Russian military to concede key town in Aleppo to Turkish-backed forces

March 27, 2018 By administrator

According to yet unconfirmed reports from various sources, Russian military personnel stationed at a small base in the town of Tal Riffat – located in northern Aleppo province – are to withdraw and leave it to Turkish-backed forces, Al-Masdar News reports.

The unconfirmed claims come after days of talks between Moscow and Ankara over the future of Tal Riffat; during this time US-backed forces currently in control of the town have proven uncooperative insofar as not granting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s request to allow its displaced Arab residents to return, the news agency says.

Tal Riffat was captured by Jaysh al-Thuwar (an Arab faction within the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces) in February 2016.

If the reports are true, it is unclear whether or not US-backed fighters will remain in Tal Riffat “to defend the town from an inevitable storming operation by Turkish-led coalition forces to capture it,” the website says.

Russia shopping mall fire death toll rises to 53 There are Armenians among fire victims

March 26, 2018 By administrator

YEREVAN. – According to the information by armembrus [the embassy of Armenia in Moscow], there are Armenians among the victims of Sunday’s fire that occurred at a shopping mall in Kemerovo, Russia.

Tigran Balayan, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Armenia, on Monday informed the aforementioned noting that additional information will be provided.

According to the latest information, 53 people were killed in the fire.

It is one of the four largest fires that have occurred in Russia over the past 100 years.

The fire had broken out on the last—fourth—floor of the shopping mall.

Its surface area was 1,500 square meters.

#Russia announces #Syria ceasefire to establish ‘humanitarian corridor’ in Eastern #Ghouta

February 26, 2018 By administrator

Russia announces Syria ceasefire

The Russian president has ordered a new ceasefire to allow civilians to exit one of Syria’s last rebel strongholds. The UN has urged warring parties to end hostilities to allow much-needed aid into devastated areas.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered a daily “humanitarian pause” to air strikes in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, according to Russian news agencies.

The ceasefire comes amid calls from the international community to implement a nationwide cessation of hostilities as the humanitarian situations worsens on the ground.

What the ceasefire entails:

The ceasefire is aimed at establishing a “humanitarian corridor” to allow civilians to exit from Eastern Ghouta, considered one of Syria’s last rebel strongholds.
It will begin on Tuesday and last from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time (07:00 to 12:00 UTC), according to the order.
It is similar to the ceasefire that was implemented during the siege of eastern Aleppo to avoid civilian casualties.

Massive casualties: Over the past week, more than 500 civilians have been killed by the Syrian government’s latest offensive in Eastern Ghouta. Russian warplanes formed an integral part of the offensive, according to independent monitors, rights groups and US authorities.

Why now: More than 300,000 people have been killed since the conflict emerged in 2011 following a government crackdown on protesters calling for the release of political prisoners and President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Since then, the conflict has evolved into a multifaceted war, drawing in global superpowers, neighboring countries and non-state actors. But as the conflict winds down, Damascus is attempting to consolidate territory across the country with the help of Russia to secure its interests during peace talks.

Given that Eastern Ghouta is one of the last remaining rebel strongholds, the Syrian regime is seeking to strike a fatal blow to the opposition movement before peace talks gain ground.

Russia risking its ties with Armenia amid new military supplies to Azerbaijan – Styopa Safaryan

January 22, 2018 By administrator

Russia’s attitude to Armenia is just unacceptable as it continues supplying weapons to Azerbaijan in what is seen to further damage the bilateral relations. Kremlin should acknowledge the criticism over its policy will grow in Armenia over the time, Styopa Safaryan, founder of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs (AIISA) told Panorama.am in an interview, commenting on a new batch of Russian military equipment delivered to Azerbaijan.

“It was especially right after the April war, when not only relations between Russia and Armenia were strained but the Russian military-technical cooperation with Azerbaijan was put on hold. It was no coincidence, Russian Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin visited Baku weeks ago. The resumption of the military supplies was undoubtedly in the agenda of bilateral talks. I consider this extremely dangerous,” Safaryan said.

“Russia seems seeking a goal to lose all possible friends, at least it has chosen the route to that end. Armenia is one of the few countries that has always maintained solidarity with Russia in the foreign affairs – often to the detriment of own interest,” Safaryan added.

The political analyst recalled Armenia’s acknowledgment of Crimea as part of Russia, that endangered relations with Ukraine, saying: “We made that decision considering Russia’s role in our foreign policy and allied relations. In contrast, Russia’s actions appear unthankful.”

Source Panorama.am

Russian-Azerbaijani arms trade ‘potentially explosive’ for region – Armenian military expert

January 13, 2018 By administrator

Russia’s continuing weapons sale to Azerbaijan appears to be the major wrinkle in the country’s developing strategic alliance with Armenia, , a Yerevan-based military expert said Saturday, warning of serious hazards to regional security.

In an interview with Tert.am, David Jamalyan dismissed the allegations that the double dealing aims to maintain balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan against the backdrop of the unsettled Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He described the argument, repeatedly cited by the Russian authorities, as a cynical justification potentially creating an explosive situation in the region.

“I don’t think the supply of Russian armament is limited to business interests only. That’s true certainly but is of secondary importance. It is rather a desperate step to make Azerbaijan dependent upon Russia, as a weapons supply deal implies also an ongoing and lasting dialogue with the supplier. Seeing Azerbaijan’s resolute efforts towards distancing itself from the Russian zone of influence, our partners [in Russia] are now trying to make them bound in this way,” he noted.

Jamalyan also highlighted Azerbaijan’s dependence upon Turkey as a Turkic state. “Their dependence on Turkey in very different areas is too deep to isolate [the two countries] from each other,” he noted.

In that context, the expert described the Russian policies as a way of encouraging the the Azerbaijani authorities’ bellicose ambitions. “Being a supporter of the Russian-Armenian alliance, I consider those comments simply cynical. Russia’s justifications sound really very absurd as we do not have any aggressive ambitions. It is Azerbaijan that pursues aggressive ambitions in essence. Hence any supply of weapons to Azerbaijan implies encouraging those ambitions, and contributing to an increased tension,” Jamalyan added.

Independent: Russia compares US-led bombing of Raqqa to WWII destruction of Dresden

October 23, 2017 By administrator

Samuel Osborne

Russia’s Defence Ministry has repeatedly been forced to deny accusations of indiscriminately bombing Syrian civilians.

Russia has accused the US-led coalition in Syria of wiping the city of Raqqa “off the face of the Earth” with carpet-bombing, in the same way America and Britain bombed Germany’s Dresden during World War Two.

The Russian Defence Ministry, which has repeatedly been forced to deny accusations from activists and western politicians of indiscriminately bombing Syrian civilians, said it looked like the West was now rushing to provide financial aid to Raqqa to cover up evidence of its own crimes.

Major-General Igor Konashenkov, chief spokesman for the Defence Ministry, said around 200,000 people had lived in Raqqa before the conflict in Syria but no more than 45,000 people remained.

“Raqqa has inherited the fate of Dresden in 1945, wiped off the face of the Earth by Anglo-American bombardments,” he said.

Most of the German city was destroyed in Allied bombing raids just before the end of the Second World War.

US-backed militias in Syria declared victory over Isis in Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital, last week, raising flags over the last jihadist footholds after a four-month battle.

Though he said Russia welcomed western promises of financial aid to rebuild Raqqa, Major-General Konashenkov complained that numerous Russian requests for the West to give humanitarian aid to Syrian civilians in other parts of the country had been rejected in previous years.

“What is behind the rush by western capitals to provide targeted financial help only to Raqqa?” he asked.

“There’s only one explanation – the desire to cover up evidence of the barbaric bombardments by the US air force and the coalition as fast as possible and to bury the thousands of civilians ‘liberated’ from Islamic State in the ruins.”

The US-led coalition says it is careful to avoid civilian casualties in its bombing runs against Isis in both Syria and Iraq, and investigates any allegations.

The coalition has previously denied killing civilians in air strikes on Raqqa, saying its goal is “zero civilian casualties”.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/russia-compares-us-coalition-bombing-raqqa-syria-wwii-dresden-germany-isis-a8013626.html

Armenian parliament ratifies deal on joint troops with Russia

October 5, 2017 By administrator

The National Assembly of Armenia ratified the bill on creating Russian-Armenian Joint Group of Forces on Thursday, during the third session of the four-day sitting.

The measure was adopted with 87 votes in favor and 7 votes against.

To remind, the Russian State Duma ratified the above-mentioned agreement on July 14.

The agreement signed in Moscow on November 30 2016 determines the purpose, the procedure of formation, deployment and operation of the joint group of forces. The alliance is formed in the Caucasian Region of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, aimed at timely detecting the possible attacks, maintaining control over the two country’s land borders, as well as taking part in air-defense and information infrastructure protection operations.

Under the deal, the staff of the Joint Group of Forces will be determined by the Russian and Armenian Defense Ministries based on the joint analysis of the military-political situation, as well as the agreed conclusions.

The agreement’s validity period is five years with a possibility of further extension.

What kind of ‘end-user certificate’ exists between Russia and Turkey

September 27, 2017 By administrator

Author Anahit Voskanyan

The Russian “Pravda” newspaper published analysis days ago over the Karabakh issue and Turkey’s acquisition of Russia’s most advanced S-400 missile defense system.

In the author’s conviction and as he claimed in the piece when Turkey reached an agreement with Russia over the purchase of the S-400 systems in April, FEW could suppose that could affect the balance of power between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In an interesting way, they ‘came to that conclusion’ only after the comments by Azerbaijani lawmaker Rasim Musabekov, suggesting “Russian interference into the Karabakh conflict on the side of Armenia would inevitably lead to Turkey’s taking the Azerbaijani side.”

The time coincided with reports by Turkish sources, saying the country plans to deploy the newly obtained missile systems at the border with Armenia. Let us put aside the long-persisted Azerbaijani practice of intimidating us with its “big brother” Turkey, as do the fact why Russia acted so ‘naively’ to sell weapons in a region where it positions itself as a mediator. Similarly, it would be best to leave out the Russians’ ‘surprise’ over reports of Turkey’s initiative to deploy the missile systems at the border with Armenia, likewise Russian cynical justifications of arm sale to Azerbaijan for solely ‘business considerations.’

Let us only accept the fact that Russia sells weapons to Turkey with follow-up new questions, surfacing whether Russia plans to sell new arms to Turkey, what kind of weapons, if so, and whether Turkey can resell those arms to Azerbaijan. Does the Armenian diplomacy track those possible developments? We addressed the question about the possibility to resell arms to Armenian ministries of foreign affairs and defense.

In its official clarification, the foreign ministry referred to the Russian legislation mandating the required document of the so-called ‘end-user certificate’ for military devices and equipment which is a document used in international transfers, including sales and export of the arms to certify those will be used only for the stated purposes, that the buyer is the final recipient of the materials, and not planning on transferring or re-exporting of the materials to third parties without the agreement of the original supplier of the arms.

Thus, it remains to see what kind of ‘end-user certificate’ exits between Russia and Turkey!

Russia Supports Iraqi Territorial Integrity Amid Kurdish Vote – Foreign Ministry

September 27, 2017 By administrator

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday issued a statement commenting on a recent Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum vote.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia supports Iraq’s territorial integrity, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement following a referendum on independence held in Iraqi Kurdistan. Moreover, Moscow calls for both Baghdad and Erbil to resolve all the disagreements strongly by peaceful means, the Russian Foreign Ministry added.

“In connection with the referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Russian side considers it essential to avoid everything that could destabilize the situation in the Middle East. Our support for the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Iraq and other states of the Middle East remains unchanged. We believe all the disputable issues that exist between the federal authorities of Iraq and the leadership of the Kurdish Autonomous Region can and should be resolved through constructive and respectful dialogue designed to work out a mutually acceptable formula for coexistence within a single Iraqi state” the statement said.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the independence vote took place in Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan as well as in the disputed areas de jure controlled by Baghdad but under de facto control of Kurdish authorities. After 9 percent of votes had been counted, more than 93 percent of voters backed the independence of the region. Iraqi authorities said that the referendum was not legitimate and stressed that they would not conduct talks with the authorities of Iraqi Kurdistan on the issue of the vote.

Russia threatens to attack U.S.-backed forces in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor

September 21, 2017 By administrator

The Russian Ministry of Defense has issued a formal warning to the U.S. military regarding the behavior of their forces in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Al-Masdar News reports.

“Russia unequivocally told the commanders of U.S. forces in Al Udeid Airbase (Qatar) that it will not tolerate any shelling from the areas where the SDF are stationed,” the Spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov, stated this morning, adding that the attacks put at risk Russian military advisers embedded with Syrian government troops.

“Fire from positions in regions [controlled by the SDF] will be suppressed by all means necessary,” he stressed.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have shelled the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) positions in Deir ez-Zor at least two times this week; this has prompted the Russian Ministry of Defense’s to issue a stern warning to Washington.

Photo. AFP

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