Day: August 2, 2022

Moscow said Tuesday that ally China had every right to take measures to protect its sovereignty and called U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit a “clear provocation”. “The Chinese side has the right to take necessary measures to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity over the Taiwan issue,” the Russian foreign ministry said. Moscow…

Organizers of the benchmark TOEFL English exam have banned Russian citizens from taking the test, independent media outlet Mediazona reported Tuesday.  The Educational Testing Service (ETS) has blocked a number of Russian citizens from the online platform that runs the TOEFL exam, according to Mediazona.   The TOEFL qualification is recognized by 11,000 universities in over…

Clothing chain H&M reopened stores in Moscow on Tuesday in order to sell-off its remaining stock before permanently exiting the Russian market.  Long lines of people were seen outside an H&M store at Moscow’s Aviapark shopping center, according to footage posted on Telegram by news outlet Baza.  H&M group, which opened in Russia in 2009…

Russia’s Supreme Court declared Ukraine’s Azov Regiment a “terrorist” organization Tuesday, paving the way for the unit’s captured fighters to be tried in Russian courts and potentially face lenghty prison terms.  Moscow has regularly decried the Azov battalion for its past extremist right-wing links, using it to justify its invasion of Ukraine that the Kremlin…

The former head of Russia’s top tech firm Yandex Tigran Khudaverdyan has challenged sanctions against him over the Ukraine war in a European Union court. Khudaverdyan filed a lawsuit on June 7 demanding the European Council lift its “discriminatory and disproportionate” sanctions against him. The lawsuit was first reported by TV channel RTVI on Monday…

The first shipment of grain to leave Ukraine under a deal to ease Russia’s naval blockade was expected in Istanbul “after midnight,” as Kyiv said Tuesday it had begun mandatory evacuations from the war-torn Donetsk region. The Sierra Leone-registered ship, Razoni, set sail from Odesa port for Lebanon Monday under an accord brokered by Turkey and the…

Moscow on Tuesday denounced a potential visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan as a provocation, expressing full solidarity with ally China. “What is connected with this tour and a possible visit to Taiwan is a pure provocation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He said the potential visit was leading to an…

A post claiming the ex-Soviet nations of Georgia and Kazakhstan were “artificial” creations appeared Monday evening on former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s social media account — but was quickly deleted.  Medvedev aide Oleg Osipov said Tuesday morning that Medvedev’s account on Russian social network VK had been hacked, news agency Interfax reported.  Since the start…

The Russian economy has been deeply damaged by sanctions and the exit of international business since the country invaded Ukraine, according to a new report by Yale University business experts and economists. Even though Moscow has been able to pull in billions of dollars from continued energy sales at elevated prices, largely unpublished data shows…

U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner’s trial on drug charges resumes in Russia on Tuesday amid intensified diplomatic efforts by Washington to secure her release through a high-profile prisoner exchange. Griner, 31, faces up to 10 years in a Russian penal colony if convicted of smuggling cannabis vape cartridges into the country. The two-time Olympic champion told…