The Kremlin will be seeking to clinch new economic agreements and partnerships across the African continent as it hosts delegations from dozens of African states this week — but may come away with less than it hopes for. The second Russia-Africa Summit, due to commence in St. Petersburg on Thursday, comes as Moscow increasingly turns…
President Vladimir Putin is planning to visit China in October, the Kremlin said Tuesday, as Russia aims to shore up ties with one of its closest allies. “It is known that we have received an invitation and that we intend to go to China when the Belt and Road Forum is held in October,” Yuri Ushakov, an…
Russia said Tuesday that its forces had progressed by up to two kilometers (1.2 miles) along a section of the front in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. “The total advance of our units amounted to up two kilometers in depth along up to four kilometers of the front” in the direction of Lyman, the Defense Ministry said…
Russian President Vladimir Putin “was paralyzed and unable to act decisively” during the first hours of the mutiny launched by Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin last month, The Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing Ukrainian and European security officials. Putin did not issue orders for most of the day of Prigozhin’s June 24 rebellion, The…
MOSCOW — With its blue-and-yellow branding and stuffed sharks adorning the entrance, it’s easy to recognize what this small store in a shopping mall located in southwest Moscow is aiming for. Гуд Лакк (“Good Luck” in Cyrillic letters), which opened earlier this month, is in many ways a carbon copy of IKEA, the Swedish furniture…
Russian authorities on Tuesday designated the exiled independent news channel Dozdh as an “undesirable” organization. The designation bans Dozhd’s work in Russia, puts staff members at risk of jail time and criminalizes engagement with the broadcaster, including sharing its content online. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement that Dozhd “systematically” violated the country’s…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Tuesday that pro-war nationalist Igor Girkin, who was arrested last week on extremism charges, should be recognized as a political prisoner. Girkin, a Russian army veteran and ex-FSB officer also known as Igor Strelkov, was arrested last Friday on charges of “public incitement of extremist activity.” The move was…
Russian lawmakers on Tuesday passed a bill raising the upper age limit for military conscription and banning draftees from leaving the country, as Moscow continues its efforts to widen the pool of potential recruits for its war in Ukraine. Under current Russian law, all men aged 18-27 are required to complete a one-year term of…
Russia said Tuesday that one of its military patrol boats had repelled an attack overnight in the Black Sea, where tensions have been building after Moscow backed out of a deal protecting Ukrainian grain shipments. “Ukraine’s armed forces carried out an unsuccessful attack with two naval drones against the Sergei Kotov patrol ship overnight,” the…
Russia will receive “super priority” rights in acquiring the assets of strategic foreign companies that leave the country, Interfax reported Monday, citing an unpublished draft presidential decree. “Russia’s preferential right to acquire shares is realized regardless of the preferential rights of other persons,” the text reportedly reads. The list of strategic companies includes around 200…
Moscow residents were startled awake in the middle of the night as Ukrainian drones crashed close to the Russian Defense Ministry building in the city center on Monday and another hit an office building in a southern area of the capital. “Around 3:30-3:40 a.m. I heard a very loud sound of an explosion and then…
President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a controversial law that bans legal and surgical sex changes, a move that deprives transgender Russians of the right to access gender-affirming services. The law, which makes “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person” and “the state registration of a change of gender without an operation”…
A record $253 billion has been pulled out of Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Russian Central Bank has said. The net capital outflow from Russia starting February 2022 and ending June 2023 was calculated by the Bank’s Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Forecasting. “Net inflows on current…
Russia said Monday that drone attacks in central Moscow and annexed Crimea could warrant a harsh response, after Ukraine claimed an attack on the capital. “We regard what happened as yet another use of terrorist methods and intimidation of the civilian population by the military and political leadership of Ukraine,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. “The Russian Federation reserves the…
President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed into law a bill to raise the upper age limit for military reservists eligible for mobilization by five years. The amendments to Russia’s law on military duty and military service introduce a four-year transition period — between 2024 and 2028 — during which the reservist age limit will be…
A former regional coordinator of jailed Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny was sentenced to nine years in prison for participating in an “extremist” organization, the activist’s allies announced Monday. Vadim Ostanin, 46, was detained in December 2021 alongside five other Navalny allies across Russia when the authorities blacklisted the Kremlin critic’s activist network as “extremist.”…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had blocked a foreign cargo ship accused of supplying Ukraine with explosives from entering Russian waters, state-run news agencies reported Monday. The vessel, traveling from Turkey to southern Russia’s port of Rostov-on-Don to load grain, was banned from crossing the Kerch Strait that leads to ports in occupied…
Ukrainian drones hit two buildings in Moscow and an ammunition depot in annexed Crimea on Monday, Russian officials said. Authorities in Moscow reported two Ukrainian drones had been downed over the Russian capital during the night. “Around 4:00 a.m. today, drone strikes on two non-residential buildings were recorded. There is no serious damage or casualties,”…
Russia and China have ended their joint naval exercises in the Sea of Japan, the Russian Defense Ministry announced Sunday, as the two allies seek to deepen their military ties. The two massive countries, which share a common desire to counter what they see as American hegemony, have grown closer in the military sphere since…
Two-time Russian Olympic champion and former pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva has come under fire from both Kremlin supporters and opposition figures after it was revealed that she lives in Europe. Isinbayeva, 41, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and a one-time trustee of President Vladimir Putin, was one of the Russian athletes sanctioned…
Russia’s latest missile attack on Odesa left two dead Sunday, wounded many and badly damaged a UNESCO-listed Orthodox cathedral, drawing a vow of retaliation from Ukraine’s leader. The strike on the port city, which Russia has pounded since quitting the Black Sea grain deal, came just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Belarus…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that Kyiv’s counteroffensive had “failed”, as he began two-day talks with his Belarus counterpart and closest ally Alexander Lukashenko. The longtime leaders met for the first time since Lukashenko helped end a mutiny by Russian Wagner mercenaries in Russia last month, in the biggest threat to Putin’s more than…
The Ukrainian port city of Odesa came under renewed Russian missile attack early Sunday, just hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to hold a summit with his staunch Belarus ally Alexander Lukashenko. At the meeting in St. Petersburg, the pair plan to discuss the “strategic partnership and alliance” between their countries, according to the…
Russia’s latest strike on Odesa on Sunday killed two people and severely damaged a historic Orthodox cathedral, drawing a vow of retaliation from Ukraine’s leader. The 18th-century Transfiguration Cathedral, the biggest Orthodox church in Odesa, lies within the UNESCO-protected historic city center. The strike on the port city, which Russia has pounded since quitting the Black Sea…
Russian former world number two Vera Zvonareva has been denied entry to Poland where she was to participate in next week’s Polish Open WTA tournament, the interior ministry said on Saturday. “Vera Zvonareva was trying to enter our country with a visa granted by France, via a flight from Belgrade,” according to a statement issued…
A Russian war correspondent working for the state RIA Novosti news agency, Rostislav Zhuravlev, was killed in a Ukrainian strike in the southern Zaporizhzhia region on Saturday, the military announced. The agency also reported his death, saying he was killed near the frontline village of Pytikhatki. “As a result of a strike by the Ukrainian…
A Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow-annexed Crimea caused the “detonation” of an ammunition depot Saturday, the Moscow-installed leader of the peninsula said, ordering the evacuation of people living within five kilometers of the attack and halting rail traffic. The attack came five days after the only bridge linking annexed Crimea to Russia was hit, killing…
Russia said Friday that it understood the concerns African nations may have after Moscow left the Ukrainian grain deal, promising to ensure deliveries to countries in need. Those countries in need would receive the necessary assurances at a summit later this month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin told journalists. “We understand the concerns our…
Russian shelling killed two children — a brother and sister — in the village of Druzhba (Friendship) in eastern Ukraine on Friday, the local governor said. “At about three o’clock in the afternoon, the Russians shelled the village with artillery — one of the shells hit the yard where the children were,” Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko…
A Russian prosecutor on Friday requested an 18-year prison sentence for Ilya Sachkov, founder of one of the country’s top cybersecurity firms, on treason charges. Sachkov, 37, co-founded the Group-IB cybersecurity firm in 2003. It specializes in the detection and prevention of cyberattacks and works with Interpol and several other global institutions. “State prosecutors requested…
Residents of the village of Sosva have been losing their homes to forest fires for years. In the most recent major incident in April, a wildfire destroyed 130 houses, killed two individuals and left 659 people homeless in this village in the Sverdlovsk region. When Novaya Gazeta Europe reporter Irina Kravtsova arrived in Sosva, locals…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been ordered to spend 13 days in a solitary confinement cell until a court verdict that could see him sentenced to a further 20 years in prison, his lawyer said Friday. “Just an hour ago, Alexei Navalny was again placed in a solitary punishment cell [for] introducing himself incorrectly,”…
Russian army veteran and ex-FSB officer Igor Girkin has been detained, his wife and the RBC business daily’s sources said Friday. Girkin, who helped Moscow annex Crimea in 2014 and then organized pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine, was detained by law enforcement officers around 11:30 a.m. Moscow time, his wife Miroslava Reginskaya said on his…
Ukraine’s counteroffensive to recapture occupied territories is failing even with Western military support, President Vladimir Putin said Friday. “Today it’s clear that the Kyiv regime’s Western curators are disappointed with the results of the so-called counteroffensive,” Putin said at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council. “There are no results, at least not yet,” he told senior government…
Russia’s Central Bank hiked interest rates on Friday for the first time in 16 months, as Moscow’s spending on its invasion of Ukraine, shortages across the labor market and a sharp fall in the value of the ruble trigger fresh concerns over inflation. The regulator raised its key rate from 7.5% to 8.5% — ahead…
Russian schoolchildren will learn the basics of combat drone flying as part of military training classes starting this fall, a senior lawmaker said Friday. Basic military training, which was abolished after the Soviet collapse, will become part of the curriculum for Russian high schoolers in grades 10 and 11 as part of curriculum changes following…
Russia will keep its minimum conscription age at 18 despite a promise to raise the limit as part of the military’s plans to increase troop numbers, a senior lawmaker said Friday. A bill backed by President Vladimir Putin originally envisioned an increase in age limits for compulsory military service from the current range of men…
Russian oil exports to China reached an all-time record last month as Moscow’s “pivot to Asia” continues to gather steam amid its isolation from the West, the business daily Vedomosti reported Friday, citing Chinese customs data. Russia exported 10.5 million tons of crude oil to China in June, breaking the previous record of 9.71 million…
Russia’s navy carried out a live fire “exercise” in the northwest Black Sea, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said Friday, days after the Kremlin said it would consider ships traveling to Ukraine through the waterway potential military targets. The Black Sea Fleet “carried out live firing of anti-ship cruise missiles at the target ship in the combat…
The United States placed more than 120 companies from Russia as well as several Kyrgyzstan firms on its sanctions blacklist Thursday for what it said were their contributions to Russia’s war on Ukraine. The sanctions aimed at further choking off Russia’s access to critical raw and manufactured materials as well as financing in order to hinder its war machine,…
Russian prosecutors have requested a 20-year prison sentence for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on a new string of “extremism” charges, his team reported Thursday. Navalny, 47, has been charged with creating an extremist community and an organization that infringes on the rights of citizens; financing extremism; making calls to extremism; and involving minors in dangerous acts…
Business at RTSB-RUS, a logistics company that ships cargo by rail across Russia, has boomed over the last 18 months. Amid an exodus of Western rivals and a surge in trade with China, its freight volumes jumped nearly fourfold in 2022 alone, Chief Executive Alexander Baskakov told The Moscow Times. Elevated cargo shipments are just…
Moscow on Thursday announced that British diplomats working in Russia will need to notify authorities in advance about their movements around the country. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Britain’s charge d’affaires Tom Dodd to inform him of a “notification procedure for the movement of employees of British diplomatic missions on the territory of our country.”…
The United Kingdom on Thursday lifted sanctions against the exiled former banking tycoon Oleg Tinkov. The decision was announced just days after British billionaire Richard Branson called on his government to lift the “unwarranted” sanctions imposed against Tinkov last year. Allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny had also previously urged London to lift sanctions…
Ukraine said Thursday that ships going to Russian-controlled ports on the Black Sea would be treated as possibly carrying military cargo, a day after Russia announced a similar move. Tensions are rising over the Black Sea after Russia exited a deal protecting maritime exports from Ukraine. “Starting from 00:00 on July 21, 2023, all vessels in the Black Sea…
The armed forces of Belarus on Thursday began the first publicly known training drills with Russia’s exiled Wagner fighters. Video shared by the Belarusian Defense Ministry showed members of its Special Operations Forces and masked men in military fatigues with Wagner patches performing combat tasks at a training facility. “We’re trying to absorb everything like…
Russia’s clergy should forgo displays of “provocative luxury” at a time when citizens are making sacrifices and limiting themselves, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has said. According to Patriarch Kirill, a cleric has the right to decently “furnish his life,” but his lifestyle should not “demonstratively contrast with the way of life of…
Authorities in Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region are recruiting female fighters for defense units along the border with Ukraine. State television broadcast reports this week featuring an all-female unit undergoing military training in the western part of the region, which has been targeted by armed incursions in recent months. Channel One and Rossia showed footage of…
Russian strikes hit the Ukrainian port of Odesa for a third consecutive night since Moscow pulled out of a grain export deal, officials said Thursday, as Crimean authorities said a teenager had died in Kyiv’s latest attack on the peninsula. At least 20 people were wounded following strikes on Odesa and the southern port city…
Russian and Belarusian gymnasts will be allowed to compete in international competitions as “individual neutral athletes” from Jan. 1, the sport’s governing body said. In March 2022, gymnasts from both countries were banned from taking part in international competitions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) said in a statement on…
Russia’s Wagner mercenary outfit expects to deploy around 10,000 fighters in neighboring Belarus after its failed mutiny last month, a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel said late Wednesday. Another 15,000 Wagner fighters “have already gone on vacation,” said the channel Razgruzka Vagnera (“Unloading Wagner”), citing a senior commander by only his call sign Marx. The channel previously…
A Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea damaged administrative buildings and killed a teenage girl, the region’s Moscow-installed governor said on Thursday, days after Kyiv struck a strategic bridge that links the peninsula to mainland Russia. “As a result of an attack by an enemy drone, four administrative buildings were damaged in one of the settlements…
The Kremlin’s move to seize the Russian assets of Carlsberg and Danone is Moscow’s most brazen attack yet on foreign firms operating in Russia, and is likely to trigger fresh concern among businesses that have continued operating in the country, experts said. President Vladimir Putin is handing control of the Russian subsidiaries of French food…
Russia said Wednesday that it will now consider all vessels nearing Ukraine’s ports to be potential carriers of military cargo from Thursday. The announcement comes days after Moscow pulled out of a deal allowing wartime exports of Ukrainian grain that had eased a global food crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion. “From 00:00 a.m. Moscow time…
The wife and son of Alexander Zakharov, the creator of Russia’s ZALA Lancet combat drone, are the owners of an upscale apartment in central London, the investigative outlet iStories reported Wednesday, citing Britain’s real estate registry. Zakharov’s firm, CST, was placed under British sanctions in February 2023 for its role in “providing military equipment such as drones…
Russian lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill that would allow the National Guard to deploy heavy weapons, including tanks, in the wake of a short-lived insurrection by the mercenary group Wagner. The National Guard was created by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2016 with the aim of warding off unrest and breaking up protests. The…
The Wagner mercenary outfit’s short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military leadership has cast a shadow of uncertainty over the future of the private military group’s far-flung presence abroad, where it worked to covertly advance the Kremlin’s geopolitical interests. While the Kremlin swiftly moved to dissolve Wagner’s structures in Russia and Ukraine by handing its military hardware…
Municipal deputies in the Russian city of Volgograd voted Wednesday to temporarily rename their city to Stalingrad for a total of 10 days out of the year. Volgograd had carried the name Stalingrad in honor of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin starting in 1925. The site of the Battle of Stalingrad, where the Soviet army beat…
Kyiv on Wednesday said Russia had destroyed 60,000 tons of grain meant for export in overnight strikes around the port of Odesa. Russia has fired missiles at Ukraine’s southern Odesa region for two nights in a row, hitting ports on the Black Sea after backing out of a grain deal that allowed the safe passage of cargo ships. …
President Vladimir Putin will not attend a BRICS nations summit in South Africa in August, the country’s presidential office said Wednesday, ending months of speculation over whether the Russian leader would visit while under an international arrest warrant. “By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the summit,” Vincent Magwenya, a spokesperson…