Moscow claimed that a group of Ukrainian saboteurs crossed into Russia and opened fire on civilians on Thursday, an allegation denied by Kyiv as a “deliberate provocation.” While Russia claims its regions bordering Ukraine are routinely shelled by Ukrainian forces, the alleged incursion, if confirmed, would be a rare instance of fighting inside its territory.…
Russian forces are clashing with a Ukrainian sabotage group that illegally crossed into the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, and opened fire on civilians, law enforcement agencies said Thursday. The statements could not be independently verified, and Kyiv dismissed the claims from Moscow as a “deliberate provocation.” Bryansk region Governor Alexander Bogomaz said a sabotage and reconnaissance…
Ukraine said it had survived a months-long winter onslaught of Russian strikes on water and energy infrastructure, as it marked the first day of spring Wednesday. But Kyiv was under intense pressure in eastern Ukraine, while Moscow said it had downed a “massive” barrage of Ukrainian drones launched at the Crimean peninsula, annexed by the…
Russia has opened a criminal case against Pussy Riot founding member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova for allegedly “insulting religious sensibilities,” human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov said on his Telegram channel on Wednesday. The Investigative Committee opened the case due to various of Tolokonnikova’s posts on social media, Chikov said, adding that a series of police searches had…
New legislation preventing the general public from accessing entries to Russia’s real estate register came into force on Wednesday, independent Russian-language news website Meduza reported. The move, which restricts information on the register to “competent state agencies” is expected to act as a massive hindrance to Russian investigative journalists, who have used the register on…
Russian President Vladimir Putin officially opened the Moscow metro’s Big Circle Line on Wednesday, though he surprisingly elected to do so via video link rather than attending the ceremony in person. Calling the new line “a much-needed project for the city,” Putin congratulated “Muscovites and residents of the Moscow region,” on the opening of the…
Russian authorities have arrested a single father and sent his daughter to an orphanage after she drew an anti-war picture at school, the independent rights watchdog OVD-Info reported Wednesday. Alexei Moskalev, 53, and his daughter Masha Moskaleva, 12, came to the attention of local law enforcement in the town of Yefremov in the Tula region,…
Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufmann’s long-awaited documentary about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which recently premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, is proof that even with the best luck and access imaginable, an extraordinary journalistic opportunity can easily be missed. Double Oscar-winning actor-turned-activist Penn and his crew were in Kyiv filming the documentary as the Russian…
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that his country “fully supports” Beijing’s proposals for ending the Ukraine war when the two leaders met Wednesday. The state visit to the Chinese capital by Lukashenko — a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin — comes after Beijing published a position paper on…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed legislation that bans government officials from using foreign words in official documents and correspondence as well as while carrying out their duties. “When using Russian as the state language of the Russian Federation, it is not allowed to use words and expressions that do not correspond to the norms…
Russian tech giant VK has effectively banned employees from working abroad permanently, state news agencies reported Wednesday, citing a company letter to workers. VK, which employs more than 10,000 people, owns the popular Mail.ru email and news services as well as the VKontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks, among others. Its letter to employees comes as…
Pressure is mounting on Ukrainian forces as fighting for the eastern frontline city of Bakhmut is getting ever more brutal with Russia losing hundreds of troops a day, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday. As the battle raged, Moscow said it shot down Ukrainian drones targeting civilian sites in Russian territory while another one crashed near the capital.…
Russia’s governing body for chess said Tuesday it had been admitted into the game’s Asian federation and will leave Europe as Russian players face restrictions over Moscow’s assault in Ukraine. The shift, finalized by a vote at the Asian Chess Summit in Abu Dhabi earlier Tuesday, comes as other Russian sports federations, including football, are…
Finland has begun construction of its planned 200-kilometer fence along part of its border with Russia, the country’s border guard announced on Tuesday, as Helsinki fears Moscow could use migrant flows at the frontier for political purposes. Terrain work would begin on Tuesday “with forest clearance and will proceed in such a way that road…
Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the loss of life members of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) have suffered in the war in Ukraine and urged the agency to step up its counterintelligence activities in a speech to an expanded FSB board meeting in Moscow on Tuesday. “I would like to thank the leadership and all…
Russian President Vladimir Putin may have earned up to $500 million from sales of a popular vodka branded under his own name between 2004 and 2019, according to an investigation published on Tuesday by independent media outlet Proekt. Russian vodka sold under the Putinka brand hit the shelves in Russia in 2002 and became the…
The lists of Russia’s war dead may be hundreds and thousands of names long but some casualties stand out to the journalists who painstakingly compile them. Olga Ivshina, a senior reporter at the BBC Russian Service, can instantly recall Mikhail Shuvalov, a retired power plant worker who volunteered to fight in Ukraine at the age…
Moscow and Baku on Tuesday criticized the deployment of an expanded EU monitoring mission to Armenia’s volatile border with Azerbaijan. Arch Caucasus foes Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh border region but have recently made progress toward a peace deal. The EU announced last week it had deployed a…
A Russian anti-war activist has been detained upon arrival in Armenia’s capital Yerevan, he told independent Russian human rights watchdog OVD-Info. Nikita Kamensky had arrived at Zvartnots International Airport on a flight from Istanbul early Tuesday, OVD-Info reported, when he was detained for an unknown reason. The detention could be linked to Armenia’s obligations under…
Russian authorities said Tuesday that several regional television and radio stations that have recently broadcast air raid alerts had been breached by hackers. The alerts are common across Ukraine, which is routinely targeted by drone and missile attacks, but the impact of fighting within Russia is limited to regions bordering the conflict. “As a result of hacking…
A Russian journalist was fined Tuesday for “discrediting” the Russian army by describing her anti-war tattoo in a televised interview, the independent Mediazona news website reported. Yulia Starostina, a former journalist for news outlets The Bell, Proekt and RBC, spoke to the independent broadcaster Dozhd for a December segment about Russians providing assistance to Ukrainian…
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Central Asia hoping that greater U.S. engagement will reassure former Soviet republics rattled by the Ukraine war, although Russia’s historic clout limits the extent of cooperation. Days after the anniversary of the Ukraine invasion, the top U.S. diplomat will hold talks Tuesday in Kazakhstan and then Uzbekistan and…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has submitted more than 50 official complaints to Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova during his year-long incarceration, the state-run TASS news agency reported Monday. “Of the more than 50 appeals that we received — none of them was ignored, each was investigated by the prosecutor’s office, the leadership of the Federal…
The Multipurpose Fast Neutron Research Reactor (MBIR), being constructed by State Corporation Rosatom within the framework of the comprehensive program “Development of Technology, Technologies and Scientific Research in the Field of Atomic Energy Use in the Russian Federation”, became a participant in the GRAIN International Platform (Global Research Advanced Infrastructure Network). BRICS GRAIN platform was…
Days after the United Nations General Assembly in New York voted overwhelmingly to demand Russia’s immediate withdrawal from Ukraine, Moscow’s war also dominated the opening sessions of the UN Human Rights Council and Conference for Disarmament, both of which opened in Geneva on Monday. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most massive violations…
The Moscow custom of leaving floral tributes to honor the memory of murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov on Feb. 27 each year appears to have spread throughout Russia, according to reports from six other cities. Makeshift flower memorials have appeared in Russia’s five biggest cities, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Kazan, on the eighth anniversary…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday awarded Steven Seagal, the U.S. action star turned vocal Kremlin supporter, the Order of Friendship medal, an award given to those working to improve Russia’s international relations. Seagal, 70, was granted Russian citizenship in 2016 and has been serving as a special envoy of the Russian Foreign Ministry for…
Prosecutors in Moscow-allied Belarus have asked the courts to jail Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and a close aide to nearly two decades behind bars as they are tried in absentia. The recommendation reported on Belarusian state media is part of a long-running and brutal campaign to silence critics who led historic rallies in 2020…
Jailed Russian journalist Ivan Safronov has been transferred to the maximum-security prison where he will serve his sentence, he wrote on Monday in a letter to his supporters. Savronov, 32, has been moved to the IK-7 prison in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region, where inmates serve a combination of penal detention and compulsory labor. “My route from…
People in Russia heralded the end of another cold winter as Maslenitsa festivities took place across the country this weekend. Maslenitsa, which is rooted in ancient Slavic tradition, involves the burning of effigies, wearing traditional costumes, singing and dancing. But most important is the cooking and eating blini, a thin, crepe-like pancake that symbolizes the…
The Kremlin on Monday acknowledged China’s proposal for a political solution in Ukraine but said the conditions for a peaceful resolution of the conflict were not in place “at the moment.” “We paid a lot of attention to our Chinese friends’ plan,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, adding that: “for now, we don’t…
Prominent Russian political scientist and former Kremlin adviser Gleb Pavlovsky has died at age 71 following a serious illness, Simon Kordonsky, head of the local self-government department at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, told the Vedomosti business daily Monday. Pavlovsky had been an influential figure in Russian politics in the first decade of President Vladimir…
Belarus’s exiled opposition said Sunday that partisans had destroyed a Russian plane at an airstrip near the capital Minsk. “Partisans… confirmed a successful special operation to blow up a rare Russian plane at the airfield in Machulishchy near Minsk,” tweeted Franak Viacorka, a close adviser of opposition figurehead Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. “This is the most successful…
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked an exodus of cultural and sporting stars, many of whom publicly stated their opposition to the war. From pop legend Alla Pugacheva to five-time Olympic gold medalist and synchronized swimming champion Anastasia Davydova, there has been a steady emigration of the country’s luminaries in the year since Russian tanks rolled…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused NATO members of entering the Ukraine conflict by donating arms to the country and said the West planned to break Russia up. “They are sending tens of billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine. This really is participation,” Putin said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 channel that aired…
Since Feb. 24, 2022, a new curtain has descended on the Russian arts. Major Western auction houses and galleries are no longer working with Russian artists, Western companies have left Russia, and many Western suppliers are no longer exporting to Russia. But the impact of sanctions and other actions have impacted big cities and small…
The EU approved a new round of sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine late on Friday, only just meeting a self-imposed deadline for a 10th sanctions package to mark the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion, the bloc’s Swedish presidency announced. The full details of the package, which contains “targeted restricted measures against individuals and entities…
New EU sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine adopted on Saturday target 121 individuals and entities, including Iranian drone manufacturers, officials said. The measures, which were formally adopted on Saturday, are the 10th round of European Union sanctions aimed at undercutting Russia’s finances and military supplies used in its invasion of Ukraine. They echo sanctions…
Maslenitsa — the week before the start of Lent — is a time of gastronomic madness and blini-eating records. This weekend Maslenitsa comes to an end. For most Russians it has always been a short holiday of abundance in the middle of ordinary and gray everyday life. That’s why no one wants to see Shrovetide —…
TBILISI, Georgia — Thousands of people took to the streets of the Georgian capital on Friday in a show of support for Ukraine, one year after Russia launched its invasion of the country. Large crowds moved down Tbilisi’s main thoroughfare Rustaveli Avenue, carrying Ukrainian flags, pro-Ukrainian banners and anti-Putin signs. Some 30,000 demonstrators gathered outside…
President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Friday to do everything to defeat Russia this year, as the first highly sought Leopard battle tanks arrived in Ukraine on the anniversary of Europe’s largest conflict since World War II. The German-made Leopard tanks from Warsaw rolled in to help Ukraine repel Russian troops as Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki…
The United States on Friday announced sweeping sanctions aimed at increasing economic pain for Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and sharpening efforts to crack down on Moscow’s ability to evade existing restrictions. The White House said the latest measures against Russia were rolled out “in coordination with G7 partners and allies,” while Britain announced…
Dozens of Russians have been detained for staging anti-war pickets and other acts of remembrance across the country, as Feb. 24 marks exactly one year since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Mass anti-war protests are effectively outlawed under legislation passed in the wake of the invasion last year, and most prominent opposition activists have…
Нормы: norms In the past year after Russia went from annexation and limited war in Ukraine to a full-scale invasion of the country, the Russian language has undergone a great change. If you dig into the archives and watch a day of Russian television in, say, June of 2021 and then a day in June…
Over 15,000 Russian soldiers have been confirmed killed in Ukraine since the start of the Kremlin’s invasion, according to an independent tally published on the war’s one-year anniversary Friday. The independent Mediazona news website and the BBC Russian service have been verifying the number of Russian troops killed in Ukraine using publicly available information from media…
SHEBEKINO, Belgorod region — When Russian tanks began rolling through the streets of this small town six kilometers from the Ukrainian border in late February last year, most locals didn’t believe that Russia was about to invade its neighbor. “It just sounded unbelievable,” recalled Alexander, 27, a local businessman who requested his name be changed…
Oligarchs reportedly close to Russian President Vladimir Putin who have had bank accounts frozen or property seized after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine are pushing back against the Western sanctions — or finding ways around them. Authorities have frozen about £18.4 billion ($22.2 billion) of Russian assets in Britain, and 17 billion euros worth ($18 billion)…
In the early hours of Feb. 24, 2022, after months of posturing and threats, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to launch an all-out assault on Ukraine from both Russian territory and that of its ally Belarus. Initially marked by Russia’s confident predictions that Kyiv would fall to Moscow within days, the war that…
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday vowed that Russia would be victorious in its war against Ukraine, saying that Moscow is ready to fight up to the Polish border to counter alleged “threats” against it. Medvedev, whose rhetoric has become increasingly radical over the past year, is one of the most vocal supporters of…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised victory against Russia on Friday on the one-year anniversary of Europe’s largest conflict since World War II, as commemorations were held by Kyiv’s Western allies. “We endured. We were not defeated. And we will do everything to gain victory this year,” Zelensky said in a statement released on social media.…
China called Friday for urgent peace talks as it released its plan to end the war in Ukraine, but Western powers quickly rebuffed the proposals while warning against Beijing’s closening ties to Moscow. The 12-point paper calling for a “political settlement” of the crisis follows accusations from the West that China is considering arming Russia,…
The head of Russia’s Wagner Group on Friday said that his fighters had captured a village near Ukraine’s eastern city of Bakhmut, the scene of fierce fighting between the two sides for months. Berkhivka “is entirely under our control,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a statement released by his press service on the one-year anniversary of…
An uncrewed Russian Soyuz capsule took off early Friday from Kazakhstan for the International Space Station to eventually bring home three astronauts whose return vehicle was damaged by a tiny meteoroid. The Soyuz MS-23 vessel lifted off successfully from the Russian-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome, live video broadcast by ISS partner NASA showed. Though the capsule is…
The United Nations voted overwhelmingly Thursday to demand Russia immediately and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine, marking the one-year anniversary of the war with a call for a “just and lasting” peace. Ukraine earned strong backing in a nonbinding vote that saw 141 of the 193 UN members in support, seven opposed and 32,…
Russia on Thursday claimed Ukraine was ramping up efforts to invade Transnistria, Moldova’s Moscow-backed separatist region, and pledged a “response.” The Russian defence ministry’s statement was released on the eve of the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. Since the launch of the full-scale assault against Ukraine a year ago, the Kremlin has been…
A regional deputy in the city of Samara in Russia’s Volga region took what might prove to have been a dangerously light-hearted approach to President Vladimir Putin’s state-of-the-nation address earlier this week, and one that may have left non-Russians wondering what on earth was going on. A YouTube video posted by Communist Party Duma Deputy Mikhail…
The head of Russian mercenary outfit Wagner said Thursday his fighters in Ukraine were getting ammunition after he accused Russia’s top brass of withholding supplies. “Today at 6:00 a.m., it was announced that the shipment of ammunition was starting,” Prigozhin said in a statement shared by his press service, adding that the “main papers have already…
Moscow on Thursday announced the full reopening to road traffic of the controversial Crimea Bridge, which has been closed and under repair since it was badly damaged in an explosion in October. The announcement came on the eve of the first anniversary of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, with both Moscow and Kyiv keen to control…
Adds last three grafs on civilian death. A Russian pilot was killed on Thursday when a military plane crashed in the southern region of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry has announced. “After completing a combat mission, a Su-25 aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces crashed while returning to its base…
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called Russia’s military a “guarantor of national stability,” promising to boost arms production nearly a year after the start of the Ukraine offensive. “A modern, efficient army and navy are a guarantee of the country’s security and sovereignty, a guarantee of its stable development and its future,” Putin said in a…