Shadowy Russian private military company Wagner has started recruiting citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to fight in Ukraine, Kyrgyz media reported Wednesday. Russia has faced heavy military casualties in its five-month invasion of Ukraine, pushing Moscow to search for ways to shore up its manpower without declaring a full mobilization. Kyrgyzstan’s MediaHub investigative outlet said…
Russia has asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to intervene in grain talks with Ukraine to facilitate Moscow’s exports, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. Ukraine and Russia have held talks under Turkish and UN mediation to unblock crucial grain exports, as shipments from Ukrainian ports are disrupted by Moscow’s military offensive. Lavrov said…
Less than two weeks after joining the army, Ivan was on the frontlines of Russia’s offensive in eastern Ukraine and taking part in attacks on Ukrainian positions. Ivan, 31, who requested anonymity to protect his safety, said he received just five days of training before being transferred to Ukraine and flung into combat. “There was…
Russia’s “geographical goals” in Ukraine have changed to include not only the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics of eastern Ukraine, but a number of other regions as well, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state media Wednesday. “Now, [our] geography is different. It is not only the DNR and LNR, it is also the Kherson…
The German government on Wednesday accused Russia of using the absence of a turbine as an “excuse” to limit gas deliveries via a key pipeline due to go back online this week. “I would like to stress that according to our information this is an excuse by the Russian side,” a German economy ministry spokeswoman…
Updated at 6:45 p.m. on July 21 to add that the bear has been rescued. A team of Moscow veterinarians was dispatched to the Russian Far North to save a polar bear with a can of condensed milk stuck in its mouth, Russia’s environmental watchdog said Wednesday. The rescue team tranquilized the female bear and…
The United Nations agency in charge of investigating the diversion of a Ryanair flight by Belarus last year announced Tuesday it has completed its review, once again pointing the finger at the “unlawful” actions carried out by Minsk. On May 23, 2021, a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to land in Minsk,…
Russia has decommissioned the world’s largest nuclear ballistic missile submarine, state media reported Wednesday. The Dmitry Donskoy, a Typhoon-class submarine that served in the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet since 1980, stood at 175 meters in length. Its status as the world’s largest submarine will be taken by the 184-meter Oscar II-class Belgorod nuclear submarine, which…
A Moscow court on Tuesday remanded a former university rector and regional lawmaker in custody on charges of murder more than two decades ago. Ilshat Gafurov, 60, headed the republic of Tatarstan’s Kazan Federal University from 2010 until his detention and transfer to Moscow in December 2021. He is suspected of ordering the assassination of…
Russian shelling pounded eastern and southern Ukraine Tuesday as President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would only ease the path for Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain if the West lifts sanctions on Russian shipments. Russian strikes hit the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, killing one person, local authorities said. AFP journalists said a four-story…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for mediating talks on the export of grain from Ukraine, saying there was some progress. “I want to thank you for your mediation efforts,” Putin told Erdogan during a meeting in Tehran in comments released by the Kremlin. “With your mediation, we have…
The capital of Russia’s Far East republic of Sakha was covered in a thick layer of harmful smog Tuesday as wildfires continued to rampage across the country’s eastern regions. “An excess of the maximum permissible concentrations of three kinds [of air pollutants] was revealed in the city of Yakutsk,” Natalya Borisova, the regional representative of…
North Korea could send builders to eastern Ukraine’s separatist regions to aid in their “reconstruction” after they have been devastated by months of war, Russia’s Ambassador to Pyongyang said Tuesday. “Highly qualified, hardworking, and ready to work in the most difficult conditions, Korean builders will be an asset in the serious task of restoring social,…
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tehran for talks Tuesday on the Syrian war at a three-way summit overshadowed by fallout from his country’s war on Ukraine. Putin traveled abroad for only the second time since ordering the invasion of Ukraine in order to attend the gathering that also involves Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.…
Russia’s police force has added Dmitry Gordon, a prominent Ukrainian journalist, to its wanted list months after he became one of the first non-Russians to be charged under new laws cracking down on information about the war in Ukraine. Gordon appeared in the Russian Interior Ministry’s database of wanted persons on Tuesday. But the specific…
Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom is blaming cuts in gas deliveries to Europe on “force majeure,” two major German customers said on Tuesday, adding to fears about further disruptions. “We confirm that we have received a letter from Gazprom Export claiming force majeure retroactively for past and current gas supply shortfalls,” said Uniper, one of…
Russia will launch a football league for “friendly” Moscow-occupied and separatist territories in Ukraine and Georgia, a sporting official said Monday. The league will consist of clubs from annexed Crimea, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhask People’s Republics and the Russian-held Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in southern Ukraine, as well as the breakaway Georgian regions of…
Armenia will withdraw all troops from the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region – over which it has fought two wars with arch-foe Azerbaijan – by September, officials said Tuesday. Six weeks of fighting between the Caucasus neighbors in autumn 2020 claimed more than 6,500 lives and ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire. Under the deal, Armenia ceded…
At least 300 soldiers from a single unit in Russia’s North Caucasus refused deployment to Ukraine in the first month of the war, The Moscow Times’ Russian service has reported. The men from the republic of Dagestan were deployed in the pro-Russian separatist region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, according to activists cited by MT…
Russian world number 12 Daria Kasatkina criticized her country’s attitude toward homosexuality in a video published on Monday as she announced she was a lesbian. The 25-year-old’s comments come after Russian deputies proposed on Monday a new law which would ban information on all non-traditional sexual relationships in the public sphere. Broadcasting homosexual “propaganda” to…
Russian lawmakers on Monday submitted legislation that would ban any information deemed “LGBT propaganda” by Russian authorities. Current Russian law bans the display of “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships” toward minors. If passed, the latest bill would restrict “information that denies family values” as well as “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” aimed at any age…
A former Russian state television worker who protested the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine on the air faces new charges of “discrediting” the military and said she expects further pressure and intimidation from law enforcement following her return to the country. Marina Ovsyannikova was briefly detained in Moscow on Sunday evening after a July 15 social…
A Moscow court has fined Google 21 billion rubles ($360 million) for failing to remove content concerning Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, the nation’s telecommunications regulator said Monday. Roskomnadzor said the Google-owned video platform YouTube had failed to block “false information” on the offensive in Ukraine, “extremist and terrorist propaganda” and content “calling on minors to participate…
Almost two dozen people, including several children, were killed in Thursday’s Russian attack on the city of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine, which President Volodymyr Zelensky described as an act of terrorism. Images from the strikes and their aftermath have spurred a renewed round of international condemnation against Moscow:
The independent Dozhd television channel is resuming its broadcasts from outside Russia on Monday, ending a monthslong hiatus sparked by harsh wartime information laws passed in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “The team is in a great mood but everyone is, of course, a little nervous because we haven’t been live for four…
Russia must work to overcome “colossal” high-tech problems caused by Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said Monday. “This is a huge challenge for our country,” Putin said, accusing Western countries of deliberately blocking access to high-tech products for Russia. “Realizing the colossal amount of difficulties we are…
Russians are facing longer-than-normal waiting times for Schengen visas as tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions have left European embassies in Moscow short-staffed and demand for summer travel surges. Limited appointment slots are available at most embassies’ visa centers, with all slots at the visa centers of France, Greece and Spain fully booked for July, according to travel…
Russian shelling in battle-scarred east Ukraine on Monday left six dead, Kyiv said, as the country was reeling from President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to sack two senior law enforcement officials. EU foreign ministers were convening meanwhile to discuss toughening sanctions against Moscow and the bloc’s foreign policy chief warned of the “life and death” consequences…
Russia’s defense minister has instructed the country’s Armed Forces based in eastern Ukraine to prioritize strikes on Ukraine’s long-range weapons, according to a statement circulated by news agencies Monday. Sergei Shoigu issued the instructions to the Vostok (“East”) Battalion as part of his second publicly announced visit to the frontline since Russia invaded Ukraine in…
Russia’s most modern and technologically advanced tank, the T-90M, has appeared in photos and videos in Ukraine just a handful of times since the beginning of the invasion. One video posted online last week showed a T-90M on a mud road, hidden under trees. But its relative rarity — and technological sophistication — has not…
Ukraine’s atomic energy agency accused Russia of using Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to store weapons and shell the surrounding regions of Nikopol and Dnipro that were hit Saturday. Petro Kotin, president of Ukrainian nuclear agency Energoatom, called the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant “extremely tense” with up to 500 Russian soldiers controlling the plant. The…
Russian energy giant Gazprom said Saturday it had asked German group Siemens to return a turbine it has repaired in Canada to ensure the Nord Stream pipeline delivering gas to Europe works. Gazprom started 10 days of maintenance on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Monday, with the European Union — particularly gas-reliant Germany —…
Kremlin critic Andrei Pivovarov, the former head of pro-democracy group Open Russia, has been sentenced to four years in prison on charges of “undesirable” activities, his team said Friday. Pivovarov, 40, has been in detention since May 2021, when he was removed from a Warsaw-bound plane by security services amid the country’s wide-reaching crackdown on…
The United States said Friday it would resume flights to the International Space Station with Russia, despite its attempts to isolate Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine. “To ensure continued safe operations of the International Space Station, protect the lives of astronauts and ensure continuous U.S. presence in space, NASA will resume integrated crews on U.S.…
The head of Russia’s space agency, who has made headlines with his bombastic statements and support for Moscow’s Ukraine offensive, has been relieved of his duties and will get a new job, the Kremlin said Friday. Dmitry Rogozin, a firebrand nationalist politician and one of the most ardent supporters of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, was…
Russia said its strikes on the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia targeted a Ukrainian military meeting, as rescuers on the ground continued to search for survivors from the attack that killed at least 23 civilians. The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that it was targeting a meeting between Ukrainian air force officials and foreign arms…
Paul Urey, a British aid worker captured in Ukraine by pro-Russian forces, has died in captivity, an official in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) said Friday. Urey, 45, was captured near the occupied southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia in April. He and fellow British aid volunteer Dylan Healy were charged with “mercenary” activity, an offense…
Rosneft and Russian Arctic National Park summed up the results of a comprehensive project called Clean Arctic.
A new kindergarten for 220 children has been commissioned in the village of Kushnarenkovo in the Republic of Bashkortostan.
Rescue workers were digging through debris Friday, a day after Russian missiles tore through Vinnytsia in central Ukraine, killing nearly two dozen people, including children, in an attack President Volodymyr Zelensky said was an act of terrorism. Russia claimed Friday the strikes — hundreds of the kilometres from the front lines — had targeted a…
Russia has designated the Bellingcat investigative outlet as an “undesirable” organization on Friday, outlawing its operations inside the country. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office accused Bellingcat and its Russian partner The Insider of “posing a threat to the security of the Russian Federation.” Any Russian who cooperates with the outlets or cites their work now faces…
Russian forces are believed to have paused their grueling offensive in eastern Ukraine to rest soldiers and re-position for their next assaults while simultaneously stepping up rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities, military analysts told The Moscow Times. In the latest strike on a Ukrainian city, at least 23 civilians, including three children, were killed Thursday…
A court in Far East Russia has acquitted feminist and LGBT activist Yulia Tsvetkova of “pornography” charges for what supporters call body-positive images posted on social media, her mother said Friday. Tsvetkova, 29, spent several months under house arrest after authorities in the remote city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur launched a criminal case into the “spread of…
U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner’s Russian team praised her contribution to the country’s sport on Thursday as they shared testimony during her high-profile trial. Griner, a two-time Olympic basketball gold medalist and WNBA champion who had played in Russia, was detained in February, just days before Moscow launched its offensive in Ukraine. The 31-year-old was charged with…
Russia’s development of 5G cellular network coverage is on hold due to the exit of major global telecom providers and constraints posed by government regulations, the Business St. Petersburg news outlet reported Wednesday, citing industry experts. Russia’s digital developments ministry earlier this month said it aims to facilitate the 5G network’s expansion in Russia, including…
Natalia Tikhonova was at an anti-war rally in Moscow’s Zaryadye Park, a few hundred meters from the Kremlin, when police detained her. “Where are you taking me?” the 30-year-old mother with a young son asked as she was put inside a police van. “To improve the gene pool of the nation,” a police officer replied.…
Germany will halt imports of Russian coal from next month and Russian oil by the end of the year, a top economic aide to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced amid pressure on European countries to end their dependence on Russian energy following its invasion of Ukraine. “We will be off Russian coal in a few weeks,”…
Russian missiles struck Vinnytsia in central Ukraine Thursday, killing at least 20 people including three children, in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called “an open act of terrorism.” The midday attack on the city hundreds of kilometers from the frontlines and invading Russian troops came as EU officials convened in The Hague to discuss war crimes…
President Vladimir Putin signed into law Thursday legislation expanding the “foreign agent” label to encompass anyone deemed to have fallen under “foreign influence.” Russia’s registry of “foreign agents,” a name with Soviet-era connotations, lists “politically active” people and organizations that Russian authorities determine to have received foreign funding and subjects them to strict auditing requirements.…
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have captured a U.S. citizen for allegedly taking part in pro-Ukrainian rallies, accusations that his friends and family deny, The Guardian reported Wednesday. Suedi Murekezi, 35, is the third American national known to be held by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine’s separatist-controlled city of Donetsk. He had moved to Ukraine…
Kazakhstan must work to accommodate the hundreds of international businesses that have left Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, the ex-Soviet republic’s president said Thursday. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has walked a diplomatic tightrope since the start of the war in February, maintaining close ties with Moscow while refusing to recognize the independence of Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern…
News Analysis Rewriting History, Putin Pitches Russia as Defender of an Expanding Motherland In an emotional and angry speech, the president justified his decision to recognize breakaway states in Eastern Ukraine as independent.
Russia’s lower house of parliament will gather for an “extraordinary” meeting Friday amid speculation that deputies could sign off on a major policy announcement or government reshuffle. The meeting comes as Russia faces mounting domestic and foreign policy problems, from the dragging war in Ukraine to the economic fallout of sanctions. But the suddenness of…
The European Union on Wednesday said Lithuania had an obligation to allow the passage of sanctioned goods, with the exception of weapons, between Russia and its exclave of Kaliningrad. While transit by road was not allowed, legal guidance released by the EU executive said that “no such prohibition exists for rail transport” from Russia to…
A court in Moscow arrested opposition activist and former municipal deputy Ilya Yashin on Wednesday after he was charged with spreading false information about the Russian Armed Forces. Yashin, 39, will stay in prison until at least Sept. 12. “This case is politically motivated from first to last,” Yashin, who denies the charges, said in…
Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday held their first direct negotiations since March in a bid to break an impasse over grain exports that has seen food prices soar and millions face hunger. The high-stakes meeting involving UN and Turkish officials in Istanbul broke up after slightly more than three hours without any immediate signs of…
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia Wednesday of forcibly deporting up to 1.6 million Ukrainians to Russia, accusing Moscow of a deliberate criminal operation to depopulate parts of Ukraine. In a statement a day before the Ukraine Accountability Conference in the Hague on alleged war crimes in Ukraine, Blinken said Moscow is conducting…
The number of financial fraud schemes in Russia tripled in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period last year, the Russian Central Bank said Wednesday. Many of the illegal projects included pyramid schemes, according to the regulator. “Worried about the possibility of economic difficulties, people have been searching for new methods of…
Belarus on Wednesday sentenced a young journalist who covered protests against President Alexander Lukashenko to an additional eight years in prison for “state treason,” the channel she worked for said. Katerina Bakhvalova — who uses the pen name Katerina Andreyeva — was already serving a two-year sentence for “violating public order” and was due to…
The first Russian female soldier has died in Ukraine four and a half months into Russia’s war against its pro-Western neighbor, local media reported Tuesday. Anastasia Savitskaya was a corporal from the southwestern Russian city of Volgograd, according to the v1.ru news website. It was not clear where in Ukraine, or under what circumstances, she had…