Day: June 7, 2022
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Russia Court Orders Arrest of Critical Sci-Fi Writer
A Russian court on Tuesday ordered the arrest in absentia of science fiction writer Dmitry Glukhovsky, who faces up to 10 years in prison for criticism of Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine. The 42-year-old, who is believed to be abroad, has spoken out against the offensive in posts on social media and opinion pieces for…
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Top Russian University to Allot Places to Ukraine War Veterans’ Children
Russia’s Higher School of Economics (HSE) will allocate 10% of its state-funded places to children of soldiers who served in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine starting this fall, the university rector said Tuesday. “There are 3,800 state-funded places [in total]. Almost 400 children [of soldiers fighting in Ukraine] will enter the Higher School of Economics through…
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Russia Places Top Investigative Journalist on Federal Wanted List
Russian authorities have placed Andrei Soldatov, one of the country’s leading independent investigative journalists and security services experts, on the federal wanted list. Soldatov found out a criminal case had been opened against him on Monday after two Russia-based banks notified him that his accounts were frozen and he subsequently found himself in the federal…
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Russian Banks to Open Branches in Ukraine’s Occupied Kherson Region
A Russian bank is set to open a branch in Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region this week, an official in the region’s Moscow-appointed administration announced Tuesday. “I think in the near future, a month or a month and a half, people will be able to open accounts and try to pay via the internet,” said Kirill Stremousov,…
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Russia Jails 4 Jehovah’s Witnesses for 6 Years
A Russian court sentenced four members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the U.S.-based Christian evangelical movement, to six years in prison for “extremism,” investigators said Tuesday. The four adherents of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who hail from the city of Chita in eastern Siberia, were found guilty of organizing “extremist” activities between 2017 and 2020, the Investigative…
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Deutsche Bank Moves Hundreds of IT Workers from Russia to Germany – FT
Deutsche Bank has relocated hundreds of its Russia-based IT specialists to Germany following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times reported Tuesday. The Frankfurt-headquartered bank has relocated approximately half of its 1,500 highly skilled software developers based in Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as their families in the past three months, citing difficulties…
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Russia Prosecutes 12 Officers Over Conscript Deployments to Ukraine
A dozen Russian officers have been prosecuted for sending hundreds of young conscript soldiers to fight in Ukraine, a military prosecutor announced Tuesday. “Around 600 conscripts were involved in the special military operation, all of whom were returned as soon as possible,” military prosecutor Artur Yegiev of Russia’s Western Military District said at a Federation…
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Belarus Launches ‘Peacetime to Wartime Transition’ Drills
Russia’s neighbor and ally Belarus announced so-called “wartime transition” exercises Tuesday as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine shows no sign of slowing in its fourth month. The Belarusian defense ministry said all of its army units, command centers and personnel will undertake “a set of training sessions on the transition from peacetime to wartime.” It claimed…
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In Russian Schools, Teachers and Parents Pressured to Back War
As the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine raged, Yelena Bagaeva, an English teacher from the Siberian republic of Buryatia, held a discussion with her students about the events dominating the headlines. “I tried to convey that any war is bad, that you can’t wish death on Ukrainians and hate them, they are people like us,” she…
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Senior VK Executive Dies in Arctic Accident
A senior executive at Russian internet giant VK has died in an accident in the Arctic, the company confirmed Tuesday following reports that he went missing during a dangerous river crossing. First deputy CEO Vladimir Gabrielyan was said to have gone missing with his colleague, VK’s director of procurement Sergei Merzlyakov, in northern Russia’s remote…
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Moscow Threatens Reprisals for U.S. Correspondents – Reports
Moscow has threatened to strip the accreditations of U.S. journalists in Russia in response to the treatment of Russian reporters in the United States, Reuters reported Monday, citing unnamed sources with direct knowledge of the meeting. “If they don’t normalize the work of Russian media on U.S. territory, there will be forceful measures as a…
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U.S. Orders Seizure of 2 Abramovich Aircraft
The U.S. Justice Department ordered the seizure Monday of two aircraft owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, saying they had been used in violation of sanctions on Russia imposed over its invasion of Ukraine. The department said in court filings that the two aircraft, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and Gulfstream G650ER executive jet, had been…