Year: 2021

Security forces detained several Moscow-based Jehovah’s Witnesses during raids in connection with a new extremism investigation into the religious group’s members, authorities announced Wednesday. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said Federal Security Service (FSB) agents, National Guardsmen and police officers assisted in the raids at 16 addresses in and around Moscow. The investigative…

Russia has issued an interstate arrest warrant for Leonid Volkov, the regional network coordinator for jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Interfax reported on Wednesday, citing the court press service.  Volkov, who is currently based in Lithuania, faces criminal charges in Russia for allegedly inciting minors online to participate in unsanctioned protests last month. Several of…

More Russians expect to see new protests than at any other point in the past 23 years while their own willingness to protest continues to decline, according to a survey by the independent Levada Center published Wednesday. The widening gap follows widespread footage of police violence against peaceful demonstrators at recent nationwide rallies in support…

The Russian military has turned down an invitation to attend a European security seminar for the first time in 30 years amid deteriorating ties with the West, Moscow’s arms control delegation in Vienna said Tuesday. The delegation’s Twitter account said Russian Defense Ministry officials opted out of the European Security and Cooperation Organization’s (OSCE) Military…

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday he will propose the bloc’s 27 member states impose sanctions on Russia after Moscow rebuffed his attempts to renew a dialogue.   “It will be for the member states to decide the next step, but yes this could include sanctions and I will put forward concrete proposals,” Borrell…

Russia on Tuesday accused allies of jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny of treasonous behavior for urging the EU to sanction members of President Vladimir Putin’s circle, including oligarchs and bankers. Navalny’s right-hand man piled fresh pressure on the Kremlin by calling on supporters to stage courtyard protests on Valentine’s Day this Sunday, lighting their phone…

Russian military scientists have proposed a pre-emptive strike using manned and unmanned aircraft to counter the United States’ multidomain war-fighting strategy against adversaries, according to excerpts cited in an Armed Forces academic journal. The Russian Aerospace Force academics describe the Pentagon’s air, land, sea, cyber and space integration strategy to paralyze an enemy — known…

Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s team has announced fresh protests for this Sunday, shifting their strategy from street demonstrations to neighborhood gatherings in an effort to avoid direct confrontations with riot police. Russian authorities clamped down on two weekend rallies held in Navalny’s support late last month. Videos showed riot police using force against those…

The European Union has approved Russia’s application to register its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in the bloc, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Tuesday.  The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which is funding and marketing Sputnik V, filed for EU registration of the jab on Jan. 29. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) had concluded its…

In a recent video that quickly went viral on Russian social media, thousands of employees can be seen cheering, waving Russian flags and lining up to form letters that spell “Putin is our president” when viewed from above. The video, filmed in the parking lot at the Sima Land e-commerce company’s Yekaterinburg headquarters, ends with…

Russia has admonished the European Union for discussing potential sanctions with jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s close associates. On Monday, Navalny’s regional network coordinator Leonid Volkov and his Anti-Corruption Foundation executive director Vladimir Ashurkov joined a video call on the EU’s Russia policy, Volkov said on social media. Diplomats from Britain, the United States, Canada…

A rights group on Monday described as “kidnapping” the plight of two gay men who were seized near Moscow last week and sent back to their native Chechnya, a Russian region accused of persecution against homosexuality. The LGBT Network rights group helped the two Chechen men, Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isayev, flee Muslim-majority Chechnya for…

Germany, Sweden and Poland on Monday said they were each expelling a Russian diplomat, in retaliation for Moscow’s expulsion last week of their diplomats for allegedly taking part in protests in support of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The three EU countries announced the tit-for-tat moves in coordinated statements, which come against a backdrop of mounting…

Russia recorded a 19.6% year-on-year increase in deaths last year, figures published by the federal statistics service showed Monday. Rosstat said a total of 2.12 million people died in 2020 — an increase of 323,000 compared to 2019, and the highest annual fatality count for at least 16 years. Speaking earlier Monday, Deputy Prime Minister…

A Russian performance artist has been jailed a second time for attempting to stage a barbed-wire stunt in protest of police overreach in central Moscow last month, the OVD-Info police-monitoring website reported Monday. Authorities detained Pavel Krisevich on Sunday immediately after he finished serving a two-week administrative arrest on charges of disobeying police orders with the stunt…

The Kremlin defended Monday Russia’s shock expulsion of EU diplomats during the high-profile visit of the European Union’s top diplomat but insisted it remained interested in reviving relations with Brussels. Russia on Friday announced the expulsion of diplomats from Germany, Poland and Sweden during the rare meeting in Moscow between EU foreign policy chief Josep…

More than one out of every four Russians, or 26%, have watched opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s recent investigation into President Vladimir Putin’s alleged $1.3 billion palace, according to a poll by the independent Levada Center published Monday. Navalny’s team released the in-depth YouTube investigation — which alleges that Putin and his close associates laundered money…

A regional Russian lawmaker and popular YouTuber from the Communist Party who plans to run for parliament this fall has been detained on charges of violating protest rules at a rally in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Nikolai Bondarenko’s colleagues in the Volga region of Saratov say he had attended the Jan. 31 Navalny protests…

The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell paid a three-day visit to Moscow for talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, marking the first visit by a senior EU envoy to Russia since 2017. Borrell’s decision to go ahead with the Moscow visit despite last week’s jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and Russia’s harsh crackdown…

Russian state television has filmed what it called an exposé into opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s villa in Germany where he lived while recovering from nerve agent poisoning last year. The detailed segment, interspersed with scenes from Navalny’s viral video investigation into President Vladimir Putin’s alleged Black Sea palace, ran during one of the country’s most-watched…

The European Union’s top diplomat Sunday said Russia was rejecting constructive dialogue with the EU and that Europe must draw the consequences, including the possibility of new sanctions. In a blog post, Josep Borrell said the shock expulsion of three EU diplomats during his two-day visit to Moscow, showed that Russia “did not want to…

Hungarian health authorities have approved Russia’s coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V, the government said Sunday, with 40,000 doses of the jab already to be given. Official testing has been completed “and the vaccine may be administered”, Miklos Kasler, the human resources minister who is in charge of health, said on social media. The government had announced…

Two gay men seized near Moscow this week and sent back to their native Chechnya, a region accused of brutal persecution against homosexuality, face “mortal danger,” a rights group said Saturday. The LGBT Network rights group helped the two Chechen men, Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isayev, flee Chechnya for Nizhny Novgorod east of Moscow in…

Russia will expel diplomats from Sweden, Poland and Germany over their alleged participation in recent “unauthorized” rallies in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the Foreign Ministry said Friday. The expulsions come amid European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell’s visit to Moscow, where he lamented to his counterpart Sergei Lavrov that ties between…

The European Union’s top diplomat has said he hopes the Russian-developed coronavirus vaccine will be approved for use in the European bloc soon, AFP reported Friday.   Earlier this week, a peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet showed the Sputnik V vaccine to be 91.6% effective against symptomatic Covid-19, boosting international confidence in Russia’s jab after…

A Russian court fined mining giant Nornickel 146 billion rubles ($2 billion) Friday for its role in the worst oil spill in the country’s modern history. Some 21,000 tons of diesel fuel poured into the ground and waterways surrounding Nornickel’s base — the city of Norilsk inside the Arctic circle in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region —…

The Kremlin on Friday slammed Joe Biden’s “very aggressive rhetoric” after the new U.S. president said Washington’s relationship with Moscow would change and demanded opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s release.  “We’ve already said that we will not heed patronizing statements of this sort. We will not do it,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.  “This is…

The European Union’s top diplomat said on Friday that the bloc’s ties with Russia had reached a new low following the poisoning and jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Josep Borrell was in Moscow for talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as legal pressure mounted on Navalny and the Kremlin criticized “very aggressive rhetoric” from U.S. President…

More than 10,000 people across Russia have been detained in recent rallies demanding the release of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and criticizing Russia’s ruling elite.  The mass protests, which were not authorized by the government, saw a widespread crackdown and harsh treatment of protesters by baton-wielding officers that has sparked outcry from the West.  …

Denis Bondarenko is waiting in the snow in a long snaking queue of around 150 people outside the Foreign Citizen Temporary Detention Center in the small village of Sakharovo, 80 kilometers outside Moscow.     The 27-year-old lawyer is clutching a parcel of food and warm winter clothes for his cousin Ivan, a carer at a Moscow…

Russian police have allegedly detained two gay men who escaped from the republic of Chechnya and handed them over to authorities in their home region, the Russian LGBT Network reported Thursday.  The LGBT Network had helped the two men, Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isayev, flee from Chechnya and relocate to the city of Nizhny Novgorod…

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is on trial Friday charged with defaming a World War II veteran, days after his jailing under a years-old fraud conviction sparked international outcry. Navalny was charged with “discrediting the honor and dignity” of the 95-year-old veteran after describing him and others who appeared in a pro-Kremlin video as “the…

President Joe Biden said Thursday the United States will no longer be “rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions” and demanded release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In toughly worded remarks pivoting from his predecessor Donald Trump’s muted approach to Moscow, Biden warned of “advancing authoritarianism” in China and Russia. The speech…

Alexei Navalny’s supporters will stop staging protests demanding his release until at least this spring, a key aide of the imprisoned Kremlin critic said Thursday. Leonid Volkov, head of Navalny’s regional network of campaign-style offices, announced he would not be calling supporters to take to the streets for a third successive weekend of protests across…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced concern over jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny and imprisoned Americans in a telephone call Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. President Joe Biden’s administration has repeatedly voiced alarm over Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic whose doctors say he was poisoned and who was promptly detained…

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny called on his supporters Thursday to fight fear and free Russia from “a handful of thieves in power,” in his first detailed comments since being ordered to serve out a prison sentence. The 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner, who was jailed Tuesday on old embezzlement charges, wrote on Instagram that the authorities could…

French cosmetics company Yves Rocher dismissed Thursday as unjustified criticism against it over its role in a 2014 fraud trial against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. A Russian court found Navalny guilty in 2014 of defrauding the Russian subsidiary of Yves Rocher in a ruling later declared “arbitrary” by the European Court of Human Rights.  Navalny…

Almost half of young people in Russia disapprove of President Vladimir Putin’s performance, according to a poll by the independent Levada Center published Thursday. Some 46% of Russians aged 18-24 said they did not approve of Putin — a sharp rise from the 31% who said the same last year. The results are the latest…

An outcry grew in Russia Thursday over a crackdown on protesters, as EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell visits the country under pressure to confront Moscow over the imprisonment of Alexei Navalny. Borrell’s three-day visit to Russia beginning Thursday — the first by a top EU envoy since 2017 — comes during a period of…

There has been “no repression” against Russians detained while protesting in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin said Thursday amid mounting criticism of the harsh law enforcement tactics used against peaceful demonstrators. Independent monitors estimate that more than 10,000 people and dozens of journalists have been detained nationwide during the protests on…

The jailed editor-in-chief of the independent Mediazona news website has been placed in an overcrowded cell amid reports of detention centers overflowing after mass arrests at rallies in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, his Twitter account said Thursday. Sergei Smirnov was jailed for 25 days Wednesday for retweeting a joke about his resemblance…

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell jets to Moscow on Thursday under pressure to confront the Kremlin over the jailing of Alexei Navalny and a crackdown on protesters. The visit — the first to Russia by a top EU envoy since 2017 — has drawn criticism from some European capitals worried Moscow will spin it as evidence…

Some European leaders seem to be warming to the idea of deploying Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine as the EU struggles with supply shortfalls.   But how likely is it that Moscow’s jab will be going into arms across the 27-nation bloc after trial results showed it to be 91.6% effective? Is anyone using it? Hungary…

A top aide of Alexei Navalny on Wednesday vowed to fight on despite the Russian opposition figure’s imprisonment, saying the EU should respond by targeting President Vladimir “Putin’s money.” Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s regional network coordinator, told AFP he expected the jailing would boost the Kremlin critic’s approval rating and followers despite a crackdown on protests.…

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration Wednesday extended the New START nuclear treaty with Russia by five years, saying it hoped to prevent an arms race despite rising tensions with Moscow including over its imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. One day before the treaty was set to expire, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the…