Russian tech giant VK is developing its own dating service that could launch this summer following Tinder’s planned exit from Russia, the Vedomosti business daily reported Friday, citing two unnamed sources close to VK and a third source close to the dating app. Experts estimate the development and promotion of VK’s dating app — based on…
The arrival of more than 100,000 Ukrainians in southern Russia following Kyiv’s recapture of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson has driven up housing prices and sparked tensions with local residents, independent media reported Thursday. Russia’s military estimates it had evacuated 115,000 residents of Kherson — nearly half of the city’s pre-war population — before…
Updated to add Prigozhin’s withdrawal announcement. Russia’s Wagner mercenary group will exit eastern Ukraine’s Bakhmut next week after suffering losses due to critical ammunition shortages, the private military contractor’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin announced Friday. Wagner fighters, many of whom are convicts recruited from Russian prisons, have been at the forefront of Russia’s efforts to capture…
As the fallout from Wednesday morning’s apparent drone strike on the Kremlin continued to dominate the Russian news cycle, the deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee made an unusual call for a “squadron of eagle interceptors” to be created to help defend Moscow from future drone strikes. “We need to think about protecting…
Russian forces in Ukraine are so degraded they cannot mount any significant offensive moves and are focused for now on consolidating control of occupied territory, the U.S. intelligence chief said Thursday. As Ukraine prepares for its own offensive in the coming months, Russian President Vladimir Putin still likely aims to prolong the conflict until Western…
The U.S. ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy visited former U.S. marine Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russia on spy charges for over four years, on Thursday. Permission to pay a visit to Whelan in Mordovia, a southeastern Russian region, comes just over two weeks after Tracy was given access to U.S. journalist Evan…
Moscow claimed Wednesday that Ukraine attempted to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin in an early morning drone attack on the Kremlin. Dramatic video published online showed at least one drone bursting into flames as it flew into a flagpole on top of the Kremlin’s Senate House, where Putin’s office and apartment are located. Photos taken…
At least two high-profile Russian officials have called on the Kremlin to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine in retaliation for an alleged drone strike on Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin residence and as the prospect of an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive looms. State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin on Wednesday called the attempted strike a “terrorist attack” while claiming…
Ukraine on Thursday said it arrested the mayor of the Black Sea port of Odesa in a major corruption case dating from before the invasion. Kyiv has struggled to rid itself of corruption, one of the declared aims of the 2014 Maidan revolution, with authorities for years vowing to stamp it out in efforts to…
Authorities in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar raided the office of prominent human rights NGO The Crew Against Torture (CAT) on Thursday. The raid by the Russian Interior Ministry’s counter-extremism unit was, according to the NGO’s own Telegram channel, carried out in connection to CAT’s work in the North Caucasus republic of North Ossetia-Alania where…
Several Russian billionaires are vying to buy the majority stake in the domestic entity of splintered tech giant Yandex, independent media reported Thursday, citing five unnamed sources familiar with negotiations. Sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine have forced Yandex, once the crown jewel of Russia’s tech sector, to split into two new companies: one overseeing its…
The United States was behind Ukraine’s decision to strike President Vladimir Putin’s residence in the Kremlin with drones, his spokesman said Thursday. Russia’s presidential press service said two Ukrainian drones had attempted to strike Putin’s residence in the night between Tuesday and Wednesday. The Kremlin called the incident a “terrorist act” and vowed to retaliate as…
At least 21 Russian cities have called off their annual military parades marking the Soviet victory in World War II next week, the independent Vyorstka media outlet reported Thursday, as the country has alleged a flurry of drone attacks on its territory ahead of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russia celebrates the Victory Day holiday every year on…
Russian nationals are traveling abroad more frequently this year despite facing numerous hurdles due to the invasion of Ukraine, the RBC news website reported Thursday, citing Federal Security Service (FSB) border crossing data. Direct flights between Russia and Europe are virtually nonexistent due to mutual airspace bans between Moscow and the European Union, while several…
Kyiv and Moscow reported drone attacks Thursday including two that sparked fires in Russian oil refineries, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited The Hague to lobby for more support. Zelensky’s surprise visit to meet top officials of the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, came a day…
The Russian Defense Ministry has been recruiting inmates from prisons in at least 25 different regions of the country to serve in the Russian military in Ukraine, according to an investigation by the BBC Russian service published Wednesday. The investigation found that the recruitment drive began in September in the separate network of prisons for former…
Russia has continued to see a precipitous decline in press freedom as the country’s military campaign in Ukraine entered its second year, according to the annual press freedom rankings published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Wednesday. Russia placed 164th out of the 180 countries surveyed in the ranking, a nine-point drop from last year amid what…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday denied Moscow’s claims that Kyiv had attempted to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, after Russia said two drones were shot down at the Kremlin. “We didn’t attack Putin. We leave it to the tribunal. We fight on our territory, we are defending our villages and cities,” Zelensky told reporters…
The suspect in the Russian cafe bombing that killed a prominent pro-war blogger said she did not know that she was carrying explosives and that she is being denied access to lawyers one month after her arrest on terrorism charges. Daria Trepova, 26, was detained after a bomb planted inside a gilded bust she allegedly presented…
A court in Belarus has sentenced a dissident journalist to eight years in prison on an array of charges that include plotting a coup, state media in the authoritarian state and close Russian ally reported Wednesday. Roman Protasevich, 27, had been the editor of a Telegram channel that was key in rallying protests against President Alexander…
Gas production in Russia decreased by 10% to 180 billion cubic meters this year mostly from Gazprom’s declining capacities, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed source familiar with the data. State-owned gas giant Gazprom has classified its production statistics since the start of 2023. Kommersant’s source said Gazprom and Gazprom Neft each…
Russia saw an uptick in inbound travel including from Europe and China so far this year, the RBC news website reported Wednesday, citing Federal Security Service (FSB) border crossing data. The FSB recorded a 17% increase in January-March 2023 visits to Russia compared with the same time last year, up from 2.78 million to 3.27…
A fuel depot caught fire overnight in the Russian village of Volna, close to the bridge to the Crimean peninsula, the local governor said early Wednesday. “A tank with petroleum products caught fire in Volna village of Temryuksky district. The fire has been assigned the highest level of severity,” Krasnodar region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said…
The station lies about two kilometers outside the regional hub of Bryansk, while the explosion that caused a train to derail and catch fire on Monday occurred near Unecha, closer to the Ukraine border. Russian Railways put out a statement saying the train had derailed due to “the intervention of unauthorized persons in the work…
The Kremlin has issued a list of guidelines for Russia’s state media outlets on how to cover Ukraine’s impending counteroffensive, the independent news outlet Meduza revealed on Tuesday. The guidelines, which recommended emphasizing the fact that Ukraine is being armed by NATO while discouraging any suggestion that Kyiv is underprepared, appear aimed at giving Moscow…
Companies linked to Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman have supplied uniforms and equipment to the Russian military and insured equipment used by Russia’s National Guard to fight in Ukraine, according to a joint investigation by U.S.-funded media outlets Current Time and Radio Svoboda Ukraine. The report comes as Fridman continues to appeal to the European Union…
Russia on Tuesday summoned the Polish embassy’s charge d’affaires after Poland closed a school run by the Russian Embassy in Warsaw, domestic news agencies reported. Poland and Russia have historically had tense relations, which have plummeted even further since the Ukraine offensive. Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency published a video of diplomat Jacek Sladewski entering…
The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday said Russia must compensate several prisoners belonging to an informal caste of “outcasts” who are subject to abuse and ostracisation behind bars. The 11 plaintiffs, who have served or are serving time, said they had been placed in the category by their fellow inmates. So-called “outcasts” are…
Russia on Tuesday responded to U.S.-hosted peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan this week saying there was “no alternative” to a deal that Moscow signed with the two warring countries in 2020. “For the moment, there is no other legal basis that would help a resolution. There is no alternative to these trilateral documents,” Kremlin…
Since his arrest on charges of espionage just over a month ago, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been held in Russia’s most notorious prison, Lefortovo, located in a leafy residential district of Moscow. Its impenetrable walls once muffled the cries of Soviet-era political prisoners tortured and executed by security officers during Stalin’s purges. …
The popular dating app Tinder will leave Russia on June 30, more than a year into a mass foreign business exodus set off by the invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported Tuesday. Explaining the decision in an annual impact report published Monday, Tinder’s owner Match Group said it was “committed to protecting human rights.” Tinder and other…
A jailed Russian anti-war activist’s teenage son is being kept in “prison conditions” in juvenile detention away from the rest of his family, media reported Tuesday. Natalia Filonova, 61, is awaiting trial in the Far East republic of Buryatia on charges of assaulting police with a ballpoint pen. Filonova’s preliminary hearing was scheduled to be held…
A German national convicted of “LGBT propaganda” has been deported from Russia’s Far East, state media reported Tuesday, citing regional prison authorities. Media in the Kamchatka region identified the man as Alexander Daniel Roth, 40, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. Roth reportedly coordinated the German language program for the education ministry of the…
Russia has evacuated more than 200 of its diplomats and other Russian nationals from Sudan as fighting between the country’s army chief and paramilitaries entered its third week, state media reported Tuesday. The first two Russian Defense Ministry transport aircraft landed outside Moscow in the morning, according to footage published by the military’s Zvezda broadcaster.…
Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, has revealed in an interview with Russian news agency RIA Novosti that he is considering creating a private army that could potentially fight anywhere around the world to protect what he called “oppressed peoples.” Kadyrov, who has previously refused to rule out the creation of his own mercenary force,…
Twitter has restricted the English-language account of former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev for a post he made arguing that Poland “should not exist.” Medvedev, who is currently deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and an outspoken supporter of the war in Ukraine, wrote that Poland should not exist “as long as no one but Russophobes…
The South African authorities have been attempting to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin from attending the BRICS summit it is hosting in Gauteng in August over fears that it would be compelled to arrest him following a warrant for his arrest issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague in March. Attending the summit alongside…
It said the front locomotive and seven wagons derailed “after the intervention of unauthorized persons.” “As a result of the incident, the locomotive caught fire,” it said in a statement. It later said that the fire had been put out by 12.30 pm local time and that passengers of two Moscow-bound trains in the area…
In an attempt to improve the professionalism of the Russian military, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee has said that Russia must increase the length of its military service. “I have long been in favor of increasing the period of military service. The longer soldiers and sailors spend in the army, the more…
The Russian army on Sunday replaced its highest ranking general in charge of logistics ahead of an expected counteroffensive by Kyiv. The announcement followed days of rumours about the sacking of Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, under British sanctions for his role in the siege of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which Russian troops captured…
The final resting places of mercenaries killed while fighting for Russia’s Wagner Group are hard to miss, standing out from other graves with their colorful adornments. Most are marked by a wooden cross, with the heaped earth covered by green spruce branches and two wreaths: one in the colors of the Russian tricolor and the…
Hundreds of Kremlin-loyal bikers under the banner of the Night Wolves motorcycle club took to the streets of Moscow on Saturday for a “patriotic” rally across Europe. The motorcade headed by club founder and leader Alexander Zaldastanov, known as “The Surgeon,” aims to complete the rally in Berlin by May 9. Several participants at…
A huge fire erupted in Moscow-annexed Crimea after a suspected drone attack hit an oil depot on Saturday, as fighting intensified on the southern Ukrainian front and shelling deprived Russian border villages of power. The attacks came one day after Kyiv said preparations for a long-awaited counteroffensive were nearly complete, having vowed to expel Russian…
Five Russian villages on the border with Ukraine were without power as a result of Ukrainian shelling, the governor of Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region that borders Ukraine said Saturday. The region has been hit by attacks throughout Moscow’s more than year-long offensive in Ukraine. “The village of Novaya Tavolzhanka came under Ukrainian shelling today,” Belgorod…
Poland on Saturday said it had seized a high school building near Moscow’s Embassy in Warsaw meant for the children of diplomats, a move the Russian envoy called “illegal.” The spat over the 1970s multi-story building, nicknamed the “spy nest” by Warsaw citizens, has been going on for a year. “This building belongs to the Warsaw…
Russian strikes battered cities across Ukraine on Friday, killing 26 people including five children, as Kyiv said preparations for a counteroffensive against Moscow’s forces were nearly complete. The deadly new attacks included a strike on a residential block in the historic city of Uman in central Ukraine, where AFP journalists saw rescue workers extracting victims’…
Attempts by the Kremlin to present the children of Russia’s elite as equal participants in the war against Ukraine alongside ordinary soldiers have fallen flat, according to experts and former officials who spoke to The Moscow Times. Instead, these efforts have sparked more questions than answers, they said. Last Saturday the Wagner mercenary group’s leader,…
President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing the deportation of Ukrainian citizens in Moscow-occupied areas who refuse Russian passports. The move marks the latest chapter of the Kremlin’s Russification campaign in occupied Ukraine that rights experts have slammed as a war crime. Starting July 1, 2024, Ukrainian nationals who opt out of Russian citizenship…
Over 100 prominent Western academics, writers and celebrities have called on President Vladimir Putin to urgently provide Alexei Navalny with access to necessary medical care as the Kremlin critic’s allies sound the alarm about his deteriorating health in prison. “We call on you, Mr. President, to ensure that Alexey Navalny is immediately given the medical treatment…
Russia’s Central Bank decided Friday to hold its key interest rate at 7.5% for the fifth time in a row, noting that inflationary expectations remained high. “Over the medium-term, the balance of risks has not changed significantly and is still biased towards pro-inflationary ones,” the Bank said in a statement. Still, the Russian economy is…
Updated to add guilty verdict and fine. A Moscow baker has been fined for “discrediting” the Russian military’s actions in Ukraine with anti-war cakes, independent media reported Friday. Anastasia Chernysheva started posting photos of her confectionary creations decorated with anti-war slogans on her bakery’s Instagram in April 2022, two months into Russia’s invasion. “F*ck war,” reads the…
A Russian special vessel had been spotted near the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea four days before it was sabotaged, Danish media reported, citing a document access request. The pipelines were ruptured by subsea explosives on Sept. 26, seven months after Russian forces invaded Ukraine. A Danish patrol boat had taken 26…
Russian strikes battered cities across Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 19 people as Kyiv said preparations for a highly anticipated offensive against Moscow’s forces were nearly complete. The barrage of almost two dozen missiles overnight ended a weeks-long pause following the repeated Russian strikes that had aimed to paralyze Ukraine’s energy grid during the…
Law enforcement authorities raided the homes of a prominent Russian anti-torture NGO’s lawyers in the city of Nizhny Novgorod early Friday. The Committee Against Torture, which changed its name to The Crew Against Torture (CAT) in June 2022, said criminal investigators arrived at the homes of its lawyers at 7:00 a.m. local time. CAT posted…
A Russian court has ordered the closure of the Sova Analytical Center, one of the country’s leading research centers monitoring nationalist and racist movements, Interfax reported Thursday. Russia’s Justice Ministry in March filed a court order to shut the group down, accusing SOVA of carrying out its activities across Russia despite only being registered in…
Russia has boosted its defenses in occupied Ukraine ahead of Kyiv’s anticipated counterattack, wagering its position on 800 kilometers of triple-fortified lines and a gush of manpower. Now that the Ukrainian terrain, muddied by the spring thaw, has begun to dry and Russia’s latest wave of attacks has fizzled out, a counterstrike may be weeks…
A Russian man claiming to be a deserter from the Kremlin-linked Wagner mercenary group was handed a 14-day suspended sentence on Thursday for a street fight in central Oslo. Oslo’s district court however acquitted Andrei Medvedev, 26, of the more serious charge of assaulting police officers. Appearing in court on Tuesday, Medvedev pleaded guilty to…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday hailed the loading of fuel into the first reactor at Turkey’s Russia-built Akkuyu nuclear power plant, the Kremlin said. “This is a flagship project and it brings both mutual economic benefits and, of course, helps to strengthen the multifaceted partnership between our two states,” Putin said at the virtual…
Russian police ascribed an increase in road accidents to Western sanctions that have shifted traffic flows toward ill-equipped infrastructure in the country’s east, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday. The Russian Interior Ministry’s road safety research center said in its 2022 report that some highway sections in eastern Russia saw upticks in accidents of as…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday it had denied an upcoming consular visit to jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in retaliation to Washington refusing to grant visas to several Russian journalists. “The U.S. Embassy was informed that its request for a consular visit on May 11… to U.S. citizen (Evan) Gershkovich, who was detained…