Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu on Sunday hailed ties with Moscow during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. “We have very strong ties. They surpass the military-political alliances of the Cold War era… They are very stable,” he said in translated remarks broadcast on Russian TV. He added that Russia-China ties…
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent shock waves across the former Soviet Union, with Moscow’s traditional partners seeking allies elsewhere. Armenia, which for decades has relied on Russia for military and economic support and even hosts a Russian military base, serves as a key illustration of Moscow’s diminishing regional influence. Many in Armenia today say…
Since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, a tsunami of protest poems has swept over many countries. Absurd, nightmarish, horrifyingly humorous, they bear testament and evoke empathy in readers and listeners. In Russia they are written, but almost never recited publicly. The danger is too great. People get fined and arrested for antiwar statements in cafés or…
Russia on Saturday claimed advances on the northern and southern outskirts of Ukraine’s embattled city of Bakhmut, the scene of the longest and bloodiest battle of Moscow’s military campaign. Russian troops have been battling since last summer to capture the town in eastern Ukraine, which has taken on huge symbolic importance even though analysts say…
At Easter in Russia eggs are dyed different colors and blessed in church on Saturday. Then on Easter morning the hard-boiled eggs are eaten for breakfast. But first everyone at the table picks up and egg and challenges their neighbor to a duel: they smash the eggs together. No one understands the meaning of this…
Russia shelled a block of flats in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, killing nine people, authorities said Saturday, including a two-year-old boy who was rescued from the rubble but died on his way to hospital. Friday’s strike on the quiet neighborhood came as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill that will make it…
Finland’s border guard on Friday unveiled the first section of a 200-kilometer border fence with Russia being built after Moscow invaded Ukraine last year. Finland joined NATO just a week ago and its 1,300-kilometer border has also doubled the frontier between the U.S.-led military alliance and Russia. Three meters tall and topped with barbed wire, it will cost…
Russia has lost as many as 1,820 soldiers in Ukraine in the past two weeks, the largest number of casualties recorded within that time span since the beginning of its invasion, the BBC Russian service reported Friday citing data it collected in tandem with independent Russian news outlet Mediazona. The total number of Russian troops…
Direct flights between Moscow and the Georgian capital Tbilisi appeared Friday on flight schedules at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, despite ban introduced by Russia in 2019 on air travel to the South Caucasus country, according to media reports. Vnukovo airport’s new flight schedule online showed daily flights between Tbilisi and Moscow, with Georgian Airlines indicated as…
A Moscow resident was fined for “discrediting” the Russian army after she defended Ukrainians in an argument that unfolded in front of customers at a Moscow coffee shop, human rights watchdog OVD-Info reported Friday. The woman, who requested anonymity to speak freely, related going to her favorite coffee shop one day in March to find…
It took the Russian parliament just twenty-three minutes to vote on the second and third readings of a controversial bill tightening military draft rules that many observers believe will pave the way for a second wave of mobilization. In a rare show of protest, several lawmakers complained they were only shown the full text of…
Russia’s largest labor union announced Friday that it was canceling its demonstrations planned for the popular Labor Day celebrations on May 1, citing heightened terrorist threats amid Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The decision comes as the Kremlin has stepped up its rhetoric around domestic security concerns, particularly since the deadly bomb attack on a…
А то!: Sure! Absolutely! Like I’d say no! It’s a rainy Friday in my part of the world, and there is nothing like a good pop quiz to get the blood flowing. So put your books down, turn off your phones, take out a pen or pencil, really turn off your phones this time, and…
A Russian court has sentenced a radio enthusiast to six years in jail for calling for President Vladimir Putin’s violent overthrown shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began last year. The police-monitoring website OVD Info reported Friday that Kirill Akimov, 52, was arrested in June on suspicion of calling for violence during two broadcasts on…
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday the country’s Pacific Fleet had launched surprise combat drills as tensions rage with the West over Ukraine. The Kremlin called the exercises “routine” and said they were aimed at developing Russia’s armed forces. At a meeting with Russia’s top brass, Shoigu said the Pacific Fleet, headquartered in the…
A court in Russian-annexed Crimea found a Russian soldier guilty of mistakenly shooting one of his comrades in Ukraine while drunk and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment, the Kommersant newspaper reported Friday. Alexei Usenko was accused of fatally wounding a Russian National Guardsman who was accompanying a convoy in a passenger vehicle last year,…
Russian oil exports jumped to their highest level in almost three years in March despite Western sanctions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced on Friday, though Moscow’s oil revenues nevertheless dropped sharply from last year. Following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the West has imposed a slew of sanctions against Russia including price…
Russian lawmakers are set to consider making it a criminal offense to comply with International Criminal Court (ICC) orders to arrest President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, said Thursday. The ICC issued a shock arrest warrant for Putin and his children’s rights commissioner in March for the…
Past financial disclosures made by Russian officials have begun to disappear from government websites, just months after President Vladimir Putin signed a decree waiving a legal requirement that the declarations be published online, independent news outlet Mozhem Obyasnit reported Thursday. Each year, millions of Russian government officials are required to declare their income and property,…
MOSCOW – The headquarters of Russian human rights group the Sakharov Center, a rare island of free debate in the Russian capital, will close its doors to the public this weekend in response to an eviction order from local authorities as Russia’s wartime drive to suppress dissent shows no sign of ending. Opened in 1996…
Moscow said on Thursday that Russian troops were preventing Ukrainian forces from entering or leaving the frontline city of Bakhmut, which for months has been the focal point of Russia’s assault in eastern Ukraine. “Airborne troops are providing support to advancing assault troops, blocking the transfer of Ukrainian army reserves to the city and the…
Russian men of conscription age have greeted a law tightening military draft procedures with what appeared to be widespread confusion and indifference despite warnings that the changes — approved this week by the Russian parliament — could amount to backdoor martial law and facilitate a second wave of mobilization. The wording of the law is…
Russia would need to attract as many as 1 million new migrants every year until the end of the century to maintain its current population levels, according to research cited by the RBC news website on Thursday. Russia’s population has declined for the past four years in a row and dropped by half a million…
Sometime in the early thirteenth century, a great king divided his vast kingdom among his four sons. That king’s name was Temüjin, but he went down in history is Chinggis (“Mighty”) Khan. Anyone who has seen or read “King Lear” might think this an inauspicious start to the story of a ruling house. But in…
Norway on Thursday announced the expulsion of 15 Russian embassy employees in Oslo, accusing them of working undercover as intelligence officers for Moscow. “The 15 intelligence officers have been engaging in activities that are not compatible with their diplomatic status,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said. She added that the Russian embassy employees had been…
Ukraine’s energy giant Naftogaz said on Thursday that a Hague-based tribunal had ordered Russia to pay the firm $5 billion for the illegal seizure of its assets in Crimea. Naftogaz chief executive Oleksiy Chernyshov said the firm had “won a key victory on the energy front” over losses he said were caused by Russia’s 2014…
A fresh batch of leaked U.S. intelligence documents made public on Thursday has revealed infighting between Russia’s powerful Federal Security Service (FSB) and its Defense Ministry over the true scale of Russian casualties in Ukraine, The New York Times reported. The new documents came to light just days after a major leak of classified intelligence…
A Russian court has sentenced a 21-year-old man to life in prison for one of the country’s worst school shootings in recent times, Interfax reported Thursday. Ilnaz Galyaviyev opened fire at pupils attending his own former high school in the city of Kazan, the capital of the central Russian republic of Tatarstan, on May 11,…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had identified a second suspect in the bombing attack that killed the prominent pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in St. Petersburg earlier this month, as it continued to link the act to the team of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. St. Petersburg resident Daria Trepova, 26, was detained on…
The Kremlin on Thursday denied claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally endorsed the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich for espionage. Citing sources “familiar with the situation,” Bloomberg on Wednesday reported that the initiative to arrest Gershkovich came from “hawks among top officials of Russia’s security services.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called…
Inflation in Russia dropped below 4% in March for the first time since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine led Western governments to impose wide-ranging sanctions on the country, state statistics agency Rosstat announced on Wednesday. Inflation in March stood at 3.51% year-on-year, down sharply from 10.99% in February. The sharp decrease does not however reflect a…
The U.S. Treasury Department has announced the sanctioning of a further 29 companies and 25 individuals linked to the Russian government over the invasion of Ukraine, including the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, according to a statement released on Wednesday. Other entities targeted in the latest round of sanctions include Russian telecoms provider Megafon,…
South Africa has admitted that the international arrest warrant issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin represents a “spanner in the works” ahead of a BRICS summit due to take place in the country in August. Pretoria, which has close ties to Moscow, has been faced with a diplomatic dilemma since the International Criminal Court (ICC)…
The Russian authorities have been ramping up efforts to increase enrollment in the military. Multiple media sources report that the Russian army aims to recruit some 400,000 new recruits to bolster its stagnating invasion of Ukraine. Since Moscow invaded its neighbor last year, Russian forces have suffered significant casualties, with leaked U.S. intelligence documents suggesting…
A Russian single father who was detained in Minsk after fleeing house arrest in late March has been extradited back to Russia, the independent rights organization OVD-Info reported Wednesday, citing a Belarusian activist. Alexei Moskalev was handed a two-year jail sentence late last month by a Tula region court for “discrediting” the Russian military over…
A court in western Russia has sentenced a Russian man on charges of trying to join the Ukrainian military in its fight against Moscow’s forces, the independent Mediazona news website reported Wednesday. Sergei Glushenkov, 28, was reportedly detained while trying to cross the border between the Belgorod region and Ukraine in August. The pro-war website extremizmu.net…
Russia’s deputy foreign minister on Wednesday acknowledged that detained U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich had not been granted consular access, two weeks after his arrest. The Wall Street Journal journalist was arrested in Russia on claims of espionage, which he denies. “The question (of consular access) is under review,” Sergei Ryabkov was cited as saying by…
The leak of a trove of highly sensitive documents online could be a move by the United States to “deceive” Russia, its deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying Wednesday. “It’s probably interesting for someone to look at these documents, if they really are documents or they could be a fake or it could be…
This story contains graphic content that may be disturbing to some readers. A disturbing video that circulated online this week shows the apparent beheading of a Ukrainian prisoner of war by Russian troops. In the clip, a uniformed man with a yellow armband — an identifying mark of the Ukrainian military — can be seen…
ROSATOM’s wind power division NovaWind has started to supply wind-generated power to the power utility company Petroelectrosbyt (PES), enabling it to provide customers with ‘green’ electricity generated at wind power plants. Earlier, PES signed a contract with VetroSGC-2 (part of NovaWind) for the supply of 1.8 million kWh of electricity from the Berestovskaya Wind Farm.…
Russia has conducted what it said was the successful test launch of an “advanced” intercontinental ballistic missile, weeks after it suspended participation in its last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States. The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that a “combat crew successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile [ICBM] of a…
Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been returned to solitary confinement for the 13th time since he began serving his nine-year prison sentence last year, his team said on Twitter on Tuesday. Tweeting on Navalny’s behalf, the Kremlin critic’s press secretary said that he had been sent back to solitary confinement as punishment for…
Moscow began exporting fuel products to Iran by rail for the first time earlier this year after its main purchasers stopped importing Russian fuel in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing three industry sources and export data. Now both subject to strict Western sanctions, Russia and Iran have increasingly…
U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday called Russia’s imprisonment of American journalist Evan Gershkovich on spying charges “out of bounds.” Biden, who made the comments as he departed Washington for a trip to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, also told reporters that The Wall Street Journal correspondent’s jailing was “totally illegal.” The U.S.…
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its 2023 economic growth forecast for Russia on Tuesday, predicting that deficit-fueled government spending would help counteract the growing costs of its war in Ukraine. But the Russian invasion is expected to have a significant impact over the medium term, with the IMF predicting the Russian economy would be…
Russian authorities have opened three criminal investigations into the work of Roman Ivanov, a journalist from the Moscow region working for the RusNews website, RusNews reported Tuesday, citing a criminal investigator. The criminal investigations are believed to be linked to posts written by Ivanov on his Telegram channel, which has some 1,600 subscribers. Police started searching…
Ukrainian forces have for months been holding at bay a grueling Russian offensive in battered towns and heavily shelled trenches spanning the eastern front line. But now, with the Kremlin’s forces running out of steam after making only incremental gains over the winter onslaught, Ukraine is preparing to hit back. “If our senior military staff…
The head of Russia’s FSB security service on Tuesday accused Ukraine and the West of recruiting young Russians to stage armed attacks in their home country. The accusation by security chief Alexander Bortnikov comes a week after President Vladimir Putin accused the West of having helped Kyiv stage “terror attacks” in Russia while Moscow pursues…
Russian authorities on Tuesday banned the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum (CSF), an organization created to foster cooperation between Russian and European NGOs, as an “undesirable” organization. The Prosecutor General’s Office said the Berlin-based organization’s activities, which include conferences it organizes and information it publishes, have a common aim of “discrediting the leadership of the Russian Federation.”…
On Tuesday the State Prosecutor’s Office in Russia received a petition to declare actress Liya Akhezhakova a foreign agent and charge her with several crimes, including treason, Current Time and other media announced. Vitaly Borodin, the head of a non-governmental organization called The Federal Security and Anti-Corruption Foundation sent a missive to Igor Krasnov, denouncing…
A meeting was held between Alexey Likhachev, Director General of State Atomiс Energy Corporation ROSATOM, and Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary. The parties discussed further steps in the implementation of the Paks-2 NPP construction project, as well as other aspects of multifaceted cooperation in the nuclear sector. At present, general…
Russian lawmakers voted Tuesday in favor of changes to the country’s military conscription rules that would make it easier to summon recruits and stop them from fleeing the country. The new bill comes amid ongoing speculation that authorities could announce a second mobilization drive aimed at boosting Russia’s flagging campaign in Ukraine. Russia’s “partial” mobilization…
Russian lawmakers voted Tuesday in favor of changes to the country’s military conscription rules that would make it easier to summon recruits and stop them from fleeing the country. The new bill comes amid ongoing speculation that authorities could announce a second mobilization drive aimed at boosting Russia’s flagging campaign in Ukraine. Russia’s “partial” mobilization…
A powerful volcanic eruption in Russia’s Kamchatka region has spewed massive plums of ash across a large swathe of the region, blanketing a nearby village and disrupting air traffic, media reported Tuesday. Monitors in the far-flung peninsula issued an aviation “code red” after the Shiveluch volcano in Kamchatka’s eastern range released an ash cloud that drifted…
The number of young workers in Russia has dropped to one of its lowest levels in the country’s post-Soviet history, the RBC news website reported Tuesday, citing research based on official statistics by the Finexpertiza consulting firm. Working citizens under the age of 35 in the Russian labor market totaled 21.5 million in December, accounting…
The leaked classified U.S. documents that rocked Washington and its allies this week have provided a rare glimpse into the Defense Department’s intelligence on Russia’s offensive on Ukraine. The leak raises concerns that Russia could change its methods of communication to conceal its planning and try to ferret out human confidential sources that formed the…
The United States on Monday officially determined that Russia had wrongfully detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and urged his immediate release, stepping up pressure on his behalf. The formal decision by the State Department on Gershkovich, who was taken into custody on March 29, was unusually swift and indicated the seriousness attached by…
Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza said on Monday he stood by all of his political statements, including against the Ukraine offensive, that led him to face 25 years in jail. “I subscribe to every word that I have said, that I am incriminated for today,” Kara-Murza said, citing his fight against the Ukraine offensive and…
The Russian authorities have launched a campaign to warn the Russian public about what it says are the dangers of using virtual private networks (VPNs), the software that allows internet users to access blocked websites. Despite one of the main reasons for using a VPN being the enhanced security it offers users, a statement issued…
Among her feminist-minded and politically active social media followers, petite blonde Daria Trepova was known as Dasha Tykovka (“Dasha Little Pumpkin”). Few of them expected that Trepova — who appears to have mostly used her Twitter account to discuss relationship problems and other personal issues — would become the main suspect in one of the…