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Kim Jong Un received five explosive drones, a reconnaissance drone and a bulletproof vest as gifts from a regional governor on his visit to Russia, official TASS news agency said Sunday. Kim's first official visit abroad since the coronavirus pandemic has fanned Western fears that Moscow and Pyongyang will defy sanctions and strike an arms deal. On Saturday he met the Russian defence minister in Vladivostok, where he inspected state-of-the-art weapons including a hypersonic missile system. TASS said the «leader of the DPRK received five kamikaze drones and a 'Geran-25' reconnaissance drone with vertical takeoff», using the official name of North Korea. TASS said the governor of the Primorye region, which borders China and North Korea, also «offered Kim Jong Un a set of bulletproof protection» and «special clothing not detectable by thermal cameras». Kim's extended tour of Russia's far eastern region, which began on Tuesday, has focused extensively on military matters, as evidenced by his own officer-dominated entourage, a symbolic exchange of rifles with President Vladimir Putin and a tour of a fighter jet factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Moscow is believed to be interested in buying North Korean ammunition to continue fighting in Ukraine, while Pyongyang wants Russia's help to develop its internationally condemned missile programme. The Kremlin has said no agreement has or will be signed. Kim also met with North Korean students studying in Vladivostok on Sunday. North Korean news agency KCNA has described the atmosphere during Kim's visit as «fervent and warm» and said a «new era of friendship, solidarity and cooperation» was opening between North Korea and Russia.

Poland has begun enforcing an entry ban on all Russian-registered passenger cars seeking to enter the country

Russia said it thwarted a coordinated Ukrainian attack on Crimea early on Sunday, while drones also targeted Moscow, disrupting air traffic in the capital, and caused a fire at an oil depot in the southwest of the country. Ukraine in recent days has launched a series of strikes on Russian military targets in occupied Crimea and the Russian Navy Black Sea Fleet's facilities, seeking to undermine Moscow's war efforts in the critical region. Attacks deep inside Russia, far from the front lines, have also increased, with Moscow's mayor saying at least two drones were shot down in the capital region early on Sunday. Reuters could not independently verify Sunday's reports and there were no immediate comment from Kyiv. In an opinion piece late on Saturday, Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's Security Council, urged Kyiv's allies to speed up the delivery of weapons, saying this was the only way to end the war. «For example, the complete or partial elimination of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which is a doable task, should significantly accelerate the process of Russia's search for a way out of the ongoing war,» Danilov wrote on the Ukrainska Pravda news site. Russian air defence systems destroyed at least six drones targeting Crimea from different directions, Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday. The report on the Telegram messaging app did not say whether there was any damage or casualties in the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in a broadly condemned move in 2014, eight years before Moscow's full-fledged invasion. In the Moscow region, a drone was destroyed over the Istra district and another over the Ramensky district, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram, adding there were no casualties or

Russia shot down one Ukrainian drone over the outskirts of Moscow and six others over the annexed Crimean peninsula on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Defence. At around 1:45 am (2245 GMT on Saturday) one drone was intercepted over Moscow's Istrinsky district, the defence ministry said in a Telegram post. «According to preliminary data, there was no damage or casualties at the site where the debris fell,» Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote in a separate Telegram post. «Emergency services specialists are working at the scene.» Two Ukrainian drones were also destroyed at 1:15 am over the west coast of Crimea, with another four drones detected and destroyed over the peninsula between 1:45 to 2:20 am, according to the ministry. Since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in early June, Russia has weathered waves of drone attacks that have sporadically damaged buildings, including in the capital. Russian officials have downplayed the significance of the attacks.

Russia's supply of artillery munitions for the war in Ukraine, but that is not likely to make a big difference, the top American military officer said as he arrived in Norway for NATO meetings that began Saturday and will focus in part on the conflict. U.S. Army Gen.

MOSCOW (Reuters) — Moscow has dismissed as «politically motivated» the conviction of Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin in a U.S. court for participating in a $93 million insider-trading scheme, the state news agency RIA reported on Saturday.

Xi Jinping, has linked arms with two anti-Western states, declaring a «no limits» partnership with Russia and pledging «unswerving» support for North Korea. But the specter of a budding bromance between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, after their meeting this week in eastern Russia, may not be as welcome a development for Xi as it might initially seem. Closer ties between Pyongyang and Moscow could result in both countries being less reliant on Beijing. That might diminish China's perceived clout in global negotiations over ending Russia's war in Ukraine and curtailing North Korea's nuclear program. «I doubt Xi is overjoyed to see the Kim-Putin lovefest unfolding across China's border,» said John Delury, a professor of Chinese studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.

Russia's central bank has raised its key lending rate by one percentage point to 13%, a month after imposing an even larger hike

Space Station on Friday amid raging tensions between Moscow and Washington over Ukraine. Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara lifted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft, which spewed a torrent of fire. The crew was expected to dock at the ISS three hours later.

The United Kingdom on Friday officially declared the Russian mercenary, Wagner Group, which rallied at Moscow before drawing back, as a terrorist organisation.

MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia's central bank raised its key interest rate by 100 basis points to 13% on Friday, jacking up the cost of borrowing for the third meeting in succession in response to a weak rouble and other persistent inflationary pressures.

Inflation in the West has passed its peak. But in Russia, price rises have gained a second wind, bedeviled authorities and brought the consequences of Moscow’s war in Ukraine closer to home. The increase in prices for food and other basic goods has accelerated and some Russians have abandoned vacations abroad.

As the U.S. and Russia vie for greater influence in Africa, Moscow is seeking access for its warships to a Mediterranean port in Libya that could expand its naval footprint in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s backyard. Senior Russian officials, including Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, met with Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar in recent weeks to discuss long-term docking rights in areas he controls in the war-torn country’s east, according to Libyan officials and advisers.

The Financial Times citing American officials. The report came shortly before high-ranking diplomat Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador to Japan, stated on social media that Li "hasn't been seen or heard from in 3 weeks," and that the minister might have been placed under house arrest, as reported by AFP. These recent events contribute to the mounting signs of possible instability within the Beijing leadership.

The price of uranium surged to its highest price in 12 years amid fears of a supply crunch instigated by a coup in Niger, and Canadian miner Cameco’s decision to curtail production, just as demand for the commodity is poised to increase.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stopped in a far eastern Russian city Friday to see a factory that builds the country's most advanced fighter jets on his extended trip that hints at his interest in sophisticated weaponry, as the U.S. and others warned Moscow and Pyongyang against making banned weapons transfer deals. Kim's visits to Russian weapons and technology sites and meetings with President Vladimir Putin have raised speculation he will supply ammunition to Russia for its war efforts in Ukraine in exchange for receiving advanced weapons or technology from Russia as the two nations deepen their ties while both are increasingly isolated and sanctioned in separate confrontations with the West. Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti published video showing Kim's armored train pulling into a station in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Kim's convoy sweeping out of the station shortly afterward.

Ranjit Rath, Chairman, Oil India, says “after economic sanctions against Russia came in, about $150 million from Oil India point of view is lying in one of the State Bank of India’s branches in Moscow. It is a matter of time before we are able to negotiate and get the money repatriated. Multiple channels of discussion processes are being evaluated including the legal options alternatives, G2G engagements. So, it is absolutely not a concern.”On Oil India’s investment in current yearExploration, development and production would encompass about 7,500 crore investment on a standalone basis from Oil India Limited for the current year.

sanctions packages related to the war in Ukraine, penalizing more than 150 companies and individuals that officials said were profiting from Russia's invasion and their proximity to the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin. The sanctions are part of the U.S. effort «to target Russia's military supply chains and deprive Putin of the equipment, technology, and services he needs to wage his barbaric war on Ukraine,» Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. «Today's actions show our global reach in imposing severe costs on Putin's oligarchs,» she added. The Treasury Department's sanctions targeted nearly 100 Russian military-linked elites and individuals — including some in Turkey, Georgia, Finland and the United Arab Emirates — involved with Russia's industrial, financial and technology industries.

Kim Jong Un visited an aeronautics factory Friday on his tour of Russia's far east following his summit with President Vladimir Putin. Two days after meeting Putin at a spaceport, amid speculation they would agree an arms deal, Kim's bullet-proof train arrived in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russian news agencies reported. Kim is in the city, an important Russian industrial centre, to visit an aviation firm producing military and civil equipment. The RIA Novosti news agency published footage of Kim's train arriving in the city, with the red carpet rolled out to greet him. He was met with flowers, music, a dance group and ceremonial loaves of bread, the Interfax agency said. Kim, who seldom leaves his country, held talks with Putin at the Vostochny cosmodrome on Wednesday. Putin said on television Wednesday that Kim «will visit factories where civilian and combat aviation equipment is produced» in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. His visit to Russia's far east comes as US officials and experts have said Moscow is interested in buying North Korean ammunition to use in the conflict in Ukraine — an arms deal that would defy global sanctions. Kim's visit will last a few more days, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Thursday, without giving further details.

Oil India is exploring legal as well as diplomatic channels to repatriate its dividends worth $150 million from Russia, said its chairman, Ranjit Rath. Oil India, Indian Oil Corporation, BPCL and ONGC have participating interests in multiple oil and gas projects in Russia from which they earn dividends periodically. Companies have been receiving dividends but have been unable to transfer them out of Russia since February 2022 due to the banking restrictions in the wake of the Ukraine war and the western sanctions on Moscow. Indian Oil and BPCL have similar amounts of dividends stuck in Russia, totalling $450 million for the three companies, Rath said. This is a «temporary phenomenon» and the company is «very positive about investments in Russia», he said, adding that the company is exploring legal, banking and government-to-government options to get the dividends back. The production at Russian fields in which Oil India has stakes hasn't been affected by the output cut decisions made by the producer cartel OPEC+ of which Russia is a key member, Rath said. Oil India will primarily focus on domestic exploration and production, said its chairman. Rising oil prices won't change the company's investment trajectory, he said. A windfall tax since last year has capped the crude price realisation for Indian state-run producers.

Eighteen months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western countries still haven’t swung the developing world behind supporting Kyiv. Europe, Ukraine and the U.S. have successfully orchestrated several United Nations votes condemning Russia’s invasion.