Russian investigators on Wednesday said they had launched a criminal investigation after award-winning journalist Yelena Milashina was badly beaten in Chechnya. Milashina, 45, covers rights abuses in Chechnya, the Caucasus republic ruled for years by Ramzan Kadyrov, a former warlord. Milashina, who reports for Russia’s top independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and Alexander Nemov, a lawyer, were…
The general director of Russian tech giant Yandex is under investigation for violating the country’s ban on displaying “gay propaganda” toward minors, the independent news outlet Mediazona reported Wednesday, citing public court records. The case against Artyom Savinovsky is linked to his ongoing role as head of the media services department at Kinopoisk, an online Yandex-owned movie database…
Moscow and Kyiv have traded accusations of planning “dangerous provocations” at the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine this week, raising alarm over the risks of a radioactive disaster at Europe’s largest nuclear plant. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday warned that Russia was plotting an incident at the Zaporizhzhia plant, while Moscow said…
The son of a jailed Belarusian banker and philanthropist was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges related to the disputed 2020 elections in Belarus that sparked mass protests and a brutal crackdown on critics of President Alexander Lukashenko. Eduard Babariko, 33, was arrested along with his father Viktor Babariko in the run-up to…
A billboard proclaiming Russia to be a “peaceful” country appeared across from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on Tuesday, an apparent dig by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) aimed at Washington as Americans celebrated their Independence Day. “Welcome to our peaceful country,” read the billboard in the colors of the Russian flag, set against the…
The Kremlin warned Wednesday that Kyiv could be preparing a provocation at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. “The situation is quite tense because the threat of sabotage from the Kyiv regime is really high, sabotage that could have catastrophic consequences,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. The comments come after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this…
The Wagner mercenary group’s rebellion against Russia’s military leadership has further split Russia’s anti-Kremlin opposition, which is already largely divided over a litany of issues and geographically scattered in exile. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled former oil tycoon turned opposition figure, swiftly emerged as the most vocal of Prigozhin’s unlikely supporters, while allies of jailed Kremlin critic…
Russian investigative journalist and former Meduza reporter Ivan Golunov said he was awarded 1.5 million rubles ($16,500) in damages for fabricated drug charges against him, the MSK1.RU news outlet reported Tuesday. Golunov was arrested in June 2019 on fabricated drug charges and released days later following an unprecedented public outcry. The court dropped all charges…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has arrested a Russian national who lives abroad on suspicion of donating money to the Ukrainian military, state news agencies reported Wednesday. The FSB claimed the 39-year-old had also tried buying satellite communication equipment that would help Ukrainian artillery locate and fire on Russian military units, according to TASS. It…
At least one person was injured in attacks on two Russian regions bordering Ukraine, regional authorities said early Wednesday. The governors of southwestern Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions both issued statements about Ukrainian attacks on two residential areas, located some 400 kilometers apart from each other. The Belgorod region town of Valuyki was shelled for…
Recast and includes updated casualty count. Russia said Wednesday that one person was killed and another 41 were injured by a Ukrainian strike in the Russian-controlled town of Makiivka in the eastern Donetsk region. “Forty-one people, including two children, have been injured due to the shelling. One person has died from their wounds,” Vladislav Klyucharov, the Moscow-installed head…
The Kremlin said Tuesday there were “certain contacts” with the U.S. over detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, responding to a question about a possible prisoner exchange. U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy was allowed to visit Gershkovich in prison on Monday after a gap in visits of more than two months. Russian state media reported…
Russian authorities have returned 10 billion rubles ($111.2 million) to exiled Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin which they had seized in police raids during his aborted rebellion last month. Law enforcement in St. Petersburg confiscated the large sum of money — along with “hundreds of thousands” of U.S. dollars and five gold bars — in raids…
Manufacturing facilities based in one of Russia’s special economic zones have been assembling Iranian drones used to attack Ukraine, the Protokol and Razvorot independent media outlets reported in a joint investigation published Monday. As part of a three-stage franchise agreement, specialists at the Alabuga special economic zone in the republic of Tatarstan assemble prefabricated drone…
Zarema Musaeva, the mother of prominent Chechen human rights lawyer and activist Abubakar Yangulbaev, has been sentenced to 5.5 years in prison, the Committee Against Torture rights group reported Tuesday. A judge at a local court in Grozny, the capital of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, found Musaeva guilty of assaulting the authorities and fraud…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it had downed five Ukrainian drones near Moscow, calling it a “terrorist act” that disrupted flights at one of the capital’s main airports. Four unmanned aircraft were downed by air defense systems near Moscow, with the fifth “suppressed by electronic warfare” in the Moscow region, the Russian military said. According…
A prominent Russian journalist and lawyer have been hospitalized after being badly beaten on a visit to Russia’s republic of Chechnya, the rights groups Memorial and the Crew Against Torture (CAT) said early Tuesday. Yelena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov arrived in the Chechen capital of Grozny to attend the court hearing of the mother of…
Russia on Monday granted the United States consular access to jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, with the U.S. ambassador reporting him in good health. The U.S. State Department said Ambassador Lynne Tracy met Gershkovich at the Lefortovo prison in Moscow, only her second such meeting with him since he was arrested on March…
Anna, a 67-year-old woman from the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, remembers being woken up by the sounds of military equipment early in the morning of June 24. From her window, she could see a tank, armored vehicles and machine gunners of the Wagner private military company sitting opposite her house, surrounding one of the Russian…
Russia has added the Ukrainian owner of a popular vodka brand to its wanted list on suspicion of financing Ukraine’s armed forces. Russia’s Investigative Committee said Monday it had launched a criminal investigation into Yevhen Cherniak, the founder of Ukraine’s Global Spirits holding — which produces Khortytsa vodka — on charges of sponsoring terrorism. Cherniak…
Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu on Monday praised his army’s “loyalty” during an armed uprising last month by the Wagner military group that targeted the country’s senior military leadership. “The plans primarily failed because the personnel of the armed forces showed loyalty to their oath and military duty,” he said in his first public comments since…
Russia’s top energy official said Monday that Moscow will voluntarily cut oil exports by 500,000 barrels per day, building on previously announced production cuts. “As part of efforts to ensure that the oil market remains balanced, Russia will voluntarily reduce its oil supply in the month of August by 500,000 barrels per day, by cutting its exports…
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has appeared on video with his close ally and Russian lawmaker from Chechnya, Adam Delimkhanov, following growing rumors that he has been suffering from serious health problems. In the three-minute video published on Instagram Sunday, Kadyrov was shown seated beside Delimkhanov at a dining table. “We’re living our lives, slowly but…
Russia’s domestic intelligence agency said Monday it had thwarted an assassination attempt on the Moscow-installed head of annexed Crimea. “An assassination attempt organized by Ukraine’s special services targeting the head of the Republic of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, was foiled,” Russian state-run agency TASS reported, citing a statement by the Federal Security Service (FSB). Video released…
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has announced it is suspending the recruitment of new fighters in the aftermath of its failed mutiny and as the Russian military’s deadline for volunteer units to sign contracts passed over the weekend. Wagner’s recruitment channel on the Telegram messaging app said late Sunday that a one-month recruitment suspension was linked to…
There is no need for further mobilization in Russia to replace Wagner fighters who left the battlefield in Ukraine after their short-lived mutiny, Russian state media said on Monday, citing a senior lawmaker. Last month, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, led his forces in a rebellion against Russia’s top military brass.…
A top Russian propagandist on Sunday accused the Wagner boss of “going off the rails” after receiving billions in public funds, as Moscow’s new narrative takes shape after Wagner’s brief mutiny. Last weekend the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, led his forces in a short-lived rebellion against Russia’s top military brass, in a…
Forty diplomats and Russian embassy staff in Bucharest were set to leave Romania on Saturday following a request from the government, with ties worsening between the two countries since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Eleven diplomats and 29 technical and administrative staff, accompanied by their families, “will leave Romania on board a civilian aircraft belonging to…
Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has closed down his St. Petersburg-based media holding, according to multiple media reports published Friday. The Patriot media group, which Prigozhin founded in 2019, encompasses the Internet Research Agency, widely known as a “troll factory,” which conducts online influence operations to advance Russia’s business and political interests abroad. All…
As members of the Wagner mercenary outfit launched their “march of justice” to Moscow early on June 24, residents of the Far Eastern republic of Sakha (Yakutia) thousands of kilometers away gathered outside the regional capital to celebrate Yhyakh, the New Year marked by indigenous Sakha peoples. Though many Sakha locals boycotted this year’s government-sponsored…
Moscow said Friday that the Wagner Group would continue to work in African countries if their governments chose to maintain contracts with the private military group. “The future of the agreements between African countries and the Wagner private military company is above all up to the governments of the countries concerned,” Russian foreign minister Sergei…
Public displays of support shown for Wagner mercenaries in southern Russia’s Rostov-on-Don as they took control of a military headquarters last weekend were “staged,” the regional governor said Thursday. Rostov region Governor Vasily Golubev disputed claims that locals in the regional capital were sympathetic to Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s short-lived mutiny, arguing that those who…
Organizers of Russia’s International Air and Space Salon (MAKS) confirmed Friday that the flagship airshow due to be held in July this year in the Moscow region town of Zhukovsky has been postponed to 2024. MAKS airshow has been held biennially since 1993, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors over the years. This year marks the…
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that Russia would emerge “stronger” after the failed mutiny by Wagner Group mercenaries last weekend. “Russia has always overcome all its problems… it comes out stronger and stronger,” Lavrov told journalists during a briefing in Moscow. “It will be the same this time, too. This process has already…
Poland said Friday it arrested a Russian ice hockey player on suspicion of having spied for Moscow while playing for a Polish club, prompting Russia to protest and demand an “immediate” explanation. Relations between Warsaw and Moscow have been hostile historically but have reached new lows during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with Poland being one of…
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary outfit continues to recruit fighters despite his exile in Belarus following a short-lived mutiny last weekend, according to multiple media reports. “Everything’s the same as before, for now. Nothing’s changed,” a recruiter for Wagner in the central Russian city of Saratov told the BBC. “Nothing has stopped, we’re still recruiting,” said…
Russians are buying up real estate in the occupied Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, over a year after a relentless siege by Moscow left it mostly in ruins, the independent news outlet Bumaga reported. Russian authorities have for months boasted of large-scale reconstruction efforts in Mariupol following the destruction of approximately 90% of the city’s…
The Kremlin has ordered a major PR damage control effort in the five days since armed Russian mercenaries seized a southern city and came within 200 kilometers of the capital with barely any resistance, Russian officials told The Moscow Times. Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s shock rebellion against the country’s military leadership sparked Russia’s…
Kyiv said Thursday its forces were gaining ground in Donbas, as Moscow claimed it had killed two generals in a missile strike earlier this week — the same day strikes on a restaurant in east Ukraine killed at least 12 people. Sixteen months into Russia’s invasion, Kyiv said it was advancing around Bakhmut and fighting “fierce”…
Russian media publisher Ilya Krasilshchik has been sentenced to eight years in prison in absentia over his comments criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the independent Mediazona news website reported Thursday. Krasilshchik, 36, was charged in April 2022 with “spreading fake news about the Russian military motivated by political hatred” over statements about the alleged massacre…
The Kremlin said Thursday that footage, which could not be verified, apparently showing President Vladimir Putin greeting adoring supporters proved that he has “astounding” support after quelling an armed insurrection. Moscow has insisted that Putin’s long rule has not been weakened after Wagner mercenaries marched hundreds of kilometers — almost reaching Moscow — and captured…
Pope Francis’s peace envoy met with a Russian official wanted by the ICC over allegations of illegally transferring Ukrainian children to Russia and Moscow’s spiritual leader Patriarch Kirill on a visit to the Russian capital Thursday. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi began his visit to Russia earlier this week, in a first such trip since President Vladimir Putin sent troops to…
Russian Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s troll farm and media outfit are looking for fresh ownership after his aborted rebellion and exile in Belarus, independent media reported Thursday. After years of denials, Prigozhin confirmed in February 2023 the widely held belief that he was behind Russia’s network of troll farms known as the Internet Research Agency. The…
Russian railway depots are clogged with empty shipping containers from China amid a deepening trade imbalance between the two countries, the independent business news outlet VPost reported Wednesday. Managers at Russian shipping companies told journalists that the container build-up had reached “almost critical” levels in the Moscow region and across central Russia. According to Chinese…
Poland will strengthen its eastern border with neighboring Belarus as Wagner Group mercenaries relocate to the Moscow-allied country following their failed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership, Polish officials said Wednesday. Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said Wagner’s expected move to Belarus was “a new and much more difficult stage of [Russia’s] hybrid war,” according…
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday that his country would send a note of diplomatic protest to Russia after three Colombians were injured in a missile strike that killed 12 in Ukraine. Petro said on Twitter that “Russia has attacked three defenseless Colombian civilians. In so doing, it violated the protocols of war.” He added…
Russian General Sergei Surovikin has been arrested, The Moscow Times’ Russian service reported Wednesday, citing two sources close to the Defense Ministry who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Defense Ministry has yet to comment on the alleged arrest of Surovikin, who has not been seen in public since Saturday, when Wagner Group chief…
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said that he did not doubt the support of Russian citizens during the rebellion by the Wagner mercenary group. “I did not doubt the reaction in Dagestan and in all of the country,” he said as he met Sergei Melikov, the head of the Caucasus region, according to an extract…
Russian authorities have added Latvia-based independent Russian news outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe to the country’s list of “undesirable” organizations. The designation means the outlet must cease all operations inside Russia and makes it a crime to engage with the publication in any way, including sharing its content online. The Prosecutor General’s Office said the decision was…
The Russian state played no role in the Wagner mercenary group’s multimillion-dollar business interests in Africa, the Kremlin said Wednesday. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov issued the denial after President Vladimir Putin revealed Tuesday that Russia’s state budget “fully financed” Wagner, detailing sums of 86 billion rubles ($1 billion) spent on upkeep and another 110 billion rubles ($1.3…
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Pope Francis’s envoy would hold talks with President Vladimir Putin’s adviser in Moscow as Russia “welcomed” the Vatican’s peace efforts over Ukraine. Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi began a Russia visit on Tuesday in the first such trip since Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022. High-ranking Catholic clerics are rarely seen in…
At least 14 Russian troops were killed during a cross-border raid by anti-Kremlin units made up of Russian nationals this month, regional authorities have revealed nearly a month after the incident. Two anti-Kremlin militias fighting on the side of Ukraine staged raids into southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region on June 1. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have repelled…
Satellite images purporting to show the construction of a camp for exiled Wagner mercenaries after their failed revolt were shared online late Tuesday by independent Belarusian media. According to the Telegram channel Belarus Golovnovo Mozga, satellite images dated June 27 show what appears to be construction underway at a military compound near the town of…
Recast with Kremlin response. The Kremlin said Wednesday that Russian forces only hit military-linked targets in Ukraine, after a strike on a restaurant in the eastern city of Kramatorsk killed at least 10 people. The comments come a day after the Ria Pizza restaurant — popular with soldiers, journalists and aid workers — was destroyed…
Two Siberian opposition deputies backed by jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny have been stripped of their mandates over claims that they had failed to submit personal income statements, a move the deputies themselves called politically motivated. The Novosibirsk City Council voted by majority Wednesday to strip deputies Sergei Boyko and Helga Pirogova of their mandates,…
Updated with Peskov’s comments. Russia’s former top commander in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, had advanced knowledge of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plans to topple the country’s military leadership last weekend, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing unnamed U.S. officials. “Prigozhin would not have launched his uprising unless he believed that others in positions of…
Taiwan sighted two Russian frigates sailing off its eastern coast on Tuesday and deployed surveillance ships and aircraft to monitor their movements, the island’s Ministry of National Defence said. The Russian warships were “detected sailing from south to north in the waters off our eastern coast” as of 11 pm local time (1500 GMT), it…
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions aimed at disrupting gold mining activities that fund the Wagner Group in Africa, vowing to hold the mercenaries accountable for abuses days after they staged a mutiny in Russia. The measures against the Wagner Group had been previously planned but were briefly put on hold as U.S. officials sought…
The United States said Tuesday it let Moscow send an airplane to Washington to pick up diplomats despite a ban on commercial flights and called for reciprocal treatment. “The U.S. government allowed the Russian government to send a charter flight to the United States to transport to Russia those Russian diplomats whose assignments have ended,” State Department…
At least three people were killed and more than 40 wounded in a Russian rocket strike that hit a restaurant in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, authorities said Tuesday. Ukrainian police said Russia fired two S-300 surface-to-air missiles at the city. “The bodies of three people, including a minor born in 2008, have been recovered from the rubble. Among…