Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia's military operations in Syria are "not dictated by geopolitical interests and the desire to test new weapons but because IS directly threatens Russia."
Putin is giving a speech this morning at the Defense Ministry.
Any force threatening Russia's air force in Syria will be destroyed, Putin said.
Putin is giving a speech this morning at the Defense Ministry.
Militants from Russia and CIS countries in Syria have created a "real platform," Russia's Life News quotes Putin as saying.
This is one of the main reasons why Russia's military has joined "anti-terrorism operations" in Syria, Putin said.
Putin is giving a speech this morning at the Defense Ministry.
A Russian IS militant suspected of beheading another Russian man in Syria has been arrested in absentia, a source has told Interfax.
Anatoly Zemlyanka from Noyabrsk is believed to be the IS militant who appears in a grisly beheading video distributed by the IS group last week.
A wanted notice for Zemlyanka appeared on the Interpol website today.
The source told Interfax that charges have been brought against Zemlyanka in absentia and a court ruled that he is to be arrested in absentia on charges of participation in an illegal armed group in a foreign state.
At least 22 people were killed by three truck bombs in a Kurdish-controlled town in northeastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Friday.
SOHR said the death toll from the attack in Tel Tamer late on Thursday was likely to increase.
Tel Tamer in Syria's northeastern Hasaka province is controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) who are fighting against the IS group.
Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said that the IS group controls around 70 percent of Syria's territory.
Shoigu also said that there are 60,000 militants fighting alongside the IS group.
Shoigu was speaking at an extended Defense Ministry meeting this morning.
Russia has frequently made no distinction between the IS group and armed Syrian opposition groups who are fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
The IS group has made more than $500 million trading oil, a U.S. Treasury official has told the BBC.
Its "primary customer" has been Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, despite IS's ongoing battle to overthrow Assad, Adam Szubin said.
IS had also looted up to $1 billion from banks in territory it held, Szubin said.
The Russian military in Syria has restored a tank-repair factory in Homs, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu says.
Russia's air force has conducted around 4,000 sorties in Syria, says Russian Defense Minister Shoigu.
Parts of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) totalling around 5,000 troops are attacking "terrorist" positions together with the Syrian government forces, Russian President Putin has said.