Heavy rainfall led to the collapse of a reservoir dam in the Ural Mountains region of Chelyabinsk on Friday night, Russian authorities said, forcing residents of nearby villages to evacuate their homes. A dam at the Kialimskoye reservoir, measuring around 500 meters long, was unable to hold back rising waters and broke, unleashing a flood torrent toward…
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The head of a research institute that supplies communication systems to the Russian military set himself ablaze on Red Square Friday, media outlets reported, citing anonymous sources. Mash, a Telegram news channel with purported links to Russian law enforcement, said eyewitnesses saw a man douse himself with a flammable liquid and then ignite in flames.…
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Russian politicians fighting to defend so-called “traditional” values are turning their attention to the country’s vibrant music scene, lambasting pop stars for performances and outfits deemed to be too revealing or sexual. Pop singer Natalya Chistyakova-Ionova, who is best known by her stage name Glukoza, became embroiled in scandal after pro-Kremlin censorship activist Yekaterina Mizulina…
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KHARKIV REGION, Ukraine — An old green Soviet Lada speeds along a dirt road, skidding as it races forward. Behind the car, thick black smoke billows into the July sky. A Grad missile has just struck a small village in the Kharkiv region, less than 6 miles from the front lines. Oleksiy, 65, is cultivating…
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Only 15 Russian athletes will take part in the Paris Olympics after the International Olympic Committee banned athletes from Russia and Belarus from competing under their own flag. These athletes will be allowed to compete as “individual neutral athletes.” The IOC says there are strict conditions for Russian or Belarusian athletes to be eligible to…
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A recent volcanic eruption in Far East Russia has blanketed the remote landscape of a major nature preserve with ash, the Kamchatka peninsula’s park service said Friday. Bezymyanny volcano, one of Kamchatka’s most active, erupted on Wednesday, with ash spewing up to 12 kilometers into the Earth’s atmosphere and plumes extending around 2,500 kilometers southeast of the…
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A store owner in St. Petersburg who was jailed last year for publicly opposing the war in Ukraine was released from prison on Friday, local media reported. In August 2023, Dmitry Skurikhin was ordered to spend one year and six months in prison for “discrediting” the Russian military after he painted his store in pacifist slogans. He was arrested after…
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The EU on Friday said 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) had been made available to support Ukraine, the first chunk of money earned from profits on frozen Russian assets. EU member states had agreed in May to use billions of euros in profits from frozen Russian Central Bank assets to help arm Ukraine and fund…
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The Kremlin’s spokesman on Friday said Moscow had not been informed of the arrest in France of a Russian man over a suspected “destabilization” plot targeting the Paris Olympics. The man was detained Tuesday in Paris but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that France had not informed Russian officials. “We have no information. We…
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Former Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov has been arrested on corruption charges, Russian law enforcement authorities announced on Friday, adding that the army general was moved to a detention center in Moscow. Bulgakov, 69, is the seventh high-ranking Defense Ministry official to have been arrested since April in an apparent purge of the military’s top ranks as…
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Writer Ivan Filippov’s novel “Mouse” (“Miysh’”), about a zombie apocalypse in Moscow, was pulled from Russian bookstore shelves this month on the Prosecutor General’s Office’s orders. The news came from Georgy Urushadze, founder of the book’s publisher Freedom Letters. Luckily for the publisher, sales of the book only increased after the announcement. Freedom Letters is one of…
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Russia’s Central Bank on Friday raised its key interest rate from 16% to 18%, a widely anticipated move as the country struggles to fight inflation amid surging spending on the war in Ukraine and widespread labor shortages across the economy, which are driving up wages. “Inflation has accelerated and is developing significantly above the Bank…
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American composer Philip Glass has accused a theatre in Russian-annexed Crimea of planning to stage a ballet premiere that uses his music without permission. Glass, an 87-year-old composer famed for his minimalist works, took to X (formerly Twitter) to complain about what he said was an act of “piracy” by a theatre in the Black…
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A major state-owned Chinese construction company is prepared to help expand the public rail and road networks in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, the mayor’s office announced Thursday. Novosibirsk Mayor Maxim Kudryavtsev said in a statement that his administration met with representatives from the China Railway Tunnel Group, a subsidiary of the government-owned China Railway…
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Since at least April, the Russian military has been in upheaval, punctuated by arrests of senior Defense Ministry officials on charges including bribery and abuse of power. This turmoil appears to have peaked in May with the dismissal of longtime Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who faced accusations of mishandling the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While…
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The Kremlin said Thursday that it was still open to negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky despite Moscow’s questions about his legitimacy as leader. “Russia is generally open to the negotiation process, but we first need to understand if the Ukrainian side is ready,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “From a practical point of…
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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko traveled to Russia on Thursday for talks with close ally Vladimir Putin, state media reported. Lukashenko’s trip follows moves he has made over the past month that some observers interpret as an effort to ease tensions with the West after being hit with sanctions for allowing Russian troops to use Belarusian…
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Russian and Chinese strategic bombers carried out a joint patrol of Far East Russia and the Bering Sea near Alaska, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday. “An aviation group of Russian Aerospace Forces Tu-95MS strategic missile carriers and the Chinese air force’s Xian H-6 strategic bombers performed an aerial patrol over the Chukchi and Bering Seas…
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One man was killed and two others were injured in a Ukrainian attack on the town of Shebekino in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region, officials said Thursday. “A tragedy happened,” Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. “A man died from his injuries before an ambulance could arrive.” Gladkov said regional defense fighters transported the two wounded…
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Russian drones attacked the southwestern Ukrainian port city of Izmail for a second night, authorities in Kyiv said on Thursday, claiming several Russian aircraft entered Romanian airspace. Moscow has regularly targeted ports in the southern Odesa region since it backed out of an agreement last year that allowed Ukraine to export grain via the Black…
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The former head of the Russian military’s construction company has been arrested on abuse of power charges, the Kommersant business daily reported late Wednesday, citing anonymous government sources familiar with the matter. Andrei Belkov headed the Defense Ministry’s chief military construction authority for special facilities until 2021, when he was picked to head the newly…
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A military attack helicopter crashed in an uninhabited area of central Russia, killing the entire crew, authorities said early Thursday. “A Mi–28 helicopter crashed in the Zhizdrinsky district,” Kaluga region Governor Vladislav Shapsha said. “A task force and rescuers are working at the crash site.” The Zhizdrinsky district, located in the central Kaluga region, is around…
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President Vladimir Putin met with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Moscow to discuss what the Russian leader described as continued “escalation” in the Middle East, state media reported on Thursday. The meeting, held late Wednesday, comes at a time when Russia — which saved Assad’s government through its military intervention in 2015 during a…
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Russia’s military said Wednesday that it scrambled a Su-27 fighter jet to prevent three British warplanes from entering Russian airspace over the Black Sea. A Su-27 identified the “three air targets” as a U.K. Royal Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft and two Typhoon fighter planes, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. “As the Russian…
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Authorities in Moscow on Wednesday renamed the capital city’s Square of Europe as the Square of Eurasia amid Russia’s worsening relations with the West over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Square of Europe, located in front of the bustling Kievsky Railway Station, was unveiled in 2002 as part of a joint Russian-Belgian project symbolizing European…
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A Russian man arrested this week for allegedly planning to “destabilize” the Paris Olympics is an intelligence officer for Moscow who worked undercover as a chef in France for over a decade, Le Monde reported late Tuesday, citing anonymous European security and intelligence officials. French prosecutors said the 40-year-old Russian national was arrested Tuesday for…
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Kyrgyzstan ratified an agreement with Russia on Wednesday for the mass decontamination of radioactive areas that pose a threat to the local population. The mountainous central Asian country, a former Soviet republic, is still suffering the environmental consequences of uranium and other heavy metals mining during the Soviet era. Ninety-two sites contain more than 300…
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At least three Russian citizens were killed after a fishing boat carrying 27 people sank around 320 kilometers off the Falkland Islands, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. The 54-meter Argos Georgia sank on Monday afternoon after being suddenly flooded with water in the South Atlantic, authorities in the Falkland Islands said in a statement. Rescuers…
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Russia’s wealthiest woman Tatiana Bakalchuk has announced that she is divorcing her husband and business partner Vladislav Bakalchuk, who is seeking the help of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to fight what he characterized as a “hostile takeover” of the leading online retailer Wildberries. “I confirm the start of divorce proceedings,” Tatiana Bakalchuk, who founded Wildberries in…
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“Stop sinking and think of your income, my star. Overseas you’re going to rot in a stinking backyard. No one needs your English single in the Anglophone world.” These are the lyrics of “Kalinka,” the first English-language track by popular rapper-in-exile Noize MC. The song captures the struggles of the many Russian artists, musicians and…
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Romania’s Defense Ministry said early on Wednesday that it scrambled fighter jets overnight as the Russian military carried out a series of drone attacks near its shared border with southern Ukraine. The defense ministry said in a statement that two F-16 aircraft took off at 2:19 a.m. local time from the 86th Borcea Air Base,…
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Updated throughout. Law enforcement authorities in Turkey have arrested a Russian man suspected of detonating a car bomb in Moscow on Wednesday morning, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said, as Russian media reported that among the victims in the attack was a senior defense ministry official. “The terrorist who organized a bomb attack in Russia was caught…
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Russia has banned the head of Toyota and 12 other senior Japanese business figures from entering the country, prompting a protest from authorities in Tokyo on Wednesday. The list, published by Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, includes Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda, Rakuten chief Hiroshi Mikitani and Akihiko Tanaka, president of the government-backed Japan International Cooperation…
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French police on Tuesday arrested a Russian man suspected of plotting acts of “destabilization” during the Paris Olympics, prosecutors said. The man, born in 1984, was held in custody and placed under judicial investigation on suspicion of “organizing events likely to lead to destabilization during the Olympic Games,” a source in the state prosecution service,…
DetailsThe 6th Russian-Chinese Energy Business Forum (RCEBF) was held in Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping sent welcoming addresses to the participants
A Moscow court on Tuesday extended the pre-trial detention of a dual Russian-German citizen accused of treason in an ultra-secret criminal case. Russia has arrested a spate of Western citizens amid its offensive on Ukraine, drawing accusations that it is taking “hostages” to use as bargaining chips for prisoner exchanges. According to state-run news agency…
DetailsIgor Sechin, Executive Secretary of the Presidential Commission for the Strategy of Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex and CEO of Rosneft, presented an updated Atlas of Investments in Russian-Chinese Energy Cooperation at the 6th Russia-China Energy Business Forum (RCEBF)
Igor Sechin, Executive Secretary of the Presidential Commission for the Strategy of Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex and CEO of Rosneft, has called for the creation of the necessary infrastructure to further expand the use of national currencies in trade between countries
Lawmakers in Russia’s lower-house State Duma voted Tuesday to expand the criteria for blacklisting organizations as “undesirable” to include any entity affiliated with a foreign government. The 2015 law, initially aimed at foreign-funded NGOs, has gradually been extended to target independent news outlets, human rights groups, environmental organizations and educational institutions. The recent amendments would empower Russia’s…
DetailsExecutive Secretary of the Presidential Commission on the Strategy for the Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex, Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft PJSC Igor Sechin noted the safety and reliability of supplies of Russian oil and other energy resources to the PRC
The Moscow city government announced Tuesday that it will offer newly enlisted contract soldiers an extra one-time payment of 1.9 million rubles ($21,783) as Russia continues to face an acute manpower shortage in the war on Ukraine. Moscow’s mayor’s office said all local and national-level support measures previously introduced for soldiers and their families would…
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Wildfires have destroyed nearly 5 million hectares of forest in Russia so far this summer, the country’s Aerial Forest Protection Service reported Monday. This figure means that this year’s wildfire season in Russia has already been more devastating than the previous two, which saw 4.6 million hectares and 3.5 million hectares of forest destroyed respectively,…
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… we have a small favor to ask. As you may have heard, The Moscow Times, an independent news source for over 30 years, has been unjustly branded as a “foreign agent” by the Russian government. This blatant attempt to silence our voice is a direct assault on the integrity of journalism and the values…
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Russia’s military said Tuesday it captured another small village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where its forces have been making incremental advances for the past several months. The defense ministry said its troops “liberated” the settlement of Ivano-Dariivka, a village that consisted of just a few streets and houses before Russia launched its full-scale invasion…
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A Moscow court has sentenced exiled journalist Mikhail Zygar to eight-and-a-half years in prison in absentia for spreading so-called “fake” information about the Russian military’s actions in Ukraine, the independent Mediazona news website reported Tuesday. The criminal case against Zygar stems from his April 2022 Instagram post in which he spoke about the Russian army’s atrocities against…
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President Vladimir Putin has ordered the transfer of the nationalized power-generating company TGK-2 to a subsidiary of Russian state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom. TGK-2 is one of northwestern Russia’s largest thermal power companies with 12 plants, 30 boiler houses and four heat network enterprises spanning six regions. A court in the city of Yaroslavl northeast of Moscow ruled…
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The popular Russian online marketplace Avito said Tuesday that its app has been removed from Apple’s App Store for unknown reasons. “Unfortunately, our app is currently unavailable for download in the App Store. The reasons are being looked into,” Avito’s press service said in a post on Telegram. The company said it contacted Apple to…
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A Russian ballistic missile attack on northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed dozens of Western military instructors, state media reported on Tuesday, citing Russia’s Defense Ministry. “[An] Iskander-M missile defense system launched an attack on the temporary deployment point of instructors and mercenaries from Western countries in the locality of Derhachi, Kharkiv region,” the state-run TASS…
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Russian state-run TV channels mocked the United States presidential election after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race on Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s new nominee. Vladimir Solovyov, the host of a popular evening talk show broadcast on the Rossiya 1 channel and one of the Kremlin’s most loyal…
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Indonesia’s state-owned oil and natural gas corporation Pertamina is looking to purchase Russian oil for the first time in more than a decade, Reuters reported on Monday, citing three anonymous traders familiar with the matter. As Southeast Asia’s largest economy, Indonesia stepped back from buying Russian oil following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but the country…
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Election authorities in St. Petersburg have rejected all candidates from the liberal opposition party Yabloko who had sought to run in the city’s upcoming municipal elections, the local news outlet Bumaga reported on Monday. Yabloko spokesman Dmitry Anisimov told Bumaga that all 83 members who filed paperwork to run for municipal council seats in September were…
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A court in the republic of Tatarstan has sentenced Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to six-and-a-half years in prison for spreading “fakes” about the army, the Associated Press reported on Monday, citing court records and a court spokeswoman. Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen who works for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was arrested in October of last…
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Russia’s Supreme Court has upheld a 19-year prison sentence for Alexei Navalny, state media reported on Monday, more than five months after the opposition activist died in an Arctic prison. In a closed-door hearing held on July 2, the court rejected an appeal by Navalny’s defense team against a nearly two-decade sentence for creating an…
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Читайте русскую версию здесь. Russian regions’ spending on cemetery expansion projects was nearly three times higher during the first two years of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine than it was during the two years prior, The Moscow Times has found. According to data from the official state procurement portal, Russia’s regions spent more than 225…
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Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti said Monday that French authorities rejected accreditation requests for its journalist to cover the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, which are set to kick off later this week. Five RIA Novosti sports correspondents received identical letters on Sunday informing them that the event organizer, for reasons unknown, had not…
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A gas explosion ripped through storefronts in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region, injuring at least four people, investigators said Monday. “Building structures collapsed in the city of Apsheronsk as a result of the explosion of a gas-air mixture early this morning,” Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement. Videos published by independent…
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Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Monday that it dismantled a channel for smuggling explosives and detonators into St. Petersburg from Europe, allegedly intended for carrying out terrorist attacks. “The terrorist weapons were transported in several packages in stages from Italy and Germany and were hidden in spare car parts,” the law enforcement agency said…
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Updated with Peskov’s comments on Monday. The Kremlin said late Sunday that it would continue to follow the 2024 U.S. presidential election after President Joe Biden made a surprise announcement to withdraw from the race, but otherwise stressed that Moscow’s main priority is progress in its ongoing war against Ukraine. “The [U.S.] election is still four…
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An unknown man wielding a sledgehammer has decapitated a statue honoring Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in a city near Moscow, Russian state media reported. Video taken in the city of Zvenigorod showed the suspect staggering around the statue before knocking its head off in what appeared to be one swoop and walking away. “On Saturday,…
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Russia said Sunday that its forces had captured two frontline villages in Ukraine, Andriivka in the eastern Luhansk region and Pishchane in the northeast Kharkiv region. The two villages are less than 20 kilometers from each other on a section of the frontline where Moscow has made grinding advances in recent weeks. Russian army units…
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