Undermining the Russian convoy in Syria

The TASS news agency reported with a reference to the Russian Ministry of Defense that some terrorists carried out a bombing on the route of the Russian convoy with humanitarian aid in the Syrian province of Homs. A military police car was blown up, which was scouting the route. 1 Russian serviceman was wounded. He died despite the medical help. The Russian ministry stated that the family of the killed serviceman will be provided with all the necessary help and support.

The Taliban have banned all further protests in the country. The Interior Ministry’s first official statement since the formation of the Afghan interim government said that no one should currently attempt to organize protests without permission. The offenders face «serious criminal consequences.» As a reason, the authorities explained that in recent days, some people violate public order. At the same time, the Islamists named the conditions for protests in the future.Organizers must obtain prior approval from the Ministry of Justice, at least 24 hours before the start of the demonstration, they should communicate the place, time and slogans of the demonstration to the judicial and security authorities. In recent days, the Taliban have dispersed demonstrations by scaring the crowd with gunfire into the air. They also banned media coverage of the protests. Recently in Kabul and Herat, up to 1000 people marched against the Taliban and Pakistan, which supports them. The protesters stated that Pakistan «interferes in internal Afghan affairs.»

10 days after the pulling of the US troops from Afghanistan, the foreigners were once again able to leave the country on a civilian evacuation aircraft from the ’Qatar Airways’ company. About 110 people, including citizens of the USA, The UK, Germany, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, and Ukraine, were taken to Doha. Most of them are Afghans with dual citizenship. The new Afghan authorities allowed them to leave the country, negotiations were conducted on the evacuation of 200 people.The first aircraft launched from the Afghan capital belongs to Qatar — this Gulf State is the key player in resolving the Afghan crisis. Resuming of the evacuation flights, and allowing such defenseless groups of Afghans to leave freely is one of the conditions under which the Western countries are ready to build relations with the government, appointed by the Taliban.

The opening ceremony of the joint strategic exercises of the Russian and Belarus forces took place at the Mulino military training ground, in the Nizhny Novgorod region. «The ’West-2021’ training is strictly defensive in nature. It is aimed at training troops to conduct military operations in modern conditions and increased inter-operability of the military command and control bodies of the armed forces of our allies and friendly states» — said the Deputy Russian Minister of Defense Nikolai Pankov.According to him — the training is massive: «the scope, composition of the participating states, the number of personnel and equipment involved in the training shows the increased importance of the joint training of the armed forces».

Vladimir Putin stated after the recent negotiations with the head of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, that the countries have agreed on 28 programs to deepen the integration. Namely — 28 union programs, aimed at unifying the legislation of Russia and Belarus in various areas of the economy, on which the union legal bodies have been working for the past 3 years.The agreed provisions include a unified industrial and macroeconomic policy, integration of the payment systems, deepening of the cooperation in information security, customs, tax, and energy matters, and the creation of a common gas market from 2021. Lukashenko stated that the integration of Russia and Belarus «is exclusively mutually beneficial in nature», and it is aimed «at the increase of the well-being of our people».

The head of emergency ministry of Russia, Yevgeny Zinichev, died in an accident. It happened near the city of Norilsk, during an inter-departmental exercise on protection from emergencies in the Arctic zone. The famous film director and screenwriter Alexander Melnik, who was choosing a location for filming a documentary about the Arctic region and the Northern Sea Route, fell from a cliff. Yevgeny Zinichev tried to save Alexander Melnik and jumped right after him, but he hit a rock and died, the RT reported. The 63-year-old filmmaker also died. Evgeny Nikolaevich Zinichev was 55 years old. In December 2020, he was awarded the personal military rank of General of the Army. He headed the Russian Ministry for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of the Consequences of Natural Disasters since May 2018. He has served in the KGB of the USSR, and the FSB of Russia. He was the deputy head of the service since 2016. Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to the family and friends of Yevgeny Zinichev. 

Constantine Reztsov, specially for the ANNA NEWS