Author: admin
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How to Be Obnoxious in One Easy Word
Лезть: climb, crawl, push, pester, butt in, hit on, get involved, etc. A couple of years ago I briefly mentioned the verb лезть in an article about another word, thinking at the time that I was doing a grave injustice to лезть. It’s a great little word. Its first literal meaning is to climb or…
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Ukrainian Man Sentenced to 12 Years for Spying for Russia
A man from the occupied Donetsk region was found guilty of providing information to the Russian military and sentenced to 12 years in prison, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said in a Telegram post. An investigation found the man had sent voice messages to Russian forces in the area with information about the location of…
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Armenia PM Criticizes Russia as Rift With Moscow Grows Wider
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Friday that Russia had failed to deliver weapons Yerevan had already paid for and accused Russia’s media of destabilizing his country’s political situation. The remarks highlighted Armenia’s growing rift with its powerful ally after Russian peacekeepers failed to prevent Azerbaijan’s offensive to retake its Armenian-controlled separatist enclave of…
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Russian Man Who Faked Death to Avoid Ukraine War Handed 5-Year Sentence
A man in Siberia who bought a fake death certificate to avoid military service in Ukraine has been sentenced to five years in a penal colony, the local news outlet Sibir.Realii reported Friday, citing public court records. Zorigto Arabzhaev, from the republic of Buryatia, was mobilized to fight in Ukraine in November 2022 as part…
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Dagestani Doctor Refused Russian State TV Appearance in Hijab
A female doctor from the Muslim-majority republic of Dagestan was not permitted to appear on Russian state television in a hijab, she said on social media Thursday. Immunologist Ayshat Idarmacheva said that she had been asked to appear in a segment of flagship state-run broadcaster Channel One’s morning show. But the show’s producer soon withdrew…
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Russian and Chinese Business Leaders Discuss Undersea Crimea Tunnel
Russian and Chinese business executives with government connections have secretly discussed building an underwater tunnel connecting Crimea to Russia, according to communications obtained by the Ukrainian security services and corroborated and reported by the Washington Post. The Russian-built bridge over the Kerch Strait is vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks, having been hit twice since Feb. 2022.…
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Rosneft held the XVIII Interregional Scientific and Technical Conference of Young Specialists at the Russia exhibition
Rosneft held the annual XVIII Interregional Scientific and Technical Conference (ISTC).
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Russia Attacking Avdiivka ‘From All Directions,’ Says Kyiv
A third wave of Russian forces is attacking the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka and systematically shelling the center of the industrial hub, its Ukrainian head said Friday. The nearly-encircled town near the Russian-held regional stronghold of Donetsk has faced a fierce onslaught for more than a month. “The third wave (of assaults) began. They…
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3 Flamingos Rescued in Altai Republic After Severe Storm
At least three exhausted flamingos were discovered by locals in southern Siberia’s republic of Altai following a severe storm that hit parts of Siberia over the weekend, the Saylyugem National Park said Thursday. In a series of events that the national park described as a “flamingo-fall,” local residents discovered the first two frozen and exhausted…
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Rosneft’s pavilion at VDNKh hosts a lecture by a leading expert on walrus research
On Friday, 24 November, Svetlana Artemyeva, a researcher at A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, delivered an informative lecture on amazing marine mammals – walruses for the guests of the Rosneft pavilion at the Russia Exhibition and Forum.
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Russia Says Downed 16 Ukrainian Drones in South, Crimea
Russia said Friday it had destroyed 16 Ukrainian drones in the south of the country and over the annexed Crimean peninsula. On Thursday night, “an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using aerial drones against sites on the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said. “Air…
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Kremlin Says ‘Regrets’ Armenia Snubbing Defense Summit
The Kremlin said Thursday that it “regretted” Armenia’s decision to skip a summit of a Moscow-led security alliance, amid a souring of relations between the two ex-Soviet allies. Neither Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan nor his defense minister showed up to a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Minsk on Thursday, which…
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Russia Sentences Ukrainian to 18 Years Over Bomb Plot
Russia on Thursday sentenced a Ukrainian man to 18 years in prison for trying to blow up buildings in the Moscow-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol in a plot allegedly orchestrated by Kyiv, state media said. A military court in Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don found Dmitri Golubev guilty on various “international terrorism” charges for one…
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Is a Russian Village Named ‘Sucker’ a Curse or a Cash Cow?
Last month some members of the State Duma proposed renaming towns and villages with what they called “offensive” names and prohibit the use of these names in the future. The parliamentarians making the proposal said that residents in these places complained that people laugh at them. They didn’t want an “offensive” word in their passports…
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Russian State TV Hails Dutch Far-Right Hardliner’s Election Victory
A leading Russian state television anchor has praised the victory of Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders in The Netherlands’ elections, saying his win plays to Russia’s advantage in its war on Ukraine. Wilders — who ran on an anti-Islam, anti-immigration and anti-European Union platform — has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past and…
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Russia’s Gazprom Plans Investment Cut as Exports Drop
Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom said Thursday it planned to cut investment spending by a fifth next year amid dwindling gas flows to Europe and a heavy tax burden. Since Russia launched its assault on Ukraine in February 2022, European countries have sharply cut gas imports from Russia in a bid to curb Moscow’s ability…
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Russian Murderer and Cannibal Released to Fight in Ukraine – Reports
A Russian murderer and cannibal has been released to fight in Ukraine, the Agentstvo media outlet reported Thursday. Denis Gorin, 44, from the Sakhalin region, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in a special-regime colony for murder in 2018. In 2010, after he was released on parole from a 2003 murder sentence, he stabbed…
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Russia Opens Criminal Case Against Journalist Masha Gessen Over Ukraine War ‘Fake News’
Russia has opened a criminal case against prominent Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen on suspicion of spreading fake information about Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, the independent Dozhd television channel reported Thursday. Gessen, who was born in Russia but lives in the U.S., was accused of spreading false information about atrocities committed by the Russian army in…
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Student Who Photographed Moscow Enlistment Office Schedule Charged With Terrorism
A Russian university student has been placed in pre-trial detention on charges of undergoing terrorist training after he took a photograph outside of a Moscow military enlistment office, the independent Mediazona news website reported from the courtroom Thursday. Prosecutors claim that Ibragim Orudzhev, 22, a student at Belgorod State University, “conducted reconnaissance of the area ……
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The Lepse Floating Technical Base Dismantlement Project has been successfully implemented in the Murmansk Region
ROSATOM has completed a significant milestone of a large-scale environmental program for the elimination of the hazardous nuclear and chemical legacy. The Murmansk Region closes the more than ten-year history of the dismantlement of the Lepse Floating Technical Base (FTB), which supported the operation of the first nuclear-powered icebreakers and the spent nuclear fuel storage…
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Russia Boosts ‘Security’ After Finland Closes Border Points
Russia on Thursday announced tightened security in its northern Murmansk region after Finland said it would close all but one border crossing between the two countries. Helsinki said Wednesday the move follows a surge in attempted crossings by migrants seeking asylum in the EU country — which Finland says is a destabilization ploy by Russia.…
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Missing Ukrainian Toddler Found Adopted by Putin Ally – BBC
A two-year-old girl taken from a Kherson children’s home in 2022 has been adopted by a political ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to documents obtained by the BBC. The BBC accessed adoption records and a birth record showing Margarita Propenko was renamed Marina Mironova, with A Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov and his wife…
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Rosatom to showcase sustainable nuclear innovations at COP28 Climate Conference
Key technologies of the Russian nuclear industry aimed at addressing the goals of the climate agenda will be presented at COP28. Rosatom is set to participate in a series of events outlined in the business programme of the 28th International Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, opening on November…
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Russia Says Reporter Dies After Ukraine Drone Attack
Updated with news of Maksudov’s death. A journalist working for Russian state television has died from injuries sustained in a drone attack in Ukraine, the network said Thursday. Moscow has repeatedly accused Kyiv of attacking reporters. Last month, it said three correspondents from the Izvestia news outlet were injured by shelling in the Donetsk region. “Boris…
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Russian Teen Sentenced to 6 Years for Enlistment Office Arson Attempt
A St. Petersburg military court has sentenced teenager Yegor Balazeikin to six years for attempting to set fire to army registration offices, the independent Novaya Gazeta Europe news website reported Wednesday. Balazeikin, 17, had become an opponent of the war in Ukraine after his uncle was killed in battle. According to investigators, he attempted to set fire to…
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Russian Natural Resources Ministry Official Arrested on Bribery Charges
An official from Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry has been arrested on bribery charges, local media reported Tuesday. Alexei Yakovlev, 48, is accused of receiving a large-scale bribe from Elvina Novoselova, the director of Taganay National Park in the Chelyabinsk region, which he headed from 2010 until he became an official in Moscow in January 2021.…
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Russia Says Reporter Injured in Ukrainian Drone Attack
Russia said Wednesday that a Ukrainian drone struck a group of journalists in the frontline region of Zaporizhzhia, wounding a reporter from the Rossiya 24 state TV channel. Moscow has repeatedly accused Kyiv’s army of attacking its reporters, including last month when three correspondents from the Izvestia news outlet were injured by shelling in the…
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Meet Putin’s Possible Election Opponent: A Single Mother of 3 Calling for Peace
President Vladimir Putin is yet to formally announce his plans to run for re-election next year, but he might already have an unlikely potential competitor in Yekaterina Duntsova, a journalist from the Tver region who announced her bid for the presidency last week. “Why did I make this decision? I love our country, I want…
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Russian Pop Song from 2004 Goes Viral on TikTok
A Russian pop song by singer Katya Lel has gone viral on TikTok this month with videos of women dancing in fur coats and hats with earflaps. The viral version is a sped-up remix of the original “Moi Marmeladnyi (My Marmalade),” which was released in 2004. Its lyrics roughly translate to: “Again, it feels like…
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Up to 90 Dagestan Residents Could Have Been Imprisoned Over Anti-Israeli Riot – Mediazona
As many as 90 residents of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan could have been jailed following the anti-Israeli riot at Makhachkala International Airport, according to an analysis of court records by the independent Mediazona news website. A mob of about 1,200 locals stormed Makhachkala’s airport on Oct. 29, seeking to find and attack Jews and…
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Russia Detains Passport-Burning Singer Upon Arrival in St. Petersburg
Russian singer Eduard Sharlot was detained upon his arrival in St. Petersburg from Armenia, where he had published a video of himself burning his Russian passport, media reported Wednesday. In the passport-burning video published on Instagram in June, Sharlot, 25, uses a lighter to set his passport aflame before addressing the Ukrainian government, saying in the…
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Kremlin Rejects Review of Prisoner Pardons After ‘Satanist’ Freed
The Kremlin said Wednesday that it had not changed its policy of pardoning prisoners in exchange for fighting in Ukraine, after local media reported a “satanist” killer had been released. Nikolai Ogolobyak, 33, was sentenced to 20 years for the ritualistic murder of four teenagers in 2008. He was freed earlier this month after fighting…
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Rosneft automates laboratory tests
Specialists from Rosneft’s research institute in Tyumen have upgraded the RN-Lab corporate information system developed to automate laboratory-based core and formation fluid analysis.
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Novokuznetsk Mayor Grapples with Record-Storm Aftermath Ahead of Moscow Official Visit
Officials in the Kemerovo (Kuzbass) region are grappling with the aftermath of a powerful storm that struck Siberia on Sunday, as Moscow begins scrutinizing how local authorities responded to the natural disaster, Telegram channel Russian Decadence said Wednesday, sharing video recordings of the officials’ meeting. While addressing subordinate civil servants, the Novokuznetsk mayor Sergei Kuznetsov resorted…
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Russia Warns of a ‘Crisis’ at Arctic Border With Finland
Russia said Wednesday a humanitarian emergency was unfolding at one of its checkpoints on the Arctic border with Finland, where it said hundreds of migrants were stranded in freezing temperatures. More than 500 asylum seekers have crossed from Russia to Finland since November, Finnish public broadcaster YLE says, mostly from Somalia, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.…
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Russian Actress Killed While Performing in Occupied Donetsk
A Russian actress was killed by Ukrainian shelling while performing for the Russian military in the Moscow-occupied Donetsk region. The death of Polina Menshikh, 40, was confirmed to the state-run TASS news agency by regional officials and in a VKontakte post by a St. Petersburg theater. “It is with great pain that we inform you…
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Hours Before Declaring Mutiny, Prigozhin Secretly Planned Duma Speech to Win Back Putin’s Favor
On the evening of June 23, Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was preparing to give the order for his men to march to Moscow and demand the removal of Russia’s military leadership after months of rising tensions. Meanwhile, a seemingly unremarkable event was unfolding inside the State Duma’s imposing Stalinist headquarters a few hundred meters…
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Russia Arrests French Citizen for Illegally Entering From Estonia – Russian Agencies
Russia has detained a French citizen for illegally entering the country from Estonia and opened a criminal investigation, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday. EU and NATO member Estonia shares a 300-kilometer border with Russia and tensions between the countries have increased since the beginning of Moscow’s large-scale military intervention in Ukraine last year.…
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Rosneft specialists made an important discovery while conducting research on source rocks in Eastern Siberia
This is the first time that Rosneft specialists have diagnosed bacterial and sponge communities (frames) in well sections in Eastern Siberia in Cambrian sediments, the first geological period of the Paleozoic era.
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Russian Satanist Jailed for Ritual Murders Released After Fighting in Ukraine
This article contains graphic content that may be disturbing to some readers. A self-confessed member of a Satanist sect serving a 20-year prison sentence for murder and the desecration of dead bodies has been freed after completing six months of military service in Ukraine, the local 76.ru news website reported Tuesday. Nikolai Ogolobyak, 33, from…
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Russian Feminist Poet, Forest Firefighter Named Among BBC’s Women of 2023
The BBC has included Russian feminist poet and activist Daria Serenko and firefighter Sofia Kosacheva in its 2023 list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world that was revealed on Tuesday. Daria Serenko is a feminist thinker and the author of two books of feminist and anti-war prose. She is also among…
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Bears in Far East Russia Struggle to Hibernate Amid Abnormally High Temperatures
Abnormally high November temperatures in Russia’s Far East are preventing local bears from hibernating, with some animals wandering around their winter dens in a “half-asleep state,” the Amur region’s Wildlife Conservation Authority said Tuesday. While many bears have already accumulated the fat needed for their long seasonal sleep, the “improperly” high air temperature hinders them…
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Over 150 Migrants Detained in Karelia This Week
In the past week, at least 150 migrants with expired Russian visas have been detained in the republic of Karelia while heading to the Finnish border, according to the RBC news website. The governor of Karelia’s press secretary, Marina Kabatyuk, told RBC most of the migrants had been detained after Nov. 18. The migrants are…
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Russia Arrests Pussy Riot Co-Founder Tolokonnikova in Absentia
A Moscow court has ordered the arrest of leading Pussy Riot member Nadya Tolokonnikova in absentia, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported on Tuesday. Tolokonnikova, 34, the feminist protest and performance art group’s co-founder, was charged with insulting the religious feelings of believers, RIA Novosti said, without providing further details. The activist, who currently…
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Russia Holds Naval Drills With India in Bay of Bengal
Russia said Tuesday it was holding joint naval exercises with India in the Bay of Bengal, as the two countries bolster security ties despite Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. The United States has in the past voiced concern about India holding joint drills with Russia, which has been trying to expand its influence in the region.…
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Russia Says Thwarted Ukrainian Landings in Kherson
Russia said on Tuesday it fended off Ukraine’s attempts to get to the occupied eastern bank of the southern Kherson region, and claimed Kyiv’s army had suffered “colossal losses.” The Ukrainian army said last week it had pushed Russian forces back three to eight kilometers from the banks of the Dnipro River, which would have…
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Pastor Defends Viral ‘Russia for Christ’ Video Praising Ballistic Missiles
A video of an evangelical church service in St. Petersburg featuring songs about ballistic missiles and the chorus “Russia for Christ” went viral over the weekend, prompting Pastor Olga Golikova of the Light of Christ Mission Church to respond this Sunday. The video, published in March, featured Golikova speaking over background singers and music while…
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Czech Republic Proposes Limiting Russian Diplomats’ Movements in EU – FT
European Union countries are in talks to limit the movements of Russian diplomats within the EU’s border-free zone after the Czech Republic raised concerns about potential spies evading monitoring, the Financial Times reported Tuesday. Last week, Prague shared a document outlining ideas to prevent spying activities for the EU’s 12th package of sanctions against Moscow, which…
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Russia Planning to Overthrow Ukraine’s Leadership By End of Year – Zelensky
Russian special forces are planning to remove Ukraine’s leadership from power by the end of 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. In an interview with the British tabloid The Sun published late Monday, Zelensky claimed Russia would use “any means available to them,” including assassination, in the operation supposedly dubbed “Maidan 3.” “The goal…
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Anti-Mobilization Protests By Russian Soldiers’ Wives and Mothers Quashed
Wives and mothers of Russian soldiers who have been mobilized for the war in Ukraine are facing restrictions and intimidation as they demand to bring their loved ones back from the front. On Sunday, a group of women held an anti-mobilization protest in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, the independent news outlet Vyorstka reported. Similar…
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Putin to Take Part in Virtual BRICS Summit on Gaza
Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in a virtual summit of the BRICS group of nations on Tuesday to discuss the Israel-Hamas war, the Kremlin said. The meeting will be chaired by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the hope of drawing up a common response to the more than six-week conflict. “On Nov.…
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Russian Airlines Invited to Launch Flights to North Korea – Reports
Russian airlines have been invited to launch regular flights to North Korea, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday. Russia’s state civil aviation agency Rosaviatsia sent offers to airlines Aeroflot and Aurora to assess their readiness to launch flights to Pyongyang, Kommersant said, citing unspecified sources. A Rosaviatsia delegation visited counterparts in North Korea last week…
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Russian Theft of Ukrainian Grain Likely a War Crime, Legal Analysis Says
The scale of Russian grain theft in occupied Ukraine likely constitutes the war crimes of starvation and pillage, a new report by the Global Rights Compliance legal practice has said. Russia’s billion-dollar operation — which involved seizing Ukrainian grain storage facilities, building new railways, and transferring huge cargo ships to Black Sea ports both before…
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Artist’s Sentencing for Price Tag Swap ‘Mortally Dangerous,’ Member of Putin’s Rights Council Says
The sentencing of artist and musician Alexandra Skochilenko is “horrific” and “mortally dangerous,” a member of Russia’s presidential human rights council has said. “It was known from the very beginning that Alexandra has an intolerance to certain foods and a number of other illnesses,” the state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted Eva Merkacheva as saying…
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Finnish Military Assisting With Fence Construction Along Border With Russia
The Finnish Defense Forces are helping the country’s Border Guard construct temporary fences on the Russian border after the Finnish government closed four border crossing points in response to an increased flow of third-country asylum seekers coming from Russia. Since September, over 300 undocumented asylum seekers, mostly young men from the Middle East, have arrived…
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Russia Places Ukrainian Singer Jamala on Wanted List
Russia has placed Ukrainian singer Jamala on its federal wanted list on unspecified criminal charges, Russian state agencies reported Monday. The singer’s name and photo appeared on the Interior Ministry’s database, without further information about what she was accused of doing. A singer of Crimean Tatar origin, Jamala won the 2016 Eurovision contest with “1944,” a song about…
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Installation of Core Catcher Has Started Ahead of Schedule at El-Dabaa NPP Unit 2
The core catcher is one of the main elements of the power unit passive safety systems, it is part of all the up-to-date nuclear power units with III+ generation VVER-1200 reactors. On November 19, specialists started to install the core catcher body at Unit 2 of El-Dabaa NPP in the Arab Republic of Egypt (the…
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Ukrainian Teen Taken From Mariupol Returned Home
A Ukrainian orphan taken from Mariupol after Russian forces captured the Ukrainian city in the first weeks of its invasion has returned home, Kyiv said Sunday. The case of Bohdan Yermokhin, who turned 18 on Sunday, made international headlines after Russia issued him a draft summons to report for mandatory military conscription ahead of his…
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Russia’s Putin To Join Virtual G20 Summit on Wednesday — State TV
Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in a virtual G20 leaders’ summit on Wednesday, after skipping the flagship in-person meeting in New Delhi in September. “Vladimir Putin will take part in the virtual G20 summit,” Russia’s Vesti TV show said in a social media post Sunday, citing Putin’s schedule for the upcoming week. Putin…
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Kyiv and Moscow Targeted by Overnight Drone Attacks
Both Kyiv and Moscow were targeted overnight by opposing drone attacks, which were largely intercepted by anti-aircraft defenses and did not result in casualties, authorities said on Sunday. “An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using a drone against facilities of the Russian Federation was thwarted,” the Russian Defense Ministry…