Updates throughout. G7 finance chiefs pressed the IMF on Thursday to urgently provide more aid to war-stricken Ukraine on the eve of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion. “On February 24 last year, Russia launched its illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine, which is also an attack on the rule of law…
Updates with Yellen quote. Group of Seven finance ministers were due to discuss fresh sanctions against Moscow and increased support for Ukraine on Thursday, a day ahead of the first anniversary of the Russian invasion. Sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine had been having a “very significant effect” on…
The UN’s human rights chief condemned the continued jailing of a leading figure in Russia’s political opposition on Wednesday, demanding that he face “fair proceedings” for his opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was “concerned by continued detention of opposition politician and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a global body representing as many as 600,000 media professionals around the world, on Wednesday announced that it had suspended the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) from the organization. The IFJ’s move came in response to the RUJ’s recent decision to expand its work to the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, which it…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday gave his much-anticipated first address to the nation since ordering the invasion of Ukraine exactly a year ago. However, the members of the Putinist elite invited to Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor for the event were far from the only people listening to the proceedings. As members of both chambers of…
Recast and updated with reaction and analysis. President Vladimir Putin said Russia is fighting for its “historical lands” on Wednesday as the country approaches the one year anniversary of its bloody invasion of Ukraine. Speaking at a state-organized concert the day before Defender of the Fatherland Day, which is a national holiday, Putin delivered a…
Dutch giant brewer Heineken said Wednesday that it still planned to exit Russia after a media report accusing it of “breaking a promise” to leave over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Dutch investigative website Follow the Money said the Amsterdam-based brewer was still operating in Russia despite making a promise last year to stop investing. Although…
The head of the Wagner mercenary outfit, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on Wednesday urged Russians to pressure the country’s regular army into sharing ammunition with his fighters in Ukraine. Prigozhin stopped short of calling on Russians to protest but urged everyone from “driver” to “flight attendant” to help him. He had already made headlines on Tuesday when…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with China’s top diplomat on Wednesday that cooperation between Beijing and Moscow was important to “stabilize the international situation.” “The cooperation between China and Russia on the world stage is very important to stabilize the international situation,” Putin said at the meeting with Wang Yi. Their meeting comes as China is…
Russian e-commerce websites have started blocking products carrying anti-war symbols and messages in favor of pro-war items, independent media reported Wednesday. “With the invasion of Ukraine, areas previously far removed from politics have started to get politicized,” said Avtozak Live, an independent YouTube and Telegram channel. The outlet said it has found “thousands” of ads…
Seven people were killed and 11 injured in a large fire that erupted at a hotel in central Moscow overnight, state media reported Wednesday, citing emergency services. Emergency crews evacuated 200 people from the 16-story building and contained the blaze by midnight, according to the TASS news agency. The residential building houses dozens of ground-level…
MOSCOW — As the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches, life in the capital largely goes on as usual, with most Muscovites saying that the dominant mood is one of indifference to the ongoing fighting. “I don’t really feel that there is a war going on,” said a Muscovite in his 30s who…
Russia unsuccessfully tested its nuclear-capable “invincible” missile during President Joe Biden’s visit to Ukraine this week, CNN reported Tuesday, citing two unnamed U.S. officials. Had it been successful, the officials said President Vladimir Putin would have touted the test at his state-of-the-nation address. Instead, Putin announced the suspension of Russia’s participation in the last U.S.-Russian…
Accusing NATO of openly seeking to attack Russia’s nuclear facilities, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday announced that Moscow would suspend its participation in the New START treaty, the last surviving arms treaty between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers, which caps the size of both the U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles. The announcement, made ahead of…
The founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin on Tuesday accused the country’s Defense Ministry and the Chief of the General Staff of intentionally depriving his fighters of munitions in Ukraine. According to Prigozhin, the Defense Ministry and the Chief of the General Staff gave orders not to supply the controversial mercenary group with…
The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador on Tuesday over what it called “Washington’s expanding involvement” in the war in Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported. The Foreign Ministry served a notice to the U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Lynne Tracy, accusing Washington of supplying weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine as well as…
President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia was suspending participation in New START, its last nuclear arms limitation treaty with the United States. The announcement, made ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, follows months of veiled threats by the Russian leader that have stirred fears of nuclear war in Europe. In…
A previously unreported Kremlin strategy document purports to lay out in detail Russia’s plans to absorb neighboring Belarus by 2030, U.S. and European media reported Tuesday. The 2021 Russian presidential administration paper spells out Minsk’s political, military, defense, humanitarian, trade and economic integration with Moscow as part of a so-called “Union State,” according to Yahoo News.…
The training course “Global Nuclear Safety and Security: IAEA Safeguards and Nuclear Security” has been completed at the Rosatom Technical Academy. It was organized by the Institute of Global Nuclear Safety and Security of the Rosatom Technical Academy for experts working at nuclear industry enterprises and dealing with issues of international cooperation with the Agency…
Recasts throughout and updates with reaction and analysis. President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday vowed to press onward with Russia’s war in Ukraine and railed against the West for a litany of wrongdoings in his first state-of-the-nation address since invading Ukraine one year ago. Addressing lawmakers from both houses of parliament alongside other members of the…
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday vowed to press onward with Russia’s one-year war in Ukraine and railed against the West for a litany of wrongdoings, including allegedly escalating the war by offering Kyiv support. In his first wartime state-of-the-nation address, Putin relied on familiar talking points as he pledged to continue his offensive on Ukraine…
While most members of Russia’s political and business elite have come to terms with the invasion of Ukraine one year in, some are frustrated by the Kremlin’s apparent inability to act more forcefully against Kyiv — and others said the mood is downbeat. The Moscow Times spoke with more than a dozen top Russian officials…
A Russian missile smashed a Ukrainian apartment complex, killing dozens. Pro-Russian propagandists offered a slick counter-narrative that shifted the blame away from Moscow — using pseudo-fact-checking as a tool of disinformation. Since the start of its invasion one year ago, Russia and its supporters have sought to aggressively distort Moscow’s role in Ukraine with what experts call a…
Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused Russia of committing a “war crime” with a missile attack that killed some 60 fleeing civilians at a railway station in eastern Ukraine. The attack on the Kramatorsk train station in April is one of the deadliest targeting civilians since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year. Russia…
China’s foreign minister said Tuesday that Beijing is “deeply concerned” about the conflict in Ukraine, which is “intensifying and even getting out of control.” China has sought to position itself as a neutral party on the war in Ukraine, while maintaining close ties with its strategic ally Russia. Beijing has pledged to publish a proposal…
A dissident blogger who is a vocal critic of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov turned up alive Tuesday after going missing for more than two months. Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a YouTuber based in Sweden, disappeared in late November as the Chechen opposition claimed he had been shot dead amid a string of politically motivated murders of ethnic…
The Russian economy contracted by 2.1% last year, the government’s statistics agency Rosstat said Monday, absorbing Western sanctions over Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine better than expected. The data was published on the eve of a keenly awaited speech to parliament by President Vladimir Putin, days before the first anniversary of the launch of Russia’s offensive against…
The Wagner group’s internal security division is marred by poor discipline and insubordination that has led to frequent leaks revealing the group’s alleged crimes, according to an investigation published by Dossier Center on Monday. The non-profit organization, which was set up by exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and is aimed at supporting the rule of…
The legislature in the Siberian region of Novosibirsk has voted to end the practice of holding direct mayoral elections in the regional capital as well as in the adjacent scientific research center of Koltsovo, Interfax reported on Monday. The bill to stop one of the last major cities in Russia from having a directly elected…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny published a 15-point plan outlining his view of Russia’s future in the postwar era on Monday, predicting Russia’s “military defeat” and outlining his plans to transform Russia into a parliamentary republic. Entitled “15 theses of a Russian citizen who desires the best for their country,” Navalny’s Twitter thread was posted four…
The Kremlin on Monday accused tiny Moldova of “anti-Russian hysteria” after its prime minister called for the demilitarization of the Moscow-backed separatist region of Transnistria. Tensions have run high between pro-EU Moldova, wedged between Ukraine and Romania, and Russia during Moscow’s offensive against Kyiv. “Moldova is slipping into anti-Russian hysteria,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “The lack…
The total volume of dredging and hydraulic engineering operations in the waters of the Northern Sea Route in 2023 is to amount to 13.5 million cubic meters, said Maxim Kulinko, Deputy Head of the NSR Directorate of ROSATOM at the 6th Hydraulic Engineering and Dredging Congress. This amounts to 36.1% of all dredging operations planned…
Russia’s presidential air fleet is quietly repatriating the bodies of soldiers killed in Ukraine and sending them to local morgues in small numbers to prevent public backlash, The Moscow Times’ Russian service reported Monday, citing flight tracking data, morgue workers and the soldiers’ relatives. Rossiya Airlines, a subsidiary of the state-owned Aeroflot Group, operates 68…
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that China was considering providing weapons to Russia in its war against Ukraine, warning Beijing that any supplies would “cause a serious problem.” “The concern that we have now is based on information we have that they’re considering providing lethal support,” Blinken told CBS’s “Face The Nation.” Asked what…
International companies faced a dilemma in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: to leave the country in protest of the war and take a financial hit, or stay and risk significant reputational damage. While some departed immediately after Russian troops entered Ukraine, others tried to hang on — only to announce their exit under…
The Dutch Foreign Ministry on Saturday announced the expulsion of several Russian diplomats and the closure of Russia’s trade mission in Amsterdam, accusing Moscow of using diplomatic cover for spying. It was the latest development in a dispute over Russia’s failure to grant visas to Dutch diplomats to staff their embassy in Moscow and the consulate in…
Russia on Saturday claimed to have taken control of a small village near the key city of Kupiansk in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv. “The settlement of Gryanikovka… was completely liberated,” the defense ministry said in a statement, referring to the Ukrainian village of Hryanykivka by its Russian name. Hryanykivka was home to around…
The Russian authorities have created a digital database of citizens who are eligible to be drafted into the military amid growing rumors of a second mobilization campaign, independent journalists Farida Rustamova and Maksim Tovkailo reported Saturday. The database will reportedly contain information about Russian citizens gathered from the country’s Central Election Commission, the Ministry of…
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday accused Russia of committing “crimes against humanity” in Ukraine and Russian forces of conducting “widespread and systemic” attacks on the country’s civilian population. She made the comments at the Munich Security Conference, days ahead of the one-year anniversary of Moscow sending its forces into Ukraine, unleashing war in…
Ukraine’s Western backers on Saturday urged allies to give Ukraine what it needs to beat Russia, with NATO’s chief warning of the risks of victory for Moscow, ahead of the anniversary of the war’s outbreak. World leaders are meeting at the Munich Security Conference with conflict still raging almost a year after Moscow sent troops…
When Russia introduced patriotism classes in primary and secondary schools last September, Tatyana Chervenko decided she was not going to peddle Kremlin “propaganda” to her eighth-grade students in Moscow. The 49-year-old used some of the classes to teach math instead and ignored talking points pushed by the Kremlin about the conflict raging in Ukraine. Chervenko…
President Joe Biden will be “messaging” Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin when he speaks in Warsaw next week, while hailing NATO’s unprecedented effort to help Ukrainians save their country as the war reaches the one-year mark. The White House says Biden will give the speech in Poland — a key U.S. ally and fulcrum of vast…
If you ask anyone to describe Russian cuisine, one of the first dishes that will come to mind will certainly be blinis. They are a truly iconic dish that is now an integral part of folk life and tradition. The only problem is that there as many myths and fabrications about them as there are…
Amnesty International has demanded the Russian authorities reveal the location of imprisoned Kremlin critic Andrei Pivovarov, whose whereabouts have been unknown since he was transferred to new a penal colony in mid-January. “The authorities are subjecting him to enforced disappearance — a crime under international law, by not revealing his fate or whereabouts,” Amnesty International’s Russia…
Ukraine’s foreign minister on Friday accused French retailer Auchan of being a “full-fledged weapon of Russian aggression” following a joint investigation by The Insider, Le Monde and Bellingcat that concluded the retail giant has been supplying goods to the Russian army. According to the investigation, goods including flack jackets, as well as non-military equipment, worth a…
За ухо: (to put something) behind your ear A couple decades ago I wrote a short column about some of the odd and entertaining Russian expressions involving ухо (ear) and уши (ears). I was taken with the athletic prowess of Russian ears. For example, in Russian you flap your ears — хлопать ушами — when…
President Vladimir Putin lashed out Friday against “direct attempts” to hinder the work of Russian gas giant Gazprom, at the center of deteriorating ties between Moscow and Europe over the Ukraine conflict. European countries were heavily reliant on the company for natural gas supplies but have since raced for other sources after Russia dispatched troops to Ukraine.…
A former security guard at the British Embassy in Berlin was sentenced to over 13 years in prison Friday on charges of spying for Russia. David Ballantyne Smith, 58, admitted to passing sensitive material to the Russian Embassy in Berlin before being caught in a sting operation. Sentencing him to 13 years and two months…
President Vladimir Putin has personally pardoned Russian convicts who fight in Ukraine with the Kremlin-linked Wagner mercenary group, a Russian investigative journalist reported Friday. Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said last month that the first recruited inmates had been pardoned as promised after completing a six-month term of service. The release of convict soldiers has sparked questions about…
Russia’s main state broadcaster has started airing weekly classes that aim to rally patriotism and support for the invasion of Ukraine among schoolchildren, a website that promotes the service said Thursday. Russia kickstarted the classes, called “Important Conversations,” at the start of the 2022-2023 school year. Now, the Telegram channel Razgovory o Vazhnom has announced that…
When migration officials detained six pregnant Russian women at a Buenos Aires airport last week, they exposed a phenomenon that has been growing in the country for a year: Russian birthing tourism. As Russia’s President Vladimir Putin wages war in Ukraine, Argentina has gradually become the destination of choice for Russian expectant parents fleeing the…
The head of Russia’s mercenary outfit Wagner said on Thursday it could take months to capture the embattled Ukraine city of Bakhmut and slammed Moscow’s “monstrous bureaucracy” for slowing military gains. Russia has been trying to encircle and capture the battered industrial city ahead of Feb. 24, the first anniversary of what it terms its…
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s commissioner for the protection of children’s rights informed the Russian leader during a meeting on Thursday that she had recently adopted a 15-year-old child from the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine. “Now I know what it means to be a mother of a child from Donbas. It’s hard, but…
A Belarusian dissident journalist whose dramatic arrest in 2021 made international headlines after his plane was forced by the authorities to land in Minsk has pleaded guilty to an array of charges against him on the first day of his trial in the Belarusian capital. Roman Protasevich, 27, was the former editor of Nexta, a…
A former pro-Kremlin lawmaker condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a tweet on Thursday, calling it “a war that no one but Vladimir Putin needed” and commending the “real heroes” in Russia who have spoken out publicly against it. Robert Schlegel, who has lived in Germany since 2019, was previously a member of the pro-Kremlin…
“Wagner brings together committed professionals and highly motivated people,” intones a voiceover at the beginning of a film about the mercenary company as slow-motion footage plays of men in camouflage and maneuvering tanks. “It’s where true patriots gather,” the voice continues. The documentary “PMC Wagner: Contract with the Motherland,” which was produced by state-run channel…
President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday that Belarus would join the offensives in Ukraine “only if attacked” first by Kyiv’s army. “I’m ready to fight together with the Russians from the territory of Belarus in one case only: if so much as one soldier from (Ukraine) comes to our territory with a gun to kill my…
Russian police detained a gay Chechen refugee upon his arrival in Moscow, activists said early Thursday, raising fears that he may be imprisoned and tortured by security officers in his home region. Idris Arsamikov, 28, is believed to have been taken to the conservative, majority-Muslim region hours after landing at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport to attend his father’s…
Russian police detained a gay Chechen refugee upon his arrival in Moscow, activists said early Thursday, raising fears that he may be imprisoned and tortured by security officers in his home region. Idris Arsamikov, 28, is believed to have been taken to the conservative, majority-Muslim region hours after landing at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport to attend his father’s…
Russian tech giant Yandex announced on Wednesday that its revenues climbed 46% last year following a corporate restructuring amid unprecedented Western sanctions over Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. Often dubbed “Russia’s Google”, Yandex is the country’s top internet company and most popular search engine. The firm also provides taxi and food delivery services. Yandex said its…