Tajikistan Summons Russian Ambassador Over Alleged Rights Violations Against Citizens

Tajikistan’s Foreign Ministry has summoned Russia’s ambassador in Dushanbe over alleged rights violations against Tajik citizens in Russia, the state-run news agency TASS reported Monday. The ministry handed Russian ambassador Semyon Grigoryev an official note of protest “expressing serious concern over the huge number of cases of an emphatically negative attitude toward citizens of the Republic…

Major European Banks Paying Russia More in Taxes Than Before Ukraine Invasion – FT

Major European banks that continue to do business in Russia paid the government four times more in taxes in 2023 than in the year before Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times reported. The seven lenders — Austria’s Raiffeisen, Italy’s UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, the Netherlands’ ING, Germany’s Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank, as…

Russia’s Ishim River Swells to Record High Amid Widespread Flooding

Water levels in the Ishim River in Russia’s Tyumen region have hit an all-time high, regional authorities said Monday, causing a large traffic backup along a major highway. “The water level in the Ishim River isn’t decreasing. It even increased due to yesterday’s rainfall. The historical maximum of [12.15 meters] has been reached,” Tyumen region Governor Alexander Moor…

Russia Arrests Journalist Over Videos for Late Dissident Navalny’s Team — Agency

Another Russian journalist has been detained in Russia for “extremism”, accused of making videos for the team of late dissident Alexei Navalny, the Associated Press international news agency said on Sunday. Sergei Karelin, who has worked for the AP, is the second journalist arrested over such allegations after Konstantin Gabov, who occasionally worked for Reuters…

Russia Says Downed 17 Ukrainian Drones

Russia shot down 17 Ukrainian drones overnight in several western regions, the defense ministry said on Sunday. “The air defense systems intercepted and destroyed seventeen Ukrainian UAVs,” the ministry said in a Telegram post. Most of the drones were shot down in regions that border Ukraine, with nine downed in Bryansk, three in Kursk and…

Russia Hits Ukrainian Energy Sites in ‘Massive’ Overnight Attack

Russia launched a “massive” missile strike on Ukraine overnight, hitting energy facilities and damaging power plants in several regions, officials in Kyiv said on Saturday. Moscow has escalated its strikes against Ukraine’s power network in recent months, causing blackouts and triggering Ukraine to ask consumers to ration their energy supplies. “Russian armed forces staged another…

Police Search Moscow’s Garage Museum – Reports

Police carried out searches at Moscow’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Russian media reported Friday. The Ostorozhno Novosti news channel on Telegram said officers were at the museum’s archival building and a second building where Garage offers walking tours. “Garage supervisors and curators are being held and are banned from using their phones until the [searches] end,”…

Russian Officials Say Ukrainian Attacks Kill 3

Ukrainian bombardments killed three people in separate attacks on Russian border regions and in occupied Ukrainian territory, Russian and Moscow-installed officials said Friday. Ukrainian forces over recent months have escalated fatal missile and drone attacks on Russian border regions, and also targeted Russian energy infrastructure. “The village of Korovyakovka was shelled from the Ukrainian side…

Russia Holds Rates After Putin Urges Caution

Russia’s Central Bank on Friday held interest rates unchanged after President Vladimir Putin cautioned against cutting borrowing costs prematurely. Moscow last year hiked its key interest rate to 16% to combat a surge in inflation, as the Russian currency wobbled under the pressure of Western sanctions. The Central Bank said on Friday it was still…

Armenia’s Envoy to the EU: ‘It Hurts to See How Moscow-Led Security Bloc Has Screwed Us’

Читайте русскую версию здесь. BRUSSELS — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to the seat of the European Union this month underscored the country’s delicate balancing act as it branches outside Russia’s sphere of influence. After talks with EU President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Brussels and Washington promised…

Russian Soldiers Accused of Drunken Killing Spree in Occupied Ukraine – Reports

Two Russian soldiers have been arrested on suspicion of going on a drunken killing spree in the Moscow-occupied part of southern Ukraine’s Kherson region this week, according to media reports. Alexander Osipov, 34, and Alexander Kaigorodtsev, 36, were detained Wednesday after several people were found dead in the neighboring villages of Podo-Kalynivka and Abrykosivka, the…

Russia Arrests Reporter Over Bucha Posts

Russia has arrested a journalist from the Russian edition of Forbes magazine for social media reposts over accusations of Russian atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, his lawyer and Forbes said on Friday. Rights groups say hundreds of Russians have been arrested, fined and jailed for criticizing Russia’s offensive on Ukraine under tough military…

Moscow’s Plans to Build Atop Radioactive Waste Pipes Spark Alarm from Experts, Industry

Nearly four decades ago today, the Soviet Union witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history when the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded. In the present-day Russian capital, another potential radioactive threat lies dormant beneath Muscovites’ feet. In Moscow’s northwestern Shchukino district, city authorities are planning new developments atop underground…

Russia Seeks to Ban Nonexistent ‘Anti-Russian Separatist Movement’

Russia is seeking to ban the vaguely defined “anti-Russian separatist movement” as an “extremist” organization, the Justice Ministry said Friday. According to the ministry, the so-called movement’s goal is to “destroy the multinational unity and territorial integrity of Russia.” The ministry’s request is set to be heard by Russia’s Supreme Court on June 7. The independent…

Russian Soldiers Have Killed Over 100 People Since Returning from Ukraine – Vyorstka

Russian soldiers returning from Ukraine have killed 107 people since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor over two years ago, the independent investigative news outlet Vyorstka reported Thursday, citing media reports and court filings. Vyorstka said it tallied up the violent crime convictions of 91 ex-convicts pardoned after fighting in Ukraine and 84 regular…

Russia Denies Plans to Ban Passport Renewals Abroad

Russia on Thursday denied reports that it was considering barring its own citizens from renewing passports abroad, a move that would further disadvantage exiled dissidents who fled political persecution. The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta said earlier Thursday that it had obtained a copy of a draft Foreign Ministry decree suspending passport renewals and other consular services for Russians…

Moscow ‘Naked Party’ Organizer Fined for ‘Discrediting’ Russian Army

The Russian TV personality and blogger who organized a controversial celebrity “nearly naked” party in December has been fined $542 for “discrediting” the Russian military. Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court found Anastasia Ivleeva guilty of “public actions aimed at discrediting the Russian Armed Forces” and issued a 50,000-ruble fine, according to the Moscow court system’s Telegram channel. A…

Russian Law Enforcement Says Thwarted Fake Bomb Threat

Russian security and law enforcement authorities said Thursday they have thwarted a fake bomb threat allegedly organized by a private security firm. Investigators said three members of an unidentified transportation security organization had last November installed three fake bombs under two road bridges in the city of Tver, 160 kilometers northwest of Moscow. “They then provided fake…

Russia, Ukraine Hold First In-Person Talks to Return Displaced Children

Russia and Ukraine have for the first time held in-person talks to exchange children displaced by the war, Moscow’s children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova announced Wednesday. Forty-eight children are set to be exchanged under the deal agreed in Qatar, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted Lvova-Belova as saying. Qatar said it mediated the Russian-Ukrainian children’s…

Who Is Timur Ivanov, the Russian Deputy Defense Minister and Shoigu Ally Arrested for Bribery?

Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov has been arrested in one of the highest-profile corruption cases involving the military since Russia invaded Ukraine more than two years ago. Dubbed “one of the richest siloviki,” 48-year-old Ivanov has been the subject of Russian media investigations into his and his family’s lavish lifestyles. Ivanov is also seen as…

Russia Vows to Attack Western Weapons in Ukraine

Russia will ramp up strikes on Western weapons delivered to Ukraine, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday following the U.S. Congress’ long-delayed approval of fresh military aid to Kyiv. “We shall increase the intensity of strikes against logistics centers and storage facilities of the Western armament,” Shoigu told the ministry’s advisory board. “Russian servicemen [have] defused…

Russia Scraps WWII March Over Security Fears

Russia is canceling a popular procession to commemorate World War II victims for a second straight year due to growing security concerns, officials announced Tuesday. For more than a decade, Russians across the country have paraded through cities each May 9 holding portraits of relatives who were killed in what Russia calls the “Great Patriotic…

120 People Killed in Russian Border Region Since Invasion of Ukraine, Governor Says

Some 120 civilians have been killed in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has said. Belgorod has been repeatedly targeted by what Russian officials have called indiscriminate Ukrainian attacks since the start of the conflict. “The situation is extremely complicated, the [cross-border]…

Russia’s Record Floods Submerge Uranium Mines in Urals – Reports

Russia’s worst flooding in decades has submerged Soviet-era uranium mines in the Kurgan region, the investigative news outlet Agentstvo reported Monday, sparking fears that radioactive and chemical pollution could seep into the Tobol River. The Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit is located within the flood zone in Kurgan’s Zverinogolovsky district, Agentsvo reported, citing a map published by local…