Cyprus vowed Tuesday to investigate new allegations by a group of international journalists that it was a hub for Russian money-laundering enabling oligarchs to bypass sanctions. According to an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 67 media partners, the east Mediterranean island “plays an even bigger role than was commonly known…
Russia on Tuesday sentenced a man to six years in prison for vandalizing posters of Russian soldiers decorated as “heroes” for fighting in Ukraine. Moscow has banned criticism of the Ukraine offensive and punished thousands of citizens for denouncing the dragging military campaign. Russia’s Investigative Committee said the man’s sentence had come into force after…
Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport has installed an AI-powered radar system to detect and deter drones, Russian state media reported Tuesday. Sheremetyevo, along with the Russian capital’s three other airports, repeatedly shut down due to drone attacks this summer as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dragged on for a second year. The new anti-drone defense system, dubbed “Yenot-SD,” is operated by…
Russia’s Marine Rescue Service has begun pumping fuel from an oil tanker that last week ran aground off the southwestern coast of Sakhalin Island, the state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday. The stranded Victoria oil tanker, which is reportedly carrying 760 tons of fuel, ran aground on Friday after experiencing an engine failure that prompted the ship’s…
Finland’s government is considering closing its border crossings with Russia amid a rising number of asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa, the broadcaster YLE reported Tuesday, as Finnish officials suggest that Moscow is trying to destabilize the country. Interior Minister Mari Rantanen told reporters that her agency was drafting proposals that would allow…
Russia has managed to almost entirely circumvent a G7 price cap on its oil exports, with Moscow claiming average sales at more than $20 per barrel above the imposed limit, the Financial Times reported Tuesday, citing Western officials and Russian export data. According to an unnamed senior European official who spoke to FT, “almost none” of Russia’s…
Russian authorities have forcefully deported Vladislav Ivanenko, a Kazakh national who worked as a journalist in Russia, to the country of his citizenship, his employer Properm.ru reported Tuesday. Ivanenko was arrested early on Nov. 9 at his home in the Ural Mountains city of Perm and taken to a temporary detention facility for foreign nationals…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday Russia was increasing its attacks across the front line, as Kyiv called for the West to boost its weapons supplies ahead of winter. Neither side has made any significant territorial gain for months, but both Zelensky and the Kremlin have denied the conflict has ground to a stalemate.…
Preparatory work is being intensively carried out at the construction site of the Paks-II NPP by both Russian and foreign companies. Alexey Likhachev, Director General of Rosatom, met with Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, followed by a visit to the construction site of the Paks-II NPP. During the meeting it…
President Vladimir Putin has pardoned one of the convicted killers of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya after he fought for the Russian army in Ukraine, the RBC news website reported Tuesday. Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former police officer, was handed a 20-year prison sentence nearly a decade ago for his involvement in the 2006 killing of Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist…
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed changes to Russia’s presidential election laws that allow for voting to take place in territories under martial law and introduce new restrictions on media coverage at polling places. The amendments come just weeks ahead of Putin’s anticipated announcement to run for a fifth term in office as president, though…
An Iraqi television network on Monday broadcast a video showing a captive Israeli-Russian academic, the first sign of life from her since she was abducted in Baghdad nearly nine months ago. Israeli authorities revealed in July that Elizabeth Tsurkov had been kidnapped, blaming pro-Iranian militants after she had gone missing in Iraq in late March.…
Russia foiled an attempted overnight drone attack by Ukraine in and around the Moscow region as well as near the border with Ukraine, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday. The military said its on-duty air defense forces destroyed the aircraft-type drones over the Moscow, Tambov, Bryansk and Oryol regions. Bryansk, a western Russian region on the border…