Russian lawmakers backed a record increase in military spending to fund Moscow’s offensive on Ukraine, in a first reading of the bill Thursday. Defense spending will account for almost a third of all outlays in 2024 — up 68% to 10.8 trillion rubles ($115 billion). At more than 6% of the country’s GDP, military spending…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday it had killed a Russian man accused of planning to attack a military enlistment office on orders from Ukrainian intelligence services. Video shared by the state-run TASS news agency showed the unidentified man talking on the phone while filming a thermal power station in the city of Tver, located some…
Former Russian state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova has lost custody of her two children after a court battle with her ex-husband, independent media reported Thursday. Moscow’s Shcherbinka District Court issued the ruling behind closed doors as it dealt with issues relating to minors, according to the independent Sota news outlet, which cited the court’s spokesperson in…
Israel has resumed accepting applications from Russians for its repatriation program days after suspending document processing over fears of protests outside the Israeli embassy in Moscow, Israel’s Ambassador in Russia Alexander Ben Zvi said Thursday. Ben Zvi told the state-run news agency TASS that his diplomatic mission stopped accepting repatriation applications on Tuesday to avoid…
A polar bear has been making regular intrusions into an arctic town in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region over the past month, prompting officials to declare a “high alert” as the animal poses a threat to local residents, Russian media reported. Although the bear has not yet attacked anyone, authorities in the port town of Dikson —…
A Stockholm court on Thursday acquitted a Russian-Swede accused of passing Western technology to Russia’s military, ruling that while he did export the material his actions did not amount to espionage. Prosecutors had sought a five-year sentence against Sergei Skvortsov, a 60-year-old dual national who has lived in Sweden since the 1990s running import-export companies.…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday oversaw ballistic missile drills remotely, the Kremlin said, hours after Russia moved to revoke its ratification of a landmark nuclear test ban treaty. “Under the leadership of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces, Vladimir Putin, a training exercise was conducted with the forces and equipment of ground,…
Russia’s Armed Forces have recruited 385,000 people so far this year, officials said Wednesday, as Moscow needs masses of soldiers for its Ukraine offensive. Russia does not say how many troops it has lost during the 20-month offensive, but independent estimates put the numbers well into the tens of thousands. Moscow has launched an aggressive…
Russian authorities have placed a street artist famous for his anti-war graffiti on a federal wanted list in relation to an unspecified crime. Filipp Kozlov, who goes by the artist name Philippenzo, is listed in the Russian Interior Ministry’s database of suspected criminals. The registry does not disclose the charges that the 39-year-old Kozlov faces.…
The Russian branch of the Catholic Church on Wednesday called for the restoration of a dismantled memorial to an archbishop who was a victim of Stalin-era repression. Authorities in central Russia’s Vladimir region recently took down a prison wall that featured a commemoration of Lithuanian archbishop Mecislovas Reinys and other foreigners who were imprisoned as…
Over 15% of Russians who left the country following the invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin’s “partial” military mobilization have since returned, either temporarily or permanently, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing new research. Researchers Emil Kamalov and Ivetta Sergeeva from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy conducted a long-term survey of 5,000 Russian…
Russian authorities have declined to designate the Hamas militant group as a terrorist organization since none of its members have been convicted of any crimes in the country, the independent news outlet Mozhem Obyasnit reported Wednesday. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office explained in a letter sent to a politician from St. Petersburg that labeling Hamas…
Russia’s trade turnover with China is on track to reach $220 billion this year, surpassing government projections by some $20 billion, the acting head of Russia’s customs agency said Wednesday. Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping pledged to boost bilateral trade to $200 billion in 2023 as the sides grow closer over their mutual scorn…
Seven Ukrainian men released from Russian captivity have been stranded at the Russia-Georgia border for two weeks after Georgia denied them entry, a Georgian volunteer organization told the independent Meduza news website Wednesday. The group tried to enter Georgia via the Verkhny Lars border crossing in the Caucasus mountains on Oct. 11. Georgian authorities said…
The head of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov awarded the teenage son of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov with his region’s second-highest ranking, Kadyrov’s ally Adam Delimkhanov said Tuesday. Minnikhanov presented the Duslyk (“friendship” in Tatar) Order to 15-year-old Adam Kadyrov during an official visit to Chechnya’s capital Grozny, as seen in a video posted…
The Kremlin plans to boost President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating ahead of next year’s elections by launching a nationwide lottery among Russian families, the independent news website Meduza reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. A source close to the Kremlin, two high-ranking regional officials and a senior United Russia ruling party member…
Russia said Wednesday it would study U.S. proposals to resume dialogue on nuclear arms control, but that it would not accept them unless Washington dropped its “hostile” stance towards Moscow. The U.S. and Russia used to regularly inspect each other’s nuclear facilities and limit warheads under the New START treaty, but Moscow suspended the treaty…
Volga River water levels have plummeted to a 37-year low in Russia’s southern Saratov region, media reported Tuesday, citing data from the regional hydrometeorological agency. The water level around the city of Saratov, which lies on the eastern bank of the 3,500-kilometer-long Volga River, fell to 13.69 meters on Oct. 20, just slightly above the…
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered senior officers to prepare soldiers for the winter during a visit to a command post in eastern Ukraine, the military said Wednesday. In a video posted online, Shoigu was shown visiting the Vostok command post, where he was said to have been briefed about the situation on the front line. …
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed fears of a sharp deterioration of the situation in besieged Gaza during a call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Kremlin said Tuesday. The leaders expressed “deep concern over the growing number of civilian casualties and the catastrophic deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” the…
A Russian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by an opposition activist who was sentenced to seven years in prison over social media posts that prosecutors said “justified terrorism.” Russia has banned criticism of its military campaign and has orchestrated a huge crackdown on dissent as troops fight in Ukraine. The activist, 63-year-old Mikhail Krieger,…
The United States has made a “serious proposal” to Moscow for the release of ex-Marine Paul Whelan as his imprisonment in a Russian nears five years, CNN reported Tuesday. Whelan was accused of spying after agents from Russia‘s Federal Security Service (FSB) detained him in a Moscow hotel room on Dec. 28, 2018. He was sentenced to…
A Ukrainian-born deliveryman has been accused of attempting to poison the graduates of a Russian military aviation academy during their reunion, Russia’s Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday, citing anonymous law enforcement sources. Around 77 alumni of the Armavir Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region were attending a 20-year reunion party…
Footage of apartment buildings in the Gaza Strip crumbling under Israeli airstrikes and suffering Palestinian civilians has filled Russian political talk shows and newscasts for weeks. “They are razing Gaza to the ground,” state television anchor and propagandist Vladimir Solovyov said during a recent show. “We [the Russian army] don’t fight like that, not even close.”…
The Kremlin said Tuesday that it has so far been unsuccessful in freeing Russian hostages held by Hamas and still does not know how many of its citizens had been captured since the militant group’s attack on Israel earlier this month. “Indeed, we have not succeeded so far, but we will continue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry…
Jailed Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny was returned to solitary confinement on Tuesday, a day after his allies said he was deprived of writing materials, his only means of communication with the outside world. “They put Alexei in an isolation cell for the 21st time,” Navalny’s exiled spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on social media, noting…
The popular messaging app Telegram, founded by Russian-born tech entrepreneur Pavel Durov, has partially restricted access to the accounts of Hamas militants and their affiliates, Russian media reported Tuesday. Android users have been notified that they are no longer able to access the channels of Hamas and its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, in line…
Russia has established a new national park in the northern republic of Karelia, a designation that gives its lands federally protected status. The move has drawn skepticism from conservationists, who suspect that officials may be creating new protected areas for the sake of appearances without due consideration of their environmental value. Vottovaara National Park spans…
A court in Russia’s majority-Muslim republic of Chechnya has postponed the hearing against a teenager accused of burning the Quran and who was beaten while in custody by the son of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, media outlets reported Tuesday. Nikita Zhuravel, 19, was detained in May on suspicion of publicly burning a Quran in the…
Russia’s military said Tuesday it had detected three Ukrainian seaborne drones off the coast of annexed Crimea. “Around 4:00 a.m. Moscow time, technical surveillance systems detected three unmanned Ukrainian Navy boats in the northern Black Sea,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the seaborne drones were fired on but it…
A cyber specialist who briefly worked at the top-secret U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) pleaded guilty on Monday to attempting to spy for Russia, the U.S. Justice Department said. Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 31, spent less than four weeks working at the NSA, the United States government’s intelligence gathering agency, before he suddenly quit at the…
Kazakh authorities this month arrested anti-war activist and musician Ayhal Ammosov, a Russian national hailing from the Far East republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Though Ammosov’s name might be known to few abroad and elsewhere in Russia, he is something of a local celebrity in his native Sakha, first rising to prominence as an eccentric punk…
Russian President Vladimir Putin called Monday for “unhindered access” for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, in a telephone call with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Kremlin said. According to a readout of the call from the Kremlin, the two leaders “expressed serious concern about the growing number of civilian casualties and…
Russian courts have imprisoned more people under wartime censorship laws so far in 2023 than in all of 2022, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday, citing Supreme Court data. Russia outlawed “discrediting” and spreading “deliberately false” information about the Russian military shortly after it invaded Ukraine 21 months ago. According to Kommersant, eight out of 21…
Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk FC has terminated the contract of its player who fled to Russia following a UEFA Youth League match in Belgium this month, the team announced Monday. Instead of returning to Ukraine following his team’s Oct. 4 victory against Antwerp (2-1), U19 midfielder Oleksandr Rosputko, 19, reportedly changed his clothes in an airport…
Ukraine’s CIA-trained intelligence agencies have assassinated “dozens” of Russians and Ukrainian collaborators since the start of Moscow’s invasion, The Washington Post reported Monday, citing more than two dozen anonymous current and former Ukrainian, U.S. and Western intelligence and security officials. The missions involved elite teams that were formed, trained and equipped in “close partnership” with the…
Russian police were present but did not intervene in the fight that ended with the fatal stabbing of a Gabonese graduate student this summer, according to a video published by local media on Monday. François Ndjelassili, 32, an economics student at Ural Federal University, was killed outside of a Burger King restaurant in Russia’s fourth-largest…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has refused to attend his latest court hearing after prison authorities confiscated his writing tools, his aides said Monday. “Alexei @navalny usually attends his court hearings via video link, but today he was not there,” Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) said on X (formerly Twitter). “We don’t know the reason. The hearing has…
U.S. President Joe Biden was correct to call for a new world order but was wrong to assume it would be built by the United States, the Kremlin said Monday. Biden said Friday that the 50-year post-war period had “run out of steam” following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas and Russia and Ukraine. “A…
A controversial Russian artist has been fined for his art piece of a toy doll covered in criminal tattoos. Vasily Slonov was charged with “public demonstration of prohibited symbols” over the art piece, a round-bottomed doll modeled on the traditional Russian nevalyashka. The Central District Court of Krasnoyarsk in Siberia ordered Slonov to pay a…
A Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has been ordered to stay in pre-trial detention until December on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent, her employer said Monday. Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with the U.S.-funded outlet’s Tatar-Bashkir service who was detained last Wednesday, faces up to five years in prison if found…
Russian police rounded up Muslim worshippers exiting a Moscow region mosque after Friday prayers and brought them to a military enlistment office for the war in Ukraine, media have reported. Videos shared on social media over the weekend showed young men inside a moving bus, outside a military recruitment office and in a barracks with bunk beds. …
Russian forces shot down three missiles on Sunday targeting the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, a Russian official said. The peninsula is crucial to Russia’s military offensive, both for supplying troops in southern Ukraine and for carrying out missile strikes from the sea. It is a regular target for Kyiv, and…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit the Iranian capital Tehran on Monday for talks with regional counterparts, his ministry’s spokeswoman has confirmed. Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported earlier that the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia had been invited to meet for the talks. “We confirm Lavrov’s planned talks in Tehran…
Sergiy Nozhka, who works for Nova Poshta, described the condition of some his colleagues as “mild to moderate severity,” adding that “there are some people in a very serious condition.” He said that a rocket “flew into the neighboring depot, but at ours too — the windows and shutters flew out. This is not the…
Turkey will take part in peace talks next week to discuss ways to end the Ukraine conflict, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, after speaking with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Mediterranean island of Malta announced Friday it would host a round of Ukraine peace talks on October 28-29, after similar meetings in Jeddah and…
Russia struck areas of eastern and southern Ukraine with artillery and missiles on Friday and Saturday, killing at least three people and wounding four others, officials said. The strikes come as both sides prepare for a grueling winter of fighting and as Russia tries to suppress a Ukrainian counteroffensive to regain occupied territory. Russia fired…
The fifth Russian-Chinese Energy Business Forum attended by around 400 people comes to an end in Beijing
MOSCOW — Loud music, people dancing and faces covered with glitter — today, parties in Russia’s capital look like parties anywhere. “As long as there is an opportunity to enjoy life, then you need to do it,” Daria, a Russian in her 20s, told The Moscow Times at a techno music festival in the Moscow region.…
The phrase “Russian sandwich” doesn’t sound entirely natural, especially since the Russian word for sandwich — бутерброд — is so clearly borrowed from German (Butterbrot, which means bread and butter). On the other hand, we’ve gotten used to the terms “Russian mayonnaise” and “Russian champagne” — the names of favorite products that have been around…
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) presented to the participants of the fifth Russian-Chinese Energy Business Forum (RCEBF) its in-house developments in equipment manufacturing, as well as products and solutions for production processes digitalization
A Russian mercenary twice convicted of homicide before he fought in Ukraine was invited to speak with young teenagers at a public school this month, media reported Thursday. Wagner fighter and assault machine gunner Alexander Raspravin was welcomed as a local hero with war stories from Russia’s nearly 20-month invasion of Ukraine. Raspravin was photographed in full…
Russia plans to cut funding for several state environmental programs in its 2024 budget, the Vedomosti business daily has reported. According to the draft federal budget for 2024-2026, the Clean Air Federal Project, which aims to reduce air pollution in dozens of industrial cities, will see its funding nearly halved, with cuts of 6 billion rubles…
Russia on Friday advised its citizens against traveling to Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinian territories amid flaring tensions over Israel’s war with Hamas. “The situation in the Middle East is heating up,” Moscow’s Foreign Ministry said. “The number of casualties and injuries is rising. Mass protests are taking place around the world.” “We strongly…
Стая наркоманов: a pack of junkies Some day when I have a lot of time and patience I will create a word map of Russian leaders’ accusations about Ukraine and the stated goal(s) of their “special military operation.” You’d think you’d have a solid idea of what the problem was and what was wrong with…
Russian investigators said on Friday they had leveled genocide charges against Nazi war veteran Yaroslav Hunka, who was inadvertently applauded by Canadian lawmakers last month. The incident took place during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the Canadian parliament, and prompted its speaker to resign following global condemnation. In a statement, Russia’s Investigative Committee said…
The Kremlin denounced Friday an address by U.S. President Joe Biden in which he compared Russia to Hamas and called Vladimir Putin a “tyrant.” “We do not accept such a tone in relation to the Russian Federation, in relation to our president,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Biden, in an address to the nation…
The Kremlin said Friday it is not aware of the criminal case against the Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who was arrested Wednesday on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent. Alsu Kurmasheva was temporarily detained at an airport in central Russia on June 2, where both her U.S. and Russian…
An online news outlet in the Russian Far East’s Jewish autonomous district has stirred controversy for speaking out in support of Palestine following the deadly Hamas militant attack on Israel and Israel’s retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip. A banner on Nabat’s homepage reads “No to the aggression of the Israeli military against the Gaza Strip!…
Kazakhstan’s trade ministry has denied banning the exports of goods to Russia as part of Western sanctions after an official said more than 100 items including drones were prohibited. On Thursday, Deputy Trade Minister Kairat Torebayev was quoted by local media as saying that the ex-Soviet state has banned the export to Russia of 106…