Author: admin
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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…
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Russian Doctors Call for Release of Supermarket Protestor
More than 100 Russian doctors have signed an open letter to President Vladimir Putin calling for the release a woman jailed for making a supermarket protest over Russia’s offensive against Ukraine. A St. Petersburg court last week sentenced Alexandra Skochilenko, 33, to seven years in prison for spreading “false information.” She had swapped supermarket price…
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The Tale of a Baker, a Singer, and a Blueberry Pie
Today this old manor house is almost abandoned and forgotten. Perhaps an old Roma curse still hangs over its walls. But only a little over a hundred years ago it was a home filled with life. As drivers head towards Podolsk from the west, some may notice a village with a strange name: Sportbaza (Sports…
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Ukraine Says 2 Killed in Russian Strikes Near Frontline
Ukraine said two first responders were killed and at least seven people injured in Russian rocket strikes on the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday. The attacks came as Kyiv’s air force said Russia fired 38 drones at its territory overnight — the highest reported number in more than six weeks. Ukrainian police said Russia…
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Russia Labels Moscow Times a ‘Foreign Agent’
Russia has added The Moscow Times to its list of “foreign agents” alongside several other journalists and activists, the Justice Ministry announced Friday. Russia’s “foreign agents” registry, launched in 2012 in response to similar legislation in the United States, has been disproportionately used to target independent journalists, activists and NGOs in recent years. The “foreign agents”…
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Are You Liberated or Independent?
Независимость: independence, self-sufficiency In the part of the world I’m in, November seems to be particularly rich in state holidays of independence. In the Russian language these holidays are sometimes of освобождение (liberty, freedom) and sometimes of независимость (independence, freedom). So what’s the difference? Освобождение (freedom) is related to the verb pair освобождать/освободить, which means…
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Ukraine Claims Successes in ‘Heavy Fighting’ on Russian-Held Side of Dnipro
Ukraine said Friday it had carried out successful attacks on the Russian-occupied eastern bank of the Dnipro River, days after Moscow admitted Kyiv’s forces had gained a foothold there. A sustained Ukrainian breakthrough across the frontline waterway would mark a significant success for Kyiv, whose wider counteroffensive has so far failed to turn the tide…
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Vladimir Urin Rumored to Resign as Director of Bolshoi Theater
Vladimir Urin, general director of the Bolshoi Theater, has submitted his resignation, according to reports in several Russian media. Valery Gergiev, the artistic and general director of St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theater, is reported to be in Moscow and ready to take over the position at the Bolshoi. Urin, who joined the theater in 2013, was…
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EU Slams Russia’s ‘Shameful’ Use of Migrants at Finnish Border
The European Union on Friday accused Russia of making a “shameful” use of migrants to put pressure on other countries, saying it had noted an increased number of undocumented asylum seekers crossing Russia’s border to Finland. Helsinki announced Thursday that it will close four of its eight border crossings with Russia from this weekend because…
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Russia Moves to Ban ‘International LGBT Movement’
Russia’s Justice Ministry said Friday it has filed a motion for the Supreme Court to ban what it called an “international LGBT public movement” as extremist, a move activists warned would effectively put all LGBT Russians at risk of criminal prosecution. The LGBT “movement’s” activities within Russia were found to “incite social and religious discord”…
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Russia Has Sent First Free Grain Shipments to Africa
Russia has sent the first of its promised shipments of free grain to Africa, the country’s agriculture minister said Friday. “The first two ships have already left Russian ports for Somalia and Burkina Faso. We expect them to arrive in late November to early December,” Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said in a statement. State news…
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Kazakhstan Arrests Yakutian Activist for 1 Year Over Kremlin’s Extradition Request
A court in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty has ordered Yakutian anti-war activist and musician Aykhal Ammosov to one year of extradition arrest, his lawyer said on social media. “I’m not surprised [by this decision],” Ammosov’s lawyer Murat Adam wrote on Instagram on Thursday. Ammosov, a Russian national hailing from the republic of Sakha (Yakutia), was…
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Russia’s Next President Will Be ‘Just Like Putin,’ Kremlin Says
President Vladimir Putin’s successor will be nearly identical to his predecessor, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday as the country gears up for an election in which Putin is expected to win a fifth term. Putin, 71, who has been in power since 1999, is widely anticipated to announce his 2024 re-election bid next month,…
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Business Leaders Voice Alarm to Putin Over ‘Frightening’ Nationalizations – Vedomosti
Dozens of Russian business leaders expressed alarm to President Vladimir Putin about the “frightening” number of nationalizations that have taken place since the invasion of Ukraine, the Vedomosti business daily reported Friday, citing four anonymous sources familiar with their late-night meeting this week. One of the sources told the publication that while “everyone understands the…
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Russia Tracks Academics With Foreign Contacts as Treason Cases Rise – Reports
Russian authorities have started collecting the personal data of academics who are in contact with foreigners, the independent investigative outlet Mozhem Obyasnit reported Thursday. The practice was compared to that of the Soviet era, when contacts between Russians and foreigners were strictly monitored. It also comes amid what the UN has called an alarming rise in Russia’s…
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Navalny Allies Accused of Using Bot Farm to Spread Anti-Govt Narrative, Deny Claims
Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) has been accused of creating a network of bot farms in Lithuania and Georgia for spreading “anti-government messages,” including information about the Kremlin invasion of Ukraine and its consequences for Russian citizens. The SVTV media outlet, created by libertarian politician Mikhail Svetov, published an investigation that claims that FBK created a…
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Russians’ Real Estate Deals in Spain Hit Post-Crimea High – RBC
The number of real estate deals made by Russians in Spain has reached its highest level since the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the RBC news website reported Thursday, citing Spanish notary public data. The 2,137 transactions on the purchase and sale of housing made by Russian nationals in January-June 2023 mark a 50% increase from the…
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Russia Arrests Ex-Civil Servant Over Bank Transfers to Ukraine
Russia on Thursday arrested a former regional official on allegations of financing the Ukrainian armed forces, state media reported. Moscow has made a string of arrests of people it says have sponsored the Ukrainian army since Russia launched its full-scale military campaign against its neighbor in February last year. The FSB security agency said Thursday…
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Finland Shutters 4 Russian Border Crossings to Curb Asylum Seekers
Finland’s government announced Thursday it will shut down around half of its border crossings with Russia to address an increase in asylum seekers entering the country. Four checkpoints on Finland’s southeastern border with Russia will close at midnight Saturday local time, according to a cabinet statement cited by the Finnish broadcaster Yle. They will remain shuttered…
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‘I Just Wanted to Stop the War’: Russian Artist Sentenced to 7 Years for Price Tag Protest
When Alexandra Skochilenko swapped price tags at a St. Petersburg supermarket with statements criticizing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and highlighting civilian deaths in the conflict, she didn’t expect that it could lead to her imprisonment. “Back then, it seemed safe,” Skochilenko’s girlfriend Sofia Subbotina told The Moscow Times in a phone interview. “But these past…
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Russia Adds Detained Navalny Lawyers to ‘Extremists and Terrorists’ Registry
Three lawyers representing jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny have been added to state financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring’s list of “extremists and terrorists,” the independent Mediazona news website reported Thursday. Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin were arrested on Oct. 13 in Moscow on accusations of participating in “extremist” activities for passing on letters written by Navalny…
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Navalny Ally Jailed 8 Years in Absentia for ‘War Fakes’
A Russian court has sentenced Vladimir Milov, an exiled ally of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, to eight years in prison in absentia for speaking out against Moscow’s war on Ukraine, media reported Thursday. Moscow’s Basmanny District Court found Milov guilty of spreading “false information” about the Russian military in a March 2022 YouTube stream…
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Russia Steps Up Attacks on East Ukraine’s Avdiivka – Mayor
Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s shattered eastern frontline town of Avdiivka, its mayor said Thursday. The industrial town near the Russian-held regional stronghold of Donetsk has been under fierce attack for more than a month. “It is very hot. Indeed, in the last few days, the enemy has become more active,” Avdiivka’s Mayor…
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Russian Brewery Executives Arrested for Brand Sales to Carlsberg – Reports
Two executives of the major Russian brewery Baltika have been arrested on suspicion of attempts to sell the rights to its brands to Danish brewer Carlsberg, media reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources. Police and Federal Security Service (FSB) agents carried out more than a dozen searches at offices affiliated with Baltika in St. Petersburg, the…
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Russian Economy Expands for Second Quarter Running
Russia’s economy grew for a second consecutive quarter despite high inflation and Western sanctions that have weakened the ruble, official data showed Wednesday. The economy expanded by 5.5% year-on-year in the third quarter after contracting in the same period last year, according to the federal statistics agency. The Russian economy shrank in 2022 but it…
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The Soviets Conducted Dozens of ‘Peaceful’ Nuclear Explosions. Their Radioactive Contamination Lingers On.
“I have seen the dead forest with my own eyes, it’s a very eerie sensation,” Andrei Ozharovsky, a nuclear physicist and antinuclear campaigner, told The Moscow Times. “The explosion happened in the 1970s — but in one direction, for about two or three kilometers, there are still dead trees standing. Coniferous trees, the taiga, are…
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Leaked Files Reveal Secret Payments by Companies Linked to Abramovich
Cyprus has long drawn criticism for providing offshore financial services for people associated with corrupt regimes and businesses. A new series of investigations by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, along with 68 media partners, has exposed the industry’s links to President Vladimir Putin’s regime. Among the revelations is the discovery that Chelsea Football Club…
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Northern Flight: The Teenage Komi-Karelian Activist Who Escaped the FSB
A young Komi-Karelian activist announced this month that he was able to escape Russia despite being featured as a key witness in a high-profile investigation handled by the Federal Security Service (FSB). Nikita Goldin, 18, was detained by Russian security services in the northern port city of Arkhangelsk in September and taken in for an…
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Suspect in Pro-War Blogger’s Killing Admits Partial Guilt
Updated with reports from Fontanka, Mash and lawyer’s remarks. A Russian woman accused of killing military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky pleaded partially guilty during a court hearing on Wednesday. Investigators say Darya Trepova, 26, assassinated Tatarsky on orders from Ukraine and working with the help of anti-Kremlin activists, while Kyiv has pointed to domestic Russian infighting.…
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Moscow’s Army Recruitment Drive Hits 2023 Target Early, Mayor Says
Moscow has recruited its annual target number of contract soldiers into the military ahead of schedule, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Wednesday. More than 22,000 people signed contracts with Russia’s military, according to Sobyanin, as the country continues to wage its war against neighboring Ukraine. “Thus, we’ve fulfilled the Defense Ministry’s task ahead of schedule for…
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Russia’s Leningrad Region Sends 500K Pine Seedlings to Occupied Donetsk
Northern Russia’s Leningrad region has sent half a million pine seedlings to the occupied Ukrainian region of Donetsk, Russian authorities announced Tuesday. The so-called “green humanitarian aid” is just the latest in a series of seedling shipments from the Leningrad region to occupied Donetsk, with authorities having already sent around 100,000 pine and spruce seedlings…
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A Long Road to Freedom: How Russia Stole 2,000 Ukrainian Prisoners
When the Russian military retreated from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson in November last year, they stole a number of prized items: paintings from local museums, World War II memorabilia, monuments to 18th-century military commanders — and 2,000 Ukrainian prisoners. Almost a year on, more than 1,500 Kherson prisoners still remain in prisons in…
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Russia Arrests Man Accused of Treason for Ukraine
Russia’s security service (FSB) accused a resident of Tyumen in Siberia of handing military information to Ukraine and detained him, state-run news agencies reported Wednesday. This is the latest in a string of treason or espionage cases linked to Ukraine, with trials often held behind closed doors and few details seeping through. The FSB said…
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Russia Admits Ukraine Gained Positions on Moscow-Held Bank of Dnipro River
Russia said Wednesday for the first time that some Ukrainian troops had established positions on the Moscow-held side of the Dnipro River, the vast waterway that splits the frontline in southern Ukraine. A sustained Ukrainian breakthrough across the river would mark a significant tactical success for Kyiv, whose wider counteroffensive has so far failed to…
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Who Is the German Journalist Who Reportedly Made a Deal with Putin Ally?
Cyprus has long drawn criticism for providing offshore financial services for people associated with corrupt regimes and businesses. A new series of investigations by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, along with 68 media partners, has exposed the financial services industry’s links to President Vladimir Putin’s regime. Among the revelations is the discovery that German…
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Domestic Violence Victim From Russia’s Ingushetia Detained in Armenia – Holod
Police in Armenia have detained a young Russian woman fleeing domestic violence after her family filed complaints to local authorities, Russian media reported Wednesday, citing the human rights group Marem. According to the independent news website Holod, Fatima Zurabova, 21, fled her home earlier this month in the republic of Ingushetia, a Muslim-majority region in Russia’s…
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Moscow ‘Regrets’ Finland’s Move to Consider Closing Border With Russia
Russia said Wednesday that it “deeply regretted” Finland’s move to consider closing its border crossings with Russia amid an uptick in asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa entering the country. Helsinki on Tuesday accused Moscow of deliberately allowing migrants to enter Finland without having proper travel documents, suggesting it was a tactic to destabilize the…
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Russia Launches Terrorism Probe Into Explosives Plant Blast – Kommersant
Russian authorities have launched a criminal investigation into terrorism over a blast at an explosives factory in central Russia’s Tambov region, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. Police investigators have reportedly found fragments of a drone that attacked the Tambov gunpowder factory late Saturday, which caused a fire at the plant, though…
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Russian Delegation in N. Korea to ‘Further Revitalize’ Ties
A Russian delegation led by Natural Resources Minister Alexander Kozlov is visiting Pyongyang, North Korea’s state media said Wednesday, with the two countries’ growing cooperation triggering concern in Washington and Seoul. The visit comes less than a week after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that ties between Pyongyang and Moscow were “growing and…
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Cyprus Pledges to Probe Russia Sanction-Busting Allegations
Cyprus vowed Tuesday to investigate new allegations by a group of international journalists that it was a hub for Russian money-laundering enabling oligarchs to bypass sanctions. According to an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 67 media partners, the east Mediterranean island “plays an even bigger role than was commonly known…
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Russian Man Gets 6 Years for Damaging Army Posters
Russia on Tuesday sentenced a man to six years in prison for vandalizing posters of Russian soldiers decorated as “heroes” for fighting in Ukraine. Moscow has banned criticism of the Ukraine offensive and punished thousands of citizens for denouncing the dragging military campaign. Russia’s Investigative Committee said the man’s sentence had come into force after…
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Moscow Airport Installs AI-Powered Anti-Drone Radar
Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport has installed an AI-powered radar system to detect and deter drones, Russian state media reported Tuesday. Sheremetyevo, along with the Russian capital’s three other airports, repeatedly shut down due to drone attacks this summer as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dragged on for a second year. The new anti-drone defense system, dubbed “Yenot-SD,” is operated by…
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Russian Rescue Crews Siphon Oil From Tanker Aground in Far East
Russia’s Marine Rescue Service has begun pumping fuel from an oil tanker that last week ran aground off the southwestern coast of Sakhalin Island, the state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday. The stranded Victoria oil tanker, which is reportedly carrying 760 tons of fuel, ran aground on Friday after experiencing an engine failure that prompted the ship’s…
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Finland Weighs Closing Russian Border Amid Uptick in Asylum Seekers
Finland’s government is considering closing its border crossings with Russia amid a rising number of asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa, the broadcaster YLE reported Tuesday, as Finnish officials suggest that Moscow is trying to destabilize the country. Interior Minister Mari Rantanen told reporters that her agency was drafting proposals that would allow…
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Almost No Russian Oil Sold Below G7 Price Cap – FT
Russia has managed to almost entirely circumvent a G7 price cap on its oil exports, with Moscow claiming average sales at more than $20 per barrel above the imposed limit, the Financial Times reported Tuesday, citing Western officials and Russian export data. According to an unnamed senior European official who spoke to FT, “almost none” of Russia’s…
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Russia Deports Journalist With Kazakh Citizenship
Russian authorities have forcefully deported Vladislav Ivanenko, a Kazakh national who worked as a journalist in Russia, to the country of his citizenship, his employer Properm.ru reported Tuesday. Ivanenko was arrested early on Nov. 9 at his home in the Ural Mountains city of Perm and taken to a temporary detention facility for foreign nationals…
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Zelensky Says Russian Attacks Increasing
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday Russia was increasing its attacks across the front line, as Kyiv called for the West to boost its weapons supplies ahead of winter. Neither side has made any significant territorial gain for months, but both Zelensky and the Kremlin have denied the conflict has ground to a stalemate.…
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Alexey Likhachev, Director General of Rosatom, discussed the implementation of the Paks-II NPP project with Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary
Preparatory work is being intensively carried out at the construction site of the Paks-II NPP by both Russian and foreign companies. Alexey Likhachev, Director General of Rosatom, met with Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, followed by a visit to the construction site of the Paks-II NPP. During the meeting it…
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Putin Pardons Slain Journalist’s Killer for Fighting in Ukraine – RBC
President Vladimir Putin has pardoned one of the convicted killers of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya after he fought for the Russian army in Ukraine, the RBC news website reported Tuesday. Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former police officer, was handed a 20-year prison sentence nearly a decade ago for his involvement in the 2006 killing of Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist…
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Putin Signs Changes to Russia’s Presidential Election Laws
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed changes to Russia’s presidential election laws that allow for voting to take place in territories under martial law and introduce new restrictions on media coverage at polling places. The amendments come just weeks ahead of Putin’s anticipated announcement to run for a fifth term in office as president, though…
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Iraqi TV Shows First Video of Kidnapped Israeli-Russian Academic
An Iraqi television network on Monday broadcast a video showing a captive Israeli-Russian academic, the first sign of life from her since she was abducted in Baghdad nearly nine months ago. Israeli authorities revealed in July that Elizabeth Tsurkov had been kidnapped, blaming pro-Iranian militants after she had gone missing in Iraq in late March.…
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Russia Says Downed 4 Drones Near Moscow
Russia foiled an attempted overnight drone attack by Ukraine in and around the Moscow region as well as near the border with Ukraine, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday. The military said its on-duty air defense forces destroyed the aircraft-type drones over the Moscow, Tambov, Bryansk and Oryol regions. Bryansk, a western Russian region on the border…
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3 Killed in Russian Attack on Ukraine’s Kherson
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson on Monday killed three civilians and injured 15, including a two-month-old child, officials said. Two were killed — a 62-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man — in a “massive” Russian attack of rocket and artillery fire on the city center in the early afternoon, Kherson’s Governor Oleksandr…
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EU To Put Forward New Sanctions on Russia This Week
Brussels is aiming to present proposals on Wednesday for a new round of sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, including banning Moscow’s lucrative diamond exports, the EU’s foreign policy chief said Monday. The 27-nation bloc has already imposed 11 rounds of unprecedented sanctions on Russia since the Kremlin launched its all-out invasion of…
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Lithuania Moves to Strip Ballerina’s Citizenship Over Pro-Putin Remarks – Reports
Lithuania’s Interior Ministry has moved to strip a Russian-Lithuanian ballerina of her citizenship after she praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Baltic country’s media reported Monday. Ilze Liepa is a dual Russian-Lithuanian citizen who performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in the 1980s and 1990s. The 59-year-old, who received Lithuanian citizenship in 2000, said during a Russian-language YouTube interview…
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Putin’s Daughter Joins Moscow Genetics Society, Criticizes Russian Laws – Mozhem Obyasnit
President Vladimir Putin’s oldest daughter has been appointed to the board of the Moscow Society of Medical Genetics, the independent news outlet Mozhem Obyasnit reported Monday, citing her public profile on the organization’s website and a video in which she criticizes laws adopted during her father’s time in office. Maria Vorontsova is a candidate of medical…
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Jailed Moscow City Councilor Faces ‘Terrorism’ Charges
A Moscow municipal deputy who was imprisoned under Russia’s wartime censorship laws faces additional criminal charges of justifying terrorism, his supporters said Monday. Alexei Gorinov, 62, was sentenced to seven years in prison in April 2022 for spreading “knowingly false information” about the Russian military, charges that he denies. Gorinov’s supporters say investigators launched a…
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Russia Claims Killed 34 in Syrian Air Strikes
Russia said it carried out air strikes in Syria’s Idlib province that killed more than 30 members of a “terrorist group.” Moscow is Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s key supporter, providing him with military, political and economic support throughout the country’s decade-long civil war. “On Nov. 11, Russia’s aerospace forces carried out air strikes in Idlib…
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Navalny Ally Fadeyeva Transferred to Detention Center
An ally of jailed opposition activist Alexei Navalny and former municipal deputy in Siberia’s Tomsk region has been moved from house arrest and sent to a detention center, her associate wrote on social media Monday. Ksenia Fadeyeva is a former municipal deputy in the city of Tomsk and was added to Russia’s “terrorist” list in…