Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend this month’s BRICS summit in Russia, India’s Foreign Ministry said Friday, months after the Indian leader met with President Vladimir Putin in a meeting that drew condemnation from Ukraine. Modi’s government has longstanding ties with Moscow that have persisted despite India’s attempts to forge closer security partnerships with…
North Korea is sending “large-scale” troop deployments to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine, with 1,500 special forces already stationed in Russia’s Far East where they are undergoing training, Seoul’s intelligence agency said Friday. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) released detailed satellite images of what it said was Pyongyang’s first deployment to Russia. South Korean President Yoon Suk…
Washington unveiled new sanctions Thursday targeting China-based companies linked to the production of drones that Russia has deployed in its war against Ukraine. It marks the first time the U.S. sanctioned Chinese companies “directly developing and producing complete weapons systems in partnership with Russian firms,” the U.S. Treasury Department said. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said…
Russia’s agricultural safety watchdog banned the import of tomatoes, melons, wheat and other food products from neighboring Kazakhstan amid ongoing trade disputes between the two countries. “The decision was made because Kazakhstan’s competent authorities failed to take measures to ensure the phytosanitary safety of [products sent to] Russian territory,” Rosselkhoznadzor said Thursday. The watchdog said…
Authorities in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region on Friday denied reports of Ukrainian troops launching an incursion into a village on the border with Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Open-source intelligence bloggers speculated earlier this week that Ukraine may have opened a “new axis” in the Belgorod region village of Zhuravlevka to cut off one of the Russian…
A cargo ship capsized off the coast of Far East Russia’s Sakhalin island, killing at least two crewmen, the state-run Interfax news agency reported Friday, citing emergency services. Earlier, Sakhalin region Governor Valery Limarenko said the Grigory Lotsov, which was loaded with crushed stone and sand, sank off the coast of Sakhalin’s Korsakovsky District. Limarenko…
Russia is preparing to deploy 10,000 North Korean soldiers in the fight against Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, citing intelligence information. Zelensky has previously accused North Korea of sending troops to Russia’s army but this was the first time he gave an exact figure. An unspecified number of North Korean soldiers were already…
Russian law enforcement authorities placed the wife of opposition figure Leonid Gozman under house arrest on allegations of trafficking cultural goods from Russia to Italy, media reported Thursday. The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, citing a court indictment, reported that the “cultural goods” listed by authorities include “kitchen and household utensils” inherited by the Gozman family…
When Ukrainian soldier Ihor Shyshko described his two years of detention in Russia alongside 72-year-old U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard, three words came to mind: torture, humiliation and hunger. After being held incommunicado for two and a half years, Hubbard suddenly appeared in a Moscow court last month where he was sentenced in a closed trial…
Russia’s Orthodox Church plans to give pregnant women in the northwestern Tver region letters urging them to give birth instead of having an abortion. The Tver diocese announced earlier this week that a letter penned by Metropolitan Ambrose of Tver and Kashinsk will be sent out to regional prenatal centers at a time when women…
Three workers were killed after part of a gold mine collapsed in Far East Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula, the head of the regional Emergency Situations Ministry said Thursday. The men were working at the Kumroch mine, located in Kamchatka’s Ust-Kamchatsky District, when one of the shafts collapsed. The site is operated by the Bystrinskaya Mining Company and…
Britain on Thursday announced its largest sanctions to date against Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers used to sidestep a Western embargo on oil exports after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The government’s latest crackdown bars 18 ships from U.K. ports and British maritime services, bringing the total number of sanctioned vessels to 43. Experts say…
Serbian authorities ordered a Russian expat involved in anti-Kremlin activist work to leave the country by the end of this week over “risks” he allegedly poses to national security, local media reported Wednesday. According to Serbian broadcaster N1, a CNN affiliate, Russian citizen Anton Bobryshev has lived in the Balkans country for eight years on…
Foreign companies seeking to leave Russia will be forced to pay a heftier “exit tax” and “voluntary contribution” to the state treasury, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Thursday, confirming earlier reporting of the planned increase. “The discount for foreigners will increase from 50% to 60%,” Siluanov, who heads a government investment commission that approves foreign…
Russia will deport more than 2,000 undocumented migrants following a recent series of police raids, the Moscow branch of Russia’s Interior Ministry announced Thursday. The weeklong raids in the Russian capital, dubbed “Operation Nelegal 2024,” uncovered more than 13,000 violations of immigration law, according to the ministry’s statement. It said more than 10,000 foreigners were…
British counterterrorism police said Thursday they were investigating how a package burst into flames at a shipping warehouse earlier this year after a similar case in Germany was blamed on Russia. The incident occurred at a DHL warehouse near Birmingham on July 22. No one was injured in the fire, which was put out by…
More than twice as many Russian tourists have visited Japan so far this year compared to 2023, according to preliminary data from the Japan National Tourism Organization published on Thursday. In the first nine months of 2024, nearly 64,000 Russians visited the East Asia island nation, while the same period last year saw just 27,070…
“Childfree propaganda is a socially dangerous phenomenon. The Americans are promoting this. Our country is vast and their [U.S.] ideology is dangerous. Under no circumstances should it be allowed to spread.” These were the words of Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, as he justified proposed legislation imposing heavy fines on…
The mayor’s office of the Siberian city of Tomsk removed makeshift memorials commemorating victims of Soviet-era repression less than a month after a group of local historians installed them. In late September, historians in Tomsk erected five wooden posts with the names and photos of 30 people who were executed and buried in the city’s…
Russian airstrikes on sites including a furniture workshop in northwest Syria killed 10 people and wounded 30 others, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said late Wednesday. “The number of people killed in Idlib has risen to ten civilians including a child, due to the Russian airstrikes on Idlib countryside,” the U.K.-based war monitoring organization said,…
Moldova claimed Wednesday that authorities in Russia were planning to undermine the country’s upcoming presidential election and a referendum on joining the EU by bussing in voters to polling stations at the Moldovan Embassy in Moscow. Moldova’s Foreign Ministry said it was alarmed by reports of Russia allegedly preparing to “artificially create the impression of…
A Russian official who resigned after a federal lawmaker accused him of being in a relationship with a man has fled the country and denounced Moscow’s war against Ukraine. In April, State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein outed Denis Leontovich, an ex-employee of the Samara region’s youth policy agency, as a member of what he claimed to…
Two Russian men arrested in Poland on espionage charges went on trial Wednesday for allegedly distributing leaflets and stickers promoting the Wagner mercenary group, a Polish court said. The pair, identified by Polish counterintelligence as Alexei T. and Andrei G., were detained in August 2023 for distributing leaflets about the Wagner Group in the cities…
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has declared a “blood feud” against three federal-level lawmakers hailing from the neighboring republics of Dagestan and Ingushetia. The statement was yet another twist in the months-long dispute between Tatiana Kim, the CEO of Russia’s largest online retailer Wildberries, and her estranged husband Vladislav Bakalchuk. The Moscow Times spoke to prominent…
A man who died in police custody amid a regionwide crackdown on protesters and activists in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan earlier this year was beaten to death by police, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported Wednesday, citing an independent forensic analysis conducted at the request of his family. Rifat Dautov was among more than 80 people…
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that Berlin wants to explore ways of ending the war in Ukraine, hinting at possible talks with Moscow, but stressing that any efforts to bring a resolution to the conflict would need to happen in cooperation with authorities in Kyiv. “Alongside clear support for Ukraine, it is time for…
Russian pro-war singer Shaman filed to trademark the phrase “Ya Russky” (“I’m Russian”) for alcoholic beverages, various household products and even sex toys, the Moskva news agency reported Wednesday, citing documents it obtained. “Ya Russky” has become Shaman’s calling card after he emerged from relative obscurity with patriotic pop songs in the wake of Russia’s…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its forces captured two more villages in different parts of eastern Ukraine, with one of them lying just several kilometers away from the critical logistics hub of Pokrovsk. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have fled to Pokrovsk as Russia’s military wages a campaign to capture the whole of eastern Ukraine’s…
The Kremlin said Wednesday it had yet to see Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “victory plan” to end the war, but urged authorities in Kyiv to “sober up” and admit what it called a futile effort to defeat Russia. Zelensky unveiled details of the plan earlier Wednesday, telling Ukrainian lawmakers it could help the country win…
Russia’s government approved plans to reduce the country’s temporary migrant worker quota by nearly half in 2025, the state-run TASS news agency reported Wednesday, citing a government document it obtained. According to the document, Russian authorities set next year’s quota at 5,500 migrants, roughly half of this year’s quota of 10,595. The quota determines the…
Two federal lawmakers have denied ordering the assassination of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov after he declared a “blood feud” against them and a senator amid a dispute over the merger of Russia’s largest online retailer Wildberries. Last week, Kadyrov accused State Duma deputies Bekhan Barakhoyev and Rizvan Kurbanov, as well as influential billionaire and Federation…
A prominent Moscow bar owner’s business partner was arrested as part of an investigation into a car bomb attack that injured the owner and his six-year-old son this week, authorities and Russian media reported early Wednesday. CEO and co-founder of the Shaker Group, Viktor Mishachev, his son and his neighbor were hospitalized after an explosive…
Spanish authorities on Tuesday said they had arrested four people suspected of orchestrating a sanctions-busting commercial network after intercepting 13 tons of chemical products bound for Russia. The investigation began in 2022 after Western countries imposed waves of sanctions on Russia to prevent it from acquiring equipment and technologies for its war with Ukraine. Police…
Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of the late Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, announced the creation of a non-profit foundation aimed at helping Russian independent media, saying that Russian civil society lacks a “transparent and competitive” donor system. Shortly after Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian government introduced draconian wartime censorship…
The Ukrainian government has reiterated it will not renew its gas transit agreement with Russia when it expires in January 2025. The European Union is also preparing for life with even less Russian gas as it seeks to phase out Moscow’s supplies. If this gas route is lost, it may intensify Europe’s battle with Asia…
Moscow said Tuesday that a defense pact it signed with North Korea earlier this year is “unambiguous,” as tensions flared over Pyongyang’s destruction of roads leading to South Korea. North Korea blew up sections of roads and rail lines on its side of the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas on Tuesday, prompting Seoul…
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Tuesday temporarily handing over control of a major canned food maker to the Russian government. In April 2023, Putin authorized the government to seize the Russia-based assets of foreign companies from countries the Kremlin views as “unfriendly,” a move widely seen as retaliation to the West freezing around $300…
Russian authorities will no longer try to prevent the ruble from falling past 100 against the U.S. dollar as they expect the low exchange rate will benefit Russia’s state budget amid plans for more wartime spending, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing two anonymous sources familiar with the situation. Shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s…
The head of Russia’s Olympic Committee announced his resignation on Tuesday, a surprise move that comes as Moscow faces isolation in international sporting organizations over its invasion of Ukraine. Stanislav Pozdnyakov, a five-time Olympic medallist, said in his resignation letter that there were “timely” reasons why Russian sport needed a new leader, but did not…
Russia’s state media regulator Roskomnadzor said the popular video game platform Steam agreed to remove all banned content from its Russian store, state media reported Tuesday. Steam, a game distribution platform owned by the American company Valve, offers a catalog of more than 100,000 games, with 132 million users worldwide. There are an estimated 9.5…
Alexei Moskalev, the father of a Russian girl who drew an anti-war picture at school, was released from prison on Tuesday after serving a sentence under Russia’s wartime censorship laws. In March 2023, Moskalev was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison for repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian military. Moskalev did not attend his…
Russia’s southwestern Kursk region bordering Ukraine has been engulfed in battles with Kyiv’s troops for over two months. Ukraine has claimed over two dozen Kursk region settlements since launching its surprise incursion on Aug. 6, in the most significant cross-border attack on Russian territory since World War II. With most of the territory captured by…
Russia could be in a position to attack NATO by 2030 and is ramping up efforts to disrupt Ukraine’s Western backers through sabotage, German intelligence chiefs warned Monday. Germany is Ukraine’s second-biggest military backer after the United States. “In terms of personnel and material, Russian armed forces are likely to be capable of carrying out…
Russia could be in a position to attack NATO by 2030 and is ramping up efforts to disrupt Ukraine’s Western backers through sabotage, German intelligence chiefs warned Monday. Germany is Ukraine’s second-biggest military backer after the United States. “In terms of personnel and material, Russian armed forces are likely to be capable of carrying out…
A British woman who died after being exposed to the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok was unwittingly caught up in an “illegal and outrageous international assassination attempt,” a public inquiry was told on Monday. Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three children, died in July 2018 after spraying herself with what she thought was perfume from…
A British woman who died after being exposed to the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok was unwittingly caught up in an “illegal and outrageous international assassination attempt,” a public inquiry was told on Monday. Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three children, died in July 2018 after spraying herself with what she thought was perfume from…
A British woman who died after being exposed to the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok was unwittingly caught up in an “illegal and outrageous international assassination attempt,” a public inquiry was told on Monday. Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three children, died in July 2018 after spraying herself with what she thought was perfume from…
Pope Francis’ Ukraine peace envoy met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Monday in what the Vatican said was a follow-up talk about efforts to bring home children forcibly taken to Russia and prisoner exchanges. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi was expected to “assess further efforts to facilitate the reunification of Ukrainian children with…
When Russia added the Jehovah’s Witnesses to the country’s list of “extremist organizations” in April 2017, few could imagine the scale and longevity of repressions that the decision would set into motion. “I could never have imagined that this could directly affect not only me, but anyone in the community,” said Alla, whose husband was…
When Russia added the Jehovah’s Witnesses to the country’s list of “extremist organizations” in April 2017, few could imagine the scale and longevity of repressions that the decision would set into motion. “I could never have imagined that this could directly affect not only me, but anyone in the community,” said Alla, whose husband was…
When Russia added the Jehovah’s Witnesses to the country’s list of “extremist organizations” in April 2017, few could imagine the scale and longevity of repressions that the decision would set into motion. “I could never have imagined that this could directly affect not only me, but anyone in the community,” said Alla, whose husband was…
When Russia added the Jehovah’s Witnesses to the country’s list of “extremist organizations” in April 2017, few could imagine the scale and longevity of repressions that the decision would set into motion. “I could never have imagined that this could directly affect not only me, but anyone in the community,” said Alla, whose husband was…
A Moscow court on Monday sentenced Ukrainian journalist and TV presenter Yanina Sokolova to eight years in prison in absentia for making public calls to kill Russians. In August 2022, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, accused Sokolova of “openly threatening the Russian people, emphasizing the need for their merciless destruction” during a television broadcast.…
A Moscow court on Monday sentenced Ukrainian journalist and TV presenter Yanina Sokolova to eight years in prison in absentia for making public calls to kill Russians. In August 2022, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, accused Sokolova of “openly threatening the Russian people, emphasizing the need for their merciless destruction” during a television broadcast.…
A Moscow court on Monday sentenced Ukrainian journalist and TV presenter Yanina Sokolova to eight years in prison in absentia for making public calls to kill Russians. In August 2022, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, accused Sokolova of “openly threatening the Russian people, emphasizing the need for their merciless destruction” during a television broadcast.…
A Moscow court on Monday sentenced French researcher Laurent Vinatier to three years in prison for breaking Russia’s laws on “foreign agents.” Vinatier, a 48-year-old researcher working for a Swiss conflict mediation NGO, was arrested in Moscow in June and charged with gathering information on Russia’s military without being registered as a “foreign agent,” a crime…
The Kremlin said Monday it “categorically rejects” accusations from authorities in Moldova that it is interfering in the country’s upcoming presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union. “There are still many people in Moldova who support having good relations with our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “These people are being…
The Kremlin said Monday it “categorically rejects” accusations from authorities in Moldova that it is interfering in the country’s upcoming presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union. “There are still many people in Moldova who support having good relations with our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “These people are being…
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in Beijing Monday for talks with his Chinese counterpart, who called for strengthening military cooperation between the two countries. Moscow and Beijing have forged closer ties since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, an alliance that has sparked anxiety in the West as both countries seek to…
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in Beijing Monday for talks with his Chinese counterpart, who called for strengthening military cooperation between the two countries. Moscow and Beijing have forged closer ties since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, an alliance that has sparked anxiety in the West as both countries seek to…