Month: August 2022

EU foreign ministers on Wednesday agreed to suspend a 2007 visa facilitation deal with Russia but stopped short of a wider visa ban as requested by some member states. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ministers had agreed that relations with Moscow “cannot be business as usual” and the agreement should be “fully…

As international sanctions bite Russia and many Western companies have stopped doing business in the country, Moscow has tried to fill the gaps with a program it calls “parallel imports.” Armenia has reported a nearly 50 percent increase in trade with Russia, raising questions about what part Armenia is playing in supplying Russia with the foreign goods…

The death of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev prompted differing reactions from Russians on Wednesday, with criticism expressed alongside tributes, reflecting the Nobel Prize-winning leader’s polarizing legacy in the country that he called home.  Many supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin — who famously described the collapse of the Soviet Union overseen by Gorbachev…

Mikhail Gorbachev struggled to make up his mind about Vladimir Putin. Over the more than 20 years after Putin came to power, the ex-Soviet leader embraced, then rejected, then embraced again the man who, much like Gorbachev in the 1980s, came to embody Russia in the eyes of the West. A grudging respect seemed to…

Russian gas giant Gazprom’s shares skyrocketed more than 30% on Wednesday after its board recommended paying dividends on record net profits in the first half of this year.  State-owned Gazprom said the day before that it made a record 2.5 trillion rubles ($41.36 billion) in net profit in the first six months of this year…

Russian energy giant Gazprom on Wednesday cuts off its gas supplies to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for maintenance work, further raising tensions on an already taut electricity market. The three-day works at a compressor station are “necessary,” Gazprom has said, adding that they had to be carried out after “every 1,000 hours…

Mikhail Gorbachev, whose actions as the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union helped shape the world as we know it today, died after a “serious and long illness” late Tuesday, the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital. He was 91. His era started in 1985…

Ukrainian missile strikes, shelling and reports of advances near the Russian-held city of Kherson on Tuesday suggested that a Ukrainian offensive in the south of the country was gathering steam.  In its morning update, the president’s office in Kyiv said “heavy fighting” was “taking place in almost the entire territory of the Kherson region.” While…

The cost of foreign vacation packages for Russian tourists has increased between 50% and 70%, according to data from the Association of Tour Operators in Russia (ATOR) cited Tuesday by RBC news outlet. The hefty price increase comes as a result of some Western countries closing air space to Russian air carriers and the arrest…

Russian prosecutors asked Tuesday for Russian journalist Ivan Safronov to be sentenced to 24 years in jail on treason charges, his lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov said on Facebook.  The charges against Safronov date to when he was working for top Russian newspapers Vedomosti and Kommersant where he reported on the Russian defense industry.  “The prosecutors offered…

The Kremlin on Tuesday warned it would respond if the European Union makes it harder for Russians to travel to the bloc as part of measures in support of Ukraine.  The idea to ban Russian tourists from Europe has divided EU nations, with some in full support and others fearing it would shut the door…

Russia fined U.S. streaming platform Twitch on Tuesday for the second time this month over its refusal to remove an interview with an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, state media reported. A Moscow court said Twitch should pay 3 million rubles ($49,500) for the video with Oleksyi Arestovich, according to the TASS news agency.…

Gunfire was reported Tuesday in southern Ukraine’s Russian-occupied city of Kherson amid Kyiv’s counteroffensive to retake the surrounding region from Russian troops. Local news outlet Most reported intense shooting on the streets of central Kherson’s Pivnichnyi and Tavriiskyi neighborhoods. Shots were also heard outside a prison colony in the southern part of the city, according…

A former deputy who switched allegiance from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the occupying Russian forces in the southern region of Kherson has been shot dead, Russian investigators said Monday. Alexei Kovalev, “the deputy head of the military and civil administration in the Kherson region was killed by bullets,” the investigators said on Telegram. The…

A Moscow court restricted internet access and freedom of movement Monday for prominent plagiarism campaigner and journalist Andrei Zayakin, independent media outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported. Zayakin, 41, was detained in Moscow on Sunday on charges of “financing extremist activities” for a 1,000 ruble ($16) donation he made to opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. …

Beatings, torture, forced labor, lack of food and medical care — this is how former inmate Yevgeny Maliarchuk described the Olenivka prison in occupied eastern Ukraine where he was held in the wake of the Russian invasion. Exactly a month ago, the prison — known officially as Correctional Colony No. 120 — became notorious when…

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday he was en route to inspect Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which has been targeted by fresh shelling over the past day, according to its operator. The Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest atomic facility, has been occupied by Russian troops since the start of the war. Moscow…

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed Monday to have identified a second Ukrainian suspect in a car bombing that killed the adult daughter of hardline ideologue and Ukraine war supporter Alexander Dugin. Far-right journalist and comentator Daria Dugina was killed late Aug. 20 when a bomb placed in her car exploded as she was driving…

Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson will finalize its Russia exit and cut staff this year, signaling further problems for Russian network coverage upkeep, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday. Ericsson’s headquarters in Stockholm had informed its Russian unit last week that it will shut down and employees will be fired by the end of 2022,…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing Ukrainian passport holders who have entered Russia since Kremlin’s offensive to live and work in the country indefinitely. Up until now, Ukrainians could only stay in Russia for a maximum of 90 days within a 180-day period. To stay longer or to work, one had to get special authorization or…

There is a risk of a radioactive leak at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — which is occupied by Russian troops, the state energy operator said Saturday. Energoatom said Moscow’s troops had “repeatedly shelled” the site of the plant in southern Ukraine over the past day, whilst Russia’s defense ministry claimed Kyiv’s troops…

Belarusian political refugee Karyna Patsiomkina thought she would be out of harm’s way when she moved into a flat in Bucha, a lush suburb north of Kyiv, in early February. She felt comfortable in Ukraine, she said, a country “100 times more democratic” than her homeland, whose strongman leader has ruled with an iron fist…

Russia on Friday prevented the adoption of a joint declaration following a four-week UN conference on a nuclear disarmament treaty, with Moscow denouncing what it said were “political” aspects of the text. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which 191 signatories review every five years, aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, promote complete disarmament and…

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, occupied by Moscow’s troops, came back online Friday, the state operator said after Kyiv claimed it was cut from the national power grid by Russian shelling. The plant — Europe’s largest nuclear facility — was severed Thursday from Ukraine’s power network for the first time in its four-decade history due to…

The Kremlin is planning to hold referendums on joining Russia next month in just two regions of Ukraine amid continuing heavy fighting, independent Russian media outlets reported Friday. Moscow is “impatient” and would like to “pull off” referendums in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as fast as possible amid stalemate on the battlefield, said the…

Russia has significantly ramped up gold exports to China as Western governments closed their markets to the precious metal over the war in Ukraine, media outlet RBC reported Friday citing Chinese customs data. China imported $108.8 million worth of Russian gold in July — a 750% increase from June and a 4,800% increase from the same…

Nearly 1 million Russian citizens have entered the European Union in the six months since their country invaded Ukraine, the EU’s border agency Frontex said Thursday. A total of 998,085 Russian passport holders have entered the EU from the day of the invasion on Feb. 24 through Aug. 22, a Frontex spokesperson told Germany’s DPA…

At a March council meeting in the Russian city of Voronezh, local deputy Nina Belyaeva condemned her country’s invasion of Ukraine and described the Russian military’s actions as a war crime. Within weeks, she was accused of “spreading false information” about the army — a violation of wartime censorship laws that can lead to a…

Latvia on Thursday took down a Soviet-era monument in Riga following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite protests from the Baltic state’s ethnic Russian minority to keep it.  Demolition machinery was used to remove the 79-meter World War II memorial, which has become a rallying point for Kremlin supporters in Latvia, according to an AFP journalist at…

Updates to correct the court decision. A court in Yekaterinburg restricted internet access and freedom of movement for the city’s former mayor and opposition figurehead Yevgeny Roizman on Thursday, local media outlet E1.ru reported.  Roizman, 59, was detained at his apartment in Yekaterinburg a day earlier on charges of “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces —…

President Vladimir Putin ordered the expansion of the Russian military Thursday as Moscow struggles to fulfill its objectives in Ukraine six months after the invasion of its pro-Western neighbor. As part of the changes, the total number of military and civilian staff in the Russian Armed Forces will increase from 1.9 million to nearly 2.04…

Russia’s largest carmaker AvtoVaz regained its top sales spot in the Russian capital last month for the first time in more than a decade, according to market researcher Autostat. The car market in Russia has been cleared of most competition after Western and Asian automakers suspended operations after the invasion of Ukraine or faced supply shortages…

Russia saw a 22% fall in laptop sales in July compared to the same month last year, Kommersant newspaper reported Thursday, amid the exit of Western brands over the war in Ukraine and an economic slowdown.  A total of 222,000 laptops valued at 13.1 billion rubles ($217 million) were sold in Russia in July, Kommersant…

A prominent Russian human rights activist and member of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s human rights council has been hospitalized after an attacker attempted to stab him in the throat with broken glass.  “Igor Kalyapin was attacked by an unknown assailant in the Nizhny Novgorod region on Wednesday night,” the presidential human rights council said in a…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in Kyiv on Wednesday, hailing Ukraine’s six-month long resistance to the Russian invasion as his counterpart President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed the fight would continue “until the end”. Wednesday marked half a year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, as well as the day the…

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered one-off support payments to be made to the parents of schoolchildren in parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia, according to an order posted Wednesday on the Kremlin website.  Parents of children aged between 6 and 18 years old in Russia-controlled areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Kherson regions will, according…

Almost 16,500 people have been detained across Russia for protesting the war in the 6 months since the invasion of Ukraine, according to data published Wednesday by an independent human rights group. The overwhelming majority of detentions came in the first month of the fighting before Russian lawmakers passed legislation criminalizing virtually any speech or…

A Russian-appointed official in southeastern Ukraine’s occupied region of Zaporizhzhia was killed in a car bomb attack, a member of the Moscow-backed regional administration said Wednesday. The assassination of Ivan Sushko, who headed the town of Mykhailivka, is the latest of several attacks against pro-Russian officials in the occupied regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in…

Six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into neighboring Ukraine, the bloody war shows no sign of ending soon. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the invasion, according to the UN’s human rights office. Ukrainians who made the choice not to flee the country have faced challenges from water and…

Russia and Ukraine traded accusations Tuesday over who was endangering the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as the United Nations urged both sides to insulate the Ukrainian facility from the ongoing war. Russia called the meeting at the United Nations Security Council to discuss the dangers that close shelling and a military presence posed to the power…

Yevgeny Roizman, a former opposition mayor of one of Russia’s largest cities, was detained Wednesday on criminal charges related to his public criticism of the invasion of Ukraine, media outlets reported. Ex-Yekaterinburg mayor Roizman said he was being charged under legislation that forbids the “discreditation” of the Russian Armed Forces. If found guilty, he faces…

Kyiv accused Moscow on Tuesday of having organized illegal mass adoptions of Ukrainian children after transferring them from occupied territories to Russia. Since the beginning of the war, Kyiv has been accusing Moscow of “deporting” Ukrainians, saying Ukrainians from occupied territories have been forced to go to Russia rather than other regions of Ukraine. “The…

Porsches, Bentleys and other luxury cars with Russian license plates are filling up the parking garage at Helsinki’s airport as Finland becomes an important transit country for Russian tourists flying to Europe. The European Union shut its airspace to Russian planes after Moscow invaded Ukraine, forcing anyone who wants to travel to Europe to drive…

Hundreds of mourners gathered Tuesday for the Moscow funeral of Daria Dugina, the adult daughter of a prominent nationalist philosopher, after she was killed in a car bombing that Moscow blames on Kyiv. Her father Alexander Dugin — a vocal supporter of the Kremlin’s military campaign in Ukraine — is thought to have been the…

Russian tech giant Yandex said Tuesday it has reached a “binding” deal to sell its news platform and homepage to rival VK as war-related sanctions fuel uncertainty over the Russian tech industry’s future. VK said it exited its joint venture with top lender Sberbank to pave the way for the deal with Yandex, once considered…

British-governed Gibraltar will on Tuesday auction off the first superyacht to be seized from a sanctioned Russian businessman over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, media outlets have reported. Billionaire Dmitry Pumpyansky’s 72.5-meter vessel the Axioma is valued at around $74 million, though it is expected to sell below that price, the BBC reported Sunday.  Pumpyansky’s Malta-flagged superyacht…

Ryazan, a Russian region to the east of Moscow, announced a state of emergency Monday after a spate of forest fires laid waste to more than 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of land. Interim Governor Pavel Malkov said on Telegram the measure would facilitate mobilization of resources “to protect inhabitants and territory.” Malkov added that aerial…

Moscow police detained dozens of metro passengers Monday in what appeared to be a raid to prevent mass actions on Russia’s National Flag Day, an independent watchdog reported. The detentions come at a time when anti-war activism has been effectively outlawed under laws passed shortly after Moscow sent troops into neighboring Ukraine. OVD-Info, a police-monitoring…

The editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-backed RT network on Monday appeared to suggest Russia’s involvement in the 2018 poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in Britain — a crime Moscow has repeatedly denied. Western countries hit Russia with sanctions and expelled dozens of diplomats following the near-fatal poisonings of Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer who…

Russia said Monday that Ukraine was responsible for carrying out a car bombing that killed Daria Dugina, the adult daughter of nationalist ideologue and Ukraine war supporter Alexander Dugin, as experts said the assassination would likely spook Kremlin loyalists.  Dugina, 29, died Saturday evening when a car bomb exploded in the Toyota Land Cruiser she…

Russia on Monday marked Flag Day, its annual holiday celebrating the country’s tricolor flag that was restored following the Soviet collapse in 1991. Russia has celebrated Flag Day every year since 1994, when then-President Boris Yeltsin created the holiday. This year’s events were overshadowed by the country’s nearly six-month war against Ukraine. Displaying the tricolor…

China continues to boost Russia’s war chest with surging purchases of energy resources as other countries shun Russian goods over its invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported Monday. Between March and July, China spent $35 billion on Russian oil, gas and coal compared with $20 billion the same time last year, Bloomberg said, citing the latest Chinese…

Eccentric former NBA star Dennis Rodman is planning a trip to Russia in an effort to seek the release of imprisoned WNBA player Brittney Griner, NBC News reported on Sunday. The network quoted Rodman as saying that he was hoping to fly to Russia this week in an attempt to help basketball superstar Griner, who was sentenced to nine…

The Russian flag inspires Russians to “military glory” and represents their adherence to “traditional values,” President Vladimir Putin said in an address marking National Flag Day on Monday. Nearly six months after launching a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine that has pushed Russia into historic political and economic isolation, Putin vowed that Moscow would continue charting…