Author: admin
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Navalny Accuses Russian Prison of Withholding Wife’s ‘Criminal’ Letters
Jailed Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny on Monday accused prison officials of withholding letters from his wife over claims that they contained “signs of preparation for a crime.” Navalny, who is being held in a high-security prison colony some 250 kilometers east of Moscow, said he has received daily updates from prison administrators that they cannot…
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Putin Re-Election Campaign Begins Enlisting Surrogates – Kommersant
The Kremlin has begun compiling a list of influential figures that would campaign on behalf of President Vladimir Putin as he seeks re-election next year, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday, citing several anonymous sources familiar with the matter. According to the newspaper, work on organizing a so-called “initiative group” of campaign surrogates suggests that…
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Ukraine Says Blast in Occupied Melitopol Killed 3 Russian Officers
Ukraine said Sunday that a blast triggered by “local resistance movements” in the Moscow-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol the previous day killed at least three Russian officers. Melitopol, with a pre-war population of around 150,000 people, was captured shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year and now lies behind the front line further…
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Elena Kostyuchenko’s ‘I Love Russia’ is a Searing Portrait of Her Homeland
After living for two weeks in a psycho-neurological internat, a facility where Russia confines those with psychiatric illnesses and no relatives willing to care for them, journalist Elena Kostyuchenko believed she had seen the “real face of my state.” Inside the institution, she speaks to women who have been forcibly sterilized, shows a doctor poetry…
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Moscow Accuses Kyiv of Attacks on Border Regions
Russia on Sunday accused Ukraine of carrying out a series of attacks in the border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod, damaging five train carriages and causing one injury. Moscow said it would open an investigation into a Ukrainian strike that injured a civilian in a village near the Ukrainian border but did not provide further…
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Russia Begins Evacuating Citizens From Gaza Strip
Russia has begun evacuating its citizens who are trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip, according to a statement released by the Emergency Situations Ministry on Sunday. “The Emergency Situations Ministry together with Russian diplomats have organized the evacuation of civilians from the Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which was published on the messaging app Telegram.…
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Senior Ukrainian Military Officer Organized Nord Stream Attack – Washington Post
A senior Ukrainian military officer with intelligence ties coordinated the sabotage attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, The Washington Post and Der Spiegel reported Saturday, citing anonymous Ukrainian and European officials, as well as other people familiar with the operation. Moscow and Kyiv’s Western allies have traded blame over the subsea blasts that…
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Russia Opens ‘Terrorism’ Inquiry Over Train Derailment
Russian authorities said Saturday they had launched a “terrorism” probe after the derailment of a goods train southwest of Moscow. An “improvised explosive device” caused the derailment of 19 of the train’s wagons in the Ryazan region on Saturday, the state investigation committee said in a social media announcement. Several sabotage attempts have been made…
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Moscow Denies It Stole Carlsberg’s Subsidiary in Russia
Russia on Saturday denied stealing Carlsberg’s business, saying its seizure was legal, in reaction to remarks made almost two weeks ago by the head of the Danish brewery company. Carlsberg had announced in June that a buyer had been found for Baltika, which it has owned since 2000, and its 8,400 employees. But a decree…
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Moscow Targets Kyiv Region After a Long Period of Calm
A missile targeted Kyiv on Saturday, ending nearly two months of relative calm in the Ukrainian capital, while frontline regions fended off waves of drone attacks overnight. Ukraine is bracing for a renewed Russian aerial onslaught this winter, after systematic strikes last year targeted the country’s energy grid, leaving thousands without heating or electricity in…
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Moscow Targets Kyiv Region After Lengthy Calm
A missile targeted Kyiv on Saturday without causing casualties but ending nearly two months of relative calm in the Ukrainian capital, while frontline regions fended off waves of drone attacks overnight. Ukrainian officials also hailed the anniversary of the recapture of Kherson city, the regional capital liberated a year ago in the last major frontline…
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In Search of Sanctuary: The Charities Helping Ukrainian and Russian Academics to Escape
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sparked the largest displacement of people since World War II. While most fled from Ukraine, many people fled Russia or from neighboring Belarus. Among them were hundreds of academics and researchers in science and the arts, the brightest scholars of their respective nations. Western governments helped many Ukrainian…
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Pozharsky Chicken Cutlets Put Torzhok on the Map
Pozharsky cutlets… crispy outside, succulent inside, always served straight from the stove and never reheated… These minced meat patties take themselves seriously — and diners should take them seriously, too. It’s hard to believe, but these cutlets were first invented and served by Yevdokim Pozharsky, an ordinary innkeeper in the small Russian town of Torzhok.…
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Russia Inflation Accelerates to 6.7%
Russia’s annual inflation rate accelerated to 6.7% in October, the country’s federal statistics agency said Friday, as a weak currency and surging military spending push prices higher across the economy. Rising prices have caused concern for the Kremlin and Russia’s Central Bank, which has raised interest rates to 15% in a bid to battle inflation.…
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Bulgarians Accused of Spying for Russia to Face Trial in London Court
LONDON — Five Bulgarian nationals accused of working as part of a Russian spy ring in the U.K. will go on trial next year, a judge at the Old Bailey court ruled Friday. Vanya Gaberova, 29, Orlin Roussev, 45, Bizer Dzhambazov, 41, Katrin Ivanova, 32, and Ivan Stoyanov, 31, are charged with conspiracy to collect…
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Kremlin Says Convicts Fighting in Ukraine Atone for Crimes ‘With Blood’
Russian prisoners sent to fight in Ukraine are atoning for their crimes “with blood,” the Kremlin’s spokesman said Friday, answering questions about the controversial pardon of a man who brutally murdered his ex-girlfriend. Tens of thousands of Russians convicted of violent crimes including murder and rape have been recruited to fight in Ukraine, being offered…
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Binance to End Support for Ruble Deposits Amid Russia Exit
The world’s largest crypto exchange Binance said Friday that it will stop providing Russian ruble deposits starting next week as it prepares to leave the Russian market. “From Nov. 15, 2023, we will stop offering fiat deposits in Russian rubles,” Binance said in a statement. Ruble withdrawals will continue to be available until Jan. 31,…
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Moscow Accuses Ukraine of ‘Ecocide’ in Occupied Regions
Russia has accused Kyiv of committing environmental crimes in the Ukrainian territories that its troops currently occupy, including soil contamination caused by exploding artillery shells, the state-run TASS news agency reported. Moscow said it will begin collecting evidence of Ukraine’s “ecocidal violations” in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which it claims to have…
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Mariupol Teen Summoned to Russian Enlistment Office Will Return to Ukraine, Kyiv Says
A Ukrainian teenager who was taken to Moscow from occupied Mariupol and then summoned to a military enlistment office will return to his home country, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said Friday. Bohdan Ermokhin, 17, was one of a group of several dozen children moved from the Donetsk region by the Russian military and…
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Contemporary Russian Art: Immigration or Compromise?
Street artist Philippenzo, or Philipp Kozlov, has used his political graffiti to oppose the war in Ukraine. He was arrested at a Moscow airport this summer, and in October, he was added to the wanted list on criminal charges. His example shows how Russian authorities are closely monitoring contemporary artists, leaving them with two main…
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A Short Guide to Russian Spokesperson-Speak
ТАСС уполномочен заявить: TASS has been authorized to announce… At some time in the future when I have about three years with nothing to do, I will research when and how politicians in various countries around the world began to use weasel words as a matter of course. You know what I mean: “We are…
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In First, Russian Judge Loses UN World Court Seat
A Russian judge on Thursday lost his re-election bid for the UN’s top court, marking the first time in the legal body’s 78-year history that a justice from Russia has not served on the bench. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, was created after the end of World War II…
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Don’t Send Nude Photos, Dagestan Police Official Warns Women
Women in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan have been warned against sending nude photos to their partners as police have apparently seen an uptick in complaints from women whose partners had taken advantage of them. “No matter how in love you are, no matter how infatuated you are with this prince, don’t lose your mind! Don’t…
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The first full-scale NPP simulator was put into operation at the Akkuyu NPP in Turkey
The simulator is designed to analyze all scenarios of operation of the first nuclear power plant in Turkey and to train the NPP operational personnel. The opening ceremony of the full-scale simulator (FSS) was held in a new building of the training center at the construction site of the first nuclear power plant in Turkey.…
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Private Clinics in Russia’s Kursk Region Stop Providing Abortions
Nearly all private clinics in southwestern Russia’s Kursk region have stopped providing abortion services in a Kremlin-ordered effort to reverse the country’s demographic crisis, a senior official said Thursday. Kursk region Deputy Governor Andrei Belostotsky said authorities in Moscow had instructed regional governments to come up with their own policy solutions for boosting birth rates, according to…
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Russia Jails Buryat Activist 7 Years in Absentia for ‘War Fakes’
A court in the Siberian republic of Buryatia on Friday sentenced the head of the anti-war advocacy group Free Buryatia Foundation to seven years of prison in absentia for spreading “war fakes.” Russian authorities accused activist Alexandra Garmazhapova of spreading “knowingly false information” about the Russian Armed Forces in a video about Russian servicemen who…
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Russia Jails Woman for Trying to Set Fire to Army Aid Collection Point
A Russian court sentenced a 20-year-old woman to six years in prison for trying to set fire to a military aid collection point, state media reported Friday. Authorities have slapped long jail terms on Russians accused of attacking enlistment offices or trying to disrupt military operations in Ukraine. The woman, identified only as Zotova, had…
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Ukraine Says Struck Russian Landing Craft in Annexed Crimea
Ukraine’s military attacked several Russian Navy landing craft in annexed Crimea during a night-time operation, Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said Friday. Video footage shared by Kyiv showed what appeared to be seaborne drones striking the Russian warships, which were said to be carrying armored vehicles and anti-air missile systems at the time of the…
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Russia Says Sent 25 Tons of Aid for Gaza
Russia said on Friday it had sent 25 tons of humanitarian aid to Egypt to be delivered to the Gaza Strip, which has been under near-total siege and relentless bombardment. Since Oct. 9, when Israel placed the Palestinian territory under a “total siege,” only very limited quantities of basic human necessities like water, food and…
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First Russian Nationals Prepare to Evacuate Gaza – State Media
Updated with Peskov’s remarks. Dozens of Russian citizens are preparing to flee the besieged Gaza Strip into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported Friday. No Russians have yet been publicly confirmed as having left Gaza since the Rafah checkpoint was reopened on Nov. 1 to allow the evacuation…
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Latvia Jails Ex-Interior Minister for Pro-Russia Spying
A Latvian court on Thursday jailed former interior minister Janis Adamsons and a Russian accomplice for spying for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). The court in Riga sentenced Adamasons to eight-and-a-half years in prison and Russian citizen Gennady Silonov to seven years in prison. “Adamsons collected secret and unclassified information for the Russian secret services, in…
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Putin Visits Military HQ Overseeing Ukraine War Operations
President Vladimir Putin paid a surprise overnight visit to the military headquarters overseeing Moscow’s war against Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Friday. It is his second visit to military headquarters, which is located in southern Russia’s Rostov-on-Don, in the past month. Putin “visited the headquarters of the Russian Armed Forces in Rostov-on-Don, after completing his…
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Russia Says Ukraine’s EU Membership ‘Hardly Real’ Possibility
Russia dismissed the possibility of Ukraine joining the European Union as “hardly real” on Thursday, a day after the bloc’s executive recommended opening formal membership talks with Kyiv. Moscow’s offensive on Ukraine has breathed fresh life into the EU’s stalled push to take on new members, as Brussels looks to keep Russian and Chinese influence…
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In Russia-Occupied Sievierodonetsk, War Still Scars Everyday Life
SIEVIERODONETSK, Ukraine — Destroyed houses, scorched earth and trees shredded by shrapnel form the landscape on the road leading to Sievierodonetsk over a year after the city was captured by the Russian army. Oleg, 59, sits alone in the courtyard of a residential building on the town’s outskirts destroyed by shelling. His apartment on the…
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EU Lawmakers Call for Ban on Russian LNG
EU lawmakers on Thursday urged the bloc to ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) and to close loopholes present in existing sanctions against Moscow. The EU has imposed 11 rounds of sanctions on Russia since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Brussels is currently working on proposals for…
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Putin to Hold Call-In Show, Annual Press Conference in ‘Combined Format’
Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold his end-of-year press conference and televised call-in show in a “combined format” this year, the Kremlin announced Thursday. Set-piece political events involving Putin have been delayed or scrapped altogether in the tumultuous months following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The Russian leader did not hold his Direct Line…
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Russia Dismisses Claims It Ordered Paris Stars of David Graffiti
Russia on Thursday dismissed accusations that Moscow was behind the daubing of dozens of Stars of David on buildings in Paris and its suburbs as “stupid.” Investigators said some of the mass graffiti — widely condemned as antisemitic — may have been carried out at the “express demand” of an individual residing abroad, implying a…
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Russian Police Detain Kazakh National Working as Journalist in Ural Mountains
Russian law enforcement officials on Thursday detained a Kazakh national who works as a journalist in the Ural Mountains city of Perm, his employer Properm.ru said. Journalist Vladislav Ivanenko was arrested early Thursday at his home in Perm and taken first to a local police station and then to a temporary detention facility for foreign…
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Crimean Private Clinics Stop Providing Abortion Services
Private clinics in annexed Crimean have “voluntarily” stopped providing abortion services to patients, Kremlin-installed health officials on the peninsula said Thursday, amid growing concerns about a possible nationwide abortion ban. Crimea’s Health Ministry was informed about the decision by the region’s private clinics to stop providing abortion services following a meeting with state officials and…
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Moscow ‘Shocked’ by Timeline To Evacuate Russians From Gaza
Russia said Thursday it was “shocked” by the Israeli ambassador saying it could take up to two weeks to evacuate Russian citizens from the Gaza Strip. Israel’s envoy to Moscow told Russian state media this week that with 500-600 people leaving each day, and 7,000 waiting to be evacuated, it could take two weeks to…
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Ukraine Says Calls for Talks With Russia ‘Uninformed or Misled’
Ukraine on Thursday criticized calls for Kyiv to hold negotiations with Russia, following media reports that its Western allies were pushing for peace talks in the wake of an underwhelming Ukrainian counteroffensive. Nearly two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the sprawling front line remains largely static as both Ukrainian and Russian forces struggle to…
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Rosatom had delivered the reactor pressure vessel for the Akkuyu NPP Unit 3 (Turkey)
Cargo of weight approximately 350 tons cleared a distance of more than 3000 km by sea. The reactor pressure vessel viz. the most important equipment of the Unit 3 has been delivered to the Akkuyu NPP construction site having cleared a distance of more than 1700 miles (3150 km). The reactor pressure vessel is a…
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Putin Offers Way for Russians to ‘Swap’ Frozen Assets
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday offering a way for Russian investors to “swap” their frozen assets abroad with the frozen assets of foreign companies in Russia. Since Moscow invaded Ukraine in late February last year, Western countries have introduced a barrage of sanctions against Russia, blocking its banks from making international payments…
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Ukraine Says Russia Struck Civilian Ship Entering Port in Odesa Region
Ukraine said Wednesday that Russia fired a missile at a civilian ship entering a port in the Black Sea region of Odesa, injuring the ship’s crew and killing a harbor pilot. Since a UN-brokered deal guaranteeing safe passage for civilian ships collapsed in July, both Kyiv and Moscow have ramped up military activity and attacks…
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Mariupol Teen Summoned to Russian Enlistment Office – Reports
A Ukrainian teenager taken to Moscow from the occupied city of Mariupol has been summoned to a local military registration and enlistment office, media have reported. Bohdan Yermokhin, 17, was one of a group of several dozen children moved from the Donetsk region by the Russian military and placed with foster families in Russia. “I…
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In First, Teen from Mariupol Handed Russian Military Summons – Reports
A Ukrainian teenager taken to Moscow from the occupied city of Mariupol has been summoned to a local military registration and enlistment office, media have reported. Bohdan Yermokhin, 17, was one of a group of several dozen children moved from the Donetsk region by the Russian military and placed with foster families in Russia. He…
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Russian TV Channel Removes ‘LGBT’ Rainbow From K-Pop Music Video
A popular Russian television channel removed the rainbow featured in a K-pop music video over concerns that it could violate the country’s laws against “LGBT propaganda,” Russian media reported. TNT Music, which runs a chart show dedicated to South Korean pop music, has already been fined for violating Russia’s “LGBT propaganda” laws with previous broadcasts of foreign-made music videos. But…
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With World’s Attention Locked On Gaza, Ukrainian Soldiers Fear Being Forgotten
ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION, Ukraine — Kaneki, a 24-year-old soldier attached to the Ukrainian Ground Forces’ Reco Kilo unit, sits behind the wheel of his pickup truck, taking a long drag on his cigarette. Behind him, the tall factory chimneys of Zaporizhzhia, blurred by the sun, vanish into the horizon. The sound of Russian artillery pounding the…
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U.K. Crime Agency Says Russia Using Gold to Evade Sanctions
The United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) on Wednesday issued a red alert to the financial sector warning that Russia was using gold to evade sanctions imposed after it invaded Ukraine. The NCA said deliberate attempts were being made “to launder sanctioned gold to mask its origin so that it can be hidden in supply chains…
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Russian University to Train ‘Social Media Police’ for Fighting Online Extremism
Russia’s leading management university has launched an undergraduate program to train experts who can monitor and detect “extremism” online, the pro-Kremlin daily Izvestia reported Wednesday. Backed by Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee, the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) program aims to train future media managers as well as spokespersons for government ministries…
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Ban of Sakha Films Signals Uncertain Future for Russia’s Regional Movie Industries
For nearly two months now dedicated cinephiles in Russia have been engrossed in a public row over the fate of “Ayta,” an award-winning thriller by Yakutian director Stepan Burnashev. The movie was effectively banned by the Kremlin in September in a move that caused widespread public outrage and made many fear for the future of…
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Russia Throws Men, Firepower at Ukraine’s Avdiivka to Little Avail
Russia’s nearly monthlong offensive on the eastern Ukrainian stronghold of Avdiivka has made only minimal progress despite the battle forming the focal point of Moscow’s war effort for weeks. The Russian army launched a large-scale offensive on Avdiivka, a small industrial hub north of the city of Donetsk, on Oct. 10 in what is seen…
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Russian Activist Found in North Ossetia Jail After Disappearing in Georgia
A Russian left-wing nationalist activist has been placed inside a detention center in southern Russia after going missing in neighboring Georgia a month ago, the independent news website Mediazona reported Wednesday. Rafail Shepelev went missing on Oct. 12 in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, where he has lived since 2021, according to the human rights project Perviy…
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Putin Meets Senior Chinese General, Hails Growing Military Ties
Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed strengthening military ties with Beijing on Wednesday as he hosted a senior Chinese general in Moscow. Russia has bolstered ties with its Chinese neighbor in the last year, as it seeks allies against the backdrop of its dragging offensive on Ukraine. “Our contacts in the military and military-technology spheres are…
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Russian Court Sentences Ukrainian Soldier to 19 Years in Prison
A military court in southern Russia’s Rostov-on-Don on Wednesday sentenced a Ukrainian soldier to 19 years in prison for allegedly shooting a civilian he suspected of being a Russian infiltrator in Mariupol last March. Russia’s Southern District Military Court said Anton Cherednik stopped a pair of civilians while on patrol in the southern port city…
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Russian Prosecutors Seek 8-Year Jail Term for Artist Over Supermarket Protest
Russian prosecutors on Wednesday requested an eight-year prison sentence for artist Alexandra Skochilenko, who was arrested last year for an anti-war protest in which she replaced supermarket price tags with information about civilian deaths in Ukraine. The 33-year-old artist and musician has been in detention since April 2022, when she was arrested for swapping out price tags…
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Putin Pardons Killer in High-Profile Domestic Violence Case, Activist Says
Russian President Vladimir Putin has pardoned a man convicted in the murder of his ex-girlfriend after he is believed to have signed up to fight in Ukraine, women’s rights activist Alyona Popova said Wednesday. Last summer, Vladislav Kanyus was sentenced to 17 years in a maximum-security prison over the 2020 murder of Vera Pekhteleva in the…
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5 Killed in Attacks Against Occupied Donetsk, Kremlin-Backed Mayor Says
Ukrainian shelling killed five people and wounded 18 in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, the city’s Kremlin-backed mayor said Wednesday, a day after the attack was said to have taken place. Officials in the occupied region accused Ukraine’s military of using long-range missiles supplied by the U.S. to carry out Tuesday evening’s deadly attack…
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Russia Issues Arrest Warrant for ICC Judge
Moscow on Wednesday put another judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on its wanted list, months after the Hague-based court announced that it would seek the arrest of President Vladimir Putin over war crime allegations. A notice on the Russian Interior Ministry’s website said that Judge Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez was “wanted in the framework of…
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Ukraine Says It Was Behind Car Bombing of Russian Proxy Politician
Ukraine said Wednesday it was behind the assassination of a Russia-backed politician and former militia leader who died in a car bomb attack in eastern Ukraine. Mikhail Filiponenko, a deputy in the pro-Moscow Luhansk regional parliament, was killed on Wednesday morning when an “unidentified explosive device” detonated under his 4×4, Russian investigators said earlier. In…