Day: June 29, 2022

Hotels in Crimea have seen guest numbers fall by more than a third compared to last year amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  Just half of all hotel rooms in the popular resort were filled in June, despite tour operators slashing prices, Russian news outlet RBC reported Wednesday.  The closure of the peninsula’s airport in Simferopol…

Russian officials have voiced outrage and threatened retaliation after they said Norway blocked a shipment of essential goods, including food and medical supplies, destined for Russian miners on the Svalbard archipelago. Norwegian authorities last month stopped two containers carrying 20 tons of Russian goods, including seven tons of food, at its sole land border checkpoint…

Satellite images and GPS data indicate that Russia could be exporting grain smuggled out of occupied Ukrainian territory, investigations by the BBC and the Financial Times have revealed.   Russia has been accused by Western powers of using food as a weapon in its war with Ukraine by targeting the country’s grain storage facilities and blockading…

Russia’s lower house of parliament has passed a new bill expanding the criteria for individuals and organizations who can be labeled “foreign agents.” According to the new law passed by the State Duma, any organization or person deemed “under foreign influence” can be listed as a “foreign agent,” barring them from activities such as receiving…

Moscow said Wednesday that the NATO summit in Madrid served as proof the alliance was seeking to contain Russia and that it saw Finland and Sweden’s NATO bids as a “destabilizing” factor. “The summit in Madrid confirms and consolidates this bloc’s policy of aggressive containment of Russia,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, Russian news agencies reported.  “We…

Russia’s finance minister said Wednesday the government could use excess energy revenues for foreign currency interventions to rein in the ruble, which has surged to a seven-year high. A strong ruble is not desirable for the Russian government, which fears it can hit budget revenues and exports. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Russia was “ready to sacrifice”…

President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian schools to appoint dedicated “patriotic advisers” as part of an ongoing push to instill “spiritual-moral values” in the nation’s students amid the war in Ukraine. Schools in 45 Russian regions will need to install so-called “advisers on the principals of educational work” from Sept. 1, according to a presidential…

Official statements and footage released by Russia’s Defense Ministry suggests the Kremlin has reshuffled the country’s military command structure in recent weeks, according to analysts, as the ongoing Russian offensive in Ukraine yields few territorial gains.  Russian Deputy Defense Minister Gennady Zhidko’s appearance alongside Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on a visit to eastern Ukraine over…

Southern Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region is preparing to vote on officially joining Russia, a Moscow-backed official said Wednesday. “We’re preparing for the referendum and we will carry it out,” Kirill Stremousov, deputy chief of the Kherson region’s Moscow-installed administration, said in a video address. “The Kherson region will decide to join the Russian Federation and…

Russia said Wednesday it had shot down a Ukrainian drone overnight, marking the latest cross-border intrusion on a Russian border region amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Kursk region Governor Roman Starovoit said a Soviet-era Tu-141 reconnaissance drone crossed into Russian airspace late Tuesday before being shot down. Footage shared by Starovoit showed what he said…

An EU ban on insuring ships transporting Russian oil could potentially hurt Moscow more than its embargo on the nation’s crude, analysts say. The European Union recently unveiled the insurance ban in a sixth set of economic sanctions aimed at punishing Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. In a further knock, G7 leaders are seeking…