Natural gas prices in Europe hit their highest level of the year this week after Ukrainian forces took control of the last remaining transit hub for Russian gas into Europe. Prices rose for at least three consecutive days, surpassing 40 euros ($43.71) per megawatt-hour for the first time since Dec. 4, 2023, according to Dutch…
Despite the EU’s partial embargo on Russian oil and some European countries’ ban on Russian gas purchases, the Kremlin’s fossil fuel revenues show resilience, prompting further soul-searching among Ukraine’s allies on the future course of action. Russia weathers the sanctions storm Over two years into the invasion of Ukraine, sanctioning Russia’s energy sector — the…
Russian pro-war military bloggers are criticizing Russia’s military leadership after a video circulating online appeared to show a Russian military convoy destroyed by Ukrainian shelling in the Kursk region. The footage shows damaged military trucks with what appear to be the burned bodies of Russian military personnel who were reportedly sent to the Kursk region as reinforcements…
The Russian military deployed additional forces to fight invading Ukrainian troops in the southwestern Kursk region, Defense Ministry-affiliated media reported Friday. The Zvezda broadcaster shared videos of several army trucks and other military vehicles on a highway crossing into the Kursk region. “The marching columns include [BM-21] Grad multiple rocket launcher combat vehicles, tanks transported…
Western-sanctioned Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska repeated his calls for a Russian-Ukrainian ceasefire and slammed Moscow’s war spending in an interview with Japanese media published Thursday. “If you want to stop the war, first you need to stop the fire,” Deripaska told Japan’s The Nikkei daily, calling for an “immediate, unconditional ceasefire.” The publication said Deripaska criticized…
Drying blood was smeared across a billboard advertising electronics and black smoke billowed over the tangled metal remains of a supermarket after a Russian strike tore into Kostyantynivka in east Ukraine. Anya Alyabieva was dozing off in her shop that sells hardware and military accessories when the blast jolted her from her stupor and sent panic…
This article was first published by Politika.Kozlov. Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk and Lipetsk border regions has stunned the Russian military and come as a “slap in the face” to President Vladimir Putin personally, four Russian officials told Politika.Kozlov. The ongoing offensive, which Russia has failed to repel for three days, has exposed Russia’s territorial…
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry on Friday initiated a federal-level emergency response in the southwestern Kursk region as clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces continued for a fourth day following Kyiv’s surprise incursion earlier this week. The Russian government classifies a federal emergency as a man-made or natural disaster resulting in more than 500 casualties or…
One person was killed and two others were injured in a Ukrainian attack on southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region, local authorities said Friday. The man died in the border town of Shebekino, which authorities said has repeatedly come under shelling and drone attacks over the past 24 hours. “A man died in an ambulance while on…
Ukraine’s military said early Friday that it hit a Russian airfield in the Lipetsk region in an overnight strike that destroyed ammunition warehouses. “Last night, the Ukrainian Defence Forces attacked the Lipetsk airfield,” Ukraine’s General Staff said, adding that they struck “warehouses with guided aerial bombs and a number of other facilities.” The overnight attack…
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law expanding legislation on “undesirable” organizations to include state-sponsored entities in addition to non-governmental organizations. Since introducing their “undesirable” list in 2015 to crack down on foreign-funded NGOs, Russian authorities have expanded the law to target independent news outlets, human rights groups, environmental organizations and educational institutions. Under the…
Users across Russia reported widespread outages of YouTube on Thursday, just weeks after Russian authorities criticized the video streaming platform for what they described as anti-Kremlin actions. The online monitoring service Sboi.rf reported receiving around 12,000 complaints about YouTube within a 10-minute period. Downdetector, another outage tracking service, reported that three-quarters of the complaints it…
Poland arrested a former ally of the late Russian dissenter Alexei Navalny and exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky on charges of threatening public safety, Polish media reported Wednesday, citing local authorities. Igor Rogov was detained on July 29 in the southern Polish city of Katowice where he was studying on a scholarship, reported Vot Tak, a…
A Message from The Moscow Times: Dear readers, We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has designated The Moscow Times as an “undesirable” organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a “foreign agent.” These actions are direct attempts to silence independent…
At least five Western insurers continue to provide coverage to tankers carrying Russian crude oil despite concerns they may be violating G7 price caps, Reuters reported Thursday, citing data from traders and shippers. The G7 group of industrialized countries and their allies introduced a $60 per barrel price cap on seaborne Russian oil in December 2022…
A prominent war correspondent for Russian state television was seriously injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in the southwestern Kursk region, his employer said late Wednesday. Rossiya-24 correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny was hospitalized after a drone struck the vehicle he was riding in during a reporting assignment on Ukraine’s surprise incursion into the Kursk region, which…
The White House said Wednesday it was contacting key U.S. ally Ukraine to learn more about the “objectives” of Kyiv’s most serious cross-border incursion into Russian territory in months. “We’re going to reach out to the Ukrainian military to learn more about their objectives,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters when asked about…
Russian customs authorities seized Time correspondent Simon Shuster’s bestselling biography of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at an airport in Moscow, state media reported Wednesday. Expertise carried out at Sheremetyevo International Airport determined that Shuster’s “The Showman” is banned from crossing the customs border of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, according to the RIA Novosti news…
A dual U.S.-Russian citizen standing trial for having donated money to a Ukrainian charity pleaded guilty to treason charges, her lawyer told state media on Wednesday. Ksenia Karelina was arrested in January while visiting her family in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. She faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of…
President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Ukraine was carrying out “indiscriminate” attacks on civilians during cross-border incursions into southwestern Russia’s Kursk region that triggered a regionwide state of emergency. “The Kyiv regime has launched another large-scale provocation, firing indiscriminately with various types of weapons, including rockets, at civilian buildings, houses and ambulances,” Putin told government…
Residents of Russia’s Kursk region bordering Ukraine are appealing to authorities for help with evacuating and accusing them of taking insufficient action as an apparent attack by Kyiv’s forces continued for a second day. While armed militants from Ukraine have conducted multiple incursions into Russia’s border regions since last year in retaliation to Moscow’s full-scale invasion…
The video streaming platform of the Russian social media company VK has seen a surge in downloads over the past week as playback speeds on YouTube plummet in an apparent attempt by the authorities to “throttle” the website. “VK Video app downloads rose 4.5 times in the first week of August compared to July’s monthly average,…
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday denied reports that Ukrainian forces made significant advances into the southwestern Kursk region amid ongoing clashes along the border. “Air strikes, missile forces, artillery fire and a swift response by units defending the state border in the Kursk region prevented the enemy from advancing deep into the territory of the…
A Russian military blogger who criticized Moscow’s conduct in the Ukraine war was sentenced to six and a half years in jail for spreading “fakes” about the army, the Moscow court system’s press service said Wednesday. Andrei Kurshin, a former soldier, accused Russia of cutting off water access to civilians near the Ukrainian city of…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman on Wednesday accused Ukraine of opening a “second front” in Africa after Mali and Niger broke off diplomatic relations with Kyiv. “Unable to defeat Russia on the battlefield, the criminal regime of Volodymyr Zelensky has opened a second front in Africa,” spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the RIA Novosti news agency. Zakharova…
Russia’s two-way trade with China rose to $136.67 billion between January and July, a 1.6% increase compared to last year, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday. China has emerged as a major economic lifeline for Russia since the West slapped sanctions on Moscow in response to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Trade…
Ukraine lobbed missiles and drones at southwestern Russia’s Kursk region overnight, the local governor said Wednesday, a day after pro-Kyiv forces stormed across the border with tanks and armored vehicles. “Two Ukrainian missiles were shot down by air defense systems in the Kursk region,” acting governor Alexei Smirnov wrote on Telegram, adding that three drones…
A former Russian military official responsible for overseeing clothing supplies was arrested on bribery charges, law enforcement authorities announced Tuesday. Vladimir Demchik, who holds the rank of colonel in Russia’s reserve forces, oversaw the defense ministry’s clothing department until April 2018. Investigators accuse Demchik of accepting 4 million rubles ($46,700) in bribes from the CEO…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday afternoon that was rushing reserve troops and aviation units into the southwestern Kursk region as Ukrainian forces staged a surprise incursion, which left at least 3 civilians dead and more than a dozen others injured. The Russian military said Ukrainian forces launched an attack with up to 300 soldiers, 11…
Two sleeper agents who returned to Russia as part of last week’s historic prisoner exchange spoke to state television about breaking the news to their Spanish-speaking children that they were Russian. Artyom Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, a married couple who spent years posing as Argentine expats in Slovenia while acting as “illegals,” returned to Russia…
A man was killed by an explosion inside his apartment on the west side of Moscow, police said Tuesday, with state media reporting that he was a retired soldier who had shown suicidal tendencies in the past. “A woman found her husband lying dead in the apartment of a residential building,” the Russian Interior Ministry’s…
Russia has started sending advanced air defense systems and radars to Iran as it threatens to retaliate to the suspected Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, the New York Times reported Monday, citing anonymous sources. Earlier, Iranian media reported that Tehran requested air defense systems, and two Iranian officials who spoke to…
Three utility company employees were arrested for safety violations related to a deadly gas explosion at an apartment block in the Sverdlovsk region, law enforcement authorities said Tuesday. At least 10 people including children were killed after a gas explosion ripped through a five-story panel building in the industrial city of Nizhny Tagil on Thursday.…
A man was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region, authorities said early Tuesday. Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the attack took place in the village of Novostroyevka-Vtoraya, which lies directly on the border with northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. “A Ukrainian military drone struck a moving vehicle,” Gladkov said, adding that…
A group of cossacks and other pro-government activists disrupted an annual event in the northwestern republic of Karelia commemorating the victims of Stalin’s purges, the Memorial human rights group said Monday. The Sandarmokh memorial, where at least 6,000 gulag prisoners were buried in mass graves, has for years attracted pilgrims and European delegations for an…
Russia’s space agency Roscosmos on Monday said the break in ties with the West following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has cost it nearly 180 billion rubles ($2.1 billion). “The termination of contracts by unfriendly countries cost Roscosmos 180 billion rubles,” Roscosmos deputy head Andrei Yelchaninov was quoted as saying by the state-run Interfax news…
The head of the Russian military’s theme park and a senior defense ministry official were arrested for allegedly embezzling public funds, law enforcement authorities said Monday, the latest detentions in a growing military purge that began earlier this year. Investigators said Patriot Park director Vyacheslav Akhmedov and Major General Vladimir Shesterov were “involved in the…
Russia’s national Security Council secretary on Monday arrived for a visit to Tehran, news agencies reported, amid fears of a wider war in the region following last week’s killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s ex-Defense Minister, was set to meet senior military and security officials as well as new President…
German fashion house Hugo Boss has closed a deal to sell its Russian division to the retailer Stockmann, coming more than two years after it suspended operations in the country over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In April, Hugo Boss agreed to sell its Russian business to its wholesale partner, Stockmann — which was sold…
Police in St. Petersburg have begun pressing administrative charges against drivers whose vehicles are excessively loud. Local law enforcement officials said Monday that they will give motorists 10 days to “return the technical condition of their vehicle to factory settings,” otherwise the vehicle’s registration will be canceled and the owner may risk losing their driving…
Authorities in Siberia’s republic of Tyva declared a regional state of emergency on Sunday due to ongoing wildfires in the region. “As a result of prolonged hot and dry weather, the situation has deteriorated in the districts of Piykhemsky, Chedi-Kholsky and Tandinsky,” Regional governor Vladislav Khovalyg said, adding that he had requested help from neighboring…
Russian law enforcement officials said Monday that they arrested two “religious figures” in the Tyumen region who are suspected of recruiting people for terrorist organizations based in Syria. The Federal Security Service (FSB) said its agents “disrupted an international terrorist organization’s resource channel” in cooperation with police and investigators. The two arrested men recruited 19…
Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider took home a silver medal in women’s tennis doubles on Sunday, making them the first Russian athletes to get a medal at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Competing as Individual Neutral Athletes, known by the French acronym AIN, Andreeva and Shnaider lost the final to Italian tennis players Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini. The…
Ukraine has received its first batch of U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday, adding that more are needed to beat back Russian forces. For more than two years, Ukraine has pleaded with its Western partners for the aircraft — long considered the crown jewel in the sprawling list of military hardware…
Andrei Pivovarov was one of the 16 prisoners freed from Russia in last week’s major prisoner exchange between Moscow and the West. The prominent opposition activist, 42, was pulled off a Warsaw-bound plane by Russian security services in 2021 after the pro-democracy group Open Russia, which he headed, was banned as “undesirable.” He was sentenced to four…
Russia said Sunday its armed forces seized the village of Novoselivka Persha in eastern Ukraine, the latest in a string of frontline advances Moscow has claimed in recent weeks. Now grinding through a third year of fighting, neither Kyiv nor Moscow has managed to swing the conflict decisively in their favor, even though Moscow’s forces…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered condolences to North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un over devastating floods that caused untold casualties and damaged thousands of homes, the Kremlin said on Saturday. North Korea said this week it had seen a record downpour on July 27 which killed an unspecified number of people, flooded dwellings and…
Ukraine launched overnight drones attack on four southern Russian regions
BONN, Germany — Opposition figures Ilya Yashin, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Andrei Pivovarov, who were released this week as part of a landmark prisoner exchange between Russia and the West, held a press conference at the office of German news agency Deutsche Welle on Friday. “We’re feeling indescribable feelings,” activist Andrei Pivovarov said at the start…
Opposition figures Ilya Yashin, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Andrei Pivovarov, who were released this week as part of the largest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War, held a press conference in Bonn, Germany on Friday at the office of German news agency Deutsche Welle. “We’re feeling indescribable emotions,” activist Andrei Pivovarov…
Sasha Skochilenko did not know what was happening as she was taken from her St. Petersburg prison cell to Moscow, where men in balaclavas escorted her onto a plane with several other prisoners. “We were accompanied by a dozen people in balaclavas,” said the 33-year-old St. Petersburg artist, who was freed Thursday from a seven-year…
Ukraine announced Friday that it received the bodies of 250 killed soldiers in one of the largest exchanges of servicemen remains since Russia invaded in February 2022. The two warring sides regularly exchange soldiers’ bodies as well as prisoners of war in rare diplomatic dealmaking involving Moscow and Kyiv. “As a result of repatriation operations,…
Law enforcement authorities on Friday arrested a senior Russian lawmaker on accusations that he ordered the murder of his business partner. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said that Senator Dmitry Savelyev “instructed his friend to organize the murder of a businessman” in August 2023. It said law enforcement agents staged that businessman’s murder,…
A man set himself on fire outside of a government service center in Moscow on Friday, Russian media reported, saying that he was hospitalized with severe burns. Eyewitnesses said they saw the man set fire to himself on the second floor of the service center located on the southwestern side of the Russian capital, according…
The Kremlin on Friday said possible talks over the conflict in Ukraine were based on “completely different principles” from negotiations over a prisoner swap deal that saw 24 people freed on Thursday. “If we talk about Ukraine and more complex international problems, there are completely different principles,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked…
The Kremlin on Friday confirmed that Vadim Krasikov, freed by Germany in Thursday’s prisoner swap deal with the West, is an operative with Russia’s FSB security service. Moscow also said that the children of an undercover spy couple released by Slovenia did not even know they were Russian until they boarded the plane back to…
The widow of a former Chechen military commander gunned down in Berlin said German authorities did not inform her they had agreed to release his convicted killer in a prisoner exchange with Russia on Thursday. Zelimkhan Khangoshvili was shot dead in 2019 by Vadim Krasikov, a Russian intelligence officer who was later sentenced to life…
The United States famously does not negotiate with terrorists. But it has shown willingness on multiple occasions to sit down with enemy states to negotiate the release of both American and foreign nationals, even giving up people who threatened their own national security in return. This latest prisoner exchange, which includes a total of 24…
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said Friday that U.S. President Joe Biden had “nothing to do with” the biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War. Washington and Moscow carried out a historic prisoner swap on Thursday, with Russian authorities releasing American journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, former U.S. Marine Paul…
Authorities in Moscow on Thursday designated the prisoner rights group Russia Behind Bars and three of its affiliates as “undesirable,” making their work illegal in Russia and putting staff members at risk of jail time. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office banned the German non-profit Russland hinter gittern — Russia Behind Bars’ legal entity — the MRR-Fund…