Month: May 2023

The United States added hundreds more companies and individuals to its sanctions blacklist Friday as it broadened efforts to choke off Russia’s global supply chains and starve its economy over its war on Ukraine. The new sanctions took particular aim at the firms and research institutes involved in Moscow’s investments into future energy production including…

Russia has placed International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan on its wanted list after the court indicted President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes, the independent Mediazona news website reported Friday. Khan’s photo and personal information are visible on the Interior Ministry’s search database, Mediazona reported. The ministry’s listing does not specify which crime Khan is…

More than 100,000 people have enlisted in the Russian army this year, former president Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday, as Moscow seeks to recruit volunteers for its offensive in Ukraine. Moscow has conducted an aggressive military recruitment campaign in recent months as Kyiv gears up for an offensive after months of stalemate in eastern Ukraine. “Between…

Greenpeace Russia announced its closure on Friday following the authorities’ decision to label it an “undesirable” organization. In a statement on its website, the environmental advocacy NGO called the “undesirable” status “an absurd, irresponsible and destructive step that has nothing to do with protecting the country’s interests.” “By destroying Greenpeace for being critical of environmental issues, the…

Five members of a Belarusian regiment fighting with Kyiv’s forces have been killed in Bakhmut, a conflict-scarred city in eastern Ukraine, A Belarusian opposition leader living in exile said Friday. “Heartbroken by the death of five members of the Belarusian Kastus Kalinouski Regiment fighting for Ukraine in Bakhmut,” Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said on Twitter.…

Yerevan Brandy Company, the producer of the iconic Armenian cognac brand Ararat, will halt exports to Russia, Interfax reported Thursday, citing Armenia’s Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan. The Russian market accounts for about 80% of all Ararat exports and the embargo is expected to negatively impact Armenian cognac grape suppliers, Kerobyan was quoted as saying at…

German carmaker Volkswagen said Friday it had completed the sale of its Russian assets to local dealership group Avilon, as part of its exit from the country following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The sale includes the flagship Kaluga factory southwest of Moscow, which employs around 4,000 people and has the capacity to build 225,000 vehicles…

The first direct flight from Russia landed in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Friday four years after Moscow banned air travel with the South Caucasus nation. The flight was met with protests against Georgia’s perceived return to the Russian sphere of influence amid its war in Ukraine. “Russian plane, go f*ck yourself,” read a…

Russian opposition figure Yevgeny Roizman has been fined for his comments about the Ukraine conflict, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Friday. Roizman, 60, the former mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city Yekaterinburg, is among a dwindling number of prominent opposition figures who are not in jail or exile. A court in Yekaterinburg imposed a fine of…

Belarus has started constructing defensive fortifications near its border with Ukraine, the Belarusian monitoring group Belaruski Hayun reported. Construction equipment and a line of small anti-tank concrete pyramids known as dragon’s teeth were spotted 10 kilometers from Gomel, a city located some 44 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, Belaruski Hayun said Thursday. Dragon’s teeth were…

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin will seek his third term this fall as a member of the pro-Putin United Russia ruling party, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday. Sobyanin will shed his previous non-affiliation with a political party for the first time since he was appointed to the mayorship in 2010. Sobyanin is a 20-year veteran of United Russia…

One out of three Russian students have expressed a desire to leave the country in an unpublished Kremlin survey, the iStories investigative outlet reported Thursday. Forty-four percent of the polled students described the state of affairs in wartime Russia as a “crisis,” while 32% described it as a “collapse/breakdown.” Fear and anxiety ranked first at 36%…

Russian lawmakers are drafting legislation that would punish anti-Russian words and actions deemed as “Russophobia” with up to five years imprisonment, the independent news outlet Vyorstka reported Thursday. The bill is expected to amend Russia’s Criminal Code by adding clauses on “Russophobia” to articles criminalizing public calls for extremism and violating equal rights. Russia’s State…

The United States and its G7 allies rolled out new sanctions against Russia’s “war machine” Friday, targeting Moscow’s lucrative diamond trade and more entities linked to the invasion of Ukraine. Leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, with Russia’s $4-5 billion annual trade in diamonds in the crosshairs. Vladimir…

Russia has lost over 50,000 scientific researchers in the past five years, a senior member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) has said. “The main problem in Russia is as follows: Over the past five years, only Russia — no other countries — has lost so many people working in the scientific field. Russia…

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Thursday ordered a quarantine for multiple districts in Russia’s capital due to an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu. The order introduces a quarantine for 11 of Moscow’s 125 districts that have been assessed to be most at risk for spreading influenza. Epidemiological surveillance services…

An investment forum in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan opened Thursday as its more popular counterparts contend with fewer international guests amid Moscow’s isolation during the war in Ukraine. The 14th annual KazanForum, known as KazanSummit in its previous 13 iterations, brands itself as a platform for Islamic investors. This year’s event is expected to draw 15,000…

The Kremlin confirmed Thursday it had suspended the bank accounts of the Finnish embassy in Moscow as Moscow’s ties with Europe deteriorate over the Ukraine conflict. Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto this week said the bank accounts of his country’s embassy in Moscow and consulate in St. Petersburg had been frozen at the end of…

Russian authorities warned the Crimean Tatar ethnic minority against protesting on the anniversary of their deportation under Stalin, the advocacy group Crimean Solidarity said. Crimean Tatars, which made up around 15% of the peninsula’s population of 2 million, largely opposed Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. They say they now face persecution by Moscow-installed…

Updated to add details of the prosecutors’ requested fine. Russian prosecutors on Thursday recommended a fine for prominent Kremlin critic Yevgeny Roizman, on trial in the central city of Yekaterinburg for comments about the Ukraine conflict. The prosecutor urged the judge to “find Yevgeny Roizman guilty and impose a fine of 260,000 rubles (around $3,250)”…

Russian police staged new raids in the homes of local politicians over alleged ties to a pro-Ukraine former lawmaker accused of spreading “fake news” about the invasion of Ukraine, state media reported early Thursday. The raids mark at least the fourth wave of mass searches linked to Ilya Ponomarev since Russian authorities ordered the vocal…

The wife of Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza voiced deep concern Wednesday at his failing health behind bars, hailing his courage in the face of an act of “cynical vengeance” by Moscow. “I am obviously concerned,” Evgenia Kara-Murza said in an interview with AFP. “His health indeed is failing.” Her husband had serious health issues even…

Ukraine said Thursday it had downed nearly an entire barrage of Russian missiles overnight, the latest in an “unprecedented” wave of aerial attacks on the capital Kyiv. The defense ministry said Russian forces had launched 30 cruise missiles from land, sea and air, targeting several regions and killing one person in the southern port of…

A Russian freight train carrying grain derailed in annexed Crimea early Thursday in what some media accounts described as an explosion. According to the Baza Telegram channel, which is believed to have links to Russia’s law enforcement agencies, five railroad cars tipped over at around 8:00 a.m. Moscow time near the south-central Crimean city of…

A Kyrgyz court has handed a 10-year sentence to a man who fought for Russia in Ukraine, at a time when Moscow is trying to boost recruitment of people from ex-Soviet Central Asian countries.  Dozens of nationals of Central Asian countries have been killed in Ukraine in recent months, local media say, most of them…

Russia’s gross domestic product shrank by 1.9% in the first quarter of 2023, the country’s statistic agency Rosstat said Wednesday.  The economy was weighed down by another wave of sanctions imposed over its offensive in Ukraine, including a ban by the European Union on Russian petroleum products, on top of a price cap agreed with…

Russia has agreed to extend the Ukraine Black Sea grain deal for another two months, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Wednesday, just a day before a 60-day extension agreed to back in March was set to expire.  “Our Russian friends said that they will not interfere with Turkish ships leaving [Ukraine’s] ports. We thank…

Dozens of Europe-based companies have continued to do business with Russian firms that supply Moscow’s military with critical goods and equipment as it wages war on Ukraine, according to a report published Wednesday by investigative news outlet The Insider. The outlet found that 25 companies from Germany, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovakia, Italy, Estonia, Lithuania, Austria…

Tax incentives introduced by the Russian government for reconstructing occupied areas of Ukraine have provided large profits for the black market, The Moscow Times’ Russian service reported Tuesday. Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov with a pre-war population of 400,000, was nearly completely destroyed in a brutal Russian siege last spring. The Russian…

A Moscow court has sentenced opposition figure and anti-war activist Mikhail Krieger to seven years in prison. Krieger, 63, was arrested in November 2022 and charged with “justifying terrorism” over a 2020 social media post in which he praised two men who staged attacks at Federal Security Service (FSB) buildings as “heroes.”  He was also charged with…

Iran and Russia agreed Wednesday to collaborate on the construction of the final part of a commercial transport network linking to the Gulf and India while avoiding Western sea lanes. Iranian Transport Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash, who signed the agreement with his Russian counterpart in Tehran, said the 164-kilometer (102-mile) railway in Iran’s north would be…

YouTube has started taking down videos about Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, The Moscow Times’ Russian service reported Tuesday. Wagner, which has been at the front of Russia’s war effort in eastern Ukraine for months, has been accused of brutality and war crimes in Ukraine and other war zones abroad. The Google-owned video platform said in a…

Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said Wednesday that Russia had frozen in late April the bank accounts of its embassy in Moscow and consulate in St. Petersburg. “The accounts of the Finnish missions in Russia are frozen and cannot be used at the moment,” Haavisto told a press conference, adding that Finland had been in…

Russia’s Central Election Commission on Wednesday revealed the official logo for the country’s upcoming regional elections which features a large letter V, one of the symbols of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.  “It depicts both the familiar checkmark and the letter V in the colors of the Russian flag — as a symbol of support for…

At least four prominent Kremlin critics outside of Russia have experienced symptoms of poisoning or faced surveillance over the past year, according to a report by the investigative outlet Agentstvo published Tuesday.  Among those affected in the cases examined by Agentstvo include foreign journalists, Russian opposition activists, and even a former U.S. ambassador.  One suspected…

Russia’s surprise move to restore visa-free access for Georgian citizens and direct flights between the two countries signals a continued warming of relations between Tbilisi and Moscow, potentially at the cost of Georgia’s integration with the West, analysts and Russian government officials told The Moscow Times.  Some observers have described the decision as a “gift”…

Russian prosecutors on Tuesday requested a prison sentence of nine years for opposition figure and anti-war activist Mikhail Kriger. Kriger, 63, was arrested in November 2022 on charges of justifying terrorism and inciting hatred. After Tuesday’s court hearing, Kriger, who denied his guilt, sang the Ukrainian folk song “Chervona Kalyna,” which has become an anthem…

Fighting is raging and Kyiv is relentlessly pressing its allies for more military hardware.  But has Ukraine’s long-promised counteroffensive against the Russian invasion actually begun? Analysts say Ukraine has stepped up its activity along the front line, seeking notably to pin Russia down and inflict maximum casualties around the flashpoint town of Bakhmut. Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky…

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday it had arrested a 25-year-old Ukrainian woman accused of illegally gathering information on the Russian military, charges punishable by up to 20 years in prison. “On the instructions of foreign special services, the suspect transmitted information regarding facilities, military equipment, fortifications and combat positions of the Russian Armed…

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said his Russian and Ukrainian colleagues have agreed to host an African peace initiative aimed at resolving the nearly 15-month war, Reuters reported Tuesday. “My discussions with the two leaders [Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] demonstrated that they are both ready to receive the African leaders,”…

At least three Russian scientists who have worked on hypersonic missile development have been arrested on suspicion of treason over the past year, their colleagues said in an open letter published Monday. Members of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ (RAS) Siberian Branch warned that the criminal cases risk…

Russian tech billionaire Arkady Volozh’s latest effort to evict a group of squatters from his luxurious Amsterdam mansion has been struck down in court, lawyers for the opposing parties told The Moscow Times’ Russian service Tuesday. Volozh, the founder of Russia’s largest search engine Yandex, was targeted by European Union sanctions following the invasion of…

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has recruited former Islamic State fighters to infiltrate Ukraine, Turkey and the United States, the independent Meduza news website reported Tuesday, citing four recruited fighters. The outlet said an unnamed source close to the FSB confirmed regular but largely unsuccessful attempts to penetrate Ukraine’s military circles. Meduza interviewed a former Russian Islamic…

Russia’s oil exports rose in April to the highest level since its invasion of Ukraine, boosting revenues by $1.7 billion despite Western sanctions, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday. The Paris-based organization said Russian exports increased by 50,000 barrels per day to 8.3 million bpd last month, estimating that the country did not fully deliver on…

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Monday accused Ukrainian intelligence and Czech police of staging the kidnap for ransom of one of his favorite stallions.  Zazu, a 16-year-old English Thoroughbred owned by Kadyrov, was stolen from a stable in the Czech village of Krabčice in March this year.  In a Telegram post on Monday, Kadyrov alleged…

Ukraine’s looming counteroffensive against Russian forces, coupled with an increased number of drone attacks and military incidents on Russia’s territory, are making the realities of the war increasingly visible to ordinary Russians. More than a year in, the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine — which was once presented to Russians as a short-term, victorious “special military…

Seven people including a Russian-installed senior official and a teenager were wounded when an explosion ripped through the center of Russian-controlled Luhansk in eastern Ukraine on Monday, the regional head said. “As a result of an explosion in the center of Luhansk, seven people were injured,” Leonid Pasechnik, head of the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s…

The number of acts of sabotage in Russia has more than doubled so far in 2023 compared to the previous year amid the war in Ukraine, the independent news site Vyorstka reported Monday. At least 57 attacks on Russian railways, military enlistment centers, energy sites and other targets were publicly reported in January-May 2023. That compares with…

The commander of South Africa’s ground forces is in Moscow for talks on improving combat readiness, Russian news agencies said Monday, citing Russia’s Defense Ministry. Lieutenant General Lawrence Mbatha is heading a delegation that met his Russian colleague, Colonel General Oleg Salyukov, according to the state-run TASS news agency. The two discussed “issues relating to military cooperation…

The Kremlin on Monday slammed comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said Russia was becoming a vassal to China as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. “We categorically disagree with this. Our relations with China have the character of a special, strategic partnership,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov said Macron’s…

The exiled opposition leader of reclusive Belarus on Monday called on the public to be “prepared” for political change following reports speculating on the declining health of strongman Alexander Lukashenko. The 68-year-old who has been in power since 1994 has not been seen in public for six days, skipping important events. He was last seen…

High-ranking Russian officials have been banned from resigning during the war in Ukraine under the threat of criminal prosecution, the iStories investigative outlet reported Monday, citing four sources familiar with the matter. The Kremlin imposed the unofficial ban after many officials expressed a desire to resign from their posts, iStories cited a source close to…

Russia’s flagship airline Aeroflot has asked its employees to refrain from recording equipment defects on aircraft, leading to planes regularly flying with malfunctions, according to the investigative news outlet Proekt, citing current and former employees at the airline.  A former employee at Aeroflot explained that the policy, in force since last spring, was introduced “to…