A defrocked Russian priest who spoke out against Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine was jailed for three years Thursday, after a court found him guilty of spreading “fake news” about the army. The Russian Orthodox Church, led by Patriarch Kirill — an ally of President Vladimir Putin — has mostly backed the Kremlin’s offensive and often…
Authorities in Russia’s southern Rostov region have appointed a male official to lead the region’s newly formed council on women’s rights. The government body will be tasked with creating policies on topics ranging from women’s health to strengthening women’s role in society to combating poverty and social disadvantage among women. But women will hold just eight seats…
Alice, a 17-year-old photographer, fled Russia for Israel shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine. Months later, she was summoned to serve in the Israeli army. “I left Russia because of the war, and I cannot imagine myself serving in any army, in any country,” Alice told The Moscow Times in a phone…
Authorities in separatist and Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine on Thursday announced the start of early voting in local elections. Voting was due to take place on Sept. 10, as part of elections scheduled in dozens of regions across Russia, where voters will elect new governors, local parliaments and municipal councils. However, Kremlin-backed authorities in the…
Authorities in western Russia’s Bryansk region have scrapped in-person back-to-school day this Friday in towns that face regular drone and artillery strikes. Each year on Sept. 1, Russian schools open their doors to students, parents and teachers in what is known as Den’ Znanyy, or the Day of Knowledge. Bryansk region Governor Alexander Bogomaz said…
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday criticized what he called “stupid demands” from Poland and the Baltic states for Wagner fighters sheltering in his country to leave. Wagner fighters took refuge in Belarus after they staged a short-lived rebellion against Moscow’s military leadership in June, prompting concerns from neighboring countries. “They are whipping up hysteria…
The deceased commander and purported co-founder of the Wagner mercenary group has been buried at a Moscow cemetery, the MSK.1 news website reported Thursday. Dmitry Utkin, who is believed to have inspired the name for the mercenary outfit under his call sign “Wagner,” was killed in last week’s plane crash alongside his boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, according…
At least two Russian military aircraft were damaged as a result of Ukrainian drone strikes on an airbase in northwestern Russia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) investigative project Skhemy reported Thursday, citing satellite imagery. Authorities in the Pskov region said its airport came under a large-scale attack on Wednesday. Emergency officials told state media at…
A court in the Siberian republic of Buryatia has sentenced activist Natalya Filonova to nearly three years in prison on charges linked to anti-mobilization protests that swept Russia last fall, the regional news outlet Lyudi Baikala reported Thursday. Filonova, a 61-year-old pensioner and a veteran activist, was detained at a September 2022 rally in Buryatia’s capital…
A Russian man based in Germany was found guilty on Thursday of plotting to kill a Chechen dissident on the orders of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. The defendant, identified as Valid D., was sentenced to 10 years in jail for “willingness to commit murder and preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state,” a…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday it has repelled a Ukrainian sabotage group’s attempt to infiltrate western Russia’s Bryansk region, the second attempted incursion this month. Two Ukrainian fighters were purportedly killed and five others were detained Wednesday, the FSB said in a statement. Russia’s intelligence agency did not say how many Ukrainian fighters…
A Wagner-affiliated channel on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday published a previously unseen video of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was buried two days earlier after perishing in a plane crash in northwestern Russia. “To those who talk about my liquidation, private life and earnings or whatever else, strictly speaking, everything’s alright,” Prigozhin said in the video posted…
Russian air defenses destroyed a drone on its approach to Moscow, the city’s mayor said Thursday morning. Air defense systems in the Voskresensky district, located around 60 kilometers from the Russian capital, “destroyed a drone flying toward Moscow,” Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging app. He did not specify where the drone had…
The Kremlin said Wednesday that investigators were probing all possible scenarios surrounding the death last week of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash, including premeditated murder. Prigozhin, 62, was buried on Tuesday in a private ceremony in his native St. Petersburg, more than two months after he staged a short-lived mutiny that posed…
Ukraine said Wednesday that its recapture of Robotyne village this week was a strategic victory paving the way for its forces to push deeper into Russian positions in the south towards Crimea. The foreign minister’s comments published early Wednesday came as Kyiv announced two people had been killed in the “most powerful” aerial attack in…
Allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny have urged the EU to impose sanctions on a Russian rock star who stirred controversy for visiting Russian troops in occupied Ukraine. Roman Bilyk, who performs under the stage name Roma Zver with the hit group Zveri, was filmed playing for Russian troops in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region earlier in…
A Russian man was in court Wednesday after he criticized Moscow’s Ukraine assault in an interview to a foreign media outlet as authorities take the crackdown on dissent to new heights. Public criticism of the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine has been outlawed, and a number of prominent and ordinary Russians have received long prison terms…
Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to return to international badminton competitions starting February 2024, the sport’s governing body announced. The Badminton World Federation (BWF) said players from the two countries, who have been banned due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, would be able to compete as neutral athletes. The International Olympic Committee has…
The decision to keep Yevgeny Prigozhin’s funeral a secret was made by the Russian presidential administration and the security services, two acting Russian officials told The Moscow Times on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. Even after his Aug. 23 death in a plane crash near President Vladimir Putin’s residence in…
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has led to the destruction of more than 1,300 Ukrainian schools over the past 18 months, disrupting education for millions of children in the war-torn country, according to UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency. “More than 1,300 schools have been totally destroyed [in Ukraine’s government-controlled regions],” said Regina De Dominicis,…
A woman who had fled Chechnya following death threats from her family has been forcibly returned to her home, Chechnya’s human rights commissioner said late Tuesday. Seda Suleimanova fled the Muslim-majority region in October 2022 with the help of the human rights group SK SOS after her family warned that she could be killed in…
“You sleep at night and suddenly wake up, just out of the blue. And realize that breathing is difficult, and the house smells as if it’s full of household gas.” This is one of the unsettling memories shared by a Moscow region resident who identified herself as Anna. Living just 3 kilometers from Yug (South),…
Russian firefighters battled a wildfire near the popular resort town of Gelendzhik in southern Russia overnight Tuesday, tackling the blaze from land and air, authorities and media reported. The blaze moved fast through woodland in the area as a result of strong winds, as well as the challenging mountainous terrain of the area, Russia’s Emergencies…
Russia will not investigate the plane crash that killed Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin under international rules, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing Brazil’s aircraft investigation authority. Brazil’s Center for Research and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (CENIPA) contacted Russian authorities last week to ask whether they would open a probe into the crash under UN civil aviation rules, according…
At least six regions across western and central Russia were targeted by one of the largest overnight drone attacks since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine 18 months ago, authorities said Wednesday. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had shot down or destroyed drones over the Bryansk, Oryol, Kaluga, Ryazan and Moscow regions overnight. It did not report any…
Ukraine said Wednesday it had downed more than two dozen cruise missiles and a swarm of attack drones across the country in the “most powerful” aerial attack on Kyiv in weeks that left two dead. The assault came as Russia said an airport near the border with NATO member Estonia had been targeted by drones,…
Though much of Russia will vote in the country’s regional elections on Sept. 10, early voting is already underway in the country’s most hard-to-reach areas to allow residents who cannot make it to a polling station to cast their ballots. On the Taimyr Peninsula of Russia’s Far North, election workers brought ballot boxes to the…
Observers said the decision by the founder of the Wagner private fighting force to turn his troops on Moscow was the most significant direct challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s authority since he came to power. The Kremlin said earlier Tuesday that the Russian leader would not attend Prigozhin’s funeral. “The president’s presence is not envisaged,”…
A Russian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from former separatist commander in Ukraine and nationalist blogger Igor Girkin to be freed from pre-trial detention in Moscow. Girkin, a high-profile critic of the Kremlin’s military strategy in Ukraine, was detained in July and remanded in custody on extremism charges. He faces up to five years…
A Federal Security Service (FSB) helicopter has crashed in Russia’s Ural Mountains, killing all three crew members on board, authorities and state media reported Thursday. “An Mi-8 helicopter crashed in a forest during a routine flight near the village of Prudny in the Sosnovsky district [of Russia’s Chelyabinsk region],” an anonymous emergency services representative told…
Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2006 signed a secret decree awarding Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin with a state decoration as a Kremlin staffer, the BBC’s Russian service reported Tuesday. The outlet noted that Prigozhin — who died in a plane crash on Wednesday — had already received the Medal of the Order “For Merit to…
The death of Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has silenced one of the loudest critics of the Russian military’s performance in Ukraine and thrown the future of his business and private military empires into uncertainty. His enduring image — and popularity — among some ordinary Russians and pro-war voices alike may prove much more…
A group of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine have threatened to abandon their posts unless a hazardous landfill in their home region in southern Russia is closed down, media reported Monday. In a video addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office and the Investigative Committee, seven men in military uniforms called on…
President Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin said Tuesday. Prigozhin was one of the 10 people on board his private jet when it crashed in the Tver region northwest of Moscow last Wednesday. Russian authorities confirmed Prigozhin’s death on Sunday. “The president is not expected to attend…
The Kremlin said Tuesday that Russia would not give up its ambitions to land a craft on the Moon after its first lunar mission in nearly 50 years failed this month. The Luna-25 module crashed on the Moon’s surface after an incident during pre-landing maneuvers. An Indian mission days later successfully landed near the Moon’s…
Repeated drone attacks on Moscow and its surrounding areas reflect a shift in Ukraine’s war strategy to chip away at Russia away from the frontlines, experts have told The Moscow Times. Russia’s capital, located some 450 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, has been targeted by drones nearly every night for the past several weeks, damaging…
Russian state-run broadcaster RT on Tuesday showed rare footage of former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan inside a penal colony, in what his brother said was his first public appearance in over three years. The United States has designated Whelan — who is serving a 16-year sentence on espionage charges in Russia’s remote republic of Mordovia — as…
A Russian teenager accused of plotting a terrorist attack on a market has been detained in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, the state-run news agency TASS reported Tuesday, citing an anonymous Russian law enforcement source. “A 16-year-old student of a Krasnoyarsk preparatory high school has been detained while acquiring components for a homemade explosive device,”…
Russian air defense systems downed multiple Ukrainian drones over the Tula and Belgorod regions, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, without indicating if there had been damage or casualties. Two drones “were destroyed” by air defenses over the Tula region south of Moscow, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.…
A Russian consul general in Kazakhstan has been sacked following a controversial interview in which he claimed that the Central Asian country was intentionally discriminating against the Russian language in schools. Yevgeny Bobrov, who headed the Russian consulate in Almaty, said in the interview published last week that Kazakhstan, which is home to the world’s…
A Kyrgyzstan court said Monday state prosecutors had urged it to close down Kloop, a mainly U.S.-funded media organization, for content allegedly discrediting the government of the Central Asian nation, a Russian ally. “We have received a complaint from the Bishkek prosecutor for the shutting down of public foundation Kloop.Media,” a court spokesperson told AFP.…
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to visit Russia “soon” for talks with Vladimir Putin on reviving a deal to ship grain across the Black Sea, his party spokesman said Monday. The meeting will take place in Russia’s resort city of Sochi, Erdogan’s ruling party spokesman Omer Celik told reporters, adding that Turkey hoped to…
A Swedish-Russian dual national who was arrested last year in a spectacular helicopter raid on his Stockholm home was charged in Sweden on Monday with spying for Moscow. Sergei Skvortsov, 60, was formally charged with carrying out “unlawful intelligence activities” against the U.S. and Sweden for a decade until his arrest in November 2022, court…
Russian authorities have detained a man in northwestern Russia suspected of assaulting an Al Jazeera reporter live on air last week, the St. Petersburg-based news website Fontanka reported Monday. Rania Dridi was broadcasting from the former headquarters of Russia’s mercenary outfit Wagner last Thursday when the man accosted her, demanding that she speak Russian during…
The world’s largest crypto exchange Binance said Monday that it has banned Russia-based users from trading in all currencies besides the ruble. Binance’s restrictions follow reporting by Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal on a U.S. Justice Department investigation into the company’s possible violation of financial sanctions on Russia despite its public commitment to comply with…
Russia said it has arrested a former employee of a U.S. consulate on charges of collecting information about Moscow’s war in Ukraine, Interfax reported Monday. The U.S. State Department had in May denounced Robert Shonov’s detention in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok, saying he had been performing routine activities as a private contractor. Russia’s Federal Security…
Russian air defenses destroyed a drone approaching Moscow and two in a region bordering Ukraine, authorities said early Monday. Air defenses in the Lyubertsy district southeast of the Russian capital “destroyed a drone flying toward Moscow,” the city’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on the Telegram messaging app without specifying whether it was Ukrainian. “There were…
The death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner paramilitary group, following a plane crash on Wednesday has been confirmed by formal genetic analysis, Russia’s Investigative Committee said Sunday. “Molecular-genetic examinations have been completed as part of the investigation into the plane crash in the Tver region,” Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said. “According to…
Russia said it downed two Ukrainian drones flying over border regions on Sunday after the governor of Belgorod region said a drone carrying explosives had killed a man. Russia and the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula have been hit by a wave of attacks in the past month since Kyiv warned in July it aimed to “return”…
Yegor Chastukhin, an 18-year-old environmental activist, holds a flask to a drain spurting out warm, putrid water near the historic city of Penza in western Russia. “It smells like herbal tea,” he jokes after taking a waft of the sample while Sonia, his wife, jots down notes. She records the odor and its yellowish color…
U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich has appealed against a Russian court’s decision to extend his pre-trial detention by three months, according to documents published by a Moscow court. Gershkovich was detained in March during a reporting trip to the Urals and accused of spying — charges that he, the U.S. government and his employer the Wall…
Two people were killed and one wounded after Russian forces shelled a village near the town of Kupiansk in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, the region’s governor said Saturday. Officials in Kupiansk, about four miles (six kilometers) from the frontline, had urged vulnerable residents living near the town to evacuate earlier this month as Russia stepped…
In Soviet-era movies, as the heroes worked they often sang about the joy of labor, their pride in the Land of Soviets, and the wise policy of the Communist Party. “We shall carry the flame of our soul, the banner of our country, onward through worlds and centuries!” sang the actress Lyubov Orlova as she…
Russia said Saturday that its air defences shot down one drone approaching Moscow and another in a border region while Ukrainian shelling wounded six in a border town. Russia and the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula have been hit by a wave of attacks in recent days as Kyiv warns it aims to bring the conflict back…
The plane crash that presumably killed Yevgeny Prigozhin is expected to restore the image of President Vladimir Putin as Russia’s sole and unshakeable leader, whom no one can challenge with impunity following Wagner’s mutiny. Yet Prigozhin’s fall will lead to the weakening of Russia’s forces in Ukraine, as well as its influence in the Middle…
Russian paramilitary fighters will have to swear an oath to the Russian flag, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin on Friday, two days after the presumed death of mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. The measure is aimed at “forming the spiritual and moral foundations for the defense of the Russian Federation” and applies…
The Kremlin on Friday dismissed claims that President Vladimir Putin was involved in the presumed death of Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash this week. The circumstances surrounding Wednesday evening’s crash, which occurred exactly two months after Wagner’s failed mutiny against Russia’s military establishment, stirred speculation of a possible assassination. Putin had said as…
A Moscow court has extended the pre-trial detention of the suspect in a St. Petersburg cafe bombing that killed a prominent pro-war blogger earlier this year, Russian media reported Friday. Daria Trepova, 26, was detained in April after a bomb planted inside a gilded bust she presented to blogger Vladlen Tatarsky exploded during an event…
Dutch brewer Heineken on Friday announced it was pulling out of Russia after selling its operations to the Arnest Group, Russia’s largest manufacturer of cosmetics, household goods and metal packaging. Like other major Western companies, Heineken pledged to leave the Russian market following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but it drew criticism earlier this year after…
Flash floods have struck Far East Russia’s Primorye region for the second time this month, causing major power outages in the territory’s administrative center of Vladivostok on Friday. A total of 70,000 out of the 600,000 residents of Vladivostok were left without electricity over an eight-hour period, said the Primorye region’s prosecutor’s office. It was…