Russia said on Wednesday it will soon finalize its side of the route for the “Power of Siberia 2” pipeline, a huge project to deliver more natural gas to China. Moscow plans to start building the pipeline next year, after its military offensive in Ukraine forced it to move away from the European market in…
Russia’s ruling, pro-Kremlin United Russia party is distancing itself from narratives related to the war in Ukraine in its campaign for the country’s regional and local elections this month. The Kremlin appears highly concerned about the outcome of the vote despite its tightened control over the media and suppressed opposition, sources familiar with the government’s…
At least four Russians have been detained for donating to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s “extremist” organizations, state and independent media reported Wednesday. Law enforcement officers carried out searches in connection with financing Navalny’s groups in the Russian cities of Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow and Krasnoyarsk, according to the independent human rights watchdog OVD-Info. The watchdog…
Armenia will host joint drills with U.S. forces next week, officials in Yerevan said Wednesday, the latest sign of the ex-Soviet republic’s drift from its traditional ally Russia. The announcement came a day after Moscow dismissed criticism from Armenia that Russian peacekeepers were failing to maintain order over the only route linking Armenia to the…
Russia’s Central Bank announced Wednesday that it plans to step up support for the ruble, which has gradually weakened over the past 18 months due to Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The Bank of Russia said that between Sept. 14 and 22 it would sell 21.4 billion rubles ($218.5 million) worth of foreign…
Authorities in Moscow have detained two men accused of harassing a female metro passenger for wearing traditional Islamic clothing, Russian media reported Tuesday. Video of the conflict surfaced last week, showing one young man demanding that the woman take off her niqab — a full veil with a small slit for the eyes — and…
Russia’s Defense Ministry has removed the biography of General Sergei Surovikin from its website amid reports of his dismissal after Yevegny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny in late June. Surovikin was long seen as the main intermediary between the Wagner mercenary group and the Russian Defense Ministry, where he had served as head of Russia’s Aerospace Forces since…
Re-enactors donned 19th-century military garb this week to act out the Battle of Borodino, a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars that took place outside Moscow. While the 1812 battle between imperial Russian forces and Napoleon’s army technically ended in a Russian defeat, both sides took huge losses. The Russian army retreated, allowing Napoleon to…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Wednesday it has busted a major weapons smuggling ring in dozens of Russian regions. Between June and July, authorities seized thousands of firearms and artillery shells in sting operations across 53 Russian regions, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. The listed regions cover nearly every time zone in Russia and…
A Kremlin-installed official in southern Ukraine admitted Tuesday that Russian forces have withdrawn from the village of Robotyne more than a week after Kyiv announced its recapture. “The Russian army abandoned — tactically abandoned this settlement,” said Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-appointed governor of Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhia region. Ukraine, which launched a grinding counteroffensive in June,…
Western academic journals have continued to publish articles by President Vladimir Putin’s oldest daughter since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the independent news outlet Mozhem Obyasnit reported Tuesday. Maria Vorontsova is a candidate of medical sciences, roughly equivalent to a Ph.D. in Western countries, and an endocrinologist by training. Her profile on the Moscow State…