Russia is working actively to “normalize” the situation in Afghanistan, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday during a visit to neighboring Tajikistan, evoking Moscow’s responsibilities in the area. “We are doing everything to normalize the situation [in Afghanistan] and we are trying to build relations with the political forces that control the situation,” Putin said during talks…
Bulgaria will expel 70 Russian diplomatic staff, the EU country’s prime minister announced on Tuesday, the biggest number ordered out in one go from the Balkan nation. “Bulgaria is going to expel 70 Russian diplomats. Our services identified them as people who worked against our interests,” Prime Minister Kiril Petkov told reporters. “Everyone who works…
Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska said Tuesday it would be a “colossal mistake” for Russia to destroy Ukraine with its military offensive, a rare rebuke from a member of Russia’s business elite. “Is it in Russia’s interest to destroy Ukraine? Of course not, that would be a colossal mistake,” he told a rare press conference in Moscow. He repeated…
Russia has shirked blame for Monday’s deadly missile strike on a central Ukrainian shopping mall that killed at least 20 people and injured dozens, calling accusations that it targeted civilians “fake” and a “provocation.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the attack in the city of Kremenchuk, which took place while some 1,000 civilians were inside…
This article was first published in The New Times. Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of the State Hermitage Museum, joined Vladimir Putin, Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev, Patriarch Kirill and former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky in the role of heavy artillery to justify ideologically Russia’s choice of civilization: self-isolation and an archaic militarized state. Mikhail Piotrovsky…
Russia will by Thursday midnight block the renewal of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) permanent mission in Ukraine, ending a 23-year presence in the war-torn country, say diplomatic sources. Russia “has the power to block the mandate at the end of June and it said it was going to do so,” Danish ambassador…
Inner containment dome metal structures were installed in the reactor building of Power Unit 2 at the Rooppur NPP construction site in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (the NPP’s General Designer and General Contractor is the ROSATOM’s Engineering Division). The upper portion of the dome weighing 194 tonnes and being 35.7 m in diameter was…
Russia will end its war on Ukraine as soon as Kyiv surrenders, the Kremlin said Tuesday as Western leaders searched for new ways to amp up economic pressure on Moscow. “The Ukrainian side can end everything before the end of today,” the state-run TASS news agency quoted Peskov as saying to reporters. “An order for…
French tire group Michelin said Tuesday it plans to transfer its activities in Russia to local management, the latest foreign firm to exit the country following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Hundreds of Western companies ranging from furniture store IKEA to fast-food chain McDonald’s and sports retailer Nike have left Russia since the war erupted in late February and sanctions…
Moody’s ratings agency has confirmed that Russia defaulted on foreign debt for the first time in a century after bondholders did not receive $100 million in interest payments. “Missed coupon payment constitutes a default,” Moody’s said in a statement late Monday. Bloomberg had earlier reported that Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt after the…
Russian aviation authorities are preventing jobless pilots from finding work with foreign airlines, the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday, citing five unnamed industry sources. Airlines started laying off Russian pilots in the spring after most international flights were grounded due to the risk of aircraft seizures in line with Western sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.…
Moscow opposition politician Ilya Yashin has been sentenced to jail a month after being found guilty of “discrediting” the Russian military. Independent journalist Irina Babloyan said she and Yashin were on a walk at a park in central Moscow’s Khamovniki district late Monday evening when police officers detained him and took him in an unknown…
A Russian missile strike on a crowded mall in central Ukraine killed at least 18 people in what Group of Seven leaders branded “a war crime” at a meeting in Germany where they looked to step up sanctions on Moscow. The leaders vowed that Russian President Vladimir Putin and those responsible would be held to…