The Russian division of Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank will suspend foreign currency transfers for nearly all of its clients in the country starting next month, the bank said in a statement on Thursday. “From Sept. 2, 2024, outgoing cross-border transfers in foreign currencies will no longer be available for our clients except for a limited number…
Veteran human rights defender Oleg Orlov was one of the 16 prisoners freed by Russia on Aug. 1 in a historic exchange between Russia and the West. Orlov, 71, a vocal critic of the invasion of Ukraine, had been imprisoned this year for “discrediting” the Russian army’s actions in Ukraine. A co-chair of the Nobel…
A court in the Ural Mountains region of Yekaterinburg sentenced U.S.-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina to 12 years in prison for “treason” on Thursday after she allegedly donated around $50 to a pro-Ukraine charity. Karelina was arrested in January while visiting her family in the city of Yekaterinburg. Last week, her lawyer said she pleaded guilty to…
Suppliers of bread, dairy, chocolate and beer in Russia have informed retailers of impending price increases of up to 40% over the next month, the business daily Kommersant reported Thursday, citing price-increase notices from at least 13 companies. The price hikes, slated for August and September, are being attributed to a combination of high inflation…
Continental shelf exploration in the Arctic Ocean continues with Rosneft’s support as part of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s strategic initiative ‘Geology.Revival of a Legend’
At least four people including two paramedics were injured in drone attacks on the Belgorod region town of Shebekinio, authorities said early Thursday. Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a female paramedic suffered injuries to one of her legs and arms. A male paramedic received a concussion and shrapnel wounds on his back due to…
Authorities in Russia have launched more than 10,000 cases against people accused of “discrediting” the army since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the independent news outlet Mediazona reported Thursday. Legislation passed soon after Russia’s February 2022 invasion punishes public acts or statements seen as critical of the Russian armed forces. Thousands of people have been…
The 5th School of Russia and IAEA on Nuclear Knowledge Management was held in Moscow at the Rosatom Technical Academy. The event brought together 28 representatives from 14 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the CIS. Viktor Mazepov, Director for International Cooperation of the Rosatom Technical Academy, addressed the participants with a welcoming speech:…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that his troops were “moving further” into Russia, as Kyiv’s biggest ever cross-border attack stretched into a second week. The Ukrainian army stormed into Russia’s Kursk region on Aug. 6, capturing dozens of settlements in the biggest offensive by a foreign army on Russian soil since World War II.…
Hackers with suspected connections to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) are using sophisticated phishing attacks to target civil society figures in Russia, Europe and the United States, according to a report published by digital rights groups on Wednesday. The Russian rights organization First Department said that phishing attacks since the start of this year have…
The work on this projects is an example of constructive partnership that opens up new prospects for cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear energy. On August 14 the reactor vessel and steam generator for Unit 4 of Xudapu NPP were shipped from the production site of Atommash (Mechanical Engineering Division of ROSATOM). The nuclear…
Law enforcement authorities in Moscow arrested a U.S. citizen for allegedly assaulting a police officer, state media reported Thursday, citing investigators. The American, later identified as Joseph Tater, was approached by police on Monday night after he tried to check into a hotel without a Russian migration card — a document issued to foreign citizens when…
German prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diver believed to have been involved in the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion, German media reported Wednesday. The man, identified as Volodymyr Z., is suspected to have been part of a team that planted explosive devices on the pipelines. The warrant was issued in June,…
The Russian government announced Wednesday that it was reintroducing a ban on gasoline exports for another six months to “maintain a stable situation” on the domestic fuel market after major price hikes. The government said in a statement that it has “brought in a restriction on exports of gasoline from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31,…
Russian forces continue to battle Ukrainian troops for control of the strategic border city and vital gas hub of Sudzha in the Kursk region, according to a senior-ranking military commander. “The enemy is all around and in some parts of the city. Active clashes happen there each day,” Major General Apti Alaudinov, commander of the…
Russian soldier Yaroslav Tipusyak spent his 19th birthday as a prisoner of war in Ukraine — just a day after he was captured by Kyiv’s forces in Russia’s Kursk region last week. He was serving his compulsory military service — the year of mandatory army service that all Russian men must complete — and never crossed the…
The welded metal structure of 396 tons and 6.5 meters high was moved to its regular place by a crawler crane. The fifth tier of the inner containment (IC) has been installed at the Akkuyu NPP Unit 3 (Turkiye). The ring-shaped welded metal structure of 396 tons and 6.5 meters high, assembled at a special…
Angarsk Petrochemical Company together with RN-Bitumen (subsidiaries of Rosneft) commissioned a new bitumen tanker loading complex
Russia’s Defense Ministry said early Wednesday that its air defense systems intercepted 117 Ukrainian drones and four missiles across eight regions overnight. All four Tochka tactical missiles and 37 drones were downed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have gained control of hundreds of square kilometers of territory since launching a surprise cross-border incursion last…
Authorities in the Belgorod region declared a regionwide state of emergency on Wednesday, saying the situation was “extremely difficult” amid shelling attacks and Ukraine’s assault on the neighbouring Kursk region. “The situation in our Belgorod region remains extremely difficult and tense due to shellings from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Houses are destroyed, civilians died and…
Russian authorities announced Tuesday that they will help move people displaced from their homes in the Kursk region amid ongoing fighting to parts of occupied eastern Ukraine. Acting Kursk region Governor Alexei Smirnov said he was working in coordination with Yevgeny Balitsky, the Moscow-appointed head of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, to accommodate evacuees in resorts and…
Ukraine controlled at least 800 square kilometers (308 square miles) of territory in Russia’s Kursk region as of Monday, according to an AFP analysis of data provided by the Institute for the Study of War. Kyiv launched a surprise offensive into Russia’s southwestern Kursk region last Tuesday, capturing over two dozen settlements in the most…
Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his calls for Palestinian statehood in a meeting with Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday. “We believe that in order to ensure lasting, reliable and stable peace in the region, it’s necessary to… create a full-fledged Palestinian state,” Putin told Abbas at the presidential residence outside Moscow. He also expressed “great…
President Vladimir Putin appointed his aide and former bodyguard Alexei Dyumin to oversee Russia’s military response to the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region, a federal lawmaker said Tuesday, an apparent confirmation of rumors circulated earlier by Russian military bloggers. “Indeed, Alexei Gennadyevich Dyumin was summoned yesterday and tasked with supervising the counterterrorist operation,” State…
Chechen special service units deployed to Russia’s border region of Kursk to repel the Ukrainian incursion are coming under strong criticism from pro-war military bloggers who accuse Ramzan Kadyrov’s men of insubordination, desertion and collaboration with the Ukrainian army. Kyiv’s daring assault entered its second week on Tuesday with Ukraine claiming control of approximately 1,000…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested an employee of a military unit in southern Russia for allegedly passing information to Ukraine, state media reported Tuesday. The woman, a resident of the city of Rostov-on-Don, reportedly joined a unit in the Southern Military District in January 2023. There, she gathered “information on arsenals, bases and depots,” the…
Russia’s Central Bank revoked the banking license of American Express Bank on Tuesday following the lender’s decision to self-liquidate in the country. American Express suspended its operations in Russia and was one of three U.S. credit card giants that blocked Russian banks from their payment networks in response to Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. “The…
An expedition of ornithological scientists to study red-listed bird species was organised for the first time on the Brekhovsky Islands of the Taymyr, as well as the Yara and Tanama rivers
KYIV — Before it was ripped apart by a Russian missile strike last month, the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital treated about 700 patients daily. Today, Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital operates at roughly 60% capacity. One month after the devastating strike that killed at least 42 people, including five children, global headlines have moved on. Yet for…
Skywatchers across Russia were treated to a rare overnight spectacle as the northern lights coincided with a meteor shower. The stunning display was visible from the western Pskov region and the southwestern Voronezh region to the Tyumen and Irkutsk regions in the Ural Mountains and Siberia. Images capturing the vibrant scarlet and green auroras, along…
A group of unidentified vandals splattered red paint on the entrance doors of Lithuania’s embassy in Moscow, the Baltic country’s foreign ministry said Monday. The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said it lodged a formal protest to Russian Embassy Counsellor Andrei Gasiuk following the incident. Videos shared by media outlets showed several red handprints on the Lithuanian…
President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered his army to “dislodge” Ukrainian troops who stormed over the border last week, as authorities in the Kursk region said over 120,000 people have been displaced due to the fighting. Kyiv launched a surprise offensive into southwestern Russia’s Kursk region on Tuesday, capturing over two dozen settlements in the…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Monday that it captured a Ukrainian soldier who claimed his commanders had issued shoot-to-kill orders during the assault on Russia’s Kursk region. According to the FSB, the captured soldier, identified as a member of Ukraine’s 80th Air Assault Brigade, said during an interrogation that Ukrainian soldiers were instructed to…
Russia’s Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said Monday that developing artificial intelligence, robots and drones is crucial for ensuring Moscow’s victory in its ongoing confrontation with the West. Referring to the invasion of Ukraine as an “armed confrontation between Russia and the collective West,” Belousov outlined four “simultaneous conditions for success in modern military conflicts.” In…
A Russian court sentenced the head of an Uzbek diaspora group to four years in prison for “inciting hatred” after he earlier posted a meme spoofing the country’s rising inflation and mobilization for the war in Ukraine, media reported Monday. Usman Baratov, a naturalized Russian citizen who heads an Uzbek diaspora association called Vatandosh, was…
Kyiv and Moscow exchanged blame late Sunday after a fire broke out at a cooling tower of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Russian forces seized days after launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia, Ukraine and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said there had been no detected spike in radiation levels or any…
Authorities in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions on Monday ordered the evacuation of areas near the border with Ukraine as Kyiv’s forces made apparent advances deeper into Russian territory as part of their ongoing offensive. Overall, emergency authorities say more than 76,000 people have been temporarily relocated to safe places in the Kursk region since…
Thousands of Ukrainian troops are taking part in an incursion aiming to destabilize Russia by showing the country’s weaknesses, a top official from Ukraine has said as the assault entered its sixth day. “We are on the offensive. The aim is to stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation…
A man and his four-year-old son were killed in an overnight Russian missile attack near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the emergency service said Sunday. Explosions rang out Saturday night in the center and east of Kyiv, AFP journalists noted, as Ukraine’s air force said two Russian missiles targeted the city. Air raid sirens sounded in…
Struggling to put down a major Ukrainian incursion for a fifth day, Russia on Saturday said it had evacuated tens of thousands of people from its border region, launched a “counter-terror operation” and warned that the fighting was endangering a nuclear power plant. Ukrainian units stormed into Russia’s western Kursk region on Tuesday morning in…
On the evening of August 9, 2024, a telephone conversation took place between Alexei Likhachev, General Director of the ROSATOM, and Rafael Grossi, IAEA Director General. The conversation was organized at the initiative of the Russian side. The key topic of the consultations was the situation with the Kursk NPP. During the conversation Alexei Likhachev…
Here’s a strange bit of trivia: mushrooms are almost never mentioned in Old Russian chronicles and sources. Does that mean no one ate them? No, on the contrary, it was so common to gather, dry and cook mushrooms that no one thought of writing about it. But mushrooms highlight the differences in the diet of…
Yevgeny Poddubny Russian State TV War Correspondent Survives Drone Attack Initial reports falsely claimed Yevgeny Poddubny had died, but authorities later confirmed that he had regained consciousness. 1 Min read
The pace of Russia’s economic growth slowed in the second quarter of 2024, official data showed Friday, amid concerns over stubborn inflation and warnings of “overheating.” Gross domestic product (GDP) dipped from 5.4% in the first quarter to 4% from April to June, the lowest quarterly result since the start of 2023 but still a…
Russia has blocked the Signal messaging app for alleged “violations” of the country’s legislation, state media regulator Roskomnadzor told the RBC business daily on Friday. The messenger was restricted “due to violations of the requirements of Russian legislation, compliance with which is necessary to prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes,”…
An 87-year-old pensioner was assaulted on a Moscow bus for his alleged criticism of the Wagner mercenary group, the independent rights project OVD-Info reported Friday, citing an eyewitness and the veteran’s lawyer. Dmitry Grinchiy was attacked by two fellow passengers who claimed he called Wagner fighters “murderers” as their bus passed a memorial to the…
Natural gas prices in Europe hit their highest level of the year this week after Ukrainian forces took control of the last remaining transit hub for Russian gas into Europe. Prices rose for at least three consecutive days, surpassing 40 euros ($43.71) per megawatt-hour for the first time since Dec. 4, 2023, according to Dutch…
Despite the EU’s partial embargo on Russian oil and some European countries’ ban on Russian gas purchases, the Kremlin’s fossil fuel revenues show resilience, prompting further soul-searching among Ukraine’s allies on the future course of action. Russia weathers the sanctions storm Over two years into the invasion of Ukraine, sanctioning Russia’s energy sector — the…
Russian pro-war military bloggers are criticizing Russia’s military leadership after a video circulating online appeared to show a Russian military convoy destroyed by Ukrainian shelling in the Kursk region. The footage shows damaged military trucks with what appear to be the burned bodies of Russian military personnel who were reportedly sent to the Kursk region as reinforcements…
The Russian military deployed additional forces to fight invading Ukrainian troops in the southwestern Kursk region, Defense Ministry-affiliated media reported Friday. The Zvezda broadcaster shared videos of several army trucks and other military vehicles on a highway crossing into the Kursk region. “The marching columns include [BM-21] Grad multiple rocket launcher combat vehicles, tanks transported…
Western-sanctioned Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska repeated his calls for a Russian-Ukrainian ceasefire and slammed Moscow’s war spending in an interview with Japanese media published Thursday. “If you want to stop the war, first you need to stop the fire,” Deripaska told Japan’s The Nikkei daily, calling for an “immediate, unconditional ceasefire.” The publication said Deripaska criticized…
Drying blood was smeared across a billboard advertising electronics and black smoke billowed over the tangled metal remains of a supermarket after a Russian strike tore into Kostyantynivka in east Ukraine. Anya Alyabieva was dozing off in her shop that sells hardware and military accessories when the blast jolted her from her stupor and sent panic…
This article was first published by Politika.Kozlov. Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk and Lipetsk border regions has stunned the Russian military and come as a “slap in the face” to President Vladimir Putin personally, four Russian officials told Politika.Kozlov. The ongoing offensive, which Russia has failed to repel for three days, has exposed Russia’s territorial…
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry on Friday initiated a federal-level emergency response in the southwestern Kursk region as clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces continued for a fourth day following Kyiv’s surprise incursion earlier this week. The Russian government classifies a federal emergency as a man-made or natural disaster resulting in more than 500 casualties or…
9 August commemorates the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, established by the UN General Assembly
One person was killed and two others were injured in a Ukrainian attack on southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region, local authorities said Friday. The man died in the border town of Shebekino, which authorities said has repeatedly come under shelling and drone attacks over the past 24 hours. “A man died in an ambulance while on…
Ukraine’s military said early Friday that it hit a Russian airfield in the Lipetsk region in an overnight strike that destroyed ammunition warehouses. “Last night, the Ukrainian Defence Forces attacked the Lipetsk airfield,” Ukraine’s General Staff said, adding that they struck “warehouses with guided aerial bombs and a number of other facilities.” The overnight attack…
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law expanding legislation on “undesirable” organizations to include state-sponsored entities in addition to non-governmental organizations. Since introducing their “undesirable” list in 2015 to crack down on foreign-funded NGOs, Russian authorities have expanded the law to target independent news outlets, human rights groups, environmental organizations and educational institutions. Under the…
Users across Russia reported widespread outages of YouTube on Thursday, just weeks after Russian authorities criticized the video streaming platform for what they described as anti-Kremlin actions. The online monitoring service Sboi.rf reported receiving around 12,000 complaints about YouTube within a 10-minute period. Downdetector, another outage tracking service, reported that three-quarters of the complaints it…
Poland arrested a former ally of the late Russian dissenter Alexei Navalny and exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky on charges of threatening public safety, Polish media reported Wednesday, citing local authorities. Igor Rogov was detained on July 29 in the southern Polish city of Katowice where he was studying on a scholarship, reported Vot Tak, a…