country once invaded by the Soviet Union to have been deeply flawed.

MOSCOW, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The United States will help build new facilities for border guards in Tajikistan along the Central Asian country's frontier with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan to better respond to security threats, the U.S embassy in Dushanbe said on Wednesday.

The new facility, which will be built in Tajikistan's southwestern tip, will replace an outdated detachment and allow border guards to "deploy forces more quickly to border areas in response to threats," the embassy said.

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/: The Baltic Fleet’s missile corvette Sovetsk test-launched a Kalibr-NK cruise missile from the White Sea in the Arctic, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.

"The small missile ship Sovetsk successfully test-fired a seaborne Kalibr cruise missile from the White Sea against a coastal target at the Chizha proving ground [in the Arkhangelsk Region]. The data recording equipment indicated that the missile successfully struck the coastal target at a distance of over a thousand kilometers," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/: Aeroflot has launched the sale of tickets for direct passenger flights from Moscow to the Egyptian resorts of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, the air carrier said in a press release.

Flights will be operated daily from October 1. According to the schedule, Aeroflot will operate one flight from Moscow to Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh each day.

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/: Armenia highly values Russia’s efforts toward implementing the trilateral statement on the cessation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, visiting Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said on Tuesday after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/: Gazprom is finalizing startup on the first string of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to begin supplies and is close to completion of second string laying, a top manager of the company said on Tuesday at a teleconference.

"As you are aware, the mechanical completion of the first string was completed in June. Pipes were connected by the tie-in. Startup is now at the final stage, which will support readiness of the first string for commercial operation start," the top manager said.

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/: Most of Russia's proposals and calls were ignored in the UN Security Council's resolution on Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on Tuesday.