Nearly all private clinics in southwestern Russia’s Kursk region have stopped providing abortion services in a Kremlin-ordered effort to reverse the country’s demographic crisis, a senior official said Thursday. Kursk region Deputy Governor Andrei Belostotsky said authorities in Moscow had instructed regional governments to come up with their own policy solutions for boosting birth rates, according to…
A court in the Siberian republic of Buryatia on Friday sentenced the head of the anti-war advocacy group Free Buryatia Foundation to seven years of prison in absentia for spreading “war fakes.” Russian authorities accused activist Alexandra Garmazhapova of spreading “knowingly false information” about the Russian Armed Forces in a video about Russian servicemen who…
A Russian court sentenced a 20-year-old woman to six years in prison for trying to set fire to a military aid collection point, state media reported Friday. Authorities have slapped long jail terms on Russians accused of attacking enlistment offices or trying to disrupt military operations in Ukraine. The woman, identified only as Zotova, had…
Ukraine’s military attacked several Russian Navy landing craft in annexed Crimea during a night-time operation, Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said Friday. Video footage shared by Kyiv showed what appeared to be seaborne drones striking the Russian warships, which were said to be carrying armored vehicles and anti-air missile systems at the time of the…
Russia said on Friday it had sent 25 tons of humanitarian aid to Egypt to be delivered to the Gaza Strip, which has been under near-total siege and relentless bombardment. Since Oct. 9, when Israel placed the Palestinian territory under a “total siege,” only very limited quantities of basic human necessities like water, food and…
Updated with Peskov’s remarks. Dozens of Russian citizens are preparing to flee the besieged Gaza Strip into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported Friday. No Russians have yet been publicly confirmed as having left Gaza since the Rafah checkpoint was reopened on Nov. 1 to allow the evacuation…
A Latvian court on Thursday jailed former interior minister Janis Adamsons and a Russian accomplice for spying for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). The court in Riga sentenced Adamasons to eight-and-a-half years in prison and Russian citizen Gennady Silonov to seven years in prison. “Adamsons collected secret and unclassified information for the Russian secret services, in…
President Vladimir Putin paid a surprise overnight visit to the military headquarters overseeing Moscow’s war against Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Friday. It is his second visit to military headquarters, which is located in southern Russia’s Rostov-on-Don, in the past month. Putin “visited the headquarters of the Russian Armed Forces in Rostov-on-Don, after completing his…
Russia dismissed the possibility of Ukraine joining the European Union as “hardly real” on Thursday, a day after the bloc’s executive recommended opening formal membership talks with Kyiv. Moscow’s offensive on Ukraine has breathed fresh life into the EU’s stalled push to take on new members, as Brussels looks to keep Russian and Chinese influence…
SIEVIERODONETSK, Ukraine — Destroyed houses, scorched earth and trees shredded by shrapnel form the landscape on the road leading to Sievierodonetsk over a year after the city was captured by the Russian army. Oleg, 59, sits alone in the courtyard of a residential building on the town’s outskirts destroyed by shelling. His apartment on the…
EU lawmakers on Thursday urged the bloc to ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) and to close loopholes present in existing sanctions against Moscow. The EU has imposed 11 rounds of sanctions on Russia since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Brussels is currently working on proposals for…
Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold his end-of-year press conference and televised call-in show in a “combined format” this year, the Kremlin announced Thursday. Set-piece political events involving Putin have been delayed or scrapped altogether in the tumultuous months following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The Russian leader did not hold his Direct Line…
Russia on Thursday dismissed accusations that Moscow was behind the daubing of dozens of Stars of David on buildings in Paris and its suburbs as “stupid.” Investigators said some of the mass graffiti — widely condemned as antisemitic — may have been carried out at the “express demand” of an individual residing abroad, implying a…
Russian law enforcement officials on Thursday detained a Kazakh national who works as a journalist in the Ural Mountains city of Perm, his employer Properm.ru said. Journalist Vladislav Ivanenko was arrested early Thursday at his home in Perm and taken first to a local police station and then to a temporary detention facility for foreign…
Private clinics in annexed Crimean have “voluntarily” stopped providing abortion services to patients, Kremlin-installed health officials on the peninsula said Thursday, amid growing concerns about a possible nationwide abortion ban. Crimea’s Health Ministry was informed about the decision by the region’s private clinics to stop providing abortion services following a meeting with state officials and…
Russia said Thursday it was “shocked” by the Israeli ambassador saying it could take up to two weeks to evacuate Russian citizens from the Gaza Strip. Israel’s envoy to Moscow told Russian state media this week that with 500-600 people leaving each day, and 7,000 waiting to be evacuated, it could take two weeks to…
Ukraine on Thursday criticized calls for Kyiv to hold negotiations with Russia, following media reports that its Western allies were pushing for peace talks in the wake of an underwhelming Ukrainian counteroffensive. Nearly two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the sprawling front line remains largely static as both Ukrainian and Russian forces struggle to…
Cargo of weight approximately 350 tons cleared a distance of more than 3000 km by sea. The reactor pressure vessel viz. the most important equipment of the Unit 3 has been delivered to the Akkuyu NPP construction site having cleared a distance of more than 1700 miles (3150 km). The reactor pressure vessel is a…
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday offering a way for Russian investors to “swap” their frozen assets abroad with the frozen assets of foreign companies in Russia. Since Moscow invaded Ukraine in late February last year, Western countries have introduced a barrage of sanctions against Russia, blocking its banks from making international payments…
Ukraine said Wednesday that Russia fired a missile at a civilian ship entering a port in the Black Sea region of Odesa, injuring the ship’s crew and killing a harbor pilot. Since a UN-brokered deal guaranteeing safe passage for civilian ships collapsed in July, both Kyiv and Moscow have ramped up military activity and attacks…
A Ukrainian teenager taken to Moscow from the occupied city of Mariupol has been summoned to a local military registration and enlistment office, media have reported. Bohdan Yermokhin, 17, was one of a group of several dozen children moved from the Donetsk region by the Russian military and placed with foster families in Russia. “I…
A Ukrainian teenager taken to Moscow from the occupied city of Mariupol has been summoned to a local military registration and enlistment office, media have reported. Bohdan Yermokhin, 17, was one of a group of several dozen children moved from the Donetsk region by the Russian military and placed with foster families in Russia. He…
A popular Russian television channel removed the rainbow featured in a K-pop music video over concerns that it could violate the country’s laws against “LGBT propaganda,” Russian media reported. TNT Music, which runs a chart show dedicated to South Korean pop music, has already been fined for violating Russia’s “LGBT propaganda” laws with previous broadcasts of foreign-made music videos. But…
ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION, Ukraine — Kaneki, a 24-year-old soldier attached to the Ukrainian Ground Forces’ Reco Kilo unit, sits behind the wheel of his pickup truck, taking a long drag on his cigarette. Behind him, the tall factory chimneys of Zaporizhzhia, blurred by the sun, vanish into the horizon. The sound of Russian artillery pounding the…
The United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) on Wednesday issued a red alert to the financial sector warning that Russia was using gold to evade sanctions imposed after it invaded Ukraine. The NCA said deliberate attempts were being made “to launder sanctioned gold to mask its origin so that it can be hidden in supply chains…
Russia’s leading management university has launched an undergraduate program to train experts who can monitor and detect “extremism” online, the pro-Kremlin daily Izvestia reported Wednesday. Backed by Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee, the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) program aims to train future media managers as well as spokespersons for government ministries…
For nearly two months now dedicated cinephiles in Russia have been engrossed in a public row over the fate of “Ayta,” an award-winning thriller by Yakutian director Stepan Burnashev. The movie was effectively banned by the Kremlin in September in a move that caused widespread public outrage and made many fear for the future of…
Russia’s nearly monthlong offensive on the eastern Ukrainian stronghold of Avdiivka has made only minimal progress despite the battle forming the focal point of Moscow’s war effort for weeks. The Russian army launched a large-scale offensive on Avdiivka, a small industrial hub north of the city of Donetsk, on Oct. 10 in what is seen…
A Russian left-wing nationalist activist has been placed inside a detention center in southern Russia after going missing in neighboring Georgia a month ago, the independent news website Mediazona reported Wednesday. Rafail Shepelev went missing on Oct. 12 in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, where he has lived since 2021, according to the human rights project Perviy…
Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed strengthening military ties with Beijing on Wednesday as he hosted a senior Chinese general in Moscow. Russia has bolstered ties with its Chinese neighbor in the last year, as it seeks allies against the backdrop of its dragging offensive on Ukraine. “Our contacts in the military and military-technology spheres are…
A military court in southern Russia’s Rostov-on-Don on Wednesday sentenced a Ukrainian soldier to 19 years in prison for allegedly shooting a civilian he suspected of being a Russian infiltrator in Mariupol last March. Russia’s Southern District Military Court said Anton Cherednik stopped a pair of civilians while on patrol in the southern port city…
Russian prosecutors on Wednesday requested an eight-year prison sentence for artist Alexandra Skochilenko, who was arrested last year for an anti-war protest in which she replaced supermarket price tags with information about civilian deaths in Ukraine. The 33-year-old artist and musician has been in detention since April 2022, when she was arrested for swapping out price tags…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has pardoned a man convicted in the murder of his ex-girlfriend after he is believed to have signed up to fight in Ukraine, women’s rights activist Alyona Popova said Wednesday. Last summer, Vladislav Kanyus was sentenced to 17 years in a maximum-security prison over the 2020 murder of Vera Pekhteleva in the…
Ukrainian shelling killed five people and wounded 18 in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, the city’s Kremlin-backed mayor said Wednesday, a day after the attack was said to have taken place. Officials in the occupied region accused Ukraine’s military of using long-range missiles supplied by the U.S. to carry out Tuesday evening’s deadly attack…
Moscow on Wednesday put another judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on its wanted list, months after the Hague-based court announced that it would seek the arrest of President Vladimir Putin over war crime allegations. A notice on the Russian Interior Ministry’s website said that Judge Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez was “wanted in the framework of…
Ukraine said Wednesday it was behind the assassination of a Russia-backed politician and former militia leader who died in a car bomb attack in eastern Ukraine. Mikhail Filiponenko, a deputy in the pro-Moscow Luhansk regional parliament, was killed on Wednesday morning when an “unidentified explosive device” detonated under his 4×4, Russian investigators said earlier. In…
A court in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region has sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness follower to seven years in prison on charges of “extremism,” the religious organization’s Russian branch said Tuesday. Yevgeny Bushev had been under house arrest since September 2022 on allegations of “organizing actions to continue the illegal activities of a banned religious organization,” the religious…
Ancient pathogens that have been preserved in northern Russia’s permafrost for millennia could reawaken as global temperatures rise, scientists warn, potentially putting humanity at risk of never-before-seen diseases. Jean-Michel Claverie, a virologist and emeritus professor at the Aix-Marseille University School of Medicine, is one of the few scientists worldwide who has studied “zombie viruses” in…
Pro-Kremlin pop singer Shaman plagiarized large portions of his final thesis at a prestigious musical college in Moscow, according to the prominent anti-plagiarism project Dissernet. Shaman, whose real name is Yaroslav Dronov, has emerged as one of Russia’s most well-known pop stars over the past year, as he has been regularly invited to perform at state-sponsored…
Updated to include official confirmation of Ismailov’s arrest. The deputy police chief of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan has been arrested over a week after an anti-Israeli mob stormed a local airport, state media reported Tuesday. Searches were underway at the home and workplace of Dagestan’s Deputy Interior Minister Rufat Ismailov, according to the…
A Russian court has ordered the arrest of Pussy Riot member Lucy Shtein in absentia for spreading “fake news” about the Russian military, the state-run news agency TASS reported Tuesday. Moscow’s Basmanny District Court authorized Shtein’s two-month placement in pre-trial detention once she is extradited or returns to Russia, a court spokesperson told TASS. “She…
On Monday the Odesa Fine Arts Museum suffered extensive damage from aerial strikes that cracked walls, blew out windows, did harm to art works and left an enormous crater in front of the building. The museum has one of the most extensive collections of art from Ukraine, Russia and other countries and regions. The collection…
Russia has formally withdrawn from a key conventional arms control treaty with Europe decades after suspending cooperation over NATO expansion, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. The 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) placed limits on the number of conventional weapons that could be deployed by NATO and Warsaw Pact countries west of…
Russia foiled an attempted Ukrainian drone attack Tuesday morning, shooting down drones over the Black Sea and the annexed Crimean peninsula, Russia’s Defense Ministry said. “On the morning of November 7, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using 17 unmanned aerial vehicles against buildings on Russian territory was repelled,”…
The head of Russia’s navy met Myanmar’s junta chief ahead of joint naval exercises due to begin Tuesday, according to Myanmar state media, the first combined drills by the two countries at loggerheads with the West. The security exercises involving Russia’s Pacific Fleet and Myanmar’s navy will continue until November 9 in the Andaman Sea,…
Updated with Borrel’s, Peskov’s remarks. Georgia said Monday that Russian troops had killed a Georgian civilian near the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which has been under Moscow’s effective control since the brief 2008 war between the two countries. Detentions of Georgian villagers by Russian troops — who patrol the de facto border between the separatist…
Finnish authorities said Monday that a Russian telecommunications cable in the Baltic Sea was discovered damaged in October, roughly coinciding with damage to subsea infrastructure in Sweden and Finland. “The Russian salvage vessel Spasatel Karev began to repair Rostelecom’s Baltika telecommunications cable in the Gulf of Finland on Nov. 6,” Finland’s economic affairs ministry said…
Russia on Monday called for “collective action” to end fighting between Israel and Hamas, almost a month into the war that has left thousands dead. Moscow maintains ties with both the Hamas militant group and Israel and has said it can mediate the war which began in early October. “Amid the unprecedented escalation of violence…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to run in next year’s presidential election, Reuters reported Monday, citing six anonymous sources familiar with the matter. In power since 2000, Putin is widely expected to run for a fifth term as president in the 2024 election, a move made possible by constitutional changes that allow him to…
Russia’s Olympic body on Monday launched an appeal against its suspension by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the sports tribunal said. The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) on Oct. 12 for violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine’s membership after it recognized Olympic regional organizations in…
Northern lights lit up most of Russia on Sunday after solar flares collided with Earth’s magnetic field and unleashed a strong geomagnetic storm. Known as aurora borealis, the dancing scarlet and green lights were visible from Russia’s Far East and Siberia, to the Ural mountains and North Caucasus. The rare night-time light show was also spotted…
Russian and Ukrainian activists have taken over a vacant building in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam that purportedly belongs to the Russian government, the Dutch newspaper Het Parool reported Sunday. Citing a member of the self-identified “group of international artists,” the publication said the four-story corner building in southern Amsterdam is believed to be “owned…
Ukraine said Monday that Russian forces had launched four missiles and nearly a dozen attack drones from occupied regions of the country in the south overnight. “Fifteen Shaheds and one Kh-59 air-guided missile were shot down,” the Ukrainian air force said, referring to the Iranian-designed kamikaze unmanned aerial vehicle. Ukrainian Presidential Chief of Staff Andriy…
Ukraine has opened an investigation after it was reported a number of its soldiers were killed by a Russian missile strike during an “award ceremony” this week, officials said. The Ukrainska Pravda media outlet said over 20 Ukrainian soldiers from an assault brigade died in the attack, which took place in the southern region of…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday he was “not ready” for talks with Russia unless its troops withdraw from his country, denying Western officials had suggested holding peace negotiations. He was commenting on reports that US and European officials had spoken with his government about negotiations to end the war, and after a senior Ukrainian…
Russia said Sunday it had successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads from one of its submarines. The launch of the “Bulava” missile, the first in just over a year, comes as Russia ramps up nuclear rhetoric since revoking its ratification of a key nuclear test ban treaty. “The new nuclear-powered…
Ukraine said Saturday its forces struck a shipyard in the port city of Kerch, on the east coast of the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula. Since launching its counteroffensive against Moscow’s forces this summer, Kyiv has ramped up attacks on the Black Sea peninsula that Russia seized in 2014. “On the evening of November 4, the Armed…
President Volodymyr Zelensky denied on Saturday that Ukraine’s war with Russia had reached a “stalemate”, pushing back at suggestions Western leaders were lobbying for peace talks. The sprawling frontline between the two warring sides has barely moved in almost a year, with one senior Ukrainian official warning this week that the conflict was deadlocked. “Time…
Ukraine said Saturday it had filed criminal charges against Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, in absentia for ‘justifying’ Russia’s invasion. Moscow’s most influential spiritual leader, a fervent supporter of President Vladimir Putin, has called the war a historic battle against the ‘forces of evil’. The Security Service of Ukraine said it…
Russia said Friday that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had ‘postponed’ a trip to Moscow that was planned for this month. Russia – which has working relations with Israel, with Palestinian authorities and with Hamas – has said several times that a visit by Abbas to Moscow was possible without previously giving a date. Russia’s deputy…