Moon Desk: Russia has launched assembly line for the production of space satellites, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov told Sputnik ahead of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2025).
“We already have examples of satellites being produced using an assembly line approach, particularly those weighing up to 100 kilograms [220,5 pounds]. At JSC Reshetnev, satellite production lines have already been launched. Private satellite manufacturers are also working on assembly-line production of spacecraft. This is essential for reducing satellite production costs and, ultimately, lowering service costs for private consumers,” Manturov said.
Russian space corporation Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Bakanov explained that the national space project includes the launch of 886 Rassvet broadband internet satellites and 114 Earth remote sensing satellites. Bakanov confirmed that the Russian Finance Ministry has approved the requested 4.5 trillion of ruble ($57 billion) funding for the national space project.
Work on the project began in October 2023, following President Vladimir Putin’s directive to the government to develop a national program for the advancement of domestic space services, technologies, and products.
The Russian city of St. Petersburg will host the 28th edition of SPIEF from June 18-21 under the theme of “Shared Values: The Foundation of Growth in a Multipolar World.” The RossiyaSegodnya international media group, Sputnik’s parent company, is the forum’s information partner.
Valdai Club to Tackle Global Resilience and Security at SPIEF 2025
On June 17-18, as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) 2025, the Valdai International Discussion Club will hold a series of discussions focused on finding resilience in a changing world. The events will span two days.
On June 17, the Valdai International Discussion Club will host a roundtable titled “Homo Perplexus: How to Stop Fearing and Learn to Love Change” in St. Petersburg.
This roundtable will be the first part of a broader discussion organized by the Сlub on the origins and methods of ensuring security in the modern world, seen through the lens of individual perception. The second part, focusing on how individual countries can ensure internal stability as a prerequisite for their own security, will be discussed the following day during the Valdai Club session at SPIEF.
To provide a comprehensive view of state security issues, the Valdai Club brings together experts from various countries and fields to incorporate a wide range of perspectives into the discussions. Participants will include representatives from India, China, and Sri Lanka, as well as researchers from Moscow and St. Petersburg.
On June 18, as part of the business program of SPIEF 2025, the Valdai Club will hold its 10th session. The theme will be “Resilience in a World of Uncertainty: Universal Security Through Strengthening Individual States.”
Since the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, Western countries have attempted to disrupt the integrity of the global system and exclude Russia. However, Russia has maintained its position, found new partners, and offered alternative meanings that have been embraced by the countries of the global majority. This is why the session’s discussion will focus on strengthening sovereignty, ensuring security in various fields, and achieving resilience.
Participants in the session will include Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov; former President of Sri Lanka RanilWickremesinghe; Deputy Director of the Chinese Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy Feng Wei; Founder and President of the CyberPeace Foundation Kumar Vineet (India); and the editor-in-chief and publisher of Die Weltwoche magazine, Roger Köppel (Switzerland). The session will be moderated by Fyodor Lukyanov, director of research at the Valdai International Discussion Club.
OUTSIDE RUSSIA
Russia Settles Over 50% of Imports From Asia in Rubles for 1st Time in April – Analysis
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Russian ruble has become the leading currency for Russia’s payments for goods and services from all regions of the world, after its share in Russian imports from Asia surpassed 50% for the first time in April, a Sputnik analysis of Russian Central Bank data showed on Monday.
The ruble’s share in import payments from Asia rose by 15.6 percentage points over the past year, reaching 51.9% in April, up from a previous high of 49.5% in February.
The Russian currency accounted for 60.2% of payments for goods and services purchased from America in April, 67.6% from Europe, 68% from Africa, 77.5% from the Caribbean, and 71.7% from Oceania.
Overall, the ruble comprised 56.2% of Russian import payments in mid-spring, a 15-percentage-point increase year-over-year. Meanwhile, the share of currencies from unfriendly nations dropped by 7.3 percentage points to 15.4%, and friendly currencies fell by 7.7 percentage points to 28.3%.
US postpones talks with Russia
Moscow says the third round of bilateral consultations has been canceled by the US following two high-level meetings in February
The US has postponed bilateral consultations with Moscow aimed at easing tensions and restoring diplomatic missions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced on Monday.
Earlier this year, Russia and the US held two rounds of high-level talks, the first on February 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the second on February 27 in Istanbul, Türkiye. The discussions marked the first major direct talks since the deterioration of relations following the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine. The agenda included mutual restoration of embassy operations, easing visa issuance, addressing the Ukraine conflict, and exploring potential post-conflict economic cooperation.
The next round of talks was to take place in Moscow. However, according to Zakharova, this meeting was canceled at the initiative of the American negotiators. In a statement published on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Telegram channel, she stated, “As of today, the next meeting within the framework of bilateral consultations on eliminating ‘irritants’ to normalize the operation of diplomatic missions of both countries has been canceled at the initiative of the American negotiators.”
She did not disclose the reason Washington’s gave for postponing the meetings, adding only that Moscow hopes that “the pause they have taken will not last too long.”
Since taking office earlier this year, US President Donald Trump has made efforts to reestablish contact with Moscow, which had been largely severed under his predecessor, Joe Biden. Russian officials have welcomed the shift, also expressing readiness to normalize bilateral relations.
Shoigu arrives in Pyongyang, scheduled to meet with North Korea’s Kim
This is Russian Security Council Secretary’s third visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in almost three months
PYONGYANG, June 17. /TASS/. Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu arrived in Pyongyang on a special mission from President Vladimir Putin where he is expected to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a TASS correspondent reported.
This is Shoigu’s third visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in almost three months.
“Sergey Shoigu arrived in Pyongyang on special instructions from Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold talks with the North Korean leadership as part of agreements reached during his previous visit on June 4. These agreements are a follow-up to the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Russia and the DPRK,” the Russian Security Council explained.
On June 4, the North Korean leader and the senior Russian security official discussed the situation around Ukraine, the restoration of the Kursk Region, and measures to perpetuate the memory Korean fighters who helped liberate the bordering Russian region.
Kiev and London plotting ‘bloody provocations’
The UK and Kiev are plotting attacks to derail US-Russia efforts to end the Ukraine conflict, the SVR has warned
Kiev and London have been plotting a series of “bloody provocations” to escalate the Ukraine conflict and disrupt dialogue between Moscow and Washington, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has warned.
In a statement issued on Monday, the agency described growing coordination between Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and its military intelligence (GUR) with British intelligence, which it said is due to Kiev’s “mounting battlefield setbacks and deepening moral exhaustion.”
Such sabotage operations typically follow a set pattern, the SVR said, with Britain planning and coordinating, and Ukrainian operatives carrying out the attacks. The report suggested that the same approach was used in recent railway sabotage in Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk Regions, which Moscow denounced as Ukrainian “terrorist attacks.” The incidents killed seven and injured over 120, including children. The agency also cited the June 1 Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian airbases as part of the same playbook.
The “Anglo-Ukrainian terrorist tandem” is now preparing more attacks, the SVR claimed, aiming to escalate the conflict, derail Moscow-Washington dialogue, and convince the White House to maintain large-scale military support for Kiev.
According to the agency, one such scenario involves a false flag Russian torpedo attack on a US Navy ship in the Baltic Sea. Ukraine has already supplied Soviet-made torpedoes to the UK, the SVR said. Some are meant to detonate at a “safe distance,” while one will be left unexploded “as evidence of Moscow’s malicious activity.” Ukrainian operatives, it added, are prepared to carry out the plan.
Another alleged scheme involves British, Ukrainian, and Northern European partners “accidentally” recovering Russian-made naval mines in the Baltic, supposedly placed to sabotage international maritime shipping routes.
“Kiev has become the perfect executor of vile provocations and terrorist acts for perfidious Albion [England],” the SVR concluded.
The agency’s chief, Sergey Naryshkin, has repeatedly warned of possible British provocations, saying the SVR is well aware of London’s covert hostile activities against Russia.
SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE
Russia Completes Transfer of 6,060 Ukrainian Soldiers’ Bodies Under Istanbul Deal
Moscow has honored its commitments made in Istanbul — 6,060 Ukrainian soldiers’ bodies have been handed over, Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s presidential aide and head of the negotiating delegation, said.
Russia has handed over to Ukraine 6,060 bodies of dead officers and soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky said on Monday.
Urgent sanitary transfers of the seriously wounded soldiers from front line between Russia and Ukraine have been established, Medinsky said.
“A total of 6,060 bodies of dead officers and soldiers of the armed forces of Ukraine have been transferred to the Ukrainian side,” Medinsky said on Telegram.
In return, Russia received bodies of 78 dead Russian servicepeople from Ukraine, Medinsky said.
On Monday, Russia transferred 1,248 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers to the Ukrainian side in exchange for 51 bodies of deceased Russian soldiers in accordance with the agreements reached on June 2 in Istanbul, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.
The ministry emphasized that, thus, Russia has fulfilled its commitments, carrying out a large-scale humanitarian operation by handing over 6,060 bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers to the Ukrainian side.
In total, the Ukrainian side has handed over the bodies of 78 deceased Russian soldiers, the Russian Ministry of Defense clarified. Furthermore, the Russian side is ready to transfer an additional 2,239 bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers to Ukraine.
Russian troops breach Ukrainian defenses near Verkhnekamenskoye in Donetsk region — expert
Andrey Marochko said that the Ukrainian military is currently trying to hold its key positions and “fierce battles are raging” near Verkhnekamenskoye
LUGANSK, June 17. /TASS/. Russian troops breached the Ukrainian army’s fortified and multilayered defenses near the settlement of Verkhnekamenskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), military expert Andrey Marochko told TASS on Tuesday.
“With a concentrated strike by the Russian Armed Forces and the troop onslaught, the army has breached the enemy’s well-fortified and multilayered defenses north of the settlement of Verkhnekamenskoye,” the military expert said.
The breach of the enemy’s defenses near Verkhnekamenskoye has enabled Russian troops to move to Serebryanka and deteriorate the enemy’s tactical position near Grigorovka. The Ukrainian military is currently trying to hold its key positions and “fierce battles are raging” near Verkhnekamenskoye, he said.
Marochko told TASS on June 11 that Russian forces had improved their tactical position nearVerkhnekamenskoye and advanced along the railroad.
INSIGHTS
World on the brink of new arms race
Most nuclear powers are planning to upgrade and expand their arsenals in the coming years, the Stockholm-based SIPRI institute has said
The world risks plunging into a “new dangerous arms race” as most nuclear powers seek to modernize and expand their arsenals, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has warned in its annual review.
The pace of disarmament is slowing as nuclear-armed states launch “intensive” arsenal modernization programs, the research center said in a paper published on Monday.
Russia and the US, which together possess around 90% of all nuclear weapons in the world, are set to see the last remaining bilateral nuclear arms control treaty – the New START – expire in February 2026, SIPRI noted. The agreement limits the number of simultaneously deployed strategic nuclear warheads.
Moscow suspended its participation in the treaty in 2023, citing the impracticality of the inspection regime due to deep Western involvement in the Ukraine conflict. However, it maintained that it remained open to dialogue on the issue if the arsenals of Washington’s NATO allies were also considered.
Washington, meanwhile, insists on including China in any new agreement. According to SIPRI, China possesses the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal in the world and could rival “either Russia or the USA” in its number of intercontinental ballistic missiles by the end of the decade.
The UK and France are also modernizing their nuclear forces, focusing on nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, the report said. Paris additionally aims to develop a new ballistic missile warhead.
“The era of reductions in the number of nuclear weapons in the world, which had lasted since the end of the Cold War, is coming to an end,” said Hans M. Kristensen, Associate Senior Fellow with SIPRI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Program. “We see a clear trend of growing nuclear arsenals, sharpened nuclear rhetoric, and the abandonment of arms control agreements.”
The research institute also listed Israel among the nations “believed to be modernizing its nuclear arsenal.” While West Jerusalem does not officially acknowledge possessing nuclear weapons, SIPRI pointed to tests of new missile propulsion systems and alleged upgrades at the plutonium production reactor site in Dimona.
Israel could have up to 90 nuclear warheads at its disposal, the report stated. The findings come as West Jerusalem conducts air raids against Iranian nuclear and military facilities, claiming the Islamic Republic is nearing the creation of a nuclear bomb. Tehran, which maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful, was not mentioned in the SIPRI report.
