The Kremlin has launched a sweeping propaganda campaign to convince young Russians that their country has built the world’s most free and fair elections since President Vladimir Putin came to power, officials have told The Moscow Times. In an unprecedented move, Russian authorities on Monday held a nationwide school lesson marking the 30th anniversary of…
President Vladimir Putin on Friday said that Russian prisoners who died in Ukraine had redeemed themselves in the eyes of society. To boost regular troops fighting in Ukraine, the army and mercenary group Wagner have extensively recruited from Russian penal colonies. “They are dead,” Putin said during a televised meeting, referring to prisoners who died…
Russia’s military will enlist 130,000 young men for compulsory service this fall, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin on Friday. Combined with the 147,000 men drafted during the spring draft, Russia’s Defense Ministry will field 277,000 conscripts in 2023. From Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, Russia’s military will be allowed to call up men…
Непотопляемый: unsinkable On the list of Tricky Bits (highly technical term) in translation are words in two languages that have the same meaning (translator does fist pump to empty room) but different connotations (translator swears impressively in two languages). I remembered this the hard way, that is, by using one of these bad matches in…
Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at the Paris Paralympics in 2024 under a neutral flag after officials voted against an outright ban. A majority of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) on Friday allowed Russian athletes to compete “in an individual and neutral capacity” without national flags, colors or emblems. Russia has been suspended…
Russian athletes will be allowed to compete under a neutral flag at the Paris Paralympics in 2024 after officials on Friday voted against an outright ban. A majority of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) voted to allow Russian athletes to compete “in an individual and neutral capacity” without national flags, colors or emblems. The decision…
Vienna, Austria, September 29, 2023 – Rosatom took part in the 67th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which was held in Vienna on September 25-29, 2023. The event brought together the world’s lead experts and representatives of the nuclear industry from 177 countries. During his speech at a plenary session, the…
Russian state television showed footage of northern Poland during a report on the Russian city of Kaliningrad, local media said Friday. A Rossiya 1 news program that aired Thursday reported on President Vladimir Putin’s meeting on the development of the Kaliningrad region, a western exclave that borders Lithuania and Poland. “The region remains competitive in the face…
Diana Akue has been on her guard lately. The Gabonese doctoral economics student in the city of Yekaterinburg avoids going out at night and exercises greater caution around strangers than she used to. As a black woman living in Russia for the past nine years, Akue has faced her share of discrimination — from being…
The U.K. on Friday announced new sanctions against almost a dozen senior Russian officials and the country’s election commission over “sham” elections held in occupied Ukrainian territory this month and last year. The move takes the number of individuals and entities sanctioned by Britain in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly 20 months ago to more…
Russia hosted Taliban leaders for talks on regional security Friday as it seeks to forge ties with Afghanistan’s new rulers and assert itself as a major power in the region. Since U.S. forces pulled out of Kabul in August 2021, Russia and China have taken advantage of the vacuum, holding talks with the Taliban despite…
President Vladimir Putin’s cultural support foundation has awarded 1.6 billion rubles ($16.4 million) to arts and culture projects that drum up support for the war in Ukraine. Russia’s Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives on Thursday announced 303 winners of its annual competition for receiving state funding, with projects including music festivals featuring songs about the war in Ukraine, patriotic-infused…
The one-act play by Ukrainian playwright Sasha Denisova “My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion” opened in Washington, D.C. on September 11 at the Woolly Mammoth Theater. Directed by Yury Urnov and translated by Misha Kachman (who also served as set director), the largely autobiographical play is inspired by Denisova’s 82-year-old mother — Olga Ivanovna —…
President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing for the sale of Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo’s Russian operations. Intesa, Italy’s largest bank, stopped new financing to corporate Russian clients and fresh investments in Russian assets after Moscow invaded Ukraine last year. In a “special decision” dated Thursday, Putin exempted Intesa from his 2022 ban…
The Russian military will not mobilize reserves as it gears up for an annual call-up of young men for compulsory military service, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday. “There are no plans for additional mobilization measures,” deputy head of the military’s mobilization department, Rear Admiral Vladimir Tsimlyansky, said in a briefing. The fall military call-up will…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has tasked a former aide of late Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to oversee volunteer fighter units in Ukraine, according to a Kremlin statement on Friday. “At the last meeting, we talked about you overseeing the formation of volunteer units that can carry out various tasks, first and foremost, of course, in…