Day: February 6, 2019

Russia has approved a 38 million euro ($43.27 million) loan for Cuba’s defense sector, a senior Russian defense official was quoted as saying on Wednesday. The deal was first announced in November after Russian President Vladimir Putin met Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in Moscow. It has now been finalized by Russia, Dmitry Shugayev, head of…

The Taliban is seeking the pullout of all foreign troops from Afghanistan within months, a senior official said, as the fundamentalist Islamic movement reached out to opponents of U.S.-backed President Ashraf Ghani at talks in Moscow. “This is the first step,’’ Sher Mohammed Abbas Stanikzai told reporters in the Russian capital after meeting with other…

Russia’s military has announced plans to showcase the weapons and equipment it seized in Syria on a tour across the country. Moscow has fought on the side of the Syrian government in its civil war since 2015. In December, the Russian military displayed 40 pieces of what it claimed to be U.S., French, Israeli and…

A court in Moscow has ordered opposition leader Alexei Navalny to take down his second video investigation in two years. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation alleged in August that at least $29 million had been stolen from the Russian National Guard’s food supply contracts. The video led the head of the National Guard, Viktor Zolotov, to challenge…

Nicolas Maduro (Rayner Pena / DPA / TASS) After pledging full support for the embattled regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Russia is starting to show signs of doubt about his ability to survive an opposition challenge. While Moscow hasn’t given up its public backing of Maduro, it increasingly recognizes that the disastrous state of…

A Russian court for the first time convicted a Jehovah’s Witness, Danish national Dennis Christensen, on extremism charges, BBC Russia reported on Wedneday. Christensen, 46, was detained by armed security forces in the midst of a Bible reading in Oryol almost 400 kilometers south of Moscow. His detention in May 2017 came a month after…

Russia will exit the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in six months as part of a symmetrical response to the United States’ pullout, Interfax cited Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Wednesday. Read More A Forced Decision: Why the U.S. Withdrew From the INF Treaty (Op-ed) President Vladimir Putin said at the weekend that Russia had suspended…

Freedom House has named Russia among a string of “heavyweight” countries that undermine democratic norms abroad, contributing to a 13th consecutive “decline in global freedom.” Russia has featured regularly in the U.S.-funded monitoring group’s annual “Freedom in the World” report documenting attacks on civil and democratic freedoms around the world. Read More How Russia’s Place…