Category: another

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, […]

Nearly 100 wildfires are currently burning in Russia’s Far East republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the local branch of the Russian emergencies ministry said Monday.  The 98 wildfires have engulfed a combined area of 125,600 hectares (310,364 acres) of land — roughly half the size of the country of Luxembourg, authorities said. Emergency officials added that […]

Russia has reallocated healthcare spending from dozens of its regions to build and repair hospitals in the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine, the Vedomosti business daily reported Monday, citing a government decree. Sixty-one out of 85 Russian regions — including annexed Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol — saw cuts of some 2.4 billion […]

The appearance of several tons of dead fish in a forest in Russia’s Far East Kamchatka region has prompted local authorities to open a probe into unauthorized dumping. The inspection was initiated after photos of the incident appeared on social media, depicting a vast amount of fish strewn across the ground. Kamchatka regional authorities said […]

Russia said Monday its troops had advanced three kilometers (two miles) along the Kupiansk front in northeast Ukraine over the last three days, as it seeks to regain territories it lost earlier in its offensive.  The city of Kupiansk and surrounding areas of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region were liberated by Ukrainian forces last September, but Moscow […]

The first moon landing mission in Russia’s post-Soviet history will be accompanied by an evacuation of a village where rocket boosters are expected to fall this week, a local official said Monday. The Luna-25 lunar lander is scheduled to launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East at 23:10 GMT on Friday, Aug. 11. It […]

Russia is on track to open more criminal cases for treason in 2023 than over the past 20 years combined, Russia’s independent news website Kholod reported Monday.  Authorities launched 82 treason investigations between January and July — a fourfold increase from the 20 cases investigated in all of 2022 — Kholod said, citing publicly available […]

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 […]

European companies have suffered at least 100 billion euros ($110 billion) in direct losses from operations in Russia since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times reported late Sunday. A survey of major European companies showed that a total of 176 companies that have posted annual reports for 2022 and financial statements this […]

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 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 […]

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Sunday that Russian air defense had destroyed a drone nearing the capital, which had been rarely targeted throughout the conflict in Ukraine until several attacks this year. “Today at around 11 am a drone attempted to make a breakthrough toward Moscow. It was destroyed while approaching by air defense forces,” […]

Moscow escalated its attacks in Ukraine on Saturday, with President Volodymyr Zelensky denouncing a deadly strike on a blood transfusion centre as a “war crime.” A separate strike struck a key factory, both attacks coming just hours after Kyiv hit a Russian tanker in the Kerch Strait. The attacks were the latest since Moscow exited […]

Russia said Saturday it scrambled an Su-30 fighter jet to “prevent a violation of the Russian state border” by a U.S. Reaper MQ-9 military drone over the Black Sea. “As the Russian fighter approached, the foreign reconnaissance drone performed a U-turn away from the border,” the Russian Defense Ministry said. The ministry said the drone belonged […]

Russia on Saturday said it captured a settlement in northeastern Ukraine, where Kyiv has reported increased attacks. “In the area of Kupiansk, as a result of the competent and professional actions of the military units of the Western command, the settlement of Novoselivske was liberated,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram. It added “offensive […]

A Russian tanker was hit by Ukrainian drones in the Kerch Strait, briefly halting traffic on the strategic bridge linking Crimea to Russia, Russian media reported early Saturday. The tanker was damaged in the attack and two tugboats had arrived at the scene, the state-run TASS news agency said, citing the Maritime Rescue Center. No […]

The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament said that lawmakers will ditch their foreign-made cars for domestic car brands, Interfax reported Friday. “We discussed with the heads of the State Duma factions the issue of the use of domestically assembled cars by deputies. Everyone supports this decision. We agreed that the deputies will use Moskvitch, […]

President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a law allowing Russian banks and other financial institutions to block the assets of sanctioned foreign organizations and individuals.  The law allows Moscow to freeze the funds and property of legal entities controlled by foreign citizens and organizations against whom Russia has imposed what it calls “special economic measures.” It […]

A Moscow court has sentenced jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to 19 years in prison, Interfax reported Friday, on a string of new “extremism” charges that his supporters have called an attempt to keep him out of politics forever. President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal domestic opponent, who is already serving a nine-year prison sentence on […]

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 […]

Poland on Friday said it had detained a Belarusian man on suspicion of being part of a “Russian spy ring” which it claimed planned to derail trains carrying aid to Ukraine. Poland, a key ally of Ukraine, had previously reported arrests in the investigation, including that of a Russian ice hockey player in June who […]

An elderly man charged with trying to set fire to a Russian military enlistment office has been found dead in his home near St. Petersburg, local media reported late Thursday, amid a nationwide wave of arson attacks linked to phone scams. The 76-year-old was detained on Wednesday after cameras captured him throwing Molotov cocktails at an […]

Authorities in northern Russia are seeking millions of dollars in damages from neighboring Norway after a herd of wild reindeer crossed over the border and damaged a protected nature reserve last winter, The Barents Observer reported.  Natalya Polikarpova, director of the Murmansk region’s Pasvik nature reserve, said the animals ate away moss and shrubs and […]

Russia has nearly doubled its defense budget plan after spending more in the first half of 2023 than originally targeted for the entire year, Reuters reported Friday, citing a government document it obtained. Defense spending has increased every month since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February last year. In June, Russia stopped the […]

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited the war zone in Ukraine to inspect a command post and captured Western military hardware, the army said Friday. Footage published by the Defense Ministry showed Shoigu boarding a helicopter, meeting with officers and inspecting a Swedish armored combat vehicle captured by Russian forces.  The footage also showed Shoigu […]

Russia claimed Friday it had thwarted Ukrainian sea and air drone attacks on a naval base in the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula. “Tonight, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the use of two unmanned sea boats, attempted an attack on the Novorossiysk naval base of the Russian Armed Forces,” the Defense Ministry said […]

Russia said Friday it had thwarted Ukrainian sea and air drone attacks on a naval base in the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula. The number of attacks in the sea has increased from both sides since Moscow exited a deal last month that had allowed Ukrainian grain exports via the shipping hub during the […]

At least 79 civilians have been killed on Russian soil since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine last year, the independent news website 7×7 reported Tuesday. The Belgorod region which borders Ukraine, which has regularly been targeted by drone attacks and shelling, saw the highest share of civilian losses, with 48 people killed. Other casualties were […]

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 […]

A controversial new bill seeking to ease logging restrictions along the shores of Lake Baikal could deal irreversible damage to the Siberian lake’s unique ecosystem, experts and activists have told The Moscow Times. Baikal was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996 and recognized as the planet’s most outstanding example of a freshwater ecosystem. […]

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Thursday he expects a Russian court to deliver a “Stalinist” verdict on extremism charges on Friday as he urged supporters to continue “cold-blooded” opposition activities. Prosecutors have requested a jail term of 20 years for Navalny on charges that include financing extremist activities, publicly inciting extremist activities and “rehabilitating […]

Russian authorities have approved a draft agreement with China to establish an international protected area for rare tigers and leopards, the Russian Natural Resources Ministry said Tuesday.  The proposed Russian-Chinese nature reserve — called Land of Big Cats — will encompass habitats in the southwest of Russia’s Primorye region and the mountainous region of northeastern […]

A Russian grocery store owner who has openly opposed the war in Ukraine was sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison on Thursday, independent media reported. Dmitry Skurikhin, 48, gained notoriety for featuring pro-Ukrainian slogans and posters on the facade of his store outside of St. Petersburg following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.  Skurikhin has […]

At least 8,500 members of the Russian Airborne Forces have been wounded in the year and a half since Russia invaded Ukraine, the elite troops’ commander said Wednesday. Airborne Forces commander Mikhail Teplinsky disclosed the figures in a video message congratulating comrades on Paratroopers’ Day, which marked 93 years since the founding of the corps. “More […]

Russia’s republic of Mordovia has become the country’s first region to ban so-called abortion “propaganda” and the act of “influencing” women to undergo the procedure, independent media reported. The regional-level law passed Thursday potentially sets the stage for similar laws across the country. According to the law’s explanatory note cited by the Mediazona news website, […]

Updated to reflect that the final version of the legislation does not introduce fines for abortion “propaganda,” as was previously reported. Russia’s republic of Mordovia has become the country’s first region to outlaw the act of “coercing” women into undergoing abortion, independent media reported. The regional-level law passed Thursday potentially sets the stage for similar […]

Moscow on Thursday added Norway to its list of “unfriendly” countries that restricts the number of local staff its diplomatic mission in Russia can hire.  “The government has included the Kingdom of Norway in the list of foreign states that commit unfriendly acts against Russian diplomatic and consular missions abroad,” Russia’s cabinet of ministers said […]

Russia’s industrial worker shortage reached a new high last month, the RBC news website reported Thursday, citing a survey by the Yegor Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy. The survey found that 42% of Russian industrial enterprises faced a shortage of workers in July, surpassing April’s record-setting shortage of 35%, according to the same survey of around […]

Russian air defense systems shot down six Ukrainian drones outside Moscow, Russia’s military and regional authorities said Thursday. The drones were intercepted while attempting to “fly through” western Russia’s Kaluga region overnight, Kaluga Governor Vladislav Shapsha wrote on the messaging app Telegram. The Kaluga region lies southwest of Moscow and northeast of the Bryansk region, […]

Updated with new downed drone count. Russian air defense systems shot down seven Ukrainian drones outside Moscow, Russia’s military and regional authorities said Thursday. The drones were intercepted while attempting to “fly through” western Russia’s Kaluga region overnight, Kaluga Governor Vladislav Shapsha wrote on the messaging app Telegram. The Kaluga region lies southwest of Moscow […]

Drones targeted the Moscow City business and finance district, a cluster of modern skyscrapers towering over the Russian capital, for the second time in three days Tuesday. But while Kyiv said the back-to-back incidents were a sign of how the war has come home to Russia a year and a half into its offensive on […]

Russian drones on Wednesday damaged infrastructure at a Ukrainian port on the Danube, as Moscow targeted facilities vital for grain shipments from Ukraine following the collapse of a key export arrangement. Turkey, which along with the United Nations-brokered the deal to allow Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, urged Russia after the port strike not to take […]

A Russian volunteer soldier who threatened to detonate a grenade in public unless charges of desertion against him were dropped has turned himself in to the authorities after speaking with the governor of Bashkortostan, local media reported Wednesday. Security forces cordoned off a section of a highway in the southern Urals city of Ufa in […]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a call on Wednesday not to further escalate tensions, after Moscow struck facilities vital for grain shipments from Ukraine.  Erdogan was a key player in the now-collapsed deal that allowed for safe passage of Ukraine grain shipments on the Black Sea, and has […]

Russia announced Wednesday that it had begun naval exercises in the Baltic Sea, amid rising tensions with its European neighbors over the conflict in Ukraine. Russia regularly holds naval drills in the Baltic Sea, often in response to NATO exercises in the area. The Russian Navy has played a key role in Moscow’s assault on Ukraine by […]

Russia’s Supreme Court has upheld journalist Ivan Safronov’s 22-year prison sentence for treason, a group of his supporters said Wednesday. Safronov, 33, was found guilty in September 2022 of collecting secret information about the Russian military and handing it to Czech spies as a defense reporter for the Russian newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti.  Safronov lost his final […]

President Vladimir Putin is working to silence his most vocal pro-war nationalist critics on the eve of this fall’s regional elections and the 2024 presidential election in which he is expected to seek six more years in power.  Following the Wagner mutiny, which posed the biggest threat yet to Putin’s 23-year rule, the Kremlin now […]

Russia’s far northwestern regions witnessed a surge in warm weather in July, with air temperatures soaring 3-4 degrees Celsius above average, according to Tatyana Pozdnyakova, the chief meteorologist at the Meteonovosti news agency.  Naryan-Mar, the administrative center of the Nenets autonomous district in the Arctic, saw temperatures rise to 31.6 C on July 31, breaking […]

Turkmenistan’s flagship carrier Turkmenistan Airlines announced it was suspending direct flights to Moscow starting Tuesday, just days after consecutive drone attacks on the Russian capital. Turkmenistan Airlines will instead perform flights to and from the city of Kazan, located some 800 kilometers east of Moscow, the company said in a statement. The announcement comes after […]

Demand for abortion drugs in Russia reached an all-time high in 2022, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday, citing data by the RNC Pharma consultancy.  A total of 1.4 million drugs that induce abortions and 2.2 million emergency contraception drugs were sold in Russia last year, marking a 60% and 53% increase from 2021 respectively.  “The launch […]

Russian drones damaged port infrastructure in Odesa and targeted the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, authorities said Wednesday. The Ukrainian army said it repelled Iraninan-made Shahed-136 drones launched from the Sea of Azov. “The enemy’s obvious target was the port and industrial infrastructure of the region. Air defense forces worked non-stop for almost three hours,” the […]

Workers lowered a hammer and sickle from a towering sculpture overlooking Kyiv on Tuesday in a campaign to remove Soviet icons that ramped up after Russia invaded last year. The 62-meter-high steel figure of a woman holding a sword and shield bearing the U.S.S.R.-linked symbols was unveiled in 1981 as a memorial to Soviet victory in World […]

MOSCOW — Tatiana moved to Russia from Sloviansk, a town located in a Kyiv-held part of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, in March 2022 as shelling attacks intensified near her home. After arriving, she was able to receive Russian citizenship fairly quickly, she told The Moscow Times, under a simplified process for Ukrainians. Although Tatiana, who declined […]

Russia’s plans to launch a crypto-based “Digital Ruble” are not going to help it avoid Western sanctions in the foreseeable future, experts say, despite Russian officials’ claims that the new currency could deal a fatal blow to the U.S.-led global financial system. A new law paving the way for the roll-out of the Digital Ruble […]

A court in southern Russia has sentenced a former regional administration official to 12 years in prison on charges of providing Ukraine with state secrets, local media reported Tuesday. The Krasnodar Region Court found the unidentified former official guilty of treason and handed him a 12-year sentence in a maximum-security prison. He was accused of […]

Authorities in Kazakhstan have approved Moscow’s request to extradite a Russian cybersecurity expert wanted by the FBI, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Tuesday, citing Artyom Oganov, an official at the Russian consulate in Almaty. Nikita Kislitsin, a department head at Russian cybersecurity firm F.A.C.C.T., was detained by Kazakh law enforcement on June 22 […]

At least nine Russian military enlistment offices have been targeted in arson attacks linked to phone scams in recent days, media outlets reported Tuesday. The first such incidents occurred in annexed Crimea and the central city of Kazan on Saturday, when two middle-aged women were detained trying to set local enlistment offices on fire, according […]

Russia said Tuesday it had downed another wave of Ukrainian drones aimed at vessels in the Black Sea and Moscow, as an office block in the capital’s main business district was struck for the second time in a few days. “Two Ukrainian (unmanned aerial vehicles) were destroyed by air defense systems over the territory of the […]

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that three Ukrainian sea drones targeted two Black Sea Fleet patrol boats in a second unsuccessful attack near annexed Crimea in two weeks. The patrol boats, Sergei Kotov and Vasily Bykov, perform control-of-navigation tasks 340 kilometers southwest of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol. “All three unmanned […]

An office tower in Moscow was struck by a downed drone on Tuesday, Russian officials said, in the second such instance in just three days. “Several drones were shot down by air defense systems while trying to fly to Moscow. One [drone] flew into the same tower in [Moscow] City as last time. The facade […]