Iran Press/ Middle East: Moscow announced on Jan. 20 that its navy would stage an array of exercises involving all its fleets from the Pacific to the Atlantic, drawing on 10,000 servicemen, 140 warships and dozens of planes.
The fighter jets are equipped with Kinzhal hypersonic cruise missiles dispatched to Russia's Hmeimim airbase will take part in exercises in the eastern Mediterranean, part of a surge of Russian military activity amid a standoff with the West over Ukraine and security in Europe.
Also, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited Syria for talks with President Bashar al-Assad and to inspect a Russian airbase in the war-torn country, his ministry said, amid heightened tensions between the West and Moscow over Ukraine.
In their meeting, Sergey Shoygu and Bashar Assad discussed different questions of military and technical cooperation of the countries in the framework of the joint fight against the leftover of bands of international terrorists.
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