Cuba has identified an alleged human trafficking ring aimed at recruiting its citizens to fight in Russia’s war in Ukraine, the foreign ministry said Monday. The government was working to dismantle a “trafficking network that operates from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces involved in…
Russian General Sergei Surovikin has resurfaced more than two months after his last public appearance in a video urging Wagner fighters to stand down from their march on Moscow, media reported Monday. Surovikin, long considered the main intermediary between the Wagner mercenary outfit and the Russian Defense Ministry, disappeared from public view after Wagner chief Yevgeny…
Russian air defense systems destroyed three drones early Tuesday on their approach to Moscow, according to the city’s mayor. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defense had “destroyed drones which were trying to carry out an attack” on the Russian capital, adding that there had been no casualties. Russia’s Defense Ministry said one of the…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Moscow is just weeks away from supplying free grain to six African countries after scrapping a deal allowing Ukrainian food exports through the Black Sea. His comments during a press conference with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi came hours…
Universities across Russia have admitted 8,500 veterans of the war in Ukraine and their children this academic year, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko announced Monday. President Vladimir Putin in 2022 ordered a 10% university admission quota for war veterans and their children, granting them priority and clearing them of entrance exams. “On the president’s instructions,…
Voters across Russia are set to cast ballots in regional and municipal elections starting Sept. 8 in which they will choose, among others, 21 regional heads and deputies for 16 regional parliaments. Though the Kremlin’s tight grip on the electoral system and alleged widespread vote-rigging will ensure the victory of government-backed candidates in many of…
Russian authorities have detained a math graduate student and self-described anti-fascist immediately as he left prison after serving a previous jail term, the independent student news site DOXA reported Monday. Azat Miftakhov, 30, was released earlier in the day from a penal colony where he had served a four-year sentence for breaking the office window…
Rosneft and RUSSPASS travel planning service launched a joint project “Travel to Moscow with Rosneft” with the support of the Moscow City Tourism Committee.
A court in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine has sentenced a Ukrainian soldier to more than two decades in prison for killing a civilian in the occupied city of Mariupol, Russian authorities announced Monday. Gunner Maxim Ovcharenko and two of his unidentified fellow soldiers were accused of shooting a Mariupol resident in April 2022, according to Russia’s…
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold their first face-to-face meeting for the first time in a year on Monday in a bid to resolve the crisis over Russia’s exit from a deal guaranteeing Ukrainian grain exports and stave off a renewed global food crisis. The meeting, which was initially…
Russia’s government has continued to buy foreign-made cars despite calls by President Vladimir Putin last month for officials to start using domestic-made vehicles, the investigative news outlet Agentstvo reported Monday. Overall, Russian government bodies, agencies and state-affiliated companies purchased 151 foreign-made cars worth 566 million rubles ($5.9 million) in August, according to state procurement data cited…
Russia said Monday it had destroyed four Ukrainian military boats carrying troops in the Black Sea. “Naval aviation aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet destroyed 4 ‘Willard Sea Force’ U.S.-made high-speed military boats with landing groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said on the Telegram messaging app. The ministry said the…
Russian drones targeted Ukraine’s southern Odesa region in the early hours of Sunday, with Moscow hitting a Danube port on the border with NATO member Romania in an attack condemned by Bucharest. Moscow has hit Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Black Sea and on the Danube for weeks, since exiting a key deal that allowed…
Russia’s former president and Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday that Moscow had recruited some 280,000 people into the army since the start of the year. Russia has not announced another mobilization — seen as an unpopular measure — but has led an active campaign to attract more men into the military as its…
The Nobel Foundation said Saturday it was reversing its decision to invite ambassadors from Russia and Belarus to this year’s Nobel award ceremony in Stockholm, after the move sparked a backlash. In 2022, the Nobel Foundation, which organizes the annual Nobel prize ceremony and banquet in Stockholm, decided not to invite the Russian and Belarusian…
Russia destroyed three Ukrainian naval drones that targeted the Crimea bridge, Moscow said early Saturday. “On Sept. 2, at about 02:20 Moscow time (2320 GMT Friday), the third Ukrainian semi-submersible unmanned boat, sent by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge, was destroyed in the Black Sea,” Russia’s Ministry…
Moscow has stepped up efforts to stamp out dissent since launching the assault on Ukraine, with most high-profile opponents in exile or behind bars. Muratov was seen recently in Russia, being part of the legal team defending his friend Oleg Orlov, co-chair of Russia’s human rights organization Memorial. In 2021, Muratov who works as the…
Russia on Friday branded the non-governmental organization Free Buryatia as “undesirable,” a label that criminalizes the group and puts its staff at risk of prosecution. The NGO was created in March 2022 and focuses on the rights of mobilized Buryats — an ethnic minority in Siberia — and provides them with legal advice. Russia was…
Russia on Friday said it captured several strategic heights near Kupiansk, an eastern Ukrainian city where Moscow’s troops stepped up pressure in August. Ukraine launched a counteroffensive against Russian positions in the south in June but Russia responded by trying to take back territory in the northeast. “In the direction of Kupiansk, units of the…
President Vladimir Putin told pupils at the start of the school year on Friday that it was impossible to defeat Russia as Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine grinds through its 19th month. “I understood why we won the Great Patriotic War,” Putin said, referring to World War II, adding: “It is impossible to defeat this kind…
A strategic next-generation missile that Russian President Vladimir Putin once described as “invincible” has been deployed for combat duty, the head of state space agency Roscosmos said Friday. The Kremlin had previously stated that the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile would be ready for combat duty by the end of 2022, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news…
The Nobel Foundation’s decision to invite ambassadors from Russia and Belarus to this year’s Nobel award ceremony sparked anger on Friday in Ukraine, Sweden and among opponents of the Minsk regime. Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook that the Foundation should support efforts to isolate Russia and Belarus as “millions of Ukrainians…
Russia has moved two S-300 surface-to-air missile systems from a chain of disputed Far East islands that Japan claims as its own, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported Friday, citing satellite imagery. Yu Koizumi, a University of Tokyo lecturer who analyzed the images from U.S. space tech company Maxar, speculated that Russia may have repurposed the S-300V4…
Rosneft enterprises organised festive events and congratulated school children on the beginning of the new academic year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will host his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, the Kremlin said, amid hopes the two countries can restore a deal ensuring safe passage for Ukrainian grain shipments. In July, Russia pulled out from the UN-backed grain deal that Turkey helped broker, effectively revoking safe navigation for civilian ships sailing…
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief said Friday that a recent drone attack on an airport in western Russia that damaged several transport planes was carried out from within Russian territory. The attack this week on Pskov airport, located some 700 kilometers from Ukraine, was carried out alongside similar strikes in several regions across western and central…
Dozens of towns and villages have been submerged under water in Russia’s Far East amid ongoing flash floods since early August, the environmental news outlet Kedr reported Friday. Russia’s Primorye region — which for weeks has been under a region-wide state of emergency since — witnessed fresh flooding from heavy rainfall in 19 settlements. Another…
Russian street artist Filipp Kozlov, who goes by the name Philippenzo, could face up to three years in prison for anti-war graffiti, just days after his release from prison over past minor offenses, the independent outlet Polygon Media reported Friday. Video published by Polygon Media showed Kozlov escorted by law enforcement officers wearing civilian clothing.…
NASA said Friday it had captured images of the likely crash site of Russia’s first post-Soviet lunar lander. The Luna-25 probe slammed into the Moon’s surface on Aug. 19 during pre-landing maneuvers, according to Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. NASA said its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) photographed the impact crater on the Moon’s south pole where Roscosmos…
A Russian-German man arrested earlier this week in Cyprus was charged Thursday by U.S. authorities with seeking to export American-made electronics to Russia for military use. The U.S. Department of Justice said Arthur Petrov, 33, violated export controls in a scheme to procure American microelectronics for a Russian firm that provides “critical electronics components” to…
Regions across western and central Russia were targeted in a fresh overnight wave of drone attacks, the second this week, authorities and media reported Friday morning. In Moscow, air defense systems destroyed a drone on its approach to the Russian capital, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Friday. Air defense near the Lyubertsy district on the southeast…
A defrocked Russian priest who spoke out against Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine was jailed for three years Thursday, after a court found him guilty of spreading “fake news” about the army. The Russian Orthodox Church, led by Patriarch Kirill — an ally of President Vladimir Putin — has mostly backed the Kremlin’s offensive and often…
Authorities in Russia’s southern Rostov region have appointed a male official to lead the region’s newly formed council on women’s rights. The government body will be tasked with creating policies on topics ranging from women’s health to strengthening women’s role in society to combating poverty and social disadvantage among women. But women will hold just eight seats…
Alice, a 17-year-old photographer, fled Russia for Israel shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine. Months later, she was summoned to serve in the Israeli army. “I left Russia because of the war, and I cannot imagine myself serving in any army, in any country,” Alice told The Moscow Times in a phone…
Authorities in separatist and Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine on Thursday announced the start of early voting in local elections. Voting was due to take place on Sept. 10, as part of elections scheduled in dozens of regions across Russia, where voters will elect new governors, local parliaments and municipal councils. However, Kremlin-backed authorities in the…
Authorities in western Russia’s Bryansk region have scrapped in-person back-to-school day this Friday in towns that face regular drone and artillery strikes. Each year on Sept. 1, Russian schools open their doors to students, parents and teachers in what is known as Den’ Znanyy, or the Day of Knowledge. Bryansk region Governor Alexander Bogomaz said…
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday criticized what he called “stupid demands” from Poland and the Baltic states for Wagner fighters sheltering in his country to leave. Wagner fighters took refuge in Belarus after they staged a short-lived rebellion against Moscow’s military leadership in June, prompting concerns from neighboring countries. “They are whipping up hysteria…
The deceased commander and purported co-founder of the Wagner mercenary group has been buried at a Moscow cemetery, the MSK.1 news website reported Thursday. Dmitry Utkin, who is believed to have inspired the name for the mercenary outfit under his call sign “Wagner,” was killed in last week’s plane crash alongside his boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, according…
At least two Russian military aircraft were damaged as a result of Ukrainian drone strikes on an airbase in northwestern Russia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) investigative project Skhemy reported Thursday, citing satellite imagery. Authorities in the Pskov region said its airport came under a large-scale attack on Wednesday. Emergency officials told state media at…
A court in the Siberian republic of Buryatia has sentenced activist Natalya Filonova to nearly three years in prison on charges linked to anti-mobilization protests that swept Russia last fall, the regional news outlet Lyudi Baikala reported Thursday. Filonova, a 61-year-old pensioner and a veteran activist, was detained at a September 2022 rally in Buryatia’s capital…
A Russian man based in Germany was found guilty on Thursday of plotting to kill a Chechen dissident on the orders of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. The defendant, identified as Valid D., was sentenced to 10 years in jail for “willingness to commit murder and preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state,” a…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday it has repelled a Ukrainian sabotage group’s attempt to infiltrate western Russia’s Bryansk region, the second attempted incursion this month. Two Ukrainian fighters were purportedly killed and five others were detained Wednesday, the FSB said in a statement. Russia’s intelligence agency did not say how many Ukrainian fighters…
A Wagner-affiliated channel on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday published a previously unseen video of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was buried two days earlier after perishing in a plane crash in northwestern Russia. “To those who talk about my liquidation, private life and earnings or whatever else, strictly speaking, everything’s alright,” Prigozhin said in the video posted…
Russian air defenses destroyed a drone on its approach to Moscow, the city’s mayor said Thursday morning. Air defense systems in the Voskresensky district, located around 60 kilometers from the Russian capital, “destroyed a drone flying toward Moscow,” Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging app. He did not specify where the drone had…
The Kremlin said Wednesday that investigators were probing all possible scenarios surrounding the death last week of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash, including premeditated murder. Prigozhin, 62, was buried on Tuesday in a private ceremony in his native St. Petersburg, more than two months after he staged a short-lived mutiny that posed…
Ukraine said Wednesday that its recapture of Robotyne village this week was a strategic victory paving the way for its forces to push deeper into Russian positions in the south towards Crimea. The foreign minister’s comments published early Wednesday came as Kyiv announced two people had been killed in the “most powerful” aerial attack in…
Allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny have urged the EU to impose sanctions on a Russian rock star who stirred controversy for visiting Russian troops in occupied Ukraine. Roman Bilyk, who performs under the stage name Roma Zver with the hit group Zveri, was filmed playing for Russian troops in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region earlier in…
A Russian man was in court Wednesday after he criticized Moscow’s Ukraine assault in an interview to a foreign media outlet as authorities take the crackdown on dissent to new heights. Public criticism of the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine has been outlawed, and a number of prominent and ordinary Russians have received long prison terms…
Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to return to international badminton competitions starting February 2024, the sport’s governing body announced. The Badminton World Federation (BWF) said players from the two countries, who have been banned due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, would be able to compete as neutral athletes. The International Olympic Committee has…
The decision to keep Yevgeny Prigozhin’s funeral a secret was made by the Russian presidential administration and the security services, two acting Russian officials told The Moscow Times on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. Even after his Aug. 23 death in a plane crash near President Vladimir Putin’s residence in…
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has led to the destruction of more than 1,300 Ukrainian schools over the past 18 months, disrupting education for millions of children in the war-torn country, according to UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency. “More than 1,300 schools have been totally destroyed [in Ukraine’s government-controlled regions],” said Regina De Dominicis,…
A woman who had fled Chechnya following death threats from her family has been forcibly returned to her home, Chechnya’s human rights commissioner said late Tuesday. Seda Suleimanova fled the Muslim-majority region in October 2022 with the help of the human rights group SK SOS after her family warned that she could be killed in…
“You sleep at night and suddenly wake up, just out of the blue. And realize that breathing is difficult, and the house smells as if it’s full of household gas.” This is one of the unsettling memories shared by a Moscow region resident who identified herself as Anna. Living just 3 kilometers from Yug (South),…
Russian firefighters battled a wildfire near the popular resort town of Gelendzhik in southern Russia overnight Tuesday, tackling the blaze from land and air, authorities and media reported. The blaze moved fast through woodland in the area as a result of strong winds, as well as the challenging mountainous terrain of the area, Russia’s Emergencies…
Russia will not investigate the plane crash that killed Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin under international rules, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing Brazil’s aircraft investigation authority. Brazil’s Center for Research and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (CENIPA) contacted Russian authorities last week to ask whether they would open a probe into the crash under UN civil aviation rules, according…
At least six regions across western and central Russia were targeted by one of the largest overnight drone attacks since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine 18 months ago, authorities said Wednesday. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had shot down or destroyed drones over the Bryansk, Oryol, Kaluga, Ryazan and Moscow regions overnight. It did not report any…
Ukraine said Wednesday it had downed more than two dozen cruise missiles and a swarm of attack drones across the country in the “most powerful” aerial attack on Kyiv in weeks that left two dead. The assault came as Russia said an airport near the border with NATO member Estonia had been targeted by drones,…
Observers said the decision by the founder of the Wagner private fighting force to turn his troops on Moscow was the most significant direct challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s authority since he came to power. The Kremlin said earlier Tuesday that the Russian leader would not attend Prigozhin’s funeral. “The president’s presence is not envisaged,”…
A Russian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from former separatist commander in Ukraine and nationalist blogger Igor Girkin to be freed from pre-trial detention in Moscow. Girkin, a high-profile critic of the Kremlin’s military strategy in Ukraine, was detained in July and remanded in custody on extremism charges. He faces up to five years…
A Federal Security Service (FSB) helicopter has crashed in Russia’s Ural Mountains, killing all three crew members on board, authorities and state media reported Thursday. “An Mi-8 helicopter crashed in a forest during a routine flight near the village of Prudny in the Sosnovsky district [of Russia’s Chelyabinsk region],” an anonymous emergency services representative told…