Kramatorsk, UKRAINE — Sitting on the steps of his church, now transformed into a refugee center, Evgueny, the congregation’s pastor, enjoys the last rays of sunshine before winter. In the distance, two explosions a few seconds apart make the windows of the small reception center tremble. “Those are gliding bombs,” Evgueny explains without flinching. With…
Finnish prosecutors on Thursday pressed charges against Russian nationalist fighter Vojislav Torden, accusing him of having committed war crimes in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Torden, formerly known as Yan Petrovsky, was detained at Helsinki Airport in July 2023 on suspicion of committing terror crimes in Ukraine. In February, a Finnish court handed him a suspended…
Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that law enforcement authorities are no longer bound by statutes of limitations when seeking state seizure of assets in anti-corruption cases. “Prosecutors should not be constrained by time limits in anti-corruption lawsuits,” the court said. Those accused of corruption “must be denied the ability to use the statute of limitations…
German prosecutors said Thursday that they charged a German-Russian man who fought with a pro-Moscow militia in eastern Ukraine with terror offenses and for threatening state security. The suspect, identified only as Dieter S., was one of two men arrested in April on suspicion of planning attacks in Germany to undermine support for Ukraine, with…
A senior lawmaker in Russia’s upper-house Federation Council on Thursday called for a ban on Halloween celebrations in schools and universities, denouncing the holiday as a “Western” cultural import. “We need to do everything to ensure that this Western holiday is simply forgotten by the public and never again remembered,” Natalia Kosikhina, a senator from…
BERLIN – “Alexander*a” is a multimedia performance that immerses audiences in the world of pioneering revolutionary and politician Alexandra Kollontai. As one of the first female diplomats in history, Kollontai also became a powerful advocate for women’s liberation within the early Soviet government. Directed by Vika Privalova — a multidisciplinary artist born in Russia who…
An animal rights activist from the Moscow region is facing criminal charges of treason, the independent news website Mediazona reported this week, citing the woman’s family. Federal Security Service (FSB) agents raided the home of Yevgenia Konforkina and her parents in the Moscow region town of Lyubertsy last week Thursday. “They broke into our house…
Russia and Iran will sign a strategic partnership agreement “in the near future,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday, as political and military ties between the two countries deepen. Both under heavy Western sanctions, Russia and Iran have strengthened their ties since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with Iran widely believed to be supplying Russia with…
Two children were among three killed in a Russian airstrike on an apartment building in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, with dozens more injured, the local governor said Thursday. A guided aerial bomb — a powerful weapon used widely by Russia — hit a building in the city on Wednesday evening, according to Ukraine…
Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina warned Thursday that “more drastic changes” in monetary policy may be needed as the country’s rumbling war economy drives inflation far above target levels. Nabiullina’s comments, made to a group of State Duma lawmakers, come a week after the Central Bank hiked its key rate to a record-high 21%,…
At least four people were killed and 11 injured when a gas explosion ripped through an apartment building in the North Caucasus republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, regional authorities said Thursday. Video of the explosion site published by regional emergency officials showed the partially collapsed top two floors of the five-story building in the regional capital of…