Russia’s incoming Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said Tuesday that he will work toward increasing the military’s effectiveness so that Moscow can achieve “victory” in its war against Ukraine. “The main priority, of course, remains achieving victory and ensuring that the military-political goals of the special military operation… are achieved,” Belousov said in an address to Russia’s…
A Ukrainian student who has been arrested multiple times in Russia for anti-war social media posts has been expelled from Moscow State University, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported Tuesday. Since early April, bachelor’s student Serhiy Hulko has been detained three consecutive times on a series of misdemeanor charges, including for the public display of…
TBILISI, Georgia — Georgian lawmakers approved a controversial bill on regulating “foreign influence” in its third and final reading on Tuesday, defying the country’s largest protests in years. The legislation has plunged the South Caucasus country into a political crisis, with tens of thousands rallying against what they say mirrors Russia’s repressive “foreign agent” law…
President Vladimir Putin has appointed the long-serving Russian Security Council chairman Nikolai Patrushev as a presidential aide, the Kremlin announced Tuesday. Patrushev, 73, was dismissed on Sunday after serving 16 years as head of Russia’s Security Council, an executive branch body that advises the president on strategic and security issues. Long considered a key member…
Rescue workers on Tuesday retrieved a woman’s body from beneath the rubble of an apartment building in the western Russian city of Belgorod that collapsed after being struck by a Ukrainian missile over the weekend, raising the death toll in the attack to 16. “Another victim was found dead at the site of the collapse of…
Russia’s state-owned rail company said Tuesday that a freight train derailed overnight near the southern city of Volgograd due to suspected sabotage. “Due to the intervention of unauthorized persons, wagons from a freight train derailed [in the town of]… Kotluban,” the local branch of Russian Railways said. Kotluban is around 300 kilometers from the border…
President Vladimir Putin will visit China this week at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the Kremlin announced Tuesday, in the Russian leader’s first trip abroad since being sworn into his fifth term. “The two leaders will discuss a wide range of issues concerning their comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation, identify key areas…
Closure of the thermal control layer made it possible to proceed with the installation of the turbine-generator set. Turbine building roof installation was completed at Akkuyu NPP Unit 2 (Türkiye, being built by Rosatom). The operation lasted a little over three months. The turbine building roof consists of nine prefabricated truss blocks with a total…
Updated to add the Investigative Committee’s confirmation. Russian law enforcement authorities have arrested another senior Defense Ministry official on criminal bribery allegations, the country’s Investigative Committee confirmed Tuesday. Lieutenant-General Yury Kuznetsov, who heads the Defense Ministry’s personnel directorate, has been placed in pre-trial detention on large-scale bribery charges, the Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said. Investigators…
An economist and technocrat with no military background, Russia’s new Defense Minister Andrei Belousov has been tasked with deploying his number-crunching skills and bureaucratic oversight to secure Russian victory against Ukraine. Belousov has been one of President Vladimir Putin’s most trusted and influential advisers and is widely seen as his point man on all things…
The jailed former regional coordinator of Alexei Navalny’s political network in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan has asked President Vladimir Putin to pardon her, state-funded media reported Monday. Lilia Chanysheva, 42, was the first of Navalny’s associates to be arrested on “extremism” charges in November 2021. Last month, a court in the city of Ufa sentenced…
Russia’s state financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring has added journalist Nadezhda Kevorkova to its list of “terrorists and extremists,” the state-run news agency TASS reported Monday. Kevorkova, 65, is a Russian war correspondent, author, and filmmaker who has written about the Middle East and Russia’s North Caucasus for both independent and state-funded media. A Moscow court last…
A Russian court in annexed Crimea has handed down prison sentences to five Ukrainian citizens accused of sharing military intelligence with Kyiv, state media reported Monday. The men were charged with treason and espionage after sharing information on the location and movements of Russian army units that helped the Ukrainian army target aerial strikes, Russia’s…
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s dismissal has come as a shock to many in Russia’s political and military leadership, current and former officials as well as sources close to the Kremlin and the Defense Ministry have told The Moscow Times. All of these sources spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak freely about…
A Ukrainian drone strike in western Russia’s Kursk region has killed one woman and injured three others, regional authorities said Monday. “Today, Ukrainian terrorists deliberately attacked vehicles with drones in the Glushkovsky district,” the Kursk regional government said on Telegram. “One woman died at the scene, three other people were injured,” it said, noting that the…
A regional Russian lawmaker said he was targeted in a car bomb attack in occupied Ukraine over the weekend. Denis Kharitonov, who is a deputy from the ruling United Russia party in the southern Astrakhan region’s legislative assembly, said earlier this year that he had joined the military and was sent for deployment on the front line. Over…
Agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) have detained a former employee of the tech company Yandex on suspicion of sending money to the Ukrainian army, state media reported Monday. “The FSB has disrupted the illegal activities of a former Yandex LLC employee in the Nizhny Novgorod region,” the TASS news agency quoted the FSB’s…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said early Monday that its anti-air systems had shot down 31 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions and annexed Crimea. “During the night, new attempts by the Kyiv regime to carry out terrorist attacks with the help of aerial drones… against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation were foiled,” the…
In a major shakeup, President Vladimir Putin has nominated former First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov to replace longtime Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, the upper-house Federation Council announced Sunday night. The ouster of Shoigu, a longtime Putin ally, comes nearly a week after Putin was sworn into a fifth term in office, cementing his more…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that its forces had captured four more villages in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region as thousands of residents were evacuated amid Moscow’s surprise ground offensive. The ministry said its forces had “advanced deeply into the enemy defenses” and taken villages including Gatishche, Krasnoye, Morokhovets, and Oleinikovo. Ukraine’s military, meanwhile, said it was…
Updated with injury, death count. Rescue workers in the western Russian city of Belgorod have recovered the bodies of 15 people buried beneath the rubble of an apartment building that collapsed earlier on Sunday after being struck by a Ukrainian missile. “The main part of removing rubble from the apartment building on Shchors Street has been…
At least 17 people were injured after a Ukrainian missile struck a residential building in the western Russian city of Belgorod, Russian authorities said Sunday. Russia’s Defense Ministry said a Ukrainian Tochka-U missile hit a “residential district” in the city after it was intercepted by air defense systems. It was not immediately possible to verify…
Veteran journalist Tom Parfitt came up with the idea of a solo walk through Russia’s North Caucasus after reporting on the bloody Beslan school siege by Islamic militants in 2004. The undertaking was, as he puts it, his way of trying to “dilute” the memories of that horror. The result is a poignant, beautiful and…
Thousands of protesters marched through central Tbilisi on Saturday at a rally against a controversial “foreign influence” bill backed by the Georgian government and likened to Russian laws silencing dissent. Massive rallies have gripped the Black Sea Caucasus country for almost a month after the ruling Georgian Dream party revived the bill dropped last year…
Russia on Saturday said it had captured five villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region during a surprise ground offensive that prompted mass evacuations, as President Volodymyr Zelensky made an urgent call for military aid. Moscow’s Defense Ministry said its troops had “liberated” five villages in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region near the Russian border — Borysivka, Ohirtseve,…
Hundreds of people were evacuated from areas near the Russian border in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, the regional governor said Saturday, a day after Moscow launched a surprise ground offensive. Russian forces made small advances in the area it was pushed back from nearly two years ago, the latest in a series of gains as Ukrainian…
Karelian cuisine is a kind of culinary time machine. It includes dishes and traditions not only of Karelians, but also of ancient Novgorodians from the 14th century, Veps, Izhors and other nationalities that only have a few thousand people. To eat Karelian food is to take a journey into the past. This marvelous forest and…
Law enforcement authorities in the South Caucasus nation of Georgia have arrested a Russian man who attended recent protests against a controversial “foreign influence” bill, local media reported Friday. Members of the Russian diaspora have joined tens of thousands of Georgians in Tbilisi since April to rally against what has been described as a copycat of…
Updated with new death toll. At least seven people have died and six injured after a passenger bus plunged into a river in central St. Petersburg, Russia’s Investigative Committee said Friday. St. Petersburg police said around 20 passengers were on board the bus when it fell off a bridge into the Moika River at around…
Russian forces launched a surprise ground offensive into Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region on Friday, as Ukrainian authorities told civilians along border areas to flee amid heavy fighting. “Russia launched a new wave of counteroffensive actions… Ukraine met them there with our troops, brigades, and artillery,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a briefing. “Now there…
Russia has launched a cross-border ground offensive into Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and a high-ranking Ukrainian military source said Friday. Kyiv’s forces pushed back Russian forces from most of the Kharkiv region in 2022, the same year the Kremlin launched its so-called “special military operation.” But Moscow appears to be back on…
President Vladimir Putin has nominated acting Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin for reappointment, with Russian lawmakers widely expected to approve his candidacy later on Friday, an apparent signal of continuity as Moscow presses on with its full-scale war against Ukraine. Mishustin, a low-profile technocrat who has steered Russia’s economy through a storm of Western sanctions and…
Updated with voting results. Russian lawmakers on Friday approved President Vladimir Putin’s nomination of Mikhail Mishustin to return as prime minister, a sign that the Kremlin is banking on continuity and stability as it presses ahead with its full-scale war against Ukraine. Mishustin, a low-profile technocrat who has steered Russia’s economy through a storm of Western sanctions and…
A Ukrainian drone struck an oil refinery in central Russia’s Kaluga region, local authorities said Friday, as a recent uptick in attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure possibly risks destabilizing global energy markets. The Kaluga region, located south of Moscow, was among at least five Russian regions that reported drone strikes between Thursday night and Friday…
SEVASTOPOL — At a cemetery on the outskirts of Sevastopol, annexed Crimea’s main port city, hundreds of Russian flags fluttered in the wind beside the graves of soldiers killed in Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Walking among the graves were Olga, 65, with her husband Vladimir, 73. The retired couple came to visit the cemetery on…
MOSCOW — Thousands of Muscovites flocked the streets of the Russian capital on Thursday to commemorate Victory Day, an annual celebration marking the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany in World War II. Many came out to watch the traditional military parade — a showcase of army vehicles and thousands of marching troops dressed in…
Russia has agreed to remove some of its troops and border guards from Armenia, the Kremlin said on Thursday, after months of spiraling tensions between the two ex-Soviet allies. Yerevan, a traditional partner of Moscow, has publicly distanced itself recently, angry that Russian peacekeeping forces did not intervene during last year’s Azerbaijani offensive to retake…
Authorities in Russia have issued an arrest warrant for the exiled anti-war rapper Oxxxymiron, the independent news website Mediazona reported Thursday. Russia’s Justice Ministry designated Oxxxymiron — whose real name is Miron Fyodorov — as a “foreign agent” in October 2022, several months after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The rapper has organized concerts in support of Ukrainian…
A drone has attacked an oil refinery in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan, regional authorities said Thursday, the first such reported case in the region since Moscow invaded Ukraine more than two years ago. “A drone attacked the industrial zone of Salavat city at around 13:00 today, after which there was smoke at one of the…
Ukrainian attacks in and around the western Russian city of Belgorod have injured at least eight people, Russian authorities said Thursday, as the country marks the 79th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. “The city of Belgorod and the Belgorod district came under an air attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. There were direct…
Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a defiant speech Thursday slamming Ukraine and its Western allies over their alleged attempts to “distort” history and stoke regional conflicts as he attended a military parade on Red Square to mark Victory Day. “Today we see how they’re trying to distort the truth about WWII. It interferes with those…
A court in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region has ruled to hand over the assets of pasta manufacturer Makfa Group to the Russian state, the business news website RBC reported Wednesday. Makfa’s seizure is the latest in what has been described as the Kremlin’s creeping drive of forced nationalizations since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which saw…
Estonia on Wednesday summoned Russia’s charge d’affaires over alleged GPS interference around its airspace, claiming that recent disruptions to civilian air traffic were “hybrid activity” orchestrated by Moscow. Estonia and fellow Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania warned last month that widespread Russian GPS jamming was increasing the threat of an aviation accident occurring in their…
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov has been accused of accepting a bribe “in the form of services” valued at more than 1 billion rubles ($12.2 million), Russian media reported Wednesday. Ivanov, 48, faces up to 15 years in prison for large-scale bribe-taking, which investigators say centers around a “criminal conspiracy” to accept funds “in the form…
The death toll from a Ukrainian drone strike on western Russia’s Belgorod region earlier this week has risen to eight people, Russian authorities said Wednesday. In one of the deadliest recent attacks inside Russia, six people were killed Monday when drones struck two vans and a car near the village of Berezovka, around 7 kilometers…
The British government announced Wednesday that it plans to expel a Russian Defense attache over suspicions that he is “an undeclared military intelligence officer.” Home Secretary James Cleverly told parliament the U.K. would also remove the diplomatic status of several Russian-owned properties, including one in Sussex, southern England, and another in London, which he says…
Indian authorities have arrested four people accused of “trafficking” citizens of the country to fight for the Russian army in Ukraine. At least two Indian soldiers have been killed in Moscow’s war on Ukraine, with several recruits previously telling AFP they were shipped to the front lines under false pretenses. A statement published by India’s…
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Wednesday that its forces had captured two more frontline villages in eastern Ukraine. Moscow has made a string of territorial gains in recent months, taking advantage of its manpower and weapons advantage on the battlefield as Kyiv awaits critical military aid from the United States. Russia said its troops had “liberated…
Moscow’s city assembly voted Wednesday to unseat an exiled anti-war deputy whom the Russian authorities designated as a “foreign agent.” Yevgeny Stupin, who was elected into the Moscow City Duma as a Communist Party member in 2019, was among the signatories of a letter titled “Communists and Socialists Against Fratricidal War” that condemned Russia’s full-scale…
Ukraine on Wednesday warned of possible nationwide power shutdowns after a “massive” wave of Russian missiles and drones targeted the country’s already battered energy system. While Ukrainian troops struggle to hold the front line more than two years into the war, Moscow has intensified strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, triggering blackouts and electricity rationing across…
A Russian army deserter has been detained in Poland after crossing the border from Belarus, the Polish border guard announced Wednesday. “The Border Guard confirms the detention of a deserter from Russia. He is a 41-year-old man who illegally crossed the border from Belarus to Poland,” the state agency wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Further…
Lithuania is prepared to send its soldiers on a training mission to Ukraine despite Russia’s nuclear threats, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said in an interview with the Financial Times published Wednesday. Her comments follow the Russian Defense Ministry’s announcement that its forces were preparing to conduct tactical nuclear weapons exercises in response to Western…
Moscow on Tuesday designated the U.S.-funded rights group Freedom House as an “undesirable organization,” effectively banning anyone from working for or having links with the group. Russia’s Prosecutor General said in a statement that Freedom House had called for “comprehensive assistance for Ukraine to defeat Russia” and had “discredited” the Russian army. “The organization provides…
A Moscow court has placed journalist Nadezhda Kevorkova in pre-trial detention for two months on charges of “justifying terrorism” over posts she made on social, the Russian capital’s court system announced Tuesday. Kevorkova, 65, is a Russian war correspondent, author, and filmmaker who has written about the Middle East and Russia’s North Caucasus for both independent…
Georgia’s controversial “foreign influence” bill has sharply divided Georgian politics and stirred accusations that the ruling coalition seeks to draw the country closer to Russia, as the draft law’s critics argue that it is a facsimile of repressive legislation adopted by Moscow more than a decade ago. In Russia, officials are observing from the sidelines…
A Russian court has sentenced the wife of exiled journalist Kirill Martynov to nine years in prison for the attempted murder of her daughter almost two decades ago, Russian media reported Tuesday. Antonina Martynova, whose maiden name is Fyodorova, had evaded criminal punishment for 16 years after a Russian jury in 2008 found her guilty…
Belarus said Tuesday it had started a surprise inspection of its non-strategic nuclear weapon carriers on the orders of President Alexander Lukashenko. The announcement comes a day after his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin ordered nuclear drills in Russia, raising fears that the powerful weapons could be used in Ukraine. Non-strategic nuclear weapons, also known as…
Volunteers from the Syzran refinery (part of Rosneft’s Samara group of enterprises) planted 2,500 birch saplings in a specially protected natural area in Samara Oblast. For the past four years, Syzran Refinery employees have been organising mass planting activities in local forest areas
Authorities in Kyiv announced Tuesday that they detained two Ukrainian security officials involved in a plot coordinated by Russia to assassinate senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement that it had exposed a network of agents run by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), whose aim was…
Armenia could ban Russian television broadcasts if Moscow continues ignoring Yerevan’s requests for more balanced coverage, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Tuesday. “We expect the broadcasts of Russian TV channels to respect the citizens and the state system of Armenia,” Pashinyan said during a marathon press conference, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. “We…