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Middle East and North Africa

Russian deputy foreign minister arrives in Syria for talks on chemical weapons

Ryabkov to discuss chemical weapon destruction, may meet with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem

Sergei Ryabkov. Photo ITAR-TASS/ Sergei Karpov

Sergei Ryabkov. Photo ITAR-TASS/ Sergei Karpov

DAMASCUS, September 17 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has arrived in Syria for talks to discuss a plan to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons.

On Tuesday he will meet with Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad. After the talks they will give a joint news conference in Damascus.

It is not ruled out that Ryabkov will meet with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem later in the day.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sealed on Saturday a deal on a framework to secure and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons by mid-2014 under control of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Earlier in the day the Russian president’s special envoy to Syria, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Syrian ambassador to Russia Riyadh Haddad met in Moscow to discuss practical implementation of the agreement.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, they also focused on the soonest possible political settlement of Syria’s crisis on the basis of the Geneva communiqu· of June 30, 2012, through an international peace conference.

Middle East and North Africa

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Lavrov labels way West ramping up sanctions against Russia as mindless

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Over 40 nations want to join BRICS — Russian lawmaker

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US assured Israel that Iranian drones will be intercepted — US journalist Hersh

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G7 leaders to decide on Russian assets use — Italian Deputy PM

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Infrastructure is required to implement the investment project, both power transmission lines and the railroad, Andrey Chibis noted

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Arnulf Damerau said that he provided details of the meeting, along with evidence and a list of names of those involved, to US and European intelligence agencies

Russia handed over draft agreement to Ukraine on April 15, still no response — diplomat

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Russian forces destroy Ukrainian army’s aircraft park near Nikolayev — defense ministry

"Big fuel depots in Konstantinovka, Nikolayev region, Slavut, Rovno region, and Ternopol were hit by high-precision air-based missiles," he said

Russian economy proves resilience amid large-scale sanctions — IMF

The IMF states that the restrictions led to the need to rebuild the economy

American Abrams tanks vulnerable even to Soviet-era weapons, says expert

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Russia has significant amount of West’s funds in case of confiscation of its assets

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Armenia’s relations with Russia not at their highest — top diplomat

Ararat Mirzoyan also said that Yerevan is currently making efforts to expand cooperation with the European Union and the United States

Final statement by G7 top diplomats to call for supplying more air defenses to Kiev

Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister said Kiev required US-made Patriot systems and Italian-French Samp-T theatre antimissile systems

Bank of Russia supports accelerating bill on international cryptocurrency payments

Elvira Nabiullina also noted that more than 98% of financial transactions inside Russia are routed through the Russian equivalent of SWIFT, the Financial Messaging System of the Bank of Russia

FACTBOX: Collective Security Treaty Organization

The Collective Security Treaty came into force on April 20, 1994 to herald the emergence what would eventually become the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The six member-countries are Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

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Three Ukrainian soldiers swim across Dnieper to surrender to Russian troops — governor

Vladimir Saldo called on other Ukrainian servicemen to switch to the Russian side and request the corresponding assistance

Kiev ordered mandatory evacuation from Kharkov Region to accommodate mercenaries

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