A Beluga whale whose unusual harness sparked suspicions it was trained by Russia for spying purposes has been found dead in Norway, according to an NGO that tracks the animal’s movements. Nicknamed “Hvaldimir,” a pun on the Norwegian word for whale hval and the Russian name Vladimir, the beluga first appeared off the coast of…
Rescuers on Sunday said they found 17 bodies after a helicopter with 22 people on board crashed in Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula in the Far East. The helicopter went missing shortly after takeoff Saturday, carrying 19 tourists and 3 crew members, according to authorities in Kamchatka, a picturesque region popular among adventure tourists and known for its active…
Relatives of the victims of the Beslan school siege gathered Sunday to pay tribute at the ruins of the school, remembering the 330 people, including 186 children, who lost their lives in Russia’s deadliest terror attack. School bells rang at 9:15 a.m. local time, marking the start of the siege 20 years ago, while mourners laid…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said early Sunday that its air defense systems downed nearly 160 Ukrainian drones across 15 regions, including two over Moscow, making it one of the largest coordinated attacks on the country since the start of the war. “During the night, the Kyiv regime attempted a terrorist attack using drones against targets in…
Independent Russian media outlet Mediazona said Saturday more than 66,000 Russian military personnel have died during the war in Ukraine according to its estimates. Mediazona has been drawing up a list of known soldier deaths in conjunction with the BBC Russian Service using open-source data. Previously in April, they announced they had found more than…
A helicopter with 22 people aboard, most of them tourists, has gone missing in Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula in the far east, regional authorities said Saturday. “Today at about 16:15 [0415 GMT] communication was lost with a Mi-8 helicopter…which had 22 people on board, 19 passengers and three crew members,” Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in…
Ukraine’s cross-border incursion into Russia has disrupted Russian mercenaries’ plans in junta-led Burkina Faso, with many now pulled out to help boost Moscow’s defenses back home, a paramilitary commander said on Friday. In an interview with AFP, Viktor Yermolaev, head of a paramilitary unit known as Medvedi (Bears) in Russia and the Bear Brigade in…
Ukraine was fully within its rights to launch its surprise offensive into Russia’s Kursk border region as an act of self-defense, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told German newspaper Die Welt. The offensive launched on Aug. 6 caught the Kremlin off guard, with Kyiv claiming to have captured dozens of settlements and more than 1,200 square…
At least five people were killed and 37 others injured in Ukrainian airstrikes on Russia’s Belgorod region Friday evening, local authorities said. Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov accused Ukrainian forces of using “Vampir” multiple-launch rocket systems with cluster munitions in the attack on the city of Belgorod and its surrounding areas. Among the dead were…
Russian authorities designated Galina Timchenko, the exiled founder and CEO of the independent news website Meduza, as a “foreign agent” on Friday. The Russian Justice Ministry accused Timchenko of opposing the country’s “special military operation” in Ukraine and spreading “inaccurate information aimed at forming a negative image of the Russian armed forces.” Timchenko served as…
Russian authorities have added Chechen MMA fighter Ilyas Yakubov to the country’s list of “extremists and terrorists” ahead of a court ruling on a criminal case against him. Yakubov was arrested last fall after posting an Instagram video of a training session set to an audio track featuring Shamil Basayev, a notorious Chechen guerrilla leader.…
Russia’s military said Friday that it captured three more villages in eastern Ukraine, where its forces continue to advance even as Kyiv mounts a major cross-border incursion into Russian territory. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces gained control of towns and villages in Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions. Among the settlements captured…
A cultural center dedicated to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin announced the creation of a new Komsomol, the Communist Party’s youth wing, as Soviet-era symbolism continues to resurface in Russia. The Stalin Center, located in the Altai region city of Byisk, launched the Stalin Young Communist League, aiming to attract members aged 14-20 who share the…
The Kremlin said Friday that it was not concerned about authorities in Mongolia arresting President Vladimir Putin during his visit to the Asian country next week, even though it would technically be required to do so after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest last March. Putin will travel to Mongolia…
Russian payments for Chinese goods faced increasing delays and rising costs this past month due to stricter banking compliance in response to U.S. threats of secondary sanctions, Reuters reported Friday, citing Russian sources familiar with the matter. Chinese state banks have reportedly halted transactions with Russian companies “en masse,” leaving payments worth billions of yuan…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Friday that it detained two Colombian citizens on suspicion of fighting as mercenaries on the side of Ukraine. The detentions came after a Moscow court ruled Wednesday to place Jose Aron Medina and Alexander Ante in pre-trial detention until at least Oct. 22. Both men face up to 15…
A court in Siberia’s republic of Altai sentenced a newspaper publisher to eight years in prison for spreading “false information” about the Russian military, the internet rights group Setevye Svobody (Net Freedoms Project) said Friday. Sergei Mikhailov, who ran the “Listok” weekly newspaper in the regional capital of Gorno-Altaisk, was arrested in April 2022 after…
Lawmakers from the liberal opposition party Yabloko have called on Russia’s Defense Ministry to stop deploying conscripts in the southwestern Kursk region as the Russian military struggles to halt Ukraine’s assault near the border. “A number of media reports said it was conscripts who took up the fight when the Ukrainian armed forces invaded the…
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Mongolia next week, the Kremlin announced Thursday, marking his first trip to a country that is legally obligated to arrest and hand him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Last March, the ICC issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest over accusations that Moscow unlawfully deported Ukrainian children amid…
Former Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov was arrested on fraud charges related to a sprawling military theme park outside Moscow, federal investigators announced Thursday. Popov is accused of misusing Patriot Park resources for personal gain, allegedly coercing the park’s contract workers into performing unpaid construction work at his private property in the Moscow region between…
Five new suspects linked to the deadly March attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall are now facing trial on terrorism and weapons charges, the city’s court system said Thursday. More than 20 individuals, including four alleged gunmen, were arrested following the March 22 attack, which resulted in 145 deaths and hundreds of injuries, making it…
Russia’s media regulator has warned internet providers to stop efforts that speed up YouTube loading speeds, an apparent acknowledgment of government attempts to throttle the popular video streaming platform, the independent news outlet Sotavision reported late Wednesday. Roskomnadzor’s control and regulatory arm, the main radio frequency center GRChTs, sent out the warning message following reports…
Authorities in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region late Wednesday ordered schools near the border with Ukraine to switch to remote learning for the start of the upcoming academic year amid intensifying clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces in recent weeks. “We must not only take all measures to ensure the safety of children but also give…
RN-Yuganskneftegaz, Rosneft’s largest oil production asset, continues to implement a large-scale programme to preserve biodiversity and restore aquatic bioresources
Ukrainian strikes on the southwestern Belgorod region killed one person and injured two others, regional authorities said early Thursday. “The town of Shebekino was targeted by Ukrainian forces” and “unfortunately, one person was killed,” Belgorod region Governor Vyachelsav Gladkov wrote on Telegram. Two other people were hospitalized with shrapnel wounds, he said, while the airstrikes…
France on Wednesday charged Pavel Durov, the founder and chief of Telegram, with a litany of violations related to the messaging app and banned him from leaving the country while allowing the billionaire to walk free after four days under arrest. Durov, 39, was charged on several counts of failing to curb extremist and illegal…
Russian authorities will restrict entry to Kurchatov, the town where the Kursk nuclear plant is located, amid Ukraine’s ongoing incursion in the Kursk border region, the region’s acting governor said Wednesday. “Despite the fact that the security of the Kursk nuclear power plant is maximized, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not abandoning their attempts to penetrate…
Russia has permanently banned 92 U.S. citizens from entering the country in response to the Biden administration’s “Russophobic” policies, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. The ministry said that the move was a response “to the Russophobic course pursued by Joe Biden’s administration with the declared aim of delivering a strategic defeat to Moscow, which includes…
At least 165 graves of Russian soldiers have been uncovered in the Arctic city of Murmansk, a significantly higher death figure than local authorities have publicly acknowledged, opposition activist Violetta Grudina said Wednesday. Grudina, an exiled former regional coordinator for Alexei Navalny’s now-banned political network, said the graves were found in a separate section of…
A Russian military court sentenced an engineer to 18 years in prison on Wednesday after authorities claimed they foiled his attempt to blow up an army recruitment office, the state-run TASS news agency reported. The court found Artyom Lozovoi, 39, guilty of treason in the form of espionage, of preparing a “terrorist attack” and of…
North Korea has sent Russia at least 13,000 shipping containers believed to be carrying arms since mid-2022, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Tuesday, citing a military intelligence report submitted to lawmakers in the East Asian nation. “To prepare for a prolonged war in Ukraine, Russia has moved to formalize North Korea as a…
Telegram founder and chief Pavel Durov was transferred to a courthouse in Paris on Wednesday where he may be formally charged, a source close to the case against the billionaire told AFP. The Russian-born tech entrepreneur was arrested at the French capital’s Le Bourget airport late Saturday on suspicion of failing to act against illicit…
Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in Russia’s Kirov region, located some 700 kilometers east of Moscow, regional authorities said Wednesday, marking the first such attack on the region since Moscow’s full-scale invasion. “Two drones were shot down, and three fell on the grounds of the Zenit plant in the town of Kotelnich, where they…
Siberian journalist and activist Maria Ponomarenko, imprisoned under Russia’s wartime censorship laws, threatened to cut her wrists in protest against the abuse she says she has endured while incarcerated. Ponomarenko was sentenced to six years in prison in February 2023 for spreading “fake news” about Russia’s 2022 bombing of a theater in Mariupol, Ukraine —…
Russian attacks on eastern Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk region killed six people, the governor of the region said Wednesday, as Moscow announced the capture of another village in the area. The industrial region has suffered some of the heaviest fighting since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, as well as going back to 2014.…
Russian internet providers have started implementing workarounds to speed up YouTube amid what appears to be a government effort to throttle the video streaming platform, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday, citing industry insiders. The move comes nearly a month after online users in Russia started experiencing sharp declines in YouTube loading speeds. These disruptions coincided…
French and Emirati spies hacked Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s iPhone in 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. The joint spy operation code-named “Purple Music” reportedly stemmed from concerns about the Islamic State’s use of Telegram, a private messaging app, for recruitment and plotting attacks — and came years…
Indonesian authorities have “no information” to confirm earlier reports alleging that their citizens are being recruited to fight in Ukraine, the Southeast Asia country’s embassy in Russia said in a statement sent to the Moscow Times. “So far, the Embassy has no information that may corroborate the alleged involvement of Indonesian nationals fighting for either…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested six “adherents of an international terrorist organization” in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, state media reported Wednesday, citing law enforcement officials. According to the FSB, the six arrested men were planning an attack on the police and an Orthodox church. Authorities say all of those who were arrested…
A second oil depot in southern Russia’s Rostov region was set on fire within a month following an overnight drone attack by Ukraine, local authorities said early Wednesday. “A drone attack caused a fire at a fuel depot in the Kamensky district,” Rostov region Governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram, adding that there were no…
A little-known company that posted Russia’s third-highest profit in just one year has vanished as mysteriously as it appeared, according to a new investigative report by the broadcaster RTVI. Banknota LLC, registered in June 2023, reported 3.7 trillion rubles ($40.4 billion) in revenue and 3.4 trillion rubles ($37.1 billion) in net profit last year — or about…
The Kremlin said Tuesday that France had leveled “very serious” charges against Telegram CEO Pavel Durov and warned Paris against trying to intimidate the tech entrepreneur after he was arrested in Paris over the weekend. French prosecutors accuse the 39-year-old billionaire of failing to curb the spread of illegal content on Telegram — charges his company denies.…
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that he supports a swift end to the grinding conflict in Ukraine after visiting the war-torn country last week. Modi has pursued a delicate balance between maintaining India’s historically warm ties with Russia while courting closer security partnerships with Western nations as a…
Russia’s Central Bank has revoked the broker and dealer licenses of Goldman Sachs as the U.S. investment bank continues to scale back its presence in the country in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On Tuesday, the Central Bank said it canceled the bank’s brokerage and dealer licenses on July 9, acting “based on Goldman Sachs’…
Russia fired a wave of attack drones and missiles at Ukraine that killed at least four people, authorities said Tuesday after the second night of heavy strikes across the war-battered nation. The overnight barrage came a day after the Kremlin launched one of its largest-ever aerial attacks on Ukraine, which targeted energy facilities and killed…
The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it had requested consular services for Telegram founder Pavel Durov after the Dubai-based tech boss was arrested in France over alleged failings to curb criminality on the app. “The UAE is closely following the case of its citizen Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, who was arrested by the French…
Ukrainian forces launched an attack on border posts in the southwestern Belgorod region, Telegram channels linked to Russian security services said Tuesday, as regional officials reported an attempt “to break through the border.” The Mash Telegram channel reported that around 200 Ukrainian soldiers were deployed near the Nekhoteyevka checkpoint and another 300 near the Shebekino checkpoint,…
UN nuclear watchdog head Rafael Grossi on Tuesday warned during a visit to Russia’s Kursk nuclear plant that its proximity to ongoing fighting was “extremely serious” following Ukraine’s cross-border offensive into the southwestern Kursk region earlier this month. Grossi said his tour enabled him to “look at the most important parts” of the plant, which is…
Heavy rain overnight Monday triggered partial flooding in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi and its surrounding areas, local authorities said. Sochi Mayor Andrey Proshunin said the Khostinsky district, located on the foothills of the western Caucasus mountains, received around 12.5 centimeters (4.9 inches) of rain between Monday night and Tuesday morning. “After midnight,…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday that it has filed criminal charges against a Deutsche Welle reporter and a Ukrainian television journalist for illegally crossing the border into the Kursk region during a reporting assignment. “The FSB of Russia has pressed criminal charges and an investigation is underway,” the law enforcement agency was quoted…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday that it has filed criminal charges against a Deutsche Welle reporter and a Ukrainian television journalist for illegally crossing the border into the Kursk region during a reporting assignment. “The FSB of Russia has pressed criminal charges and an investigation is underway,” the law enforcement agency was quoted…
A Russian delegation led by a top trade official arrived in Pyongyang, North Korean state media reported Tuesday. The team, headed by Russian Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Roman Chekushov, arrived in the North Korean capital on Monday, the state news agency KCNA said. Delegates were greeted by North Korea’s External Economic Relations Minister Yun…
President Emmanuel Macron on Monday denied any political link to the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov as the tech tycoon spent a second day in French custody following his surprise arrest at a Paris airport. Numerous questions have been raised about the timing and circumstances of Durov’s detention, which a source close to the…
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said Monday that 88 Russian competitors will take part in the Paris Paralympics under a neutral banner. The Games, which kick off on Wednesday, will also feature eight Belarusians competing as neutrals, IPC spokesman Craig Spence said at a press conference. Para-athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus have had…
A convicted murderer in Russia has signed his second contract to fight in Moscow’s war on Ukraine just months after receiving a new prison sentence for another murder, the Travmpunkt legal rights group said Monday. Ivan Rossomakhin had been serving a 14-year sentence for murder when he was first recruited by the Wagner mercenary group…
The Kremlin refuses to cancel next month’s elections in the Kursk border region despite Ukraine’s ongoing offensive there, deeming it to be “only a local crisis” from a military perspective, three Russian officials familiar with the election preparations told Politika.Kozlov. The officials agreed to speak on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the…
Poland’s Armed Forces said Monday that the country’s airspace was likely violated by a drone following deadly Russian strikes across Ukraine earlier in the day. Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine early Monday. The strikes, which targeted the country’s energy infrastructure, killed at least four people. During the attacks, Polish airspace was violated…
A possible Russian drone flyover last week prompted a NATO military base in western Germany to briefly raise its security level, media in the country reported Monday, citing anonymous security sources. The Western military bloc on Friday said it elevated and then lowered the security level at Geilenkirchen Air Base due to an unspecified “potential…
This article was originally published by From the Republics. When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a “partial” military mobilization for the war in Ukraine in September 2022, more than 500 women gathered on the central square of Yakutsk, the capital of Russia’s Far East republic of Sakha (Yakutia), to protest the decision. “My friend and I…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) dismantled an underground gambling operation inside a penal colony in the Rostov region, local media reported Monday. FSB agents seized playing cards, casino chips, a mobile phone, SIM cards and other equipment used to run the illicit casino at Penal Colony No. 14 in the town of Novocherkassk, according to…