Day: November 29, 2022
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Russia Blames U.S. ‘Toxicity and Animosity’ for Canceled Arms Talks
Moscow on Tuesday blamed U.S. “toxicity and animosity” for the postponement of key arms control talks with Washington as tensions continued to peak over the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine. On Monday, Russia said the talks scheduled to take place in Cairo between Nov. 29 and Dec. 6 would be held “at a later date.” The Kremlin…
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Russia To Begin Mass Production of New Crowd-Dispersing Drone
Russia’s Kartsev Institute of Computing has announced it will begin production of a new drone designed to disperse crowds next year, state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday. The Shershen, or hornet, is a hexacopter drone that functions in much the same way as a more typical quadcopter drone, though it uses both ultrasound and…
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Russia Turns to India For Help as Western Sanctions Bite – Reuters
Sanctions-hit Moscow has asked India to sell it at least 500 different products it urgently needs, including parts for cars, aircraft and trains, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing four sources familiar with the request. Russia reportedly sent India a list of products earlier this month, a version of which has been seen by Reuters in…
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Russia Bans Online Journal Riddle as ‘Undesirable’ Organization
The office of Russia’s Prosecutor General officially designated the online journal Riddle as an “undesirable” organization on Tuesday, accusing it of “posing a threat to the security” of the Russian Federation. Under Russian law an international NGO can be declared “undesirable” for “posing a threat to the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, the defense capability…
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Widow Claims Russian Officer Killed Himself Due to Mobilization Pressure
The widow of a Russian colonel who shot himself at a conscription center in the Russian Far East earlier this month has blamed his suicide on the pressure he was put under during the Kremlin’s recent mobilization drive. Yulia Boyko, the widow of Colonel Vadim Boyko, addressed an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin…
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Zambian Student Killed in Ukraine Was Wagner Recruit, Prigozhin Says
The head of the Kremlin-linked Wagner mercenary group confirmed Tuesday that a Zambian student killed while fighting for the Russian military in Ukraine had been recruited from prison by Wagner. Nathan Lemekhandi Nyirenda, 23, had been studying nuclear engineering at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute before he was convicted on drug possession charges in 2020. He…
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Putin Ally Kudrin Steps Down from Audit Chamber
A longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Alexei Kudrin, stepped down Tuesday as the head of the country’s Audit Chamber amid reports he will oversee the reconstruction of tech giant Yandex following sanctions over Ukraine. Kudrin, a former finance minister who has a reputation of being an economic liberal in Moscow, has been in…
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U.S. Sees 50-Fold Surge in Russian Asylum Seekers in 2022
The United States has seen a 4,500% rise in asylum requests from Russian nationals this year as Russia’s war in Ukraine has forced critics to flee the country, The New York Times reported Monday. U.S. authorities processed 21,763 Russian asylum requests in October 2021-September 2022, compared with just 467 in the 2020 fiscal year, according…
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Russian Officials Slam Pope for Singling Out ‘Cruelest’ Minorities on Ukraine Frontlines
Russian political and religious figures have spoken out against Pope Francis’ characterization of ethnic minorities as the “cruelest” soldiers in Ukraine, seizing on the chance to slam the West for its past conflicts and reiterate support for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In an interview with the Catholic magazine America published Monday, the Pope appeared to…