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…
Longtime Navalny aide and former Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) chairman Leonid Volkov was attacked at his home in Lithuania on Tuesday night, his associates said. “Someone broke a car window and sprayed tear gas in his eyes, after which the attacker started hitting Leonid with a hammer,” Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Volkov,…
U.S. President Joe Biden announced an emergency $300 million military aid shipment for Ukraine on Tuesday, as Poland’s leaders visited the White House to warn of the growing threat from Russia. The White House sidestepped Republicans in Congress, who have for months blocked a much larger package for Kyiv’s desperate fight, by using money that…
A Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih left at least three people dead and 38 wounded Tuesday, including children, according to authorities. Rescuers could be seen evacuating wounded civilians from a burning multi-story residential building in a video published by Kyiv’s interior ministry. “Three dead and 38 injured,” Interior Minister…
Russian officials have been ordered to significantly boost voter turnout among young people in the upcoming presidential election as the Kremlin seeks to hand President Vladimir Putin a resounding re-coronation. Students, graduate students and young workers are facing pressure and coercion from authorities, their schools and employers in the lead-up to the March 15-17 vote.…
Two women in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region have been fined 50,000 rubles ($550) each for kissing each other on camera, the regional court’s press service said Tuesday. In early February, a police report was filed against the women, whose names were not given, after they were filmed kissing each other at a restaurant. Law enforcement…
European companies have supplied over $630 million worth of equipment according to the current exchange rate to Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project since the invasion of Ukraine despite it being under Western sanctions, The Moscow Times’ Russian service and the Arctida NGO reported Tuesday in a joint investigation. Arctic LNG 2, whose key stakeholders include…
Moscow on Tuesday said its forces had captured the village of Nevelske in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, where Russian troops have made recent gains. Russian forces have recently been able to take advantage of Ukrainian shortages of ammunition and servicemen to take territory in the east. Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that…
Russia said Tuesday that it had repelled a series of brazen cross-border raids by pro-Ukrainian militias who burst into its territory and claimed to seize control of a village. Groups of pro-Kyiv volunteer fighters, made up of Russians who oppose the Kremlin, said earlier that they had broken into the Kursk and Belgorod regions bordering…
Moscow on Tuesday banned entry to 347 citizens of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia over what it called the “hostile policy” of the three Baltic states toward Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the governments of the three Baltic states of interfering in its domestic affairs and “persecuting” their Russian-speaking populations in the announcement published on its…
Updated with Defense Ministry’s statement. A Russian military transport plane caught fire and crashed in the Ivanovo region northeast of Moscow, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday. Footage circulating on social media showed the IL-76 aircraft descending toward the ground with one of its engines on fire. Other footage showed a column of black smoke rising…
In 2023, Bashneft (part of Rosneft) allocated more than 9 billion roubles to environmental projects, which is a 40% increase on the previous year.
Ukraine on Monday summoned the Vatican’s envoy to Kyiv after Pope Francis suggested the country should consider raising “the white flag” against Russia, causing fury in Kyiv. Ukraine has angrily rejected Pope Francis’s suggestion to negotiate with Russia two years after its invasion, vowing “never” to surrender to Moscow. “Due to the statements of Pope…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Russian advances had been “halted” in Ukraine and the situation was now “much better” for his troops than in recent months. “The Russian advance has been halted,” Zelensky told French broadcaster BFM TV. “Our command, our military has stopped the Russian advance in eastern Ukraine,” he said. Kyiv…
Moldova on Monday said it would summon the Russian ambassador to show “its disapproval of the decision to open polling stations” in separatist Transnistria during the Russian presidential election. Moldova last week downplayed talk of rising tensions after pro-Russian rebel officials in Transnistria appealed to Russia for “protection.” Russian news agencies reported that six polling…
While Russian citizens will cast their votes in the 2024 presidential election from March 15-17, early voting is already underway in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine. Russia claimed to have annexed the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in September 2022 following referendums that Kyiv and the West described as a sham. Moscow has opened…
Russians will vote for one of the four presidential candidates officially registered by the Central Election Commission (CEC) this week. In addition to President Vladimir Putin, who is running as an independent candidate, the candidates include Leonid Slutsky of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party and Vladislav Davankov of the…
Russian nationals who visit Moscow’s embassy in Latvia to vote in the March 15-17 presidential election will undergo police screenings, local media reported on Monday, citing the head of the Baltic country’s police force. “Access to the embassy will be controlled accordingly, residence permit and visa checkpoints will be set up in coordination with the State…
The navies of China, Russia and Iran are staging joint drills in the Gulf of Oman this week, Beijing said Monday. The military activities — to be conducted from Monday through Friday — are aimed at “jointly maintaining regional maritime security,” according to a statement published on social media platform WeChat by China’s defense ministry.…
Russia authorities have arrested a citizen of South Korea on charges of spying, the state-run TASS news agency reported Monday, citing an anonymous law enforcement official. “During operational search activities as part of an investigation into espionage, a citizen of the Republic of Korea, Baek Won Sung, was identified and detained,” the unnamed law enforcement…
President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed into law a bill that bans advertisers from working with “foreign agents,” a move widely expected to make it next to impossible for independent media outlets hit with the designation to earn money. News of the bill’s passing in Russia’s lower-house State Duma late last month sent shockwaves through…
A Moscow court has overturned the jail sentence against exiled Russian-Canadian activist Pyotr Verzilov and sent his case for review, the Setevyye Svobody (Network Freedoms) NGO reported on Monday. In November, Verzilov was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison in absentia for spreading “deliberately false” information about the Russian military. He was accused of “causing social…
Authorities in northwestern Russia’s Leningrad region said Sunday that air defense systems shot down a Ukrainian drone flying in the area, as airspace over that region and the city of St. Petersburg was closed “to ensure safety.” “An unmanned aerial vehicle was spotted by observation posts on the territory of the Leningrad region,” the regional…
Ukrainian shelling of a Russian border village in the western Kursk region killed one woman on Sunday, the local governor said on social media. Kursk region Governor Roman Starovoit said Ukrainian forces had shelled the village of Kulbaki, less than 10 kilometers from the two country’s shared border. “As a result of a direct hit…
Updated with injury count, deaths. Russian shelling of towns in eastern Ukraine killed three people Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, while a strike on a residential building in the town of Myrnohrad wounded a dozen people. Kyiv Moscow also launched missile attacks on the northeastern Kharkiv region, as well as drones targeting regions in the center…
A Moscow court has sentenced a student to 10 days in jail after he renamed his WiFi network with a pro-Kyiv slogan during the military offensive in Ukraine, the RIA Novosti news agency reported on Saturday. The student at Moscow State University replaced the name of the network from his WiFi router with Slava Ukraini…
Kazakhstan on Saturday confirmed the deaths of two of its citizens in an anti-terrorism operation in Russia that Moscow claims prevented an attack against a synagogue in the Russian capital. Russia’s FSB security service on Thursday confirmed an operation against a suspected branch of the Islamic State (IS) militant group had taken place in the…
The parents of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny thanked the crowds of Russians paying their respects to their son in a message published Saturday by his widow Yulia Navalnaya. Navalny — President Vladimir Putin’s main opponent — died in his Arctic prison in mid-February and was laid to rest in Moscow last week, with…
Russian shelling and strikes on Ukraine’s Kherson region killed one person and wounded several, with at least two civilians also killed in attacks on the center and east of the country, Kyiv said Saturday. Russia’s invasion has dragged on for more than two years, with fierce fighting in the east and regular attacks away from…
Russia said on Saturday it had destroyed 47 Ukrainian drones over its southern regions overnight, mostly in the Rostov area bordering Ukraine. Kyiv has regularly launched drones into Russia during Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine, now in its third year. “Air defense systems on duty intercepted and destroyed over the territories of Belgorod region (one…
IMATRA, Finland — At the edge of Imatra, a medium-sized Finnish town on the border with Russia, high snow drifts ensconce a shopping outlet that sits barren apart from a large “for sale” sign. Another sign on the building reads “Добро пожаловать!” — Russian for “welcome” — a reminder that just a few years ago,…
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said Friday she has not heard from her jailed husband for a year, describing the lack of communication as a form of torture. She called on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to intervene, saying that other Belarusian political prisoners had also been cut off from the outside world. “It’s been…
A Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian border region of Belgorod killed two people on Friday, its governor said. He said three Ukrainian “kamikaze drones” hit the village of Rozhdestvenska, close to the border with Ukraine, in a region that has come under frequent artillery, rocket and drone attacks throughout the two-year conflict. “As a…
Updated with additional travel alerts from other countries. Latvia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday urged its citizens to leave Russia as soon as possible and to avoid mass gatherings in Moscow amid reports of possible “terrorist acts” in the coming days. “We urge Latvian citizens in Russia to be cautious and avoid mass gatherings… due to…
Russia has celebrated International Women’s Day since the Soviet era. But the holiday — which celebrates women’s contributions to society — has inevitably been influenced by the war in Ukraine like much of Russian society. The result has been images of Russian soldiers and masked security officers handing women flowers to mark the holiday:
Women’s Day has been a national holiday in Russia since 1966, but was celebrated for decades before that. It is a festival where Russians pay tribute to all the women in their lives, from mothers and sisters to teachers and colleagues. While the United Nations uses International Women’s Day to celebrate gender equality and highlight…
President Vladimir Putin met with billionaire Roman Abramovich to discuss swapping the late opposition activist Alexei Navalny for Russians jailed in the West just hours before he died in an Arctic prison last month, the investigative outlet Agentstvo reported Friday, citing four sources familiar with the matter. According to two of Agentstvo’s sources, Putin and…
Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed motherhood as “an amazing purpose for a woman” in his International Women’s Day message aired Friday. “You, dear women, are able to transform the world thanks to your beauty, wisdom and generous hearts, but, most importantly, thanks to the greatest gift that nature has given you — childbirth,” Putin said in…
Indian authorities said they have detained members of a “trafficking” network sending citizens of the country to fight for the Russian army in Ukraine after raiding several travel agents. At least two Indian citizens fighting as soldiers in Russia’s armed forces have been killed in the war, with several recruits telling AFP they were shipped…
A late-night Russian strike on the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv killed two people, the region’s governor said Friday, as both Moscow and Kyiv reported a wave of overnight aerial attacks. Kharkiv region Governor Oleh Syniehubov said Russia launched a “series of shelling” attacks on the town of Kupyansk, close to the front lines, late…
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow said Thursday that it was aware of “imminent plans” by “extremists” to target public gatherings in the Russian capital over the next two days. “The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts,” it said in a security alert issued…
Ukraine on Thursday named Valery Zaluzhny as its new envoy to the U.K., a month after he was removed from his position as the country’s commander-in-chief. The announcement came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met British Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps. “On March 7, 2024, the President of Ukraine approved the candidacy of…
Lithuania has stripped Russian ballerina Ilze Liepa of her Lithuanian citizenship after she openly praised President Vladimir Putin, the news website Delfi reported Thursday, citing an adviser to the Baltic country’s president. In a decree signed by Lithuanian President Gitanas Naused, 59-year-old Liepa was stripped of her Lithuanian citizenship, which she received in 2000. “Questions…
Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) announced Wednesday that it will set up special polling places for next week’s presidential race along the country’s borders with Poland, Belarus and the three Baltic states. The CEC said Russian citizens “who for various reasons” live in the five neighboring countries would be able to vote at specially organized…
Figure skater Kamila Valieva has been removed from the Russian national team, the head of Russia’s Figure Skating Federation told state media on Thursday. “Valieva is currently not part of the national team. Everything was done in accordance with legal documents,” Alexander Kogan, who heads the figure skating body, was quoted as saying by the…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday it killed Islamic State militants who were planning a “terrorist attack” on a Moscow synagogue, state news agencies reported. The FSB said the Islamic State cell, based in central Russia’s Kaluga region, had been planning to kill Jewish worshippers at a synagogue in the Russian capital. “During their arrest, the…
A Finnish court on Thursday gave a businessman a nine-month suspended jail sentence for violating EU sanctions against Russia, the first case of its kind in the Nordic country, the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported. Gabriel Temin, CEO of the Finland-based logistics and warehouse companies Luminor Oy and Siberica Oy, was arrested in September on suspicion of…