Russia’s Interior Ministry has created a new department to help enforce martial law, the country’s state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday. The Main Directorate of Rapid Response will also coordinate ministry forces if a state of emergency or a counter-terrorism operation is declared in the country. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the new measures reflected…
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual telephone marathon, Direct Line, will not be held this June for the first time in almost two decades. It is the first time that the program, which see ordinary citizens speak directly to the Russian leader about their daily problems, has been delayed since 2004. In a statement, Kremlin’s spokesman…
Hackers targeted Russian radio station Kommersant FM on Wednesday, broadcasting the Ukrainian national anthem and anti-war songs to protest Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The station was quickly pulled off the air. “The radio station has been hacked. The internet stream will soon be reinstated,” the station confirmed in a statement. The hackers’ anti-war offering included…
Russia and Turkey made little headway on Wednesday in talks aimed at securing safe passage for Ukrainian grain exports, as a Russian sea blockade triggered new warnings of deadly famine. Prior to the war, Ukraine was a major exporter of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but shipments have been blocked since Russia invaded its neighbor…
Every year the Cannes Film Festival is dominated by certain topics with a particular political focus. This year’s theme was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Discussions and disputes began when the film “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” by Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov was entered into the main competition. The president of the European Film Academy Agnieszka Holland criticized…
Europe’s highest human rights court ordered Moscow to overturn its ban on the country’s Jehovah’s Witnesses Tuesday, just hours before Russian lawmakers passed legislation ending its jurisdiction. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said Tuesday that Russia violated 1,444 worshippers’ right to religious freedom when it declared the Christian organization an “extremist” group in…
The value of Russian imports from Belarus has surpassed that of goods arriving from Germany, news service Bloomberg reported Wednesday. Data from Moscow’s largest trading partners shows that Russian imports have plummeted amid a global backlash against the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Figures show a 40% drop in imports to Russia in April compared to…
Up to 400 workers at Georgia’s Borjomi mineral water factory have gone on strike as the firm’s Russian owner has been hit by sanctions and the company stopped paying salaries. The Georgian government, meanwhile, says it has worked out a plan to bail out the company by taking over the Russian shares. Borjomi’s salty tasting…
The Kremlin hopes to annex southern Ukraine’s Kherson region just as it did Crimea, a senior Russian lawmaker said Tuesday. Moscow annexed the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, staging a referendum later condemned as illegal by the West. “The Kherson region’s admission into Russia will be complete, similar to Crimea,” State Duma member…
Moscow chief rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt fled Russia two weeks after the invasion of Ukraine due to pressure to support the military campaign, his daughter-in-law said Tuesday. Journalist Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, the wife of Goldschmidt’s son Benyamin, tweeted that Goldschmidt “refused” to support the war. Goldschmidt and his wife, Dara Goldschmidt, traveled to Hungary in March to…
Russia claimed Tuesday that its forces had taken full control of residential neighborhoods in eastern Ukraine’s Severodonetsk, after Kyiv said its outnumbered troops were fighting on in the key eastern hub. The brutal weeks-long contest for the key city in the Luhansk region continued to grind on, with civilians fleeing and some 800 taking refuge…
A Russian court on Tuesday ordered the arrest in absentia of science fiction writer Dmitry Glukhovsky, who faces up to 10 years in prison for criticism of Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine. The 42-year-old, who is believed to be abroad, has spoken out against the offensive in posts on social media and opinion pieces for…
Russia’s Higher School of Economics (HSE) will allocate 10% of its state-funded places to children of soldiers who served in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine starting this fall, the university rector said Tuesday. “There are 3,800 state-funded places [in total]. Almost 400 children [of soldiers fighting in Ukraine] will enter the Higher School of Economics through…
Russian authorities have placed Andrei Soldatov, one of the country’s leading independent investigative journalists and security services experts, on the federal wanted list. Soldatov found out a criminal case had been opened against him on Monday after two Russia-based banks notified him that his accounts were frozen and he subsequently found himself in the federal…
A Russian bank is set to open a branch in Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region this week, an official in the region’s Moscow-appointed administration announced Tuesday. “I think in the near future, a month or a month and a half, people will be able to open accounts and try to pay via the internet,” said Kirill Stremousov,…
A Russian court sentenced four members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the U.S.-based Christian evangelical movement, to six years in prison for “extremism,” investigators said Tuesday. The four adherents of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who hail from the city of Chita in eastern Siberia, were found guilty of organizing “extremist” activities between 2017 and 2020, the Investigative…
Deutsche Bank has relocated hundreds of its Russia-based IT specialists to Germany following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times reported Tuesday. The Frankfurt-headquartered bank has relocated approximately half of its 1,500 highly skilled software developers based in Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as their families in the past three months, citing difficulties…
A dozen Russian officers have been prosecuted for sending hundreds of young conscript soldiers to fight in Ukraine, a military prosecutor announced Tuesday. “Around 600 conscripts were involved in the special military operation, all of whom were returned as soon as possible,” military prosecutor Artur Yegiev of Russia’s Western Military District said at a Federation…
Russia’s neighbor and ally Belarus announced so-called “wartime transition” exercises Tuesday as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine shows no sign of slowing in its fourth month. The Belarusian defense ministry said all of its army units, command centers and personnel will undertake “a set of training sessions on the transition from peacetime to wartime.” It claimed…
As the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine raged, Yelena Bagaeva, an English teacher from the Siberian republic of Buryatia, held a discussion with her students about the events dominating the headlines. “I tried to convey that any war is bad, that you can’t wish death on Ukrainians and hate them, they are people like us,” she…
A senior executive at Russian internet giant VK has died in an accident in the Arctic, the company confirmed Tuesday following reports that he went missing during a dangerous river crossing. First deputy CEO Vladimir Gabrielyan was said to have gone missing with his colleague, VK’s director of procurement Sergei Merzlyakov, in northern Russia’s remote…
Moscow has threatened to strip the accreditations of U.S. journalists in Russia in response to the treatment of Russian reporters in the United States, Reuters reported Monday, citing unnamed sources with direct knowledge of the meeting. “If they don’t normalize the work of Russian media on U.S. territory, there will be forceful measures as a…
The U.S. Justice Department ordered the seizure Monday of two aircraft owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, saying they had been used in violation of sanctions on Russia imposed over its invasion of Ukraine. The department said in court filings that the two aircraft, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and Gulfstream G650ER executive jet, had been…
Every year the Pushkin House in London awards a prize for the best non-fiction book about or from the Russian-speaking world published in English. In past years they have winnowed down the dozens if not hundreds of contenders to a short list of six books for their jury to read, discuss, and vote on. But…
Major General Roman Kutuzov was reportedly leading an operation around the village of Mykolaiv on Sunday as Ukrainian artillery slammed into Russian positions across eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Hours later, he was reported dead by Russian state television reporter Alexander Sladkov in a Telegram post that hailed the general’s bravery. “The general led the soldiers…
A Moscow court confirmed Monday the arrest of a sixth person linked to an alleged plotting to kill pro-Kremlin TV host Vladimir Solovyev. Moscow resident Timofey Mokiy, 29, stands accused of being part of the “neo-Nazi terrorist group” National Socialism/White Power, according to Russia’s Security Services (FSB). They say that the suspects hoped to assassinate…
Regional officials across Russia are rushing to buy fresh graves plots at an “abnormal“ rate, investigative news outlet Mozhem Obyasnit reported Monday. The number of burials purchased by local governments far outstrips figures from previous years, according to public procurement records. The sudden shift in policy could be linked to unreported deaths among the Russian…
While rising prices, a sweeping disappearance of foreign brands and entertainment, and a general clampdown on anti-war feeling have all impacted life for Russians since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine, life in the Russian capital Moscow largely continues on as normal. And as the war shows no signs of a resolution, popular summertime events…
Latvian officials have granted a broadcasting license to Russian TV channel Dozhd, regional news platform DELFI reported Monday. Dozhd, previously Russia’s only independent television channel, suspended operations in March after being ordered by authorities to stop broadcasting over its coverage of Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Dozhd is expected to shortly resume operations from the Latvian…
Moscow on Monday furiously condemned the rejection by several European countries of a request for Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s plane to pass through their airspace, forcing him to cancel a trip to ally Serbia. “The unthinkable has happened,” Lavrov told an online news conference in Moscow. “This was a deprivation of a sovereign state of…
A Russian court has jailed a Chechen soldier for refusing deployment amid growing reports of military personnel refusing to fight in Ukraine. The court ruling did not specify whether contract soldier Ali Musayev defied orders to fight in Ukraine, only saying that he refused to take part in a “special mission.” But the date of…
In the reactor building of Kursk NPP-2 power unit 1 (with the ROSATOM’s Engineering Division being its general designer and general contractor), the last of the four steam generators has been installed in the design position within the established time frames. The installation of steam generators was carried out by Kursk Branch of Energospetsmontazh JSC.…
June 5, 2022, Cairo, Egypt – Rusatom Healthcare Joint Stock Company (integrator in the field of radiation technologies for medicine and other industries of ROSATOM) and the leading Egyptian pharmaceutical company Pharco Pharmaceuticals signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The Memorandum was signed within the framework of the first Pan-African exhibition and conference Africa Health ExCon…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Serbia has been scrapped after neighboring countries closed their airspace, his spokeswoman confirmed late Sunday. Serbian media reported earlier that Bulgaria, Montenegro and North Macedonia had not granted clearance to Lavrov’s flight over their territories. “Just an hour ago the countries surrounding Serbia closed the natural air channel…
A bridge and a sugar refinery in western Russia’s Kursk region near Ukraine have been damaged in the latest cross-border shelling, Governor Roman Starovoit said Monday. There were no injuries or fatalities in the attack on the Kursk region village of Tetkino, Starovoit said. “The main impact was on the local bridge,” the governor said.…
Russian General Roman Kutuzov has been killed on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, Russian state-owned media reported Sunday. If confirmed by the Russian military, Kutuzov would be at least the fourth Russian general killed in more than three months of fighting in Ukraine. “The general had led soldiers into attack, as if there…
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Sunday that Moscow will hit new targets if the West supplies Ukraine with long-range missiles, hours after several explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The battle for the control of the strategically important eastern city of Severodonetsk also raged on, with regional governor Sergiy Gaiday saying Ukrainian forces now control…
When the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in late February, many Westerners living in Russia started looking for an exit. “When it first started, we were shocked because we honestly didn’t think it was going to happen,” said one U.S. woman and longtime Moscow resident. “We were getting lots of messages saying we have to…
Explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Sunday as a regional governor said Ukrainian forces were pushing back against Russian troops in the strategic eastern city of Severodonetsk. The battle for Ukraine’s eastern city of Severodonetsk was being waged street by street, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, while explosions rocked the capital early Sunday. “Several explosions…
Russian forces have lost ground in Severodonetsk, a key city in eastern Ukraine that has been the scene of ferocious fighting as Moscow seeks to gain control of Donbas, a regional governor said Sunday. “The Russians were in control of about 70 percent of the city, but have been forced back over the past two…
The billionaire founder and CEO of Russian tech giant Yandex has resigned from the company after being targeted by European sanctions in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The European Union included Arkady Volozh in its latest package of sanctions on Russia on Friday, citing his company’s role in “promoting state media and narratives in…
The father of a Russian conscript believed to have been killed in the Moskva battleship’s sinking said he has been questioned by security services on suspicion of sending a bomb threat. Dmitry Shkrebets is the father of 20-year-old conscript Yegor Shkrebets, who was declared missing after the Moskva guided missile cruiser sank in the Black…
On Feb. 24, Russian forces crossed Ukraine’s borders in a full-scale invasion. In the 100 days since the conflict began, thousands have been killed, civilians have been tortured and raped, millions displaced and Ukrainian towns and cities destroyed.
Russian opposition politician and former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who has been critical of Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine, said Friday he had left Russia temporarily but was hoping to return. Kasyanov, who served as President Vladimir Putin’s first prime minister from 2000 to 2004, told AFP in written messages that he was not currently…
Russian TV journalist and Kremlin critic Alexander Nevzorov has been granted Ukrainian citizenship for “outstanding service to the country,” a Ukrainian official said Friday. Russian authorities sentenced Nevzorov to arrest in absentia in May after he criticized Russia’s March 9 shelling of a Mariupol maternity hospital on social media. A Moscow court said his posts…
African Union head Macky Sall on Friday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to take into account the suffering in African countries from food shortages caused by the conflict in Ukraine. Putin hosted the Senegalese president at his Black Sea residence in Sochi on the 100th day of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, with global food shortages…
Russia has achieved “certain results” in its military campaign in Ukraine, the Kremlin said Friday as the war passed the 100-day mark, vowing to continue what it calls a “special military operation” until all its goals are met. President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 with the stated aim of “demilitarizing and…
Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Friday offered to share a baby formula with the United States, highlighting shortages in a country that has put him under sanctions. A product recall and shutdown of a major plant in February triggered a dramatic and ongoing reduction in the availability of formula for parents across the United…
Russian forces will drastically speed up their offensive in Ukraine following an unspecified change of tactics, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Friday as the invasion entered its 100th day. Kadyrov said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had outlined “new tasks to improve further tactics” on the battlefield during their meeting in Moscow on Thursday. “The measures…
Two people were injured after a fire ripped through a 10-story business center in western Moscow on Friday, authorities said. The blaze was put out after more than 120 people were evacuated, the emergencies ministry said. Footage showed massive flames and billowing plumes of smoke as firefighters battled the blaze. “At 12:32 (09:32 GMT) the…
June 3 marks 100 days since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin has long claimed it is carrying out a “special military operation,” not a war, underlining its allegedly limited scope as the “defense” of Ukraine’s Moscow-backed separatist states in Donetsk and Lugansk. But 100 days of war has not just killed thousands,…
China is searching for ways to help Russia financially amid tightening Western sanctions without violating the restrictions itself, The Washington Post reported Thursday. Moscow has requested greater trade, financial and technological support from its largest trading partner Beijing in at least two “tense” exchanges in recent weeks, unnamed Chinese officials told the newspaper. Weapons and ammunition…
On a remote plain on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border the morning of Feb. 24, hundreds of paratroopers from Russia’s 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade boarded helicopters they thought were bound for a training ground in western Belarus. But once the units were airborne, senior officers turned to the men to tell them that they were actually…
Russia’s oil production increased by 5% in May after it saw one of its steepest drops the previous month under Western pressure over the war in Ukraine, the Vedomosti business daily reported Friday. Russian crude output last month totaled 43.1 million tons and averaged 10.2 million barrels per day, Vedomosti cited an unnamed industry source…
Russia is developing a domestic alternative to Europe’s top human rights court, the head of the Association of Russian Lawyers said Thursday. Russia has been outside the jurisdiction of the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) since March, when Moscow was expelled from the Council of Europe over its invasion of Ukraine. Work is currently…
Russia said Thursday it was ready to directly settle any disputes with its creditors after missing payments on its foreign debt due to Western sanctions over Ukraine. Moscow faces the risk of its first external debt default in more than a century. Punishing Western sanctions on Russia have largely severed the country from the international…
The variety of goods on sale at Russian shops has fallen across nearly every category this spring, according to research cited by the BBC’s Russian service. Russian consumers face increasingly limited product choices as Western sanctions and the exit of more than 900 foreign businesses over the war in Ukraine have cut off many import flows. “Where…
Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom this week closed the door for further cooperation with Norway, ending nearly three decades of partnership which saw Norway give Russia more than 2 billion euros to help it secure its nuclear dump sites and improve safety at icebreakers and power plants. Rosatom representatives on Tuesday announced that Norway is no…
Russian forces on Thursday hammered the last Ukrainian defenses holding a strategic city in the Donbas region as the war approached its 100th day and Washington warned it could still last for months. Vladimir Putin’s troops have set their sights on capturing eastern Ukraine since Ukrainian forces repelled them from seizing Kyiv after the Russian…
Croatian police have arrested a Russian activist linked to protest punk group Pussy Riot, acting on an international warrant issued by Turkmenistan, a member of the group said Wednesday. Aysoltan Niyazova was arrested on the Croatian border early Monday when she entered the country from Slovenia with the group, Maria Alyokhina told reporters. Pussy Riot…