There’s nothing like a good history lesson. Unless, that is, President Vladimir Putin is the person giving the lesson, and he’s using it to justify why he launched a war against Ukraine. But Putin, eager as always to don his historian cap and Kremlinsplain away the invasion, gave U.S. conservative pundit Tucker Carlson the kind…
When Tucker Carlson announced his interview with Vladimir Putin claiming that “no Western journalist had bothered” to interview the Russian president, he was immediately corrected by not only other journalists but the Kremlin itself. And when the interview was finally released, Putin spent the first 30 minutes explaining his false assertion that Russia has a…
Yekaterina Mizulina, the leader of Russia’s crackdown on anti-war artists and content creators, has been confronted by university students in the republic of Tatarstan, media outlets reported Friday, in a rare example of public backlash to her work. Videos of heated debates between Mizulina, who heads the Kremlin-aligned Safe Internet League, and Kazan Federal University (KFU) students…
Russia’s state financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring has added jailed leftist activist Sergei Udaltsov to its list of “extremists and terrorists.” Udaltsov was placed in pre-trial detention last month on accusations of justifying terrorism in social media posts. He faces up to seven years in prison if found guilty. Being added to Russia’s registry of “extremists and…
Moscow on Friday refused to say whether a convicted hitman who killed a former Chechen fighter in Berlin four years ago was a Russian agent after President Vladimir Putin hinted that he wanted him freed in a three-way prisoner exchange. In an interview with conservative pundit Tucker Carlson published Thursday, Putin brought up the case…
A group of Russian tourists arrived in Pyongyang on Friday, AFP photos and video showed, the first known foreign tour group to visit nuclear-armed North Korea since before pandemic-linked border closures. Their arrival comes as Moscow and Pyongyang bolster ties, with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un making a rare overseas trip to meet President…
Russian investigators said Friday they have detained a blogger on charges of “rehabilitating Nazism” after she posted an Instagram video in which she pretends to tickle a World War II monument. Investigators initially opened a criminal case against 23-year-old Alyona Agafonova in July, accusing her of “cynical and immoral acts” toward the Motherland Calls monument…
The Kremlin said Friday that Ukraine’s appointment of a new Commander-in-Chief would not lead to any changes in the nearly two-year war between Moscow and Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday relieved his top commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi, marking the biggest shake-up of the country’s military leadership since the start of the conflict. “We don’t…
Ukrainian prisoners of war were not on board the Russian Il-76 transport plane that crashed near the border with Ukraine last month, a senior Ukrainian national security official said Friday. Moscow claims 65 Ukrainian servicemen en route for a scheduled prisoner exchange were killed in the air disaster in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region on Jan.…
Russia shot down 19 Ukrainian drones over four different regions and the Black Sea overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday. “An attempt by the Kyiv regime to commit a terrorist attack with 19 aerial drones against sites on Russian territory has been thwarted,” the ministry said in a statement. It said air defense systems…
President Vladimir Putin said in an interview released Thursday with controversial right-wing U.S. journalist Tucker Carlson that the West should understand it is “impossible” to defeat Russia in Ukraine. In a two-hour interview with the former Fox News host — coming just ahead of the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — Putin also…
Ukraine and Russia on Thursday said they swapped 100 prisoners of war each, the latest exchange between the warring sides since Moscow accused Kyiv of downing a plane carrying captured Ukrainian soldiers. Moscow and Kyiv have both vowed to keep exchanging prisoners as Russia’s war against Ukraine drags quickly approaches its second anniversary. “Another 100…
Ukraine’s top commander Valery Zaluzhny was on Thursday removed from his post, in the biggest shake-up of Kyiv’s military leadership since Russia’s invasion began almost two years ago. The popular general had led the Ukrainian army since the start of the war, pushing back a vastly more powerful invading force in the first months of…
At least six civilians in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region have been wounded in Ukrainian shelling, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Thursday. A man received shrapnel wounds when a “kamikaze” drone attacked a bus in the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, less than 5 kilometers from Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Gladkov wrote on the messaging app Telegram. He later…
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin accused the United States of “interfering” in their countries’ domestic affairs during a telephone call on Thursday, the Kremlin said. Xi and Putin denounced the “U.S. policy of interfering in the internal affairs of other states” during an hour-long call. “The leaders of the two…
Finland has extended the closure of its border with Russia until April 14, as a recent surge of asylum seekers it accuses Moscow of orchestrating shows no sign of abating, the Nordic country’s Interior Ministry announced Thursday. Finland has not reopened its eastern border with Russia since closing it in December over what it called…
Kazakh-born businessman Vasily Anisimov is at least the seventh billionaire to renounce his Russian citizenship after the invasion of Ukraine, Forbes Russia reported Thursday, citing documents provided by the exiled oligarch. Anisimov, the former owner of the license for the “Putinka” vodka brand and the real estate holding Coalco, is reportedly listed as a citizen…
Large numbers of Russian troops are pushing to capture the frontline town of Avdiivka, its Ukrainian mayor said Thursday, escalating a months-long effort to capture the industrial hub. Late last year, Moscow launched a costly bid to seize the town, which has been caught up in fighting since 2014 when it briefly fell to Moscow-backed…
Russian election authorities on Thursday disqualified pro-peace presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin from the March election over alleged errors in his endorsement signatures. The veteran politician’s campaign has presented a rare challenge to a tightly controlled election in which President Vladimir Putin is likely to win a fifth term, with thousands of Russians lining up to…
A powerful explosion rocked the suburbs of the city of Izhevsk in central Russia on Wednesday night, with state-run media reporting that the blast occurred at a machine and missile production facility. Videos shared on social media showed a large fireball lighting up the night sky over the testing grounds of the Votkinsk Machine Building…
Amid the plains of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan lies Novaya Urada, a village of 1,000 residents. This community, some 30 kilometers northwest of the regional capital Makhachkala, has deep roots in livestock farming and each year draws tourists hoping to photograph a vibrant poppy field nearby. Yet Novaya Urada was thrown into upheaval…
A St. Petersburg military court on Wednesday sentenced a university student to nine years in prison for making public calls to join the Ukrainian army and for his native republic of Karelia to secede from Russia. Andrei Vasyurenko, 19, was detained in March on charges of “planning to commit high treason by defecting to the enemy’s side,”…
The Kremlin-appointed head of the republic of Bashkortostan slammed a proposal to honor the memory of a local man who died in police custody after being arrested last month during mass protests. Prominent Bashkir dancer Rif Gabitov asked to hold a moment of silence for the deceased Rifat Dautov at a meeting on Tuesday with Bashkortostan head Radiy…
RN-Nyaganneftegaz, an enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company’s oil and gas production complex, invested more than 585 million rubles in environment-oriented and restoration measures over 2023.
Prosecutors in Far East Russia’s Khabarovsk region are seeking to ban the so-called “Ya/My Furgal movement,” according to a statement published on the Russian Justice Ministry’s website. The phrase “Ya/My Furgal” (Russian for “I’m/We’re Furgal”) has been used by supporters of jailed ex-Khabarovsk region Governor Sergei Furgal since his detention in 2020, which sparked some of…
Russia’s human rights body has concluded that the son of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov did not commit a crime when he was filmed assaulting a teenager who was detained for burning a Quran, online media reported Wednesday. Adam Kadyrov, 16, was filmed in September kicking and punching Nikita Zhuravel, 19, who was arrested last year in…
Swedish prosecutors said Wednesday that they will drop their investigation into the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, citing a lack of jurisdiction. Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said he would “hand over material that can be used as evidence in the [ongoing] German investigation” into the pipelines’ destruction. The Swedish Prosecution Authority…
A key Chinese bank used by Russian importers has stopped all settlements with Russia, setting the stage for a “logistics collapse” in the coming weeks, the business daily Vedomosti reported Wednesday, citing anonymous businesspeople and financial consultants familiar with the matter. Chouzhou Commercial Bank, which became the main transaction channel for Russian importers after the…
Russia fired dozens of missiles and drones at Ukraine on Wednesday in a “massive” early morning attack that killed at least five people and injured more than 30, officials in Kyiv said. The wave of strikes came as the EU’s top diplomat was in the Ukrainian capital and with Kyiv calling on its Western allies to…
Former Fox News star Tucker Carlson confirmed Tuesday that he has traveled to Moscow to interview President Vladimir Putin, putting an end to speculation surrounding the purpose of his visit to Russia and whether he intended to ultimately meet with the Russian leader. “We’re here to interview the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. We’ll be…
Norway has rejected an asylum application from a man claiming to have deserted Russian mercenary group Wagner and fled to the country, his lawyer told a Norwegian newspaper on Tuesday. Andrei Medvedev, 27, alleges he fought in Ukraine as a member of Wagner for four months before deserting. He sought asylum after fleeing to Norway…
The recent arrests of two Russian volunteers helping Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war and living under occupation have thrown the future of this aid into uncertainty, activists and observers told The Moscow Times. Nadezhda Rossinskaya, also known as Nadin Geisler, was arrested on Feb. 1 upon returning to the Belgorod region and charged with “publicly…
Allies Russia and Belarus are working to create a shared database of “extremists,” the Belarusian ambassador in Moscow said Tuesday. Ambassador Dmitry Krutoy said it was “perplexing” that some websites blacklisted in Russia remained accessible in Belarus and vice versa. “Let’s say these entities or people flee to Russia and face no criminal proceedings there,” Krutoy told…
The mayor of the industrial city of Nizhny Tagil has accused Ukrainian special services of stoking social tensions by drawing attention to the recent assault of a secondary school student, local media reported Tuesday. Last month, local law enforcement officials launched a criminal case into the assault of an 11-year-old girl outside of her school, which…
Some parts of the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka are in a “critical” condition as they fight off Russian shelling and incursions, a local official said on Tuesday. Russia launched a renewed push to capture Avdiivka in October, with troops on three sides of the town pounding it with relentless artillery strikes in a bid…
Russia has released $9 million in frozen North Korean assets after the isolated country provided Moscow with arms for its war against Ukraine, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing anonymous Western intelligence officials. Pyongyang is under a range of UN and U.S. sanctions over banned nuclear weapons tests, and the arrangement appears to meet…
Rosneft’s Samara group of refineries won again the All-Russian Environmental Contest «Leader of Environmental Protection Activities in Russia».
President Vladimir Putin’s administration is seeking to use former Fox News star Tucker Carlson’s visit to Moscow as a propaganda coup both in Russia and the United States, four sources close to the Kremlin have told The Moscow Times on condition of anonymity. “Tucker has been expected here for a long time. He is welcome…
Authorities do not yet have plans to block VPN services in Russia, the Kremlin said Tuesday, a day after the head of the Kremlin-aligned Safe Internet League floated the possibility of such a move. Yekaterina Mizulina claimed Monday that the Russian government will “most likely” block VPNs by March 1, though she did not say where she…
Ukraine on Tuesday said it had arrested five former and current intelligence officers it said were secretly working for Russia as part of an influential spy ring. Kyiv said the men were caught passing information to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) about Ukrainian military sites, its defensive fortifications, personal data and strategic energy facilities. “The…
Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) on Tuesday agreed to give pro-peace presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin an extra day to resolve thousands of errors in endorsement signatures before it decides whether to officially register him as a candidate in the March presidential election. Just hours earlier, Nadezhdin said he had asked the CEC to give him…
Russia is suspending imports of bananas and flowers from Ecuador, weeks after Quito agreed to a U.S. weapons deal that will result in Ukraine receiving Soviet-era military equipment from the South American country. The Russian agriculture watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor, said in a statement that authorizations for five Ecuadoran exporters were suspended from Tuesday due to the…
President Vladimir Putin’s annual address to the Russian parliament will coincide with the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, the business daily Kommersant reported Tuesday, citing four anonymous Kremlin sources. Putin could give his State of the Nation speech to both houses of parliament sometime after Feb. 23 or before March 8, according to…
A two-month-old baby was killed and three others were injured Tuesday in a Russian strike on northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, officials said. “Around 2:30 am, a three-story hotel was destroyed in Zolochiv… following two S-300 missile strikes,” Kharkiv region Governor Oleg Sinegubov said, adding that the child’s mother was among the injured and was hospitalized. …
Bulgaria on Monday arrested an employee of the interior ministry unit for fighting organized crime on suspicion of spying for Russia, the ministry’s chief of staff said. Public media reported that the Directorate General for Combatting Organized Crime (GDBOP) officer was suspected of providing classified information to a former employee of the Russian Embassy in…
Russia’s state financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring has added several U.S. journalists, as well as the former spokesperson for Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, to its list of “extremists and terrorists.” Ashton-Cirillo, a trans woman, responded to Rosfinmonitoring’s designation on X (formerly Twitter) by saying “I know the FSB and Kremlin were thinking about it.” Being…
A Russian court has fined photographer Inna Mosina for posting a rainbow flag on social media, the independent news website Mediazona reported Monday. Mosina was the first person charged with displaying “extremist” symbols after Russia banned the so-called “international LGBT public movement” in November. Mosina faced up to 15 days in prison and a fine…
Russian authorities will “most likely” start blocking major VPN services in March, the head of the Kremlin-aligned Safe Internet League said Monday. Downloads of VPNs, which help users access blocked websites, surged in Russia after authorities started blocking Western social media platforms and scores of Russian independent news outlets amid the invasion of Ukraine. “VPNs, especially…
The Ufaorgsintez petrochemical plant (part of Rosneft) started production of a high-octane component for motor gasoline as part of an operational efficiency improvement programme.
The world’s largest wild reindeer population could disappear in the next few years if the Russian government does not crack down on overhunting, according to a new study published by a group of researchers at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Over the past 20 years, the size of Siberia’s Taymyr reindeer population has seen a fourfold decrease,…
Georgian security officials said Monday that they intercepted several explosives claimed to be from Ukraine and intended to be transported to the southwestern Russian city of Voronezh. Georgia’s State Security Service (SSG) said the explosive devices, which were allegedly sent from the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, arrived by minivan at the Georgian-Turkish border crossing on Jan. 19…
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been filmed visiting Moscow in recent days as rumors swirl over whether he plans to interview President Vladimir Putin. Photographs of the conservative media personality in the Russian capital first emerged over the weekend when he was seen attending a concert at the Bolshoi Theater. A reporter from…
A Ukrainian strike on a bakery in the occupied eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk over the weekend killed three officials, Russian-installed representatives said Monday. The Kremlin has blasted the attack that killed at least 28 people as a “monstrous terrorist act.” On Monday, authorities in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region said a local government minister and…
Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has found flaws in more than 15% of the signatures of endorsement collected by pro-peace presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin, his campaign team said Monday. Nadezhdin, who has emerged as the leading pro-peace voice ahead of the March presidential election, submitted some 105,000 signatures to CEC for review last week. But…
Tech giant Yandex announced Monday it has agreed to sell its Russian assets to a consortium of Russian investors for 475 billion rubles ($5.2 billion). The deal marks an end to more than two decades of Western investment in Yandex, which for years was seen as the crown jewel of Russia’s fast-growing tech industry and…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said he visited troops at the southern frontline village Robotyne, which Kyiv retook from Russian forces last summer but is again under heavy attack. Kyiv recaptured the small village in the southern Zaporizhzhia region in August last year in what it hailed as a major success in the counteroffensive…
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko visited South Korea to discuss the Ukrainian war and bilateral ties, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Sunday, as the two countries trade increasingly heated rhetoric over the nuclear-armed North. Rudenko, Russia’s deputy foreign minister handling Asia-Pacific affairs, met his South Korean counterpart Chung Byung-won on Friday, Seoul’s foreign ministry said…
Russia said Sunday the death toll from a Ukrainian strike on a bakery in the occupied eastern city of Lysychansk climbed to 28 people, including a child. The strike hit almost two years into Russia’s grinding offensive in Ukraine, where the front has barely moved in months but attacks have intensified this winter. Moscow’s occupation…
Ukrainian shelling on the eastern occupied city of Lysychansk killed at least 20 people, Russia said Saturday, with at least 10 others wounded and rescue operations ongoing. Moscow’s occupation forces said Kyiv had targeted a bakery that is popular on weekends. The attack hit almost two years into Russia’s Ukraine offensive. Lysychansk, a city in…
Russian police on Saturday detained a group of around 20 journalists, including an AFP reporter, covering a central Moscow protest by the wives of men mobilized to fight in Ukraine. A detained AFP video journalist said the Russian and foreign reporters were being transported in a van to a police station. The group of all…