A U.S. soldier serving a prison sentence in Russia’s Far East appeared on state television Tuesday, saying he hoped to be exchanged at some point in the future. Gordon Black spoke to state broadcaster Rossiya from prison, looking pale and wearing the same clothes he had on at the time of his arrest earlier this…
Google has racked up some 2 undecillion rubles ($2.5 decillion) worth of fines in Russia after years of refusing to restore the accounts of pro-Kremlin and state-run media outlets, the RBC news website reported Tuesday, citing an anonymous source familiar with court rulings against the tech company. According to RBC’s sources, Google began accumulating daily…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its forces captured the eastern Ukrainian town of Selydove as part of a wider push to seize the nearby logistics hub of Pokrovsk. The capture of the frontline town of Selydove, located around 18 kilometers (10 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk, is the latest battlefield gain for Russia, which has…
A Moscow court sentenced an IT specialist to more than 13 years in prison for attempting to pass state secrets to the CIA, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday. Firuz Dadoboyev was found “guilty of treason for the benefit of the United States.” He was also fined 300,000 rubles ($3,000). Russia’s FSB claimed Dadoboyev illegally…
Estonia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s charge d’affaires amid an ongoing border dispute over a shared river, media in the Baltic country reported Tuesday. In May, Estonian border guards accused their Russian counterparts of removing two dozen navigation buoys from the Narva River, which flows north into the Baltic Sea from Lake Peipsi, or Lake Chudskoye…
The republic of Chechnya’s supreme mufti on Tuesday decried bans on hijabs and other religious clothing in schools as unconstitutional, arguing that the restrictions violate a person’s right to freedom of conscience and religion. Supreme Mufti Salah Mezhiev issued his criticism a week after education authorities in central Russia’s Vladimir region ordered a ban on…
North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrived in Russia Tuesday for an official visit after South Korea and the United States claimed Pyongyang sent thousands of troops to train in Russia. Choe flew to the city of Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East, the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing a diplomatic source. According to…
An early morning drone strike damaged a special forces university in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Tuesday, marking the first such attack on the region since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “At 6:30 this morning, the roof of an empty building on the territory of the Russian Special Forces…
Tens of thousands of Georgians took to the streets Monday to protest against the ruling party’s victory in parliamentary polls denounced as “stolen” by the pro-Western opposition, while Georgia’s president alleged to AFP that the vote was rigged using “sophisticated” methods she linked to Russia. The Caucasus country — rocked by mass anti-government protests earlier this…
Britain’s government on Monday unveiled new sanctions on three Russian public relations firms and their top managers, accusing them of “attempting to undermine and destabilize Ukraine and its democracy.” London said it was targeting Russia’s state-funded Social Design Agency (SDA), its partner company Structura and another firm called Ano Dialog, as well as three senior…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Monday that its agents killed four “saboteurs” who tried to cross into the western Bryansk region from Ukraine. “FSB border guards, together with the units of Russia’s armed forces and the National Guard, thwarted an attempt to cross over the Russian state border in the Klimovsky district on Oct. 27,” the…
Finnish authorities have begun seizing Russian state-owned property in the country after a Hague-based court ordered Moscow to compensate Ukraine’s national gas provider for assets it lost during the annexation of Crimea, the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat reported Monday. Finland’s National Enforcement Authority, an agency of the country’s justice ministry, reportedly seized the 3,326-square-meter (35,800…
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Monday that North Korean troops were sent to Russia’s embroiled Kursk region, decrying the deployment as a sign of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “growing desperation.” Speaking in Brussels after a briefing with South Korean intelligence officials, Rutte said he could confirm that North Korean military units had been sent to…
Police in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region detained around 20 Roma for “crime prevention talks” after ethnic tensions flared last week over a woman’s murder, local media reported Sunday. Enraged residents in the town of Korkino gathered Thursday night outside homes believed to belong to Roma, where they damaged property and clashed with riot police. The unrest…
An increasing number of Russian political activists have been placed in forced psychiatric treatment — a practice dating back to the Soviet era that involves confinement in mental hospitals. According to rights activists, some political prisoners who have undergone this treatment report being subjected to humiliation, beatings and being injected with powerful antipsychotic drugs. The number of…
A Ukrainian drone attack in southwestern Russia’s Kursk region killed two people, regional authorities said Monday. Kursk region Governor Alexei Smirnov said a “Ukrainian copter drone” targeted a civilian vehicle in the Lgovsky District. “Two explosives were dropped. Two young people who were inside [the car] died,” Smirnov said. The Lgovsky District lies just north of…
The 10th Anniversary Congress of Rosneft ecologists was held in Moscow
The Kremlin on Monday said it “strongly rejects” accusations from Georgia’s president that it interfered in this past weekend’s parliamentary elections. Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili claimed that Moscow was behind election fraud in Georgia, saying it was part of a “Russian special operation.” “We strongly reject these accusations. There was no intervention. These accusations are…
St. Petersburg opposition lawmaker Boris Vishnevsky said Monday that he would step down from the regional legislative assembly to comply with new amendments to Russia’s “foreign agent” law. In May, federal lawmakers passed legislation prohibiting “foreign agents” from running in elections, changes introduced after several people hit with designation said they planned to run for local…
Authorities in Russia’s Vladimir region have banned students from wearing hijabs while at school. According to the ban, which was enacted last week Tuesday, “clothing and elements demonstrating the student’s religious affiliation… are not allowed inside educational institutions,” including hijabs and niqabs. The Vladimir region’s Education Ministry insisted in a statement on Saturday that the ban…
Ukraine is investigating reports that Russian soldiers shot at civilians in the embattled frontline town of Selydove, prosecutors said Sunday. A video posted on Telegram by “Ghost of Khortytsia,” a Ukrainian army unit, purported to show Russian forces opening fire on a civilian vehicle. The footage taken from a drone shows a person rushing around…
Russia said Sunday its military had advanced further in east Ukraine, capturing a frontline village just a few kilometers north of a key Ukrainian-held industrial hub. Moscow has made steady gains on the battlefield for months, pressing their advantage against overstretched and outmanned Ukrainian forces. Russian army units “liberated the settlement of Izmailovka,” the Russian…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday he hoped the West “heard” his warning about the danger of a direct war with NATO if it allowed Ukraine to use long-range weapons against Russia. Putin made the initial threat in September after Britain and the United States mulled letting Kyiv use long-range arms against Russian targets, warning…
Russia shot down 51 Ukrainian drones from above several regions, including near the border, Moscow’s defense ministry said on Sunday. Eighteen were intercepted in the Tambov region, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the Ukrainian border, and 16 in the area of the border town Belgorod, the ministry said in a statement on Telegram. The…
Finance ministers of the G7 nations vowed Saturday to step up efforts to prevent Russia from evading sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine. “We remain committed to taking further initiatives in response to oil price cap violations,” the group said in a statement following a meeting in Washington. Those further steps were not spelled…
Russian missile strikes killed four people including a child in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro last night, while a teenager and another person died in attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding region, officials said Saturday. The strikes came less than 48 hours after Russia finished hosting a three-day summit of the BRICS group of emerging…
Russian authorities announced a manhunt on Saturday after six convicts escaped the correctional facility where they were being held through a secret tunnel. Prison guards in the western Lipetsk region were alerted to the prisoners’ disappearance after carrying out a routine inspection. “In general regime penal colony No. 2, an underground tunnel was discovered during…
Authorities in Russia designated the anti-war Telegram news channel Astra as a “foreign agent” on Friday. Russia’s Justice Ministry accused Astra of spreading “inaccurate information” about government policy in order to promote a “negative image” of the Russian military. “[Astra] opposed the special military operation in Ukraine… The creator and editor-in-chief of the internet portal reside outside…
President Vladimir Putin on Friday appointed Lieutenant Colonel Artyom Zhoga, currently the Kremlin’s envoy to the Urals Federal District, to Russia’s National Security Council. Zhoga, a former military officer from the Russian-occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, gained prominence last year after publicly urging Putin to seek re-election in the 2025 presidential race. Earlier this…
A local politician in central Russia’s Vladimir region was charged with using slave labor and defrauding a soldier who fought in the Ukraine war, regional investigators said Friday. According to the Vladimir region branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee, the politician allegedly led an organized criminal group that stole 1 million rubles ($10,350) from a soldier’s…
The Kremlin on Friday accused the West of trying to interfere in Georgia’s upcoming parliamentary elections, while also dismissing claims that it was meddling in the South Caucasus country’s politics. Georgia will hold parliamentary elections on Saturday, which some observers have called a key test of the country’s democracy and its prospects of joining the…
Denis Leontovich took a job at the regional youth policy agency in southern Russia’s Samara region in February 2024. After just a few weeks on the job, he would resign and leave the country in a matter of hours after he was outed as gay by a federal lawmaker and started receiving threats. “I didn’t…
At least four people were hospitalized after a man attacked several shoppers at a supermarket in St. Petersburg, Russian media reported Friday. Eyewitnesses told the Fontanka news outlet that an “aggressive man” hurled champagne bottles at people inside the O’Key supermarket before grabbing a knife from a display window and using it to attack shoppers.…
Russia’s Central Bank raised its key interest rate from 19% to a historic 21% on Friday, taking it even higher than the emergency rate initially introduced after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine as officials scrambled to shield the economy from Western sanctions. A rate increase of 1% had been widely anticipated by analysts, as inflation…
U.S. billionaire Elon Musk held secret talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout the war in Ukraine as his initial support for Kyiv appeared to shift in Moscow’s favor, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing several anonymous current and ex-U.S., European and Russian officials. The private conversations reportedly addressed personal topics, business and geopolitical…
Enraged residents in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region clashed with riot police Thursday night after the stabbing death of a local woman, which both authorities and residents blamed on members of the Roma community. Local media identified the victim as Yelena Sarafanova, a mother of two and taxi driver in the town of Korkino. Her body was…
Rosneft’s Samara Group of enterprises — Samaraneftegaz, Novokuibyshevsk Refinery, Kuibyshev Refinery, Syzran Refinery, Novokuibyshevsk Petrochemical Company, Novokuibyshevsk Oils and Additives Plant — summarised the results of a regular grant competition to support R&D initiatives
RN-Yuganskneftegaz (Rosneft’s largest oil production enterprise) provided modern equipment and educational facilities to School No. 9 in Khanty-Mansiysk, which is attended by nearly 1,000 students
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday his relationship with the United States after the presidential elections would depend on what attitude Washington adopts, as he welcomed comments by Donald Trump on his desire to end the Ukraine conflict as “sincere.” But the Kremlin leader struck a hardline tone, warning the West it was an “illusion”…
Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister said Thursday that his government does not endorse Russian emigres living in the country who stage protests against the Kremlin. Tens of thousands of Russians fled to Serbia after President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and then a partial mobilization of troops later that year. An…
Russian law enforcement authorities have arrested one current and one former deputy energy minister on suspicion of fraud, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources. Federal Security Service (FSB) agents reportedly first arrested Anatoly Yanovsky, who oversaw policy on Russia’s coal industry as deputy energy minister between 2008 and 2021. Current Deputy Energy…
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday urged a “just peace” in Ukraine, delivering his remarks in front of Russian President Vladimir Putin as he called for an end to more than two years of war. Guterres was in Russia for the first time since April 2022 and was due to hold talks on Ukraine…
The Russia-hosted BRICS summit came to a close on Thursday in Kazan, the capital of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan. The largest international event held in Russia since it invaded Ukraine more than two years ago, the summit was seen as a tool for the Kremlin to shake off its pariah status and strengthen its influence…
French retail giant Auchan is in “the final stage of negotiations” to sell its Russian subsidiary to local buyers after more than 20 years in the country, the business publication La Lettre reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources. Auchan reportedly narrowed its options to two potential buyers after receiving 10 “unsolicited expressions of interest” over the…
German prosecutors charged a Russian man with the murder of two Ukrainian soldiers who were receiving medical treatment in southern Germany, media reported Wednesday. The 57-year-old Russian national was arrested in April after the two Ukrainian soldiers were found stabbed to death at a shopping center in the Bavarian town of Murnau. Witnesses said the…
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday that his country is ready to become an “active member” of the BRICS group of countries. “We fully share the BRICS philosophy. Belarus is coming to you with specific ideas and projects,” Lukashenko said at the bloc’s annual summit in the city of Kazan. “We’re ready to become an…
President Vladimir Putin warned Thursday that attempts to defeat Russia on the battlefield were “illusory,” remarks made ahead of his first meeting with UN chief Antonio Guterres in more than two years. Putin was speaking in the Tatarstan capital of Kazan on the final day of the BRICS summit, a forum Moscow hopes will help forge a…
Two women in the Ural Mountains city of Perm threw Molotov cocktails at the local office of the ruling United Russia party, igniting a blaze inside the building, Russian media reported Thursday. Emergency services told local media that the fire engulfed some 40 square meters (430 square feet) of the office, and photos taken from…
Russian lawmakers voted unanimously on Thursday to ratify a strategic partnership agreement between Russia and North Korea that, among other things, provides for “mutual assistance” if either country comes under attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a visit to the isolated East Asian country in…
Kyiv claimed Thursday that Russian forces had executed four captured Ukrainian servicemen in the eastern Donetsk region, the latest war crime allegation against Moscow. The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said four servicemen fighting in the national guard had been captured on Oct. 6 near the Donetsk region town of Selydove, where Russian forces are advancing.…
The oldest surviving son of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych received Russian citizenship, state media reported Thursday, citing documents it said it had obtained. Government records reportedly list businessman Oleksandr Yanukovych, 51, as a Ukrainian citizen when he registered a financial and industrial services company in St. Petersburg. The state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported that…
Turkey secretly blocked the export of U.S. military-linked goods to Russia following warnings from Washington, the Financial Times reported, citing three anonymous sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Ankara, which originally embraced the role of Moscow’s lifeline from Western sanctions, reportedly made the move in recent weeks without a public announcement due to the…
A senior U.S. official confirmed Wednesday that thousands of North Korean soldiers were sent to Russia for training, but said that their exact mission remained unclear. “We know that thousands of DPRK troops are in Russia to be trained. We don’t know what their mission will be or if they’ll go on to fight in…
Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin on Wednesday called for the extradition of former Putin aide and veteran reformer Anatoly Chubais over corruption allegations. Chubais served as the Kremlin’s climate envoy before quitting his position and leaving Russia shortly after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. President Vladimir Putin previously suggested Chubais fled the country…
Law enforcement authorities in southwestern Russia’s Kursk region searched the business of a regional lawmaker over reported defense failures that Ukrainian forces exploited during their cross-border incursion this summer. Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack in the Kursk region on Aug. 6, breaching two lines of defensive fortifications that reportedly cost 15 billion rubles ($109…
North Korea sent an additional 1,500 troops to Russia, South Korea’s intelligence agency told lawmakers Wednesday, with around 10,000 soldiers total expected to be deployed by December. The latest deployment brings the number of North Korean troops in Russia to 3,000, lawmaker Park Sun-won said after the National Intelligence Service (NIS) gave a briefing. “An…
Belarus will hold its next presidential election on Jan. 26, the country’s Central Election Commission announced Wednesday. Belarus, a key ally of Russia, has been ruled since 1994 by President Alexander Lukashenko. Since coming to power, Lukashenko has eliminated all forms of opposition in the country. Election authorities said parliament had approved the date of…
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Russia on Wednesday to attend this week’s BRICS summit, his first visit to the country in more than two years. Russia is hosting the three-day summit in the Tatarstan capital of Kazan, where the speaker of the regional legislative assembly greeted Guterres after his plane landed at the city’s airport. Ukraine’s…
Russian officials, businesses and media have been reporting shortages of workers across different sectors of the economy for over a year. Now some are saying that the reality of labor deficit is a new reality that the country will have to live with in the coming years. “There will never be cheap labor in our…
Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday hailed his country’s ties with Russia in a “chaotic” world as he met President Vladimir Putin at the BRICS summit in Kazan. “The world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, and the international situation is chaotic and intertwined,” Xi told Putin, praising the “profound friendship” between their…