A U.S. citizen known to have fought with pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine between 2014 and 2017 has been killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk, Russian media reported Friday. Russia-installed authorities in eastern Ukraine had earlier this month reported the American — 64-year-old Russell Bentley — as missing. “Russell Bentley, known as ‘Texas,’ a real American, truly from…
Russian officials face various restrictions on their ability to travel abroad, the Kremlin said Friday after a Reuters report linked the limits to fears that foreign powers could attempt to gain access to state secrets. “All [state] organizations have nuances in the current system of approving travel abroad,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in his daily…
The artist Tamara de Lempicka is having a moment. The glamourous aristocratic Russian refugee artist (1894–1980) best known for her Art Deco portraits, is the heroine of the musical “Lempicka,” which opened on Broadway on April 14. Starring Eden Espinosa, the show is directed by two-time Tony Award-winner Rachel Chavkin. It is an extravagant production because,…
A high-ranking official in Russia’s Ural Mountains region of Perm was forced to resign after a video filmed by his son at a resort in Bali sparked public backlash. Alexei Dyomkin, the Perm region government’s deputy chairman, announced his resignation on Thursday, just days after his son Ilya posted a video in which he boasted…
Russia has made clear to Israel that Iran “does not want escalation,” Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday, after reports Israel had carried out retaliatory strikes against its arch-rival. “There have been telephone contacts between the leadership of Russia and Iran, our representatives and the Israelis. We made it very clear in these conversations,…
A Russian military court will hear the “terrorism” case against theater director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk over their award-winning play about Russian women who fall in love with Islamist militants, prosecutors said Friday. Berkovich and Petriychuk were arrested in May 2023 on the accusation of “justifying terrorism” with their play “Finist the Brave Falcon.” Berkovich…
A journalist for a leading St. Petersburg news website has had her home searched by police in connection with a criminal probe against prominent exiled investigative journalist Andrei Zakharov, the outlet, Fontanka.ru, reported Friday. Reporter Ksenia Klochkova was reportedly named a witness in the case against Zakharov. “The searches at Ksenia’s are allegedly part of this…
Two people have been detained in Poland on suspicion of attacking Leonid Volkov, an exiled ally of late Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, the president of Lithuania announced Friday. Volkov, who has lived in exile since Moscow banned Navalny’s groups as “extremist” organizations in 2021, was in mid-March assaulted with a hammer outside his home in Vilnius,…
Three people have been detained in Poland in connection with the March attack on Leonid Volkov, an exiled ally of late Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, in Lithuania, Vilnius and Warsaw announced Friday. Volkov, who has lived in exile since Moscow banned Navalny’s groups as “extremist” organizations in 2021, was in mid-March assaulted with a hammer outside…
In Washington, the U.S. House of Representatives is gearing up for a crucial weekend vote on a long-stalled $61 billion package of military aid for Kyiv that could deliver much-needed weapons to Ukrainian soldiers struggling on the front lines. In a boost for their forces, Kyiv said it had downed a Russian long-range strategic bomber…
Ukraine said Friday that, for the first time since Russia’s invasion, it had downed a Russian long-range bomber used to fire cruise missiles at cities across the war-battered country. “For the first time, anti-aircraft missile units of the air force in cooperation with the defense intelligence of Ukraine destroyed a Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bomber,” Ukraine’s…