Despite damaging Western sanctions imposed on Moscow in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s economy appears to be weathering the storm better than expected as it benefits from high energy prices, the IMF said Tuesday. The sanctions were meant to sever Russia from the global financial system and choke off funds available to…
Russia will withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS) “after 2024” and build its own orbiting space outpost, the newly appointed chief of state space agency Roscosmos said Tuesday. “I think that by that time we will start putting together a Russian orbital station,” Roscosmos chief Yury Borisov said at a meeting with Russian President…
U.S. and German authorities’ decision to block Russian darknet drug marketplace Hydra following the invasion of Ukraine has made life more dangerous for some illegal drug users, according to Russian charities. Hydra, which was estimated to be worth over $1.3 billion at the time of its closure, had dominated Russia’s economic underworld, enabling the purchase…
The Kremlin said Tuesday that a move to close in Russia the agency that processes Jewish immigration to Israel should not be “politicized,” calling it a purely legal matter. In a surprise move, a Moscow court said last week that the Justice Ministry had requested the “dissolution” of the Jewish Agency because of unspecified legal violations. Tens…
A former top executive of disgraced payments company Wirecard believed to be under the protection of Russia’s security services near Moscow has at least two fake Russian passports, investigative reports said Monday. Austrian national Jan Marsalek is on Europol’s most-wanted list for alleged fraud after Wirecard — where he served as chief operating officer —…
Ukraine said on Tuesday that Russian forces had launched multiple missile strikes at targets on the Black Sea coast near the southern port city of Odesa and in Mykolaiv. The attacks come days after Russian strikes hit the port of Odesa, calling into question a breakthrough deal to resume exports of grain from Ukraine, that…
A convict whose violent beating by prison guards was caught on video and led to a mass outcry over prison torture in Russia has died from double pneumonia, his mother told independent media Monday. Video of Yevgeny Makarov’s torture northeast of Moscow was leaked in 2018, prompting a series of investigations across Russian correctional facilities and…