Clicker Telegram mini-games, where players generate virtual currency by tapping their phone screens, have gone viral on the Russian-speaking internet. The largest of these, Hamster Kombat, claims to have amassed 200 million users in just a few weeks and runs the world’s largest Telegram channel. Its growing popularity has sparked concerns from both Russian and…
Authorities in Moscow said Tuesday they could not confirm reports that a Russian fighter jet downed an American surveillance drone over the Black Sea after Ukraine launched a deadly strike against annexed Crimea said to have been carried out with U.S.-supplied missiles. Pro-war Russian bloggers claimed late Monday that a MiG-31 fighter jet “shot down”…
Moscow will block access to 81 European media outlets in retaliation to the EU’s ban against four Kremlin-funded news organizations, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday. Brussels said last month it would suspend the broadcasting activities of the state-run RIA Novosti news agency, the pro-government newspapers Izvestia and Rossiiskaya Gazeta, as well as the news website Voice of Europe…
Russia’s first openly transgender politician, who last month made the surprise announcement that she had returned to her gender assigned at birth, said in an interview published on Tuesday that she was forced to undergo a detransition following threats she would be sent to a psychiatric hospital. Yulia Alyoshina, who dropped a bid last year to…
Updated with Kremlin’s response. The International Criminal Court said Tuesday it had issued arrest warrants for Russia’s chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, and former defence minister Sergei Shoigu. The warrants, issued Monday but announced on Tuesday, were in response to the alleged war crimes of directing attacks at civilian structures and causing excessive…
Arborvitae, mango trees and palms have been planted in Anuvijay township. On June 22, the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow, more than 70 employees of the Kudankulam NPP construction project (its General Designer and General Contractor being the Engineering Division of ROSATOM) took part in the international “Garden of Memory” event. In Anuvijay township, where…
The head of the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Tuesday ordered all regional officials to undergo thorough vetting following attacks on religious sites in the region over the weekend, which resulted in the deaths of at least 21 people including law enforcement officers. “I’ve ordered the inspection and scrutinization of the personal records of…
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to meet with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow early next month, Indian and Russian media reported Monday. The Indian English-language newspaper The Tribune, without citing sources, reported that Modi was expected to visit Moscow on July 8 to “underline the engagement” between the two countries. Likewise, Russian officials quoted by…
Updated with attack on Voronezh region munitions depot. Overnight drone attacks against southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region have left at least one person dead and scores of buildings and vehicles damaged, regional authorities said early Tuesday, while Ukraine’s military claimed responsibility for a strike on an ammunition depot. “An elderly woman died as a result of a…