A Russian court has ordered the closure of the Sova Analytical Center, one of the country’s leading research centers monitoring nationalist and racist movements, Interfax reported Thursday. Russia’s Justice Ministry in March filed a court order to shut the group down, accusing SOVA of carrying out its activities across Russia despite only being registered in…
April 27, 2023, Büyükeceli, Turkey. – A solemn ceremony dedicated to the delivery of the first batch of nuclear fuel for the first nuclear power plant in Turkey was held at the Akkuyu NPP construction site. This historic event marks the entry of the Republic of Turkey into the community of countries developing nuclear generation…
Russia has boosted its defenses in occupied Ukraine ahead of Kyiv’s anticipated counterattack, wagering its position on 800 kilometers of triple-fortified lines and a gush of manpower. Now that the Ukrainian terrain, muddied by the spring thaw, has begun to dry and Russia’s latest wave of attacks has fizzled out, a counterstrike may be weeks…
A Russian man claiming to be a deserter from the Kremlin-linked Wagner mercenary group was handed a 14-day suspended sentence on Thursday for a street fight in central Oslo. Oslo’s district court however acquitted Andrei Medvedev, 26, of the more serious charge of assaulting police officers. Appearing in court on Tuesday, Medvedev pleaded guilty to…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday hailed the loading of fuel into the first reactor at Turkey’s Russia-built Akkuyu nuclear power plant, the Kremlin said. “This is a flagship project and it brings both mutual economic benefits and, of course, helps to strengthen the multifaceted partnership between our two states,” Putin said at the virtual…
Russian police ascribed an increase in road accidents to Western sanctions that have shifted traffic flows toward ill-equipped infrastructure in the country’s east, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday. The Russian Interior Ministry’s road safety research center said in its 2022 report that some highway sections in eastern Russia saw upticks in accidents of as…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday it had denied an upcoming consular visit to jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in retaliation to Washington refusing to grant visas to several Russian journalists. “The U.S. Embassy was informed that its request for a consular visit on May 11… to U.S. citizen (Evan) Gershkovich, who was detained…
A Russian-appointed governor in one of Ukraine’s partially occupied southeastern regions owns a British company despite being under sanctions, The Guardian reported Thursday. The appearance of a high-profile collaborationist in the United Kingdom’s registry books raises questions about sanctions enforcement. Vladimir Saldo, who has governed southern Ukraine’s Kherson region since April 2022 after it fell under…
Armenia said on Thursday that Russian peacekeepers should have full control of the only land link between its territory and the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The comments, from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, came during fresh tensions between arch-enemies Armenia and Azerbaijan. On Thursday, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna held talks in Baku on easing tensions…
Law enforcement authorities in Russia’s fourth-largest city on Thursday arrested the local branch head of Memorial, the country’s oldest human rights group, the organization announced on Telegram. Alexei Mosin was detained at his apartment in the morning and brought to Yekaterinburg’s Yeltsin Center, which houses Memorial’s documents and archives, to retrieve legal documents, according to…
Popular Russian Instagram blogger Yelena Blinovskaya has been detained at the Russian border while trying to flee charges of 918-million-ruble ($11.3 million) tax fraud, the country’s Investigative Committee, which probes high-profile crimes, said Thursday. Blinovskaya is accused of underreporting and laundering her 2019-21 earnings from providing online services. With more than 5.3 million Instagram followers, she…
The Pushkin House Book Prize is celebrating its 11th awards year with six shortlisted books that represent a wide range of scholarship — and memories —about Russia, past and present. Every year a panel of distinguished judges considers dozens of books about or from Russia in every field imaginable, from art to war, from politics…
A blast on Thursday killed a police officer in the Moscow-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol, Russian authorities said, in the latest in a series of such attacks. Melitopol, with a pre-war population of around 150,000 people, was captured early after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year and now lies some 65 kilometers (40 miles)…
Russian-made smartphone sales have plummeted to less than half of last year’s figures as they face stiff competition from Chinese imports, the Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday, citing data from suppliers. Compared with 99,300 units moved in January-March 2022, only 46,900 Russian-made smartphones have been sold in the first quarter of 2023. That marks a…