Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday it is seeking the release of hundreds of its ex-soldiers fighting for Russia, as well as around a dozen prisoners of war in Ukraine. The Sri Lankan government opened an investigation earlier this month into the illegal recruitment of its citizens for the war, identifying 455 former soldiers who…
Estonia on Thursday passed a law that allows the authorities to transfer frozen Russian assets in the country to Ukraine as compensation for damages caused by Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Estonian President Alar Karis said the confiscation of assets “raises unresolved legal questions,” but assured they would only be used if the owner’s role in Russia’s…
EU member states on Thursday agreed to impose “prohibitive” duties on grain imports from Russia in a bid to limit revenues to Moscow as it continues to wage war on neighboring Ukraine. The latest measure will “tackle illegal Russian exports of stolen Ukraine grain into EU markets,” the EU’s trade commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, said on…
Rosneft’s investments in projects for the beneficial use of associated petroleum gas totalled 225 billion roubles from 2013 to 2023
Popular travel blogger Ilya Varlamov has been charged with “discrediting” the Russian armed forces, the independent news website Mediazona reported Thursday, citing the Moscow court system’s open database of cases. Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court registered a lawsuit against Varlamov that was filed by the local prosecutor’s office. The blogger is accused of “discrediting” the army…
Natalia Komarova announced Thursday that she was stepping down after serving 14 years as governor of western Siberia’s oil-rich Khanty-Mansi autonomous district, making her resignation the first in what are seen as regular cadre changes ahead of regional elections. “I’m completing my work,” Komarova, 68, said in a video address to residents of the region,…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that it downed 13 Ukrainian drones in the southern Krasnodar region and areas close to the annexed Crimean peninsula. On Thursday morning, “five Ukrainian aerial drones were shot down by anti-aircraft defense systems in the Krasnodar region,” the ministry said in a statement. Another eight drones were intercepted during the…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday authorized the state-owned telecoms giant Rostelekom to buy out Finnish mobile operator Nokia’s stake in a Russian joint venture. Under laws introduced in response to Western sanctions, the Kremlin leader must personally approve any deal that involves the exit of a Western company operating in sectors of the economy…
A Moscow court on Wednesday ruled to uphold the four-year prison sentence for Russian nationalist and ex-rebel commander Igor Girkin. Girkin, a convicted war criminal in the West better known by his pseudonym Igor Strelkov, was arrested last summer after criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin for his handling of the war against Ukraine. In January,…
AMSTERDAM — An exhibition dedicated to political prisoners in Russia opened in the heart of the Dutch capital on Tuesday. “Faces of Russian Resistance” displays 16 stories of politicians, activists, artists and public figures designated as political prisoners by human rights groups. “We understand that hundreds of people are now in prison based on political…
A Moscow court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by imprisoned dissident Oleg Orlov to be removed from the Russian Justice Ministry’s “foreign agent” list. Orlov, 71, who is serving a two-and-a-half-year prison term for criticizing the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, was designated a “foreign agent” ahead of his sentencing in February. Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky court upheld…
Major online retailers in Russia have started selling foreign-made household appliances destined for the Ukrainian market, the business newspaper Kommersant reported Wednesday, citing local distributors. Among the e-commerce sites offering products intended for Ukrainian consumers are Ozon and Wildberries, which have been found to sell Bosch washing machines and LG Smart TVs that bear Ukrainian…
Investigators on Wednesday searched the home and offices of an EU parliament staffer as part of an investigation into suspected Russian interference and corruption, the Belgian state prosecutor’s office said. According to a source close to the investigation, the target of the raids is Guillaume Pradoura, a former assistant to embattled EU lawmaker Maximilian Krah…
AMSTERDAM — A live event headlined by two Russian television celebrities has sparked controversy in the Netherlands, with critics decrying the presence of what they call Russian propagandists on European stages during Moscow’s war on Ukraine. Veteran Channel One host Vladimir Pozner and late-night talk show host Ivan Urgant’s European tour, called “The Travels of…
The Russian division of Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank will stop processing outgoing payments in U.S. dollars starting on June 10, the bank announced Wednesday, citing “changed requirements of correspondent banks.” “This change affects all bank clients… All payments in dollars correctly completed and sent before 16:00 on June 7 will be carried out taking into account…
Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova has blamed the authorities in Kyiv for roadblocking efforts to secure the further release of prisoners of war, the state-run Interfax news agency reported Wednesday. “Unfortunately, exchanges have been suspended for several months due to Ukraine constantly making new and far-fetched demands,” Moskalkova was quoted as saying by Interfax…
President Vladimir Putin’s former personal security guard and newly appointed presidential aide Alexei Dyumin was tapped to head Russia’s State Council on Wednesday. “Aide to the president Alexei Dyumin has been appointed Secretary of the State Council of the Russian Federation by presidential executive order,” an announcement on the Kremlin’s website read. Russia’s State Council is…
KHIMKI, Moscow region — On a sunny May afternoon, a young man named Yevgeny sits on a bench in a courtyard, watching his child run around on the playground. Two years ago, when his family chose this location in the Moscow region as their home, it seemed like it could be a perfect fit. After…
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Tuesday of “serious consequences” if Western countries allowed Ukraine to use their weapons to strike Russia. Speaking in Uzbekistan, Putin’s comments came in response to calls within some NATO member states to allow Ukraine to hit targets inside Russia. “This constant escalation can lead to serious consequences,” Putin said. “In…
Russian tech companies Yandex and VKontakte are being grilled by government officials for making their homegrown artificial intelligence chatbots avoid subjects related to the invasion of Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday. Presidential Human Rights Council chief Valery Fadeyev said he was surprised to learn that Yandex’s Alisa and VKontakte’s Marusia refuse to answer when…
Russian tech companies Yandex and VK are being grilled by pro-war figures for making their homegrown artificial intelligence chatbots avoid subjects related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday. Russia’s presidential Human Rights Council chief Valery Fadeyev said he was surprised to learn that Yandex’s Alisa and VK’s Marusia refuse to…
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday ordered Russia to pay $56,500 in damages to the jailed mother of a prominent critic of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Zarema Musaeva, the mother of exiled Chechen human rights lawyer and activist Abubakar Yangulbaev, was violently detained in Nizhny Novgorod and forcibly taken to Chechnya in…
Russia’s Main Directorate for Traffic Safety (GIBDD) has been renamed back to the Soviet-era State Automobile Inspectorate (GAI), the state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday, citing the head of the traffic police force. “We’ve now become the State Automobile Inspectorate,” the agency head Mikhail Chernkiv said during an Interior Ministry meeting on Tuesday. Soviet authorities…
A Russian court has extended the pre-trial detention of two lawyers who represented the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the independent news website Mediazona reported Tuesday. Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Lipster, and Igor Sergunin were arrested last October on accusations of participating in “extremist” activities for passing Navalny’s letters on to his associates. Russia in 2021 outlawed Navalny’s…
A court in Siberia has rejected an appeal by Ksenia Fadeyeva, an ally of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, against her nine-year prison sentence for “extremism,” local media reported Tuesday. Fadeyeva, Navalny’s former regional coordinator in the city of Tomsk, was among his few allies who remained in Russia despite the risk of criminal prosecution…
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday urged countries to balance fear of escalation against Ukraine’s need to defend itself, saying Kyiv had the right to use Western arms to strike in Russia. “According with the law of war, it is perfectly possible and there is no contradiction. “I could retaliate or I could…
Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna is being held in custody in Russia nine months after her disappearance, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) said, citing a letter from the Russian Defense Ministry to her father. Roshchyna, an award-winning freelance journalist, went missing in August while attempting to enter the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine for…
Western companies are reconsidering leaving Russia amid increasing Kremlin-imposed exit costs, difficulty finding suitable buyers and rebounding consumer activity, the Financial Times reported Tuesday. As of last month, 2,175 foreign companies remain in Russia compared with 1,610 that left or scaled back operations, according to the Kyiv School of Economics. Some remaining companies are increasingly open about…
Moldova has granted citizenship to several members of the Russian-Belarusian rock band Bi-2, the government in Chisinau announced late Monday, months after the music group was detained in Thailand and faced potential deportation to Russia. President Maia Sandu signed a decree giving Moldovan passports to “certain members of Bi-2,” her office chief Adrian Balutel announced…
GOMA, Congo — In a makeshift nightclub in the hull of the overnight ferry from Goma to Bukavu, a handful of teenage boys are trying out some new moves. Some land, some don’t. When they don’t, the elderly man on the bench next to us nudges us and rolls his eyes, amused. The DJ, who…
Russia will help Uzbekistan build small-scale nuclear reactors as part of an agreement signed during President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Central Asian country, the state-run TASS news agency reported Monday. Since 2018, Moscow and Tashkent have been in talks on building the first-ever nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan, which is the world’s fifth top…
A Russian military court has rejected a request to transfer Major General Ivan Popov to house arrest and ruled to keep him in pre-trial detention for two months, the independent news website Mediazona reported Monday. Popov, whose May 17 arrest was first reported last week, is accused of misappropriating more than 130 million rubles ($1.5…
A German ex-soldier was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on Monday for sharing secret military information with Russia following the outbreak of war in Ukraine. A court in Duesseldorf found the defendant, identified only as Thomas H., guilty of passing information from his job at a military procurement office to the…
Russian law enforcement authorities have launched a criminal investigation into a mass street brawl and shootout in the city of Chelyabinsk over the weekend that reportedly involved Ukraine war veterans. In a video of the fight published by local media, a group of men could be seen beating a man lying face down on the ground…
Ukraine has carried out an attack on a Russian early-warning radar system in the southern Orenburg region, the news website Ukrainska Pravda reported Monday, citing an anonymous Ukrainian military intelligence source. “A Ukrainian drone has covered a distance of more than 1,800 kilometers to the enemy’s facility, setting a new record for the range of…
One person was killed and three others were injured Monday in a Ukrainian drone attack on a gas station in Russia’s Oryol region, local officials said Monday. “A drone fell this morning on the territory of a gas station in the town of Livny,” said Oryol region Governor Andrei Klychkov, adding that the facade of…
Ukrainian shelling of a Russian town close to the border killed two people on Saturday, Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. “Ukrainian armed forces fired on the settlement of Oktyabrsky from a rocket launcher. To my great sorrow, two people were killed: a man and a woman had numerous shrapnel wounds incompatible with life,” Gladkov…
A Russian strike on Saturday hit a store selling building materials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, killing at least two people, its mayor said. “We know for sure about two dead,” Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram, saying that according to preliminary information the strike hit a hypermarket for construction materials in…
The death toll from Russian strikes on a hardware store in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv rose to 14 Sunday, the regional governor said as rescuers searched the charred debris for bodies. Interior minister Igor Klymenko said earlier that 43 were injured and “16 people are considered missing”, after Russian strikes hit the Epitsentr…
Russia said on Saturday it had captured another village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, while Kyiv said Moscow was intensifying attacks away from the northeastern Kharkiv region. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that troops had “taken control of the village of Arkhanhelske,” located to the north of the city of Donetsk. The small frontline village is…
The former head of the republic of Chechnya’s regional government, Muslim Khuchiyev, has been appointed as one of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s aides, Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov said Friday. Khuchiyev stepped down on Tuesday as head of the Chechen government after nearly six years in office, making him the second Kadyrov ally to resign…
Like other infrastructure projects in the U.S.S.R., the Krapivinskaya hydropower plant was born at a time when the Soviets dreamt of bending the natural world to its will to fuel industrial growth. Decades later, this rusting hulk of concrete and iron still looms above the Tom River in Siberia’s coal-rich Kemerovo region, half-finished and half-forgotten.…
At least six former and current law enforcement officials have been arrested on various charges in Russia’s third-largest city of Yekaterinburg over the past week, the independent news website Govorit NeMoskva reported Friday. Andrei Dyakov, who heads the anti-corruption department at the Sverdlovsk region branch of Russia’s Interior Ministry, was charged with abuse of power…
Romanian prosecutors announced Friday that they had ordered the arrest of a man suspected of spying for Moscow, while the government declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata. The arrest of a person suspected of spying marks the first of its kind in Romania since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.…
President Vladimir Putin is seeking to negotiate a ceasefire deal with Ukraine that recognizes the current battlefield lines, Reuters reported Friday, citing several anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Reports about Putin’s alleged interest in seeking some kind of truce agreement have circulated for months, but the latest comes as Moscow wages a new offensive…
Russian forces have become “bogged down” trying to capture the Ukrainian border town of Vovchansk, Ukraine’s top general Oleksandr Syrsky said Friday, though fighting on the eastern front remains intense. Kyiv has been trying to push back against a Russian ground assault in the northeastern Kharkiv region since May 10, when thousands of Russian troops punched…
The recent arrests of five top Russian military officers are likely just the first of dozens of military figures who will be jailed in a sweeping purge by the security services, Russian government officials and sources close to the Kremlin and the Defense Ministry told The Moscow Times. Ostensibly an effort to stamp out military…
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Belarus late Thursday for talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko expected to focus on security and joint tactical nuclear weapons exercises. Earlier this month, Putin ordered the Russian military to conduct tactical nuclear weapons exercises in response to Western “threats and provocations.” Belarus, which last year agreed to…
A senior procurement officer in Russia’s Defense Ministry has been charged with abuse of power, Russian law enforcement authorities announced late Thursday. Investigators accuse Vladimir Verteletsky of taking a bribe in relation to “work that was not carried out” under a government contract in 2022, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes. The law…
Moscow on Thursday attacked “hothead” U.S. lawmakers after mounting calls, including from House Speaker Mike Johnson, for Ukraine to be allowed to fire donated American weaponry into Russia. Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, on Wednesday told journalists that it was “not a good policy” that U.S. weapons donated to Ukraine…
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree that allows Moscow to take control of U.S. property as compensation for any seizure of frozen Russian assets in the United States. Washington and its European allies seized or blocked around $300 billion of Russian financial assets shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In response to…
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has led to significant disruptions in the migratory patterns of a vulnerable species of eagles, according to a new study, forcing the birds to travel increasingly longer distances as they fly to reach their breeding grounds. Greater spotted eagles, whose breeding grounds stretch from most of Eastern Europe to as…
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has led to significant disruptions in the migratory patterns of a vulnerable species of eagles, according to a new study, forcing the birds to travel increasingly longer distances as they fly to reach their breeding grounds. Greater spotted eagles, whose breeding grounds stretch from most of Eastern Europe to as…
Estonia’s border guards on Thursday said their Russian counterparts had removed buoys overnight from the Narva River, which separates the two neighboring countries, amid a dispute over the shared border. Tallinn said it was only since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that Moscow has contested the placement of the floating markers used to prevent boats…
Russian air defense systems on Thursday shot down a Ukrainian drone flying over the republic of Tatarstan, more than 1,000 kilometers northeast of the country’s border with Ukraine. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its anti-aircraft systems destroyed the drone at around 2:00 p.m. Moscow time, shortly after airports in the capital Kazan and the city of…
At least eight people were killed and one other was injured in a hostel fire in the Moscow region town of Istra, emergency officials said Friday. The fire broke out at 4:00 a.m. local time and was extinguished around five hours later, the Emergency Situations Ministry’s local branch said, according to the news agency Moskva. …
A woman was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region, local authorities said Thursday. Photos shared by Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov showed the second floor of a house that partially collapsed as a result of the attack. “Unfortunately, there was a victim — the body of a woman was found…
Norway on Thursday announced that it would restrict entry to Russian tourists, shutting their last direct access to Europe’s border-free Schengen area. “Russian citizens whose purpose is tourism and other non-essential travel will be rejected upon entry across the external border,” the Norwegian government said in a statement, adding that the new restrictions will take…
Updated with Peskov’s remarks. Russia has arrested a general on corruption allegations, state media reported Thursday, making him the third senior-ranking officer to face fraud-related criminal charges over the past month. A military court placed Lieutenant-General Vadim Shamarin in pre-trial detention until late July, the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing the court. “On May 22, the…
A prominent Bashkir activist whose imprisonment earlier this year sparked mass protests was designated a political prisoner by the Russian rights group Memorial on Wednesday. Fayil Alsynov was sentenced to four years in a penal colony in January on charges of “inciting interethnic hatred.” However, many observers believe he was targeted for campaigning against illegal…