Russia & CIS

Iran plans to add around a quarter to its production capacity in the next five years, Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said.

Armenia President has appointed a new chief of artillery.

The group was said to be led by Daesh and planned to travel to Syria.

 

In what seems to have become an annual tradition, I was on the Blog Talk Radio show Midrats this week, talking about the Russian military, Russian political developments, Russian relations with the United States and China, and the like. The recording is now available on the show’s website. The show description is as follows:

Episode 385: Springtime for Russia?

To say that the profile of Russia since the American elections last fall has increased in the minds of Americans would be an understatement.

Outside the 24-hr news cycle, there have been significant developments in Russia internally and externally. From the Baltics, to nuclear weapons, to her growing influence in the Middle East following her involvement in the Syrian conflict.

What should people be focused on with regards to Russia on the global stage this year?

Having announced Putin's visit to Paris, the Kremlin gave the new French leader an opportunity to correct the mistake made by his predecessor, Francois Hollande. The forthcoming meeting in Versailles is to prove that France has not lost its place among world's greatest powers. When dealing with present-day France, nothing can be said for certain

A look at the map is enough to see Russia being almost completely surrounded by zones of instability and conflict, many of which are fraught with nuclear war. A clear understanding and deep awareness of this fact is necessary for developing a promising foreign policy strategy. Problems are everywhere: North Korea, Afghanistan, the Middle East, etc

CIS member states will build a unified system of air and space defence. The project envisages the creation of subsystems for the destruction of space assault weapons. Russia is beginning to improve the system of anti-missile defense, and it is not only Russia, but other countries of the CIS that are involved in this activity

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a letter of congratulation to the president of Iran Islamic Republic Hassan Rouhani, APA reports.

An explosion occurred at the Baku Mechanical Foundry Plant in the Narimanov district of Azerbaijan’s capital, Trend reports.

President of Azerbaijan Republic, President of the National Olympic Committee Ilham Aliyev, First Lady, Chair of the Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games Organizing Committee Mehriban Aliyeva and their family members watched the finals of freestyle wrestling competitions held at the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku May 20.

The Self-Evaluation Exercise-1 (SEL1) was held Saturday of the OCC Reconnaissance Company of Azerbaijan Armed Forces, declared to NATO Operational Capabilities Concept (OCC).

The centre was built in less than two years as a co-operative project between Turkey's government and two aid groups.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani is on course for a second term in office, preliminary results show.

Oil prices rose on Friday, closing out a second week of gains on growing expectations that OPEC and other producing countries will agree next week to extend output cuts.

Baku Transport Agency and Baku Main Police Department announced that the traffic will be restricted on the day of closing of the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games.

The groundbreaking ceremony of Turkish Diyanet Cultural Center in Tokyo was held on Friday.

Armenian soldier violating ceasefire in Nagorno Karabakh was killed, AzVision.az reports citing the Armenian Media.

U.S. states collected less personal income tax revenue in April than they did a year earlier, a Reuters analysis shows, and analysts said they believed high earners were shifting income to next year, hoping for tax cuts from the federal government.

In many cases, people seek medical assistance in hospitals instead of polyclinics, since the latter lack equipment.

"The issue is being addressed with China through appropriate diplomatic and military channels."