Russians’ interest in the deadly Hamas attack on Israel was significantly higher than interest in the war in Ukraine over the weekend, according to an analysis of Google Trends data by the independent media outlet Vyorstka. Observers have called the attack, which the Palestinian militant group launched on the Russian president’s birthday, “Hamas’ gift to…
Russia on Tuesday will seek to return to the UN Human Rights Council, a test of what Moscow believes is quiet support for its membership despite fierce criticism from the West over the invasion of Ukraine. Russia, which was booted from the Geneva-based body after it invaded Ukraine last year, will be considered in a…
The Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) sprung its third coolant leak in under a year Monday, raising new questions about the reliability of the country’s space program even as officials said crew members weren’t in danger. Flakes of frozen coolant spraying into space were seen in an official live feed of the…
Updated to add details from the Financial Times’ report. Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman has left Britain and intends to move to Israel, the RBC news website reported Monday, citing an unidentified source familiar with the matter. Alfa Group, the investment conglomerate which Fridman co-founded, confirmed this information to RBC. “The businessman is currently in Moscow…
Reports circulated last week that Russia had withdrawn much of its Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol in annexed Crimea. This followed a wave of attacks from Ukraine attacking warships, submarines, and infrastructure in the strategic naval base. Though the news was met with celebration among Ukraine’s allies, with the British Armed Forces Minister calling it…
A rocket fired by Hamas militants hit a mosque near Jerusalem dedicated to Akhmat Kadyrov, a Chechen separatist fighter in the 1990s who later switched sides and pledged allegiance to Russia, Israel’s foreign ministry reported Monday. According to the ministry, a Hamas rocket “directly hit the Akhmat Kadyrov mosque,” the second-largest mosque in Israel. No injuries…
Russia’s government is set to spend four times more on “patriotic education” in 2024 than in 2022, the RBC news website reported Monday, citing a draft budget proposal. A total of 45.85 billion rubles ($450 million) will be allocated toward various youth movements, school officials engaged in “patriotic” education, state insignia, and monitoring of youth online.…
Updated to include death toll. One Russian citizen has been killed and at least four others were missing following the Hamas Islamist group’s surprise weekend attack on Israel, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday, citing the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv. At least 800 people have died during the ground, air and sea…
At least four Russian citizens are missing following the Hamas Islamist group’s surprise weekend attack on Israel, Russia’s Embassy in Tel Aviv said Monday. The embassy said there was still no word on whether Russians were among the 800 people who died during the ground, air and sea attacks that caught Israel by surprise on…
Israel on Sunday formally declared war against the Hamas militant group after its fighters launched an unprecedented surprise attack against the country, which by Monday had already resulted in the deaths of more than 1,100 people in both Israel and Gaza. Russian officials and media figures have not signaled explicit support for either of the…
The number of luxury cars in Russia surged last year despite Western sanctions in retaliation to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the RBC news website reported Monday, citing an analysis of federal tax audit data. The number of cars with a sticker price of 10 million rubles ($98,500) or more increased by 22% from 2021-2022, reaching an…
The United Nations on Monday voiced concern over Moscow’s “mass conferral” of Russian passports in Ukrainian territory it controls, saying that those who refuse the documents are “ensnared in a web of exclusion.” The UN human rights office OHCHR said residents who do not take up Russian citizenship were being denied access to essential public…
Moscow and the Arab League will work to “stop the bloodshed” in Israel and Gaza, Russia’s Foreign Minister said Monday as he met the group’s chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit. Aboul Gheit was in Moscow for talks following Saturday’s unprecedented attack on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. “I am sure that Russia and the…
Russia has charged prominent Russian lawyer Ilya Novikov in absentia for joining the Ukrainian military, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said Monday. Novikov left Russia after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and joined the Ukrainian territorial defense forces, according to the FSB’s statement. It said that Novikov “underwent military training, participates in combat operations and is engaged in…
Russia, which was ousted from the UN Human Rights Council after its forces invaded Ukraine, will attempt a return to the body on Tuesday — an uncertain move that will provide a gauge of its international support. The UN General Assembly will vote that day to elect 15 new members to the Geneva-based UN body,…
Russian Vladimir Putin on Saturday announced the start of gas supplies to Uzbekistan via Kazakhstan, a boost for Russia’s industry hit by a flurry of Western sanctions over the offensive in Ukraine. Despite being home to a wealth of natural resources including gas, the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan has faced energy shortages. Moscow meanwhile…
Russia’s Defense minister Sergei Shoigu inspected a military factory producing the Sarmat intercontinental missile, saying it would soon be ready for use, his ministry posted on Telegram Saturday. The Sarmat is capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and is among Russia’s next-generation missiles which Putin has described as “invincible.” The Russian Defense Ministry posted footage…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday called for Israeli and Palestinian forces to stop armed hostilities after attacks launched by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel. “We call on the Palestinian and Israeli sides to immediately ceasefire, renounce violence, show the necessary restraint,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. Zakharova called the parties to set…
Ukrainian shelling on the Russian border region of Belgorod killed one person on Saturday morning, local authorities said. “This morning, the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit the village of Urazovo in the Valuysky district with Grad missiles,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram. “One person died — a man who was on the street at…
Washington’s decision to expel two Russian diplomats in retaliation for a similar expulsion of US diplomats is “banal revenge,” Russian ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said Saturday. In a statement on Telegram he said that at a meeting with the US side, “I asked my interlocutors to explain what exactly our comrades were…
We can’t live without salads; they are an essential part of our everyday life. Their names, so utterly familiar in Russia, sound strange to foreigners. We have salad Olivier; vinaigrette salad (not dressing); “herring under a fur coat” (really); a spring salad called “Mimosa” that is not a flower or a drink; and even a…
On October 6, the installation of the “core catcher” for Unit 1 of the El-Dabaa NPP in the Arab Republic of Egypt started (the general designer and general contractor is Rosatom Engineering Division). The core catcher is one of the main passive safety systems of the power unit. It is included a unique equipment specific…
Kazakhstan announced on Friday new efforts to increase the share of the Kazakh language over Russian in its media landscape, amid growing skepticism over Moscow’s influence since the invasion of Ukraine. Kazakh is the official language of the former Soviet republic in Central Asia, but Russian is recognized too and is still widely spoken among…
“It was hard for me there, I wanted to come back all the time,” Alexander Pipkin, his eyes downcast, said in an interview on Belarusian state television at the end of August. In the interview, Pipkin is presented as a repenting doctor, formerly part of the Belarusian opposition in exile, who decided to return to…
A Russian court in annexed Crimea has sentenced a Ukrainian activist who was abducted last year to 13 years in prison for “espionage,” Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Friday. Serhiy Tsygipa, an activist and citizen journalist from southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, went missing in March 2022 while attempting to bring medicine to his mother-in-law,…
The Russian government has lowered the payout offered in the restructuring of tech giant Yandex following anti-war statements made by the company’s co-founder, Russian media reported Friday. Sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine have forced Yandex, once the crown jewel of Russia’s tech sector, to split into two new companies, with one overseeing its operations…
Шовинист: chauvinist Long before the war began in 2022, I’d been tracking the linguistic dehumanization of Ukrainians practiced by some Russian speakers. At first I was mostly tracking bloggers and young people; lately I’ve been listening and reading Russian media figures, leaders, public figures and even religious figures and academics. Other folks are following this…
The ruble fell further against the dollar on Friday, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the sanctions-hit country’s economic situation was “stable.” The Russian currency fell by as much as 101.46 rubles to the dollar in morning exchanges before paring down some losses. The ruble crossed the psychological threshold of 100 to the…
Russia’s western enclave of Kaliningrad on Friday received its first cargo ship via the Northern Sea Route, long touted by Moscow as an alternative shipping lane to the Suez Canal. The vessel made a stop in the port town of Baltiysk while en route to St. Petersburg from Shanghai, Kaliningrad region Governor Anton Alikhanov said on…
Senior Russian legislators will consider revoking the ratification of a global nuclear test ban treaty after President Vladimir Putin suggested resuming nuclear weapons tests, the parliament’s speaker said Friday. Putin said Thursday it was “theoretically possible” to de-ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) since the United States had signed but not ratified it. Vyacheslav Volodin,…
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday called for more Su-34 fighter jets to be produced, as Moscow pursues its offensive in Ukraine. The Kremlin has announced a massive spending hike to accommodate its military needs in Ukraine as its large-scale offensive approaches its second year. “These planes are real workhorses. They can make four…
A powerful storm flooded and knocked out power in households in Far East Russia’s Sakhalin region, authorities said Friday. Video shared on social media showed heavy rains and flooding in the region’s largest city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. More than 5,000 residents were left without electricity after emergency crews restored power for 13,500 people, according to the Sakhalin…
A 10-year-old and his grandmother were killed on Friday when Russian missiles smashed into Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, just hours after another attack left dozens dead at a wake in a nearby village. Rescue workers in Kharkiv were extinguishing fires next to charred vehicles, and twisted missile fragments lay in a deep crater in the…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia’s mission is to “build a new world” as he blamed a Western “military and financial pyramid scheme” for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “We are, in fact, faced with the task of building a new world,” Putin said in a grievance-filled speech at the annual Valdai Discussion Club. He…
President Vladimir Putin last week introduced a bill greenlighting Russia’s exit from the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM), the world’s most comprehensive legally binding treaty devoted to safeguarding the rights of minority groups. Russia is home to representatives of as many as 193 ethnic groups who speak at least 270 languages…
Russia’s top shaman has given his blessing to the Kremlin’s military offensive in Ukraine, praising troops and denouncing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as an “enemy,” state media reported Thursday. Shamanism, a religious practice that involves connecting with the spirit world, is prevalent across the indigenous peoples of Siberia and resurged in popularity after being heavily…
Russia’s jailed opposition politicians — including Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin — on Thursday called on political prisoners and supporters to stage a one-day hunger strike. The Kremlin critics said the protest will be held on Oct. 30, which used to be known as the Day of Political Prisoners in the Soviet Union. Already…
Russian athletes training at schools in St. Petersburg have been banned from unauthorized travel abroad, state-run media reported Wednesday, citing three anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Athletes, coaches and other personnel at state and municipal sports schools in the city are now required to seek prior approval to attend training camps or competitions outside Russia,…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was attending a European summit in Spain, said he had no doubts that the strike had been deliberate. “The Russian military could not fail to know where they were hitting,” he said. “It was not a blind strike.” Zelensky also said he had secured agreements from several countries to provide…
“The search and rescue operation is ongoing,” Klymenko said. “There may still be people under the rubble.” Zelensky, who was attending a European summit in Spain, condemned the attack on social media. “The brutal Russian crime of hitting an ordinary grocery store with a rocket is a completely deliberate terrorist attack,” he wrote. The attack…
Russia’s military will sever its contract with the late Yevgeny Prigozhin’s food catering business and begin using the services of a competitor company, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday. RBE Group, which had supplied Russia’s Defense Ministry with rations until being replaced by Prigozhin’s Concord Catering, will again provide food services to the army, according to…
The official ceremony dedicated to the delivery of the first batch of nuclear fuel has been held at Rooppur NPP construction site in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (the general designer and general contractor is Rosatom State Corporation Engineering Division). Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of the People’s Republic…
The Volga River, one of Russia’s major waterways and Europe’s longest, holds significant economic and cultural importance for Russians. Stretching over 3,500 kilometers through central and southern Russia before meeting the Caspian Sea, this vital transportation artery traverses several urban centers, including Volgograd, a city of 1 million inhabitants. Here, just 200 meters from the…
Russian mercenary group Wagner in 2022 signed a contract with a Chinese firm to acquire two satellites and use their images, aiding its intelligence work as the organization sought to push Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a document seen by AFP. The contract was signed in November 2022, over half a year into Moscow’s…
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has moved its warships from annexed Crimea to southern Russia after a string of attacks on its headquarters, the independent news outlet The Bell reported Wednesday, citing satellite images shared by pro-war military bloggers. The frigates Admiral Essen and Admiral Makarov, three submarines, five large landing ships and several small missile…
Russia on Thursday accused Ukraine of using cluster munitions to attack a border town, injuring one person and damaging several buildings. Moscow has repeatedly accused Kyiv of using the controversial weapons since the United States agreed to supply them in July, including to attack Russia’s border regions. “The border town of Rylsk was shelled with…
Russia’s navy will establish a base on the coast of Georgia’s separatist region of Abkhazia, its leader told state-run media Thursday, amid mounting attacks by Ukraine on the Russian Black Sea Fleet. “We have signed an agreement, and in the near future there will be a permanent point of deployment for the Russian navy in…
Russia this year has seen a huge uptick in the number of its soldiers facing trial for murders committed outside the conflict zone in Ukraine, the independent news outlet Vyorstka reported Thursday, citing military court records. At least 147 Russian soldiers went on trial for murder between January and September, representing an almost 10-fold increase…
A deadly blast at a prison in occupied eastern Ukraine last year, which Kyiv and Moscow blamed on each other, was not caused by Ukrainian HIMARS rockets, United Nations investigators have determined. On July 29, 2022, at least 51 Ukrainian prisoners of war died in the bombardment of the Moscow-controlled Olenivka jail in the eastern…
The majority of countries all across the globe have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But according to statistics in Russia, three quarters of Russians expressed trust in President Vladimir Putin. In January 2019, the share was 59%, but in June 2023, it stood at 78%. Even if these figures may indicate a fear of answering…
Russia’s Health Ministry will limit the distribution of abortion-inducing pills in pharmacies, in the country’s latest move to clamp down on abortion access. Misoprostol and mifepristone have been added to the ministry’s list of medications subject to subject-quantitative registration (PKU), according to its decree published Tuesday. The ministry’s order will come into effect on Sept.…
Russian-born physicist Alexei Ekimov on Wednesday won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside French-born Moungi Bawendi and American scientist Louis Brus for their research on tiny particles known as quantum dots. The trio succeeded in producing these tiny fluorescent semiconductors that “now spread their light from televisions and LED lamps, and can also guide surgeons…
Senior Russian, United States and European Union diplomats met in secret on the eve of Azerbaijan’s lightning campaign to retake the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Kremlin confirmed Wednesday. Politico Europe reported Wednesday that U.S.-EU-Russia talks on pressuring Baku to end its nine-month blockade of Karabakh took place on Sept. 17 in Istanbul. Two days later, Azerbaijan’s…
Siberian political figures have slammed the chief editor of the state-run RT news outlet for her calls to drop a nuclear bomb over Siberia as a way of sending a message to the West. RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan proposed detonating a thermonuclear device “on our own territory, somewhere over Siberia,” claiming that there would be no…
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Kyrgyzstan next week, authorities in the Central Asian country said Wednesday, his first trip abroad since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him. Putin has not left Russia since the Hague-based court issued the warrant in March over the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to…
General Sergei Surovikin said he continues to serve Russia amid reports of his dismissal from the Defense Ministry after Yevegny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny in late June, the Noviye Izvestia news outlet reported Tuesday. Surovikin, long considered the main intermediary between the Wagner mercenary outfit and the Russian Defense Ministry, disappeared from public view after Wagner chief Yevgeny…
Police in the republic of Chechnya’s capital have refused to open a criminal case against regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s son over his assault of a Russian teenager on video, the Baza Telegram channel reported Wednesday, citing internal police documents. Adam Kadyrov, 15, was shown last month kicking and punching Nikita Zhuravel, 19, who was arrested in the southern…
Rosatom has accopmlished the project for remediation of Taboshar industrial site near the city of Istiklol, the Sughd region, the Republic of Tajikistan. The scope of works completed included the remediation of the dump of the low-grade uranium ore factory as well as of four tailings dumps. The work at the sites was done ahead…
Ukraine said Wednesday it struck a Russian anti-aircraft system in the border region of Belgorod overnight, as Kyiv’s attacks on Russian-controlled territory intensify. Since Kyiv launched its counteroffensive in June, Russian regions bordering Ukraine have accused the Ukrainian army of almost daily drone strikes and shelling. An unnamed source in the Ukrainian Security Service source…
A Russian court sentenced Marina Ovsyannikova, the former state journalist who on live television protested the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, to eight-and-a-half years in prison in absentia, media reported Wednesday. Moscow’s Basmanny District Court convicted Ovsyannikova, who is currently living outside of Russia, of spreading “false information” about the Russian army over her anti-war picket…