A Russian music channel has been fined for displaying “LGBT propaganda” by airing a music video by popular pro-war singer Nikolai Baskov, the independent Vyorstka news website reported Wednesday. Moscow’s Tagansky District Court determined that the video for Baskov’s 2012 single “Strannik” (Wanderer), which depicts an imagined orgy in the Roman Empire, contains “signs of…
Sixteen candidates have filed to run for Russia’s presidency next year, officials said Wednesday, in an election that is expected to easily hand Vladimir Putin a fifth term. Moscow has for years sidelined opposition figures from elections and political life, a clampdown that accelerated after the Kremlin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in 2022. “So…
President Vladimir Putin has ordered the revival of Soviet-era Athletes Parades on Red Square. The government has been instructed to prepare proposals for the parades by March 2024, according to the order published on the Kremlin website. The Soviet Union regularly held these parades on Red Square beginning in 1919 as a way of promoting…
ROSATOM presented its solutions for small NPPs and balanced nuclear fuel cycle to Indian partners. ROSATOM took part in India’s biggest nuclear energy conference INSIC-2023, which ended in Mumbai on December 15. The event was organized jointly by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and the Indian Nuclear Society (INS). The conference brought…
Russian lawmakers will lose their free gas privileges for ignoring President Vladimir Putin’s calls to stop driving foreign cars, the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia reported Wednesday, citing a senior member of Russia’s lower house of parliament. Putin ordered officials in August to support sanctions-hit domestic carmakers by giving up foreign-made vehicles. Senior State Duma officials notified executive authorities in Russia’s…
Ukraine said nine people, including four children, were wounded by Russian shelling in the southern city of Kherson as drones also targeted the capital Kyiv and the second-largest city Kharkiv. “During the evening shelling of Kherson by the Russian occupiers, nine people were injured, four of them were children,” said Roman Mrochko, head of Kherson,…
Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Wednesday for a “severe” response to foreign agents who aim to destabilize Russia by aiding Ukraine. “The Kyiv regime with direct support of foreign special services has taken the path of terrorist methods, practically state terrorism,” Putin said in a video address. “These are acts of sabotage against civilian…
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that there was no end in sight to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as fatigue builds among Kyiv’s allies nearly two years into the war and the Kremlin voices growing confidence of victory. Zelensky said he had turned down a request from the military — for now — to mobilize as many…
A Polish court on Tuesday convicted 14 citizens of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine for planning to carry out acts of sabotage on behalf of Moscow. The defendants were charged with espionage last month, accused of planning to derail trains shipping aid to Ukraine, as well as monitoring military facilities and critical infrastructure. “After examining the…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on Tuesday said it arrested an ex-fighter of the slain Chechen guerilla leader Shamil Basayev, who was accused of launching attacks on Russian soldiers that precipitated the Second Chechen War in 1999. In recent years, Russian authorities have periodically reported on the arrests of former Basayev fighters in regions across the North…
The Russian chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation announced Tuesday that it would shut down after its director received warnings that authorities are planning to designate him as a “foreign agent,” Russian media reported. Wikimedia Russia describes itself as a “Russian nonprofit organization whose goal is to promote the development of encyclopedic projects and the community…
Ana, a woman from St. Petersburg, was one of the tens of thousands of Russians who fled to Turkey following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Within less than a year, Ankara had tightened its temporary residency policies for Russian citizens. Instead of returning home, Ana decided to move further west to Germany. “I have been…
A Russian soldier who was detained by Russian troops in Armenia on desertion charges last week has been forcibly returned to his home country, a project that helps Russians avoid military service in Ukraine said Tuesday. “We have learned that Dmitry Setrakov is now in [the Russian city of] Rostov-on-Don at the address Budennovsky 66.…
Over 4,000 Russian university students have taken academic leave to fight in Ukraine as volunteers, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at an end-of-year military meeting on Tuesday. “More than 4,000 Russian students have voluntarily taken a gap year and are performing combat missions,” Shoigu told the gathering, which was chaired by President Vladimir Putin. He…
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said that Russian society had unified in its support of what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine. “Maybe this is the most important thing — the general consolidation of all forces within society,” the Russian leader said at a meeting with Defense Ministry officials. He went on to…
Members of the far-right Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) on Tuesday nominated their leader and State Duma deputy Leonid Slutsky as the party’s candidate for Russia’s 2024 presidential race. A total of 106 out of the 111 delegates present at the party’s congress in Moscow voted to nominate Slutsky — who stood unopposed during Tuesday’s vote —…
Russia’s Interior Ministry on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for the chief editor of a newspaper in the northwestern Pskov region, just days after banning him from leaving the country despite him having fled Russia over a year ago. Journalist Denis Kamalyagin, who serves as editor-in-chief of the newspaper Pskovskaya Guberniya, was charged last month under wartime…
Specialists from Rosneft’s research institute in Ufa, together with specialists from Bashneft (part of Rosneft), have developed and implemented a new combined hydraulic fracturing technology.
Russian investigators raided the Zakharov publishing house Tuesday after it refused to stop selling books by Russian-Georgian writer Boris Akunin, who this week was added to the country’s “extremists and terrorists” registry. “The Investigative Committee wants all the documents we possess — contracts, payments, everything — linked to Boris Akunin,” Irina Bogat, the publishing house’s…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday urged traditionally male professions to employ more women, to reduce major labor shortages exacerbated by thousands of soldiers being called up to fight in Ukraine. Russia has for years been suffering from a shrinking labor force because of persistently low birth rates, and this has been aggravated by the…
The European Union on Monday adopted a new package of sanctions on Russia that include an import ban on Russian diamonds, officials said. The package is the 12th packet leveled at Moscow since it sent Russian troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, in a full-scale invasion. They are designed to reduce Russia’s access to…
Supporters of the Wagner mercenary group’s late leader Yevgeny Prigozhin have asked authorities in St. Petersburg to name a city street in his honor, the Ostorozhno Novosti news channel reported Monday, citing a letter addressed to the regional governor. Prigozhin died in a plane crash in August, just months after mounting a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s…
A group of mobilized Russian soldiers’ families has demanded that President Vladimir Putin bring an end to the war in Ukraine. For weeks, members of Put’ Domoi (Way Home), a group of mostly wives and mothers of mobilized soldiers, have called for the return of their loved ones from extended service on the front lines.…
Moscow is preparing to ring in 2024 with decorations popping up across the city ahead of the New Year, Russia’s most festive holiday. The decorations appear as the coming year is expected to be a challenging one for Russia, with the ongoing war in Ukraine and Western sanctions along with the presidential election. Here is…
Russian-Georgian writer Boris Akunin (Grigory Chkhartishvili) has been added to state financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring’s list of “extremists and terrorists,” the independent Mediazona news website reported Monday. Akunin, 67, who lives in the U.K., has publicly condemned the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine and is a co-founder of the TrueRussia Foundation, which helps people affected by the…
A Russian court has postponed jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s hearings until “his whereabouts are established,” his team said Monday. The announcement comes nearly two weeks after he first went missing in Russia’s prison system, sparking alarm from his aides and supporters that his life may be in danger. Navalny’s team said last week that the 47-year-old…
Five current and former Russian soldiers have received varying sentences for bribing a superior officer in exchange for avoiding a second deployment in Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday, citing anonymous sources. The unidentified officer was reportedly investigated for accepting the bribes, but the newspaper said it was unclear whether he stood trial, adding…
The Kremlin on Monday said it “welcomed” the victory claimed by Serbia’s ruling party in parliamentary elections held the day before. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic looks poised to tighten his grip on power after his Serbian Progressive Party secured a dominating victory at Sunday’s polls, a contest largely seen as a referendum on his government “We welcome…
A group of Russian lawmakers has rejected a bill that would bar all private clinics in the country from providing abortion services, the business newspaper Vedomosti reported Monday, citing a letter sent to the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament. Members of the Russian State Duma’s Committee on Health Protection insisted that a woman’s right…
A so-called “cultural and historical” center dedicated to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin has been unveiled in the Siberian city of Barnaul, a local group of communists announced over the weekend. Members of the Communists of Russia party — not to be confused with the much larger Communist Party of the Russian Federation — opened the “Stalin…
A group of supporters has nominated pro-peace candidate Yekaterina Duntsova to run in Russia’s 2024 presidential election, her campaign said Sunday. Duntsova is a journalist and local politician from the Tver region whose candidacy has sparked accusations that she is endorsed by the Kremlin, which she denies, as well as fears of her prosecution under Russia’s…
Ryazan Oil Refining Company (a member of Rosneft’s refining complex) commissioned rail car scales for high-precision metering of marketable products.
Glaciologist Andrew Hodson used to collaborate with his Russian colleagues in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic, but snowmobile excursions to see them have come to a halt since the war in Ukraine. “We used to work with Russian permafrost scientists and hydrologists in the Barentsburg region. This doesn’t happen now,” the British scientist told…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned of “problems” with neighboring Finland after it joined NATO earlier this year, saying Moscow will create a new military district in north-west Russia in response, in an interview published Sunday. Finland, which shares a 1,340 kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia, joined NATO in April this year in the midst…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday promised to make Russia a “sovereign, self-sufficient” power in the face of the West, in his first campaign speech before running again for president in a March election. Putin, in power since 2000, will stand for president in March, in a vote with no real opposition that is expected…
Ukraine said Sunday that it had repelled two Russian missile and 20 drone attacks overnight, as Moscow reported downing 33 drones fired from Ukraine. “The Russian occupying forces attacked with the Iskander-K cruise missile, the Kh-59 guided air missile…, as well as 20 Shahed-type strike drones,” the Ukrainian air force said in a statement. Ukraine…
Today Russian speakers probably don’t know the word “levashi,” but it has a very long history in Russian culinary traditions. This is a case when both the dish and even the word itself reveals the surprises and secrets of ancient cuisine — secrets long forgotten, but that might come in handy even today. “Levashi” are…
BELGRADE, Serbia — Concerns have been raised in Serbia over the presence of a Russian diplomat expelled from the European Union on spying accusations in a delegation set to monitor this Sunday’s parliamentary elections. Alexander Studenikin, who was expelled from the EU in April 2022 for “illegal and disruptive actions,” is one of a group…
Russia criticized the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Friday for ruling that Russian athletes can only compete in Paris next year as neutral athletes and if they do not back fighting in Ukraine. Olympic chiefs earlier this month gave the green light to the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes at next year’s Games as neutrals,…
The U.S. embassy in Moscow said on Friday that Ambassador Lynne Tracy had visited Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich at the Moscow prison where he is being held on spying charges. Gershkovich was arrested during a reporting trip at the end of March in the city of Yekaterinburg, becoming the first Western reporter to…
Four Russian egg producers face anti-monopoly charges for price fixing, authorities said Friday, just a day after President Vladimir Putin was forced to apologize on television for surging costs of the staple good. The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) announced charges against two companies based in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and two companies…
Поговорим: Let’s talk I have been listening to, reading, and writing about Vladimir Putin’s press conferences and “разговоры” (conversations) with the people (народ) for a couple of decades now, and although I haven’t checked year-by-year, my sense is that his rhetorical devices haven’t changed all that much. In some cases they seem to have tapered…
An airport in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region on Friday received its first flight since closing down early last year as Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, the Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia said. Rosaviatsia banned flights to 11 airports in southern and western Russia on the day President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine, as fighting along…
One of Russia’s leading publishing houses, AST, has suspended the printing and sale of books by Russian poet, journalist and prose writer Dmitry Bykov and Russian-Georgian writer Boris Akunin over their anti-war views, it announced Friday. “Public statements made by these writers — which caused a widespread public outcry — require legal assessment. Publication and…
A school security guard in western Russia’s Bryansk region, where last week a teenager killed one of her classmates before taking her own life, could face prison time on charges of failing to prevent the shooting, the state news agency TASS reported Friday. Galina Chertkova, a private security company employee, was among several people detained…
Russia’s Central Bank on Friday raised its key interest rate to 16%, announcing a fifth hike since summer in a bid to fight accelerating inflation. The central bank has been grappling with the economic fallout of the offensive in Ukraine that includes Western sanctions, a surge in government military spending and the call-up of hundreds…
A court in Russia’s Ural Mountains has stripped two naturalized citizens of their Russian passports for draft dodging, the Interior Ministry said Friday, marking the first such case since new legislation legalizing denaturalization came into force. The unidentified 21-year-old and 24-year-old men were required to report to a military enlistment office within 14 days after obtaining…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been moved from the prison where he was being held in central Russia to an unknown location, his lawyer said Friday, citing a court document. Navalny’s allies say he “went missing” 10 days ago and they have been unable to establish contact with him ever since. A court in the Vladimir region,…
President Vladimir Putin sought to use his end-of-year press conference to convince Russians and the world that he is confident in himself, in the people’s favor and in Ukraine’s defeat as he kicks off his bid to run for a fifth term as president. Yet during Thursday’s marathon event, Putin, 71, appeared to be going…
President Vladimir Putin sought to use his end-of-year press conference to convince Russians and the world that he was confident in himself, in the people’s favor, and in Ukraine’s defeat at the start of his fifth presidential campaign. Yet during Thursday’s marathon event, Putin, 71, appeared to be going through the motions, feigning reactions and…
If he had chosen to use his veto Orban could have derailed the summit, but he backed down one day after the European Commission unlocked 10 billion euros ($10.4 billion) in frozen funds for Hungary. “Orban made his case, made it very strongly,” said Irish premier Leo Varadkar. “He disagrees with this decision and he’s…
Finland will close its eastern border with Russia, its interior minister said Thursday, hours after reopening it following a spike in migrant crossings that Helsinki has labeled a Russian hybrid attack. Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, will close the border on Friday at 8:00 p.m. until Jan. 14, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said…
Romania has summoned Russia’s envoy over a “new violation” of its airspace after the NATO member’s territory was hit by a crashed drone during attacks on Ukraine, authorities said Thursday. Moscow has repeatedly attacked Ukraine’s ports in the south, including areas bordering Romania, since exiting a grain deal that aimed to protect grain exports through…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Moscow was in “difficult” talks with Washington about a prisoner swap involving WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich and jailed ex-Marine Paul Whelan. “There are contacts on this issue and dialogue is ongoing, but it’s not straightforward,” Putin said. “I hope that we will find a solution. But, I repeat,…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the country had deployed 617,000 Russian military personnel in Ukraine as the Kremlin’s war against Kyiv as the Kremlin’s war against Kyiv has been ongoing for almost two years. “The front line is over 2,000 kilometers long. There are 617,000 people in the conflict zone,” Putin said during…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the country had deployed 617,000 Russian military personnel in Ukraine as the Kremlin’s war against Kyiv has been ongoing for almost two years. “The front line is over 2,000 kilometers long. There are 617,000 people in the conflict zone,” Putin said during the end-of-year press conference. Putin also…
Several audience-submitted questions at President Vladimir Putin’s end-of-year press conference Thursday were unexpectedly critical of the president and the current state of affairs in Russia. The conference and public call-in, Putin’s first since the invasion of Ukraine, has been filled with questions from the public sent via text message, along with questions from journalists inside…
A former top commander of Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine, Igor Girkin, went on trial in Moscow on Thursday on charges of extremism for criticizing the Kremlin’s military strategy towards Kyiv. The 52-year-old hardline nationalist — better known by his alias Igor Strelkov — was instrumental in sparking hostilities in 2014 between Kremlin proxies in…
A Moscow court on Thursday upheld a ruling to hold in detention until Jan. 30 U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia earlier this year on espionage charges. The 32-year-old Wall Street Journal correspondent in Moscow, his employer and the U.S. government have all rejected the spying allegations. “Evan Gershkovich will remain in custody until…
Russia said Thursday that its air defense systems had downed nine Ukrainian drones headed towards the capital, hours ahead of a highly anticipated news conference from President Vladimir Putin. The reported attack came hours before Putin will hold his first end-of-year conference since launching the Ukraine offensive in February 2022, and a day after a…