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…
The biggest threat to Russia is the regime of President Vladimir Putin, jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on Tuesday, in his first comments since an aborted Wagner mutiny. “There is no bigger threat to Russia than Putin’s regime,” Navalny wrote on social media. “Putin’s regime is so dangerous to the country that even its…
Russia’s National Guard may be equipped with tanks and armored vehicles, it said Tuesday, after the army announced it was receiving military hardware from Wagner mercenaries following their failed uprising. “We have no tanks or long-range heavy weapons. We will supply our forces with those depending on funding,” guard head Viktor Zolotov was cited as…
Russia’s Wagner private military group received roughly $1 billion in funding from state coffers over the past year, President Vladimir Putin revealed Tuesday. His comments mark a departure from Moscow’s previous denials of any links between the Russian state and Wagner. Speaking after a ceremony thanking soldiers for “stopping civil war” during Wagner’s aborted weekend rebellion,…
A senior emergency official has been sentenced to 10.5 years in prison over a mall fire that killed 60 people more than five years ago, Russia’s Investigative Committee said Tuesday. The Winter Cherry mall fire in the Siberian city of Kemerovo claimed the lives of 37 children and 23 adults when it broke out due…
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday lauded Russian servicemen and security services for “stopping civil war” during the Wagner mercenary group’s aborted insurgency this weekend. “You have de-facto stopped the civil war, you acted in a clear and well-coordinated manner in a difficult situation,” Putin said at a ceremony on the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square. Wagner leader…
Russia summarily executed 77 civilians being held in arbitrary detention during its invasion of Ukraine — killings which constitute war crimes, the United Nations said Tuesday. Since the invasion, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has documented 864 individual cases of arbitrary detention by Russia — 763 men, 94 women and seven boys — many of…
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday he had issued “combat readiness” orders to his army during an uprising in neighbor and close ally Russia led by Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. “I gave all the orders to bring the army to full combat readiness,” Lukashenko said in comments carried by the state news agency Belta. “I…
A railway in annexed Crimea has been damaged, the fourth such incident on the peninsula’s rail system over the past month and a half, the region’s Russian-installed Governor Sergei Aksyonov said Tuesday. Aksyonov did not identify the cause or nature of the damage, noting only that there were no casualties and that repair works were expected…
The criminal case against Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin for “organizing an armed mutiny” has been closed, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday. The confirmation comes a day after reports said the FSB was still actively investigating the case against Prigozhin, who this weekend launched an armed rebellion against the Russian military that rattled…
Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is arriving in Belarus, three days after his failed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed Tuesday. “Yes, today he’s in Belarus,” Lukashenko said in comments carried by the state news agency Belta. It was not clear if the Wagner leader had already arrived in Belarus or was still in…
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his nation that he had ordered that bloodshed be avoided during a weekend armed rebellion and offered Wagner fighters to join the army or leave the country after their mutiny. He spoke as Moscow appeared to show a business-as-usual approach in the aftermath of the dramatic rebellion staged by Wagner…
The U.S. ambassador directly contacted Russia during weekend unrest and made clear that the United States was not involved, the State Department said Monday. The State Department said that Ambassador Lynne Tracy in Moscow relayed the message to Russian officials on Saturday, as did U.S. officials in Washington who contacted the Russian embassy. The United…
MOSCOW — Muscovites on Monday responded with a mix of frustration and anxiety to a weekend mutiny organized by Wagner mercenaries, with some even saying they were “disappointed” when Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin called off his march. The reactions in Russia’s capital signal that the Kremlin and the Defense Ministry may not be able to…
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, launched a surprising attempt to stage a military rebellion on Friday evening. Prigozhin declared his armed campaign, which he dubbed a “march of justice,” with the goal of holding the country’s military leadership accountable. In a fast-moving series of events, Wagner’s forces advanced toward Moscow the…
The leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said Monday that his aborted rebellion march on Moscow over the weekend had exposed “very serious security problems” in Russia, while insisting he did not want to overthrow President Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin broke his silence in a Telegram audio message two days after staging the dramatic armed rebellion that saw…
The Wagner mercenary group will continue operations in Mali and the Central African Republic despite its leader’s aborted insurrection over the weekend, Russia’s foreign minister said on Monday. Wagner members “are working there as instructors. This work, of course, will continue,” Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the RT outlet. Lavrov said Europe and…
Ilya Yashin, a Moscow opposition politician now serving an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence for his criticism of the invasion of Ukraine, on Monday published an appeal to Czech President Petr Pavel, who has said that Russians in the West should be monitored by their host countries. The Moscow Times has translated his message and published it below. To…
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi gave “his full support” to Vladimir Putin during a telephone call, the Kremlin announced in a statement on Monday, two days after an aborted mutiny in Russia. “The Iranian president has expressed his full support for the Russian leadership in connection with the June 24 events,” the Kremlin said in an…
The headquarters of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin led a mutiny over the weekend that rattled President Vladimir Putin’s rule, said Monday it was working in “normal mode.” The statement from the office came as the fate of Wagner was uncertain after the rebellion and as Russia appeared to take a business-as-usual approach. “Despite events…
A Moscow court has sentenced a Russian aerospace scientist to 12 years in prison on charges of treason linked to his participation in a multinational high-speed flight project, media reported Monday. Valery Golubkin, 71, was detained in April 2021 on suspicion of passing state secrets to a NATO country that was not identified at the time. The…
Residents of a Russian city at the heart of a brief rebellion against army top brass expressed relief on Sunday but also voiced some sympathy for the mutiny and questions about what exactly happened. Fighters from the Wagner mercenary group with silver armbands and carrying assault rifles had deployed a day earlier across Rostov-on-Don in…
Wagner mercenaries were headed back to base on Sunday after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin agreed to allow their leader to avoid treason charges and accept exile in Belarus. The agreement ended the immediate threat that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private army could storm Moscow, but analysts said Wagner’s revolt had exposed Putin’s rule as more fragile than had…
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion against Moscow will have stoked alarm in China and could throw sand in the wheels of the “no-limits” strategic partnership between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, experts said on Sunday. After a 24-hour armed insurrection in which Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenaries seized control of parts of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and…
They have sun-bathed bare-chested together in remote Siberia, shared fishing holidays and played on the same ice hockey team. Russia’s long-serving Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has long been seen not just as a political ally of President Vladimir Putin but one of the Kremlin chief’s few friends within the Russian elite. But their bromance and…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday that Beijing had backed Moscow’s efforts to counter a short-lived armed uprising led by the head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin. “The Chinese side expressed support for the efforts of the leadership of the Russian Federation to stabilize the situation in the country in connection with the events of June…
North Korea offered its full support for Russia in dealing with a recent mutiny, state media reported Sunday. At a meeting with the Russian ambassador to Pyongyang Alexander Matsegora, North Korea’s vice foreign minister Im Chon Il “expressed firm belief that the recent armed rebellion in Russia would be successfully put down,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)…
The chief of the rebel Wagner mercenary force will leave Russia and won’t face charges after calling off his troops’ advance on Saturday, Moscow said, easing Russia’s most serious security crisis in decades. The feud between Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russia’s military brass came to a violent head in the past day, with his forces capturing a key army…
Countries around the world were on Saturday closely watching events unfolding in Russia, where a mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group posed the most serious challenge yet to President Vladimir Putin’s long rule. Here is what governments and analysts are saying about the extraordinary situation taking place in nuclear-armed Russia: Ukraine Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky…