Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Britain on Wednesday for only his second overseas trip since Russia’s invasion began nearly a year ago. After receiving a hero’s welcome in Washington in December, Zelensky was due to be feted in a speech to the U.K. parliament alongside meetings with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and King Charles III.…
Melania has been waiting 10 months for an answer to her request for political asylum that she filed after fleeing to Lithuania in the weeks after her home country, Russia, launched its invasion of Ukraine. Once optimistic, anti-war Russians like Melania are increasingly downbeat about their prospects of finding long-term refuge in the European Union. …
British musician Roger Waters of the rock group Pink Floyd will speak on behalf of Russia at the upcoming UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine, Russian diplomats said Wednesday. Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s first deputy UN representative, said Waters’ attendance has been confirmed for the Russian-requested Security Council session. Waters himself has neither confirmed nor denied his attendance…
Russia could increase taxes for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine to help plug a hole in the state budget, independent media outlet The Bell reported Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the discussions. The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) has proposed raising the current 20% income tax on Russian companies by…
A Russian pro-war nationalist mercenary has died from a gunshot wound to the head in eastern Ukraine in what his family called an assassination, state media reported Wednesday. Igor Mangushev, 36, was hospitalized over the weekend after an apparent “execution-style” shooting at close range at a checkpoint in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region. Citing his friend Akim Apachev, the Russian…
Bookstores across Moscow have begun selling maps that show four partially occupied southeast Ukrainian regions as Russian territory, media reported Wednesday, as lawmakers move to outlaw displaying the regions as part of Ukraine. Major chains have this week started accepting maps with the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of eastern and southern Ukraine in the…
The number of Russian nationals who have renounced their citizenship reached a three-year high in 2022, Russia’s Foreign Ministry told media Wednesday. Tens of thousands of Russians moved abroad in the wake of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the country’s “partial” mobilization of reservists in the fall. A total of 4,306 Russians turned to…
The Russian Foreign Ministry warned the new U.S. ambassador to Moscow on Tuesday that it would begin expelling her staff if the embassy continued criticizing the war in Ukraine on its social media accounts, state media reported, citing a senior Foreign Ministry source. According to the RIA Novosti news agency, the Foreign Ministry served a…
President Vladimir Putin’s government is pressuring Russia’s Central Bank to be “more upbeat” about the country’s economy amid the invasion of Ukraine and international sanctions, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Russian officials reportedly want the Bank of Russia to send “a clearer hint” that interest rates may come down later this year, Bloomberg said, citing its sources.…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday pledged assistance to West African states battling jihadists, as Moscow seeks to expand its influence on a continent in a diplomatic tug-of-war between global powers. Lavrov hailed the alliance that has been forged between Moscow and Bamako in fighting extremists on his first visit to Mali, which Russia’s…
The Russian army is “successfully” advancing near the eastern Ukrainian towns of Bakhmut and Vuhledar, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday. “Military operations are at the moment progressing with success in the areas around Vuhledar and Artemovsk,” Shoigu told a defense meeting using the previous name for Bakhmut. He listed seven settlements that Russia…
Russia’s budget deficit surged to 1.76 trillion rubles ($24.8 billion) in January 2023, the Finance Ministry said Monday, as Western sanctions cut into oil and gas revenues and the country raised its wartime spending. The figures mark Russia’s largest first-month budget deficit since at least 1998, according to Bloomberg. Revenues fell 35% to 1.356 trillion…
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Mali early Tuesday for talks with its junta leaders seeking Moscow’s help in battling an Islamist insurgency that remains entrenched despite years of fighting. Lavrov, who was in Iraq on Monday, was welcomed upon his arrival by his counterpart Abdoulaye Diop. The two men did not make any…
The head of Russia’s notorious mercenary group Wagner posted a video to social media on Monday that he claimed showed him flying on a fighter jet that had just completed a bombing sortie over the city of Bakhmut, the epicenter of fighting in eastern Ukraine. In the very dark video, Prigozhin appeared to be inside…
The West’s latest wave of sanctions on Russian energy exports seeks to hit Moscow harder than its previous moves over the Ukraine war. An EU-wide ban on Russian oil products — including diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel — came into effect on Sunday alongside a Group of Seven (G7) price cap on the same items. That…
News that Tbilisi is moving forward with the purchase of Russian-made subway cars has been met with outrage in Georgia, where dealings with the northern neighbor have become particularly controversial amid the Ukraine war. Though the deal dates to 2021, Tbilisi City Hall confirmed this week for the first time that Russia’s war on Ukraine,…
A court in Moscow sentenced the first person to have been charged under Russia’s wartime law against spreading “knowingly false information” to nine years in jail in absentia on Monday, the independent broadcaster Sota reported. Veronika Belotserkovskaya, a Ukrainian-born Russian journalist and the owner of a culinary school in France where she lives, was among the first people…
A court in Moscow sentenced one of the first people charged under Russia’s wartime law against spreading “knowingly false information” to nine years in jail in absentia on Monday, the independent broadcaster Sota reported. Veronika Belotserkovskaya, a Ukrainian-born Russian journalist and the owner of a culinary school in France where she lives, was among the first people to be…
Bomb shelters across Russia are undergoing systematic inspections and repairs following a Kremlin order to upgrade the country’s crumbling Soviet-era infrastructure, according to current and former officials who spoke to The Moscow Times. Many of Russia’s thousands of bunkers, reinforced cellars and other safe hideouts have been mothballed for decades. But as the war in…
The Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, a strong supporter of President Vladimir Putin, worked for Soviet intelligence while living in Switzerland in the 1970s, Swiss newspapers reported, citing declassified archives. According to the Sonntagszeitung and Le Matin Dimanche weeklies, the Swiss police file on the man who today serves as the spiritual head of the Russian Orthodox…
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed “the most sincere condolences” to his Turkish and Syrian counterparts after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed over 1,400 people early Monday. “We share the sorrow and pain of those who lost their relatives and loved ones,” Putin told Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a message published on the Kremlin’s website. He noted the…
Russia said Monday that 300 military personnel deployed in Syria were helping efforts to clear up debris following an earthquake that killed hundreds there and in neighboring Turkey. The Defense Ministry said staff and 60 units of military hardware had begun “removing rubble, searching for victims and providing them with medical assistance in areas that…
Russian lawmakers will consider confiscating the property of citizens abroad who speak out against Russia’s war in Ukraine and donate to the Ukrainian army, the pro-Kremlin Izvestia daily reported Monday. Calls to punish the tens of thousands of Russians who fled in opposition to the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine intensified last month, when an exiled…
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov will be replaced by the chief of the military intelligence ahead of an expected Russian offensive and following corruption scandals, a senior lawmaker said Sunday. “We are preparing decisions and negotiations that should strengthen our soldiers, give Ukraine more international support and more weapons,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening…
As Russian officials play down the economic impact of President Vladimir Putin’s order to invade Ukraine, the emergence of end-of-year data from 2022 in recent weeks has painted a mixed picture of the economy’s performance. There were some positive signs: inflation receded after hitting a peak in April, while oil and gas revenues reached record…
Ukraine fought off a fresh Russian assault on the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, its leaders said Saturday, as it endured a wave of shelling in the disputed Donetsk region. Officials meanwhile recovered the bodies of two British volunteers, killed trying to help evacuate people from the eastern warzone. And the southern city of Odesa…
The bodies of two Britons killed while trying to help people evacuate from fierce fighting in Ukraine have been recovered in a prisoner swap, Kyiv officials said on Saturday. Chris Parry, 28, and Andrew Bagshaw, 47, were undertaking voluntary work in Soledar, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, when their vehicle was reportedly hit by…
The European Union and Kyiv on Friday backed plans to set up an international prosecution office in The Hague to help investigate Russia for the “crime of aggression” in Ukraine. The move — announced in a joint statement at an EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv — is seen as an interim step before the creation of a special…
Russians continue to memorialize the dozens of Ukrainians killed in last month’s Russian missile strike on the city of Dnipro — one of the deadliest single incidents of Moscow’s invasion — in what has evolved into a new nationwide form of anti-war protest. Makeshift displays of flowers, stuffed toys and handwritten notes have sprung up…
Russian authorities this week ordered the family members of the prominent climate and anti-war activist Arshak Makichyan to leave the country. Makichyan was stripped of Russian citizenship — the only one he holds — along with his father and a brother in October, a move that the activist and his lawyers labeled as a deliberate…
A Moscow court has sentenced the head of a prominent Islamic publishing house to 17 years in prison on charges of financing a terrorist organization, Russia’s Investigative Committee said Friday. Aslambek Ezhaev, 60, was found guilty of transferring more than 34 million rubles ($483,200) to people connected with the Islamic State terrorist group, including via…
Russia on Friday said it will nationalize “foreign” assets in annexed Crimea — including those with Ukraine-linked ownership — and funnel some of the funds to support people fighting in Ukraine. “Deputies of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea adopted a resolution on the nationalization of property of foreign citizens and states that…
U.S. and other Western officials estimate that close to 200,000 Russian troops have been killed and wounded in Ukraine nearly one year into Moscow’s invasion of its western neighbor, The New York Times reported Thursday. “The figures for Ukraine and Russia are estimates based on satellite imagery, communication intercepts, social media and on-the-ground media reports, as…
At least 1,000 Russian journalists have fled their country in the nearly 12 months since Moscow invaded Ukraine, according to a new report on the state of the internet in Russia. A number of mostly European countries have “accepted and helped keep and continue” the journalists’ work as Russia moved swiftly to clamp down on independent…
The former governor of Russia’s Khabarovsk region, Sergei Furgal, was found guilty of murder by a Moscow region court on Thursday, according to state-run news agency RIA Novosti. The case against Furgal dates from 2020, when two years into his first term as Khabarovsk governor he was arrested and charged with the double murder of businessman…
Parliamentarians from 20 countries have urged Austria to bar Russian delegates from attending a gathering of the world’s largest security body later this month, in a letter seen by AFP on Thursday. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)’s parliamentary assembly is to be held in Vienna on Feb. 23-24, the one-year anniversary…
Speaking during a ceremony in Volgograd on Thursday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that it was “unbelievable, but true” that his country once again found itself being threatened by German tanks “with crosses on them.” “Those who expect to win on the battlefield apparently do…
A Russian student who sparked controversy for defending his thesis written by the fast-growing artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT will be allowed to keep his diploma, media reported Thursday. Alexander Zhadan said Wednesday he had successfully used the U.S. company OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot to write his work and receive a passing grade. “In short, writing a thesis…
At least eight people died in a fire that ripped through temporary housing for construction workers in Moscow-annexed Crimea, the Russian emergency situations ministry said on Thursday. The fire broke out overnight in a two-story building for construction workers near Crimea’s port city of Sevastopol, the ministry said. “As a result of the fire, eight people…
Austria is expelling four Russian diplomats for conduct “incompatible” with their status, Vienna announced Thursday. Austria’s foreign ministry identified the “personae non gratae” as two workers with the Russian Embassy and two with the Russian mission to the UN without providing their names. Vienna gave the four diplomats until next Wednesday, Feb. 8, to return…
Democratic standards worldwide improved slightly in 2022 after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, but plummeted further in Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said on Thursday. Overall, less than half — 45.3% — of the world’s population is living in a democracy, the London-based analysis group said. “More than a third of…
Two-thirds of residents in the Russian city of Volgograd oppose renaming their city to Stalingrad, according to state polling released ahead of the 80th anniversary of a key World War II battle there. Volgograd had carried the name Stalingrad in honor of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin starting in 1925. The site of the Battle of Stalingrad, where the…
Rescuers searched for survivors in the rubble of an apartment building in eastern Ukraine on Thursday after a Russian strike destroyed it, as Kyiv said it expected a major offensive on the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion. At least three people were killed Wednesday and 20 wounded when a Russian rocket struck a residential building…
The Battle of Stalingrad, which turned the tide of World War II 80 years ago when German forces capitulated to the Red Army, remains a powerful symbol of patriotism in Russia as it presses its war in Ukraine. One of the largest battles in history, the fighting raged for more than six months in 1942 and 1943…
Olesya Krivtsova, a first-year university student from the northern Russian city of Arkhangelsk, is facing more than 10 years in a penal colony for publicly opposing the war in Ukraine on social media. Krivtsova, 19, stand accused of “justifying terrorism” and repeatedly “discrediting the Russian armed forces” for posts she made on her personal page…
Releads with Russia’s warning to Israel. Russia on Wednesday warned Israel against supplying weapons to Ukraine after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was considering military aid for Kyiv and was also willing to mediate in the conflict. “We say that all countries that supply weapons [to Ukraine] should understand that we will consider…
Bulgarian investigative journalist and director of the Bellingcat investigative reporting group Christo Grozev is being forced to relocate from Austria, his home of nearly 20 years, due to the alleged threat posed to him by the Russian security services, the Viennese daily Falter reported on Wednesday. “I suspect that there are more Russian agents, informers and…
Human rights lawyer Abubakar Yangulbaev is no novice when it comes to standing up to Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Russia’s republic of Chechnya. But his recent offer to give himself up to Kadyrov in exchange for the release of his mother — who has been held in a Chechen prison for more than…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been ordered to spend six months in a designated punishment cell, he said Wednesday as his supporters expressed growing concern that his life was in danger. President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal domestic opponent is serving a nine-year sentence in a maximum-security penal colony 250 kilometers east of Moscow on…
A new monument to Soviet leader Josef Stalin was unveiled in the southern Russian city of Volgograd on Wednesday to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory in the battle of Stalingrad — as Volgograd was known until 1961 — a key turning point in World War II. The bust of Stalin was installed near…
Russia has added the Free Russia Forum, a platform uniting leading figures of Russia’s liberal opposition, to its list of “undesirable” organizations, the Prosecutor General’s Office said Wednesday. The Prosecutor General’s Office said a review of the Lithuania-based organization’s activities concluded that it “poses a threat to the constitutional order and security of the Russian…
A Chinese-American animal rights activist has been jailed for walking a young cow near the Kremlin, state media reported Wednesday. Alisa Dey, 34, told the state-run TASS news agency she had bought the calf online “so it wouldn’t be eaten.” Police detained her as she walked with the animal, reportedly chanting “Animals are not food,”…
A Chinese-American animal rights activist has been detained walking a calf on Red Square near the Kremlin, state media reported Wednesday. Alisa Dey, 34, told the state-run TASS news agency she had bought the animal online “so it wouldn’t be eaten.” Police charged Dey with violating protest rules, an administrative offense punishable by up to…
A Russian court sentenced a well-known exiled opposition journalist to prison Wednesday for “fake news” about the Russian military’s deadly attacks on civilians in Ukraine. Alexander Nevzorov, 64, was the first prominent political reporter and commentator to be charged in March 2022 under a newly adopted law banning what authorities deem to be false information about…
A Russian regional official who sparked backlash for vacationing abroad during the war has said he will volunteer on the frontline in Ukraine as he seeks to make amends for his actions. Maxim Vasilyev, a member of the legislative assembly in the Kursk region which borders Ukraine, came under fire last month for posting a video of…
Russia’s ban on oil exports to countries and companies that adhere to a Western price cap aiming to constrain the Kremlin’s energy revenues took effect Wednesday. President Vladimir Putin imposed the Feb. 1-July 1 ban in retaliation to a $60-per-barrel price ceiling set by G7 countries, the European Union and Australia on Russian crude sales…
Russia remains committed to its last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States despite claims that it is failing to comply with the treaty, Moscow’s Ambassador to Washington said Wednesday as fears of nuclear confrontation loom over the war in Ukraine. The U.S. State Department on Tuesday accused Russia of not complying with…
The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday rebuffed a Russian demand that its athletes be treated the same as those of other countries, in a growing row over Russian and Belarusian participation in the 2024 Paris Games. “The sanctions against the Russian and Belarusian state and governments are not negotiable,” an IOC spokesperson said. The debate…
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to take the steps “necessary” to reopen a key transit corridor between Armenia and the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Since mid-December, a group of Azerbaijanis has been blocking the only road into Karabakh from Armenia to protest what they claim is illegal mining by the…
An ex-commander with Russia’s notorious mercenary group Wagner who is currently seeking asylum in Norway described witnessing summary executions of fellow soldiers during an interview with The Moscow Times on Tuesday. Andrei Medvedev, 26, said that he witnessed a double execution at a Wagner center where the group was training inmates recruited from Russia’s jails.…