Just as the US warships were heading towards the Georgian coasts in the Black Sea in the wake of four-day Caucasus war last month, Russia announced it would send a naval task force of the Northern Fleet on a tour of duty in the Atlantic Ocean and participate in joint naval drills with the Venezuelan navy in November. "Two Russian bombers have arrived in Venezuela for training exercises," Russian Defence Ministry said.
After successfully working on the contracts for the Indian navy and army, the New Delhi-based JV is now poised to expand in the international market and some of the contracts are already in the pipeline, Brahmos CEO Sivathanu Pillai said.Many nations across the globe are taking keen interest in the deadly supersonic Brahmos cruise missile, which will remain unmatched at least for the coming decade.South Africa, Chile, Kuwait are in the waiting list.
"The security of our peacekeepers and civilians has been restored," Medvedev said, adding, "The aggressor has been punished and suffered very significant losses. It's military has been disorganised." At his televised meeting with the Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and Chief of General Staff General Makarov, the Russian President, however, said he ordered the military to defend itself and quell any signs of Georgian resistance.
Russian troops backed by tanks and fighter jets took control of South Ossetia on Sunday after three days of intense battle, forcing US-allied Georgia to order its forces to retreat and call for a ceasefire amid increasing international concerns about the flare-up in the region.
Buoyed by the remarkable success of the supersonic BrahMos cruise missiles, India and Russia are now mulling the joint development of a futuristic 'smart' battle tank, featuring higher speed and better firepower. "We put forward this idea (of developing the tank) at the turn of the 21st century. The Indian side has now come up with a similar proposal," Nikolai Malykh, director general of Russia's biggest tank producer Uralvagonzavod, said.
Identifying development of friendly ties with India and China as the "most important direction" of its foreign policy in Asia, Russia on Tuesday said it will further consolidate dialogue with these countries in a trilateral format as an element of the multi-polar world order.
India will get its first Akula class Russian nuclear submarine next year, equipping its navy with the quietest and lethal underwater war machine after a gap of 17 years, to enhance its water warfare capabilities.Factory trials of the multi-role nuclear submarine, christened INS Chakra, which India-will get on a 10-year-lease, commenced on June 11 at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard and will be followed by sea trials, Russian defence sources said.
"There are multiple reasons for the current food crisis, primarily because of recent cyclones in Bangladesh and Myanmar, which destroyed the entire rice crops in these countries, also exporters of rice. Now they have to import rice instead of exporting it," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said during the deliberations on the issue at the ministerial meet in Yekaterinburg (Russia).
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday briefed his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the Indo-US nuclear deal and raised the issues of delay in the delivery of Gorshkov aircraft carrier.
The 123 agreement between the two former Cold War rivals was signed in Moscow by the Russian Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko and US ambassador William Burns. The civilian nuclear cooperation pact is a result of over 20 years of tough negotiations between the two countries and provides a legal framework for the nuclear trade between the companies of the two nations.
"I have decided to stop financing the newspaper and consecutively its publication, which is related to large costs for its publication and disagreements with the editorial regarding its concept," Director-General Artyom Artyomov of 'National Media Company', which publishes Moskovsky Korrespondent, was quoted as saying by Interfax.
"There is not a single word of truth in what you mentioned," he said, responding to a question about the story of Moskovsky Korrespondent tabloid claiming that Putin plans to wed Olympic rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabayeva on June 15 and has divorced his wife Lyudmila in February.
During his Russian visit from March 13-19, Admiral Mehta, also the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, is also expected to discuss the vital issues of cooperation with his Russian counterpart Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky and fly the MiG-29KUB fighter developed for deployment on Gorshkov carrier after its induction as INS Vikramaditya some time in 2012. The issues of seagoing trials of Admiral Gorshkov by the Russian Navy prior to its delivery will also be taken up.
"They are trying to convince us that all these actions are not directed against Russia on the other hand, to our quite solid concerns, there is no constructive answer," Putin said.
"If the citizens of Russia trust Dmitry Medvedev and elect him the country's president, I will be ready to chair the government," Putin said after walking into the congress hall near the famous Red Square accompanied by Medvedev amid applause from dark-suited men and women delegates.
Under the deal signed in Moscow last month during Indian Defence Minister A K Antony's visit, HAL will supply large components to Russia's Irkut Corporation for assembling the airframes of Su-30MK fighters. The Russian firm is working on Indian, Malaysian and Algerian export orders.
"The joint development of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft will mark the start of cooperation in the development of major state-of-the-art new technology weapon systems," Antony said, adding that both India and Russia would have equal financial and technological stakes and issues related to the intellectual property and specific requirement of the Indian Air Force have been resolved.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said he would lead the list of candidates of pro-Kremlin 'United Russia' in the December parliamentary polls.
Russian authorities claimed to have solved the sensational killing of known Kremlin critic journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was assassinated in the elevator of her apartment in October 2006.
India and Russia will set up a joint task force to boost bilateral trade to a level of $10 billion by 2010 from the present $2billion, a senior official of the Indian government has said.