German prosecutors announced Friday that they had arrested three men suspected of spying for a foreign intelligence service. The three men were arrested in the western city of Frankfurt on Wednesday after allegedly trying “to gather information about a Ukrainian national,” federal prosecutors said in a statement. The men were only identified as Robert A. from…
A military court in St. Petersburg court on Friday sentenced a Russian woman to 10 years in prison for throwing a molotov cocktail at a military recruitment office last September. The 1st Western District Military Court found Elena Komaricheva, 59, guilty of “terrorism” charges after she agreed “to set fire to the… Military Commissariat of…
Volunteers from the Kuibyshev refinery, one of Rosneft’s largest enterprises in the Samara region, released more than 27,000 fry of the valuable red-listed sterlet into the waters of the Saratov reservoir
The former governor of central Russia’s Kirov region, Nikita Belykh, who was sentenced to eight years in jail in 2018 for accepting a large bribe, was released from prison on Friday after serving his sentence in full, his lawyer told state media. “Today, in connection with the terms of the sentence of the Presnensky District…
South Korea summoned Russia’s ambassador to Seoul on Friday to protest a defense agreement signed by President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un during a visit to Pyongyang earlier this week. Seoul “strongly urged Russia to immediately stop military cooperation with North Korea and comply with [UN] Security Council resolutions,” the foreign ministry…
Updated with Ukrainian army statement. Russia’s Defense Ministery said Friday that its air defense forces downed 114 drones launched overnight by Ukraine, with at least one person killed in the mass wave of attacks. “Russian anti-aerial defense systems intercepted and destroyed 70 drones over Crimea and the Black Sea, 43 drones over the Krasnodar region…
President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday banned Russia-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky from providing its popular antivirus products in the United States over national security concerns, the U.S. Commerce Department said. “Kaspersky will generally no longer be able to, among other activities, sell its software within the United States or provide updates to software already in…
The United States expressed deep unease over Putin’s threat to send weapons to Pyongyang, warning such action could destabilize the Korean peninsula. “It is incredibly concerning,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters. “It would destabilize the Korean peninsula, potentially, depending on the type of weapons, and might violate UN Security Council resolutions that Russia…
Prison conditions for Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin — serving 8.5 years for denouncing Moscow’s Ukraine offensive — have considerably worsened after he was moved to a punitive cell, his lawyer told AFP Thursday. Fears for jailed Kremlin critics have risen since opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in his Arctic prison in February. Yashin —…
As President Vladimir Putin paid a state visit to China in May, his Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that Moscow and Beijing were soon planning to sign a contract on the construction of the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline. “We plan additionally to finish the review and sign a contract for the construction…
A Moscow Court on Thursday extended the pre-trial detention of former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, who was arrested in late April and then later charged with accepting a bribe of more than 1 billion rubles ($11.4 million) while he oversaw military construction projects. Moscow’s Basmanny Court approved a request from investigators to hold Ivanov,…
Ten Ukrainian children and their families have been returned to territory controlled by Ukraine’s armed forces after living under Russian occupation, authorities in Kyiv said Thursday. Ukraine has accused Moscow of abducting almost 20,000 children from parts of the east and south of the country, while many more have found themselves living under Russian occupation…
Updated with second reported death. A powerful storm rumbled through the Russian capital on Thursday afternoon, carrying heavy rains and winds that ripped hundreds of trees from the ground and killed at least two people, local authorities said. Russia’s Emergency Services Ministry said a man was killed near Park Dubki in northern Moscow when wind…
Russian cyclist Alexander Vlasov has turned down the chance to participate in the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris due to his “very busy calendar,” a top Russian sporting official said on Thursday. Vlasov, 28, was one of 14 Russian athletes approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over the weekend to compete in the games under…
EU member states on Thursday signed off on a fresh package of sanctions against Russia targeting its lucrative liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector for the first time, officials said. The new measures — which should be formally adopted on Monday — are aimed at further choking off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine. “This hard-hitting package…
Russia’s largest lender Sberbank will begin providing services to corporate clients in eastern Ukraine’s partially occupied Luhansk and Donetsk regions later this month, a top manager at the bank told state media on Thursday. “Starting June 25, we will begin servicing legal entities” in occupied Ukraine, Sberank’s Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, Anatoly Popov,…
A dual U.S.-Russian citizen accused of donating around $50 to a Ukrainian charity went on trial for treason in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg on Thursday. Ksenia Karelina, a 32-year-old ballerina living and working in Los Angeles, was detained by police in Yekaterinburg in late January while on a trip to visit her family in…
A Russian missile and drone barrage damaged a Ukrainian power plant and other energy facilities overnight, officials said on Thursday, the latest in a series of strikes that have pushed the country’s grid to the brink. The targeted aerial barrages over recent months have crippled Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity and forced officials to impose rolling…
An overnight Ukrainian drone attack in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region has killed a woman, local authorities said early Thursday, as other drone strikes across the country set several oil depots ablaze. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defense systems destroyed six drones in the republic of Adygea, three each in the Bryansk and Krasnodar regions,…
Updated with cooperation agreement signing. Russia and Vietnam pledged Thursday to strengthen mutual ties as President Vladimir Putin made a state visit aimed at bolstering his alliances to counter Moscow’s growing isolation over the war in Ukraine. Putin traveled to Vietnam, a close ally of Russia since the Cold War, from a summit with North…
Russian ministers accompanying President Vladimir Putin on his visit to Pyongyang on Wednesday were forced to leave the negotiation room by a North Korean official who appeared to be angered that they had entered before leader Kim Jong Un. The incident took place during the live broadcast of Putin’s visit by North Korean state media.…
Russian forces have escalated attacks near Toretsk, a frontline town in eastern Ukraine that has remained relatively calm over recent months of fighting, officials said Wednesday. Overwhelmed and outgunned, Ukrainian forces have struggled to hold the line in the eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims to have annexed in a 2022 referendum condemned by…
Russia has accused France of stoking conflict in the South Caucasus after the country this week signed a deal to sell artillery systems to Armenia. “Paris is provoking another round of armed confrontation in the South Caucasus, and they are doing it in different ways. This [sale] is another step,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova…
Russian President Vladimir Putin was greeted by cheering crowds during a state visit to Pyongyang on Wednesday, marking what North Korea’s Kim Jong Un called a “new era” in relations between the historic allies. The visit to North Korea, Putin’s first since 2000, comes nine months after Russia hosted Kim on a visit to the…
Former presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin has stepped down from his position in local government, Russian media reported Wednesday. Nadezhdin, who earlier this year tried to mount an anti-war campaign for the 2024 Russian presidential election before election authorities barred him from running, had served as a deputy of the Dolgoprudny city council in the Moscow…
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a mutual defense agreement on Wednesday with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, who offered his “full support” on Ukraine. The pledge of military cooperation was part of a strategic treaty signed during a summit in Pyongyang, where Putin was making his first visit in 24 years. “It is really a…
Canada has sanctioned over a dozen high-ranking Russian law enforcement officials believed to be responsible for the death of opposition activist Alexei Navalny, the country’s Foreign Minister announced Tuesday. According to a Canadian Foreign Ministry statement, the new sanctions target individuals involved in the poisoning of Navalny in 2020, his arrest in Moscow upon returning to…
An ex-commander from Russia’s notorious Wagner mercenary group who fled to Norway last year has been sentenced to 120 days in prison for beating a woman and assaulting a bartender, The Barents Observer reported Tuesday. The Vestfold District Court in Norway found Andrei Medvedev guilty of beating his friend and assaulting a bartender who refused…
Officials in Moscow said Wednesday that they are waiting for the United States to respond to its prisoner swap proposals, days before American reporter Evan Gershkovich was set to face trial in Russia on espionage charges. President Vladimir Putin said in February that talks on a prisoner swap involving Gershkovich were underway, but the Kremlin…
A Russian court in the Far East city of Vladivostok on Wednesday sentenced an American soldier to three years and nine months in prison for making death threats and theft, state media reported. Gordon Black was arrested last month in Vladivostok, where he was visiting a Russian woman he met and dated while stationed in…
Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in North Korea early Wednesday, the Kremlin said, kicking off a visit set to boost defense ties between the two nuclear-armed countries as Moscow pursues its war in Ukraine. Just after the pre-dawn touchdown, Russian TV showed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un greeting Putin in the dark, on a…
A Moscow court on Tuesday remanded journalist Artyom Kriger until mid-August on charges related to the “extremism” case against late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, his employer said. Kriger, who works for the independent SOTAvision news outlet, was accused of “participation in an extremist community” after his Moscow apartment was searched by police on Tuesday morning and…
Two people were killed and a third was injured in a mine explosion in western Russia’s Bryansk region, regional authorities said Tuesday. “On the territory of the Klimovsky district, local residents entered the restricted border zone, despite signs warning about the mine danger,” Byransk region Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram. “Two residents died at…
A Russian court on Tuesday refused to release imprisoned U.S.-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who faces up to 10 years in jail on charges of spreading “false information” about the country’s army. Tuesday marks eight months since Kurmasheva, a joint U.S. and Russian citizen, was arrested in Russia on charges of breaching its “foreign agent” law.…
Put Domoi (“Way Home”), one of the most prominent groups of women relatives of mobilized Russian soldiers, has been calling on the Kremlin to return their husbands and sons from the front lines in Ukraine for months. But when Russia designated Put Domoi a “foreign agent” in late May, the move was still fairly unexpected.…
RN-Vankor (part of Rosneft Oil Company’s oil-and-gas production complex) completed the winter-spring delivery of cargo to the production facilities of the Vostok Oil project located in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory
An Estonian court on Tuesday sentenced Russian university professor Vyacheslav Morozov to six years and three months in prison on charges of spying against the Baltic country on behalf of Moscow. Morozov, a political scientist and former professor at the University of Tartu, was “found guilty of activities against the Republic of Estonia in the…
The former Russian division of French DIY retailer Leroy Merlin has announced it will change its name to Lemana PRO as part of a wider rebranding effort following its sale to local management last year. “In order to adapt our mission and name to new challenges and goals, we decided to rebrand,” the company’s Deputy…
Scientists continue to study the forest reindeer population in Tyumen Region thanks to the support of RN-Uvatneftegaz (an enterprise of Rosneft’s oil production complex)
Police in Moscow have detained three people following a mass food poisoning incident that left dozens hospitalized, Russian state media reported Tuesday, citing law enforcement officials. Health officials said Monday that more than 120 people had sought medical help and at least 30 were in intensive care with suspected foodborne botulism, a life-threatening condition that attacks…
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised North Korea on Tuesday for “firmly supporting” his war in Ukraine ahead of an East Asia trip, featuring stops in Pyongyang and Vietnam. The Kremlin leader is scheduled to touch down on Tuesday night for his first visit to North Korea in 24 years, with a confrontation between North and…
Moscow will start a 10-day naval exercise on Tuesday, involving dozens of ships sailing in the Pacific Ocean and waters close to South Korea and Japan, Russia’s Defense Ministry said. “The sailors will practice anti-submarine operations, defending ship detachments at sea, joint missile strikes against groups of ships belonging to a hypothetical enemy, training to…
An overnight drone attack set several oil storage tanks ablaze near the town of Azov in southern Russia on Tuesday, sparking a large fire, local officials said. “Oil product tanks caught fire in Azov as a result of a drone attack. According to preliminary findings, there were no casualties,” the Rostov region governor Vasily Golubev…
Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed a woman the West has called his “close relative” to a top Defense Ministry post on Monday as part of an ongoing shake-up of Russia’s military leadership. The appointment comes after Putin removed his longtime defense chief Sergei Shoigu last month, replacing him with economist Andrey Belousov, and following the…
Sergei Tyutryumov was executed by shooting on March 7, 1938. He was 33 years old. Soviet authorities accused him of “counter-revolutionary” activities and “anti-Soviet agitation aimed at undermining the authority of Soviet power.” Two years prior, Tyutryumov, a descendant of a noble family, moved to the Siberian city of Tomsk to work as a history…
More than 120 people sought medical help and at least 30 are in intensive care following a suspected outbreak of a rare and extremely dangerous food poisoning in Moscow, health officials said Monday. The patients were admitted to the hospital with suspected foodborne botulism, a life-threatening condition that attacks the nervous system and can cause…
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit North Korea this week, the Kremlin announced Monday, confirming previously reported travel plans that come amid suspicions in the West that Pyongyang is supplying Moscow with weapons for use in Ukraine. Putin will visit North Korea on Tuesday, his second trip to the isolated country since he first came to…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Monday that it arrested a former Agriculture Ministry official accused of embezzling billions of rubles more than a decade ago. Law enforcement agents arrested Oleg Donskikh — who headed one of the Agriculture Ministry’s departments until 2012 — in the Moscow region after he had been on the run…
A rescue team has freed a humpback whale from a fishing net in the Barents Sea north of Russia’s Murmansk region, the state environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor said Sunday. In Russia’s first operation of its kind, which took almost two weeks to complete, rescuers managed to get close to the whale — whom they called Stanislav — on…
A U.S. soldier held in Russia denied threatening to kill his Russian girlfriend while also pleading “partially” guilty to theft charges in a court in the Far East city of Vladivostok on Monday. U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Gordon Black was arrested in early May in Vladivostok, where he was visiting a Russian woman he met…
The Kremlin said Monday that this past weekend’s international peace summit on Ukraine produced “zero” results. Officials from more than 90 countries gathered in Switzerland between Saturday and Sunday, backing Ukraine’s territorial integrity but leaving key questions about how to end the war unanswered. “If we talk about the results of this meeting, then they…
Russia’s Interior Ministry has issued an arrest warrant for the editor-in-chief of the investigative news outlet IStories, Mediazona reported Monday. Roman Anin, who used to work as a correspondent for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was listed in the law enforcement body’s online database of wanted persons but the listing does not indicate any charges against…
President Vladimir Putin on Sunday appointed his former “business tsar” as his special representative to international organizations, a position previously held by veteran reformer Anatoly Chubais before he left Russia two years ago in opposition to the war. Boris Titov, who served as Russia’s business ombudsman from 2012, announced his resignation in the fall of…
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will stand trial on espionage charges in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on June 26, the court overseeing the process said on Monday, adding that the proceedings will take place behind closed doors. Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg and has been…
Dozens of countries meeting for a landmark international summit on peace in Ukraine agreed Sunday that Kyiv should enter dialogue with Moscow on ending the war, while strongly supporting Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity. More than two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, leaders and top officials from more than 90 countries spent the…
A Russian journalist was killed in a drone attack in eastern Ukraine, his employer announced Sunday, coming just days after a cameraman from the pro-government NTV channel was killed near the front line. “Our correspondent Nikita Tsitsagi was killed during an attack by Ukrainian army drones,” NEWS.ru said in a statement on Telegram. The outlet…
Updated with hostage release. Russian authorities on Sunday said they brought a swift end to a siege at a detention center in the southern Rostov region, killing Islamic State hostage-takers and freeing two prison guard captives. The prison service had said earlier that two guards had been taken hostage by an unspecified number of Islamic…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday he would present Moscow a proposal for ending the war once it had been agreed by the international community. He made the commitment in Switzerland during an address to an inaugural summit on peace in his country, attended by more than 90 countries, but not Russia. Zelensky told the…
Russian consumers enjoy continued access to Western brands like Nike and Lego thanks to a Dutch businessman who imports them via grey-market methods, Reuters reported Saturday. Wijnand Herinckx, 40, has built a “thriving” business ferrying these brands’ products into Russia after they exited the country in 2022 over the war in Ukraine, Reuters said, citing customs data,…
Saturday’s IOC statement also listed taekwondo, but that section included no names. “It is absolutely true — none of our taekwondists will perform at the Olympic Games in Paris,” Vadim Ivanov, Russia’s taekwondo head coach told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. After initially banning the two countries’ athletes from world sport following Russia’s invasion of…