A senior Muslim cleric in Russia’s republic of Dagestan announced Wednesday that the niqab, a full-face veil worn by some Muslim women, would be temporarily banned as part of safety measures following deadly attacks last month. Gunmen killed 22 people in coordinated attacks on two churches, two synagogues and a police checkpoint in two cities in the…
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, assuming his usual role of the guardian of Muscovites’ safety, recently issued an unprecedented warning: a tornado was coming to the capital. “Tomorrow, we will face another challenge with extreme weather conditions,” Sobyanin said on Telegram on June 19. “There is a chance of tornado formation, which is particularly dangerous. Please…
The toxic environment near the former Aral Sea in Central Asia has led to impaired growth and reduced levels of reproductive hormones among local young people, the state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday, citing a joint study by Russian and Uzbek scientists. Once the world’s fourth-largest lake, the Aral Sea — located between Kazakhstan and…
Russia has issued arrest warrants for Ukraine’s former prime minister, foreign minister, finance minister and military commander, Moscow’s court system announced on social media Tuesday. Ex-prime minister Volodymyr Groysman, ex-foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin, ex-finance minister Alexander Shlapak and Ukraine army general Ihor Dovgan are accused of using “prohibited methods of warfare.” The crime is punishable by up…
Russia’s energy giant Gazprom exported 23% more natural gas to Europe last month than it did in June 2023, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing its calculations. The European Union was Gazprom’s biggest and most profitable foreign market before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Since then, Europe has been trying to end its energy links to Russia…
The World Bank has upgraded Russia from an “upper-middle-income” to a “high-income” country with per-capita gross national income (GNI) totaling $14,250 in 2023. “Economic activity in Russia was influenced by a large increase in military-related activity in 2023,” the international financial institution said Monday. Russia’s move up the ranks was also boosted by growth in…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday its missile strike on an airfield in central Ukraine has destroyed and damaged seven Ukrainian fighter jets. “As a result of the Russian army’s strike, five active Su-27 multi-purpose fighters were destroyed and two under repair were damaged,” the military said on Telegram. Undated aerial footage accompanying its short statement showed…
At least one person was killed and seven injured when a gas explosion ripped through an apartment building in central Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan, authorities said Tuesday. The blast occurred in the city of Sterlitamak on the second floor of a seven-story building, according to the city’s administration. Municipal authorities named “carelessness in handling household…
Hungary’s Moscow-friendly prime minister Viktor Orban urged Kyiv on Tuesday to work towards a “quick ceasefire” in Ukraine that could pave the way for negotiations with Russia to end more than two years of war. Orban issued the appeal standing next to President Volodymyr Zelensky during a surprise visit to Ukraine, the first by the…
A Russian military court on Monday convicted a popular Ukrainian YouTube blogger and journalist in absentia for making public calls to kill President Vladimir Putin. A Moscow military court sentenced Dmitry Gordon to 14 years imprisonment, the TASS news agency reported. Russia has been convicting its opponents in absentia as part of a crackdown since…
The number of people killed in a wave of coordinated attacks in Russia’s southern Dagestan region last month has risen to 22, the regional head said Monday. Gunmen simultaneously attacked two churches, two synagogues and a police checkpoint in two cities in Dagestan on June 23. On Monday, regional Governor Sergei Melikov said the number…
A gay Dagestani man has fled Russia after getting caught in the local police force’s entrapment scheme involving a porn blogger, the North Caucasus LGBTQ+ rights group SK SOS announced Monday. Police in the republic of Dagestan had lured the blogger Matvey Volodin, who performs under the name USSRboy, from Moscow to the majority Muslim republic…
A wind storm enveloped a town in Russia’s Kemerovo (Kuzbass) region in black coal dust on Sunday, media reported. Visibility reportedly dropped to almost zero in the southern Western Siberian town of Kiselyovsk after strong winds lifted dust from the town’s open-pit coal mines into the air. Photos and videos shared on social media showed…
The Kremlin is following the election results in France “very closely,” a spokesman said Monday, after the first round of a snap vote where the far-right National Rally (RN) party won a resounding victory. “The preferences of French voters are more or less clear to us,” said spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The far-right National Rally (RN)…
Authorities in Russia’s Siberian and Far East republics of Tyva and Sakha (Yakutia) have declared states of emergency due to summer wildfires raging across the regions. Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said 75 people died and 2,200 were evacuated from more than 500 active wildfires across the country in the past week. Over two-thirds of these…
Russian attacks killed two elderly women in the town of Ukrainsk in the war-battered eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk on Monday, regional authorities said. The industrial territory has been the target of Russian firepower over more than two years of conflict and the Kremlin’s forces have claimed slow but steady gains there. Donetsk regional prosecutors…
Russia’s patriotic youth organization “Movement of the First” is planning to send schoolchildren to North Korea for summer camp, the group’s Chairman Grigory Gurov told Russian state-run media on Saturday. “We just had a visit by a youth delegation to North Korea … They have the Songdowon camp; we, respectively, have Artek, Orlenok, Smena and…
Russia accidentally dropped at least 38 unguided bombs over its own territory in April 2023-April 2024, The Washington Post reported Monday, citing internal bomb cleanup and evacuation documents it obtained from Ukrainian intelligence. The FAB-500 glide bombs that carry a 500-kilogram payload have fallen on Russia’s Belgorod region which borders Ukraine, the newspaper reported. Russia had started…
Pre-licensing training of the specialists for the first power unit of the plant subject to licensing by the Atomic Energy Regulation Agency of Bangladesh (BAERA) was completed at the premises of the Training Center of Rooppur NPP in Bangladesh. Training was arranged by ROSATOM Technical Academy. 48 Bengal nuclear specialists (the operating personnel of the…
Officials in Russian regions bordering Ukraine reported power cuts and water supply issues on Monday after deadly drone attacks by Kyiv. The attacks and shelling on the border region of Belgorod over the past day killed a four-year-old girl and wounded seven people, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Ukraine regularly targets Russian border regions with…