Month: August 2022

An attack on a prisoner of war camp in eastern Ukraine last week killed at least 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war, including fighters from Ukraine’s Azov Regiment who surrendered to Russian forces in the port city of Mariupol in May. Details of what happened are disputed by both sides, and no independent investigators have yet…

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday raised the possibility of keeping nuclear plants going as he accused Russia of blocking the delivery of a key turbine to throttle gas supplies to Europe. The continent’s biggest economy has been scrambling for energy sources to fill a gap left by a reduction in gas supplies from Moscow. …

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to resume peace talks with Ukraine, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in an interview published Wednesday after visiting Moscow to meet his longtime friend last week.  Schroeder, 78, described Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine as a “mistake by the Russian government” but said “concessions on both sides” are needed to…

A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced an activist for police labor rights to five years in prison for extortion and distribution of pornography. Arrested in May 2020, former policeman Vladimir Vorontsov has been in detention for nearly three years. Vorontsov, who quit the Moscow police force in 2017 after 13 years, has denied any wrongdoing.…

Russian schools near the border with Ukraine will not reopen for the new academic year amid the threat of cross-border attacks, the head of Russia’s Belgorod region said Wednesday. At least four Russian border regions including Belgorod had canceled school and grounded flights in the days after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. A number…

Russia backs the Myanmar junta’s efforts to “stabilize” the crisis-wracked country, its foreign minister said on Wednesday during talks with top generals, according to Russian state media.  The Southeast Asian nation has been in chaos since the military’s power grab last year, with more than 2,100 people killed in a crackdown on dissent, according to a…

The United States blacklisted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s purported girlfriend and the tycoon owner of the second-largest estate in London on Tuesday in the latest round of sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine. Also hit with U.S. business bans were several other oligarchs believed to be close to Putin, four officials Russia has named to administer occupied…

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…

Wildfires have burned across at least 3.2 million hectares of forest in Russia’s Siberian and Far East regions since the start of the year, according to statistics published by Russia’s Aerial Forest Protection Service on Monday.  Nearly one-half of all the blazes were concentrated in the Far East Khabarovsk region, with 2.14% of the entire…

Russia has added 39 British nationals to its list of individuals banned from entering the country.  Among those included on the list are former U.K. prime minister David Cameron, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, and Foreign and Commonwealth Office communications director Helen Bower-Easton, as well as The Times columnist David Aaronovitch and The Economist deputy…

Russia’s naval forces went on display Sunday for the country’s annual Navy Day holiday. The main event took place in Russia’s second-largest city St. Petersburg, with over 40 warships and submarines sailing down the Neva River. Prior to the ceremony, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree outlining the Russian Navy’s doctrine. The 55-page document…

Veteran reformer and former Kremlin climate envoy Anatoly Chubais has been hospitalized with a suspected rare neurological disorder, several reports have said.  Chubais, 67, quit his post and left Russia in March — the highest-level resignation of its kind following President Vladimir Putin’s orders to invade Ukraine. He gained notoriety in post-Soviet Russia for overseeing…

YEREVAN, Armenia — When tens of thousands of Russians fled the country this spring following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, many chose to resettle in Armenia and Georgia.  But for LGBT Russians, their new homes in the conservative South Caucasus — where there are few protections against homophobic violence — may mean facing even greater…

A senior Russian official on Monday outlined plans to rebuild Ukraine’s southern port city of Mariupol that suffered a devastating siege and heavy shelling before being captured by Russian troops. The move comes as part of Moscow’s wider efforts to gain support in Ukrainian regions that have come under Russian control since the start of…

The first shipment of Ukrainian grain since the Russian invasion in February left the port of Odesa on Monday morning under a landmark deal to lift Moscow’s naval blockade in the Black Sea.  United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, who brokered the plan along with Turkey, welcomed the announcement while Kyiv said it would bring “relief…

Russian courts are releasing Ukrainians facing deportations because Kyiv has cut diplomatic ties with Russia after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday.  Hundreds of Ukrainian citizens have been stuck in limbo at detention centers in and around Moscow awaiting deportations that were halted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The war…

Russia has accused “radical” Kosovo of attempting to displace Serbs from the north of the Balkan country with new border rules that have renewed tensions. Kosovo police closed two border crossings with Serbia on Sunday after it took on gunfire and ethnic Serbs blocked roads along the border. Ethnic Serbs, who make up a majority…