ST. PETERSBURG — A museum about LGBT history opened to visitors in Russia’s second-largest city this week — but it looked set to be accessible for only a few days before it is banned under draconian “gay propaganda” laws expected to come into force imminently. “The museum is a political act,” said Russian LGBT activist…
Бешенство: rabies, fury The Russian language has lots of ways to describe getting angry, losing your temper, and flying off the handle. Сердиться/рассердиться (to get angry) is just so bland. It can’t capture the rage you feel when, say, you spend two hours filling in an online application, hit “save” and watch your work disappear…
A number of Ukrainian diplomatic missions in the European Union have received packages containing animal eyes in what Kyiv described Friday as a “well-planned campaign of terror.” The Ukrainian foreign ministry announcement came after a security guard at the embassy in Madrid was lightly injured Wednesday opening a letter bomb addressed to the ambassador through…
Latvia has fined independent Russian television channel Dozhd 10,000 euros ($10,500) over its coverage of the war in Ukraine, the Latvian National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP) said Friday. The channel was penalized for displaying a map marking the annexed Crimean peninsula as part of Russia and for referring to the Russian Armed Forces as…
TikTok kept up hundreds of videos that promote and glorify violent acts allegedly committed by Russian mercenary group Wagner despite their direct violation of the platform’s policies, according to a new investigation by independent misinformation watchdog NewsGuard. NewsGuard’s analysts identified as many as 160 clips explicitly depicting or glorifying violent Wagner-linked activities on the video-sharing…
President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure were “inevitable” as the Kremlin rejected U.S. President Joe Biden’s terms for talks and warned the assault would continue. After suffering humiliating military defeats during what has become the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II, Russia began targeting Ukrainian energy…
Russia has successfully test-launched a new missile defense system at its Sary Shagan firing range in neighboring Kazakhstan, the country’s Defense Ministry announced Friday. “The anti-missile defense system is in service with the Aerospace Forces and is designed to protect against air and space attacks,” the ministry said in a statement, without naming the system…
American whistleblower Edward Snowden has received a Russian passport, the state-run TASS news agency reported Friday, citing Snowden’s lawyer. Snowden, who in 2013 exposed mass surveillance by his former employer the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), has lived in Russia since that year to avoid prosecution by U.S. authorities. President Vladimir Putin granted him citizenship…
The Kremlin on Friday rejected U.S. President Joe Biden’s conditions that Russian troops fully withdraw from Ukraine before he speak with President Vladimir Putin. In the strongest suggestion so far that he would be prepared to sit down with Putin, Biden said late Thursday he would be willing to speak to the Russian leader for…
Six letter bombs have been sent to high-profile government, military and diplomatic targets in Spain in the past week, prompting authorities to step up security and re-commit support for Ukraine in its nine-month war against invading Russian forces. Here’s what we know so far: Who received the letter bombs? Starting Nov. 24, police intercepted an…
Ukraine will move to impose limitations on religious organizations in the country which have links to Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Thursday. “The National Security and Defense Council has instructed the government to propose to [parliament] a bill on proscribing activities in Ukraine by religious organizations affiliated with centers of…
Italy has placed a refinery run by Russian oil giant Lukoil under provisional state supervision to avoid its closure and guarantee energy supplies, a government source told AFP on Thursday. The ISAB refinery is one of the biggest in Europe and was in danger of having to cease production because of the European Union embargo…