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  • Russia and Belarus Sign Document on Tactical Nuclear Weapon Deployment

    Russia and Belarus Sign Document on Tactical Nuclear Weapon Deployment

    The defense ministers of Russia and Belarus on Thursday signed a document on the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory, the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing the Defense Ministry of Belarus.  Russia will retain control over its non-strategic nuclear weapons stationed in neighboring Belarus, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at […]

  • Russia Shutters Swedish Consulate, Expels Diplomats

    Russia Shutters Swedish Consulate, Expels Diplomats

    Russia will expel five Swedish diplomats in a tit-for-tat move, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced Thursday as tensions persisted over allegations of Russian spying and Stockholm’s bid to join NATO in response to the invasion of Ukraine. “The Swedish ambassador was informed that Russia reciprocated by declaring five Swedish diplomats ‘personae non grata’,” it said […]

  • Russia Arrests Ukrainians Planning Nuke Power Plant Strikes – FSB

    Russia Arrests Ukrainians Planning Nuke Power Plant Strikes – FSB

    Russia has arrested two Ukrainians who had allegedly planned to target nuclear power plants in the country, the FSB security service said on Thursday. “A sabotage group from the Ukrainian foreign intelligence service… tried to blow up some 30 power lines of nuclear power plants in Leningrad and Kalinin” in early May with the aim […]

  • 6 Drones Downed in Crimea, No Victims – Governor

    6 Drones Downed in Crimea, No Victims – Governor

    Six drones were downed or blocked overnight in Russian-annexed Crimea, the region’s Moscow-appointed governor said on Thursday. “During the past night, six drones were shot down or blocked … in different parts of Crimea,” Sergei Aksyonov wrote on Telegram, adding “there were no victims or injured.” The incident comes after Moscow deployed jets and artillery […]

  • Wagner Chief Announces Withdrawal From Ukraine’s Bakhmut

    Wagner Chief Announces Withdrawal From Ukraine’s Bakhmut

    Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has started withdrawing fighters from the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said Thursday. The announcement comes days after he claimed full control of the war-ravaged city, an assertion that Kyiv disputes. Prigozhin, a Putin ally who has clashed with Russia’s Defense Ministry throughout its 15-month invasion of Ukraine, […]

  • Russia Calls Off Major Air Show Amid Security Fears – Reports

    Russia Calls Off Major Air Show Amid Security Fears – Reports

    Russia has called off a showcase biennial air show amid reports of security concerns and military equipment shortages arising from the 15-month war in Ukraine, state news agencies reported Wednesday. Russia’s International Air and Space Salon (MAKS) has been used by the authorities to display Russia’s achievements in high-end technology since it was inaugurated in […]

  • Anti-Kremlin Russians call Armed Incursion a ‘Success’

    Anti-Kremlin Russians call Armed Incursion a ‘Success’

    Russian nationals fighting on Ukraine’s side on Wednesday hailed as a “success” a brazen mission to send groups of volunteers across the border into southern Russia and back. Russia on Tuesday said it deployed jets and artillery to fight off armed attackers who crossed into the southern region of Belgorod from Ukraine, exposing weaknesses on […]

  • Russia Says Foiled Ukraine Attack on Warship in Turkish Waters

    Russia Says Foiled Ukraine Attack on Warship in Turkish Waters

    Russia said Wednesday it had fended off a Ukrainian attack on one of its warships in Turkish waters with unmanned vessels, the latest attempted sabotage attack Moscow has blamed on Kyiv. “Today at 5:30 am [0230 GMT] the armed forces of Ukraine made an unsuccessful attempt to attack the Ivan Khurs ship of the Black […]

  • Record Number of Russians Moved to Finland in 2022

    Record Number of Russians Moved to Finland in 2022

    Record numbers of Russians, by far the highest in three decades, moved to neighboring Finland in 2022, official statistics published Wednesday showed. A total of 6,003 people moved from Russia to Finland last year, according to Statistics Finland, making it the top country of origin for immigration. Immigration to Finland was up overall, with almost […]

  • ‘We F***ed Up’: Shock But No Panic in Belgorod as Border Incursion Brings War Home

    ‘We F***ed Up’: Shock But No Panic in Belgorod as Border Incursion Brings War Home

    An attack by an armed group on a Russian region bordering Ukraine earlier this week has been met with a mixture of shock, anger and indifference, according to six interviews with locals conducted by The Moscow Times. The Belgorod region, which lies across the border from Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, has reported regular shelling and […]

  • Putin’s Antique Map Stunt Stirs Meme Storm

    Putin’s Antique Map Stunt Stirs Meme Storm

    President Vladimir Putin donned his historian cap on Tuesday when Constitutional Court chairman Valery Zorkin brought a 17th-century French map to his office and presented the artifact as evidence that Ukraine did not exist as a state before the Soviet period, a view the Russian leader himself has expressed repeatedly both before and during Moscow’s […]

  • Russia to Try 5 Foreigners for Fighting Alongside Ukraine

    Russia to Try 5 Foreigners for Fighting Alongside Ukraine

    Russia announced Wednesday that a court in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don will try five foreign men, including three British nationals, accused of fighting alongside Ukrainian forces against Moscow.  The trial will begin on May 31 on terror-linked and other charges. The men are believed to face trial in absentia.  Russian state news agency RIA […]

  • Thousands of Chechens Protest Quran Burning Incident

    Thousands of Chechens Protest Quran Burning Incident

    Thousands of people in Russia’s majority-Muslim republic of Chechnya took to the streets of the regional capital on Tuesday to rally against a recent burning of the Quran. Police in the southwestern Russian city of Volgograd detained Nikita Zhuravel, 19, after he allegedly set fire to a copy of the Quran in front of the […]

  • ​​Russia Central Bank Head Visits Iran to Strengthen Bilateral Banking Ties

    ​​Russia Central Bank Head Visits Iran to Strengthen Bilateral Banking Ties

    The head of Russia’s Central Bank visited Iran for the first time Wednesday for talks on expanding economic ties between the two countries, Iran’s state-run Mehr News Agency reported. Elvira Nabiullina met with her Iranian counterpart Mohammad Reza Farzin as Moscow, which has been heavily sanctioned over the invasion of Ukraine, seeks new allies. The […]

  • Prigozhin Says 20K Wagner Fighters Killed in Battle for Bakhmut

    Prigozhin Says 20K Wagner Fighters Killed in Battle for Bakhmut

    Russia’s Wagner mercenary group lost 20,000 fighters while fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, half of which were convicts recruited from prisons, the group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an interview published late Tuesday. Prigozhin, a Kremlin-linked catering magnate, has relied heavily on convicts from Russian prisons to fuel Wagner’s offensive in eastern Ukraine, […]

  • Drone Attacks Overnight in Russian Border Region – Governor

    Drone Attacks Overnight in Russian Border Region – Governor

    The governor of a southern Russian region bordering Ukraine said Wednesday that the territory was targeted overnight by numerous drones following an armed incursion from Ukraine. “The night was not entirely calm. There were a large number of drone attacks. Air defense systems handled most of them,” the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, […]

  • Georgia Leader Says Russia Sanctions Would ‘Devastate’ Economy

    Georgia Leader Says Russia Sanctions Would ‘Devastate’ Economy

    Georgia’s prime minister told an international forum Wednesday that his government cannot afford to impose sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine war as they would “devastate” the economy. Facing international criticism, Irakli Garbashvili strongly defended his country’s reluctance to take action against its giant neighbor which occupied about 20% of Georgian territory in a 2008 […]

  • Russia Seizes Zelensky’s Crimea Apartment

    Russia Seizes Zelensky’s Crimea Apartment

    Russian authorities have confiscated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s $800,000 apartment in annexed Crimea, the peninsula’s Kremlin-installed governor said Wednesday. Crimean Governor Sergei Aksyonov listed the property, which Zelensky’s wife Olena Zelenska purchased near the resort city of Yalta in 2013, alongside several Ukrainian-owned assets subject to seizure. These include “large wineries, banking structures, Zelensky’s apartment and […]

  • China’s Xi Offers Russia ‘Firm Support’ in ‘Core Interests’

    China’s Xi Offers Russia ‘Firm Support’ in ‘Core Interests’

    Chinese President Xi Jinping offered Beijing’s support on Moscow’s “core interests” at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Wednesday. China and Russia have in recent years ramped up economic and diplomatic cooperation, growing even closer since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine despite Beijing’s insistence that it is neutral in that conflict. Mishustin’s trip […]

  • Russia Jails Migrants’ Rights Activist 14 Years for ‘Terrorism’

    Russia Jails Migrants’ Rights Activist 14 Years for ‘Terrorism’

    A migrants’ rights activist who worked with Russia’s oldest human rights group was sentenced to 14 years in prison late Tuesday on charges of terrorism for Facebook posts. Bakhrom Khamroyev, 59, was detained the day Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. He was previously a member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning civil rights group […]

  • Russian Energy Giant Gazprom Posts Big Drop in Profit

    Russian Energy Giant Gazprom Posts Big Drop in Profit

    Russian energy giant Gazprom, whose gas exports have plummeted in the wake of the Ukraine conflict, said Tuesday its net profit fell by 41% last year due to a tax increase. The company reported a profit of 1.2 trillion rubles ($15 billion) for 2022, down from 2.1 trillion rubles in the previous year. In a […]

  • Russia Extends Arrest of U.S. Journalist Gershkovich By 3 Months

    Russia Extends Arrest of U.S. Journalist Gershkovich By 3 Months

    A Moscow court has extended the pre-trial detention of jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich by three months, the state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday. The Lefortovo District Court granted the Federal Security Service’s (FSB) request to extend Gershkovich’s pre-trial detention until Aug. 30 in a closed-door hearing, TASS reported. Gershkovich, a United States […]

  • Russia Condemns ‘Illogical’ U.S. Aircraft Carrier Visit to Norway

    Russia Condemns ‘Illogical’ U.S. Aircraft Carrier Visit to Norway

    Russia’s Embassy in Norway on Tuesday harshly criticized a planned visit by a U.S. aircraft carrier to Oslo as an “illogical and harmful” show of force. The 337-meter (1,106-foot) USS General Ford is scheduled to dock in the Norwegian capital this week. “There are no issues in the North that require a military solution, nor […]

  • Russian Lawmakers Greenlight Expansions for Border Guards to Seize Passports

    Russian Lawmakers Greenlight Expansions for Border Guards to Seize Passports

    Russian lawmakers swiftly approved amendments Tuesday that would expand border guards’ power to seize the passports of Russians traveling outside the country. According to the legislation introduced by the government and approved by the lower-house State Duma in just a single day, border guards will be able to confiscate passports from Russian citizens who are […]

  • How Are Pro-Kremlin Figures Responding to the Belgorod Incursion?

    How Are Pro-Kremlin Figures Responding to the Belgorod Incursion?

    This week’s incursion into Russia’s western Belgorod region sparked mixed reactions from prominent pro-Kremlin voices. The armed incursion, the most serious since the beginning of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine last year, prompted the Kremlin to express “deep concern” and the evacuation of nine villages in the Belgorod region. Ukrainian officials denied involvement as two anti-Kremlin […]

  • Russian Man Fined for Zelensky Dream Faces New Fine for ‘Discrediting’ Army

    Russian Man Fined for Zelensky Dream Faces New Fine for ‘Discrediting’ Army

    A Russian man has fined a local man for “discrediting” the country’s military, the fourth time he has been convicted for the same offense since December. Ivan Losev, from the Siberian city of Chita, had been fined in February 2023 for speaking to the press about a fine he had previously received for sharing a […]

  • Activists Map Deported Ukrainian Children in Russia

    Activists Map Deported Ukrainian Children in Russia

    A group of activists said it has mapped more than 250 locations inside Russia where Ukrainian children have been forcibly transferred since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Kyiv says more than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia since its February 2022 invasion, with many believed to have been placed in institutions and foster […]

  • ‘Dragon’s Teeth,’ Hedgehogs and Minefields: How Russia Is Preparing to Defend Occupied Ukrainian Areas

    ‘Dragon’s Teeth,’ Hedgehogs and Minefields: How Russia Is Preparing to Defend Occupied Ukrainian Areas

    Russian troops have spent the past six months constructing extensive defensive fortifications aimed at preventing Ukraine from launching its widely anticipated counteroffensive and liberating its occupied territories.  However, analysts warn that the effectiveness of these defenses will largely depend on Russian troops’ ability to repel the Ukrainian armed forces’ assault. Lines of defense Satellite images […]

  • Russia to Allow ‘Extremist’ Maps Showing Pre-Occupation Ukraine – Reports

    Russia to Allow ‘Extremist’ Maps Showing Pre-Occupation Ukraine – Reports

    Russia’s government has introduced legislative changes that would not punish mapmakers for displaying occupied territories as Ukrainian regions before their capture by Russian forces, the Vedomosti business daily reported Tuesday. Russia’s lower house of parliament passed the original draft bill in December imposing up to 15 days of jail or fines of up to 1 […]

  • Russian PM in China for Talks With Xi, Business Forum

    Russian PM in China for Talks With Xi, Business Forum

    Russia’s prime minister on Tuesday hailed economic ties with China during a visit in which he will meet with President Xi Jinping and ink a series of trade deals. The two nations have in recent years ramped up economic and diplomatic cooperation, with ties growing closer since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine despite Beijing’s insistence it […]

  • Russia’s Arrest of Evan Gershkovich Echoes Soviet Spy Scandal

    Russia’s Arrest of Evan Gershkovich Echoes Soviet Spy Scandal

    The arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in March was the first time a Western journalist had been held on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia — but it opened a floodgate of memories for Nicholas Daniloff.  Daniloff was working as a journalist in the Soviet Union in 1986 when he was snatched off […]

  • Explainer: How Dangerous Are Power Cuts at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant?

    Explainer: How Dangerous Are Power Cuts at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant?

    Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was briefly cut off from the power grid Monday, its Russian administrators and the Ukrainian atomic agency said. The incident marked the seventh time that the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, had been cut off from the power grid since invading Russian forces took control of the plant […]

  • Armenia Might Quit Russia-Led Military Bloc – PM

    Armenia Might Quit Russia-Led Military Bloc – PM

    Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Monday that his country could withdraw from Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), in a fresh show of discontent over the lack of support from its ally Russia. Yerevan has grown increasingly frustrated over what it calls Russia’s failure to protect Armenia in the face of military threats from […]

  • Russian Border Region Says Ukrainian ‘Sabotage’ Unit Carried Out Incursion

    Russian Border Region Says Ukrainian ‘Sabotage’ Unit Carried Out Incursion

    The head of Russia’s Belgorod region which borders Ukraine, claimed Monday that a Ukrainian “sabotage group” had infiltrated the region, while anti-Kremlin Russians fighting alongside Ukraine’s forces appeared to take responsibility.  “A VSU [armed forces of Ukraine] sabotage group entered the territory of Grayvoron district,” Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram, referring to a […]

  • Belarus ‘Pardons’ Dissident Blogger Protasevich

    Belarus ‘Pardons’ Dissident Blogger Protasevich

    Belarusian authorities have pardoned dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, the state-run Belta news agency reported Monday.  “I have signed all the documents about my pardon literally just now. This is, of course, simply wonderful news,” Belta quoted Protasevich as saying.  Protasevich, 27, was arrested in 2021 when Belarusian authorities forced his EU-bound plane to land in Minsk, […]

  • Putin Signs Off on Sanctioned Tycoons’ Shared Yandex Stake – Reports

    Putin Signs Off on Sanctioned Tycoons’ Shared Yandex Stake – Reports

    President Vladimir Putin has agreed on the sale of a majority stake in the Russian side of splintered tech giant Yandex to three sanctioned billionaires and the state-owned VTB Bank, the news websites The Bell and Meduza reported Sunday, citing four unnamed sources close to the company. Yandex, often referred to as the “Russian Google,” […]

  • Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant Reconnected to Ukraine Grid

    Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant Reconnected to Ukraine Grid

    The occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been reconnected to Ukraine’s electricity grid again after being offline for several hours, officials in Kyiv said on Monday. Earlier Monday Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom had accused Russia of carrying out attacks that caused a power cut.  It said it was the seventh time the plant entered “blackout mode” […]

  • Russia Targets Ukraine’s Dnipro With Drones, Missiles

    Russia Targets Ukraine’s Dnipro With Drones, Missiles

    Russian forces targeted the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro overnight with 16 missiles and 20 attack drones, Ukraine’s army said Monday. The attacks on troops and infrastructure were carried out by various types of missiles and Iranian-made Shahed drones, the general staff wrote on Facebook, saying its air defenses had destroyed all the drones and […]

  • Russia Increases Seaborne Coal Exports in 2023 – Kommersant

    Russia Increases Seaborne Coal Exports in 2023 – Kommersant

    Russia has exported almost 20% more coal by sea so far this year than during the run-up and early months of its invasion of Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday, citing an unnamed source familiar with the data. Russia shipped 69.9 million metric tons of the polluting fuel from ports in January-April 2023, or […]

  • Senior Russian Official Dies After Privately Bemoaning ‘Fascist’ Invasion

    Senior Russian Official Dies After Privately Bemoaning ‘Fascist’ Invasion

    Russia’s Deputy Science Minister Pyotr Kucherenko has died months after a prominent journalist recalled him criticizing the invasion of Ukraine in private conversations. Kucherenko, 46, fell seriously ill on board a flight returning from Cuba on Saturday, Russia’s Science and Higher Education Ministry said Sunday.  The flight made an emergency landing in southern Russia but doctors who […]

  • Russia Says Zelensky Made G7 a ‘Propaganda Show’

    Russia Says Zelensky Made G7 a ‘Propaganda Show’

    Russia on Sunday accused G7 leaders of turning their summit in Japan into a “propaganda show” by inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and whipping up “anti-Russian and anti-Chinese hysteria.” “The leaders of the G7 brought to their meeting the ringleader of the Kyiv regime they control and turned the Hiroshima event into a propaganda show,” the […]

  • Ukraine Denies Fall of Bakhmut, Says Advancing in Suburbs

    Ukraine Denies Fall of Bakhmut, Says Advancing in Suburbs

    Ukraine on Sunday denied Bakhmut had fallen to Russian troops in the longest battle of the war and said it was instead advancing around the suburbs, making it “very difficult” for Russian troops to stay in the devastated city. A day after President Vladimir Putin congratulated his troops and private mercenary group Wagner who claimed […]

  • Germany Probes Suspected Poisoning of Russian Exiles – Report

    Germany Probes Suspected Poisoning of Russian Exiles – Report

    German police have opened an investigation after a Russian journalist and an activist who participated in a Berlin conference reported health problems that suggested possible poisoning, the Welt am Sonntag reported. “A file has been opened based on the information available,” a Berlin police spokesman told the Sunday weekly. Berlin police were not immediately available […]

  • Wagner Chief Claims Complete Capture of Bakhmut

    Wagner Chief Claims Complete Capture of Bakhmut

    Russia’s private army Wagner claimed Saturday the total control of the east Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the epicenter of fighting, as Kyiv said the battle was continuing but admitted the situation was “critical”.  Bakhmut, a salt mining town that once had a population of 70,000 people, has been the scene of the longest and bloodiest […]

  • Russia Bans Entry to 500 U.S. Nationals Including Obama

    Russia Bans Entry to 500 U.S. Nationals Including Obama

    Russia on Friday said it banned entry to 500 Americans, including former president Barack Obama, in response to sanctions imposed by Washington.  “In response to the anti-Russian sanctions regularly imposed by the Biden administration… entry into the Russian Federation is closed for 500 Americans,” the foreign ministry said, adding that Obama was among those on […]

  • Russia Again Denies Consular Access to Arrested U.S. Journalist

    Russia Again Denies Consular Access to Arrested U.S. Journalist

    Moscow said Friday it had again denied a consular visit to arrested U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich after Washington refused visas to some Russian journalists. “The request of the US embassy in Moscow about a consular visit to reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested for espionage, is once again rejected,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry.  The […]

  • Russian Economy Pressured as Hundreds More Added to U.S. Blacklist

    Russian Economy Pressured as Hundreds More Added to U.S. Blacklist

    The United States added hundreds more companies and individuals to its sanctions blacklist Friday as it broadened efforts to choke off Russia’s global supply chains and starve its economy over its war on Ukraine. The new sanctions took particular aim at the firms and research institutes involved in Moscow’s investments into future energy production including […]

  • Russia Places ICC Prosecutor Khan on Wanted List

    Russia Places ICC Prosecutor Khan on Wanted List

    Russia has placed International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan on its wanted list after the court indicted President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes, the independent Mediazona news website reported Friday. Khan’s photo and personal information are visible on the Interior Ministry’s search database, Mediazona reported. The ministry’s listing does not specify which crime Khan is […]

  • Russia Recruited Over 100K Troops in 2023 – Medvedev

    Russia Recruited Over 100K Troops in 2023 – Medvedev

    More than 100,000 people have enlisted in the Russian army this year, former president Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday, as Moscow seeks to recruit volunteers for its offensive in Ukraine. Moscow has conducted an aggressive military recruitment campaign in recent months as Kyiv gears up for an offensive after months of stalemate in eastern Ukraine. “Between […]

  • Greenpeace Russia Closes After Being Banned as ‘Undesirable’ Group

    Greenpeace Russia Closes After Being Banned as ‘Undesirable’ Group

    Greenpeace Russia announced its closure on Friday following the authorities’ decision to label it an “undesirable” organization. In a statement on its website, the environmental advocacy NGO called the “undesirable” status “an absurd, irresponsible and destructive step that has nothing to do with protecting the country’s interests.” “By destroying Greenpeace for being critical of environmental issues, the […]

  • 5 Belarusians Killed Fighting for Ukraine in Bakhmut – Exiled Opposition Leader

    5 Belarusians Killed Fighting for Ukraine in Bakhmut – Exiled Opposition Leader

    Five members of a Belarusian regiment fighting with Kyiv’s forces have been killed in Bakhmut, a conflict-scarred city in eastern Ukraine, A Belarusian opposition leader living in exile said Friday. “Heartbroken by the death of five members of the Belarusian Kastus Kalinouski Regiment fighting for Ukraine in Bakhmut,” Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said on Twitter. […]

  • Famed Armenian Cognac Brand Halts Exports to Russia

    Famed Armenian Cognac Brand Halts Exports to Russia

    Yerevan Brandy Company, the producer of the iconic Armenian cognac brand Ararat, will halt exports to Russia, Interfax reported Thursday, citing Armenia’s Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan. The Russian market accounts for about 80% of all Ararat exports and the embargo is expected to negatively impact Armenian cognac grape suppliers, Kerobyan was quoted as saying at […]

  • Volkswagen to Sell Russian Assets to Local Company

    Volkswagen to Sell Russian Assets to Local Company

    German carmaker Volkswagen said Friday it had completed the sale of its Russian assets to local dealership group Avilon, as part of its exit from the country following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The sale includes the flagship Kaluga factory southwest of Moscow, which employs around 4,000 people and has the capacity to build 225,000 vehicles […]

  • First Direct Flight from Russia Lands in Georgia After 4-Year Hiatus

    First Direct Flight from Russia Lands in Georgia After 4-Year Hiatus

    The first direct flight from Russia landed in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Friday four years after Moscow banned air travel with the South Caucasus nation. The flight was met with protests against Georgia’s perceived return to the Russian sphere of influence amid its war in Ukraine. “Russian plane, go f*ck yourself,” read a […]

  • Kremlin Critic Roizman Fined Over Ukraine Comments

    Kremlin Critic Roizman Fined Over Ukraine Comments

    Russian opposition figure Yevgeny Roizman has been fined for his comments about the Ukraine conflict, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Friday. Roizman, 60, the former mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city Yekaterinburg, is among a dwindling number of prominent opposition figures who are not in jail or exile. A court in Yekaterinburg imposed a fine of […]

  • Belarus Constructing Defensive Fortifications Near Ukraine Border – Reports

    Belarus Constructing Defensive Fortifications Near Ukraine Border – Reports

    Belarus has started constructing defensive fortifications near its border with Ukraine, the Belarusian monitoring group Belaruski Hayun reported. Construction equipment and a line of small anti-tank concrete pyramids known as dragon’s teeth were spotted 10 kilometers from Gomel, a city located some 44 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, Belaruski Hayun said Thursday. Dragon’s teeth were […]

  • Moscow Mayor Aligns With Pro-Putin Party for Re-Election Bid

    Moscow Mayor Aligns With Pro-Putin Party for Re-Election Bid

    Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin will seek his third term this fall as a member of the pro-Putin United Russia ruling party, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday. Sobyanin will shed his previous non-affiliation with a political party for the first time since he was appointed to the mayorship in 2010. Sobyanin is a 20-year veteran of United Russia […]

  • 1 in 3 Students Looking to Leave Russia – Survey

    1 in 3 Students Looking to Leave Russia – Survey

    One out of three Russian students have expressed a desire to leave the country in an unpublished Kremlin survey, the iStories investigative outlet reported Thursday. Forty-four percent of the polled students described the state of affairs in wartime Russia as a “crisis,” while 32% described it as a “collapse/breakdown.” Fear and anxiety ranked first at 36% […]

  • Russia Eyes 5-Year Jail Terms for ‘Russophobia’

    Russia Eyes 5-Year Jail Terms for ‘Russophobia’

    Russian lawmakers are drafting legislation that would punish anti-Russian words and actions deemed as “Russophobia” with up to five years imprisonment, the independent news outlet Vyorstka reported Thursday. The bill is expected to amend Russia’s Criminal Code by adding clauses on “Russophobia” to articles criminalizing public calls for extremism and violating equal rights. Russia’s State […]

  • ‘Unified’ G7 Hits Russia With New Sanctions

    ‘Unified’ G7 Hits Russia With New Sanctions

    The United States and its G7 allies rolled out new sanctions against Russia’s “war machine” Friday, targeting Moscow’s lucrative diamond trade and more entities linked to the invasion of Ukraine. Leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, with Russia’s $4-5 billion annual trade in diamonds in the crosshairs. Vladimir […]