Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said the main objective of the deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports to resume was not achieved, in a call with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa. The deal that eased fears of a global food crisis sparked by the offensive in Ukraine is due to expire late Monday…
A Russian anti-war activist’s lengthy ordeal at the Serbian border spells trouble for other Kremlin critics based in the Balkan country, independent Serbian and Russian analysts told The Moscow Times. Peter Nikitin, an anti-Kremlin activist who has organized protests against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, was barred entry when returning to Serbia on Thursday, with his…
Ukraine acknowledged Friday its troops were not making speedy headway in their counteroffensive to recapture territory in the east and south of the country from Russian forces. “Today it’s advancing not so quickly,” the head of the presidency Andriy Yermak told reporters, conceding that battles were difficult. “If we are going to see that something…
Minsk said Friday that members of the Russian mercenary force Wagner were acting as military instructors for Belarusian territorial defense forces, three weeks after the group’s aborted mutiny in Russia. “Near Asipovichy, units of territorial defense troops are undergoing training,” the Belarusian defense ministry said. The ministry said the forces were learning skills including tactical shooting, moving…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to extend the Black Sea grain deal which expires next week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. Erdogan told reporters he had spoken with his Russian counterpart about the crucial deal allowing for the export of Ukrainian grain to ease a global food crisis. The deal, signed…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lashed out at criticism Friday over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine at talks with dozens of foreign ministers in Jakarta, the European Union’s top diplomat said. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year has cemented a deep Cold War-style rupture between Russia and the West, with the United States and major European powers supporting…
Russia turned down a request by South Africa not to send President Vladimir Putin to next month’s BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa’s deputy president told local media Friday. Earlier, Russian officials told The Moscow Times that Putin’s attendance remained uncertain in the face of an International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment over the unlawful deportation…
An elderly woman was killed in the shelling of a Russian village near the border with Ukraine, local authorities said Friday. The Bryansk region Governor Alexander Bogomaz said that Ukrainian forces attacked the village of Belaya Beryozka on the border with northeastern Ukraine’s Sumy and Chernihiv regions. A woman whose year of birth was given…
South Africa’s graft-tainted ex-leader Jacob Zuma is receiving medical treatment in Russia, his spokesman said Friday, a day after the country’s highest court upheld a ruling that he should return to prison. “Zuma traveled to Russia last week for health reasons,” the 81-year-old’s spokesman Mzwanele Manyi said in a statement. Manyi added that the trip “was private, it was…
An accident at a uranium enrichment plant in central Russia’s Ural mountains has left one worker dead and more than 100 were taken to a hospital for radiation inspections, local media reported Friday. The plant said there was one “victim” in the depressurization of a cylinder containing depleted uranium hexafluoride, without indicating whether the person…
Russian authorities have drafted a 10-point list of requirements that would complicate foreign businesses’ exit from and potential return to Russia, the Vedomosti business daily reported Friday. If a company is owned by an individual or parent from Russia’s list of “unfriendly” countries, the proceeds from its sale to Russian owners may not be transferred abroad, according…
MOSCOW – Alexei, a transgender man, had always planned to someday change the gender marker on his Russian passport — but time is now running out. “I’m in a panic. The process of my gender transition had been delayed because I have been living on my own since I was 18 and I didn’t have…
Russia will shutter Poland’s consulate in the western Russian city of Smolensk to reach “parity” in diplomatic presence, Russia’s government told Interfax on Friday. The Polish consulate in Smolensk was opened in 2011 to expand contacts between Russian and Polish citizens and to develop bilateral relations. A government decree published Friday orders Russia’s Foreign Ministry…
Lawmakers from the Russian parliament’s lower-house State Duma on Friday approved a ban on legal and surgical sex changes. The bill was passed in its third and final reading, banning “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person” and “the state registration of a change of gender without an operation.” According to the…
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Wagner mercenaries a chance to continue serving after their failed mutiny, he said in comments to the Kommersant business daily late Thursday. “Nothing would have changed for them,” Putin said, recalling a June 29 Kremlin meeting with 35 Wagner officers and founder Yevgeny Prigozhin just five days after the aborted…
President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that nothing had been done to meet Russian demands around a deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea. “I want to emphasize that nothing was done, nothing at all. It’s all one-sided,” Putin said in a televised interview. In July 2022, the agreement allowing Ukrainian grain exports to…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that if Ukraine were to be admitted to NATO, it would make the world more vulnerable, after the bloc vowed closer integration with Kyiv at its summit this week. “I am sure that this will not increase the security of Ukraine itself, and in general will make the world…
A Russian anti-war activist living in Serbia was banned from entering the Balkan country after being stopped at Belgrade’s main airport Thursday, according to his lawyer. Peter Nikitin, who has permanent residency in Serbia, was prevented from entering at the request of the country’s Security Information Agency (BIA), Belgrade-based lawyer Cedomir Stojkovic said in a…
A Russian court on Thursday ordered the extended detention of a suspect in the murder of a military recruitment official and former submarine commander. The suspect, Sergei Denysenko, will be held in custody pending trial, a spokesman for the court in the southwestern city of Krasnodar told the Russian state-run agency TASS. Denysenko admitted to…
Plans are underway to turn the South Caucasus country of Georgia into a transit hub for Russian travelers flying to Europe, the RBC business daily reported Thursday, citing the part-owner of a Russian airline and major airport. Russia has been largely cut off from Europe since its invasion of Ukraine sparked mutual airspace bans between…
At least 204 Russian athletes have changed their sport nationality in order to continue competing in international events and avoid bans over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the independent Kholod news website reported Thursday, citing publicly available information. An athlete’s sport nationality refers to the country they officially represent in their sport, which may differ from their…
President Vladimir Putin’s attendance at next month’s BRICS summit in South Africa is mired in uncertainty as the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeks his arrest and an aborted mercenary mutiny has shaken Russia’s domestic stability, three Russian officials as well as independent experts told The Moscow Times. In what would be his first official trip…
Russian security services have detained at least 13 senior military officers and suspended or fired 15 others in the wake of the Wagner mercenary group’s mutiny last month, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. “The detentions are about cleaning the ranks of those who are believed can’t be…
Thousands of Ukrainian civilians held by Russian forces are tortured and forced to dig trenches for the military, the Associated Press reported Thursday, citing dozens of former detainees, Ukrainian officials and satellite imagery. The report describes a system of detention and abuse of civilians — most without legal status under Russian law — that the…
Companies with known links to Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin have been awarded over 1 billion rubles in government contracts since his attempted overthrow of Russia’s military leadership last month, the RTVI television network reported Thursday, citing public data. The nine contracts, which are all for the provision of food services to various state-run institutions…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it has detained a trans activist on suspicion of financing the Ukrainian military, state news agencies reported Thursday. The FSB did not identify the person by name but described him as “an LGBT movement activist who previously changed his gender identity from a woman to a man,” according to TASS.…
Remittances from Russia have dropped for the first time since Moscow invaded Ukraine last year, the RBC news website reported Thursday, citing central bank data of four ex-Soviet countries that have been major recipients of the inflows. Money transfers from Russia skyrocketed in 2022 after hundreds of thousands of Russians fled to neighboring countries in…
Russia will regard Western F-16 fighter jets sent to Ukraine as a “nuclear” threat because of their capacity to carry atomic weapons, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday. Modern warplanes have been at the forefront of Kyiv’s demands for military aid from its Western allies as it fights back against Russia’s offensive. Lavrov spoke of a…
A Russian army general was heard railing against his superiors for “treacherously decapitating” the military after his dismissal in an audio message shared by a federal lawmaker late Wednesday. The speech criticizing Russia’s military leadership marks the first publicly known instance of a regular army officer voicing disaffection after Wagner’s failed mutiny last month —…
Russia announced Wednesday that its army had received more than 2,000 pieces of military hardware, including tanks, from Wagner, following the mercenary group’s short-lived insurrection last month. The armed group, which played a key role in the Ukraine offensive, sought to topple Russia’s military leadership during the brief rebellion, before backing down. “More than 2,000…
This year’s NATO summit that concluded in Vilnius on Wednesday has resulted in a handful of unpleasant developments for the Kremlin, from solidifying the political shift of its longtime strategic partner Turkey to reiterating the alliance’s unwavering support for Ukraine nearly a year and a half into Russia’s invasion. While the summit saw the inaugural…
A Russian general was reportedly killed in occupied southeastern Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian officials said Tuesday. Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov was targeted in a Monday night missile strike on a hotel in the Russian-occupied resort city of Berdiansk, according to Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to Mariupol’s Ukrainian mayor now operating outside the Russian-held city. “It was…
Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), confirmed Wednesday that he held a phone call with CIA director William Burns in the days after Wagner’s mercenary mutiny last month. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous U.S. officials, reported that Burns had called Naryshkin in late June to reassure him that Washington…
The Kremlin on Wednesday vowed to respond with “countermeasures” if Ukraine used cluster bombs against its invading troops after the United States pledged the weapons to Kyiv. “The potential use of this type of munitions changes the situation, and of course, it would force Russia to take countermeasures,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, without…
Kyrgyzstan announced Wednesday it had reversed a decision to close the local branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty after the U.S.-funded outlet agreed to remove a video criticized by authorities. Award-winning Radio Azattyk is a prominent outlet in the Central Asian country that regularly reports on opposition groups and investigates alleged corruption. “Azattyk Media removed…
At least four people are missing along southern Russia’s Black Sea coast, which has been battered by heavy rains and flash floods since the weekend, news agencies reported Wednesday. The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry’s Krasnodar region branch said it was organizing a search and rescue operation where local authorities issued a state of emergency earlier…
Russian officials are opting out of traditional European travel destinations in favor of those closer to home for their summer vacations, the investigative outlet Vyorstka reported Wednesday, citing multiple anonymous lawmakers and regional officials. Western sanctions and the Kremlin’s strict controls on foreign travel are limiting options for Russian civil servants to domestic resorts, ex-Soviet…
Western powers will offer Ukraine a package of long-term security commitments on Wednesday, after NATO dashed President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hopes of a clear timeline for joining the alliance. The Ukrainian leader was to hold talks with NATO’s 31 leaders at their summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, a day after blasting them for not moving…
Russians withdrew 100 billion rubles ($1.1 billion) from banks during the panic that ensued as Wagner mercenaries marched on Moscow last month, Russia’s Central Bank said Tuesday. “The need for cash increased in June and led to a 500 billion ruble liquidity outflow,” the bank said in a monthly monetary policy report. One-fifth of the…
Ukraine said Wednesday it had shot down 11 Russian drones overnight in a second consecutive night of attacks on the capital Kyiv, as NATO leaders prepared to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Vilnius. “A total of 15 kamikaze drones were involved in the strike. Eleven of them were destroyed in the areas of responsibility…
The war in Ukraine will not end until the West “abandons its plans” to defeat Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Indonesian media on Wednesday. His comments came ahead of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky’s symbolic talks with NATO leaders at their summit in Lithuania on Wednesday. In an interview with…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday pushed for Ukraine to join NATO in a speech in Vilnius, as alliance members gathered for a key summit in the Lithuanian capital. “NATO will give Ukraine security, Ukraine will make NATO stronger,” said Zelensky, standing alongside Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, before a Ukrainian army flag from the key…
Russian forces have advanced 1.5 kilometers near the town of Lyman in eastern Ukraine after repelling a Ukrainian attack in the area, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday. “Russian units launched a counterattack, advancing 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) along two kilometers of the front,” Shoigu said on Russian state television. But he said…
Belarusian artist and political prisoner Ales Pushkin died early Tuesday at a hospital where he was urgently transferred from a prison facility, the Belarusian human rights center Viasna reported, citing the artist’s wife. The reasons for the 57-year-old dissident’s hospitalization in intensive care as well as the circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear. An acclaimed artist…
Russia’s Wagner mercenaries will train the army of neighboring Belarus where they were exiled following a failed mutiny, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said Tuesday. “They’ll tell us about weapons: which ones worked well, which ones did not,” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in a statement issued by his ministry. He said Wagner would also share…
A mock-up of Kremlin critic Alexei Navaly’s prison cell has been vandalized ahead of a NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. Navalny’s supporters have toured European cities with the 2×3 meter gray box that replicates the Kremlin critic’s real punishment cell to raise awareness of the dire conditions in which he is being…
A senior Russian draft officer and former submarine commander who Kyiv accuses of being behind missile attacks on Ukraine has been shot and killed in southern Russia, authorities said late Monday. Captain Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, served as deputy head of the Krasnodar city administration’s mobilization department when he was reported as having been gunned down during a morning…
Russia was condemned Tuesday by Europe’s top rights court for failing to adequately investigate the shooting of top opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in 2015, including possible links to Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. Nemtsov, an outspoken critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, was gunned down crossing a bridge a short walk from the Kremlin in Moscow.…
Russian officials are working to lure back the hundreds of thousands of citizens who moved abroad since the launch of the country’s military offensive against Ukraine — but have so far given them little, if any, incentive to go back. Between 700,000 and 1.5 million Russians are estimated to have left the country following the…
Ukraine said Tuesday that Russian attack drones overnight had targeted grain facilities at a southern port in the Odesa region, which houses three maritime terminals key to an expiring export agreement between Moscow and Kyiv. “The air defense forces did not allow the enemy’s plan to attack the grain terminal of one of the ports…
Berlin prosecutors said Monday they had charged a 55-year-old Russian man with attempted murder for trying to set fire to a building housing employees of Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency. The man is suspected of having placed an improvised incendiary device in a basement shaft of the apartment building in late April 2022, just weeks after Russia’s…
Russia’s first transgender politician announced Monday that she will not run in this year’s upcoming gubernatorial elections as federal lawmakers pursue a ban on legal or surgical sex changes. Yulia Alyoshina, the former head of the Civic Initiative party in Siberia’s Altai region, had been nominated as her party’s candidate for the regional governor elections…
Moscow is unaware of the missing Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov’s Russian citizenship and has not been approached by her relatives, the country’s ambassador in Iraq said Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that Tsurkov — an Israeli-Russian dual citizen — was being held by a pro-Iranian Shiite militia in Iraq, where she…
Updated with Lobanov’s comments to The Moscow Times. Prominent Kremlin critic and trade union activist Mikhail Lobanov said Monday he had fled Russia, just hours after revealing that he was fired from a leading Moscow university. “Our team made a decision: I am going on a long-term trip abroad,” the activist wrote on the Telegram messaging app,…
President Vladimir Putin met with Russia’s Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his fighters after their failed mutiny, the Kremlin confirmed Monday. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin had welcomed Prigozhin and 34 Wagner commanders at the Kremlin on June 29. “The commanders themselves outlined their version of events, emphasizing that they are soldiers…
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Sunday that his Akhmat military unit has been deployed to the site of “difficult” fighting in the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Fighting has picked up near Bakhmut, the site of the longest battle of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in recent days despite the Wagner mercenary group claiming to have…
Russia’s top military commander in Ukraine Valery Gerasimov on Monday made his first public appearance following Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny last month. Gerasimov was shown in a Defense Ministry video listening to reports and instructing subordinates on Russia’s response to increased Ukrainian missile attacks on Russian territory and annexed Crimea. “I’m tasking the Aerospace Forces…
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has won a third term that will keep him in charge of the tightly controlled, gas-rich Central Asian state until 2030, the electoral commission said on Monday. The 65-year-old has promised to open up Uzbekistan to foreign investment and tourism and implement major reforms in Central Asia’s most populous country. Mirziyoyev,…
Russian shelling on an aid hub in the town of Orikhiv in southern Ukraine has killed four people, the regional governor said on Monday, calling it a “war crime.” “They hit a humanitarian aid delivery spot in a residential area… Four people died on the spot: women aged 43, 45 and 47 and a 47-year-old…
Heavy rains struck southern Russia’s Black Sea coast over the weekend, leading to evacuations as overflowing rivers washed away cars and flooded homes. Emergency authorities in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region issued a flash flood warning from late Sunday into Monday due to the heavy rains. Footage published early Sunday showed several cars piled together in…