Russia has been using Chinese-made engines to produce long-range attack drones for deployment in Ukraine since at least mid-2023, Reuters reported Friday, citing European intelligence sources. The Russian company IEMZ Kupol was said to have manufactured over 2,500 Garpiya-A1 drones between July 2023 and July 2024. The Garpiya drone has a maximum takeoff weight of under…
A Russian senator this week called on fellow lawmakers to introduce a legal ban on quadrobics, a subculture revolving around the impersonation of animals that is rapidly gaining momentum among Russia’s youth. “I am convinced that any subculture should remain within the bounds of reason and be safe for oneself and others,” Senator Natalia Kosikhina…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Friday that 49 Ukrainian POWs had been returned from Russia, with AFP witnessing the group being greeted at the border with Belarus. Zelensky did not clarify whether it was part of an exchange with Russia, as is usually the case, but AFP journalists had earlier seen Russian prisoners of war…
Russia’s Central Bank on Friday raised its key interest rate from 18% to 19%, a widely anticipated move as the country struggles to cool down inflation amid soaring military spending for the war in Ukraine. “Current inflationary pressures remain high. By the end of 2024, annual inflation is likely to exceed the July forecast range…
Leonid Nevzlin, a Russian-Israeli businessman and outspoken Kremlin critic, was accused Thursday by late opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s team of ordering a number of attacks against Navalny allies. Nevzlin, a close associate of exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was accused of ordering assaults against Navalny ally Leonid Volkov in Lithuania, Navalny aide Ivan Zhdanov in…
The head of Russia’s Security Council Sergei Shoigu met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday, just months after the Kremlin signed a mutual defense agreement with Pyongyang. The visit also comes as Moscow seeks more arms for its war in Ukraine, and as the West accuses Pyongyang of sending weapons to Russia.…
Russian state broadcaster Rossiya-24 said Friday that its war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny was discharged from the hospital over a month after being seriously injured in a Ukrainian drone attack. Poddubny was hospitalized after a drone struck the vehicle he was riding in during a reporting assignment on Ukraine’s surprise incursion into the Kursk region early…
Covid-19 cases are rising across Russia, driven by two new variants that are more resistant to immunity, the country’s consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said Friday. Over the past two to three weeks, infections from the KP.3 and LB.1 variants have surged by 100% and 400%, respectively. Rospotrebnadzor identified them as “FLiRT variants,” a term used…
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the island nation for the first time in five years, Tokyo said Friday. The Japanese Defense Ministry said Russian Tu-142 reconnaissance planes flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region from Thursday morning to afternoon. The aircraft then traveled north over…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on Friday announced that the accreditation of six British diplomats had been withdrawn, accusing them of espionage and “threatening Russia’s security.” “As a measure of reprisals to the multiple unfriendly acts of London, the Russian foreign ministry… has withdrawn the accreditation of six employees from the political department of the British…
The team of late Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny on Thursday accused a Russian-Israeli billionaire of ordering the violent March attack on Navalny ally Leonid Volkov, citing evidence it obtained. Volkov, Navalny’s ex-chief of staff and former chairman of his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), was attacked with tear gas and a hammer outside his home in Lithuania on March…
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Thursday that letting Ukraine use longer-range weapons to strike targets inside his country would put NATO “at war” with Russia. The stark warning came as U.S. and U.K. officials discussed Kyiv’s demand for them to ease rules on firing Western weapons into Russia, more than two and…
Ukrainian drones have targeted northern Russia’s Murmansk region at least twice over the past month. Taking place some 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) from Russia’s border with Ukraine, the drone attacks mark the deepest strikes inside Russian territory since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor two and a half years ago. The first reported strike…
A Russian strike on Red Cross vehicles in eastern Ukraine killed three people, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday. “Today, the occupier attacked the vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian mission in Donetsk region,” Zelensky said. The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that three of its staffers had been killed…
Russia’s military has discharged 45 Indian nationals who were misled into fighting in the war against Ukraine, India’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday, saying that efforts were underway to release 50 more Indian soldiers. The Indian nationals were able to return home after Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised their plight with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his…
Large and easily accessible mineral deposits in Russia are nearly depleted, the head of Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry said Wednesday. “Geologists are forced to move further and further into the Arctic and difficult-to-reach regions of the Far East and Siberia,” Natural Resources Minister Alexander Kozlov said during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. “Only 35%…
Russian law enforcement authorities said Thursday that they arrested the head of a cleaning supplies company on suspicion of defrauding the Russian Defense Ministry through government contracts. Federal investigators accused Lenbytkhim CEO Denis Mikhailov of misappropriating over 20 million rubles ($218,600) from a contract with Voentorg, the military’s clothing and food supplier, which was valued…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that its forces were on the offensive in the Kursk region, recapturing nearly one dozen towns in the embroiled border region that were seized after Ukrainian forces launched their surprise incursion last month. “Units of the ‘North’ grouping of forces liberated 10 settlements within two days,” the Russian Defense Ministry…
Russian journalist Nikolai Svanidze, a veteran television and radio host, died in Moscow at age 69 on Wednesday following a prolonged illness. Svanidze passed away at his northeast Moscow apartment in the evening, according to the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets tabloid, which did not cite specific sources. Baza, a Telegram news channel with ties to Russian…
Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the BRICS summit in Russia next month, China’s foreign minister announced on Thursday. The summit of emerging economies will be held from Oct. 22 to 24 in the Tatarstan capital of Kazan, with the Kremlin hoping the meeting will provide a chance to expand its influence and forge closer…
A Russian court on Thursday put three lawyers who used to represent the late opposition activist Alexei Navalny on trial over “extremism” charges. Navalny died in unclear circumstances at an Arctic prison colony in February, where he was serving a 19-year sentence for leading an “extremist” organization. Since his death, authorities in Russia have arrested…
Ivan from St. Petersburg enrolled in a military medical academy to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a doctor. He graduated this year, when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine had already been ongoing for two and a half years. Faced with mandatory military service but wanting no part in the war, he fled the country…
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) accused the United States of weaponizing European election observers to discredit next month’s elections in Georgia and spark pro-Western street demonstrations. “The U.S. State Department intends to use a new tool to interfere in Georgia’s parliamentary elections on Oct. 26 in order to prevent the victory of Georgian Dream,” the…
A Moscow court on Wednesday sentenced exiled former lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov to 10 years in prison in absentia for “justifying terrorism” and spreading “fakes” about the Russian military. Ponomaryov, who serves as a member of a Russian shadow parliament based in Poland, was accused of violating Russia’s wartime censorship laws in a March 2022 video interview…
Authorities in southwestern Russia’s Kursk region said Wednesday that more than 150,000 people living in communities near the border with Ukraine have been forced to evacuate their homes in the weeks since Kyiv launched its surprise incursion early last month. Kursk region Governor Alexei Smirnov said those who had been displaced due to cross-border clashes were…
The British government on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers, which Moscow uses to export oil in circumvention of a Western embargo imposed after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The announcement came as Foreign Minister David Lammy traveled to Kyiv in a rare joint trip with U.S. Secretary of State Antony…
The Kremlin said Wednesday it believes Washington has already given Ukraine approval to strike targets inside Russia using U.S.-supplied long-range rockets. “All these decisions have most likely already been made, it can be assumed with a high degree of probability,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “At this point, media outlets are simply carrying out…
Rosneft, together with Innopraktika, a non-governmental development institute, and the Centre for Whole-Genome Sequencing, has launched a unique project to create a genomic database of living organisms in the Russian Arctic
Military drones targeted northwestern Russia’s Murmansk region for the second time in a month, Russian authorities said Wednesday. “Our region is under attack from enemy drones,” Murmansk region Governor Andrei Chibis said in a video message posted on Telegram, seeming to refer to Ukraine. Civil aviation authorities restricted air traffic at airports in the regional…
In their first and possibly last debate on Tuesday night, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris faced off in what has shaped up to be one of the most contentious U.S. presidential elections in recent memory. While domestic issues such as the cost of living crisis, immigration and abortion took center stage,…
Russian troops have begun pushing back Ukrainian forces from the southwestern Kursk region in a counteroffensive, a senior-ranking military commander and pro-Russian war bloggers said late Tuesday, a move that, if confirmed, comes more than a month after Kyiv launched its surprise incursion. Major General Apti Alaudinov, who serves as deputy chief of the Russian…
A freight train derailed overnight in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, law enforcement authorities said early Wednesday, claiming it was caused by an “act of terrorism.” A locomotive and several wagons derailed in the Novooskolsky district shortly before midnight due to unspecified “interference,” according to the regional branch of state-owned Russian…
RN-Yuganskneftegaz (Rosneft’s largest producing asset) organised the Clean Shores environmental festival in Nefteyugansk
A Moscow court fined the popular Russian movie streaming website Kinopoisk 10 million rubles ($110,000) on Tuesday for charges related to “propaganda” of LGBTQ+ lifestyles and pedophilia. The Tagansky District Court imposed a 3 million ruble ($33,000) fine on Kinopoisk for “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations and preferences, as well as sex changes.” The same court…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the United States of provoking an arms race by increasing its military presence near Russia’s borders. “Under the pretext of countering alleged Russian threats and deterring the People’s Republic of China, the U.S. and its allies are increasing their military presence near Russia’s western borders, in the Arctic…
Iran sent short-range missiles to Russia that are expected to be used against Ukraine within weeks, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday as he announced a joint solidarity trip to Kyiv with his British counterpart. Blinken, who was visiting London, said Washington and its allies would impose new sanctions on Iran for defying…
Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday accused a Russian air force commander wanted by the International Criminal Court of being behind a missile attack on a children’s hospital in Kyiv this summer. “Lieutenant General Sergei Kobylash held the post of long-range aviation commander for the Russian aerospace forces at the time, and after delivering this strike, was…
Hungary’s government said Tuesday it welcomed a deal reached by energy company MOL that will ensure the supply of Russian oil via a pipeline running through Ukraine after Kyiv earlier restricted transit. In July, Hungary and Slovakia accused Kyiv of endangering their energy security by barring Russian energy giant Lukoil from using the Ukrainian section…
A far-right paramilitary group fighting on the side of Moscow in the Ukraine war claimed Monday that some of its members had begun volunteering to help the Federal Security Service (FSB) to “reinforce” Russia’s border with Finland. Rusich said it “officially entered into cooperation with the FSB border guard service of northwestern Russia to share…
Bashneft (a subsidiary of Rosneft) has supplied the central district hospital in the city of Yanaul in the Republic of Bashkortostan with a modern high-tech computer tomography system
The website builder and operator Wix announced Tuesday that it will no longer offer services to residents of Russia, a move that comes after the U.S. introduced new sanctions against Moscow over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “As a result of the new regulations, we are required to restrict access to Wix services for Russian residents from…
NATO members Romania and Latvia on Sunday said that Russian military drones targeting infrastructure in neighboring Ukraine had violated their airspace. Last month, NATO member Poland also reported a possible fly-in of a Russian drone into its airspace during a large-scale Moscow-led air attack on Ukraine but later backed off the claim. The reported breaches have…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it captured the town of Krasnohorivka in eastern Ukraine, as well as three villages in different parts of the Donetsk region. The Russian military said its troops “liberated” the town and the villages of Hryhorivkа, Halytsynivka and Vodyane. Krasnohorivka, which had a pre-war population of 16,000, is in an…
Russia and China launched joint naval exercises in the Sea of Japan, Russia’s military announced Tuesday, as Beijing and Moscow boost their alliance as a counterbalance to what they see as U.S. domination in global affairs. The Russian Defense Ministry said its Pacific Fleet and the People’s Liberation Army Navy will coordinate on “practical actions…
Moscow will not hold peace talks with Kyiv while Ukrainian troops remain in control of parts of the southwestern Kursk region, Russia’s former defense minister and current Security Council chief Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday. “Naturally, we won’t have any negotiations with them [Ukraine] until we throw them out of our territory,” he was quoted as…
Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks on Russia since the full-scale invasion, targeting regions across the country, including near Moscow where one woman was killed after a drone smashed into an apartment complex, Russian authorities said early Tuesday. The overnight attacks, which saw 144 drones destroyed over Russian territory, disrupted air traffic at several major…
Russia’s 2024 regional and municipal elections ended in few surprises, with the ruling, pro-Kremlin United Russia party solidifying its control in over 4,000 races nationwide, including in occupied Ukrainian territories. With the invasion of Ukraine in its third year, the Kremlin effectively banned any independent opposition candidates and thinned out the list of Kremlin-approved candidates…
Many of the evacuated residents of southwestern Russia’s Kursk region have not yet received payments promised by President Vladimir Putin over one month into Ukraine’s surprise incursion, the independent news outlet Agentstvo reported Monday, citing regional volunteers. On Aug. 8, two days after Ukrainian forces crossed into the region and captured settlements there, Putin promised one-time…
Latvia’s armed forces on Monday said the Russian drone that crashed on the Baltic state’s territory was an Iranian-designed Shahed equipped with explosives. Riga had earlier announced that investigators were looking into a drone that had crashed in the eastern part of the country on Saturday. Latvia, which was once ruled by the Soviet Union…
A small propeller-powered plane crashed during a training flight at an airfield in the Moscow region, killing the two pilots on board, authorities said Monday. The Aviatik Alliance Aleks-251 twin-engine aircraft crashed near the Vatulino airfield in the town of Ruza, around 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Moscow. The transportation arm of Russia’s Investigative Committee,…
The Kremlin said Monday that it would not grant an interview with President Vladimir Putin to Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was released by Russia this summer in a prisoner swap. Gershkovich made a handwritten request to interview Putin while filling out a form requesting a presidential pardon ahead of the prisoner exchange,…
7 September marked the fifth International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies since its establishment by the UN General Assembly in 2019
Russian children’s rights ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova married U.S.-sanctioned media tycoon Konstantin Malofeyev, Russian media reported Monday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The couple wed on Sunday at a restaurant in the elite Moscow region village of Deauville, according to the Telegram news channel Baza, which has ties to Russia’s security services. The independent news…
The European Union said Monday its allies had shared intelligence that Iran supplied Russia with ballistic missiles, and warned of new sanctions on Tehran if the deliveries were confirmed. “We are aware of the credible information provided by allies on the delivery of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia,” EU spokesman Peter Stano said. “We are…
Over 300 Russian soldiers who fought in Moscow’s war on Ukraine and ran as candidates from the ruling United Russia party have secured political office in Russia’s 2024 regional and local elections, state media reported Monday, citing a senior party official. Vladimir Yakushev, who serves as acting secretary of United Russia’s general council, told the…
German authorities warned Monday that a notorious Russian military intelligence unit carried out cyberattacks against targets in Europe and around the world. The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) said unit 29155 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) “carried out cyberattacks and other reconnaissance activities against targets in NATO and EU…
China said Monday it would hold joint military drills with Russia later this month, as the two allies continue to boost military and economic cooperation to counter what they see as U.S. domination in global affairs. China’s Defense Ministry said that naval and air forces will participate in the “North-Joint 2024” exercises in the skies…
Latvia’s president on Sunday said a Russian military drone had crashed on its territory, adding that airspace breaches had increased along NATO’s eastern borders. The Baltic state, which was once ruled by the Soviet Union but is now an EU and NATO member, has had tense relations with Moscow following independence, and ties have further…
Romania on Sunday said a Russian attack drone targeting civilian infrastructure in neighboring Ukraine overnight had entered its airspace, strongly condemning the “renewed violation” brought on by Moscow’s “illegal attacks.” Since launching its invasion in February 2022, Russia has repeatedly carried out nightly attacks on cities across Ukraine, frequently targeting ports in the southern Odesa…
The Russian army on Sunday said that it had captured a town in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces are advancing on the strategic city of Pokrovsk. Russian forces have “liberated the locality of Novohrodivka” in the Donetsk region, some 20 kilometers from Pokrovsk city, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. The town had more than…