Year: 2022

A Russian crackdown on the agency that processes the immigration of Jews to Israel is a response to new Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s tougher stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, analysts said Friday. On Thursday, a Moscow court said the Justice Ministry had requested the “dissolution” of the Jewish Agency over unspecified legal violations…

Russia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate by 150 basis points from 9.5% to 8% on Friday, citing a slowing in inflation.  The cut marks fourth time this year Russia’s Central Bank has lowered its rate, after it implemented an emergency hike from 9.5% to 20% in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  …

Russian authorities have launched a criminal investigation against a regional independent deputy on Friday on suspicion of spreading “fake” information about the Russian army, a new crime introduced following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.  Helga Pirogova, 33, was arrested late Tuesday when leaving a charity auction in support of those prosecuted for taking part in…

Half of all Russian spies operating under diplomatic cover around Europe have been expelled since the start of the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, the head of British foreign intelligence said Thusday. “So across Europe, roughly half — at last count something north of 400 Russian intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover — have been expelled,”…

Russia has expanded its short list of so-called “unfriendly” nations, adding five European states that Moscow says have taken “hostile” actions. The list of “unfriendly” countries, first established in May 2021 to include the United States and the Czech Republic, restricts the number of local staff that can be hired at designated nations’ diplomatic missions…

A Russian air strike killed seven people, four of them children, in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib region on Friday, a war monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it confirmed the deaths “including four children who are siblings, two men and an unidentified person… as a result of Russian air strikes,” in the Jisr…

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke about the oil market in a telephone conversation on Thursday, the Kremlin said. The call comes less than a week after Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler met visiting U.S. President Joe Biden. Putin and Prince Mohammed discussed “in detail the situation on…

The Kremlin said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is in good health, dismissing rumors that the leader was unwell as completely unfounded. “Everything is fine with his health,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Scrutiny over the 69-year-old Putin’s health has intensified since he launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. “Ukrainian, American…

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko Thursday said Russia, Ukraine and the West must agree to halt the Ukraine conflict to avoid the “abyss of nuclear war” and insisted Kyiv should accept Moscow’s demands. “We must stop, reach an agreement, end this mess, operation and war in Ukraine,” Lukashenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top ally, told AFP…

Kyiv on Thursday accused Moscow of storing heavy weapons at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in occupied Ukrainian territory, after Russia said Ukraine’s troops had fired on the facility. Ukraine state energy company Energoatom said on social media that Russia had moved over two dozen pieces of military equipment and ammunition into the engine room of the first reactor.…

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto traveled to Moscow on Thursday to discuss purchasing more Russian gas on behalf of his country, the ruling Fidesz party said. “In order to ensure the security of Hungary’s energy supply, the government has decided to purchase an additional 700 million cubic meters of natural gas in addition to the…

Problems with Russian gas supplies to Europe are caused by sanctions that create “technical difficulties,” the Kremlin said Thursday as the Nord Stream 1 pipeline reopened after maintenance but with a reduced flow.  Europe was on edge during the 10-day Nord Stream 1 repair works, fearing that Moscow would not reopen the taps in retaliation…

Major Western banks’ Russian divisions have started hiring staff this month after Moscow obstructed their exit from the country, Reuters reported Thursday. Following the Kremlin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Western banks in Russia moved to remove foreign nationals from senior positions and study ways to exit the market — but they have recently started…

Russia has levied its first fine for likening the Soviet Union to Nazi Germany since prohibiting such comparisons earlier this month, the Moscow-based Sova Center for Information and Analysis reported. Under the law signed by President Vladimir Putin on July 1, publicly comparing the goals and actions of the U.S.S.R. and Red Army with those…

The Kremlin is seeking to hold referendums for captured Ukrainian territories to join Russia in September, Bloomberg reported Thursday, corroborating previous reporting on the unconfirmed absorption plans. The move would likely ignite further ire from Kyiv’s Western allies, which do not recognize Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and have already hit Moscow with heavy sanctions…

Russia and Ukraine still have a chance to resume peace talks, the Kremlin said Thursday, contradicting earlier comments by Moscow’s top diplomat. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said negotiations with Kyiv were still possible one day after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said such talks “make no sense” nearly five months into Russia’s invasion of its pro-Western…

Russian search engines will be required to inform Wikipedia users that the online encyclopedia spreads “fake news” about the country’s invasion of Ukraine, the state communications regulator Rozkomnadoz said Wednesday. Roskomnadzor demanded in May that Wikipedia delete “unreliable information” about what Moscow refers to as its “special military operation” in Ukraine, entering its fifth month.…

Russia on Thursday resumed critical gas supplies to Europe through Germany, reopening the Nord Stream gas pipeline after 10 days, but uncertainty lingered whether the continent could avert an energy crisis this winter. “It’s working,” a Nord Stream spokesman said, without specifying the amount of gas being delivered.  The German government had feared that Moscow would…

When Russia was accused of striking the center of Vinnytsia, a Ukrainian city far from the frontlines, last Thursday, Moscow’s version of events rang familiar. “On July 14, Kalibr (cruise) missiles were launched at the House of Officers in Vinnytsia,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said of the strikes that have killed at least 25 civilians, including…

A Moscow court has fined The New Times, an independent news website, a total of 790,000 rubles (more than $14,000) for publishing “fake” information about the war in Ukraine, Interfax reported on Wednesday.  Publishing information contradicting Moscow’s official narrative of its invasion of Ukraine, which it calls a “special military operation,” is illegal under laws…

A St. Petersburg court has terminated the criminal terrorism case against a popular Russian YouTuber over an alleged performance mocking the deadly 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, the court system’s press service announced Wednesday.   Yury Khovansky, 32, was charged with “public justification of terrorism” in June 2021 after video of a performance ironically approving the…

Russian contract soldiers who refused to continue fighting in Ukraine say their military commanders aren’t allowing them to return home and are using threats and intimidation to force them back to the battlefield.  A group of servicemen of the 11th Guards Air Assault Brigade — a military unit from the Siberian republic of Buryatia deployed…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Canada of delaying the return of a turbine for the Nord Stream pipeline, saying Ottawa was eyeing the European market itself. Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom has reduced flows to Germany via Nord Stream 1 by some 60 percent in recent weeks, blaming the absence of a Siemens…

Shadowy Russian private military company Wagner has started recruiting citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to fight in Ukraine, Kyrgyz media reported Wednesday.  Russia has faced heavy military casualties in its five-month invasion of Ukraine, pushing Moscow to search for ways to shore up its manpower without declaring a full mobilization. Kyrgyzstan’s MediaHub investigative outlet said…

Russia has asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to intervene in grain talks with Ukraine to facilitate Moscow’s exports, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. Ukraine and Russia have held talks under Turkish and UN mediation to unblock crucial grain exports, as shipments from Ukrainian ports are disrupted by Moscow’s military offensive.  Lavrov said…

Less than two weeks after joining the army, Ivan was on the frontlines of Russia’s offensive in eastern Ukraine and taking part in attacks on Ukrainian positions.  Ivan, 31, who requested anonymity to protect his safety, said he received just five days of training before being transferred to Ukraine and flung into combat.  “There was…

Russia’s “geographical goals” in Ukraine have changed to include not only the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics of eastern Ukraine, but a number of other regions as well, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state media Wednesday. “Now, [our] geography is different. It is not only the DNR and LNR, it is also the Kherson…

The German government on Wednesday accused Russia of using the absence of a turbine as an “excuse” to limit gas deliveries via a key pipeline due to go back online this week. “I would like to stress that according to our information this is an excuse by the Russian side,” a German economy ministry spokeswoman…

Updated at 6:45 p.m. on July 21 to add that the bear has been rescued. A team of Moscow veterinarians was dispatched to the Russian Far North to save a polar bear with a can of condensed milk stuck in its mouth, Russia’s environmental watchdog said Wednesday. The rescue team tranquilized the female bear and…

The United Nations agency in charge of investigating the diversion of a Ryanair flight by Belarus last year announced Tuesday it has completed its review, once again pointing the finger at the “unlawful” actions carried out by Minsk.  On May 23, 2021, a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to land in Minsk,…

Russia has decommissioned the world’s largest nuclear ballistic missile submarine, state media reported Wednesday. The Dmitry Donskoy, a Typhoon-class submarine that served in the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet since 1980, stood at 175 meters in length. Its status as the world’s largest submarine will be taken by the 184-meter Oscar II-class Belgorod nuclear submarine, which…

A Moscow court on Tuesday remanded a former university rector and regional lawmaker in custody on charges of murder more than two decades ago. Ilshat Gafurov, 60, headed the republic of Tatarstan’s Kazan Federal University from 2010 until his detention and transfer to Moscow in December 2021. He is suspected of ordering the assassination of…

Russian shelling pounded eastern and southern Ukraine Tuesday as President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would only ease the path for Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain if the West lifts sanctions on Russian shipments. Russian strikes hit the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, killing one person, local authorities said. AFP journalists said a four-story…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for mediating talks on the export of grain from Ukraine, saying there was some progress. “I want to thank you for your mediation efforts,” Putin told Erdogan during a meeting in Tehran in comments released by the Kremlin. “With your mediation, we have…

The capital of Russia’s Far East republic of Sakha was covered in a thick layer of harmful smog Tuesday as wildfires continued to rampage across the country’s eastern regions.  “An excess of the maximum permissible concentrations of three kinds [of air pollutants] was revealed in the city of Yakutsk,” Natalya Borisova, the regional representative of…

North Korea could send builders to eastern Ukraine’s separatist regions to aid in their “reconstruction” after they have been devastated by months of war, Russia’s Ambassador to Pyongyang said Tuesday. “Highly qualified, hardworking, and ready to work in the most difficult conditions, Korean builders will be an asset in the serious task of restoring social,…

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tehran for talks Tuesday on the Syrian war at a three-way summit overshadowed by fallout from his country’s war on Ukraine. Putin traveled abroad for only the second time since ordering the invasion of Ukraine in order to attend the gathering that also involves Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.…

Russia’s police force has added Dmitry Gordon, a prominent Ukrainian journalist, to its wanted list months after he became one of the first non-Russians to be charged under new laws cracking down on information about the war in Ukraine.  Gordon appeared in the Russian Interior Ministry’s database of wanted persons on Tuesday. But the specific…

Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom is blaming cuts in gas deliveries to Europe on “force majeure,” two major German customers said on Tuesday, adding to fears about further disruptions. “We confirm that we have received a letter from Gazprom Export claiming force majeure retroactively for past and current gas supply shortfalls,” said Uniper, one of…

Russia will launch a football league for “friendly” Moscow-occupied and separatist territories in Ukraine and Georgia, a sporting official said Monday. The league will consist of clubs from annexed Crimea, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhask People’s Republics and the Russian-held Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in southern Ukraine, as well as the breakaway Georgian regions of…

Armenia will withdraw all troops from the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region – over which it has fought two wars with arch-foe Azerbaijan – by September, officials said Tuesday.   Six weeks of fighting between the Caucasus neighbors in autumn 2020 claimed more than 6,500 lives and ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire.  Under the deal, Armenia ceded…

At least 300 soldiers from a single unit in Russia’s North Caucasus refused deployment to Ukraine in the first month of the war, The Moscow Times’ Russian service has reported. The men from the republic of Dagestan were deployed in the pro-Russian separatist region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, according to activists cited by MT…

Russian world number 12 Daria Kasatkina criticized her country’s attitude toward homosexuality in a video published on Monday as she announced she was a lesbian. The 25-year-old’s comments come after Russian deputies proposed on Monday a new law which would ban information on all non-traditional sexual relationships in the public sphere. Broadcasting homosexual “propaganda” to…

Russian lawmakers on Monday submitted legislation that would ban any information deemed “LGBT propaganda” by Russian authorities. Current Russian law bans the display of “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships” toward minors. If passed, the latest bill would restrict “information that denies family values” as well as “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” aimed at any age…

A former Russian state television worker who protested the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine on the air faces new charges of “discrediting” the military and said she expects further pressure and intimidation from law enforcement following her return to the country. Marina Ovsyannikova was briefly detained in Moscow on Sunday evening after a July 15 social…

A Moscow court has fined Google 21 billion rubles ($360 million) for failing to remove content concerning Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, the nation’s telecommunications regulator said Monday. Roskomnadzor said the Google-owned video platform YouTube had failed to block “false information” on the offensive in Ukraine, “extremist and terrorist propaganda” and content “calling on minors to participate…

Almost two dozen people, including several children, were killed in Thursday’s Russian attack on the city of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine, which President Volodymyr Zelensky described as an act of terrorism. Images from the strikes and their aftermath have spurred a renewed round of international condemnation against Moscow:

The independent Dozhd television channel is resuming its broadcasts from outside Russia on Monday, ending a monthslong hiatus sparked by harsh wartime information laws passed in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “The team is in a great mood but everyone is, of course, a little nervous because we haven’t been live for four…

Russia must work to overcome “colossal” high-tech problems caused by Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said Monday. “This is a huge challenge for our country,” Putin said, accusing Western countries of deliberately blocking access to high-tech products for Russia. “Realizing the colossal amount of difficulties we are…

Russians are facing longer-than-normal waiting times for Schengen visas as tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions have left European embassies in Moscow short-staffed and demand for summer travel surges.  Limited appointment slots are available at most embassies’ visa centers, with all slots at the visa centers of France, Greece and Spain fully booked for July, according to travel…

Russian shelling in battle-scarred east Ukraine on Monday left six dead, Kyiv said, as the country was reeling from President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to sack two senior law enforcement officials. EU foreign ministers were convening meanwhile to discuss toughening sanctions against Moscow and the bloc’s foreign policy chief warned of the “life and death” consequences…

Russia’s defense minister has instructed the country’s Armed Forces based in eastern Ukraine to prioritize strikes on Ukraine’s long-range weapons, according to a statement circulated by news agencies Monday. Sergei Shoigu issued the instructions to the Vostok (“East”) Battalion as part of his second publicly announced visit to the frontline since Russia invaded Ukraine in…

Russia’s most modern and technologically advanced tank, the T-90M, has appeared in photos and videos in Ukraine just a handful of times since the beginning of the invasion.  One video posted online last week showed a T-90M on a mud road, hidden under trees.  But its relative rarity — and technological sophistication — has not…