Russia

MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/: Even economically strong and developed Western countries have turned into colonies, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday.

"Western countries, even strong and developed economies, have become colonies," the diplomat noted, addressing a Russian-African women’s forum.

MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/: Moscow should select non-standard targets for its retaliatory strikes in response to Kiev’s attacks on civilian facilities, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said.

MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on the introduction of the digital ruble and the creation of a corresponding electronic platform. The document is published on the official portal of legal information.

It implies an additional form of the Russian national currency, which will be issued along with existing forms of money. That means that the Russian ruble will have three forms: cash, non-cash and digital.

July 24 (Reuters) - The head of Russia's space agency on Monday suggested Moscow's partners in the BRICS group - Brazil, India, China and South Africa - could build a module for its planned orbital station, the Interfax news agency reported.

Reporting from a BRICS meeting on space cooperation in Hermanus, South Africa, Interfax said it was "assumed" that the first module of the Russian Orbital Station (ROS) would be launched in 2027, with construction completed by 2032.

July 24 (Reuters) - An ammunition depot was hit during a Ukrainian drone attack on Dzhankoi in Crimea early on Monday, with Russian air defence forces shooting down or electronically jamming 11 drones over the area, a Russian-installed official said.

Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of the Crimean Peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, also said that a residential building was damaged in the area.

He said there was no indication of any casualties, but people within a 5 km (3 mile) radius of the incident were being evacuated.

July 24 (Reuters) - Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday that it had found traces of explosives on a ship travelling from Turkey to the port of Rostov-on-Don in Russia to pick up grain.

The FSB said the ship had been docked in the Ukrainian port of Kiliia in May, and that it may have been used to deliver explosives to Ukraine.

It said the ship had changed its name while in the Turkish port of Tuzla earlier this month and replaced its crew, which had consisted of 12 Ukrainian nationals.

23 July 2023; AA: Former Russian military commander Igor Girkin, who served as a commander in Russian-controlled areas of Donbas in eastern Ukraine in 2014, has been arrested in Moscow on charges of extremism.

Girkin, who uses the pseudonym Strelkov on social media platforms, was detained on Friday, according to his lawyer Aleksandr Molokhov and wife Miroslava Reginskaya.

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko who is currently on a working visit to Russia.

The Belarusian head of state arrived in Russia on Saturday evening.

The Kremlin press service said earlier that the two leaders would discuss "pressing issues related to the further development of Russian-Belarusian relations of strategic partnership and alliance, as well as integration within the Union State."

ST. PETERSBURG, July 23. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that he is "starting to get tense with the Wagner group because they want to march on Warsaw".

"Maybe I shouldn't say it, but I will. The Wagner group has started to stress us: ‘We want to go to the West. Let us go.’ I said, why do you want to go to the West? ‘Well, to go on a tour to Warsaw, to Rzeszow'," Lukashenko said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

ST. PETERSBURG, July 23. /TASS/: Russia will bring to the attention of the Western public information about the losses among mercenaries from these countries fighting on the side of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.

"As for foreign mercenaries, they also suffer significant losses," the Russian leader said. "Big [losses] because of their tactics," Lukashenko added. "Yes," Putin nodded, "because of their stupidity.".