IPRESSTV: russia

Showing posts with label russia. Show all posts

Crimea attack: Student goes on a shooting spree, kills 18 people and injures dozens others at college

Eighteen people died and dozens more were wounded, mostly teenagers, Wednesday when a student opened fire at a college in Russian-annexed Crimea.

Speaking to journalists and parents of missing students in the city of Kerch, where the shooting took place, Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov said the death toll stood at 18 plus the killer. He added that 53 people were injured in the attack. 12 of whom were in an extremely serious condition.

Russia's Investigative Committee named the shooter as 18-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov, a student at the college. He was captured on security camera footage and later found dead with gunshot wounds in the college library.

Aksyonov said he had seen the body of the killer, whom he described as "not a Crimean, not even a person", adding that Roslyakov had acted alone.

Facing a crowd of angry parents, some of whom still did not know where their children were, Aksyonov said authorities were seeking to establish the gunman's motives: "What pushed this non-person to do this, I don't know." He added that the fourth-year student had aroused no suspicion, saying teachers called him "peaceful."

But Roslyakov confirmed earlier reports that the teenager had acquired a gun license legally. and promised a transparent investigation with "no secrets".

According to the RIA Novosti agency, security forces raided Roslyakov's parents' home following the killings.

Two bombs and a gun

Russian authorities initially put out conflicting versions of what happened at the technical college in Kerch, on the peninsula annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The attack was first reported as an explosion, with authorities saying an "unidentified explosive device" had gone off and classifying the incident as an act of terror.

A few hours later the Investigative Committee said the victims were killed by gunshots.

"A shooting took place after the explosion. The gunman had a hunting gun," Crimean official Igor Mikhailichenko said.

The attack was then reclassified as a murder case.

"This is not a terrorist act. It's a mass killing committed by one scumbag," Aksyonov said earlier on state television.

'Terrible tragedy'

The Investigative Committee said most of the victims were teenagers. According to the college's website, it accepts students in the last three grades of school, from the age of 14.

Aksyonov announced three days of mourning from Thursday for the victims of the "terrible tragedy".

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, described the killings as a "tragic event", during a joint news conference with visiting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

"It's already clear that it's a crime, the motive and possible versions for this tragedy are being carefully examined," Putin said.

"I want to express condolences to the relatives of the dead and express the hope that the injured recover as quickly as possible," the president added, calling for a minute's silence to mourn the victims.

'Randomly shooting'

Witnesses said that the attacker fired shots but also spoke of hearing an explosion.

A student at the college who asked not to be named told AFP: "I was in a class when I heard shooting on the first floor."

"When we all ran out into the corridor, there were others running and shouting that some guy with a machine gun was randomly shooting everyone in turn."

"Then a strong explosion went off, but thank God, I was already outside and saw our guys being thrown out of the windows by the explosive wave," he said, adding that part of the building collapsed.

Another witness, who gave his name as Sergei and works near the college, said in a video on the Kerch.tv website that he heard "a bang and shots."

Sergei, whose shirt was covered in blood, said victims "were taken away in public transport, in minibuses and buses, with two or three people in each ambulance."

"They are children and staff," the witness said. "I saw people without legs, without arms."

School attacks

Attacks by disaffected teenagers at schools and colleges have hit the headlines recently in Russia.

In January, a school student attacked a teacher and fellow students with an axe in Siberia and tried to set fire to the school building. In April, another student stabbed a teacher and a fellow student in the Urals Mountains and then set fire to a classroom.

Democratic Party files lawsuit alleging the Trump campaign, Russia, and WikiLeaks conspired to disrupt the 2016 campaign

The Democratic National Committee filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit Friday against the Russian government, the Trump campaign and the WikiLeaks organization alleging a far-reaching conspiracy to disrupt the 2016 campaign and tilt the election to Donald Trump.

The complaint, filed in federal district court in Manhattan, alleges that top Trump campaign officials conspired with the Russian government and its military spy agency to hurt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and help Trump by hacking the computer networks of the Democratic Party and disseminating stolen material found there.

Russia responds to airstrike with harsh words but no fire

For the past week, Russian news media speculated dramatically about the looming onset of World War III. But soon after American cruise missiles finally slammed into Syria, Moscow made it clear it did not plan to escalate on the battlefield. 

Russian officials from President Vladimir Putin on down condemned the strike as an act of aggression against a sovereign state carried out on the pretext of staged chemical attack. But reading between the lines, there was a second message: The incoming cruise missiles did not cross the threshold that would provoke a military response against Western forces. 

Early Saturday morning local time, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that more than 100 missiles were fired by the U.S.-led coalition retaliating against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s suspected use of chemical weapons. But it added that no Russian air defenses were deployed against the incoming fire, even though thousands of its troops are stationed across Syria in support of Russian ally Assad.

Hours later, the Russian Embassy in Damascus said no Russians were known to have been hurt in the overnight airstrike. And the Defense Ministry even made sure to note that while Syria shot down some cruise missiles, Damascus did so using its own, Soviet-made — not Russian-made — equipment. 

“Not a single one of the cruise missiles entered the zone of Russian air defense systems,” the Defense Ministry said. 

'Satan 2' nuclear missile again test-launched by Russia, and Putin brags of 'invulnerable' arsenal

A new intercontinental ballistic missile hailed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as being able to fly over the North or South Poles and strike any target in the world reportedly was test-launched for the second time Friday.

Russia’s defense ministry released a video purportedly showing the Sarmat ICBM blasting off in spectacular fashion from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in its northern Arkhangelsk province, the move coming just hours after the Kremlin announced it would expel 60 American diplomats and close the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg in retaliation for U.S. measures taken in response to the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in Britain.

The video shows the missile – dubbed “Satan 2” by NATO -- rising out of the ground and seemingly floating in the air for a brief moment before more flames erupt, kicking up massive clouds of smoke and snow.

"No defense systems will be able to withstand it," Putin said about the missile during his state-of-the-nation speech in early March.

The test-launch also comes after Putin’s recent re-election and a congratulatory phone call from President Trump -- in which Trump reportedly also warned his Russian counterpart, "if you want to have an arms race we can do that, but I'll win," according to two officials that spoke to NBC News. Days before the launch, the U.S. Navy test-fired its own ICMB from a ballistic missile submarine off the coast of Southern California.

Russia has been working for years to develop a new ICBM to replace the Soviet-designed Voyevoda, the world's heaviest ICBM and known as "Satan" in the West. That ICBM carries 10 nuclear warheads, the Associated Press reported. Putin announced during his March speech the Sarmat missile was undergoing tests and debuted a video purportedly showing its first test launch, which he said happened in December.

Putin said Sarmat weighs 220 tons and has a higher range than "Satan," allowing it to fly over both poles of the Earth. He also said it accelerates faster than its predecessor, making it harder for an enemy to intercept it in its most vulnerable phase after the launch. Putin added Sarmat also carries more -- and more powerful -- nuclear warheads than the "Satan" ICBM.

Russian state-run news agency TASS has reported the Sarmat missile will go into mass production in 2020 and is expected to become operational the year after, according to EuroNews.

"No one has listened to us. You listen to us now,” Putin boasted during the March speech, when he revealed other weapons his country apparently has in the works, such as an underwater drone armed with a nuclear warhead powerful enough to sweep away coastal facilities and aircraft carriers, and a nuclear-powered cruise missile that's "invulnerable to any existing or prospective air and missile defense systems.”

The White House responded to Putin’s March 1 speech by saying he merely confirmed what the U.S. already knows: that Russia has been developing "destabilizing weapons systems for over a decade in direct violations of its treaty obligations."

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Trump understands the threats and that America is "moving forward to modernize our nuclear arsenal and ensure our capabilities are unmatched."

Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White also said the Defense Department wasn't surprised by Putin's bluster, adding the U.S. military is prepared to defend the nation.

"You will have to assess that new reality and become convinced that what I said today isn't a bluff," Putin had said. "It's not a bluff, trust me."

He said the creation of the new weapons has made NATO's U.S.-led missile defense "useless," putting an end to what he described as years of Western efforts to sidetrack and weaken Russia.

"I want to tell all those who have fueled the arms race over the last 15 years, sought to win unilateral advantages over Russia, introduced unlawful restrictions and sanctions aimed to contain our country's development: All what you wanted to impede with your policies has now happened," he said. "You have failed to contain Russia."

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said it was "unfortunate" to watch animation depicting "a nuclear attack on the United States" that accompanied Putin's speech, calling the video "cheesy" and adding "we don't think it's responsible."

Another new weapon Putin unveiled during the state-of-the-nation speech, called Avangard, is an intercontinental hypersonic missile that would fly at 20 times the speed of sound and strike its targets "like a meteorite, like a fireball.”

IPRESSTV

Pages

PARENTING

ad