The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine said Tuesday that public access to 14 border villages will be restricted due to constant bombardment. The announcement came after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a May ground offensive on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region that he said was intended to create a buffer zone to protect the…
A university student who fled Russia last year to evade prosecution for criticizing the war in Ukraine said Monday that the Russian authorities canceled her internal passport. “I’m not worried since I didn’t have any rights before anyway,” Olesya Krivtsova wrote in a Telegram post announcing her passport cancelation. “The only thing that’s worrying is…
The Dutch holding company that split from Russian tech giant Yandex after the West introduced sanctions over the war in Ukraine announced Tuesday that it was relaunching as an artificial intelligence venture in Europe. “Today we are launching Nebius Group, a tech company that aims to become a leading European provider of infrastructure and services…
Finnish President Alexander Stubb on Tuesday signed a controversial law allowing the country’s border guards to refuse entry to asylum seekers who cross over from Russia. The Nordic country’s right-wing government had for months argued that new legal tools were needed to combat an uptick in asylum seekers from Russia, which in mid-December prompted the…
Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab plans to gradually reduce its operations in the U.S. from July 20, the firm told state-run media on Monday. Kaspersky’s exit comes after the U.S. Commerce Department sanctioned the company in June, banning it from selling and updating its popular antivirus software in the country. “The company has carefully studied…
At the age of 16, Yegor Balazeikin, a high-school student from St. Petersburg, threw Molotov cocktails at two military conscription centers — an anti-war protest that had become widespread across Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. The devices failed to ignite. No one was injured. But Balazeikin, who was initially charged with hooliganism, was eventually…
Authorities in Russia have called on Google to restore more than 200 pro-government YouTube channels that have been blocked since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday. Russia’s state media regulator Roskomnadzor said it sent Google CEO Sundar Pichai a request to unblock the channels of “Russian media, federal authorities,…
They may not have the prestige of the Euros or World Cup, but exhibition matches like these can never be seen in isolation from global conflicts and diplomatic tensions. Twenty-seven days after President Vladimir Putin left North Korea where he met with Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, Russia’s women’s team hosted North Korea for the…
The Kremlin on Tuesday gave a cautious response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s apparent invitation to a future peace summit, saying that Russia first needs to understand what Kyiv means before attending talks. Zelensky said on Monday that Russia “should be” represented at a second summit on the Ukraine conflict, following high-level talks last month…
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called on European Council President Charles Michel to resume diplomatic relations with Russia, the German newspaper Bild reported Monday, citing a letter written by the populist leader following his recent foreign trips that sparked anger in Brussels. Orban — whose country this month took over the rotating EU presidency —…
A Russian court has rescheduled the closed-door trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich at the request of his defense team, the independent news website Mediazona reported Tuesday, citing the court’s press service. The Sverdlovsk Regional Court in the city of Yekaterinburg was originally scheduled to resume hearings in the espionage case against Gershkovich…