Russia & CIS

The death toll rose to 91 and the number of injured people was up to 209 after a 7.0-magnitude quake hit tourist destination of Lombok Island in central Indonesia, an official said on Monday, Xinhua reported.

Judge Ishkhan Barseghyan, who is charged with taking a bribe, has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Azerbaijani artillerymen have reached the final of the "Masters of the artillery fire-2018" contest held as part of the "International Army Games-2018" competitions at Otar military base in Kazakhstan.

Iran has so far arrested 45 people as part of a probe into financial corruption and economic crisis, the spokesman of the country’s judiciary said on Aug.6 as the country prepares to face a return of US sanctions.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has expressed condolences over the earthquake in Indonesia’s Lombok Island.

Azerbaijan State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons has released data on missing persons, people taken prisoner and hostages as a result of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as persons released from Armenian captivity.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has expressed condolences to Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo.

News.Az reprints from Jam News an article headlined "Ethnic minorities in Armenia rarely speak out about their problems".

The second phase of the construction of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) is planned to be completed in June 2019, SOCAR Turkey Enerji told Trend Aug. 6.

Russia is prepared for another package of US sanctions and may respond to it with a military and strategic blow.The new bill about new sanctions against Russia includes measures against the Kremlin elite and bans transactions with a new Russian sovereign debt. The Russian side will respond to the US with mirrored military and strategic measures, Anatoly Aksakov, the chairman of the Committee for Financial Market at the State Duma said. Russia may revise some of Moscow's international obligations. Aksakov stressed that it goes about  new acquisitions of Russia's sovereign debt, which does not need to be increased as the budget operates with a surplus.Russia's budget is based on the price of oil at $40 per barrel. Taking into account the fact that today the price of oil is above $70, the Russian National Welfare Fund, which accumulates reserves, has been growing lately. Thus, the impact of US sanctions in this regard will be minimal.Russia is prepared for the new sanctions, which, as Aksakov believes, are not going to affect the Russian economy. However, foreign investors have been turning their backs on Russian securities lately because of the intention of the US administration to impose new sanctions on Russia. The Kremlin noted that US senators are going too far. As long as Russia's unsubstantiated and far-fetched interference in US elections gives US officials the right to cause economic damage to the Russian economy and to the well-being of the Russian population, Russia has every reason to develop its own measures, including military and strategic ones, that would lead to irreparable losses for the US economy and population. Russia may revise some of its international obligations against the background of its highly strained relations with the West. In the past, Russia had assumed certain obligations under certain international legal conditions. As long as the conditions are changing, the obligations will change too. The US abjures its international responsibilities on a regular basis as well, including in the sphere of control over the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (Iran nuclear deal), and in terms of tariff and non-tariff protectionism in trade.According to the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper, the document entitled "Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act (DASKAA), is intended to exert economic, political and diplomatic pressure on Russia in response to Russia's ongoing interference in the American electoral process. The authors of the document pay special attention to Russia's "pernicious influence in Syria" and "aggression in the Crimea".The authors of the document are Democrat Ben Cardin, Republican Lindsey Graham, Democrat Robert Menendez, Republican Cory Gardner, Republican John McCain, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen. The measures to be taken against Russia include "sanctions against political figures, oligarchs, family members and others who directly or indirectly contribute to illegal and corrupt activities on behalf of Vladimir Putin."DASKAA also contains a paragraph on restrictive measures against transactions involving investment in energy projects that have the support of state or parastatal organizations of Russia, as well as sectoral sanctions against any person in Russia that could be involved in "malicious cyberactivity."The bill has received a lot of media attention lately because of its requirement to prohibit transactions with the new Russian sovereign debt. Interestingly, the bill appeared soon after the Putin-Trump summit in Helsinki. The DASKAA text also complicates the procedure for the US withdrawal from NATO as much as possible and simplifies the transfer of defense equipment to the countries of the military bloc in order to reduce the dependence of certain NATO countries on Russia's military equipment.US officials started proposing new anti-Russian initiatives after the Helsinki summit.  For example, Republican Senator John Barrasso put forward an initiative against Russia's Nord Stream 2 energy project. According to him, European countries need to diversify their imports of natural gas and opt for organic fuels from the United States.Experts believe that such actions could take the world to a global crisis as financial markets would experience the shock that the world has not seen since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Restrictions on capital mobilization and sales of energy carriers would imply default on Russia's external obligations, the amount of which is only slightly less than the debts of LB before its bankruptcy. USA's new measures may thus trigger the effect of a house of cards and lead to deleverage on all markets. In the beginning of the current year, when everyone was expecting sanctions on Russia's federal OFZ bonds, the US Treasury Secretary clearly stated that such a move would be dangerous for the world financial system. At the same time, the USA may pass the DASKAA act to keep Russia on a short leash as was the case with the CAATSA act, the implementation of which took place only eight months after the document was adopted.

An explosion occurred in the trench shelter at one of the positions of the Armenian armed forces in the evening.

Settling civilians in an occupied territory is considered a war crime by the Geneva Conventions.

The Turkish lira reached a record low against the dollar on Monday, after the Trump administration said it was reviewing Turkey’s duty-free access to the U.S. market, a move that could affect some $1.66 billion of Turkish imports.

Deputy FMs of Caspian five will meet in the framework of special working group on August 10.

One of the active participants of Ganja events has been detained.

Azerbaijani tankmen reached the semi-final of the "Tank biathlon-2018" contest.

The Field Kitchen contest held within the International Army Games 2018 is underway at Moscow’s Alabino range.

A permanent exhibition of products under the Made in Azerbaijan brand will be organized in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, chairman of the board of the Association for Azerbaijan-Arab Countries Cooperation (AACC) Elshan Rahimov told Trend July 31.

Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Russian administration was aware of the plans of Russia's potential enemies to start a war against the Russian Federation. "Our awareness of what plans the US and other Western countries' militaries are nursing in relation to the Russian Federation is guaranteed," Lavrov said during the "Territory of Meanings" youth forum. The minister also said that Russia's military presence in the world ensures the nation's security and defense capability. Despite recent changes in the global agenda, Russian citizens will be protected accordingly, he added. Lavrov's remarks on the subject were not incidental. NATO regularly conducts exercises near Russian borders, especially in the Baltic countries. At the same time, the presence of US Navy vessels in the Black Sea has been growing steadily. NATO officials, including Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, constantly speak about "Russia's aggression" and NATO's need in defence. In February of this year, Lavrov spoke about NATO member states preparing a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Russia, linking those efforts with large-scale military exercises near Russian borders. NATO continues its expansion policy and does not mind accepting Georgia. These statements, however, are still extremely difficult to implement in practical terms. For Georgia to join the alliance, NATO should first recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as sovereign and independent states. Needless to say that the West is not ready to do it. At the same time, NATO continues the program for the modernisation of non-strategic B61 nuclear bombs in Europe. This is an American weapon that should be upgraded before 2024. There were 150 such bombs in Europe as of the winter of 2017. This fact does not contribute to easing tensions  between Russia and a number of Western countries either. This is probably one of the reasons why Putin paid so much attention to the development of new types of nuclear weapons when he delivered his annual speech to the Federal Assembly. It is worth mentioning here that Russia has completed the trials for the new weapons and launched serial production of some of them. In general, the awareness of potential threats is a normal situation for any developed country, and this is what Sergei Lavrov meant when he spoke at the forum. NATO does not want to stop its manoeuvres against "those Russians," although this is a political and demonstrative step. However, such a demonstration of power, in turn, makes it clear that Russia needs to continue strengthening its own armed forces as well.

Zoya Tadevosyan, a member of the "Armenian National Congress" (Levon Ter-Petrosyan's party - editor's note), during a meeting with journalists, issued a statement on the seven occupied regions around Nagorno-Karabakh, declaring that they should be returned to Azerbaijan if the conflict resolution requires it, Oxu.Az reports citing the Armenian media.