Russia demanded that Ukraine drastically reduce its military and cede partially occupied territories, as well as that the West lift its sanctions, in the early stages of peace talks during Moscow’s 2022 invasion, the investigative outlet Systema reported Monday, citing a draft treaty proposal it said it obtained. Russia and Ukraine entered peace talks on Feb.…
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in the Kremlin on Monday, Moscow announced. The meeting took place amid western claims that Russia plans to deploy thousands of Pyongyang’s troops to the Ukraine conflict. Choe has been in Russia for a week and has pledged that North Korea would…
South Korean intelligence believes Russia could fight alongside Pyongyang in the event of a war against Seoul, the South Korean daily the Korea Herald reported Sunday, citing a lawmaker briefed on the matter. The United States said last week that 10,000 North Korean soldiers were training in Russia and could be deployed to fight Ukraine within…
More than 3,300 foreigners have been awarded Russian citizenship this year in return for aiding Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, according to Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk. In a Telegram post published Sunday, Volk praised her Interior Ministry colleagues for swiftly assisting “a foreign citizen from a neighboring country” who risked being deported from Russia to…
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is in the company of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler because of the iPhone’s impact on society, the head of one of Russia’s biggest state broadcasters said Monday. Channel One CEO Konstantin Ernst called the iPhone “extremely harmful and monstrous for humanity” for “destroying human connection,” according to the independent news website Agentstvo.…
Indonesia and Russia kicked off their first joint naval drills on Monday, as the Southeast Asian archipelago’s new leader seeks to boost ties with Moscow. The region’s biggest economy maintains a neutral foreign policy, refusing to take sides in the Ukraine conflict or in great power competition between Washington and Beijing. But newly inaugurated Indonesian…
Russia on Sunday claimed to have captured another Ukrainian village, just a dozen kilometers from the key eastern logistics hub Pokrovsk, as its troops advance rapidly. The Russian Defense Ministry said it had “liberated the settlement of Vichneve following offensive operations”. Russia has been making swift advances in the eastern Donetsk region for weeks, taking…
Soon Russia will be marking a rather curious holiday, the “Day of National Unity” on November 4 when a peasant and a prince — Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky — supposedly led a volunteer army to liberate Moscow from Polish invaders a half-millennium ago. It would seem to be a very patriotic and important holiday,…
Moscow on Saturday denied Washington’s claims that Russia was behind a fake video showing a Haitian immigrant claiming to have voted multiple times. Three U.S. intelligence agencies on Friday said in a joint statement that “Russian influence actors” created the video as part of “Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of…
Surging butter prices in Russia have led to increased thefts in some supermarkets and prompted Moscow to boost imports of the staple food product from nearby countries. According to Rosstat, the state statistics agency, butter prices jumped 25.7% from Jan. 1 to Oct. 28. Rusprodsoyuz, a union of food producers, reported that a kilogram of…
The widow of anti-Kremlin activist Ildar Dadin, who was killed fighting for Ukraine last month, accused the Freedom of Russia Legion of burying her late husband without her permission and suggested that members of the pro-Kyiv paramilitary group may have covered up the cause of his death. Dadin had fought alongside the Ukrainian armed forces…
War-fatigued Russians are turning to entertainment for distraction in what could threaten Russia’s “civilizational identity,” said the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church. “After almost three years of active military operations, we see there’s a certain weariness among our fellow citizens of reports from the front lines,” Patriarch Kirill said at the church’s World Russian People’s…
Russian law enforcement authorities on Friday launched a criminal investigation into a deadly Ukrainian drone strike on a convent in the southwestern Kursk region. Two young men were said to have been killed when drones dropped explosives on the Trinity Convent in the village of Durovo-Bobrik, around 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) from the border with Ukraine’s…
Self-exiled entrepreneur Yevgeny Chichvarkin said Friday that he is temporarily stepping away from Russia’s opposition, criticizing activists for “fighting each other” instead of uniting against the Kremlin. “I’ve decided to withdraw from the Russian opposition for now, until my colleagues and friends refocus on fighting the bloody, monstrous, disgraceful Putin regime,” Chichvarkin said in a video…
North Korea’s foreign minister met with her Russian counterpart in Moscow on Friday, assuring him that Pyongyang would stand by Russia until it achieves “victory” in its war against Ukraine. The meeting between the two foreign ministers comes amid Western reports that North Korea sent thousands of troops to Russia, possibly for further deployment on the battlefield in Ukraine.…
Russia’s military said early Friday that its air defense systems destroyed 83 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions and annexed Crimea overnight, with at least one of the drones crashing into an oil depot and sparking a fire. In southern Russia’s Stavropol region, Governor Vladimir Vladimirov said an unmanned aircraft “fell” into an oil depot…
A former employee of the U.S. consulate in the Far East city of Vladivostok has been sentenced to four years and ten months in prison for “secret collaboration with a foreign state,” Russian state media reported Friday. Robert Shonov, a Russian citizen, had worked for more than 25 years at the U.S. consulate. He was forced…