Year: 2022

Chinese tech giant Huawei has moved some of its staff from Russia to Central Asia over fears of Western sanctions, the Vedomosti business daily reported Monday, citing sources close to the company. Huawei began relocating Chinese and Russian managers and heads of divisions to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to Vedomosti.…

The Afghan interior ministry told AFP that a suicide attacker was shot dead by Taliban guards at the embassy. “It was a suicide attack, but before the bomber could reach his target, he was targeted by our forces and eliminated,” Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafy Takor told AFP. Asked whether the target was the…

Updates with Novaya Gazeta statement. A Moscow court on Monday revoked the print license of independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, whose chief editor last year was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. “The Basmanny court of Moscow invalidated the registration certificate of the print version of Novaya Gazeta,” the outlet said on social media. Novaya Gazeta’s chief…

Eight climbers have died on the highest active volcano in Russia’s Far East, the Interfax news agency reported Monday. A party of 12 climbers from seven Russian regions, including two Novosibirsk-based guides, set off to climb the Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula last week. Six people fell to their deaths, Interfax reported Sunday,…

The ambassadors of the United States and the European Union in Russia have left Moscow after ending their diplomatic tenures as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine plunged relations to their lowest point since the Cold War. John Sullivan, 62, left Russia on Sunday and will retire from four decades of public service under five U.S. presidents,…

How long will Russia’s war in Ukraine last? Will Kyiv regain its territories lost to Moscow under President Volodymyr Zelensky’s leadership? What will trigger the end of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s rule? Inquiring minds can find the answers to all these questions and more on Russian YouTube, where self-described “tarologists” give readings several times a…

Updates with details of the burial, quotes from mourners, background.  Last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was laid to rest Saturday in a Moscow ceremony, but without the fanfare of a state funeral and with the glaring absence of President Vladimir Putin.  Several thousand mourners queued up to quietly file past Gorbachev’s open casket as it…

Gazprom said Friday that a gas pipeline to Germany due to reopen at the weekend would remain shut until a turbine is repaired, cutting off indefinitely a key supply route to Europe. In a statement, state-owned gas giant Gazprom indicated it had discovered “oil leaks” in a turbine during a planned three-day maintenance operation. Gazprom…

Sitting before a group of children on their first day back at school in the Russian region of Kaliningrad on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin set out the importance of Moscow’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine.  “An anti-Russian enclave has begun to be created on the territory of today’s Ukraine that threatens our country,” Putin said. …

Russian officials threatened Friday to stop all oil and gas imports to Europe if major Western countries go ahead with plans to implement energy price caps.  The angry response from Moscow came as the G7 group of industrialized nations said in a statement that it was “urgently” seeking a price cap on Russian oil and…

Russia’s banking sector lost 1.5 trillion rubles ($24.8 billion) in the first half of 2022, a top Central Bank official said Friday. This is the first time the Central Bank has disclosed financial results since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February.  “The loss-making banks lost 1.9 trillion rubles and profit-making banks made 400 billion rubles,” Dmitry…

One hundred Russians have been accused or convicted under Russia’s draconian wartime censorship law on spreading “false information,” according to leading human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov.  Those convicted under the so-called “war fakes” law face up to 15 years in prison.  Two people have so far been sentenced to prison terms and 28 people accused…

China’s UnionPay paymentsystem has stopped accepting cards issued by Russian banks under Western sanctions over fears of penalties, the RBC news website reported Friday, citing financial industry sources. Demand for UnionPay cards in Russia surged following Visa and Mastercard’s exit in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.  A number of major Russian banks subsequently…

UN inspectors arrived at a Russian-held nuclear plant in southern Ukraine Thursday despite an early shelling attack, as the ICRC warned the consequences of a strike on the facility could be “catastrophic”. After crossing the frontline into Russian-held territory, the 14-strong team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reached the facility around 3:00 pm,…

Alexei Kovalev was found Sunday shot to death in his home in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Hola Prystan.  Nearby lay his girlfriend, reportedly badly injured with stab wounds to her neck, and a Mossberg pump-action shotgun.  Prior to Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February, Kovalev was a deputy in the Ukrainian parliament and a…

Russia has lost more than 900 special forces soldiers, paratroopers, marines and pilots in over six months of war in Ukraine, the BBC’s Russian service reported Thursday citing publicly available data. The deaths of such soldiers are particularly problematic for the Russian Armed Forces because they are very costly to replace.  At least 337 marines…

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday. “Unfortunately, the president’s work schedule will not allow him [to attend],” Peskov told reporters. Instead, Putin visited Thursday the hospital where Gorbachev died two days earlier at the age of 91 and placed…

Updated to include reporting on Maganov’s health and LUKoil statement. The chairman of the board of Russia’s largest private oil company, LUKoil, died Thursday after falling from a Moscow hospital window, according to Russian media reports.  Ravil Maganov, 67, plunged from the sixth-floor window of the Central Clinical Hospital, according to police sources cited by…

A report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday highlighted evidence of the forced relocation and abuse of civilians by Russia in occupied Ukraine.  “The forcible transfer of civilians is prohibited under international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, and can be prosecuted as a war crime and a crime against humanity,” the…

Russia launched large-scale joint military exercises with China, India and several other countries in the Far East on Thursday, although they involved far fewer troops and hardware than in previous years amid Moscow’s six-month invasion of Ukraine. A total of 50,000 troops will take Vostok-2022 (East-2022) war games — compared to 300,000 who participated in…

EU foreign ministers on Wednesday agreed to suspend a 2007 visa facilitation deal with Russia but stopped short of a wider visa ban as requested by some member states. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ministers had agreed that relations with Moscow “cannot be business as usual” and the agreement should be “fully…

As international sanctions bite Russia and many Western companies have stopped doing business in the country, Moscow has tried to fill the gaps with a program it calls “parallel imports.” Armenia has reported a nearly 50 percent increase in trade with Russia, raising questions about what part Armenia is playing in supplying Russia with the foreign goods…

The death of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev prompted differing reactions from Russians on Wednesday, with criticism expressed alongside tributes, reflecting the Nobel Prize-winning leader’s polarizing legacy in the country that he called home.  Many supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin — who famously described the collapse of the Soviet Union overseen by Gorbachev…

Mikhail Gorbachev struggled to make up his mind about Vladimir Putin. Over the more than 20 years after Putin came to power, the ex-Soviet leader embraced, then rejected, then embraced again the man who, much like Gorbachev in the 1980s, came to embody Russia in the eyes of the West. A grudging respect seemed to…

Russian gas giant Gazprom’s shares skyrocketed more than 30% on Wednesday after its board recommended paying dividends on record net profits in the first half of this year.  State-owned Gazprom said the day before that it made a record 2.5 trillion rubles ($41.36 billion) in net profit in the first six months of this year…

Russian energy giant Gazprom on Wednesday cuts off its gas supplies to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for maintenance work, further raising tensions on an already taut electricity market. The three-day works at a compressor station are “necessary,” Gazprom has said, adding that they had to be carried out after “every 1,000 hours…

Mikhail Gorbachev, whose actions as the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union helped shape the world as we know it today, died after a “serious and long illness” late Tuesday, the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital. He was 91. His era started in 1985…

Ukrainian missile strikes, shelling and reports of advances near the Russian-held city of Kherson on Tuesday suggested that a Ukrainian offensive in the south of the country was gathering steam.  In its morning update, the president’s office in Kyiv said “heavy fighting” was “taking place in almost the entire territory of the Kherson region.” While…

The cost of foreign vacation packages for Russian tourists has increased between 50% and 70%, according to data from the Association of Tour Operators in Russia (ATOR) cited Tuesday by RBC news outlet. The hefty price increase comes as a result of some Western countries closing air space to Russian air carriers and the arrest…

Russian prosecutors asked Tuesday for Russian journalist Ivan Safronov to be sentenced to 24 years in jail on treason charges, his lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov said on Facebook.  The charges against Safronov date to when he was working for top Russian newspapers Vedomosti and Kommersant where he reported on the Russian defense industry.  “The prosecutors offered…

The Kremlin on Tuesday warned it would respond if the European Union makes it harder for Russians to travel to the bloc as part of measures in support of Ukraine.  The idea to ban Russian tourists from Europe has divided EU nations, with some in full support and others fearing it would shut the door…

Russia fined U.S. streaming platform Twitch on Tuesday for the second time this month over its refusal to remove an interview with an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, state media reported. A Moscow court said Twitch should pay 3 million rubles ($49,500) for the video with Oleksyi Arestovich, according to the TASS news agency.…

Gunfire was reported Tuesday in southern Ukraine’s Russian-occupied city of Kherson amid Kyiv’s counteroffensive to retake the surrounding region from Russian troops. Local news outlet Most reported intense shooting on the streets of central Kherson’s Pivnichnyi and Tavriiskyi neighborhoods. Shots were also heard outside a prison colony in the southern part of the city, according…

A former deputy who switched allegiance from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the occupying Russian forces in the southern region of Kherson has been shot dead, Russian investigators said Monday. Alexei Kovalev, “the deputy head of the military and civil administration in the Kherson region was killed by bullets,” the investigators said on Telegram. The…

A Moscow court restricted internet access and freedom of movement Monday for prominent plagiarism campaigner and journalist Andrei Zayakin, independent media outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported. Zayakin, 41, was detained in Moscow on Sunday on charges of “financing extremist activities” for a 1,000 ruble ($16) donation he made to opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. …

Beatings, torture, forced labor, lack of food and medical care — this is how former inmate Yevgeny Maliarchuk described the Olenivka prison in occupied eastern Ukraine where he was held in the wake of the Russian invasion. Exactly a month ago, the prison — known officially as Correctional Colony No. 120 — became notorious when…

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday he was en route to inspect Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which has been targeted by fresh shelling over the past day, according to its operator. The Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest atomic facility, has been occupied by Russian troops since the start of the war. Moscow…

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed Monday to have identified a second Ukrainian suspect in a car bombing that killed the adult daughter of hardline ideologue and Ukraine war supporter Alexander Dugin. Far-right journalist and comentator Daria Dugina was killed late Aug. 20 when a bomb placed in her car exploded as she was driving…

Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson will finalize its Russia exit and cut staff this year, signaling further problems for Russian network coverage upkeep, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday. Ericsson’s headquarters in Stockholm had informed its Russian unit last week that it will shut down and employees will be fired by the end of 2022,…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing Ukrainian passport holders who have entered Russia since Kremlin’s offensive to live and work in the country indefinitely. Up until now, Ukrainians could only stay in Russia for a maximum of 90 days within a 180-day period. To stay longer or to work, one had to get special authorization or…

There is a risk of a radioactive leak at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — which is occupied by Russian troops, the state energy operator said Saturday. Energoatom said Moscow’s troops had “repeatedly shelled” the site of the plant in southern Ukraine over the past day, whilst Russia’s defense ministry claimed Kyiv’s troops…

Belarusian political refugee Karyna Patsiomkina thought she would be out of harm’s way when she moved into a flat in Bucha, a lush suburb north of Kyiv, in early February. She felt comfortable in Ukraine, she said, a country “100 times more democratic” than her homeland, whose strongman leader has ruled with an iron fist…

Russia on Friday prevented the adoption of a joint declaration following a four-week UN conference on a nuclear disarmament treaty, with Moscow denouncing what it said were “political” aspects of the text. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which 191 signatories review every five years, aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, promote complete disarmament and…

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, occupied by Moscow’s troops, came back online Friday, the state operator said after Kyiv claimed it was cut from the national power grid by Russian shelling. The plant — Europe’s largest nuclear facility — was severed Thursday from Ukraine’s power network for the first time in its four-decade history due to…

The Kremlin is planning to hold referendums on joining Russia next month in just two regions of Ukraine amid continuing heavy fighting, independent Russian media outlets reported Friday. Moscow is “impatient” and would like to “pull off” referendums in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as fast as possible amid stalemate on the battlefield, said the…

Russia has significantly ramped up gold exports to China as Western governments closed their markets to the precious metal over the war in Ukraine, media outlet RBC reported Friday citing Chinese customs data. China imported $108.8 million worth of Russian gold in July — a 750% increase from June and a 4,800% increase from the same…

Nearly 1 million Russian citizens have entered the European Union in the six months since their country invaded Ukraine, the EU’s border agency Frontex said Thursday. A total of 998,085 Russian passport holders have entered the EU from the day of the invasion on Feb. 24 through Aug. 22, a Frontex spokesperson told Germany’s DPA…

At a March council meeting in the Russian city of Voronezh, local deputy Nina Belyaeva condemned her country’s invasion of Ukraine and described the Russian military’s actions as a war crime. Within weeks, she was accused of “spreading false information” about the army — a violation of wartime censorship laws that can lead to a…

Latvia on Thursday took down a Soviet-era monument in Riga following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite protests from the Baltic state’s ethnic Russian minority to keep it.  Demolition machinery was used to remove the 79-meter World War II memorial, which has become a rallying point for Kremlin supporters in Latvia, according to an AFP journalist at…

Updates to correct the court decision. A court in Yekaterinburg restricted internet access and freedom of movement for the city’s former mayor and opposition figurehead Yevgeny Roizman on Thursday, local media outlet E1.ru reported.  Roizman, 59, was detained at his apartment in Yekaterinburg a day earlier on charges of “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces —…

President Vladimir Putin ordered the expansion of the Russian military Thursday as Moscow struggles to fulfill its objectives in Ukraine six months after the invasion of its pro-Western neighbor. As part of the changes, the total number of military and civilian staff in the Russian Armed Forces will increase from 1.9 million to nearly 2.04…