Russia’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft sent hundreds of its employees to fight in Ukraine last summer as the Kremlin struggled to recruit soldiers for its war, according to an investigation by the independent news website IStories. Journalists said that, in the months before President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial” mobilization in September 2022, Transneft was sending and…
Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg has been plagued by snow sculptures of erect penises over the past week, prompting calls among some residents for authorities to crack down on the practice. Local media first spotted a giant snow penis in a public square outside the Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater and the Ural State University on…
The Kremlin on Friday dismissed a new package of U.S. sanctions, saying Russia had learned to “overcome” such economic hurdles since the Ukraine conflict began. Washington on Thursday sanctioned several Russian energy and finance companies as well as individuals and firms in Turkey, China and the United Arab Emirates it said were supporting Russia’s offensive…
Russian left-wing activist and anarchist Lev Skoryakin has been found inside a Moscow detention center weeks after going missing in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, the Memorial human rights group said Friday. Skoryakin was allegedly tortured at Moscow’s Butyrka detention center after being abducted from a Kyrgyz jail on Oct. 17 and flown to Moscow…
A court in St. Petersburg made an unusual move to hold a session inside a strip club as part of litigation over unauthorized renovations. The court described the off-site session at the X.O. Men’s Club as an “official necessity” in a tongue-in-cheek statement released Thursday. Local authorities accuse X.O. Men’s Club of “impacting the apartment building”…
Russia’s Tver region has outlawed the act of “coercing women” into undergoing an abortion, becoming the second such region to do so amid growing concerns about a looming nationwide abortion ban. “Persuading, suggesting, bribing or deceiving” a woman into having an abortion is now punishable by a range of fines, according to the new regional law…
A Moscow court has sentenced exiled Russian-Canadian activist Pyotr Verzilov to more than eight years of prison in absentia for spreading “war fakes,” the Mediazona news website reported Friday. Moscow’s Basmanny District Court found Verzilov, who is currently residing outside Russia, guilty of spreading “deliberately false” information about the Russian Armed Forces. He was handed…
A Russian drone manufacturer announced this week it would open a production line in Uzbekistan, as one local official said Thursday the drones were designed for “agricultural” purposes only. Flyseeagro, a Russian firm which says it makes drones for crop spraying, said this week it had signed an agreement to build drones in Uzbekistan’s Navoi…
The Kremlin has ordered regional officials to file weekly reports on the recruitment of marginalized people in Russia for its war in Ukraine, the investigative news website IStories reported Thursday, citing an official letter it obtained. The letter, which is dated Oct. 3, lists the office of the Presidential Envoy to Russia’s Central Federal District…
Kyiv on Thursday named Swiss food giant Nestle as a “sponsor of war” over the Kit Kat-maker’s continued operations in Russia. Hundreds of Western firms quit the Russian market following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year, and Kyiv has not shied away from publicly criticizing those that have remained. “Despite Russian aggression, Nestle…
An opposition deputy who ran for governor of Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region this fall has been arrested on charges of extortion, which the politician on Thursday dismissed as politically motivated. Investigators accuse Alexander Gliskov of blackmailing a state-owned company executive in 2016-17 in order to receive a large bribe. Krasnoyarsk’s Tsentralny District Court ruled after a…
The United States announced sanctions Thursday on individuals and companies it accused of abetting Russia’s war against Ukraine, targeting entities in Turkey, China and the United Arab Emirates in a bid to disrupt Moscow’s supply chains. This comes as Russia has offshored the production of technology, equipment and other goods it needs for its military,…
Russia said Thursday it had intercepted nine Ukrainian drones near the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, where the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is located. The plant, which was captured by Russian forces in March 2022, has been rocked by repeated drone attacks and shelling that Kyiv and Moscow have blamed on each other. “At around 12:30…
The leader of Russia’s Jewish communities has condemned what he called the “propaganda of hate” after anti-Israeli riots rocked the country’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar linked Sunday’s violence at Makhachkala International Airport to previous anti-Semitic attacks in Russia’s Muslim-majority regions that took place in the weeks since Israel launched a…
Anti-war activist and punk musician Ayhal Ammosov has been granted asylum seeker status by Kazakh authorities, his lawyer said on social media Wednesday, just weeks after his arrest in Kazakhstan. Ammosov, a Russian national hailing from the republic of Sakha (Yakutia), was ordered to 40 days of arrest by an Almaty-based court on Oct. 9 in connection with…
Israel has no right to self-defense against Hamas militants in Gaza as an occupying power in Palestine, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday. Vasily Nebenzya used his speech at the special UN General Assembly session on Palestine to condemn Western “hypocrisy” over Palestinian civilian deaths amid their criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.…
Ukraine said Thursday that Russian assaults on the nearly encircled eastern town of Avdiivka had eased as the Kremlin rejected Kyiv’s assessment that the 20-month conflict was deadlocked. Avdiivka, an industrial hub at the center of fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces since 2014, came under a renewed Russian effort last month to besiege the…
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed into law Russia’s de-ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), a landmark agreement that aims to completely ban all nuclear tests. The law’s text on Russia’s legal portal states that Moscow will no longer be bound by the UN-backed nuclear test ban starting Nov. 2. Both Russia and the…
Russian billionaire Alexei Kuzmichev, an associate of Vladimir Putin targeted by EU sanctions, was charged with tax fraud in France on Wednesday, the country’s financial prosecutor said. Kuzmichev was “placed under judicial supervision” and banned from leaving the country, according to the French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF). He also faces charges of concealing work…
U.S. prosecutors charged two Russian nationals and a Russian-American Wednesday over an alleged plan to evade export controls to help Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, a day after three others were charged in a similar scheme. Nikolay Grigorev, Nikita Arkhipov and Artem Oloviannikov were charged by federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York…
Russia said Wednesday it had sentenced three more Ukrainian soldiers who fought in the city of Mariupol to jail, as it continued to put soldiers held in captivity on trial. Around 2,500 people were taken into Russian captivity after the fall of Mariupol last May, some of whom were sent to Russia or occupied east…
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has resumed recruiting fighters in at least two regions months after the death of its founder and longtime leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, local media have reported. Wagner halted recruitment in the chaotic months following Prigozhin’s late-June mutiny against Russia’s military leadership. In August, Prigozhin and his close associates were killed in a…
Bulgaria on Wednesday said it had expelled the correspondent of the Russian state-owned newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, weeks after sending home the head of the local Russian Orthodox Church. Journalist Aleksander Gatsak had been found to be performing “activity that poses a threat to Bulgaria’s national security,” Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security said in a…
One of Russia’s youngest lawmakers and a fugitive deputy sentenced in absentia on bribery charges have been kicked out of Russia’s lower-house State Duma. Vasily Vlasov, 28, and Vadim Belousov, 63, were formally dismissed for skipping committee meetings for more than a month, Russia’s lower house of parliament said in a statement on Wednesday. Vlasov…
When Fatima Abdulkarim arrived in her native republic of Dagestan early on Sunday, she had hoped to take care of business matters, visit family and — not least importantly — obtain a permit to hold a rally in support of Palestine in the region’s capital Makhachkala. “We applied for a protest permit to ensure that…
Members of the feminist activist group Pussy Riot on Wednesday released their latest anti-war music video “Swan Lake,” where they decry the effects of Kremlin propaganda and call for the return of Ukrainian children forcibly transferred to Russia since the start of the war. “Children are the most vulnerable in this war. Children should not suffer,” the group said…
Russian courts have sentenced 15 anti-Israeli rioters who stormed an airport in the North Caucaus republic of Dagestan to short terms in prison. Hundreds of protesters overran Dagestan’s Makhachkala International Airport on Sunday, charging onto the tarmac and jumping onto an airplane as they searched for Israelis rumored to have arrived on a flight from Tel…
A volcano in Far East Russia’s Kamchatka region has begun spewing large amounts of ash and lava, destroying roadways and forcing schools and kindergartens in surrounding areas to close, Russian media reported Wednesday. The Klyuchevskaya volcano, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, began erupting in late June, although experts said at the time that it…
The elderly father of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s top aide Ivan Zhdanov has been released from prison, he said Wednesday, after serving what his son called a political sentence. Yury Zhdanov, 69, the father of lawyer Ivan Zhdanov, wrote on Instagram that he was released from a prison colony in northwestern Russia’s Arkhangelsk region. “I’ve had…
North Korea has sent Russia over one million artillery shells to use in its war against Ukraine, with Pyongyang appearing to receive advice on the development of satellite technology in return, a South Korean lawmaker said Wednesday, citing information provided by Seoul’s spy agency. Russia and North Korea are both heavily sanctioned by Western nations —…
A “large number” of aerial weapons targeted annexed Crimea on Wednesday, Russian-installed authorities said. “The military is working to destroy a large number of various air targets in different areas throughout the peninsula,” Mikhail Razvozhayev, governor of the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, said on the Telegram messaging app. He did not specify what types of…
President Vladimir Putin has replaced the governor of northwestern Russia’s Vologda region in what observers see as the start of annual cadre changes ahead of key elections. Late Tuesday, Putin signed an executive order “accepting the voluntary resignation” of Governor Oleg Kuvshinnikov and appointing Georgy Filimonov as Vologda’s Acting Governor until the next regional elections, which…
Ukraine said on Wednesday that Russia had shelled more than 100 settlements over the last 24 hours — more than in any single day so far this year. Moscow has fired millions of artillery shells on Ukrainian cities, towns and villages along the frontlines since it launched its offensive last February, reducing several across the…
Three Russian nationals were arrested Tuesday in New York for evading U.S. sanctions on the shipping of dual-use electronic components to Russia. Nikolay Golstev, 37, and his wife, Kristina Puzyreva, 32 — both Russian-Canadian citizens — were arrested along with their alleged partner Salimdzhon Nariddinov, 52, who has Russian-Tajik citizenship. The trio is accused of evading sanctions…
A Russian court on Tuesday denied an appeal by Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva against her pre-trial detention on charges of failing to register as a “foreign agent.” Kurmasheva is the second U.S. journalist to be arrested in Russia this year after Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained in March for “spying” — a charge that…
A court in the Netherlands has sentenced a dual Russian-Dutch citizen to 18 months in jail for violating EU sanctions by selling computer chips to companies linked to Russia’s defense sector. The Rotterdam District Court said Tuesday that the unidentified businessman exported dual-use electronic goods to companies “closely related to” Russia’s arms and defense industry.…
Moscow has introduced strict new currency controls for foreign companies selling off their Russia-based assets as it attempts to shore up a weakening ruble, the Financial Times reported Tuesday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. The new restrictions add to existing rules requiring foreign companies that seek to leave the country to sell their Russian…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday it had detained a man allegedly involved in the attempted murder of Oleg Tsaryov, a former Ukrainian lawmaker who was once purportedly slated to lead a pro-Russian puppet government in Kyiv. Tsaryov’s associates said Friday that he was shot and badly wounded at his home in annexed Crimea, while…
An explosion on Tuesday occurred at one of Russia’s largest ammunition manufacturing plants, emergency officials said. Authorities in central Russia’s Perm region, located some 1,000 kilometers east of Moscow, said a “bang” was heard at the Solikamsk Plant Ural early afternoon on Tuesday. “Windows and doors were broken [but] there are no victims, there is…
Russian authorities will spend the earnings from the sale of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s apartment in annexed Crimea on Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, a Russian-installed official said Tuesday. Crimea’s Kremlin-backed government auctioned off Zelensky’s confiscated apartment for 44.3 million rubles ($481,500) on Monday, with its buyer identified as Moscow resident Olga Lipovetskaya. “We unequivocally determined that the…
French police have arrested Russian billionaire Alexei Kuzmichev, one of the co-founders of the Alfa Group who is targeted by EU sanctions, on suspicion of tax fraud and violating sanctions, sources close to the case said. Kuzmichev was apprehended in the Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez, a source who asked not to remain anonymous, told AFP…
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has issued shoot-to-kill orders against protesters to prevent unrest similar to Sunday night’s anti-Israeli riot in neighboring Dagestan, state media reported Tuesday. The RIA Novosti news agency said Kadyrov had instructed Interior Ministry and National Guard forces to detain anyone who takes to the streets in the Muslim-majority republic of Chechnya…
The Kremlin has reduced the mandatory quarantine period to meet President Vladimir Putin to five days as the 2024 presidential election, in which he is widely expected to run for a fifth term, draws nearer. At the same time, personal meetings with Putin now hold greater significance for members of the establishment than ever amid…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday accused Ukraine and the West of instigating the anti-Israel riot at Dagestan’s Makhachkala airport Sunday evening, an accusation that Washington has called absurd. Security forces have detained over 80 people since the incident, which saw rioters in the Muslim-majority region take over the runway in an attempt to encircle…
An anti-Israeli mob stormed Makhachkala International Airport in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Sunday evening, searching for Jews and Israelis rumored to have arrived on a flight from Tel Aviv. To some observers, the scenes harkened back to the pogroms of the 19th and early 20th centuries, during which Jews in the Russian Empire…
The anti-Israeli riot in Russia’s republic of Dagestan has exposed the Kremlin’s failure to maintain stability as it has exerted total control over the country, three Russian officials, a former Kremlin official and independent experts told The Moscow Times. Dagestan, a majority Muslim region and political stronghold for the Kremlin in the North Caucasus, was…
Russia’s senior rabbi has called on authorities to “severely punish” anti-Israeli rioters who stormed an airport in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Sunday as they searched for rumored Jewish passengers on a flight from Tel Aviv. Alexander Boroda, president of Russia’s Federation of Jewish Communities, said the Sunday evening violence laid bare the extent to…
President Vladimir Putin has replaced the commander of Russia’s Dnipro grouping of forces in southern Ukraine, the state-run news agency TASS reported Monday, citing an anonymous source. Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky, who served as the head of the Russian Airborne forces, was reportedly named commander of the Russian Army in southern Ukraine’s partially occupied Kherson region.…
France is seeking the deportation of 39 Russian nationals suspected of holding “radical” Islamist views, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said Monday. Russian citizens are under “the strictest control” following a deadly Oct. 13 school stabbing in northern France that authorities have described as an Islamist terrorist attack, Darmanin told France’s RMC radio. Shortly after…
Moscow’s Orthodox spiritual leader, Patriarch Kirill, on Monday condemned an anti-Israel riot at an airport in the Muslim-majority region of Dagestan as a bid to “sow discord” between Russia’s Jews and Muslims. The powerful religious leader spoke a day after a violent mob descended onto Makhachkala airport looking for Jews after a flight from Israel…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and other Russian political prisoners, including journalist and activist Vladimir Kara-Murza as well as opposition politician Ilya Yashin, staged a one-day hunger strike on Monday in a show of solidarity with political prisoners worldwide. Dating back to the Soviet period, “Political Prisoner Day” used to take place each year on Oct. 30,…
Police in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan have carried out a search at the home of a journalist known for his regular protests against political repression, local media reported Monday, citing his relatives. Authorities raided the home of Idris Yusupov in the regional capital of Makhachkala early Monday morning, according to the news outlet…
Ukraine said it had struck part of Russia’s air defense system in annexed Crimea overnight, as Moscow said it repelled a major attempted missile strike on the peninsula on Monday. Kyiv has increased attacks on the Black Sea peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, since it launched a counteroffensive against Russian forces earlier this year.…
Updated with Peskov’s remarks. At least 60 people were arrested after an anti-Israeli mob stormed an airport in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Sunday night, Russia’s Interior Ministry has said. “More than 150 active participants of the riots have been identified, 60 of them have been detained and taken in for further investigation,” law enforcement…
A mob of anti-Israeli protesters stormed an airport in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Sunday night following calls on social media to block a flight from Tel Aviv from landing in the majority-Muslim region. Video shared on social media showed hundreds of people gathered outside Makhachkala International Airport in the evening, with demonstrators brandishing Palestinian…
Russian forces shot down 36 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula overnight, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said Sunday. “On the night of October 29, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using air-type drones against facilities on the territory of the Russian Federation was stopped,” the ministry…
Russians commemorated the victims of Stalinist terror on Sunday, more than 20 months into Moscow’s Ukraine offensive that has been accompanied at home by a major crackdown on dissent. The Kremlin has doubled down on its version of history as troops fight in Ukraine, which often glosses over Stalinist crimes, with public commemoration of Soviet-era…
Hamas is trying to locate eight Russian-Israeli dual citizens among nearly 230 taken hostage during the Palestinian militants’ attack on Israel after Moscow’s request to free them, Russian news agencies reported Saturday. Russia has good relations with Hamas, which it does not consider a terror group, and has launched a diplomatic effort to try to…
Hamas is trying to locate eight Russian-Israeli dual citizens among nearly 230 taken hostage during its attack on Israel after Moscow’s request to free them, Russian news agencies reported Saturday. Russia has good relations with the Palestinian militant group, which it does not consider a terror group, and has launched a diplomatic effort to try…
To his critics, Maxim Katz’s ideas for uniting Russia’s anti-Kremlin opposition are as realistic as a unicorn. Katz proposed last month what he calls “a concrete plan” to ensure that Putin is removed from power and asked opposition figures, including allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, to unite behind it. “The Russian opposition should…