Russia’s Central Bank left interest rates unchanged on Friday, as the war in Ukraine continues to fuel stubbornly high inflation and labor shortages across the economy. The regulator has progressively hiked rates to 16% over the past year in a bid to ease price pressures, and analysts are waiting for the bank to signal whether…
Updated with comments from source close to Russia’s Defense Ministry. Russia is planning to recruit 300,000 soldiers for a renewed offensive to seize the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the investigative news outlet Vyorstka reported Friday, citing sources in the Kremlin, Defense Ministry and regional governments. “We’re 300,000 snouts short, that’s why everything’s ready for ‘mobilization…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has arrested seven Moscow residents said to be linked to a pro-Kyiv militia accused of attacking Russia’s border regions, state news agencies reported on Friday. The arrests come days after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the FSB to wage an unrelenting crackdown on volunteer units fighting on the side of…
Updated with Peskov’s remarks during Friday’s press briefing. Russia has found itself in a “state of war” with Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with the pro-government newspaper Argumenty i Fakty published on Friday. Moscow officially refers to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation,” seeking to downplay the impact of the two-year…
The Russian navy accidentally fired on a fishing trawler during training exercises earlier this week, causing an explosion and killing three people on board the vessel, the independent broadcaster Dozhd reported, citing one of the victims’ relatives. Authorities said Tuesday that one fisherman had died and four others were injured in a fire that had broken out…
Authorities in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region plan to close several prisons this year after a drop-off in the number of inmates due to military recruitment efforts for the war in Ukraine, a regional official said Thursday. “A one-time large reduction in the number of convicts during the special military operation prompted some people to report to…
The Supreme Court of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan on Thursday sentenced infamous serial killer Radik Tagirov, widely known as the “Volga Maniac,” to life in prison. Tagirov, a native of Tatarstan’s capital Kazan, was found guilty of murdering 31 elderly women and committing assault against another 33 between March 2011 and October 2012, according to Russia’s Investigative…
Updated with Boris’ statement. The launch of a Russian Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) was aborted just seconds before liftoff on Thursday, with officials blaming a loss of pressure at a power source. “There was an automatic launch cancellation,” a flight controller said in a live stream broadcast by Russia’s space…
Russia has expelled a journalist from the Spanish El Mundo daily after refusing to renew his work visa, the newspaper reported Thursday, calling it an attack on press freedom. Xavier Colas, who had been reporting from Moscow for 12 years, was on Wednesday given 24 hours to leave Russia since he was unable to obtain…
A Moscow court on Thursday ordered the arrest in absentia of Vladimir Osechkin, the exiled founder of the Russian prisoners’ rights NGO Gulagu.net. Osechkin is accused of justifying terrorism and calling for terrorist attacks online, a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison, according to a ruling published by Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court.…
Russia’s Federal Customs Service (FTS) on Thursday accused Lithuanian authorities of blocking freight trucks from entering Lithuania from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. “Since 23:00 on March 20, without explanation, Lithuania has not accepted a single truck from Russia,” the FTS said in a statement, saying the blockage created a line of 140 trucks on the…
Moscow said Thursday that it had captured another village in east Ukraine, around 10 kilometers from the city of Avdiivka, which fell to Russian forces last month. It was the second village west of Avdiivka that Moscow claimed to have seized this week, with Russia seeing some recent successes on the battlefield as Kyiv faces…
March 21 marks the International Day of Forests, which was established by the UN General Assembly to draw attention to the sustainable management of these natural resources
The Kremlin on Thursday slammed the West for putting “unprecedented pressure” on Chinese banks accepting payments from Russia, admitting there were some “problems” with cross-border transactions. Citing Russian financial sources, the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper reported earlier on Thursday that some Chinese lenders had stopped accepting payments in Chinese yuan from Russian companies. “The unprecedented U.S.…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday that it arrested a man in the western Belgorod region on suspicion of planning attacks in coordination with pro-Ukrainian paramilitary groups. “A supporter of Ukrainian nationalist ideology was preparing acts of sabotage and terrorism against the Russian military on the instructions of the terrorist organization Russian Volunteer Corps,” the FSB said…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the West to deliver air defense systems to Kyiv after an overnight Russian missile attack injured 17 in the capital and surrounding region. Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 31 Russian missiles targeting Kyiv, an attack that comes after Moscow vowed to respond to an escalation in Ukrainian…
Orenburgneft, Rosneft’s key production asset in the Volga Federal District, invested 2.9 billion roubles in 2023 to implement environment-oriented and nature restoration measures
VILNIUS, Lithuania — Thousands of Russian opposition activists fled to Lithuania’s capital following the Kremlin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, seeking safety from the political crackdown quickly sweeping their home country. That sense of safety was blighted when Leonid Volkov, a close aide of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was attacked near his home with a…
In a separate post, Gladkov announced that schools and shopping centers in the city of Belgorod and some surrounding districts would close temporarily over the coming days, the second time this month. Russia’s Defense Ministry earlier said it had downed rockets, missiles and drones in the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk which have suffered…
Russian missiles pounded Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa on Friday, killing more than a dozen people including rescue workers in an attack President Volodymyr Zelensky described as “vile.” AFP journalists on the scene saw bodies covered by blankets strewn on the street, while images from officials showed exhausted emergency service workers smeared with…
In Russia’s ethnic republics, outsize war casualties, worsening economic conditions and even sweeping repressions are unlikely to catalyze voters against President Vladimir Putin in this weekend’s presidential election, experts and activists told The Moscow Times. With most of the Russian opposition imprisoned, in exile or dead, Putin is expected to easily secure victory in the…
President Vladimir Putin cast his vote online Friday in Russia’s presidential elections being held in occupied regions of Ukraine. Images distributed by the Kremlin showed the long-time Russian leader voting at a computer in his office and waving to the camera. … we have a small favor to ask. As you may have heard, The…
President Vladimir Putin said Friday that his military would respond to this week’s spate of Ukrainian attacks on Russia, which he described as an attempt by Kyiv to derail the March 15-17 presidential election. “The goal of these pointless acts from a military standpoint and criminal acts from a humanitarian standpoint was to try to…
Newlyweds, a legendary Slavic hero and Tucker Carlson greeted voters at polling stations across Russia as the country’s presidential election began. Here’s a look at some of the most colorful scenes from the first day of voting: Fictional Characters A local resident came to a polling station in Yugorsk dressed as Cheburashka. He voted in…
More than 400 polling stations in remote parts of Russia’s Far East have reported a 100% turnout on the first day of the presidential election, the independent news website Vyorstka reported Friday. Early voting began in difficult-to-reach areas across 37 Russian regions, as well as parts of occupied Ukraine, in late February. Vyorstka noted that…
Russia has opened polling stations for the 2024 presidential election in the Moscow-occupied regions of Ukraine despite ongoing fighting and the regions being internationally recognized as part of Ukraine. Moscow claimed to have annexed Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions following 2022 referendums that Ukraine and the West described as a sham. It previously…
At least four people in regions across Russia carried out arson attacks at polling places on Friday as the first day of voting in the March 15-17 presidential election got underway. In Moscow, an elderly woman was detained for setting fire to a voting booth, according to the independent news outlet Sota. A video published…
Russian election and law enforcement authorities have reported a spate of incidents involving voters spilling green antiseptic dye into ballot boxes on the first day of the presidential election. The dye, called zelyonka in Russian, was widely used in attacks on opposition activists figures during the 2010s. Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) called for security…
At least one person was killed and two others were injured in an attack on the Russian city of Belgorod on Friday afternoon, local authorities said, just shortly after pro-Kyiv militias warned of an imminent strike. Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said air defense systems shot down 10 “aerial targets” on their approach to the…
Russian prison authorities tried to recruit jailed human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov for the war in Ukraine despite his pacifist views, the Memorial human rights group said Friday. A Moscow court sentenced Orlov to two-and-a-half years in prison in late February for speaking out against the war in Ukraine and “discrediting” the Russian military. Memorial…
Russia’s online voting system briefly crashed on Friday, the first day of the March 15-17 presidential race, with independent election observers saying the likely cause was “huge numbers” of workers being forced to vote. “The system has temporarily switched to electronic line management due to the unprecedented number of people wishing to vote online,” read a message…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a man in Moscow on suspicion of launching drones near Russian military sites, the state news agency TASS reported Friday, citing an official statement. A video released by the FSB showed masked agents raiding a house and arresting a middle-aged man whose face was blurred. “They asked me…
A Moscow-installed official on Friday said Ukrainian shelling of the Russian-held city of Donetsk killed three children. Russia claims to have annexed the Donetsk region, even though it does not have full control of it and the frontline regional capital comes under frequent shelling attacks. “As a result of barbaric overnight shelling … a direct…
Russia and Ukraine downed drones and rockets overnight as polling stations opened across Russia on the first day of voting in the country’s presidential election. Kyiv has launched some of its largest air attacks on Russia this week ahead of the vote, which is set to hand President Vladimir Putin another six-year term in the…
Russia began voting on Friday in an election set to prolong President Vladimir Putin’s rule by six more years, as Kyiv branded the vote a “farce” and launched a barrage of deadly attacks on border regions. Officials in Moscow warned against any protests during the March 15-17 presidential vote, after calls from the opposition for…
Moscow authorities have threatened to criminally prosecute those who take part in election-day rallies aimed at expressing opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Supporters of late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny are expected to go to polling stations at noon on Sunday — the final day of Russia’s presidential vote — to make a visible show of…
MOSCOW – Almost no one doubts the outcome of Russia’s presidential election, where President Vladimir Putin is set to secure another six years in power with a huge lead over his opponents. With the election under tight control and wartime repressions stronger than ever, anti-war Russians nonetheless have some options to show their discontent with the…
Updated with Peskov’s remarks. Lithuania on Thursday said it suspects Russian special services were behind an attack on Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov earlier this week and called the incident an act of “political terrorism.” Volkov, a close ally of late Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, was briefly admitted to the hospital after he was…
Russia said Thursday that its forces have killed nearly 6,000 foreign volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine since Moscow’s full-scale invasion over two years ago. According to the Defense Ministry, 13,387 “foreign mercenaries” from dozens of countries have fought in Ukraine since February 2022. Overall, Russian forces have killed 5,962 of those volunteer fighters, it…
Local officials across Russia have been doubling down on efforts to encourage the public to vote in this weekend’s presidential election as the Kremlin seeks a historic turnout for President Vladimir Putin’s expected re-election. In addition to pressuring public sector workers and employees of state-linked companies into casting a ballot, officials are also trying to…
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday called for broad public dialogue on the prospect of applying for EU membership, as the ex-Soviet country’s ties with Russia fray. Moscow’s war in Ukraine has reinvigorated the EU’s drive to enlarge, with Brussels putting EU aspirants Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia on a formal membership path after years…
A Moscow court has sentenced two young activists to prison for their links to late opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s “underground headquarters,” the independent Mediazona news website reported Thursday from the court. Higher School of Economics (HSE) student Alina Olekhnovich, 21, and HSE graduate Ivan Trofimov, 22, were sentenced to 3.5 years in prison each on…
Russia has banned entry to 227 U.S. citizens, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow announced Thursday. The Foreign Ministry accused the banned individuals of playing a role in steering Washington’s “Russophobic policies” and being directly involved in “anti-Russian actions.” The latest additions to Russia’s “stop list” include State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, former U.S. Ambassador to…
Updated with injury count. Two people died and 19 others were injured on Thursday in western Russia’s Belgorod region as the country faced widespread drone attacks for a third day in a row, officials said. Russia’s Defense Ministry said 14 Ukrainian drones were destroyed in border regions overnight, the latest wave of attacks ahead of…
Law enforcement agents have searched the homes of several volunteers from ex-presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin’s campaign team in southern Russia, the online news outlet Caucasian Knot reported Thursday. The police searches were carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday in the southern Russian city of Stavropol, local Nadezhdin campaign manager Alexander Korovayny told the outlet, adding that he believed…
Anti-Kremlin militias fighting on the side of Ukraine launched an incursion into western Russia’s Kursk region on Thursday, Russian authorities said. “Ukrainian terrorists have not given up on trying to enter our territory with their sabotage and reconnaissance units around the village of Tyotkino,” Kursk region Governor Roman Starovoit wrote on the messaging app Telegram.…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday it had arrested four alleged members of a pro-Ukraine paramilitary group preparing attacks on Russian territory, including poisoning Russian soldiers. The four were arrested in the city of St. Petersburg, the FSB said in a statement. “The FSB has put an end to the illegal activities in St.…
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged Russian citizens to vote in the March 15-17 presidential election, which he said comes at a “difficult” time for the country. Putin is all but guaranteed to secure another six-year term this weekend in a vote the Kremlin says will show society is fully behind Moscow’s so-called “special military…
A group of teenagers from Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan have been forced to record an on-camera apology after they joked about the regional head during a popular comedy competition. The three high schoolers from Bashkortostan’s capital of Ufa were performing as a team in the national KVN comedy tournament on Sunday when they joked about a…
President Vladimir Putin gave a wide-ranging interview to leading Russian TV presenter Dmitry Kiselyov on Wednesday, days ahead of the country’s presidential election where he is expected to easily win re-election. The hour-and-a-half-long televised interview focused heavily on domestic political and economic issues with some attention given to Russia’s foreign policy, particularly its two-year war…
Russia congratulated Pope Francis Wednesday on 11 years in office, hailing his support for “humanism and peace” after the pontiff caused outrage by urging Ukraine to “raise the white flag.” “Pope Francis is a true and sincere advocate of humanism, peace and traditional values,” the Russian Embassy to the Holy See posted on X, formerly…
A Russian lawmaker on Wednesday criticized his fellow countrymen for allegedly purchasing billions of dollars worth of Dutch flowers for International Women’s Day, implying that the money was helping fund Ukraine’s war effort. “Do you know where the money in most of these multibillion-dollar flows went to?” Oleg Nilov, from the systemic opposition party A…
A court in Russia’s Far East city of Vladivostok has arrested ex-presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin’s local campaign head for “LGBT propaganda,” the independent news outlet Mediazona reported Wednesday. Igor Krasnov was ordered to six days of arrest on charges of “displaying extremist symbols,” Mediazona reported, citing his friends. Russia’s Supreme Court outlawed the “international LGBT…
Anti-Kremlin militia groups fighting on the side of Ukraine have urged civilians in western Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions to evacuate, saying they were preparing to launch attacks on Russian “military positions” across the two regions. “Putin’s assassins are carrying out massive strikes on peaceful Ukrainian cities, putting their positions between your homes, your children’s schools…
Lithuanian intelligence services on Wednesday said that the attack on Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov, a close ally of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was likely “organized by Russia.” The Baltic state’s president said Moscow’s potential involvement should not come as a surprise, before striking a note of defiance against Russian President Vladimir Putin: “No…
Russia’s Sports Minister on Wednesday said Moscow should not boycott the upcoming Paris Olympics despite restrictions on its athletes over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Last year, the International Olympic Committee suspended Russia from the Games, but later said it would allow Russian athletes to compete as neutrals outside of team events as long as…
Russian authorities have pressed criminal charges against journalist Mikhail Zygar for spreading “fake news” about the Russian military, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported on Wednesday, citing an anonymous law enforcement source. According to the Baza Telegram channel, which is purported to have links to Russian law enforcement, Zygar is accused of spreading false information…
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday lauded Moscow’s nuclear arsenal and warned that he was ready to deploy the weapons if Russia’s sovereignty was threatened. The Kremlin has touted its nuclear prowess throughout its two-year offensive in Ukraine, last month warning Western countries that there was a “real” risk of nuclear catastrophe if they escalated the…
The European Union has removed sanctions that were placed on Russian tech billionaire Arkady Volozh after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to a document published on Wednesday. Volozh, who co-founded the Russian tech giant Yandex, announced his resignation as CEO of the company in mid-2022 after being targeted by EU sanctions. In August,…
A wave of drone strikes targeted Russian oil refineries and border regions for the second day in a row on Wednesday, with one sparking a fire and injuring several people in the central Ryazan region, officials said. Dozens of Ukrainian drones were launched overnight, targeting the Russian border regions of Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk and Voronezh, and…