Moscow police carried out raids of gay-friendly nightclubs, bars and saunas in the city center overnight, media reported. The raids came one day after Russia’s top court banned the “international LGBT movement,” a group that does not formally exist, sparking fears of widespread persecution of LGBT people and rights groups. Police burst into a club on Malaya…
On December 2, 2023, Director General of ROSATOM State Corporation Mr. Alexey Likhachev had a meeting with IAEA Director General Mr. Rafael Grossi on the margins of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP-28) in Dubai. Alexey Likhachev confirmed support for the IAEA’s activities to promote the “peaceful atom” as a sustainable energy source and expressed…
Paint your cheeks with beet juice? Every Soviet child laughed at ugly Marfushka with huge beet-red circles on her cheeks in the 1964 movie “Morozko.” Although the fairy tale was a lie, there was an ounce of truth in the image. Five hundred years ago the faces of Russian women were plastered with make-up so…
A Russian TV channel was fined $5,500 on Friday for showing a music video by ex-Eurovision contestant Sergey Lazarev that allegedly showed same-sex couples holding hands. The move comes a day after Russia’s top court effectively outlawed LGBTQ activism, cementing a long crackdown on the community as the Kremlin pushes ultra-conservative social values. St. Petersburg’s…
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Friday boosting troop numbers by 15%, in a move the army said was due to “threats” associated with the Ukraine offensive. The move comes as both Ukraine and Russia seek to gain ground and replenish their ranks in the conflict, whose front lines have barely moved in…
Сутки: 24 hours, day and night The topic of “untranslatable words” makes me exceedingly cranky. First of all, there is no such thing as an untranslatable word. Really. There may not be one word in your language that corresponds to the meaning of the so-called untranslatable word. Or there might be a word equivalent in…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday expressed indifference over the future of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which this week hel its annual summit in the North Macedonian capital of Skopje. Created in 1975 as a forum for dialogue between the Eastern and Western blocs, the OSCE faces mounting challenges in…
November 30 was Vladimir Urin’s last day as general director of the Bolshoi Theater. His departure was rumored to be imminent since November 17, when it was reported in several Russian media that he had resigned. Urin spent the evening watching the premieres of two short operas, “The Mandarin’s Son” by César Cui, and “The Nightingale”…
A song by AIGEL, an electronic hip-hop duo from Russia’s republic of Tatarstan, has secured the No. 2 spot on Shazam’s global top 200 chart this week. The success of “Pyala” (“Glass” in the Tatar language) marks the first time in history that a song in Tatar — a Turkic language spoken by Russia’s largest…
Law enforcement agents in central Russia’s Tula region on Friday reportedly raided a warehouse belonging to the online retail giant Wildberries in search of fresh recruits for Moscow’s war against Ukraine, according to news channels on the messaging app Telegram. The raid, which took place in the town of Aleksino, was said to have targeted…
Ukraine claimed on Friday to have orchestrated attacks on a Russian railway line in Siberia, thousands of kilometers away from the frontline in eastern Ukraine. Russian authorities have reported several attacks on the country’s transport infrastructure since it launched its invasion of Ukraine last year, often blaming Kyiv. “The Russians have fallen into the [Ukrainian…
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Friday that Ukraine had lost over 125,000 troops since launching its counteroffensive in June, as well as 16,000 units of “various weapons.” “Total mobilization in Ukraine, the supply of Western weapons, and the introduction of the Ukrainian command’s strategic reserves into battle did not alter the situation on the…
Moscow said Friday it had arrested a dual Russian-Italian national for carrying out sabotage attacks on military installations and a railroad under the orders of Ukrainian military intelligence. Russian authorities have opened dozens of cases into alleged sabotage at key infrastructure and production facilities, as well as attacks on military recruitment centers since launching its…
A Russian court on Friday extended the pre-trial detention of U.S.-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who was arrested in October for failing to register as a “foreign agent,” her employer said. Kurmasheva, who holds both Russian and American citizenship, was working for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) media outlet when she was detained by…
Russian authorities have pressed fresh criminal charges against jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, according to a message shared on the activist’s official social media accounts Friday. “I have no idea which word to use to describe my latest news. Whether it’s sad, funny or absurd,” Navalny wrote on X (formerly Twitter). The jailed activist said…
Ukraine said Friday that Russian forces had launched more than two dozen Iranian-designed attack drones and two missiles on the south and east of the country, in Moscow’s latest aerial barrage. Officials in Kyiv say Russian forces have been stockpiling drones and missiles for systematic attacks on Ukraine’s struggling energy grid over winter months. “In…