Russia said Friday that it understood the concerns African nations may have after Moscow left the Ukrainian grain deal, promising to ensure deliveries to countries in need. Those countries in need would receive the necessary assurances at a summit later this month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin told journalists. “We understand the concerns our…
Russian shelling killed two children — a brother and sister — in the village of Druzhba (Friendship) in eastern Ukraine on Friday, the local governor said. “At about three o’clock in the afternoon, the Russians shelled the village with artillery — one of the shells hit the yard where the children were,” Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko…
A Russian prosecutor on Friday requested an 18-year prison sentence for Ilya Sachkov, founder of one of the country’s top cybersecurity firms, on treason charges. Sachkov, 37, co-founded the Group-IB cybersecurity firm in 2003. It specializes in the detection and prevention of cyberattacks and works with Interpol and several other global institutions. “State prosecutors requested…
Residents of the village of Sosva have been losing their homes to forest fires for years. In the most recent major incident in April, a wildfire destroyed 130 houses, killed two individuals and left 659 people homeless in this village in the Sverdlovsk region. When Novaya Gazeta Europe reporter Irina Kravtsova arrived in Sosva, locals…
Давать на лапу: to grease someone’s palm The other day someone asked me if I’d ever written about the language of bribe-giving. I haven’t. In fact, I don’t think I ever offered a bribe, although in the days before Moscow installed about a million predatory street cameras that fine you online, гаишники (traffic cops, aka…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been ordered to spend 13 days in a solitary confinement cell until a court verdict that could see him sentenced to a further 20 years in prison, his lawyer said Friday. “Just an hour ago, Alexei Navalny was again placed in a solitary punishment cell [for] introducing himself incorrectly,”…
Russian army veteran and ex-FSB officer Igor Girkin has been detained, his wife and the RBC business daily’s sources said Friday. Girkin, who helped Moscow annex Crimea in 2014 and then organized pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine, was detained by law enforcement officers around 11:30 a.m. Moscow time, his wife Miroslava Reginskaya said on his…
Ukraine’s counteroffensive to recapture occupied territories is failing even with Western military support, President Vladimir Putin said Friday. “Today it’s clear that the Kyiv regime’s Western curators are disappointed with the results of the so-called counteroffensive,” Putin said at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council. “There are no results, at least not yet,” he told senior government…
Russia’s Central Bank hiked interest rates on Friday for the first time in 16 months, as Moscow’s spending on its invasion of Ukraine, shortages across the labor market and a sharp fall in the value of the ruble trigger fresh concerns over inflation. The regulator raised its key rate from 7.5% to 8.5% — ahead…
Russian schoolchildren will learn the basics of combat drone flying as part of military training classes starting this fall, a senior lawmaker said Friday. Basic military training, which was abolished after the Soviet collapse, will become part of the curriculum for Russian high schoolers in grades 10 and 11 as part of curriculum changes following…
Russia will keep its minimum conscription age at 18 despite a promise to raise the limit as part of the military’s plans to increase troop numbers, a senior lawmaker said Friday. A bill backed by President Vladimir Putin originally envisioned an increase in age limits for compulsory military service from the current range of men…
Russian oil exports to China reached an all-time record last month as Moscow’s “pivot to Asia” continues to gather steam amid its isolation from the West, the business daily Vedomosti reported Friday, citing Chinese customs data. Russia exported 10.5 million tons of crude oil to China in June, breaking the previous record of 9.71 million…
Russia’s navy carried out a live fire “exercise” in the northwest Black Sea, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said Friday, days after the Kremlin said it would consider ships traveling to Ukraine through the waterway potential military targets. The Black Sea Fleet “carried out live firing of anti-ship cruise missiles at the target ship in the combat…