Moscow Allows Sanction-Busting Imports

Russia on Friday allowed for hundreds of categories of goods to be imported without the agreement of the intellectual property owner in order to bypass restrictions imposed over the Ukraine conflict. Among the list published by the Industry and Commerce Ministry are Apple and Samsung smartphones, major car brands, game consoles, and spare parts used…

Pentagon Denies Helping Ukraine Sink Moskva

The Pentagon on Friday denied reports that it helped Ukrainian forces sink the Russian warship Moskva in the Black Sea last month in a stunning setback for Moscow’s invasion. “We did not provide Ukraine with specific targeting information for the Moskva,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. Kirby said the U.S. had “no…

Belarus Jails Activist’s Russian Girlfriend for 6 Years

A Belarusian court has sentenced student Sofia Sapega, the Russian girlfriend of a Belarusian dissident journalist, to six years in prison following a closed trial, Belarus’ Viasna human rights group said Friday.  Sapega and her boyfriend, Roman Protasevich, were on a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius in May 2021 when Belarusian authorities forcibly diverted…

Nearly 4M Russians Left Russia in Early 2022 – FSB

More than 3.8 million Russians have left the country in the first three months of 2022, according to data from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) published this week.  A total of 3,880,679 Russians traveled for work, business, tourism and private reasons between January and March. Former Soviet countries saw significant spikes in arrivals after Russia…

Separatists Take Down Ukrainian Road Signs in Mariupol

Moscow-backed separatists in southeastern Ukraine said they had taken down traffic signs spelling out the name of the besieged city of Mariupol in Ukrainian and English and replaced them with Russian ones. “Updated road signs have been set up at the entrance to Mariupol,” the transportation ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said in…

U.S. Exports to Russia Fall to 20-Year Low

U.S. exports to Russia dropped to a 20-year low in March as Washington hit Moscow with a series of punishing economic sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. U.S. exports to Russia dropped from $497.5 million in February to $101.1 million in March, according to the U.S. Bureau…

Elderly Ukrainian Suggests Russia Co-opted Her as Pro-War Symbol

An elderly Ukrainian woman who became a symbol of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been located in a Ukrainian hospital and filmed suggesting that her image was co-opted by Russian officials and state-owned media. The pensioner known as “granny Anya” was last month caught on camera mistakenly greeting Ukrainian soldiers with a Soviet flag. The…