organization:ria

  • Le régime syrien annonce une offensive soutenue par la Russie pour prendre tout Alep , où dans le sud une contre-offensive du régime et de ses alliés tente déjà de récupérer le terrain perdu ces derniers jours face à l’offensive récente d’une coalition comprenant al-Nousra, des groupes salafistes et d’autres affiliés à l’ASL.
    Syrian PM says Russia to back new Aleppo attack ; opposition says truce near collapse
    Reuters / 10.04.16
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idUSKCN0X70GE

    Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki told a delegation of visiting Russian lawmakers of preparations to “liberate” Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city and commercial hub before the conflict that erupted in 2011. Aleppo is divided into areas controlled separately by the government and opposition.
    “We, together with our Russian partners, are preparing for an operation to liberate Aleppo and to block all illegal armed groups which have not joined or have broken the ceasefire deal,” he was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.
    Dmitry Sablin, a member of Russia’s upper house of parliament and a member of the delegation, told RIA news agency “Russian aviation will help the Syrian army’s ground offensive operation”.

    L’opposition de Ryadh déclare que la cessation des hostilités est sur le point de s’effondrer :

    A member of the main opposition council said the last 10 days had “witnessed a serious deterioration, to the point where the ceasefire is about to collapse”. Bassma Kodmani of the High Negotiations Committee also told Journal du Dimanche that a U.S.-Russian ceasefire monitoring mission was “powerless”.
    The army says groups that had agreed to the cessation of hostilities had taken part in Nusra Front attacks on government-held positions south of Aleppo. Free Syrian Army groups meanwhile blame the fighting on government violations.
    “The air strikes are now roughly back to what they were,” said Mohamed Rasheed, head of the media office with the Jaysh al-Nasr rebel group. A Syrian military source said: “The battles are raging because ... armed groups that were part of the (truce) joined Nusra in the attack.”

    Tandis qu’on annonce l’arrivée de renforts nombreux pour le régime du côté d’Alep, tout semble en place pour une confrontation majeure du côté de Lattaquieh (frontière turque) et à Alep. Les Russes, les Iraniens et le régime semblent vouloir infliger une leçon à tous les groupes qui se sont alliés à al-Nousra, non seulement en récupérant le terrain perdu récemment, mais en réalisant des faits nouveaux sur le terrain.
    Qu’en pensent les Américains ? Jusqu’où va leur entente avec les Russes ?

    • Selon al-Monitor, à la suite de la déclaration fracassante du premier ministre syrien Wael al-Halaki sur la vaste contre-offensive prévue à Alep et qui serait soutenue par les Russes, des officiels russes auraient dit aux Américains : ne l’écoutez pas, il est irrationnel :
      http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/04/us-russia-ceasefire-syria-kerry-lavrov-nusra-aleppo-geneva.html#

      Russian officials have told the Americans that they are committed to sustaining the cessation of hostilities. Indeed, after Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was cited telling a visiting delegation of Russian lawmakers April 9 that a Russian-backed Syrian army operation was soon to get underway to liberate Aleppo, the Russians told the Americans don’t listen to him, he’s “irrational,” a Syrian opposition contact in touch with US officials working on Syria told Al-Monitor.
      Notably, after the US expressed concern about how a major operation against Jabhat al-Nusra near Aleppo could affect the cease-fire ahead of new talks, Russia did not provide air support to Iranian special forces involved in intense clashes against Jabhat al-Nusra in Al-Eis, near Aleppo, on April 11-12, an Iranian and a British journalist near Aleppo said.

  • CIA head in Moscow this month, discussed Assad leaving power - RIA
    http://in.reuters.com/article/russia-usa-cia-syria-idINKCN0WU1KM?rpc=401

    The director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency raised the issue of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad leaving power when he visited Moscow at the start of March, RIA news agency said on Monday, citing the U.S. Embassy in Russia.

    CIA Director John Brennan also discussed the observance of the ceasefire in Syria, the news agency said.

    Dean Boyd, the CIA’s chief spokesman, confirmed to Reuters that Brennan had visited Moscow in early March and that Syrian issues were on the agenda. It is unusual for the CIA publicly to discuss its chief’s travels or the subjects of his discussions with foreign officials.

  • Russia to sign contract this year to sell Su-30SM fighter jets to Iran: RIA | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-iran-idUSKCN0VQ0NF

    Russia will sign this year a contract with Iran to supply a batch of its Sukhoi Su-30SM multi-role fighter jets to the Islamic Republic, RIA news agency on Wednesday quoted a senior official at Russia’s arms export agency as saying.

    Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan is visiting Moscow this week. He met the Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said, giving no further detail.

  • Russian aircraft head off U.S. destroyer in Black Sea : RIA - Yahoo News Canada
    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/russian-aircraft-head-off-u-destroyer-black-sea-025718595.html

    Russian military aircraft were scrambled to head off a U.S. warship that was acting “aggressively” in the Black Sea, state news agency RIA reported on Saturday, but the Pentagon denied any unusual behavior.
    […]
    Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said the USS Ross was “well within international waters at all times, performing routine operations.
    "The U.S. Navy operates routinely in the Black Sea, in accordance with international law," Lainez said, noting the Ross’s deployment to the Black Sea had been publicly announced.

    Bon, ben nous revoilà 30 ans en arrière avec un R. Reagan donnant les instructions pour affirmer le droit de « passage innocent » et déclenchant les « incidents » de Crimée …

    1986
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_Black_Sea_incident

    The U.S. Department of State’s instructions to the American embassy in the Soviet Union noted the U.S. “would not want to lend any validity to a Soviet position that their domestic law was at all relevant in determining U.S. navigational rights under international law”.

    et 1988
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Black_Sea_bumping_incident

    The United States believed there was no legal basis for a coastal nation to limit warship transits to sea lanes only. Subsequently the U.S. Department of State found that unlike the English-language text of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Russian-language text of Article 22, paragraph 1 allowed the coastal state to regulate the right of innocent passage whenever necessary. Following the incident, the Soviet Union expressed a commitment to resolve the issue of innocent passage in Soviet territorial waters.

    débouchant finalement sur une baisse de la tension et un accord.

    On 11 July 1988, Chief of the Soviet General Staff Sergei Akhromeyev and Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff William J. Crowe issued a joint statement in Washington aimed at avoiding dangerous military activities. On 12 June 1989, the Agreement on the Prevention of Dangerous Military Activities was signed in Moscow by Crowe and the new Chief of the Soviet General Staff Mikhail Moiseyev.

    Accord qui doit toujours être en vigueur
    http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Prevention_of_Dangerous_Military_Activities_Agreement
    Déjà, en juillet 2013, devant « la recrudescence des activités militaires russes dans le monde », ce blog rappelait les procédures à respecter et les fréquences à utiliser…
    http://mt-milcom.blogspot.fr/2013/07/russian-us-procedures-for-prevention-of.html

  • Greece in talks with Russia to buy missiles for S-300 systems : RIA | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/15/us-russia-nuclear-greece-missiles-idUSKBN0N62A720150415

    Greece is negotiating with Russia for the purchase of missiles for its S-300 anti-missile systems and for their maintenance, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos as saying on Wednesday.

    The report followed a visit by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last week to Moscow, where he won pledges of Russian moral support and long-term cooperation but no fresh funds to help avert bankruptcy for his heavily indebted nation.

    NATO member Greece has been in possession of the Russian-made S-300 air defense systems since the late 1990s.
     
    We are limiting ourselves to replacement of missiles (for the systems),” RIA quoted Kammenos, who is in Moscow for a security conference, as saying.

    There are negotiations between Russia and Greece on the maintenance of the systems ... as well as for the purchase of new missiles for the S-300 systems,” he said.

    The Greek defense ministry in Athens later issued a statement quoting Kammenos as saying: “The existing defense cooperation programs will continue. There will be maintenance for the existing programs.

    No other details were immediately available.

    Bon, le communiqué officiel dit qu’il n’a pas tout à fait dit ça. Mais on n’a pas fini d’en entendre parler :

    Ah ben, v’la-t-y pas qu’au lieu d’acheter des sous-marins teutons comme d’hab’, i-va acheter du missile chez les Popoffs !

  • Russia and Ukraine trade soldiers at border - Russian news agencies | Reuters
    http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/08/31/ukraine-crisis-prisoners-idINKBN0GV09N20140831

    Ukraine has handed over a group of captured Russian paratroops and Russia has returned 63 Ukrainian soldiers who crossed into its territory last week, Russian news agencies quoted a paratroop commander as saying.

    RIA news agency quoted Russian Major-General Alexei Ragozin as saying the paratroops had been handed back after “very difficult” negotiations and after what he called an unacceptable delay.

    Ukraine said last week it had captured 10 paratroops and presented them to the press as evidence that the Russian military is fighting alongside pro-Moscow separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. Russia said the men had crossed an unmarked section of the border by accident.

    The handovers appeared to mark a slight easing in tension between the two countries after a sharp escalation late last week, when the rebels — supported, according to Kiev, by Russian armoured columns — opened a new front in the fighting by capturing the southern coastal town of Novoazovsk.

  • #Russia: #syria has no more chemical arms potential
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/russia-syria-has-no-more-chemical-arms-potential

    The Syrian government has reduced its #chemical_weapons potential close to zero, state-run RIA news agency quoted an unnamed official at the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying on Friday. “Chemical weapons production facilities, equipment for mixing (chemicals) and operating (the weapons), as well as the means of their delivery have been destroyed,” the official said, adding that the only gas that had been ready for use in weaponry had been completely removed from the country. “At the moment, Damascus has de facto reduced its military chemical weapons potential to almost zero.” read more

    #Top_News

  • Russia’s Kalashnikov in intensive care: report
    http://www.france24.com/en/20121225-russias-kalashnikov-intensive-care-report

    Russia’s legendary rifle-designer Mikhail Kalashnikov has been hospitalised in intensive care after complaining of general weakness, his assistant was quoted by news agencies as saying Tuesday.

    The 93-year-old father of the AK-47 has been having heart problems and feeling poorly since March, when he stopped showing up for work, his aide told the RIA Novosti news agency.