Russia

MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/: Kiev’s district court has granted the motion of the Ukrainian Security Service and changed detention conditions for Metropolitan Pavel, the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery, from round-the-clock house arrest to detention in custody with the possibility of bail worth over 33 million hryvnas (over $900,000), the Ukrainian online newspaper Strana reported on Friday.

The RBC Ukraine agency said that he court put the archbishop under arrest until August 14.

(AP) --- Russian President Vladimir Putin said he offered the Wagner private military company the option of continuing to serve as a single unit under their same commander after their short-lived rebellion, while some of the mercenaries were shown Friday in Belarus, possibly heralding the group’s relocation there.

Putin’s comments appeared to reflect his efforts to secure the loyalty of Wagner mercenaries, some of the most capable Russian forces in Ukraine, after the group’s brief revolt last month that posed the most serious threat to his 23-year rule.

14 July 2023; MEMO: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that anyone found guilty of burning the Quran will have to serve their sentence in the Federation's predominantly Muslim regions.

Putin was quoted by Russia's TASS news agency yesterday as stating: "They will serve their sentences, as stated by the Minister of Justice, in places of deprivation of liberty located in one of the regions of Russia with a predominantly Muslim population."

MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/: Russia became the top oil supplier to India and China as of the end of May 2023 for the fourth month in a row, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said in its July report.

According to OPEC, Russia provided for almost 19% of total Chinese oil imports in May. Saudi Arabia accounted for 14% of supplies and the share of Malaysia was close to 11%. China’s oil imports in total gained 17% monthly in May and totaled 12.1 mln barrels daily.

MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/: Kiev is in talks with Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, on the relocation of Christian relics from Ukraine, Director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin said in a statement.

MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/: Ukraine's NATO membership will create a threat to Russia's security; one of the reasons for launching the special military operation was the threat of Ukraine's joining NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin in the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin." program.

"As for Ukraine's NATO membership, we have repeatedly said that this creates threats to Russia's security," he said. "And, in fact, one of the reasons for the special military operation is the threat of Ukraine joining NATO," Putin added.

MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/: Ukraine should work to ensure its security, but not by creating threats to Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"Every country has a right to ensure its security and, of course, it has a right to choose the way to achieve that goal that it considers the best," he said on Rossiya-24 television.

Putin said there’s just one limitation for Ukraine when it seeks to ensure its security, which is that "the work to achieve security for one country shouldn’t create threats for another country."

MOSCOW, July 13 (Reuters) - A Russian general said he had been dismissed as a commander after telling the military leadership about the dire situation at the front in Ukraine, where he said Russian soldiers had been stabbed in the back by the failings of the top military brass.

After the June 24 mutiny by Wagner mercenaries, the biggest domestic challenge to the Russian state in decades, President Vladimir Putin has so far kept Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov in their jobs.

MOSCOW, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Russia considers the deployment of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine as a nuclear threat, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.

Lavrov made the comment in an interview with the Russian news agency Lenta.ru, during which he discussed the potential consequences of the decision of the United States and its allies to supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

"During the hostilities, our military will not check whether each specific aircraft of this type will be equipped for the delivery of nuclear weapons or not," Lavrov said.

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian general in charge of forces fighting in southern Ukraine has been relieved of his duties after speaking out about problems faced by his troops, a move that reflected new fissures in the military command following a brief rebellion by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.