Residents Block City Center in Protest Over Power Outages in Russia’s Dagestan

Residents of Makhachkala in southern Russia’s republic of Dagestan late Wednesday barricaded the city center following three days of blackouts. Locals blocked traffic with wooden pallets, which police officers were seen taking away later in the evening, as shown in footage shared by the state broadcaster “Dagestan.” “Three days without electricity! We’re choking!” shouted one…

Russia Labels War Monitor Conflict Intelligence Team ‘Undesirable’

Russian authorities on Thursday designated the independent investigative organization Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), which conducts open-source investigations of the Russian military, an “undesirable organization.” The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office accused CIT of publishing the personal details of Russian soldiers “which were later used to discredit” the Russian military. Discrediting the Russian Armed Forces’ actions abroad has…

‘They’re Gossiping Without Us’: Saudi-Hosted Peace Summit Underscores Kremlin’s Diplomatic Dilemma

Russia’s absence from the Saudi-hosted summit to find a peace framework for the war in Ukraine exposed the Kremlin’s vulnerabilities despite the fact that no final joint statement or document was signed, four current and former Russian officials familiar with Russia’s diplomacy admitted to The Moscow Times. The weekend summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was…

‘Elite’ Chechen Fighters Tasked With Policing Occupied Nuclear City in Ukraine – Al Jazeera

An elite Chechen military unit has been deployed as a police force in the occupied Ukrainian nuclear city of Enerhodar, Al Jazeera reported Wednesday, citing interviews with engineers who fled the town and its remaining residents. Russian forces captured Enerhodar, which hosts the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, in the early days of its February 2022…

Powerful Blast at Optical Plant Near Moscow Triggers ‘Total Evacuation’

Updated with new injury count. A powerful explosion ripped through an optical equipment factory outside Moscow, triggering a “total evacuation” from all nearby buildings, local authorities said Wednesday. At least 35 people were injured, with four in serious condition, authorities told state media. Plumes of smoke billowed high into the air from the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical…

3 Years After Anti-Lukashenko Protests, Belarusians in Ukrainian Army Seek to Enact Change Through Force

Andrzej Kshetussky was one of hundreds of thousands of Belarusians who peacefully protested against the fraudulent re-election of their country’s longtime leader, Alexander Lukashenko, in 2020.  Three years after those protests were brutally repressed, he is now fighting alongside the Ukrainian army against invading Russian forces.  “We lost all protest infrastructure [and] oppositional organizations in…

Chechnya’s Grozny Establishes ‘Sister City’ Ties With Occupied Mariupol

Grozny, the capital of Russia’s majority-muslim republic of Chechnya, has established sister city ties with the occupied southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, over a year after it was devastated by invading Russian forces. “Grozny Mayor Khas-Magomed Kadyrov and head of Mariupol’s [Russian-installed] administration Oleg Morgun signed an agreement establishing twin city relations between the cities,”…

Two Drones Shot Down Near Moscow, Says Russia

Two Ukrainian drones headed toward Moscow were shot down Wednesday, Russian authorities said, the latest in a surge of drone attacks targeting the capital.  Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging app that “both [drones] were shot down by air defense,” noting that one was downed in the Domodedovo area on the southern outskirts of…

Russia Pulls Thousands of Soviet-Era Military Vehicles From Major Storage Facility

Russia’s largest known military equipment storage facility has been stripped of nearly half of the Soviet-era tanks and armored vehicles that were stored on its grounds before Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, The Moscow Times’ Russian service reported, analyzing satellite imagery of the storage site.  The Vagzhanovo military equipment depot — located outside…

Russian Exports to China Drop in Wartime First

Russian exports to China dropped in July, the first time since steadily rising in the months following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing Chinese customs data. China’s July 2023 imports from Russia declined by 8% compared to July 2022, totaling $9.2 billion. China’s overall monthly imports shrank 12.4%. It was…

Poland Says Belarus, Russia ‘Organizing’ New Migrant Influx

Poland’s government on Monday accused Belarus and Russia of orchestrating another migration influx into the European Union via the Polish border in order to destabilize the region. “We’re talking about an operation organized by the Russian and Belarusian secret services that is getting more and more intense,” Polish Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik told reporters.  Tomasz Praga,…

Kremlin Says ‘Theoretically Possible’ to Not Hold Presidential Elections

Russian President Vladimir Putin can choose not to hold presidential elections next year because he will “obviously” win re-election, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said late Sunday. Putin is widely expected to declare his bid for a sixth overall presidential term. Pre-war constitutional changes allow him to remain president until 2036. “Although elections are a requirement…

Drone Shot Down Southwest of Moscow

Russia said Monday it had shot down a Ukrainian drone southwest of Moscow, as drone attacks on the Russian capital and its surrounding regions have surged in recent weeks.  Authorities said the drone was downed in the central Kaluga region, less than 200 kilometers from Moscow, adding that the incident “affected neither people nor infrastructure.” The drone…

Russia Says Hit Airbases in Western Ukraine

Russia said Sunday that its forces struck military airbases in the Khmelnytskyi and Rivne regions in western Ukraine and that “all targets were hit.”  “Overnight Russia’s armed forces carried out strikes… on Ukrainian armed forces airbases around the settlements of Starokostiantyniv in the Khmelnytskyi region and Dubno in the Rivne region,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.  Ukraine said it…

Putin Signs Law Raising Maximum Draft Age

President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that raises the upper age limit for military conscription, as Moscow continues its efforts to widen the pool of potential recruits for its war in Ukraine. Under previous Russian law, all men aged 18-27 were required to complete a one-year term of compulsory military service, a requirement that…

Russia Enlisted Over 230K Troops in 2023 – Medvedev

Russia has enlisted over 230,000 additional personnel into the army since the start of the year, Moscow’s Deputy Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday. Moscow has conducted an aggressive military recruitment campaign this year as it seeks to stave off an ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive and hold territories it has captured during the conflict. “According…