Russian tech companies Yandex and VKontakte are being grilled by government officials for making their homegrown artificial intelligence chatbots avoid subjects related to the invasion of Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday. Presidential Human Rights Council chief Valery Fadeyev said he was surprised to learn that Yandex’s Alisa and VKontakte’s Marusia refuse to answer when…
Russian tech companies Yandex and VK are being grilled by pro-war figures for making their homegrown artificial intelligence chatbots avoid subjects related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday. Russia’s presidential Human Rights Council chief Valery Fadeyev said he was surprised to learn that Yandex’s Alisa and VK’s Marusia refuse to…
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday ordered Russia to pay $56,500 in damages to the jailed mother of a prominent critic of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Zarema Musaeva, the mother of exiled Chechen human rights lawyer and activist Abubakar Yangulbaev, was violently detained in Nizhny Novgorod and forcibly taken to Chechnya in…
Russia’s Main Directorate for Traffic Safety (GIBDD) has been renamed back to the Soviet-era State Automobile Inspectorate (GAI), the state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday, citing the head of the traffic police force. “We’ve now become the State Automobile Inspectorate,” the agency head Mikhail Chernkiv said during an Interior Ministry meeting on Tuesday. Soviet authorities…
A Russian court has extended the pre-trial detention of two lawyers who represented the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the independent news website Mediazona reported Tuesday. Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Lipster, and Igor Sergunin were arrested last October on accusations of participating in “extremist” activities for passing Navalny’s letters on to his associates. Russia in 2021 outlawed Navalny’s…
A court in Siberia has rejected an appeal by Ksenia Fadeyeva, an ally of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, against her nine-year prison sentence for “extremism,” local media reported Tuesday. Fadeyeva, Navalny’s former regional coordinator in the city of Tomsk, was among his few allies who remained in Russia despite the risk of criminal prosecution…
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday urged countries to balance fear of escalation against Ukraine’s need to defend itself, saying Kyiv had the right to use Western arms to strike in Russia. “According with the law of war, it is perfectly possible and there is no contradiction. “I could retaliate or I could…
ROSATOM Director General Mr. Alexey Likhachev and IAEA Director General Mr. Rafael Grossi head Delegations. On 28 May, another round of Interdepartmental consultations of the Russian side with the IAEA delegation led by Director General Mr. Rafael Grossi took place in Kaliningrad. The Russian delegation headed by Director General of ROSATOM Mr. Alexey Likhachev comprised…
Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna is being held in custody in Russia nine months after her disappearance, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) said, citing a letter from the Russian Defense Ministry to her father. Roshchyna, an award-winning freelance journalist, went missing in August while attempting to enter the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine for…
Western companies are reconsidering leaving Russia amid increasing Kremlin-imposed exit costs, difficulty finding suitable buyers and rebounding consumer activity, the Financial Times reported Tuesday. As of last month, 2,175 foreign companies remain in Russia compared with 1,610 that left or scaled back operations, according to the Kyiv School of Economics. Some remaining companies are increasingly open about…
Moldova has granted citizenship to several members of the Russian-Belarusian rock band Bi-2, the government in Chisinau announced late Monday, months after the music group was detained in Thailand and faced potential deportation to Russia. President Maia Sandu signed a decree giving Moldovan passports to “certain members of Bi-2,” her office chief Adrian Balutel announced…
GOMA, Congo — In a makeshift nightclub in the hull of the overnight ferry from Goma to Bukavu, a handful of teenage boys are trying out some new moves. Some land, some don’t. When they don’t, the elderly man on the bench next to us nudges us and rolls his eyes, amused. The DJ, who…
The agreement was signed during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Uzbekistan. Tashkent, Uzbekistan – During the state visit of the President of Russia to Uzbekistan, a protocol was signed between the two countries in the presence of the heads of state of Russia and Uzbekistan. The protocol amended the Intergovernmental Agreement on…
Russia will help Uzbekistan build small-scale nuclear reactors as part of an agreement signed during President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Central Asian country, the state-run TASS news agency reported Monday. Since 2018, Moscow and Tashkent have been in talks on building the first-ever nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan, which is the world’s fifth top…
Russia’s Karavon Folklore Festival took place in the republic of Tatarstan’s village of Russkoye Nikolskoye on Sunday. The festival aims to promote “traditional Russian culture,” popularize folklore and award the best folk performances. Over 170 musical groups, dance troupes and other performers from across Russia were scheduled to appear at the festival. The event also…
A Russian military court has rejected a request to transfer Major General Ivan Popov to house arrest and ruled to keep him in pre-trial detention for two months, the independent news website Mediazona reported Monday. Popov, whose May 17 arrest was first reported last week, is accused of misappropriating more than 130 million rubles ($1.5…
A German ex-soldier was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on Monday for sharing secret military information with Russia following the outbreak of war in Ukraine. A court in Duesseldorf found the defendant, identified only as Thomas H., guilty of passing information from his job at a military procurement office to the…
Russian law enforcement authorities have launched a criminal investigation into a mass street brawl and shootout in the city of Chelyabinsk over the weekend that reportedly involved Ukraine war veterans. In a video of the fight published by local media, a group of men could be seen beating a man lying face down on the ground…
Ukraine has carried out an attack on a Russian early-warning radar system in the southern Orenburg region, the news website Ukrainska Pravda reported Monday, citing an anonymous Ukrainian military intelligence source. “A Ukrainian drone has covered a distance of more than 1,800 kilometers to the enemy’s facility, setting a new record for the range of…
The conference gathered over 2000 ministers, high-ranking officials, experts, and delegates. Vienna, Austria –ROSATOM participated in the International Conference on Nuclear Security ICONS 2024, organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The conference gathered over 2000 ministers, high-ranking officials, experts, and delegates from around the world to discuss strengthening global nuclear security and addressing…
One person was killed and three others were injured Monday in a Ukrainian drone attack on a gas station in Russia’s Oryol region, local officials said Monday. “A drone fell this morning on the territory of a gas station in the town of Livny,” said Oryol region Governor Andrei Klychkov, adding that the facade of…
After living for two weeks in a psycho-neurological internat, a facility where Russia confines those with psychiatric illnesses who have no relatives willing to care for them, journalist Elena Kostyuchenko believed she had seen the “real face of my state.” She spoke to women who were forcibly sterilized, showed a doctor poetry written by a…
Ukrainian shelling of a Russian town close to the border killed two people on Saturday, Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. “Ukrainian armed forces fired on the settlement of Oktyabrsky from a rocket launcher. To my great sorrow, two people were killed: a man and a woman had numerous shrapnel wounds incompatible with life,” Gladkov…
A Russian strike on Saturday hit a store selling building materials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, killing at least two people, its mayor said. “We know for sure about two dead,” Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram, saying that according to preliminary information the strike hit a hypermarket for construction materials in…
The death toll from Russian strikes on a hardware store in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv rose to 14 Sunday, the regional governor said as rescuers searched the charred debris for bodies. Interior minister Igor Klymenko said earlier that 43 were injured and “16 people are considered missing”, after Russian strikes hit the Epitsentr…
Russia said on Saturday it had captured another village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, while Kyiv said Moscow was intensifying attacks away from the northeastern Kharkiv region. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that troops had “taken control of the village of Arkhanhelske,” located to the north of the city of Donetsk. The small frontline village is…
Garlic is the best way to keep vampires away, as everyone knows. Russia has never had much trouble with vampires, although it has plenty evil of its own kind. But garlic is a welcome ingredient in our historical cuisine. Many foreigners who visit Russia are perplexed by certain aspects of our traditional cuisine, such as…
The former head of the republic of Chechnya’s regional government, Muslim Khuchiyev, has been appointed as one of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s aides, Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov said Friday. Khuchiyev stepped down on Tuesday as head of the Chechen government after nearly six years in office, making him the second Kadyrov ally to resign…
Like other infrastructure projects in the U.S.S.R., the Krapivinskaya hydropower plant was born at a time when the Soviets dreamt of bending the natural world to its will to fuel industrial growth. Decades later, this rusting hulk of concrete and iron still looms above the Tom River in Siberia’s coal-rich Kemerovo region, half-finished and half-forgotten.…
At least six former and current law enforcement officials have been arrested on various charges in Russia’s third-largest city of Yekaterinburg over the past week, the independent news website Govorit NeMoskva reported Friday. Andrei Dyakov, who heads the anti-corruption department at the Sverdlovsk region branch of Russia’s Interior Ministry, was charged with abuse of power…
Romanian prosecutors announced Friday that they had ordered the arrest of a man suspected of spying for Moscow, while the government declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata. The arrest of a person suspected of spying marks the first of its kind in Romania since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.…
President Vladimir Putin is seeking to negotiate a ceasefire deal with Ukraine that recognizes the current battlefield lines, Reuters reported Friday, citing several anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Reports about Putin’s alleged interest in seeking some kind of truce agreement have circulated for months, but the latest comes as Moscow wages a new offensive…
Russian forces have become “bogged down” trying to capture the Ukrainian border town of Vovchansk, Ukraine’s top general Oleksandr Syrsky said Friday, though fighting on the eastern front remains intense. Kyiv has been trying to push back against a Russian ground assault in the northeastern Kharkiv region since May 10, when thousands of Russian troops punched…
The recent arrests of five top Russian military officers are likely just the first of dozens of military figures who will be jailed in a sweeping purge by the security services, Russian government officials and sources close to the Kremlin and the Defense Ministry told The Moscow Times. Ostensibly an effort to stamp out military…
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Belarus late Thursday for talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko expected to focus on security and joint tactical nuclear weapons exercises. Earlier this month, Putin ordered the Russian military to conduct tactical nuclear weapons exercises in response to Western “threats and provocations.” Belarus, which last year agreed to…
A senior procurement officer in Russia’s Defense Ministry has been charged with abuse of power, Russian law enforcement authorities announced late Thursday. Investigators accuse Vladimir Verteletsky of taking a bribe in relation to “work that was not carried out” under a government contract in 2022, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes. The law…
Moscow on Thursday attacked “hothead” U.S. lawmakers after mounting calls, including from House Speaker Mike Johnson, for Ukraine to be allowed to fire donated American weaponry into Russia. Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, on Wednesday told journalists that it was “not a good policy” that U.S. weapons donated to Ukraine…
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree that allows Moscow to take control of U.S. property as compensation for any seizure of frozen Russian assets in the United States. Washington and its European allies seized or blocked around $300 billion of Russian financial assets shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In response to…
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has led to significant disruptions in the migratory patterns of a vulnerable species of eagles, according to a new study, forcing the birds to travel increasingly longer distances as they fly to reach their breeding grounds. Greater spotted eagles, whose breeding grounds stretch from most of Eastern Europe to as…
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has led to significant disruptions in the migratory patterns of a vulnerable species of eagles, according to a new study, forcing the birds to travel increasingly longer distances as they fly to reach their breeding grounds. Greater spotted eagles, whose breeding grounds stretch from most of Eastern Europe to as…
Estonia’s border guards on Thursday said their Russian counterparts had removed buoys overnight from the Narva River, which separates the two neighboring countries, amid a dispute over the shared border. Tallinn said it was only since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that Moscow has contested the placement of the floating markers used to prevent boats…
Russian air defense systems on Thursday shot down a Ukrainian drone flying over the republic of Tatarstan, more than 1,000 kilometers northeast of the country’s border with Ukraine. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its anti-aircraft systems destroyed the drone at around 2:00 p.m. Moscow time, shortly after airports in the capital Kazan and the city of…
At least eight people were killed and one other was injured in a hostel fire in the Moscow region town of Istra, emergency officials said Friday. The fire broke out at 4:00 a.m. local time and was extinguished around five hours later, the Emergency Situations Ministry’s local branch said, according to the news agency Moskva. …
The meeting was held in Seversk, Tomsk region. On May 23, 2024 a regular meeting was held between Alexey Likhachev, Director General of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, and Ajit Kumar Mohanty, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India. Leaders of Russia and India nuclear…
A woman was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region, local authorities said Thursday. Photos shared by Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov showed the second floor of a house that partially collapsed as a result of the attack. “Unfortunately, there was a victim — the body of a woman was found…
Norway on Thursday announced that it would restrict entry to Russian tourists, shutting their last direct access to Europe’s border-free Schengen area. “Russian citizens whose purpose is tourism and other non-essential travel will be rejected upon entry across the external border,” the Norwegian government said in a statement, adding that the new restrictions will take…
Updated with Peskov’s remarks. Russia has arrested a general on corruption allegations, state media reported Thursday, making him the third senior-ranking officer to face fraud-related criminal charges over the past month. A military court placed Lieutenant-General Vadim Shamarin in pre-trial detention until late July, the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing the court. “On May 22, the…
A prominent Bashkir activist whose imprisonment earlier this year sparked mass protests was designated a political prisoner by the Russian rights group Memorial on Wednesday. Fayil Alsynov was sentenced to four years in a penal colony in January on charges of “inciting interethnic hatred.” However, many observers believe he was targeted for campaigning against illegal…
A woman from Russia’s Far East has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for allegedly sharing footage of Russian troop movements with Ukraine, state media reported Wednesday, citing the local Federal Security Service (FSB) branch. The woman, identified as Chita resident A.Yu. Sulimova, was detained at age 21 on treason charges last July. Authorities accused her of…
A Russian Defense Ministry proposal to redraw Russia’s maritime borders in the Baltic Sea has sparked concern from Moscow’s neighbors in the region, with officials from Finland to Lithuania decrying what they describe as an attempt to sow confusion and destabilize regional security. While the Kremlin insisted Wednesday that the government draft resolution was not…
Beijing is sending or preparing to send “lethal aid” to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said Wednesday, a claim that comes just days after President Vladimir Putin visited China to meet with his counterpart Xi Jinping. “Today I can reveal that we have evidence that Russia and…
A court in southern Russia’s Saratov region has sentenced a man to three and a half years in prison for trying to persuade his friend to surrender to the Ukrainian army, Russian media reported Wednesday. Federal Security Service (FSB) agents detained 31-year-old farmer Ilya Usoyan in the fall of 2023 on accusations of “repeatedly persuading” a Russian…
Russia said Wednesday that its forces retook Klishchiivka, one of only a handful of villages on the eastern front that Ukraine regained during its counteroffensive last summer. “Units of the Southern grouping of troops liberated the village of Klishchiivka” in the eastern Donetsk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Russian troops previously captured Klishchiivka in January…
Russia has returned six children to Ukraine with the help of Qatari mediators, Russian state media reported Wednesday. A video shared by the state-run TASS news agency showed the Qatari Ambassador in Moscow Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani shaking hands with the children, ages six to 17, at Qatar’s embassy. According to TASS, representatives from Russia’s presidential…
A man was killed and one other person was wounded in an attack on southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region, local authorities said Wednesday. Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defense systems had shot down six Ukrainian missiles early Wednesday morning. It said earlier that three Ukrainian drones were shot down over the Belgorod region overnight. Belgorod region…
Russia has launched a “counter-space weapon” into Earth’s orbit that may be able to attack an American government satellite, the Pentagon said Tuesday, coming amid recent accusations from both Washington and Moscow that each side is seeking to weaponize space. A Russian satellite that was launched into low Earth orbit on May 16 is likely…
President Vladimir Putin hailed Russia and China’s growing trade ties last week on his first foreign visit since winning re-election. According to the Russian leader, while a turnover of $100 billion in bilateral trade between Moscow and Beijing was considered a major success a few years ago, this figure now exceeds $200 billion. “Chinese data…
Russia on Tuesday announced the start of tactical nuclear weapons drills close to Ukraine, in what it said was a response to Western “threats.” Throughout its two-year offensive on Ukraine, Moscow has repeatedly talked up its arsenal of nuclear weapons and its readiness to deploy them if it senses an existential threat. The West has…
A Moscow court ruled Tuesday that investigators acted lawfully when they refused to look into two alleged murder attempts against the jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza. Kara-Murza, 42, fell severely ill in 2015 and 2017 with symptoms that he said indicated he was poisoned, but Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, did not open…
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov announced Tuesday that the head of the North Caucasus region’s government has stepped down, becoming the second high-ranking regional official to resign over the past week. “My dear brother Muslim Khuchiyev resigned as chairman of the government of the republic of Chechnya in connection with his transfer to another job,” Kadyrov…