New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS) Russian ground units, equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as vessels from the Northern and Pacific Fleets, have been placed on high combat alert, the Russian Defence Ministry confirmed on Monday.
The Russian Navy includes submarines armed with nuclear missiles, RT reported.
The ministry said the move was made in accordance with the order issued by President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, RT reported.
Putin cited "illegitimate sanctions" against Russia and "aggressive statements" by Western officials, without elaborating.
Many countries, including the US, the UK and EU member states, have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in response to its military operation in Ukraine.
Earlier, Putin had placed the country's nuclear deterrent forces on "special" alert on Sunday, RT reported.
The move was announced during Putin's meeting with Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.
"Western countries are not only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic area. I'm speaking about the illegitimate sanctions that everyone is well aware of. However, the top officials of the leading NATO countries also make aggressive statements against our country as well," Putin stated.
The move comes in response to 'hostile' rhetoric by top NATO officials, Putin said, RT reported.
The special court for cybercrime sentenced Sajid Ali, an active member of the Shia sect after he was charged for posting "sacrilegious, blasphemous and derogatory" material on Facebook in 2017.
On Friday, Mexican immigration authorities deported 311 Indians -- 310 men and one woman - who reached New Delhi on Friday evening, which is the largest ever deportation in the Mexican history of the trans-Atlantic deportation by air.
Considered as one of the biggest ever simultaneous chases in the US and India, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is hunting for an Indian fugitive, Bhadresh Kumar Patel, for the past four years.
In a first, Mexico’s migration authorities deported 311 Indians, including a woman, from various parts of the country amidst its stepped-up efforts to check people illegally crossing its borders
