ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Early Saturday morning, law enforcement agents in balaclavas were already guarding the entrance of the PMC Wagner Center, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s headquarters just outside St. Petersburg’s city center. Some agents were patrolling the parking lot out front while others were already inside, probably searching the building. “This was supposed to be my…
A former convict turned Kremlin caterer, Yevgeny Prigozhin and his shadowy private military group Wagner have taken a prominent role in Russia’s 16-month offensive on Ukraine. Friction between Prigozhin and the Russian Defense Ministry has risen as the war has dragged on, ultimately reaching a breaking point Friday when Prigozhin accused military leaders of striking…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday spoke to his Belarus ally, President Alexander Lukashenko, in his first international phone call since a mutiny by Wagner mercenaries inside Russia began. “The president of Russia called the president of Belarus this morning, there was a phone conversation,” Belarusian state media reported. “Vladimir Putin informed his Belarusian colleague…
Russia’s FSB security service on Friday charged the Wagner mercenary group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin with calls to stage “an armed mutiny” after he pledged to resist Moscow’s military leadership. Prigozhin earlier accused Russia of killing a “huge number” of Wagner’s forces in strikes and vowed to retaliate, bringing tensions between Moscow’s conventional military and the…
The Moscow Times is collecting all the latest breaking news and developments around Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner Group. While we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of our reporting, claims and counter-claims are sometimes impossible to verify. The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group on Friday accused the country’s military leadership of ordering…
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin was charged with “inciting an armed uprising” and military vehicles were deployed to the streets of Moscow and Rostov-on-Don after he made an extraordinary threat to “stop” Russia’s top military brass. Prigozhin on Friday accused Russia’s military leadership of ordering strikes on Wagner’s camps and killing a “huge”…
Russia on Friday urged Azerbaijan to unblock access to Nagorno-Karabakh as concern grows over a deepening humanitarian crisis in the breakaway region. Residents of Karabakh reported new shortages of food and medicine after the International Committee of the Red Cross said Azerbaijan had blocked access for convoys delivering aid to the Armenian-populated region last week. “We…
A Russian-held bridge that connects southern Ukraine to the annexed Crimean peninsula has been badly damaged and is “unusable” at present, a Moscow-installed official said on Friday. “It is unusable for movement,” said Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-installed governor of the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, adding that the Chongar bridge would be closed to traffic…
Russian companies have been systematically looting industrial goods from factories in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion, according to a report by the independent news outlet Mozhem Obyasnit’. Citing customs records, journalists estimated that Russia had plundered more than 1 billion rubles ($15 million) worth of goods — including…
Russia said Friday it was barring entry to more European officials in response to the EU’s decision to slap new sanctions on Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine. “In response to these unfriendly actions, the Russian side has significantly expanded the list of representatives of European institutions and EU member states who… are prohibited from entering…
Russia did not face an imminent security threat to justify its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary outfit, said in a bombshell video posted on social media Friday. “The Armed Forces of Ukraine were not going to attack Russia with the NATO bloc,” Prigozhin explained in the half-hour tirade…
The Russian Navy has bolstered security at its Black Sea Fleet base in annexed Crimea with the use of trained dolphins, Britain’s defense ministry said Friday. Citing satellite imagery, the British military said the number of floating mammal pens in the harbor of Crimea’s port city of Sevastopol has nearly doubled from April to June. The…
Russia’s domestic intelligence agency has detained five people suspected of trying to smuggle a dangerous radioactive isotope out of Russia, claiming the group planned to incriminate Moscow in a false-flag attack on Ukraine, state media reported Friday. The Federal Security Service (FSB) said the five unnamed individuals — “acting in coordination with a Ukrainian citizen” —…
A mystery Russian diplomat with a penchant for loungewear and cigarettes sparked a national security standoff between Canberra and the Kremlin Friday, defying Australian efforts to seize a messy construction site in the heart of the capital. Australia has blocked Russia from building a new embassy on the parcel of land — a stone’s throw from Parliament…
Billionaire investor Alexander Mamut fled Russia shortly after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine last year and now plans to launch a “liberal” media outlet abroad. Mamut, 63, currently divides his time between the United Kingdom and France, according to one of his acquaintances who spoke to the independent news website Meduza. Meduza’s report did not…
The United Nations has put Russian military forces and proxy armed groups on its “list of shame” over the killing and maiming of hundreds of children in its war against Ukraine, according to a document seen by AFP Thursday. In an annual report on the treatment of children in conflict zones, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres…
Russian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov said Thursday that “the world must hear this sound” of the Kremlin’s war on Kyiv following an incident where Ukrainian journalists played the sound of an air-raid warning during his speech earlier this week. Muratov, the chief editor of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was speaking earlier this…
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia will share their citizen’s personal data with each other for law enforcement purposes, the press service of Kyrgyzstan’s presidential office announced Wednesday. Under the agreement, each country will share information on the residence status, citizenship, migration registration, visas, property, criminal records and identity documents of individuals living within their borders. “Today we received…
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has started recruiting military police in occupied Ukraine, according to online job advertisements posted by the private army and reports by independent media outlets. In a post shared on the Russian social media website VKontakte, the private military company said it was looking to hire former law enforcement and special forces…
Russian government officials have been banned from using their iPhones during cabinet meetings and for work purposes amid claims that the U.S.-made smartphones are equipped with spying technology, independent journalist Farida Rustamova reported Thursday, citing sources. The ban on Apple devices, which applies to deputy prime ministers, ministers and other staff, came after a warning from…
Russia said Thursday that Ukrainian forces in eastern and southern Ukraine were temporarily limiting their efforts to reclaim Moscow-held territory, after Kyiv launched its highly anticipated counteroffensive. “After conducting active hostilities over the past 16 days and having suffered significant losses, the enemy has reduced its activity and is currently regrouping,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu…
Russia’s Academy of Sciences (RAS) has opened a research center specializing in the study of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s communist teachings, the first ever established outside China, Russian and Chinese media reported Thursday. Kirill Babayev, head of the RAS Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, linked the opening of the Xi Jinping Thought Research Laboratory…
A Moscow court has rejected Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s appeal against the three-month extension of his arrest on spying charges, state media reported Thursday. Gershkovich, 31, became the first Western journalist accused of espionage in modern Russia after the Foreign Ministry-accredited reporter was detained in late March during a reporting trip in central Russia.…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Moscow’s forces were considering launching a “terror attack” at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, a recurring flash point of concern throughout Russia’s invasion. “Intelligence services have received information that Russia is considering the scenario of a terrorist act at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant — a terrorist act with the release of…
Updated with Shoigu’s 50,000 volunteer fighters figure. More than 20 Russian volunteer detachments fighting alongside regular soldiers in Ukraine have signed contracts with the military, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday. “The signed contracts define the legal regulation and activities of the volunteer corps formations in the zone of the ‘special military operation’,” the military said,…
A Russian physicist and co-creator of the Soviet Union’s first two-stage hydrogen bomb committed suicide in his central Moscow apartment at the age of 92, Russian media reported late Wednesday, citing investigators. Grigory Klinishov’s body was found by his 67-year-old daughter on Saturday alongside a death note, according to the Kommersant business daily. He was…
Russian-installed authorities in occupied Ukraine accused Kyiv of striking a bridge linking the annexed Crimean peninsula to mainland Ukraine early Thursday. “The criminal Kyiv regime barbarically shelled civilian bridges on the administrative border between the Kherson region and Crimea near Chonhar,” Kherson’s Kremlin-installed leader Vladimir Saldo said, without specifying the number of bridges targeted in the…
The chief of mercenary group Wagner on Wednesday accused Moscow’s top brass of deceiving Russians about the course of Ukraine’s offensive and pointed to Kyiv’s progress on the battlefield. Early this month Kyiv’s military launched its counteroffensive in the east and south of the Western-backed country in an effort to claw back territory lost since…
Kyiv said Wednesday the destruction of the Russian-held Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine earlier this month caused an estimated $1.5 billion in damages to the environment. The breach of the dam on June 6 caused devastating floods in the Kherson region under Russian and Ukrainian control, forcing thousands to flee and sparking fears of an…
Austrian banking group Raiffeisen, one of the last Western lenders remaining in Russia, announced Wednesday that it will suspend transfers of euros to banks in Russia and several other countries popular among Russian travelers. Starting July 3, Raiffeisen’s Russian subsidiary will block euro-denominated bank transfers to several former Soviet republics, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia,…
Russian authorities on Wednesday labeled the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) environmental advocacy NGO an “undesirable” organization, a designation that renders all of its activities illegal in Russia. The Prosecutor General’s Office accused the Switzerland-based WWF of “threatening” Russia’s economy and “interfering” with Russia’s internal affairs as well as “financing” the activities of Russian organizations designated as “foreign…
A scientist at a Russian nuclear research facility in the Nizhny Novgorod region has been sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of “high treason,” local media reported Wednesday, citing law enforcement officials. Investigators accused Viktor Ilyin — an employee at the Federal Nuclear Center in the closed town of Serov — of attempting…
Western allies on Wednesday promised to make Russia pay for invading Ukraine as governments and private investors met to fund the country’s reconstruction from the ravages of war. The World Bank has put an estimate of $14 billion on Ukraine’s immediate needs to repair the damage caused by the bitter fighting. But a recent study by the…
Residents of Russia’s largest region in the Far East have slammed a move by local authorities to dedicate indigenous holiday celebrations to Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine. The Republic of Sakha celebrates the Yhyakh New Year annually during the summer solstice, with this year’s festivities falling on Wednesday, June 21. Just days before the celebrations…
A Russian general reportedly killed in Ukraine last week was buried with military honors in St. Petersburg, local media reported late Tuesday, publishing photos of a military funeral ceremony and gravesite. Major General Sergei Goryachev’s funeral was said to have taken place on Sunday, reported the local Fontaka news outlet, noting a ceremony was held…
The toll from flooding sparked by a breach of a huge Ukrainian dam has risen to 41 in areas under Russian control, an official said Wednesday. “Unfortunately the number of dead has risen to 41,” said Andrei Alekseyenko, a senior official with Russian occupation authorities. In areas under Ukrainian control, at least 16 people…
A group of drones is believed to have targeted a Russian army base outside Moscow early Wednesday, the latest in a string of attacks near the Russian capital in recent weeks, authorities and state media reported. “In the village of Kalininets today, two drones crashed at approximately 5:30 and 5:50 a.m. on approach to a…
Ukraine said Tuesday that one rescue worker was killed and several others were injured by Russian forces in the southern city of Kherson, which was recently flooded after the breach of a major dam nearby. Kyiv, which says Russia blew up the Kakhovka dam earlier this month, has repeatedly accused Moscow of shelling rescue efforts…
Russian lawmakers have approved legislation allowing convicts to clear their criminal records in exchange for joining the country’s depleted military nearly 16 months into Russia’s war on Ukraine. The move formalizes the recruitment of prisoners for the war in Ukraine, a practice spearheaded by the Wagner mercenary group last year before the Defense Ministry took over prison…
Russian lawmakers have approved legislation allowing convicts to clear their criminal records in exchange for joining the country’s depleted military nearly 16 months into Russia’s war on Ukraine. The move formalizes the recruitment of prisoners for the war in Ukraine, a practice spearheaded by the Wagner mercenary group last year before the Defense Ministry took over prison…
Four people have been killed in a blast at an explosives factory in Russia’s central Tambov region, state-run media reported Tuesday, citing local authorities. “At the moment, there is information about four people killed, and two others were injured,” emergency services told the TASS news agency. Tambov Governor Maxim Yegorov said the explosion was caused…
Updated with revised death toll. Five people have been killed in a blast at an explosives factory in Russia’s central Tambov region, state-run media reported Tuesday, citing local authorities. “At the moment, there is information about four people killed, and two others were injured,” emergency services told the TASS news agency. Officials later said one…
The South Caucasus nation of Georgia has become Russia’s top importer of still wine, the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday, citing customs data. Between January and May, still wine imports from Georgia rose by 63% year-on-year, helping it overtake Italy — which saw shipments rise by 31% year-on-year during the same period — as Russia’s…
Moscow claimed Tuesday that Ukrainian forces were planning to use Western-supplied missiles to strike targets inside Russia and the annexed peninsula of Crimea, threatening “immediate retaliation.” “The leadership of Ukraine’s armed forces plans to strike Russian territory, including Crimea, with HIMARS and Storm Shadow missiles,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said during a meeting with military officials. Shoigu…
Russian authorities have charged a popular movie portal owned by the country’s largest tech company Yandex with distributing so-called “LGBT propaganda” to minors, independent media reported Tuesday. Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court registered an administrative case against Kinopoisk, a film database and streaming service with more than 150 million monthly visitors, according to the news website Mediazona. The plaintiff…
Chinese imports of Russian oil last month hit their highest level since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, customs data showed Tuesday, as Beijing offers an economic lifeline to an increasingly isolated Kremlin. China is Russia’s largest economic partner, with trade between them reaching a record $190 billion last year. In May, China imported 9.71 million…
Russia jailed a dual Ukrainian and Russian national for 16 years on Tuesday on terrorism-linked charges for fighting alongside Kyiv’s forces in Ukraine. A judge in a military court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don handed down the ruling to a man named Denis Muryga, accusing him of fighting as part of Ukraine’s Aidar battalion,…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said he has launched a “long, relentless and exhausting” online presidential campaign against Russia’s war in Ukraine. With his grassroots political network banned as “extremist” in Russia, Navalny vowed to deploy a targeted messaging strategy to win over pro-war or neutral Russians. “We’ll change many people’s minds. We’ll sow doubts…
Russian companies declared more than 1 quadrillion rubles ($15 trillion) in 2022 revenue for the first time in the country’s history, the RBC news website reported Tuesday, citing data from the country’s tax service. Revenues totaled 1.26 quadrillion rubles last year, nearly double the 655 trillion rubles ($7.7 trillion) declared in 2021, according to Federal Tax…
Russia’s Justice Ministry lacks the legal authority to label the Yeltsin Center as a “foreign agent,” a lower-house lawmaker said Monday. Last week a senior Justice Ministry official said a preliminary investigation had been launched into the Yeltsin Center, a history museum and cultural center dedicated to the first Russian president Boris Yeltsin. According to…
Kyiv on Monday accused Hungary of barring access to 11 Ukrainian prisoners of war that Russia handed over to the EU country, which has maintained ties with the Kremlin during the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian Orthodox Church said earlier this month that a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war from Transcarpathia — a region…
Military authorities in Moscow-annexed Crimea have opened a monument to Russian sailors who perished in a boat attack in Ukrainian waters, but whose deaths were never officially acknowledged, according to crew members and family who spoke to investigative news outlet Agentstvo. Ukrainian forces claimed to have sunk the Russian tugboat Vasily Bekh in June 2022…
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam and subsequent flooding in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region narrows Kyiv’s options on the battlefield as it pushes to retake territories occupied by Russia during its 15-month invasion, experts told The Moscow Times. Despite hindering the strategic plans of both sides, the Kakhovka dam disaster is ultimately believed to be more…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s trial on a new string of “extremism” charges was abruptly ordered to be held behind closed doors at its first hearing, the independent Mediazona news website reported. Navalny, 47, faces up to 30 more years on the latest charges, which he and his allies have slammed as a politically motivated…
Russian authorities have labeled the prominent legal and human rights group Agora an “undesirable organization,” state media reported Monday amid an ongoing clampdown on independent activists and rights defenders since the invasion of Ukraine last year. Agora is an association of lawyers that has provided legal advocacy to journalists, opposition activists and other victims of suspected…
A Moscow court fined Russia’s largest tech company Yandex 2 million rubles ($24,000) for failing to turn over user data to domestic intelligence services, state media reported Monday. Yandex was found guilty of repeatedly refusing to provide the Federal Security Service (FSB) data on its users, which law enforcement officials said they needed in order…
Russia attempted to assassinate a former intelligence officer in the United States in a “brazen” failed bid that led in part to tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions, The New York Times reported Monday, citing three anonymous former senior U.S. officials. Alexander Poteyev was a former colonel in Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) who shared state secrets that helped…
Russian regions bordering Ukraine came under fire early Monday morning, resulting in injuries to seven people, including a child, local authorities said. Strikes in Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region damaged multiple residential buildings in the Valuisk district, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram. “The Valuisk municipal district is under attack from Ukrainian forces. According to…
Some 32,000 former prisoners recruited by the Wagner mercenary group have returned to Russia after fighting in Ukraine, the private military company’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said Sunday. “As of June 18, 2023, 32,000 persons previously convicted and who took part in the special military operation among the ranks of the Wagner PMC went home at…
This year’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), called the “Russian Davos,” culminated Friday in a plenary session with President Vladimir Putin and Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune. Moderating the discussion was Dmitri Simes, a conservative U.S. political scientist and historian of Soviet origin, in another reflection of how far Russia’s standing has fallen on the…