The Russian website for home retail giant IKEA crashed Tuesday as the company launched its final sale before leaving the country. Buyers were unable to log into their accounts, add items to their carts or place orders. A message on IKEA’s website said later that online carts were unavailable for “technical reasons.” Disruptions linked to…
Prisons and corporations across Russia are recruiting volunteers to fight in Ukraine, independent media reported this week. The effort appears to be an attempt by the Russian military to replace its depleted forces following a grinding four-month effort to capture territories in southern and eastern Ukraine. Wagner, a Kremlin-linked private military company, has allegedly offered…
An official from Russia’s powerful FSB security services took over the government of the Moscow-occupied Kherson region in southern Ukraine, Kremlin-installed authorities said Tuesday. Sergei Yeliseyev, until now the deputy head of government in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, “became head of the government in the Kherson region,” said Vladimir Saldo, who heads the Russian…
Russian villages near the border with Ukraine were subjected to intense artillery fire early Tuesday, according to the governors of the Kursk and Bryansk regions. “The morning began again with artillery shelling of the border settlements,” Roman Starovoit posted on messaging app Telegram. Starovoit later added that an unspecified number of houses were damaged and…
American basketball star Brittney Griner asked US President Joe Biden to free her from a Russian prison in a handwritten letter Monday, portions of which were made public by her family. Two-time Olympic champion Griner, detained in Russia since February on drug smuggling charges, told Biden she fears she might never be freed. “As I sit here…
Russian cosmonauts on board the ISS held a flag symbolizing pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and congratulated Moscow’s forces on capturing the region of Luhansk, the space agency in Moscow said Monday. Roscosmos posted a photograph of cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergei Korsakov holding the flag of the self-proclaimed separatist Luhansk People’s Republic…
Ukraine has long been hailed as one of the world’s great breadbaskets. In 2021, the country accounted for 10% of global wheat exports in 2021, according to the United Nations. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February saw agriculture grind to a halt. As tensions rose in the Black Sea, a blockade of Russian ships disrupted…
Moscow authorities will rename a stretch of land outside the British Embassy in honor of one of eastern Ukraine’s pro-Moscow breakaway republics, the Moscow Mayor’s Office said Monday. The area — which runs along Smolenskaya Naberezhnaya between Protochny Pereulok and the exit onto Ulitsa Novy Arbat — will now be known as “Luhansk People’s Republic…
President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Russia will continue pressing forward in eastern Ukraine after Kyiv ordered its forces to retreat from the strategic city of Lysychansk and Russian officials claimed control over the entirety of Ukraine’s Luhansk region. “Military units … must carry out their tasks according to previously approved plans,” Putin said in…
Authorities in Uzbekistan said on Monday 18 people died in clashes in the autonomous Karakalpakstan region when mass protests erupted last week over planned constitutional changes affecting the territory’s status. The unrest, pitting protesters against security forces, represented the most significant challenge yet to the rule of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev since he rose to power…
Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t congratulate his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden on his country’s Independence Day holiday, the Kremlin said Monday. “This is because this year, the U.S.’ unfriendly political discourse towards Russia has reached its culmination point,” Interfax quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying to reporters. “Under this circumstance, sending such a congratulatory…
A Siberian journalist and activist has been moved to a psychiatric hospital while facing trial for publishing “fake news” about the Russian army, her colleagues at the RusNews media outlet said. Maria Ponomarenko, 44, was detained in St. Petersburg in April for allegedly publishing information about the Russian bombing of a theater in the Ukrainian…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to press ahead with Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine after troops took control of the entire Lugansk region. “Military units, including the East group and the West group, must carry out their tasks according to previously approved plans,” Putin told Shoigu. “I hope that everything…
Russian troops were on Monday holding the strategic Ukrainian city of Lysychansk after Kyiv’s forces retreated, in a major boost for Russia’s campaign to seize the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. With the war now well into its fifth month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, governments and organizations gathered for a…
Chinese smartphones and home appliances are replacing major Western brands that have exited Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday. January-June 2022 results analyzed by the Marvel Distribution IT supplier showed at least seven Chinese smartphone brands leading sales in Russia, according to Kommersant. Tecno, Infinix, Realme and Xiaomi showed more…
Russian émigré Valentin Semyonov uses sausage as an icebreaker when he meets his Georgian neighbors. “This tastes just like the good old Soviet stuff!” the gangly 38-year-old says as he hands around sticks of salami, of which he appears to have brought an endless supply from his motherland. There is hardly a neighbor in his…
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Sunday that Moscow’s forces have taken the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk and control the entire Luhansk region, which has been the target of fierce battles in recent weeks. “Sergei Shoigu has informed the commander in chief of the Russian armed forces, Vladimir Putin, of the liberation of the People’s Republic…
Updated with Defense Ministry spokesperson comments and new death toll. Russia said four people were killed and several injured in a Sunday strike on a city near the border with Ukraine, the most deadly attack inside Russia since the start of the invasion of its western neighbor. The explosions, which occurred in the early hours…
Fighting raged Saturday for Ukraine’s strategic Lysychansk, as Kyiv denied a claim by Moscow-backed separatists that they had encircled the eastern city. Clashes have been intense in Lysychansk, the last major city in the Luhansk region of the Donbas still in Ukrainian hands, located across the river from neighbouring Severodonetsk seized by Russia last week.…
In a grainy, black and white video published Friday, a Russian jet swoops low over Snake Island in the Black Sea, recently vacated by Russian troops, and drops several bombs. According to the Ukrainain military. the bombs contained white phosphorus. Russia has deployed a huge array weapons in the four months of its ongoing military…
Sweeping Western sanctions are only hastening integration between Russia and Belarus, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday. Western countries levied several rounds of sanctions on both Moscow and Minsk in retaliation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, with Belarus accused of acting as a staging ground for Russia’s incursion into northern Ukraine. …
Russia on Friday threatened to close its embassy in Bulgaria and shut down the EU country’s mission in Moscow as tensions rage over Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine and espionage concerns. This week Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said his country would expel 70 Russian diplomatic staff, the biggest number ordered out from the Balkan nation.…
Russia’s new 100-ruble bill will not be introduced into circulation anytime soon due to difficulties stemming from Western ATM and point-of-sale service providers’ exit over the war in Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday. Russia’s Central Bank introduced the new 100-ruble banknote — depicting the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower on the front and the Rzhev…
American basketball star Brittney Griner went on trial in a Russian court Friday amid a historic low point in relations between Washington and Moscow. The WNBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist was detained at a Moscow airport in February after security officers allegedly found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. Griner was…
Missile strikes slammed into a residential building and a recreation centre early Friday, killing 21 people and wounding dozens in Ukraine’s Odesa region, in attacks swiftly condemned by Germany. Two children were among the dead and six others among the injured, Ukrainian officials said, one day after Russia abandoned positions on a strategic island in…
Russia has canceled its nationwide mask mandate, federal health authorities announced Friday, as the coronavirus pandemic has been pushed into the background amid the country’s military campaign in Ukraine. Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s consumer protection watchdog, said the country’s caseload has “steadily” declined over the past four months. It claimed that 93% of currently confirmed cases are either…
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Thursday ordering the transfer of the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project in Far East Russia to a new domestic operator in response to “unfriendly” Western sanctions and threats to Russia’s national interests and economic security. Foreign investors will be required to apply to retain their existing shares in the…
A Siberian spectral imagery scientist battling late-stage cancer was arrested in hospital and brought to Moscow on accusations of treason, the Tayga.info news website reported Thursday. Dmitry Kolker, Ph.D., heads the Novosibirsk State University’s quantum optical technologies laboratory, which partners with Germany’s Max Born Institute and France’s National Institute of Metrology. “They took a sick…
Russia on Thursday summoned Britain’s ambassador to Moscow to protest at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “offensive” remarks about President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Russia told the envoy, Deborah Bronnert, it “firmly” opposed “the openly offensive comments by the British authorities towards Russia, its leader, its officials as well as…
President Vladimir Putin denied Thursday that Russia bore any responsibility for a looming global food crisis due to the conflict in Ukraine. Ukraine, a major exporter of grain, especially corn and wheat, has seen its production blocked by Moscow’s military offensive, sparking a surge in prices and fears of food shortages that will particularly affect…
Columns of heavy smoke were visible in the first images of Snake Island published by the Ukrainian military Thursday as Russia announced it had retreated from the strategic outpost near the Danube Delta. Russia’s decision to withdraw was likely the result of repeated Ukrainian attacks, including those launched with Western-supplied weaponry. “From a military point…
Moscow said Thursday that G7 plans to cap the price of Russian oil would lead to a shortfall on world markets and soaring prices for European consumers. “This is another attempt to interfere in market mechanisms, which can only lead to market imbalance,” Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said, warning of “price increases” and market…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that a new “Iron Curtain” was descending between Moscow and the West amid the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. “As far as an Iron Curtain is concerned … essentially it is already descending,” Lavrov told journalists during a press conference in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. “The process has…
Following Russia’s bombing of a drama theatre in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in March, St. Petersburg-based artist Alexandra Skochilenko swapped supermarket price tags with stickers containing information about the attack that reportedly killed hundreds of civilians. A fellow store customer reported her act of resistance to the police. “I was extremely outraged by the…
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for three people over alleged war crimes during the 2008 conflict between Russia and Georgia in South Ossetia, it said Thursday. Mikhail Mayramovich Mindzaev, Gamlet Guchmazov and David Georgiyevich Sanakoev, who were officials in the pro-Moscow breakaway republic, allegedly detained civilians to use as “bargaining chips” in negotiations, the ICC…
The head of one of Russia’s leading universities was detained Thursday in connection with a fraud investigation targeting a former senior education official. Vladimir Mau, head of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), was detained as a suspect in a 21-million-ruble ($399,810) embezzlement case, Russia’s Interior Ministry said. Investigators have…
Russian lawmakers Thursday approved legislation allowing officials to block foreign news outlets in retaliation for clampdowns against Russian state media abroad. The bill gives Russia’s Prosecutor General the right to ban foreign outlets without court approval if another government is found carrying out “hostile actions against Russian media abroad.” The new measures also give officials…
For his first trip abroad since he sent his country’s armed forces into Ukraine in February, Russian President Vladimir Putin chose Tajikistan. And few are entirely certain why. The official agenda for Putin’s June 28 working visit sounded mostly unexceptional. The Kremlin said in a pre-trip statement that talks with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon would dwell on…
Russia’s state energy giant Gazprom and top lender Sberbank decided Thursday not to pay their investors dividends for 2021, sending the companies’ shares downward. Gazprom’s canceled 2021 dividends would have marked an all-time record payout for the company, giving investors an expected 1.24 trillion rubles ($23.37 billion). “The shareholders decided that in the current situation…
Russian forces have withdrawn from the strategic Black Sea outpost of Ukraine’s Snake Island. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Thursday that the withdrawal was a voluntary show of “goodwill” as Moscow seeks to discredit claims that it is enforcing a naval blockade in the area. “On June 30, as a step of goodwill, the Russian Armed…
More than a third of Russian movie theaters were forced to temporarily close in June as visitor numbers dwindled amid the disappearance of Hollywood blockbusters, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday. Russia’s film industry was thrown into turmoil after the five major Hollywood studios — Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, Sony Pictures and Paramount — halted…
Russia on Thursday began shipping grain from Ukraine’s occupied territory, with a vessel carrying 7,000 tons of cereal sailing from Ukraine’s occupied port of Berdyansk. Kyiv has for weeks accused Russia and its allies of stealing its grain from southern Ukraine, contributing to a global food shortage caused by grain exports blocked in Ukrainian ports.…
Chinese smartphone maker Honor has stopped shipments to Russia over fears of secondary sanctions for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday. Honor halted deliveries to Russia as early as March without an official announcement, the publication cited two unnamed industry sources saying. The United States and its Western allies announced export…
Auto production in Russia has slowed to a crawl after major automakers exited and Western governments imposed debilitating sanctions on Moscow in response to its invasion of Ukraine. Russia manufactured 3,700 cars in May, 97% fewer than the same month last year, the country’s statistics agency Rosstat said late Wednesday. Output fluctuated at the start…
The United States vowed Wednesday to reinforce Europe’s defenses in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as NATO declared Moscow the West’s greatest threat — prompting Vladimir Putin to lash out at the alliance’s “imperial ambitions.” Meeting in Madrid, NATO leaders said Russia “is the most significant and direct threat to allies’ security and…
Hotels in Crimea have seen guest numbers fall by more than a third compared to last year amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Just half of all hotel rooms in the popular resort were filled in June, despite tour operators slashing prices, Russian news outlet RBC reported Wednesday. The closure of the peninsula’s airport in Simferopol…
Russian officials have voiced outrage and threatened retaliation after they said Norway blocked a shipment of essential goods, including food and medical supplies, destined for Russian miners on the Svalbard archipelago. Norwegian authorities last month stopped two containers carrying 20 tons of Russian goods, including seven tons of food, at its sole land border checkpoint…
Satellite images and GPS data indicate that Russia could be exporting grain smuggled out of occupied Ukrainian territory, investigations by the BBC and the Financial Times have revealed. Russia has been accused by Western powers of using food as a weapon in its war with Ukraine by targeting the country’s grain storage facilities and blockading…
Russia’s lower house of parliament has passed a new bill expanding the criteria for individuals and organizations who can be labeled “foreign agents.” According to the new law passed by the State Duma, any organization or person deemed “under foreign influence” can be listed as a “foreign agent,” barring them from activities such as receiving…
Moscow said Wednesday that the NATO summit in Madrid served as proof the alliance was seeking to contain Russia and that it saw Finland and Sweden’s NATO bids as a “destabilizing” factor. “The summit in Madrid confirms and consolidates this bloc’s policy of aggressive containment of Russia,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, Russian news agencies reported. “We…
Russia’s finance minister said Wednesday the government could use excess energy revenues for foreign currency interventions to rein in the ruble, which has surged to a seven-year high. A strong ruble is not desirable for the Russian government, which fears it can hit budget revenues and exports. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Russia was “ready to sacrifice”…
President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian schools to appoint dedicated “patriotic advisers” as part of an ongoing push to instill “spiritual-moral values” in the nation’s students amid the war in Ukraine. Schools in 45 Russian regions will need to install so-called “advisers on the principals of educational work” from Sept. 1, according to a presidential…
Official statements and footage released by Russia’s Defense Ministry suggests the Kremlin has reshuffled the country’s military command structure in recent weeks, according to analysts, as the ongoing Russian offensive in Ukraine yields few territorial gains. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Gennady Zhidko’s appearance alongside Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on a visit to eastern Ukraine over…
Southern Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region is preparing to vote on officially joining Russia, a Moscow-backed official said Wednesday. “We’re preparing for the referendum and we will carry it out,” Kirill Stremousov, deputy chief of the Kherson region’s Moscow-installed administration, said in a video address. “The Kherson region will decide to join the Russian Federation and…
Russia said Wednesday it had shot down a Ukrainian drone overnight, marking the latest cross-border intrusion on a Russian border region amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Kursk region Governor Roman Starovoit said a Soviet-era Tu-141 reconnaissance drone crossed into Russian airspace late Tuesday before being shot down. Footage shared by Starovoit showed what he said…
An EU ban on insuring ships transporting Russian oil could potentially hurt Moscow more than its embargo on the nation’s crude, analysts say. The European Union recently unveiled the insurance ban in a sixth set of economic sanctions aimed at punishing Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. In a further knock, G7 leaders are seeking…
Russia is working actively to “normalize” the situation in Afghanistan, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday during a visit to neighboring Tajikistan, evoking Moscow’s responsibilities in the area. “We are doing everything to normalize the situation [in Afghanistan] and we are trying to build relations with the political forces that control the situation,” Putin said during talks…
Bulgaria will expel 70 Russian diplomatic staff, the EU country’s prime minister announced on Tuesday, the biggest number ordered out in one go from the Balkan nation. “Bulgaria is going to expel 70 Russian diplomats. Our services identified them as people who worked against our interests,” Prime Minister Kiril Petkov told reporters. “Everyone who works…
Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska said Tuesday it would be a “colossal mistake” for Russia to destroy Ukraine with its military offensive, a rare rebuke from a member of Russia’s business elite. “Is it in Russia’s interest to destroy Ukraine? Of course not, that would be a colossal mistake,” he told a rare press conference in Moscow. He repeated…
Russia has shirked blame for Monday’s deadly missile strike on a central Ukrainian shopping mall that killed at least 20 people and injured dozens, calling accusations that it targeted civilians “fake” and a “provocation.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the attack in the city of Kremenchuk, which took place while some 1,000 civilians were inside…