Russian officials and employees of state-owned companies are increasingly being told to surrender their passports to members of the security services to ensure they cannot flee the country, a joint investigation by independent media outlets Current Time and Radio Liberty has concluded. Requirements vary from job to job, with some state employees told to hand…
The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced the opening of Wagner recruitment centers in dozens of cities across Russia on Friday. Wagner has been spearheading offensives against cities in eastern Ukraine including Bakhmut, in what has become the longest and bloodiest battle of Russia’s year-long invasion. Both sides have suffered heavy…
Moscow on Friday accused the West of fomenting days of mass protests in Georgia, likening them to an attempted coup designed to sow tension on Russia’s borders. Hundreds of Georgians rallied outside parliament for a fourth day on Friday, as lawmakers dropped a controversial new “foreign agent” law that triggered violent clashes between police and…
Рыпаться: fidget, pester, make a ruckus A few weeks ago a video appeared on social media of a Russian woman being asked about Poland. She was very angry and indignant. She said that Poland should be destroyed because the country “всё рыпалась на нас.” Whatever рыпаться is, it must be absolutely diabolical if it requires…
Thirty-two years ago today, hundreds of thousands of Muscovites packed Manezhnaya Ploshchad next to the Kremlin to demand the resignation of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The protests, which started in February 1991 and would continue into the spring, were the biggest in Russia’s modern history. By the end of the year, Gorbachev would resign, the…
Ukraine’s SBU security service said Friday it has detained two former aerospace officials over the destruction of the world’s largest plane, the Antonov-225 cargo plane, soon after the Russian invasion. With an 88-meter (290 feet) wingspan, the unique Antonov An-225 plane named “Mriya,” which means “dream” in Ukrainian, was destroyed last year during attacks on…
March 9, 2023, Büyükeceli, Mersin Province, Türkiye – Roof installation in the turbine hall of Akkuyu NPP Unit 1 of has been completed. The entire process took three months, the first truss was installed on December 10, 2022. The turbine hall roof consists of nine enlarged trusses with a total weight of 1140 tons, including…
Georgia’s parliament voted Friday to drop controversial new legislation, which it earlier approved in an initial reading, sparking an international outcry and mass protests in the Caucasus country. Tens of thousands took to the streets this week after lawmakers moved to introduce the “foreign agent” law. On Friday, the bill was voted down in its…
The protests in Georgia reflect internal political turmoil over its geopolitical destiny in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, analysts say. The ruling Georgian Dream party has insisted it remains committed to Georgia’s EU and NATO membership. But a “foreign agent” bill reminiscent of Russian legislation used to silence critics has in recent days…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday congratulated Xi Jinping on his appointment to a third term as China’s president, hailing the growing links between the two nations. “Dear friend, please accept sincere congratulations on the occasion of your reelection,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin. “Russia highly values your personal contribution toward…
Updates with Alfa Bank confirmation. Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven are set to offload their stakes in Alfa Bank, Russia’s largest private bank, in a $2.3-billion deal, the Financial Times reported late Thursday. Fridman, the co-founder of Alfa Group, and Aven, who headed Alfa until March 2022, are seeking the removal of Western…