A Russian drone manufacturer announced this week it would open a production line in Uzbekistan, as one local official said Thursday the drones were designed for “agricultural” purposes only. Flyseeagro, a Russian firm which says it makes drones for crop spraying, said this week it had signed an agreement to build drones in Uzbekistan’s Navoi…
The Kremlin has ordered regional officials to file weekly reports on the recruitment of marginalized people in Russia for its war in Ukraine, the investigative news website IStories reported Thursday, citing an official letter it obtained. The letter, which is dated Oct. 3, lists the office of the Presidential Envoy to Russia’s Central Federal District…
Kyiv on Thursday named Swiss food giant Nestle as a “sponsor of war” over the Kit Kat-maker’s continued operations in Russia. Hundreds of Western firms quit the Russian market following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year, and Kyiv has not shied away from publicly criticizing those that have remained. “Despite Russian aggression, Nestle…
An opposition deputy who ran for governor of Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region this fall has been arrested on charges of extortion, which the politician on Thursday dismissed as politically motivated. Investigators accuse Alexander Gliskov of blackmailing a state-owned company executive in 2016-17 in order to receive a large bribe. Krasnoyarsk’s Tsentralny District Court ruled after a…
The United States announced sanctions Thursday on individuals and companies it accused of abetting Russia’s war against Ukraine, targeting entities in Turkey, China and the United Arab Emirates in a bid to disrupt Moscow’s supply chains. This comes as Russia has offshored the production of technology, equipment and other goods it needs for its military,…
Russia said Thursday it had intercepted nine Ukrainian drones near the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, where the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is located. The plant, which was captured by Russian forces in March 2022, has been rocked by repeated drone attacks and shelling that Kyiv and Moscow have blamed on each other. “At around 12:30…
The leader of Russia’s Jewish communities has condemned what he called the “propaganda of hate” after anti-Israeli riots rocked the country’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar linked Sunday’s violence at Makhachkala International Airport to previous anti-Semitic attacks in Russia’s Muslim-majority regions that took place in the weeks since Israel launched a…
Anti-war activist and punk musician Ayhal Ammosov has been granted asylum seeker status by Kazakh authorities, his lawyer said on social media Wednesday, just weeks after his arrest in Kazakhstan. Ammosov, a Russian national hailing from the republic of Sakha (Yakutia), was ordered to 40 days of arrest by an Almaty-based court on Oct. 9 in connection with…
Israel has no right to self-defense against Hamas militants in Gaza as an occupying power in Palestine, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday. Vasily Nebenzya used his speech at the special UN General Assembly session on Palestine to condemn Western “hypocrisy” over Palestinian civilian deaths amid their criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.…
Ukraine said Thursday that Russian assaults on the nearly encircled eastern town of Avdiivka had eased as the Kremlin rejected Kyiv’s assessment that the 20-month conflict was deadlocked. Avdiivka, an industrial hub at the center of fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces since 2014, came under a renewed Russian effort last month to besiege the…
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed into law Russia’s de-ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), a landmark agreement that aims to completely ban all nuclear tests. The law’s text on Russia’s legal portal states that Moscow will no longer be bound by the UN-backed nuclear test ban starting Nov. 2. Both Russia and the…
Russian billionaire Alexei Kuzmichev, an associate of Vladimir Putin targeted by EU sanctions, was charged with tax fraud in France on Wednesday, the country’s financial prosecutor said. Kuzmichev was “placed under judicial supervision” and banned from leaving the country, according to the French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF). He also faces charges of concealing work…
U.S. prosecutors charged two Russian nationals and a Russian-American Wednesday over an alleged plan to evade export controls to help Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, a day after three others were charged in a similar scheme. Nikolay Grigorev, Nikita Arkhipov and Artem Oloviannikov were charged by federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York…