France on Wednesday charged Pavel Durov, the founder and chief of Telegram, with a litany of violations related to the messaging app and banned him from leaving the country while allowing the billionaire to walk free after four days under arrest. Durov, 39, was charged on several counts of failing to curb extremist and illegal…
Russian authorities will restrict entry to Kurchatov, the town where the Kursk nuclear plant is located, amid Ukraine’s ongoing incursion in the Kursk border region, the region’s acting governor said Wednesday. “Despite the fact that the security of the Kursk nuclear power plant is maximized, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not abandoning their attempts to penetrate…
Russia has permanently banned 92 U.S. citizens from entering the country in response to the Biden administration’s “Russophobic” policies, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. The ministry said that the move was a response “to the Russophobic course pursued by Joe Biden’s administration with the declared aim of delivering a strategic defeat to Moscow, which includes…
At least 165 graves of Russian soldiers have been uncovered in the Arctic city of Murmansk, a significantly higher death figure than local authorities have publicly acknowledged, opposition activist Violetta Grudina said Wednesday. Grudina, an exiled former regional coordinator for Alexei Navalny’s now-banned political network, said the graves were found in a separate section of…
A Russian military court sentenced an engineer to 18 years in prison on Wednesday after authorities claimed they foiled his attempt to blow up an army recruitment office, the state-run TASS news agency reported. The court found Artyom Lozovoi, 39, guilty of treason in the form of espionage, of preparing a “terrorist attack” and of…
North Korea has sent Russia at least 13,000 shipping containers believed to be carrying arms since mid-2022, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Tuesday, citing a military intelligence report submitted to lawmakers in the East Asian nation. “To prepare for a prolonged war in Ukraine, Russia has moved to formalize North Korea as a…
Telegram founder and chief Pavel Durov was transferred to a courthouse in Paris on Wednesday where he may be formally charged, a source close to the case against the billionaire told AFP. The Russian-born tech entrepreneur was arrested at the French capital’s Le Bourget airport late Saturday on suspicion of failing to act against illicit…
Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in Russia’s Kirov region, located some 700 kilometers east of Moscow, regional authorities said Wednesday, marking the first such attack on the region since Moscow’s full-scale invasion. “Two drones were shot down, and three fell on the grounds of the Zenit plant in the town of Kotelnich, where they…
Siberian journalist and activist Maria Ponomarenko, imprisoned under Russia’s wartime censorship laws, threatened to cut her wrists in protest against the abuse she says she has endured while incarcerated. Ponomarenko was sentenced to six years in prison in February 2023 for spreading “fake news” about Russia’s 2022 bombing of a theater in Mariupol, Ukraine —…
Russian attacks on eastern Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk region killed six people, the governor of the region said Wednesday, as Moscow announced the capture of another village in the area. The industrial region has suffered some of the heaviest fighting since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, as well as going back to 2014.…
Russian internet providers have started implementing workarounds to speed up YouTube amid what appears to be a government effort to throttle the video streaming platform, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday, citing industry insiders. The move comes nearly a month after online users in Russia started experiencing sharp declines in YouTube loading speeds. These disruptions coincided…
French and Emirati spies hacked Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s iPhone in 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. The joint spy operation code-named “Purple Music” reportedly stemmed from concerns about the Islamic State’s use of Telegram, a private messaging app, for recruitment and plotting attacks — and came years…
Indonesian authorities have “no information” to confirm earlier reports alleging that their citizens are being recruited to fight in Ukraine, the Southeast Asia country’s embassy in Russia said in a statement sent to the Moscow Times. “So far, the Embassy has no information that may corroborate the alleged involvement of Indonesian nationals fighting for either…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested six “adherents of an international terrorist organization” in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, state media reported Wednesday, citing law enforcement officials. According to the FSB, the six arrested men were planning an attack on the police and an Orthodox church. Authorities say all of those who were arrested…
A second oil depot in southern Russia’s Rostov region was set on fire within a month following an overnight drone attack by Ukraine, local authorities said early Wednesday. “A drone attack caused a fire at a fuel depot in the Kamensky district,” Rostov region Governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram, adding that there were no…