Large swathes of Siberia are in flames as what looks to be another record-breaking wildfire season sets in. Environmental group Greenpeace said last month that this year’s wildfires are already twice as large as those of the same time last year. Acting Emergencies Minister Alexander Chupryan said this week that Russia has seen over 4,000…
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Saturday about the Nordic country’s application for NATO membership, expected to be announced this weekend, his office said. The phone call, which was “initiated by Finland… was direct and straightforward and it was conducted without aggravations. Avoiding tensions was considered important,” Niinisto was…
Intense fighting raged in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region where Russia has been concentrating its forces without making significant progress, while “very difficult negotiations” were under way over the fate of the last besieged defenders in the city of Mariupol. Europe on Friday pledged another $500 million in military support for Ukraine as it resists the…
The leader of Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia on Friday set July 17 as a date for a referendum on joining Russia. “Anatoly Bibilov signed a decree on holding a referendum in the Republic of South Ossetia,” his office said in a statement, citing his people’s “historic aspiration” to join Russia. South Ossetia was…
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urged Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday to move immediately to implement a ceasefire in Ukraine, in their first conversation since before the war began, the Pentagon said. “Secretary Austin urged an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication,” the Pentagon said in a statement. The Pentagon…
Russia will suspend electricity supplies to Finland this weekend, a supplier said on Friday as tensions rise over Helsinki’s NATO bid following the conflict in Ukraine. “We are forced to suspend the electricity import starting from May 14,” said RAO Nordic, a subsidiary of Russian state energy holding Inter RAO that sells its electricity on…
A Russian court on Friday extended the pre-trial detention on drug charges of U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, state media reported. Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and WNBA champion, was detained at Moscow airport in February on charges of carrying in her luggage vape cartridges with cannabis oil, which could carry a 10-year prison…
An award-winning artist said Friday that he fled Russia after security forces uncovered his plan to disrupt the country’s annual Victory Day parade with a peaceful protest against the war in Ukraine. Danila Tkachenko said he purchased 140 blue-and-yellow smoke grenades and installed them in air conditioners that he placed outside an apartment building near…
The European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) on Friday confirmed the suspension of Russia’s TASS agency for not respecting its standards. The decision came during the EANA’s general assembly in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, the alliance’s president Clemens Pig told reporters. In February, three days after Russia invaded Ukraine, EANA’s executive body composed of five…
Russia has advised its citizens to “refrain” from traveling to the United Kingdom and from trying to obtain a British visa, citing what it called London’s “unfriendly” stance toward Moscow and long delays for visa applications. In a statement Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the British Embassy in Moscow of prioritizing applications from Ukrainian…
The tourism business in Russian-controlled Crimea is bracing for a difficult summer season as large numbers of Russians cancel planned trips due to flight suspensions and security concerns caused by the war in Ukraine. “About 50% of our [prospective] guests have chosen to cancel bookings with us,” a hotel representative in Crimea’s resort city of…
Russia’s state-controlled shipping giant Sovcomflot has sold roughly a dozen of its ships ahead of this week’s EU deadline for sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Sovcomflot, one of the world’s largest tanker operators, was looking to sell at least 40 of its 121 vessels at short notice as…
Britain on Friday sanctioned 12 members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “inner circle” accused of hiding corrupt riches in return for influential state positions. They included his ex-wife Lyudmila Ocheretnaya and Alina Kabaeva, a former Olympic gymnast who the U.K. government said was “alleged to have a close personal relationship with Putin.” “We are exposing…
Ukraine opened its first war crimes trial in connection with Russia’s invasion Friday, accusing a young Russian soldier of shooting an elderly Ukrainian civilian in the early days of the offensive. Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin, 21, stands accused of killing an unarmed 62-year-old man riding a bicycle and talking on the phone in the Sumy region…
In Ivanovo oblast not far from Moscow, one in four villages has been abandoned in the last decade. An artist, Alexei Mednoy, grew up in a village but hadn’t been back for about 15 years after his father died. When he returned, he found silent and empty houses, slowly falling down amid overgrown fields. He…
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said he doubted the motives of Ukraine’s intention of joining the European Union while accusing Brussels of ambitions beyond the European continent. Ukraine, where Russia launched a military campaign on Feb. 24, “is ready to declare a neutral, non-aligned status,” Lavrov told reporters following a meeting of CIS…
Prices for car parts in Russia have gone up by an average of 31% since Moscow invaded Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday. Industry experts cite currency volatility, non-transparent pricing and logistical issues for the shortage of spare parts that is driving up prices. While some parts were in short supply during the Covid-19…
Authorities in Moldova’s Moscow-backed breakaway region of Transnistria said Friday two attempted attacks were carried out on infrastructure in the regional capital Tiraspol. The incidents come after a string of attacks were reported in the separatist region with fears mounting of a spillover from the conflict in neighboring Ukraine. “At around 4:15 in the morning,…
While many Georgians feel a personal connection to the war in Ukraine, a number are putting their lives on the line for it, traveling to Ukraine to join the Ukrainian military as it resists the Russian invasion. At least nine Georgians have died in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, likely the largest death toll…
A military recruitment office was attacked with Molotov cocktails in the Siberian city of Omsk overnight, local media reported Friday. Photographs published by the Om1.ru news website showed a red brick building with at least two broken windows and burn marks. Eyewitnesses described a strong smell of kerosene and seeing forensic teams working at the…
Russia sees Ukrainian membership of the European Union to be equivalent to Ukraine joining NATO, a senior Russian diplomat at the United Nations said Thursday. Moscow previously expressed willingness to see Ukraine join the EU as part of ceasefire talks aimed at de-escalating the Russian invasion. Those talks stalled when evidence of mass atrocities emerged after…
Russia reported its first civilian killed since the start of its war in Ukraine on Wednesday after a strike on a village near the two countries’ shared border. The casualty escalates a series of explosions and fires that have afflicted Russia’s border regions since Moscow invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. In addition to killing one…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday Western countries were worse hit by sanctions imposed on Moscow over Ukraine than Russia, which he insists has been resilient in the face of “external challenges.” Western countries have slapped Russia with a barrage of unprecedented sanctions after Putin sent troops into neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24. Western governments…
When Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in February, Russian general Yakov Rezantsev apparently told his troops that they would not be at war for long. “This operation is going to be over in mere hours,” Rezantsev said, according to an intercepted conversation released by the Ukrainian security services. The Moscow Times was unable to verify the recording. …
Russia’s Gazprom will stop transporting natural gas via the section of its Yamal-Europe pipeline that runs through Poland, the state gas giant announced Thursday. The announcement comes a day after Russia said it was sanctioning more than 30 energy companies — including Poland’s EuRoPol GAZ S.A., the owner of the Polish part of the Yamal-Europe…
HOLLYWOOD–Oligarch Roman Abramovich’s British crown jewel soccer club Chelsea has been conditionally sold to a Hollywood billionaire’s consortium for $5.2 billion. The lead buyer is industrialist Todd Boehly, co-owner of Dodgers baseball and Lakers basketball sports clubs in Los Angeles. He is also the interim CEO of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). One of…
Russia’s former Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev was released from prison Thursday after serving a five-year jail term for corruption. Ulyukayev, 66, walked free two weeks after being granted early release from the eight-year sentence he received in December 2017 on good behavior. The ex-minister had been found guilty of soliciting a bribe, a charge…
Finland’s possible NATO membership “definitely” threatens Russia’s security, the Kremlin said Thursday, adding that Moscow is ready to take further steps to “balance the situation.” Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said their country must “apply for NATO membership without a delay” in a joint statement Thursday after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…
For almost half a decade former Russian soldier Marat Gabidullin was a fighter with the controversial mercenary outfit Wagner, deployed in the east of Ukraine and then in Syria, where he was badly wounded. But now as fighting rages in Ukraine, he believes the Kremlin should stop foreign military interventions and focus instead on improving the lives of people…
Russia’s government has put forward a law to force ride-hailing apps to give the FSB domestic intelligence agency real-time access to their data. “The document prescribes the obligation of the taxi ordering service to provide the FSB with automated remote access to the information systems and databases used to receive, store, process and transmit taxi orders,” a statement published Wednesday by the lower-house State Duma…
One person has died in an explosion at a Russian military base in the country’s Far East, the state-run TASS news agency reported Thursday. Another seven people were injured in the blast in the village of Teysin in the Khabarovsk region. A source in the emergency services told TASS that the victim was a military…
Updated at 12:40 p.m. on May 12. Russia reported one civilian casualty in a strike on a town near the border with Ukraine, the first such death since the start of the country’s invasion of its western neighbor. Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, said Wednesday that one person had been killed and seven…
German manufacturing giant Siemens announced Thursday that the company will “wind down” its presence in the Russian market following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In a statement, Siemens CEO Roland Busch vowed that the firm would “continue to support” its estimated 2,900 Russian employees and provide humanitarian assistance in Ukraine. “This was not an easy decision,…
Russian film and theater director Kirill Serebrennikov is working on an Eduard Limonov biopic with BAFTA winner Ben Whishaw starring as Limonov, Variety magazine reported. The film, titled “Limonov, The Ballad of Eddie” tells the story of the Russian writer and political activist over the decades. It is based on the best-selling novel “Limonov” by…
Russian freight traffic by rail fell for the first time in six years last month as Western sanctions and China’s virus lockdown disrupted supply chains, the Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday. Shipments by train in April 2022 totaled 512,100 TEU, the standard measurement for cargo meaning Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit — marking a 6% decrease from…
Ukraine announced it will hold its first war crimes trial over the Russian invasion, as Moscow accused Kyiv of shelling a Russian city in the war’s latest flashpoint. The conflict has devastated cities and displaced millions, with fears also growing of its broader international impact as gas supplies to Europe were disrupted by a halt…
The United States has placed limitations on intelligence sharing with Ukraine to avoid heightening tensions with Russia, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. Two new prohibitions include information that would help Ukraine kill senior Russian military officers and any information that would help Ukraine attack Russian targets outside its borders. The U.S also has a rule…
A group of Ukrainian soldiers’ wives and a Russian opposition activist met Pope Francis at the Vatican to seek his help in rescuing the hundreds of Ukrainian defenders currently making a last stand at Mariupol’s besieged Azovstal steel plant. Pyotr Verzilov, a member of the Pussy Riot activist group and the publisher of the independent…
Works on pre-assembly of Unit 1 outer containment dome have started at the construction site of Rooppur NPP in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (General Designer and General Contractor – ROSATOM Engineering Division). Assembly and subsequent erection and concreting works are performed by specialists of Trest RosSEM LLC branch office (part of Rosatom’s Engineering Division)…
The Russian government spent almost 100 million rubles ($1.4 million) on a series of concerts aimed at boosting support for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the BBC’s Russian service reported Wednesday. Some 34 bands, artists and poets performed at the pro-war rallies, which have been held across 30 cities in central Russia, the Urals and Siberia from…
New car sales in Russia sank by over 78% in April, industry data showed Wednesday after the country was hit by a barrage of sanctions over Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine. Only 32,706 units were sold in April, according to the Association of European Businesses. This was down 78.5% from the same month in 2021…
Russian gas transiting Ukraine for Europe dropped Wednesday after Kyiv said it was suspending flows along a key route as Moscow pushes its military operation. The move fuels fears that the Kremlin’s campaign in its pro-Western neighbor could see gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine cut off at a time when prices have already soared.…
Russian gas transiting Ukraine for Europe dropped Wednesday after Kyiv said it was suspending flows along a key route as Moscow pushes its military operation. The move fuels fears that the Kremlin’s campaign in its pro-Western neighbor could see gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine cut off at a time when prices have already soared.…
Officials in Russian-occupied Kherson will petition the Kremlin to formally recognize the southern Ukrainian region as part of the Russian Federation, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Wednesday. The Russian military gained control of the Kherson region in late April, replacing its Ukrainian leadership with a pro-Moscow “military-civilian administration” and transitioning to the Russian…
Leading Pussy Riot activist Maria Alyokhina has escaped to Lithuania after being declared a fugitive by the Russian government. Alyokhina made the journey to Vilnius after leaving Moscow disguised as a food courier, she said in a New York Times interview published Tuesday. She later made several failed attempts to travel to the European Union…
Ukraine said Wednesday it was pushing Russian troops away from the country’s second city Kharkiv but facing stiff resistance, as Washington predicted that Vladimir Putin was ready for a long war. With President Joe Biden warning that Ukraine would within days likely run out of funds to keep fighting, the U.S. House of Representatives voted…
This story has been updated with Putin’s comments, and corrected to remove a 2020 quote from the Russian Emergency Situations Minister. At least eight people have been killed in wildfires in the Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region, local authorities said Wednesday. “The fires were caused by short circuits in electrical wiring and power lines, and dry grass…
President Vladimir Putin has given Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) a more prominent role in Ukraine, Russian security analysts said as the U.S. assessed that Putin is “behind schedule” in the invasion of Ukraine. GRU deputy head Vladimir Alexeyev, 61, has been placed in charge of intelligence operations in Ukraine, according to security experts Andrei…
Thousands of Russians across the country and worldwide marched Monday with portraits of relatives and loved ones who took part in World War II in an annual march called the Immortal Regiment. The march, which has taken place in its modern form every year since 2012, follows Russia’s Victory Day commemorations. This year’s march took…
The port city of Odessa reeled on Tuesday from Russian missile strikes as Germany’s top diplomat became the highest-ranking official from Berlin to visit Ukraine since Moscow’s invasion. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s surprise visit to Bucha, a town outside Kyiv where Russian troops have been accused of war crimes, came amid mounting criticism of…
From superyachts and mansions to private jets and works of art, mega-rich Russians are being deprived of their expensive playthings, under swingeing sanctions that implicate them in Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. The seizing and freezing of assets is proving the toughest trial yet for the Kremlin-favored “oligarchs,” many of whom got rich on the…
Russia’s Rutube video platform remained offline for a second day on Tuesday, after a massive cyberattack knocked it out just hours before it was to stream the Victory Day parade in Moscow. “We have, in fact, been hit with the biggest cyberattack in Rutube’s history,” the platform said in a message on Telegram on Tuesday.…
The Pentagon said Monday it has seen indications that Ukrainians caught up in Russia’s invasion are being forcibly removed from their homeland and sent to Russia. “I can’t speak to how many camps or what they look like,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters when asked about statements from Kyiv that some 1.2 million Ukrainians were being…
Russians opposed to the invasion of Ukraine staged a series of protests Monday as the country marked Victory Day, the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany. Some of the anonymous protests included anti-war messages on the homepage of a pro-Kremlin online news website, graffiti in the southern Russia city of Volgograd, and…
The Russian ambassador to Poland was attacked with red paint by pro-Ukraine activists in Warsaw on Monday when he tried to lay a wreath to mark Victory Day, according to video footage and Russian officials. Victory Day is celebrated annually on May 9 to commemorate the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.…
LONDON, United Kingdom – Hundreds of Russians turned out Sunday in central London to demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and protest against growing authoritarianism in their home country. Joined by Belarusians and Ukrainians, protesters were a mix of longtime London residents and young people newly arrived in the United Kingdom. “It is…
Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Western countries and hailed Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine on Monday as he addressed an annual military parade in Moscow that marks the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany. “You are fighting for the motherland, for her future, and so that nobody forgets the lessons of World War…
Russia will celebrate its 1945 victory over Nazi Germany on Monday with a show of military might as its army battles Kyiv’s forces in the east of Ukraine, where 60 people were killed in an air strike on a school sheltering civilians. President Vladimir Putin is set to flaunt Russia’s power in celebration of Victory…
Some 60 people sheltering in a village school in east Ukraine are feared dead after it was hit by an air strike, the Luhansk regional governor said Sunday. “Bilogorivka (village) was hit in an air strike” on Saturday, said Sergii Gaidai. “The bombs fell on the school and unfortunately it was completely destroyed. There was…
U.S. charge d’affaires for Ukraine Kristina Kvien and her team returned to Kyiv Sunday, the embassy tweeted, in a step toward re-establishing Washington’s diplomatic presence there after it was closed days before the Russian invasion. “Just arrived in Kyiv! Delighted to be back on Victory in Europe Day. Slava Ukraini!” tweeted the U.S. embassy in Kyiv’s…