U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy on Thursday visited Evan Gershkovich, the American Wall Street Journal reporter held in Moscow on espionage charges, the embassy said. The 32-year-old was detained on a reporting trip to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg in March 2023, and is currently being held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison. “Evan remains…
This week, the republic of Bashkortostan became the epicenter of some of the largest street protests seen in Russia since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago. Thousands of people gathered outside a court in the town of Baymak on Monday and Wednesday in support of prominent Bashkir activist Fayil Alsynov, who was sentenced to…
President Vladimir Putin is defying Russian election laws by unofficially campaigning during his work trips and meetings while enjoying preferential coverage on state television. In the five weeks since Putin announced that he will run for a fifth term in the upcoming presidential election, independent observers have noted violations in both his self-nomination as a…
A military court in Saint Petersburg sentenced a Russian man to eight years on terrorism and treason charges for plotting to burn down an army recruitment building in 2022. Russia saw a spate of attacks on draft offices in the fall of 2022 after President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial” mobilization drive, calling up some…
At least 2,500 scholars have left Russia since its forces invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago, the independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported Thursday, citing data from global research databases. Between 2022 and 2023, some 1,600 Russian scholars changed their employment status to a foreign institution, while 900 others either quit or deleted their…
Russia’s biggest online retailer Wildberries said Thursday that law enforcement officers were carrying out searches at its Moscow headquarters, just days after a fire destroyed its warehouse in St. Petersburg. On Saturday, a fire covering some 70,000 square meters ripped through a Wildberries warehouse on the south side of St. Petersburg, destroying an estimated 17 billion rubles…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday its forces had captured a small village in eastern Ukraine, as both sides struggle to make significant battlefield gains after two years of fighting. “In the Donetsk direction, as a result of successful actions of Southern Group troop units, the settlement of Vesele in the Donetsk People’s Republic was liberated,”…
Russian authorities are seeking to jail Russian army veteran and ex-security officer Igor Girkin for almost five years on extremism charges, his wife said Thursday. Public court records show that Girkin, 53, was charged with “public incitement of extremist activity,” which is punishable by up to five years in prison. “The prosecutor requested four years…
A city lawmaker in the Russian city of Perm has fled the country after being expelled from the Communist Party over an online post where he criticized the invasion of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin, the politician told The Moscow Times on Thursday. Sergei Medvedev said he faced backlash from inside his party and from Russian pro-war…
Estonia said on Thursday it would not renew the residence permit of the head of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, saying the Russian national was “a security risk.” The decision means Metropolitan Eugene must leave before his current permit runs out on Feb. 6. “The Estonian state is not extending the residence…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that Moscow’s large-scale military intervention against Ukraine had “cleansed” Russian society, after thousands fled the country or were detained since fighting broke out. Since the Kremlin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022, officials in Moscow have repeatedly branded as “traitors” Russians who fled the country to escape…
The governor of Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan said Thursday that violence between protesters and police in his region the day before was provoked by separatists living abroad. Authorities launched criminal cases into what they described as mass riots and violence against law enforcement officials after clashes erupted on Wednesday over the imprisonment of activist Fayil…
Kyiv said Thursday that Russian forces used nearly three dozen Iranian-designed drones to attack Ukraine overnight, while also firing guided missiles at the northeastern city of Kharkiv. The aerial attack is the latest overnight barrage by Russian forces and comes after Ukraine’s foreign minister said his country’s priority was to gain control of Ukrainian airspace.…
Updated to include Kommersant, Ukrainska Pravda reports. Russian air defense systems intercepted a drone in St. Petersburg overnight, the first such instance in the country’s second-largest city since the invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, authorities said Thursday. Residents reported hearing loud bangs at around 1:00 a.m. local time over Vasilyevsky Island, not far from the…
European nations should stop sending refugees from the North Caucasus back to Russia as they risk being tortured or being forced to fight in Ukraine, the human rights organization Amnesty International said on Thursday. The call comes as France pushes to expel more people from the North Caucasus, the home region of radical Islamists who…