A court in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region has ruled to hand over the assets of pasta manufacturer Makfa Group to the Russian state, the business news website RBC reported Wednesday. Makfa’s seizure is the latest in what has been described as the Kremlin’s creeping drive of forced nationalizations since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which saw…
Estonia on Wednesday summoned Russia’s charge d’affaires over alleged GPS interference around its airspace, claiming that recent disruptions to civilian air traffic were “hybrid activity” orchestrated by Moscow. Estonia and fellow Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania warned last month that widespread Russian GPS jamming was increasing the threat of an aviation accident occurring in their…
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov has been accused of accepting a bribe “in the form of services” valued at more than 1 billion rubles ($12.2 million), Russian media reported Wednesday. Ivanov, 48, faces up to 15 years in prison for large-scale bribe-taking, which investigators say centers around a “criminal conspiracy” to accept funds “in the form…
The death toll from a Ukrainian drone strike on western Russia’s Belgorod region earlier this week has risen to eight people, Russian authorities said Wednesday. In one of the deadliest recent attacks inside Russia, six people were killed Monday when drones struck two vans and a car near the village of Berezovka, around 7 kilometers…
The British government announced Wednesday that it plans to expel a Russian Defense attache over suspicions that he is “an undeclared military intelligence officer.” Home Secretary James Cleverly told parliament the U.K. would also remove the diplomatic status of several Russian-owned properties, including one in Sussex, southern England, and another in London, which he says…
Indian authorities have arrested four people accused of “trafficking” citizens of the country to fight for the Russian army in Ukraine. At least two Indian soldiers have been killed in Moscow’s war on Ukraine, with several recruits previously telling AFP they were shipped to the front lines under false pretenses. A statement published by India’s…
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Wednesday that its forces had captured two more frontline villages in eastern Ukraine. Moscow has made a string of territorial gains in recent months, taking advantage of its manpower and weapons advantage on the battlefield as Kyiv awaits critical military aid from the United States. Russia said its troops had “liberated…
Moscow’s city assembly voted Wednesday to unseat an exiled anti-war deputy whom the Russian authorities designated as a “foreign agent.” Yevgeny Stupin, who was elected into the Moscow City Duma as a Communist Party member in 2019, was among the signatories of a letter titled “Communists and Socialists Against Fratricidal War” that condemned Russia’s full-scale…
Ukraine on Wednesday warned of possible nationwide power shutdowns after a “massive” wave of Russian missiles and drones targeted the country’s already battered energy system. While Ukrainian troops struggle to hold the front line more than two years into the war, Moscow has intensified strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, triggering blackouts and electricity rationing across…
A Russian army deserter has been detained in Poland after crossing the border from Belarus, the Polish border guard announced Wednesday. “The Border Guard confirms the detention of a deserter from Russia. He is a 41-year-old man who illegally crossed the border from Belarus to Poland,” the state agency wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Further…
Lithuania is prepared to send its soldiers on a training mission to Ukraine despite Russia’s nuclear threats, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said in an interview with the Financial Times published Wednesday. Her comments follow the Russian Defense Ministry’s announcement that its forces were preparing to conduct tactical nuclear weapons exercises in response to Western…
Moscow on Tuesday designated the U.S.-funded rights group Freedom House as an “undesirable organization,” effectively banning anyone from working for or having links with the group. Russia’s Prosecutor General said in a statement that Freedom House had called for “comprehensive assistance for Ukraine to defeat Russia” and had “discredited” the Russian army. “The organization provides…
A Moscow court has placed journalist Nadezhda Kevorkova in pre-trial detention for two months on charges of “justifying terrorism” over posts she made on social, the Russian capital’s court system announced Tuesday. Kevorkova, 65, is a Russian war correspondent, author, and filmmaker who has written about the Middle East and Russia’s North Caucasus for both independent…