Cats are the most popular pet in Russia, with about half of Russians reporting one in their household. Over the past weekend, social media has been in an uproar after a pet cat named Twix was thrown from a train and died in freezing conditions. What happened? Twix, a ginger and white cat, was traveling…
Updated with Russian officials’ remarks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday signed a decree calling for the preservation of Ukrainian national identity in Russia. The decree, announced to coincide with Ukraine’s Day of Unity on Jan. 22, states that “Russia has systematically destroyed national identity and oppressed Ukrainians in the lands historically inhabited by them,” namely the…
Russian pro-war singer Shaman’s latest single about a “hero who came home alive” has sparked an online debate over its potentially hidden references to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Shaman, whose real name is Yaroslav Dronov, came out of relative obscurity and has become one of the most recognizable faces of Russia’s propaganda machine after…
Authorities in northwestern Russia’s Leningrad region warned residents late Sunday that the territory, with a population of over 2 million, could come under attack from drones following a recent spate of strikes on local energy infrastructure. “A high-alert regime has been declared at critical infrastructure facilities in all districts,” the Leningrad region’s press service announced on…
The Kremlin on Monday blamed Ukraine for an attack on a gas terminal at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga over the weekend. The facility belonging to Novatek, Russia’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, was set ablaze on Sunday in the western port town, close to the border with Estonia. “The Kyiv regime continues to…
A Russian plane believed to be carrying six people has crashed in mountainous northeastern Afghanistan, the air transport agency Rosaviatsia announced Sunday. The Falcon 10 “disappeared from the radar” and communication was lost on Saturday evening, the federal agency said. “According to preliminary information, six people were aboard the aircraft: four crew and two passengers.”…
A blaze at a natural gas terminal in the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga on Sunday was caused by an “external factor,” said Novatek, Russia’s biggest exporter of liquified natural gas. The operator said there were no victims and the fire was “currently localized,” at the site 110 kilometers (70 miles) west of St Petersburg near…
The Russian army said Sunday it had captured a small village in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine. “The village of Krakhmalnoye in the Kharkiv region was liberated,” the Russian defence ministry said in its daily bulletin on operations in Ukraine, citing “successful active operations.” Some 45 people lived in the village before Moscow’s invasion…
A strike on a crowded market in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine left at least 25 people dead and 20 wounded on Sunday, Moscow-backed officials said. Both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of a sharp escalation in attacks on civilian areas in the past two months. Shattered storefronts and broken…
Russia will consider a bill next week that would confiscate the money, property and valuables of anyone convicted of spreading “fakes” about its army, the country’s top lawmaker said Saturday. Moscow made criticism of the military illegal shortly after launching its assault on Ukraine in February 2022, and has detained thousands of the conflict’s opponents…
“People who get drunk on ordinary days do it out of love for the art of drinking. But on Tatyana’s Day they get drunk out out of a sense of duty — to prove their solidarity with the drinking intelligentsia. Even if life has taken us in different directions, the ties that bind us in…
Russia on Friday summoned France’s ambassador in Moscow and issued a formal complaint over his country’s alleged “growing involvement” in the war in Ukraine. The move comes just days after Moscow claimed, without providing evidence, that it had killed a group of French mercenaries in a strike on the northeastern city of Kharkiv. “On 19…
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have agreed to build a series of bunkers on their borders with Russia and Belarus to defend against their militaries in the event of an attack, Estonia’s Defense Ministry announced Friday. The three NATO and EU members signed an agreement on the construction of “anti-mobility defensive installations” in the coming years.…
LONDON — Ilya Ponomaryov is in a good mood. Speaking to The Moscow Times in London, the former Russian lawmaker turned controversial opposition figure orders tea, joking that his tastes were unchanged by the fatal poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, who he says was a personal friend. Ponomaryov has been in exile since 2016, when he…
Russia has placed the head of an Uzbek diaspora association in pre-trial detention for “inciting hatred” with a meme that spoofed the country’s economic inflation and mobilization for the war in Ukraine, authorities said Friday. Usman Baratov was accused of “mocking” Russian soldiers on social media. Russian Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin said he ordered a criminal…
Vanya is Alive The play ‘Vanya is Alive,’ written by Natalia Lizorkina and translated and directed by Ivanka Polchenko, is back in London this and next weekend after a very successful run in Edinburgh at the Fringe Festival last summer and again in October. Written immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the play follows…
Authorities in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk on Friday declared a state of emergency amid a series of heating pipe bursts that have left residents without central heating in freezing temperatures. “Unfortunately, in the area of the heating system failure… things are getting worse,” Novosibirsk region Governor Andrei Travnikov wrote on the messaging app Telegram. Utility…
Ukraine on Friday urged the West to “get serious” about curbing Russia’s arms production by shutting loopholes that allow it to keep sourcing critical components for weapons. Western countries have sanctioned swathes of Russia’s arms industry and banned the export of military goods and parts. But Kyiv says Russia is still getting hold of key components…
Russian prosecutors have requested a 28-year prison sentence on terrorism charges for a woman accused of killing military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, St. Petersburg’s court system said Friday. Tatarsky, a former bank robber and pro-war Ukrainian rebel, was assassinated while speaking at an April 2023 event at a St. Petersburg cafe frequented by pro-war activists and…
This week all theaters in Russia that are funded by the federal government received a letter from the Culture Ministry informing them of planned changes in the state mission tasks. The main task is no longer filling theaters. It’s the “creation of works reflecting the traditional Russian spiritual-moral values.” Theaters have been asked to review…
A Siberian court has sentenced a disabled and retired airline pilot to more than eight years in prison on charges of trying to join the Ukrainian army, the human rights project Perviy Otdel reported Friday. Igor Pokusin, 61, was born in southwestern Ukraine’s port city of Odesa but today lives in Russia’s republic of Khakassia,…
Russians are celebrating the Orthodox Epiphany, the holiday that honors the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, by immersion into frigid rivers, ponds and lakes across the country. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the Epiphany on Jan. 19, but the festivities traditionally begin on the day before. According to tradition, people immerse themselves completely…
The International Esports Federation (IESF) announced Thursday it was suspending the Russian esports governing body over claims by Kyiv that it has established offices in occupied Ukrainian territories. IESF said it made the decision after reviewing evidence provided by both the Russian Esports Federation (RESF) and its Ukrainian counterpart, UESF. It did not specify when and…
Ukraine was behind an attack that sparked a huge inferno at an oil depot in western Russia on Friday, a source in the Ukrainian security services told AFP. The strike is the second on a Russian oil depot in as many days after Kyiv claimed another attack on an oil storage facility in St. Petersburg…
Scores of demonstrators gathered in the capital of Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan on Friday to protest the jailing of prominent Bashkir activist Fayil Alsynov. According to the independent news outlet SOTAvision, around 1,500 protesters gathered at Salawat Yulayev Square in Ufa, singing songs, dancing and calling for the release of Alsynov, who this week was…
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy on Thursday visited Evan Gershkovich, the American Wall Street Journal reporter held in Moscow on espionage charges, the embassy said. The 32-year-old was detained on a reporting trip to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg in March 2023, and is currently being held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison. “Evan remains…
This week, the republic of Bashkortostan became the epicenter of some of the largest street protests seen in Russia since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago. Thousands of people gathered outside a court in the town of Baymak on Monday and Wednesday in support of prominent Bashkir activist Fayil Alsynov, who was sentenced to…
President Vladimir Putin is defying Russian election laws by unofficially campaigning during his work trips and meetings while enjoying preferential coverage on state television. In the five weeks since Putin announced that he will run for a fifth term in the upcoming presidential election, independent observers have noted violations in both his self-nomination as a…
A military court in Saint Petersburg sentenced a Russian man to eight years on terrorism and treason charges for plotting to burn down an army recruitment building in 2022. Russia saw a spate of attacks on draft offices in the fall of 2022 after President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial” mobilization drive, calling up some…
At least 2,500 scholars have left Russia since its forces invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago, the independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported Thursday, citing data from global research databases. Between 2022 and 2023, some 1,600 Russian scholars changed their employment status to a foreign institution, while 900 others either quit or deleted their…
Russia’s biggest online retailer Wildberries said Thursday that law enforcement officers were carrying out searches at its Moscow headquarters, just days after a fire destroyed its warehouse in St. Petersburg. On Saturday, a fire covering some 70,000 square meters ripped through a Wildberries warehouse on the south side of St. Petersburg, destroying an estimated 17 billion rubles…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday its forces had captured a small village in eastern Ukraine, as both sides struggle to make significant battlefield gains after two years of fighting. “In the Donetsk direction, as a result of successful actions of Southern Group troop units, the settlement of Vesele in the Donetsk People’s Republic was liberated,”…
Russian authorities are seeking to jail Russian army veteran and ex-security officer Igor Girkin for almost five years on extremism charges, his wife said Thursday. Public court records show that Girkin, 53, was charged with “public incitement of extremist activity,” which is punishable by up to five years in prison. “The prosecutor requested four years…
A city lawmaker in the Russian city of Perm has fled the country after being expelled from the Communist Party over an online post where he criticized the invasion of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin, the politician told The Moscow Times on Thursday. Sergei Medvedev said he faced backlash from inside his party and from Russian pro-war…
Estonia said on Thursday it would not renew the residence permit of the head of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, saying the Russian national was “a security risk.” The decision means Metropolitan Eugene must leave before his current permit runs out on Feb. 6. “The Estonian state is not extending the residence…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that Moscow’s large-scale military intervention against Ukraine had “cleansed” Russian society, after thousands fled the country or were detained since fighting broke out. Since the Kremlin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022, officials in Moscow have repeatedly branded as “traitors” Russians who fled the country to escape…
The governor of Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan said Thursday that violence between protesters and police in his region the day before was provoked by separatists living abroad. Authorities launched criminal cases into what they described as mass riots and violence against law enforcement officials after clashes erupted on Wednesday over the imprisonment of activist Fayil…
Kyiv said Thursday that Russian forces used nearly three dozen Iranian-designed drones to attack Ukraine overnight, while also firing guided missiles at the northeastern city of Kharkiv. The aerial attack is the latest overnight barrage by Russian forces and comes after Ukraine’s foreign minister said his country’s priority was to gain control of Ukrainian airspace.…
Updated to include Kommersant, Ukrainska Pravda reports. Russian air defense systems intercepted a drone in St. Petersburg overnight, the first such instance in the country’s second-largest city since the invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, authorities said Thursday. Residents reported hearing loud bangs at around 1:00 a.m. local time over Vasilyevsky Island, not far from the…
European nations should stop sending refugees from the North Caucasus back to Russia as they risk being tortured or being forced to fight in Ukraine, the human rights organization Amnesty International said on Thursday. The call comes as France pushes to expel more people from the North Caucasus, the home region of radical Islamists who…
Russia said Wednesday it had targeted a group of French fighters in a long-range strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, an attack authorities said injured several civilians. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city lying close to the Russian border, has been under persistent shelling since Russia launched large-scale hostilities in Ukraine in February 2022. “On…
A gay Chechen man has fled Russia after spending months in police custody, where he faced abuse from law enforcement officials linked to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, the North Caucasus LGBTQ+ rights group SK SOS announced Wednesday. Rizvan Dadayev was detained in the summer of 2022 after a video circulated online where local extortionists forced…
Russia experienced its third hottest year on record in 2023, the head of Russia’s Hydrometeorological Center said at a press conference on Wednesday. Global temperatures last year smashed records going back to 1850, with the planet measuring 1.35-1.54 Celcius warmer on average compared to pre-industrial levels. While 2023 was just the third hottest ever reliably recorded for…
Two lawsuits have been filed against the organizers of a “nearly naked” party that sparked nationwide controversy last month, Russian state media reported Wednesday. Television host and blogger Anastasia Ivleeva, who organized the star-studded private event on Dec. 21, was hit with a one billion-ruble ($11.2 million) class-action lawsuit for allegedly having caused “moral suffering.” The…
Huge clouds of steam billowed from the streets of Novosibirsk on Wednesday after a pipe carrying boiling water for heating homes burst, marking the second such incident in the Siberian city over the past week. A gush of steam, described as a “geyser” on social media, reached as high as the seventh floor of nearby apartment…
Nine people were injured in an explosion and fire at a chemical plant in southern Russia’s Rostov region, authorities said Wednesday, less than a year after the plant’s opening. Security camera footage captured the moment when a huge explosion ripped through the Shakhtinsky Polyester Plant in the town of Shakhty. Five people were hospitalized with various…
Russia’s largest lender Sberbank posted a record net profit of 1.49 billion rubles ($16.87 billion) in 2023, marking a fivefold increase from the year before, when Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine hammered Russia’s financial sector. The preliminary financial results, released Wednesday, show the bank’s recovery from a 75% drop in 2022, as Russian banks lost…
Kyiv said Wednesday that Russia had launched 20 Iranian-designed attack drones at targets in southern Ukraine overnight and that its air defense systems destroyed all but one. The announcement came after authorities said 20 people had been injured in Russian attacks in the eastern city of Kharkiv, as well as Odesa on the southern Black…
Violent clashes erupted between protesters and police after a court in central Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan jailed activist Fayil Alsynov on charges of inciting ethnic hatred, local media reported. A court in the town of Baymak, some 1,400 kilometers southeast of Moscow, earlier on Wednesday sentenced Alsynov to four years in prison. The activist was…
This is the world’s first new generation lead-cooled fast reactor. ROSATOM has achieved a landmark milestone in construction of a power unit with the innovative fast neutron BREST-OD-300 reactor on the site of the Pilot demonstration energy complex (PDEC) in Seversk, Tomsk Region (West Siberia). The steel reactor baseplate with the total weight of 165…
A court in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan sentenced prominent local activist Fayil Alsynov to four years in a penal colony on charges of “inciting interethnic hatred,” the regional news outlet Idel.Realii reported Wednesday. The case against the activist has mobilized many in the Ural Mountains republic who say that Alsynov is being unfairly targeted over…
Russia will open polling stations for its March presidential election at three diplomatic missions in the United States, its envoy in Washington said Wednesday. The announcement came as Moscow said it has not yet decided if voting will take place in what it calls “unfriendly” countries — those which it accuses of carrying out “hostile”…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Moscow’s forces had the upper hand in their almost two-year conflict with Ukraine, warning the rival state it risks an “irreparable” blow if it continued. The frontlines in eastern and southern Ukraine have barely moved in more than a year as the conflict has ground to a stalemate.…
A Russian National Guard officer has been sentenced to six years in prison for buying anti-drone radars that failed to protect the Russian-built Crimea bridge from attacks, media reported Tuesday. Colonel Sergei Volkov, who previously headed Rosgvardia’s naval unit, was detained in March 2023 on charges of abuse of office for signing a contract on…
Law enforcement agents in central Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan have detained several allies of activist Fayil Alsynov, who stands trial this week on charges of inciting ethnic hatred, according to the local Telegram channel. The detentions come amid unconfirmed reports that the Kremlin may have authorized regional law enforcement agencies to “use force” against protesters. Thousands gathered…
MOSCOW — In the Russian winter cold, a group of women relatives of mobilized Russian soldiers lays flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin walls. Wearing white scarves, a symbol of their protest movement, the women said it was a rare opportunity to express their opposition to the mobilization and publicly demand…
Chinese state banks are stepping up compliance on funding to Russian clients amid threats of secondary sanctions from the U.S., Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Last month, the United States threatened to cut off access to its financial system for foreign banks that back companies targeted for supporting Russia’s defense industry. According…
Residents of Ulan-Ude in Russia’s Far East republic of Buryatia were taken by surprise to learn that local authorities plan to construct a new prison for 3,000 inmates near their homes. “We were not informed about this terrible news that they plan to build a mega-prison, a special regime zone,” one local resident said in…
The Russian and North Korean foreign ministers on Tuesday hailed deepening ties between their two countries. Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Choe Son Hui offered their remarks during talks in Moscow that come on the heels of a high-profile visit from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year. “We always support North Korea at the…
A heating main burst in the central Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod has flooded streets with boiling-hot water, burning several passersby, local media and health officials said Tuesday. Videos posted on social media showed steam rising from snowy streets and sidewalks as pedestrians attempted to navigate the hazardous environment. “I can’t see a damn thing.…