Basketball star Brittney Griner, whose plight has generated widespread anger in the United States, has been sent to a remote Russian penal colony, her lawyers said on Thursday. The U.S. athlete was handed nine years in prison in August for possessing vape cartridges with a small quantity of cannabis oil, after she was arrested at a…
The scale of torture that has been discovered in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson taken back from Russian troops this month is “horrific,” a Ukrainian ombudsman said on Thursday. “I have not seen a scale like this before,” Dmytro Lubynets said. “The scale is just horrific.” Since the Russian army retreated last week following eight months…
YEREVAN, Armenia — A growing number of Russians who fled abroad because of the Ukraine war are seeking Armenian citizenship as the fighting drags on and it appears increasingly unlikely they will be able to return home anytime soon. Muscovite Igor Plekhanov, 45, was one of tens of thousands of Russians who relocated to Armenia…
A Dutch court on Thursday convicted three men and acquitted one other for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, which killed all 298 people on board. Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko were found guilty of murder and intentionally causing an aircraft to crash, while Russian…
A Dutch court on Thursday sentenced three men to life imprisonment over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, in the early stages of a war that eight years later would put the world on edge. Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko were found guilty in absentia…
The Kremlin said Thursday that the reason civilians were suffering from blackouts in Ukraine was Kyiv’s refusal to negotiate with Moscow and not missile strikes launched by Russian forces. “The unwillingness of the Ukrainian side to settle the problem, to start negotiations, its refusal to seek common ground, this is their consequence,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday named several supporters of the war in Ukraine to the presidential Human Rights Council in a shake-up of the body which appeared to purge members who have publicly expressed doubts about the war. War correspondent Alexander Kots and two other prominent supporters of the war were added to the…
Kazakhstan said Thursday it had prevented a coup attempt by supporters of an exiled opposition figure as it arrested seven people ahead of a presidential election this weekend. On Sunday, Kazakhstan will hold a snap presidential vote expected to cement incumbent Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s grip on power, months after deadly unrest shook the Central Asian country and…
Russian skater Aleksandr Gorshkov, the first Olympic ice dancing champion and president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, has died at the age of 76, the federation said Thursday. “Aleksandr Georgyevich gave his whole life to figure skating, his contribution to the development of Russian and world skating is invaluable,” federation director general Alexander Kogan told…
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) voted late Wednesday to suspend the Russian and Belarusian national committees effective immediately as the war in Ukraine approaches the nine-month mark. The decision raises doubts over Russian and Belarusian Paralympic athletes’ participation at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. The IPC cited the Russian and Belarusian Paralympic committees’ “inability…
The UN-backed agreement allowing Ukrainian grain exports safe passage through the Black Sea will be extended by 120 days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday. Zelensky said Kyiv reached the “key decision” with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, both of whom brokered the deal on July 22. “I welcome the…
Russians have moved a record amount of cash out of the country so far this year, state media has reported. The equivalent of $32 billion has been deposited in foreign banks in January-September 2022, according to an analysis of Central Bank data by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. As a result, Russians’ overall foreign bank…
A Dutch court gives its verdict Thursday in the trial of four men over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 above Ukraine in 2014, as tensions soar over Russia’s invasion eight years later. The suspects — Russians Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko — will not be in court as they…