Putin’s Antique Map Stunt Stirs Meme Storm

President Vladimir Putin donned his historian cap on Tuesday when Constitutional Court chairman Valery Zorkin brought a 17th-century French map to his office and presented the artifact as evidence that Ukraine did not exist as a state before the Soviet period, a view the Russian leader himself has expressed repeatedly both before and during Moscow’s…

Alexey Likhachev, Director General of ROSATOM, held the meeting with Zhang Kejian, the head of the China Atomic Energy Authority

On May 24, 2023 in Beijing, Alexey Likhachev, Director General of ROSATOM, held the meeting with Zhang Kejian, the head of the China Atomic Energy Authority, on the sidelines of the official visit of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin to China. The main current and long-term agenda of cooperation between Russia…

Prigozhin Says 20K Wagner Fighters Killed in Battle for Bakhmut

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group lost 20,000 fighters while fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, half of which were convicts recruited from prisons, the group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an interview published late Tuesday. Prigozhin, a Kremlin-linked catering magnate, has relied heavily on convicts from Russian prisons to fuel Wagner’s offensive in eastern Ukraine,…

Georgia Leader Says Russia Sanctions Would ‘Devastate’ Economy

Georgia’s prime minister told an international forum Wednesday that his government cannot afford to impose sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine war as they would “devastate” the economy. Facing international criticism, Irakli Garbashvili strongly defended his country’s reluctance to take action against its giant neighbor which occupied about 20% of Georgian territory in a 2008…

Russia Seizes Zelensky’s Crimea Apartment

Russian authorities have confiscated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s $800,000 apartment in annexed Crimea, the peninsula’s Kremlin-installed governor said Wednesday. Crimean Governor Sergei Aksyonov listed the property, which Zelensky’s wife Olena Zelenska purchased near the resort city of Yalta in 2013, alongside several Ukrainian-owned assets subject to seizure. These include “large wineries, banking structures, Zelensky’s apartment and…

China’s Xi Offers Russia ‘Firm Support’ in ‘Core Interests’

Chinese President Xi Jinping offered Beijing’s support on Moscow’s “core interests” at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Wednesday. China and Russia have in recent years ramped up economic and diplomatic cooperation, growing even closer since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine despite Beijing’s insistence that it is neutral in that conflict. Mishustin’s trip…

Tretyakov Gallery Defies Putin’s Orders to Hand Historic Icon to Church

Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery has refused to hand over a renowned Orthodox icon to the Russian Orthodox Church in defiance of President Vladimir Putin’s orders, the Fontanka.ru news website reported Tuesday. According to Fontanka, a May 15 Tretyakov Gallery expert meeting with Church members concluded that Andrei Rublev’s “Trinity” cannot be taken out of the art museum due…