Certain states’ policies reveal that WWII lessons were not learned — Russian diplomat

"Regretfully, many unpleasant similarities with the events of the 1930s can be found in the modern world," Ivan Soltanovsky said.

PARIS, August 31. /TASS/. Certain states’ military buildup and attempts to divide nations into "first-rate" and "second-rate" ones are reminiscent of developments that took place during the decade that preceded the Second World War, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe Ivan Soltanovsky has told TASS.

"This year [on September 1] we mark the 80th anniversary since the outbreak of World War II. Not only is this date important from the point of view of history, it is also of great political significance," Soltanovsky said. "The anniversary is an important occasion to think about the chain of destructive events, caused by the dogmatism, stubbornness and short-sighted approach of European political elites in 1930s, which led humanity to the six-year-long massacre. This is also a chance to compare those events to present-day political processes and to discover several unpleasant parallels."

"Regretfully, many unpleasant similarities with the events of the 1930s can be found in the modern world. Countries are still divided into ‘first-rate’ and ‘second-rate’ ones, countries from the first group still have more rights than others and are still ready to sustain their economic well-being at the expense of the second group," Soltanovsky said, mentioning the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the role of certain countries in the present-day Syrian crisis.

"Western nations are still seeking to ensure their security at the expense of others. All of Russia’s latest initiatives in creating a common system of security in Europe have been ignored," the Russian diplomat went on.

He also said the majority of EU member states turn a blind eye to discrimination of certain minorities and glorification of Nazis and their collaborationists in Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine. Those states’ attempts to "wipe out the names of soldiers and marshals who liberated them" have also been left largely unnoticed, Soltanovsky said.

"At all international platforms and in the course of bilateral contacts, Russian diplomats have been trying to explain how dead-ended and dangerous those policies might be," Russia’s envoy to the Council of Europe said. "We hope that our efforts would not prove to be futile and the world would not plunge into new madness."

"Facts about WWII and the role of the Red Army in the victory over the Nazi Germany must never be extorted," he added. "This is not the case where ‘varying points of view’ are permissible, as some states want it to be. Free interpretation of historic events may have irreparable consequences.".

Source: ITAR-TASS 31-08-2019

No final date yet for Moscow-Kiev prisoner swap, says Ukraine’s Security Service

The exchange won't take place on August 30, according to the SBU.

KIEV, August 30. /TASS/. The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has said that the next prisoner exchange between Kiev and Moscow would not take place on Friday, and its final date was not yet determined.

"Not today," SBU Spokesperson Yelena Gitlyanskaya told Ukraine’s Obozrevatel (Observer) edition.

Commenting on reports that the exchange could take place in Kiev’s Zhuliany airport any moment, she noted: "We do not give any specific dates. I can say, however, that it will not take place today. There is no final date yet."

Gitlyanskaya earlier cautioned reporters from disseminating unverified information, saying that the complicated negotiation process continued.

Later on, the Ukrainian president’s office likewise refuted media reports, which asserted that the exchange of detainees between Kiev and Moscow had come to an end, stressing that the negotiation process was ongoing.

Source: ITAR-TASS 30-08-2019

Ukrainian filmmaker convicted of terrorism in Russia transferred to Moscow

Oleg Sentsov has been transferred in order to be exchanged, a source said.

MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, convicted in Russia of plotting terrorist attacks in Crimea, has been transferred to Moscow from a penal colony in Labytnangi, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, in order to be exchanged, a source familiar with the situation told TASS.

"Sentsov has been transferred to Moscow from the Labytnangi colony and taken to a pre-trial detention center," the source said without going into detail.

Sentsov’s lawyer Dmitry Dinze, however, told TASS that he was unaware of plans to exchange his client for Russians jailed in Ukraine.

Ukrainian media reported last week that Kiev and Moscow intended to carry out a prisoner swap based on the "33 for 33" formula. Russian Human Rights Ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova visited Kiev a few days ago but her agenda remained unclear.

Sentsov case

On August 25, 2015, Russia’s North Caucasus District Military Court sentenced Oleg Sentsov to 20 years in prison on charges of organizing a terrorist group in Crimea. In the spring of 2014, the group’s members carried two terror attacks in the Crimean city of Simferopol, setting fire to the offices of Crimea’s Russian Community organization and the United Russia party’s Crimean branch. According to the investigation, they also plotted other terrorist attacks.

Source: ITAR-TASS 29-08-2019

Russia to start serial deliveries of heavy attack drone to troops in 2025

This became known during the MAKS-2019 international aerospace show on Wednesday.

ZHUKOVSKY /Moscow Region/, August 28. /TASS/. The serial deliveries of the latest heavy attack drone Okhotnik (Hunter) to the troops will begin in 2025, the office of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov told TASS at the MAKS-2019 international aerospace show on Wednesday.

"On August 3, 2019, a prototype of the heavy reconnaissance and attack drone Okhotnik performed its debut flight. A large volume of trials is required to bring the drone to the level of the serial-produced model. The serial deliveries to units of the Aerospace Force [are planned] beginning from 2025," the vice-premier’s office said.

"The basic volume of flight tests [of the Okhotnik drone] is planned to be carried out in 2023-2024, including the attack modification with various air-launched weapons," the office noted.

The Okhotnik will serve as a "universal baseline platform for carrying advanced air-launched weapons, onboard reconnaissance systems and other equipment, which will allow constantly expanding the drone’s functional capabilities during the serial production," it stated.

Okhotnik heavy attack drone

The debut flight by Russia’s Okhotnik heavy attack drone developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau lasted over 20 minutes. As the Defense Ministry specified, the aircraft "performed several flyovers around the aerodrome at an altitude of about 600m under an operator’s control and landed." The flight took place at one of the Defense Ministry’s testing aerodromes.

The Okhotnik features stealth technology and the flying wing design (it lacks the tail) and has a take-off weight of 20 tonnes. The drone has a jet engine and is capable of developing a speed of around 1,000 km/h.

According to the data of Russia’s Defense Ministry, the drone has anti-radar coating and is outfitted with equipment for electro-optical, radar and other types of reconnaissance.

The remote-controlled Okhotnik model was unveiled at the Army-2019 international defense exhibition outside Moscow in late June.

A source in the domestic defense industry earlier told TASS that the heavy stealth attack drone Okhotnik would perform several more test flights this year.

"The program of the Okhotnik’s flight tests stipulates several more flights with the sequential complication of flight assignments," the source said.

The drone will perform one of its flights in a partially autonomous mode: an operator on the ground will give only a few commands, the source stated. "A possibility is also envisaged for the drone’s completely autonomous flight without the operator’s participation when it takes off, performs its program and lands only under the control of its own guidance system."

As another source in the defense industry told TASS, before that the drone already made several take-offs, jumping several meters above the runway and landing immediately after that. The drone performed a whole series of such tests but they are not viewed as a full-fledged flight, the source pointed out.

The MAKS-2019 international aerospace show runs in the town of Zhukovsky outside Moscow on August 27-September 1. The event’s organizers are Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry and the state hi-tech corporation Rostec. A total of 827 companies from 33 countries are taking part in the aerospace show, including 184 foreign firms.

Source: ITAR-TASS 28-08-2019

Over 30,000 troops go on high alert in large-scale logistics drills in central Russia

The exercise will last through August 30.

YEKATERINBURG, August 27. /TASS/. Large-scale special logistics drills kicked off in Russia’s Central Military District under the command of Deputy Defense Minister Army General Dmitry Bulgakov, the Defense Ministry’s press office reported on Tuesday.

"The drills involve military command centers, logistics troops’ large units, military formations and organizations, more than 30,000 military and civilian personnel of the Central, Western, Southern and Eastern Military Districts and the Airborne Force," the press office said in a statement.

The troops involved in the drills will be accomplishing practical assignments of providing all types of logistic and maintenance support, the deputy defense minister said.

"The assignments of providing technical support for highways and roads, natural barriers and artificial obstacles, deploying motorway sections for aircraft landing, organizing special types of technical and food supplies for the troops’ military services and military branches," the deputy defense minister explained.

During the drills, each service member will gain hands-on experience in a simulated warfare under the designated scenario, improve or get new knowledge, perfect his skills and competences for the guaranteed fulfilment of assigned missions both in every-day activity and in a combat environment, the army general said.

The special military exercise for the logistics support of the Russian Armed Forces will last through August 30. The exercise will focus on improving the forms and the methods of fulfilling a whole set of missions placed upon the logistics forces.

More than 7,000 weapon systems deployed

Over 7,000 weapon systems are deployed in the special large-scale logistics drills that have kicked off in the Central Military District, the deputy defense minister said.

"The drills involve over 7,000 items of armament, military and special hardware, and also up to 90 aircraft and helicopters of Russia’s Aerospace Force and army aviation," the army general specified.

During the drills, the troops will be employing not only new special hardware and equipment operational in the Armed Forces but also promising technical hardware that is considered for delivery in the future, the Defense Ministry noted.

"Thus, during the drills, the troops will be using automated ammunition loading systems, modular container-type chemical analysis laboratories, a multiple aircraft fueling post, an aviation fuel pumping station based on container-type fuel tanks, a system of ship refueling without mooring, the latest field bakery mounted on an automobile platform and other modern equipment for troops’ logistic support in field conditions," the Defense Ministry explained.

The latest models of technical hardware and equipment, which Russian defense contractors are providing for logistics forces on their own initiative, will undergo tests and operational evaluation in field conditions during the drills, the ministry added.

Source: ITAR-TASS 27-08-2019

Russian Navy to get three battalions of Bastion coastal defense missile systems this year

They will join coastal defense and land troops of the Pacific, Northern and Black Sea Fleets.

MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/. The Research and Production Association of Machine-Building (the town of Reutov, the Moscow Region) will deliver three battalion sets of Bastion mobile coastal defense missile systems this year, Company Chief Designer and CEO Alexander Leonov said on Monday on the eve of the MAKS international aerospace exhibition.

"At a meeting at the Defense Ministry of Russia in April this year, which discussed the fulfilment of the defense procurement plan in 2019, I reported to Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu that work was underway to manufacture and deliver three sets of Bastion coastal defense missile systems," the chief executive said.

The Russian defense industry earlier told TASS that new Bastion coastal defense systems would join coastal defense and land troops of the Pacific, Northern and Black Sea Fleets.

The Bastion coastal defense system with standardized Yakhont (Oniks) supersonic homing anti-ship cruise missiles went into service in the Russian troops in 2010. The Bastion is designated to strike various types of surface ships operating as part of amphibious assault formations, convoys, surface action and carrier strike groups, and also sole ships and radar-contrast land targets under enemy intensive fire and electronic counter-measures.

According to the data of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Russian Navy currently operates over 40 Bastion coastal defense systems. Specifically, they are deployed in Crimea, on the Kotelny Island (the Novosibirsk Archipelago), in the Kaliningrad Region, in Syria and on Kamchatka.

A Bastion battalion is capable of defending a coastline stretching over 600km. The Bastion can fire Oniks missiles to a range of 500km. The firing positions can be moved away from the coastline by 200km.

Source: ITAR-TASS 26-08-2019

Trump says Putin may attend next G7 summit in US

The US president also confirmed, that the G7 leaders had discussed Russia’s possible return to the club of the world’s leading industrialized nations.

BIARRITZ /France/, August 25. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin might attend the next G7 summit in the United States in 2020, the news agency Bloomberg reported on Sunday.

The US president made this statement ahead of his meeting with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the G7 summit that is running in the French resort city of Biarritz, the news agency said.

According to Bloomberg, Trump said it is "certainly possible" that Putin is invited to the next G7 summit.

Meanwhile, the news agency Reuters reported that the US president confirmed the media reports that the G7 leaders had discussed Russia’s possible return to the club of the world’s leading industrialized nations. Trump noted, however, he did not know whether Russia would finally return to the Group of Seven nations.

Returning to G8 format?

US President Trump told reporters on Tuesday that "it’s much more appropriate to have Russia in" [the G8]. According to a senior US administration official cited by CNN, Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron held a telephone conversation on Tuesday and agreed that the Russian president should be invited to the G7 summit in 2020. According to CNN, Trump planned to broach the topic at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, on August 24-26.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier told journalists that the return to the G8 format was not a goal in itself for Russia since it was more efficient to deal with issues within the G20 format of the world’s leading industrialized and emerging economies. As Peskov noted, Russian President Putin has said on many occasions that Russia is not refusing to communicate with other countries in any formats.

The G7 is a group of industrialized nations that includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The group was renamed the G8 in 1997 when Russia joined the club. However, following the 2014 events in Ukraine that created a crisis in relations between Russia and the West, the group’s western members decided to get back to the G7 format.

Source: ITAR-TASS 25-08-2019