MOSCOW — Russia marked its Russia Day holiday on Monday with widespread state-organized celebrations — but for many, the holiday is just another day off rather than a patriotic event, Muscovites who spoke with The Moscow Times said. Observed every year on June 12, Russia Day commemorates when the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic first…
A young Chechen woman has been detained at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport after attempting to flee from her abusive family in Russia, the human rights project Marem reported on Monday. Selima Ismailova, 19, fled her home region of Chechnya, a majority-Muslim republic in Russia’s North Caucasus, in March to escape regular beatings and death threats from…
Russia said Monday it had repelled Ukrainian attacks around several villages in the war-battered southeast of the country, contradicting earlier claims from Kyiv’s forces that they had retaken the settlements. The contradictory reports from Kyiv and Moscow come as analysts have said that Ukraine has launched a long-awaited counteroffensive with Western weapons in an aim to…
A reporter for the Kremlin-funded broadcaster RT claimed Monday to have blocked ruble-denominated donations for an anti-war telethon organized by exiled Russian independent media. The outlets joined forces on the national holiday Russia Day for a day-long fundraiser in support of the 20,000 activists fined or detained for opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. RT correspondent…
SHEBEKINO, Russia — Weeks of relentless shelling have turned this once-thriving district center near the Ukrainian border with a pre-war population of about 40,000 into a ghost town. Rubble and broken glass litter the empty streets, and in the town’s central square, signs of shelling are visible on the building facades. Not far from there,…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he was saddened by the death of his “dear friend” former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi, who dominated Italian public life for decades as a billionaire media mogul, businessman and prime minister, was confirmed to have died at a Milan hospital at age 86. He had been suffering…
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has said he will not sign contracts with the military that seek to formalize the hierarchy of forces fighting in Ukraine. The defiance is the latest episode in the public feud between Wagner, which has been at the forefront of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine for several months, and…
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered his country’s “full support and solidarity” to Moscow in a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, state media reported. Kim sent the message of congratulations on the national day of Russia, one of a handful of nations that maintain friendly relations with Pyongyang. His message, published…