Year: 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called for a strengthening of ties with the influential club of BRICS emerging economies, amid unprecedented Western sanctions imposed over Ukraine. “Businessmen of our countries are forced to develop their business under difficult conditions where Western partners neglect the basic principles of market economy, free trade, as well as…

The fire on a Russian gas production platform in the Black Sea was so large two days after it was hit by a Ukrainian missile that it showed up as a bright white speck on pictures taken from a NASA satellite that monitors forest fires.  About 70 kilometers from Russian-annexed Crimea, the drilling rig was…

Russia has accused Germany of “Russophobic hysteria” on Wednesday as tensions between the two countries run high over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In a statement marking the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Berlin of jeopardizing the two countries’ ties that were rebuilt in the…

“Massive” Russian bombardment of Ukraine’s battleground eastern Lugansk region and key city Severodonetsk has been “hell” for soldiers there, Kyiv said, while insisting that defenders would hold “as long as necessary.” Moscow’s troops have been pummeling eastern Ukraine for weeks and are slowly advancing, despite fierce resistance from the outgunned Ukrainian military.  With President Vladimir…

Home retail giant IKEA is moving to close its stores in Russia nearly four months into the country’s invasion of Ukraine, the Vedomosti daily reported Wednesday. IKEA has notified landlords at 10 Moscow shopping malls that it will terminate its lease agreements before they expire, the newspaper cited commercial real estate sources as saying.  Three…

Authorities in Moscow said on Wednesday that they have changed the official address of the U.S. Embassy building in the Russian capital to one named after pro-Kremlin separatists in Ukraine. “The United States Embassy in Russia has a new official address,” Moscow City hall said in a statement, saying it had named a previously unnamed…

One of southern Russia’s largest oil refineries said it was struck by a Ukrainian drone attack Wednesday, setting off a massive fire. Footage published to social media showed a drone flying toward the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in the Rostov region five kilometers from the Ukrainian border before one of its facilities caught on fire. “As a…

Russia is commemorating the 81st anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union on Wednesday amid Moscow’s assault on Ukraine that has killed thousands and triggered Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II. June 22 — the date when Hitler’s forces invaded the Soviet Union as part of Operation Barbarossa in 1941 —…

Updated at 4:15 p.m. on June 22 to clarify that a gas drilling platform, not an oil drilling platform, was struck. Ukraine has admitted striking a gas drilling platform in the Black Sea, saying Tuesday it was being used by Russian troops as a military installation. The attack, which took place on Monday, was the…

A member of Russian protest group Pussy Riot said Monday she was denied entry to Georgia, sparking concerns among the large community of anti-war activists and journalists who fled to the South Caucasus since the invasion of Ukraine.  Olga Borisova was stopped in Tbilisi airport Monday afternoon after returning from Pussy Riot’s tour of western…

A Moscow opposition deputy staged an anti-war picket while on trial for “discrediting” the Russian military, the SOTA news outlet reported Tuesday.   Alexei Gorinov, a member of central Moscow’s Krasnoselsky District Council, was arrested in April on charges of spreading “fake” information and “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces under a law passed in the wake…

KARAKOL, Kyrgyzstan — A sense of deja vu overcame veteran Russian political activist Ilya Shafranov when he was detained at an anti-war protest. Unlike in the past, he was not being picked up at an opposition demonstration in Moscow — he was being taken into custody by police officers in a remote town in the…

Russia’s response to Lithuania’s rail blockade of its exclave Kaliningrad will carry “serious negative consequences” for the Baltic country’s citizens, Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev said Tuesday.  European Union member Lithuania banned the rail transit of sanctioned Russian goods through its territory on Saturday, enforcing an earlier decision made by the bloc. The move…

The surviving sailors of Russia’s sunken Moskva battleship could be deployed into battle again this month, the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported Tuesday. According to a letter the outlet said was authored by the sailors’ parents, 49 conscripts who were rescued from the Moskva have been assigned to the Ladny missile frigate. They could go…

Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian grain exports sparked fresh tensions with Europe as fears grow of a global food crisis, while Kyiv accused Moscow of stepping up attacks in the east of the country. In New York, Dmitry Muratov, the Russian editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, auctioned off his Nobel Peace Prize gold medal…

China’s car exports into Russia have been dropping for two months amid slowing demand and supply chain disruptions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, the Kommersant daily reported Tuesday. China delivered nearly $32 million worth of passenger vehicles to Russia in May, down from $84.6 million in April and $190.7 million in March, according to Chinese…

Russia accepted an all-time low number of refugees so far this year despite authorities boasting of hundreds of thousands Ukrainians being brought into the country to escape war at home, researchers said Monday. Interior Ministry data revealed that only two people have been granted refugee status between January and March 2022, according to the Civic…

Two Americans captured in Ukraine while fighting with Kyiv’s military were “endangering” Russian soldiers and should be “held accountable for those crimes,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday in an interview with NBC News. The interview marks the first time the Kremlin has commented on the cases of Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh, both U.S. military…

Dmitry Muratov, the Russian editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, on Monday auctioned off his Nobel Peace Prize gold medal for $103.5 million to benefit children displaced by the war in Ukraine. The medal was sold to an as yet unidentified phone bidder at the sale in New York organized by Heritage Auctions. The…

Islam is not just another soldier. “If the Russians take me, I won’t be exchanged”, said the Chechen fighting with the Ukrainian army near the front line. “They’ll torture me then show me on television.” The 33-year-old dissident, a refugee who has been in Poland for nearly two decades, joined the Sheikh Mansur battalion in…

The Russian army is unlikely to return to its full force in the near future after it has incurred significant losses of troops and military equipment during its four-month war in Ukraine, the investigative outlet iStories reported Monday.   Before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the country’s army was ranked the second-best in the world.…

Ukraine on Sunday celebrated Healthcare Workers Day, which was established by the U.S.S.R. in 1980, amid Russia’s ongoing invasion. In a video address, President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated nurses who “have literally been on the frontlines since Feb. 24” and called them an example of “extraordinary heroism.” During the four months of Russia’s offensive, these medical…

A wave of panic buying spread across the Kaliningrad region after a rail blockade imposed by neighboring Lithuania on Saturday threatened to isolate Russia’s strategic Baltic exclave. One unverified video shared Sunday showed anxious shoppers loading up on cement at a hardware store in the outskirts of the regional capital.   “On the first day [of…

Russian high schools will start teaching students about the Kremlin’s recognition of eastern Ukraine’s breakaway republics as independent states in the upcoming academic year, according to a course outline published on the federal Institute for Education Development Strategy website. In a break with the international community, President Vladimir Putin formally recognized the independence of the…

Russia on Monday demanded the immediate lifting of Lithuania’s “openly hostile” restrictions on the rail transit of EU-sanctioned goods to Moscow’s exclave of Kaliningrad that borders Lithuania and Poland. Moscow accused the Baltic nation of banning the rail transit of goods subject to sanctions imposed by the European Union over Russia’s miliary campaign in Ukraine.…

Updated at 4:15 p.m. on June 22 to clarify that a gas drilling platform, not an oil drilling platform, was struck. Offiicals Russia-annexed Crimea has accused Ukraine of firing upon a gas drilling platform in the Black Sea Monday morning, with three injured and seven missing. “This morning the enemy struck the drilling platforms of…

The head of Russia-annexed Crimea has accused Ukraine of firing upon an oil drilling platform in the Black Sea off the coast of the peninsula. “This morning the enemy struck the drilling platforms of Chernomorneftegaz…I am in touch with colleagues from the Defense Ministry and the FSB. We are working to rescue people,” Aksyonov wrote…

A Russian tennis player has avoided a Wimbledon ban on all competitors from her country by changing her nationality to Georgian, according to a report in The Times newspaper. Natela Dzalamidze, a 29-year-old doubles player ranked No. 44 in the world, will compete in the women’s doubles with Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic when the tournament starts…

Russia plans to expand its high-tech surveillance program to areas near Ukraine amid a spate of cross-border attacks during Moscow’s nearly four-month invasion, the Kommersant daily reported Monday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the project. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry plans to deploy the “Safe City” program in annexed Crimea, as well as the Krasnodar, Voronezh and…

Russia exported a record 8.42 million tons of discounted crude oil to China in May amid Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported Monday.   That amounts to 1.98 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 1.59 million bpd in April, according to Chinese customs data cited by the news agency. Russia displaced…

For Russian users, watching a television series on U.S. streaming service Netflix or downloading a new online video game from Steam used to be a matter of a few clicks.  But an exodus of Western companies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made accessing hundreds of popular entertainment platforms much harder, spawning a network of…

Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the West’s “economic blitzkrieg” and vowed that Russia would withstand sanctions levied over its invasion of Ukraine in his address at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) Friday. After starting nearly two hours late due to alleged cyberattacks, the Russian president delivered an impassioned speech that scorned the U.S.-led…

A Russian blogger and activist has been trapped in the border zone between Russia and Georgia for nearly a week after Tbilisi authorities denied her entry to the country. Russian authorities accuse Insa Lander of recruiting others to a terrorist organization, a claim she rejects as politically motivated. She fled house arrest and attempted to…

Russia held the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), its annual showcase event for investment and business, this week in the shadow of its military campaign in Ukraine. This year’s event lacked the Western presence of years past due to the far-reaching sanctions and business exits seen after Russia sent troops into Ukraine on Feb.…

Europe sent a powerful symbol of solidarity with Ukraine on Friday, when Brussels backed Kyiv’s bid for EU candidate status, even as Russia shelled frontline Ukrainian cities and cut back gas supplies to the West. With the European Commission’s backing, Ukraine could now be added to the list of countries vying for EU membership as…

Ukraine’s navy said it struck a Russian ship in the Black Sea on Friday. Russian tugboat Vasily Bekh was allegedly transporting supplies to Snake Island, a remote island off the coast of Ukraine occupied by Russia since the first day of its invasion that has become a focal point of the conflict.  The vessel was…

Russia on Friday said that close to 2,000 foreign mercenaries have been killed in Ukraine since the start of Moscow’s military intervention in the pro-Western country.  Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that 6,956 “mercenaries and weapons specialists” from 64 countries had arrived in Ukraine since the start of the conflict and that “1,956…

The Russian economy will return to 2021 levels in a decade unless the country takes reform measures amid unprecedented Western sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine, the head of the country’s largest lender Sberbank said Friday. “If nothing is done in the current situation, then… the return of Russia’s economy to the level of 2021 could…

Russian tourism authorities have developed a new tourist route that will take travelers to some of President Vladimir Putin’s holiday destinations as the country’s invasion of Ukraine has limited Russians’ international travel options.  The Russian president is known for taking well-publicized vacations in the Siberian taiga, where he is photographed performing various outdoor exploits in…

Hundreds of Ukrainian citizens are stuck in limbo at detention centers in and around Moscow awaiting deportations that were halted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday. Members of Russia’s presidential human rights council and its prison watchdog say at least 358 Ukrainians have been held at Moscow detention centers as…

This story has been recast to add the denial from Moscow. A Russian senator has denied that children born in Moscow-occupied Ukraine will automatically receive Russian passports. Officials in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions’ pro-Moscow military-civilian administrations had claimed earlier Thursday that babies born there after Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine would automatically be given Russian citizenship. “There…

A Russian court has jailed a former U.S. teacher and diplomat for 14 years on charges of “large-scale” drug smuggling and possession, media reported Thursday. Marc Fogel was detained passing through customs at a Moscow airport in August 2021, when 11 grams of marijuana and eight grams of hash oil was reportedly found in his…

Baths in blood extracted from the antlers of Siberian deer. Excrements scooped up by loyal officials to evade analysis. Mysterious absences for emergency medical treatment. The claims made about the health of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will be 70 in October, are lurid and macabre, as well as impossible to verify. But they illustrate…

The Netherlands said Thursday it had stopped a Russian spy posing as a Brazilian intern from infiltrating the International Criminal Court, which is investigating war crimes in Ukraine. The Russian, identified as Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, 36, flew to the Netherlands in April using an elaborate deep cover story that he had built up over the…

The head of Russian state-owned energy firm Gazprom has been linked with assets worth $3 billion, a new investigation revealed Thursday. The joint investigation, carried out by media outlet Proekt and a team working with Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, found that Gazprom chief Alexei Miller had been in residence at a number of luxurious…

Networks of anti-war volunteers are among those helping more than a million Ukrainian refugees inside Russia despite difficulties with gaining access to temporary accommodation centers and a risk of criminal prosecution.  After leaving war-torn eastern Ukraine, many refugees are not only traumatized, but find themselves trapped in Russia without money, documents or even clothes.  “It’s…

The head of Russian energy giant Gazprom said Thursday that Moscow will play by its own rules after cutting daily gas supplies to Germany. “Our product, our rules. We don’t play by rules we didn’t create,” Alexei Miller said during a panel discussion at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum.  Earlier this week, Gazprom slashed…

The Dutch intelligence service said Thursday it had stopped a Russian spy posing as an intern from accessing the International Criminal Court, which is investigating war crimes in Ukraine. The man used a Brazilian cover identity but was unmasked as a member of Russia’s GRU military intelligence and refused entry in April as a “threat…

Russia’s Foreign Ministry placed sanctions on 121 Australian citizens Thursday, accusing them of promoting a “Russophobic agenda.”  The list of sanctioned individuals include politicians and journalists, such as Defense Force Chief General Angus Campbell, Chief of Air Force Mel Hupfeld, and Chief of Navy Michael Noonan, as well as journalists from Australia’s ABC News and…

The leaders of major EU powers France, Germany and Italy vowed Thursday to help Ukraine defeat Russia and to rebuild its shattered cities, in a visit to a war-torn Kyiv suburb. French President Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian premier Mario Draghi arrived in Ukraine by train and headed to Irpin, scene of…

The United Kingdom Thursday has unveiled sanctions against the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, for his support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Today we are targeting the enablers and perpetrators of Putin’s war who have brought untold suffering to Ukraine,” the British government said in a statement. The measures, which include a…

The former captain of Russia’s national football team has publicly denounced Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.  “To me, this war is a catastrophe, a complete horror,” Ivan Denisov, 38, told Russian sports reporter Nobel Arustamyan in an interview on the journalist’s YouTube channel Wednesday, more than 100 days since the start of the conflict.  Denisov also…

Since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, tens of thousands of Russians have fled to the Caucasus. Among them are members of one unexpected community: hundreds of Russian Jews who have relocated to Yerevan.  Nathaniel Trubkin, a 40-year-old Muscovite, moved to Yerevan on March 8, about two weeks after Russia launched its war in…

The U.S. oil industry company Baker Hughes has stopped servicing all of Russia’s liquefied natural gas projects, putting the launch of new plants and the further operation of existing projects at risk, the Kommersant daily reported Thursday. Baker Hughes has reportedly recalled service engineers from Gazprom’s Sakhalin-2 and Novatek’s Yamal LNG projects, as well as…