Year: 2022

Russian authorities have raided television presenter Ksenia Sobchak’s villa outside Moscow in connection with the arrest of an executive in her media holding, while Sobchak herself appeared to have fled the country, state-run media reported Wednesday. Agents searched Sobchak’s property in the Moscow region village of Gorki-8, according to the 112 Telegram channel, which is…

President Vladimir Putin oversaw training exercises of Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrence forces on Wednesday, the Kremlin said.  State television aired footage of Putin overseeing the drills in the Barents Sea in the Arctic and the Kamchatka peninsula in the Far East from a control room. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin in televised remarks that the drills…

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday reiterated claims that Ukraine is preparing a provocation using a “dirty bomb” in a video call with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe, according to Moscow’s Defense Ministry. “The situation in Ukraine was discussed. Army General Sergei Shoigu conveyed to his Chinese counterpart concerns about possible provocations by Ukraine…

Students at Russian universities will be required to attend mandatory lectures on state ideology from next year, Russian independent news outlet Meduza reported on Tuesday, citing anonymous Kremlin-linked sources.  The lecture content is to be developed under the close supervision of the Kremlin’s first deputy chief of staff Sergei Kiriyenko and will aim to teach…

Norway and Russia have reached a deal on fishing quotas for 2023, Oslo said, a rare sign of understanding amid heightened tensions over the war in Ukraine. Since 1976 — when a first deal was drawn up during the Cold War — NATO member Norway and Russia have agreed on catch quotas in the Barents Sea which is home…

Authorities in Norway have arrested a suspected Russian spy who claimed to be a Brazilian national, Norwegian television reported Tuesday. The university researcher, who has not been officially named, is at least the 10th suspected Russian national detained in Norway this month, most of whom were arrested in the vicinity of key strategic objects. The…

German carmaker Mercedes-Benz is expected to sell its Russian assets to a local investor, the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry said Wednesday, becoming the latest automaker to exit since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine. “Mercedes-Benz intends to sell its shares in Russian subsidiaries to a local investor,” Avtodom, the ministry said in a Telegram statement.…

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov continued his anti-Ukrainian tirade late Tuesday with territorial claims beyond captured regions in what he characterized as Russia’s “jihad” against pro-Western Ukraine. “Our territory is not Zaporizhzhia, not Kherson. Our territory is Odesa, Kiyv, Kharkiv. Every region and Ukraine as a whole is our Russian territory,” Kadyrov said in a video…

Spanish fashion retailer Inditex said Tuesday would sell its stores in Russia, seven months after the Zara owner halted its operations in the country following the invasion of Ukraine. The Spanish fashion giant said it had reached an “initial agreement” to sell its business in Russia to Daher group, which has business interests in retail…

On the night of Oct. 17, the Ischenko family reportedly sat down for dinner in their apartment on the seventh floor of an apartment block in the southern Russian port town of Yeysk.  But as the family gathered, a Russian supersonic Su-34 strike aircraft came crashing through their apartment window, sending a huge plume of…

As the sun set in the Siberian city of Irkutsk on Sunday, an Su-30 Russian military fighter jet nose-dived into a two-story house, exploding on impact and killing its two-man crew — the second time in days that a military jet crashed in Russia.  Last week an Su-34 fighter bomber crashed into an apartment block…

Dozens of environmental activists have fled Russia following the invasion of Ukraine in an exodus that has reduced focus on fighting climate change and weakened the country’s fledgling ecological protest movement. “Since the start of the war, it has been more dangerous to speak out about the environment,” said Ivan Drobotov, a Russian environmental activist…

A Russian court on Tuesday rejected American basketball star Brittney Griner’s appeal of her nine-year sentence on drug charges, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported, raising the stakes of U.S. efforts to negotiate her release. The 32-year-old was handed nine years in prison in August after security officers at a Moscow airport found vape cartridges…

The Kremlin said Tuesday that Moscow sees “no hope” of improving diplomatic ties with London under new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. “At the moment, we do not see any preconditions, grounds, or hope that in the foreseeable future there will be any positive changes” in the relationship between the United Kingdom and Russia, Kremlin…

A secret Russian military unit staffed by dozens of mostly young engineers and IT professionals is behind the selection of targets for deadly missile strikes in Ukraine, according to an independent investigation published Tuesday. According to the investigative group Bellingcat, independent Russian news website The Insider and German weekly Der Spiegel, at least 33 military…

Twenty years since Chechen separatists seized a crowded theatre in Moscow, spurring a hostage standoff that ended with more than one hundred dead, the survivors remain haunted by their memories and plagued by unanswered questions. On Oct. 23, 2002 — as the Second Chechen War was raging in southern Russia — armed militants burst into…

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov called Tuesday for the destruction of Ukrainian cities in response to increasing counterattacks on border areas and Ukrainian regions that Putin claimed in a disputed annexation. “We’ve already declared martial law… but they’re not shy, they shoot,” Kadyrov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in an audio message posted…

Yum Brands Inc announced Monday it has sold its KFC restaurants and franchise in Russia to a local buyer as one of the world’s largest restaurant companies plans to fully exit the market over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “Following the completion of the transaction, Yum! Brands will have ceased its corporate presence in Russia,” the…

Iran’s foreign minister said Monday that Tehran would not remain “indifferent” if it becomes evident Russia is using Iranian-made drones in Ukraine. His remarks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia ordered around 2,000 drones from Iran, the same kind that Kyiv says Moscow has been using in its recent attacks against Ukraine. “During…

The United States has no indication that Russia has decided to use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, including a so-called “dirty bomb,” a senior military official said Monday. Moscow has repeatedly warned in recent days that Ukraine could employ a dirty bomb — which spreads nuclear, chemical or biological material via conventional explosives…

Moscow has claimed that Ukraine is building a “dirty bomb” with the aim of deploying it against Russian troops. But what is a dirty bomb, and what can it achieve? At its most basic, a dirty bomb is a conventional bomb laced with radioactive, biological or chemical materials which get disseminated in an explosion. Using…

As Russian troops withdraw from territories they previously occupied in Ukraine, pro-Kyiv administrators are finding themselves facing the task of demining thousands of hectares of land. Partnering with IT companies, European countries, and the U.S., Ukraine has recently started work demining the Kharkiv region, even launching an app to facilitate public participation in the efforts,…

Moscow said Monday that Ukraine had nearly completed developing a “dirty bomb,” after Russia’s defense minister in calls with NATO counterparts claimed Kyiv’s forces were planning to deploy the weapon. “According to the information we have, two organizations in Ukraine have specific instructions to create a so-called ‘dirty bomb.’ This work is in its final…

The Moscow-installed authorities in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region formed a territorial defense unit on Monday and have urged men across the region to join up to defend the city of Kherson. “For all men who wish to stay in Kherson, despite the increased security threat due to the actions of Ukrainian nationalists, an opportunity has…

A Russian IT professional and anti-war activist has come up with an unusual way to avoid being drafted by the military, setting up camp in a remote forest in southern Russia where he keeps the public updated about his life in the wilderness, the independent news website Mediazona reported Saturday. Adam Kalinin, whose name was…

A host at Russia’s state-funded broadcaster RT was suspended Sunday after he made calls on the air to “drown or burn” Ukrainian children who viewed Soviet Russia as an occupier. Anton Krasovsky’s remarks on his RT show broadcast Thursday sparked widespread outrage over the weekend. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused the Kremlin-controlled channel of…

The United States, Britain and France on Sunday jointly dismissed Russian claims that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb and warned Moscow against using any pretext for escalating the conflict. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the allegation about a possible dirty bomb attack in a round of telephone conversations with Western defense…

Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Sunday held rare calls with NATO counterparts in which they discussed Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said. “The situation in Ukraine, which has a steady tendency towards further, uncontrolled escalation, was discussed,” by Shoigu and French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu, the ministry said. Later on Sunday, the ministry said…

Ukraine on Sunday denied it was planning to use a “dirty bomb” against Russian forces, as Moscow’s defence minister suggested during telephone calls with NATO counterparts. “Russian lies about Ukraine allegedly planning to use a ‘dirty bomb’ are as absurd as they are dangerous”, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on social media. “Firstly, Ukraine is…

Anastasia and Oleg decided to get married the moment Oleg received his draft papers in Russia’s “partial” mobilization announced last month by President Vladimir Putin.  “We had begun making wedding plans before,” said Anastasia, who declined to provide her surname.  “But when we heard the news about mobilization we immediately decided to get married.” For…

Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu held phone calls Sunday with his French and Turkish counterparts, during which they discussed Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said. “The situation in Ukraine, which has a steady tendency towards further, uncontrolled escalation, was discussed,” by Shoigu and France’s Sebastien Lecornu, the ministry said. Later on Sunday, the ministry said…

Two pilots were killed after a Russian jet conducting a test flight crashed Sunday into a two-storey building in the city of Irkutsk in southern Siberia, the regional governor said. The incident comes days after a military jet crashed into a block of flats in the Russian town of Yeysk, killing more than a dozen…

Pro-Russian authorities in the Ukrainian region of Kherson, which Russia claims to have annexed, urged those remaining in the north of the province to leave “immediately” in the face of Kyiv’s advancing counteroffensive on Saturday. The recommendation to evacuate came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched 36 rockets overnight in a “massive attack”…

Fresh Russian missile strikes on Saturday targeted energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s west, the country’s energy operator Ukrenergo said, with officials in several regions reporting outages. The Russian military “carried out another missile attack on energy facilities of the main networks of Ukraine’s western regions. The scale of the damage is comparable or may exceed the…

Russian forces have been moving thousands of civilians in the occupied southern Ukrainian region of Kherson over the Dnipro River and deeper into Russian-occupied territory this week.  The evacuations, announced by the region’s Kremlin-installed governor Vladimir Saldo, followed warnings from Moscow that Kyiv’s southern counteroffensive meant the regional capital, Kherson, could be recaptured.  But Kyiv…

Russia’s Investigative Committee said Friday that two journalists were among four people killed by a Ukrainian night-time strike on a bridge in Russian-occupied Kherson. “There is information about two killed journalists,” the committee, which probes major crimes, said.  It said 13 people were wounded in the strike. “Children and representatives of the media” are among…

The Kremlin said Friday that the “truth” behind last month’s explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines would “surprise” many Europeans if it was to be made public.  Moscow has for weeks alluded that its intelligence has a different version of what caused the September explosions, while some Western countries have called it sabotage and…

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke by phone to U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin about topics including the war in Ukraine, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said on its official Telegram channel Friday. “Current international security matters were discussed, including the situation in Ukraine,” the ministry said, without providing further details. The phone call marks the first confirmed…

Russian military authorities will end their screenings of men looking to cross into Georgia or its breakaway region of South Ossetia, Interfax reported Friday, citing a South Ossetian official.  Russian officials had set up a screening checkpoint for draft-eligible men at the Georgian border on Sept. 27 as tens of thousands fled to the South Caucasus country…

The Kremlin on Friday condemned the arrests of two Russians — including the son of a senior official — on a U.S. request in Europe for alleged sanctions evasion and illegal sale of U.S. technology to Russian arms companies.  “We are categorically against this and we condemn the practice of these kinds of arrests of…

A Russian start-up is offering its clients the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to arrange their own fake funeral and go through the experience of being buried alive for 3.5 million rubles ($57,119).  “There is a possibility that after this procedure [the client] will discover new talents, psychic abilities or see success in business,” the start-up’s founder Yekaterina…

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday accused Russia of planting mines at a hydroelectric dam in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, which is under the control of Moscow’s forces. “According to our information, the aggregate and dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant were mined by Russian terrorists,” Zelensky said in his daily address published on…

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday visited a training center for mobilized Russians for the first time since announcing a partial military call-up on Sept. 21.  State television showed Putin visiting a shooting center in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow, dressed in black, shooting a newly developed sniper rifle and hugging military men. Wearing ear…

Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny said Thursday he was slapped with new terrorism and extremism charges that he says could put him behind bars for up to 30 years. “I received an official notification that a new criminal case has been initiated against me” for propagating extremism, calling for terrorism, financing extremist activity and…

Russia reacted to the resignation of British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Thursday by calling the short-serving British premier a “disgrace.” “Britain has never known such a disgrace of a prime minister,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel. “She will be remembered for her catastrophic illiteracy,” Zakharova added. Truss was…

Martial law entered into force in the four Ukrainian regions that Russia recently claimed to have annexed early Thursday — just hours after President Vladimir Putin had declared the measure the previous day. While making his announcement, the Russian leader signed a separate decree introducing varying “response levels” across the country’s regions as well as…

A Russian delegation in Syria on Thursday took 38 children from families of suspected Islamic State (IS) group members for repatriation, a Kurdish official and AFP correspondents said.  Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria handed over the children, “most of whom are orphans,” to the Russian delegation, Kurdish foreign affairs official Khaled Ibrahim told a press…

The EU imposed sanctions Thursday against three Iranian generals and an arms firm accused of supplying Iranian drones to Russia that have been used to bomb Ukraine. The names of Iranian drone maker Shahed Aviation Industries and three top Iranian military officials were published in the EU official journal, adding them to the sanctions blacklist.…

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Thursday that his three underage sons have been fighting with the Russian military on the frontlines of the war in Ukraine.   “Akhmat, Eli and Adam visited the contact line, where fierce battles with Ukrainian nationalists are currently taking place,” Kadyrov, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, wrote on his…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree abolishing Rostourism, Russia’s federal tourism agency, and handing its remit to the Economic Development Ministry. The Economic Ministry said in a statement that the decision to dissolve Rostourism and to give its responsibilities to the ministry would help Russia meet its tourism objectives more effectively.  Rostourism…

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin-linked magnate who leads the notorious Wagner mercenary group, said Wednesday that the private military contractor was “forming a people’s militia” in Russia’s Belgorod region on the Ukrainian border. According to Prigozhin, “several сompanies” were producing “required items for fortifications,” while Wagner instructors were training “citizens who will defend the region’s borders.”…

The Moscow-installed authorities of the port city of Mariupol, which fell to Russian forces after a devastating siege earlier in the year, took down a monument to Ukrainian victims of Stalin’s famine on Wednesday. Kyiv has been calling the 1930s man-made hunger under Josef Stalin a “genocide,” while Moscow has been downplaying it as an…

Italy’s ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi was under fresh scrutiny Wednesday over his friendship with Vladimir Putin after being recorded describing a birthday present of vodka from the Russian leader and expressing concerns about arming Ukraine. His aides insisted he had been misrepresented, but the row risks embarrassing Berlusconi’s coalition allies, led by far-right leader Giorgia Meloni,…

State-run Russian television aired footage on Wednesday of long lines of people and their luggage on the banks of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region after Moscow announced it was evacuating tens of thousands of local residents.  “People are getting on the ferry and going to the temporary accommodation centers,” one apparent volunteer…

A judge in Norway on Tuesday ordered the son of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies to be placed in custody for two weeks following a request from the country’s police. “The man has Russian and British citizenship and is charged with violating the Sanction Act §4 for flying a drone in Norwegian territory at…

For the third time in a week, police in northern Norway have detained Russian citizens for taking photos in areas where photography is banned. While the police declined to give any further information, they did confirm that the arrests took place “at a location in Nordland,” a county in northern Norway that is home to…