The political repression driven by the invasion of Ukraine has drastically altered the landscape of Russia’s disparate opposition. While some well-established movements such as Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation have been forced to shut down inside Russia entirely, other initiatives to unite those opposed to the war in Ukraine have sprung up in their place. To…
updates with Transparency International Russia comment. Russia has added global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International to its list of “undesirable” organizations, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced on Monday. “Formally declaring itself an organization that fights corruption around the globe, it interferes in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation, which threatens the constitutional order and the security…
Belarus on Monday sentenced exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya to 15 years in prison for spearheading historic protests against the former Soviet country’s authoritarian leader. Tikhanovskaya — who was forced to flee to neighboring EU member Lithuania after the protests sparked by a disputed presidential election in 2020 — was sentenced in absentia on charges…
Corrects “eight-month jail sentence” with “eight months of community service.” A Russian court on Monday sentenced independent journalist Andrei Novashov to eight months of community service for spreading “falsehoods” about the Russian army, independent Russian TV channel Dozhd reported citing sources close to the journalist. Novashov, a freelance journalist from the Kemerovo region in southwestern…
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, which is spearheading the longest battle of Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine, has complained his forces still lack ammunition, blaming possible “betrayal.” Kremlin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose recruits have been fighting for months to capture the battle-scarred city of Bakhmut, has been entangled in a power struggle with the Defense…
More than 1,000 people attended a ceremony on Red Square on Sunday to mark the 70th anniversary of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s death. Led by Russia’s Communist Party, the event drew people waving Soviet flags or holding portraits of Stalin at the site on the Kremlin wall where he is buried. Stalin’s image has been…
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited the war-battered city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine, his ministry announced Monday, one year after his forces besieged the city, leveling it to the ground. His visit comes as Russian forces are closing in on Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine that has become the stage of the longest-running battle…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday paid tribute to his soldiers fighting in the “painful and difficult” battle for the country’s frontline eastern Donbas region. He was speaking after Ukraine’s general staff reported that its forces had fought off “more than 130 enemy attacks” the previous day, including in Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut and Avdiivka. “The…
Kyiv said Sunday it was holding off attacks from Russian troops still attempting to surround Bakhmut, a now-destroyed eastern Ukrainian city that Moscow has been trying to capture for months. Ukraine has vowed to defend “fortress Bakhmut” but it has faced Russian troops determined to take the city that has turned into a political prize…
Russia’s defense minister has inspected the front line in eastern Ukraine, the defense ministry said Saturday, with the battle for Bakhmut raging and the US offering to pump more money into Kyiv’s survival. Sergei Shoigu had “inspected a command post on the front” in the direction of the southern Donetsk region, the defence ministry said,…
A 10-year-old boy who was wounded in a deadly attack in Russia’s Bryansk region on Thursday has been awarded the Medal of Valor and Courage, according to an announcement on Telegram by Russia’s Investigative Committee on Friday. According to Russian officials, two Ukrainian sabotage groups illegally crossed from Ukraine into the Bryansk region on Thursday,…
Nearly all the Irkutsk region conscripts whose video appeals to President Vladimir Putin decrying their lack of training made headlines last February are believed to have died in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on March 1, the Sibir.Realii website reported on Friday. The unit’s members came to prominence in February 2022, when its recently mobilized reservists made three…
The Supreme Court of Crimea has sentenced a St. Petersburg resident to six years in prison with hard labor after finding him guilty on charges of treason for illegally crossing the border when he attempted to swim from Russia-occupied Crimea to join the Ukrainian military, the RIA Novosti news agency reported on Friday. The man,…
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has launched a youth club aimed at fostering patriotism and preparing young Russians for military service. The club, called Wagneryonok (“Junior Wagnerite”), is based at the Wagner Center, the group’s glass-fronted headquarters and technology center that opened in St. Petersburg in November. Wagneryonok is headed by recent high-school graduate Alexander Tronin,…
Russia will take measures to prevent border incursions from Ukraine following an alleged deadly attack by Ukrainian “saboteurs,” the Kremlin said Friday. Russian officials claimed Thursday that two Ukrainian sabotage groups crossed into Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, killing two civilians, injuring a 10-year-old boy and wounding several Russian servicemen. Ukrainian officials dismissed the…
Russia will take measures to prevent border incursions from Ukraine following an alleged deadly attack by Ukrainian “saboteurs,” the Kremlin said Friday. Russian officials claimed Thursday that two Ukrainian sabotage groups crossed into Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, killing two civilians, injuring a 10-year-old boy and wounding several Russian servicemen. Ukrainian officials dismissed the…
Belarus on Friday handed a 10-year jail term to veteran activist Ales Bialiatski, a Nobel Prize winner and founder of the ex-Soviet authoritarian country’s most prominent rights group. Bialiatski was in the dock with two allies after they were jailed in the aftermath of historic demonstrations against the disputed 2020 re-election of Belarus’s strongman President…
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, said Friday that the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut was “practically surrounded” by Russian forces. In a video published by his press service, Prigozhin can be seen saying that Kyiv’s forces had access to only one road leading out of the city, which has been the site of…
South Korea’s Justice Ministry is to appeal a court ruling that granted two Russian men fleeing military mobilization the right to apply for refugee status, The Korea Times reported Wednesday. Three men, whose identities haven’t been disclosed to protect their family members in Russia arrived at Incheon International Airport late on various dates last year…
Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has warned the country faces an impending financial crisis and used his appearance at an economic forum in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk on Thursday to urge the Kremlin to ease its rules on foreign investment in the country’s economy. “There will already be no money next year. We will need…
Like many other independent Russian journalists, the staff of the St. Petersburg-based news website Bumaga relocated to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi last year to avoid censorship, fines or imprisonment amid their country’s wartime crackdown on the free press. Once the dust settled from their relocation, they faced a new challenge: Staying connected with their…
Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Thursday that drone attacks which Kyiv is alleged to have carried out on Russian military bases would only have been possible with U.S. assistance. Sergei Ryabkov, who is in Geneva to address the UN Human Rights Council and the Conference on Disarmament session, said Washington must have provided intelligence and…
The United States and Russia met in their highest face-to-face contact since the invasion of Ukraine last year on the sidelines of a G20 meeting that ended in disarray due to divisions over the conflict. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke briefly at the meeting of the world’s…
Russian lawmakers on Thursday voted in favor of a bill that would make it a criminal offense to “discredit” anyone fighting on Russia’s side in the war in Ukraine, not just the Russian military. The legislation aims to expand current laws criminalizing the discrediting of the Russian Armed Forces to include mercenaries serving in the…
The viral popularity of a newly emerged Russian subculture has in little more than a week caught the Kremlin’s eye and unsettled the authorities to such a degree that shopping malls in several major Russian cities have seen mass arrests of teenagers in the past few days. In making the arrests, law enforcement officials are…
A G20 meeting in New Delhi on Thursday was in disarray after Russia accused the West of “blackmail and threats” against other countries. India had wanted its G20 presidency this year to focus on issues such as alleviating poverty and climate finance, but Russia’s war with Ukraine has so far crowded out other agenda items. The meeting in…
Russian forces are clashing with a Ukrainian sabotage group that illegally crossed into the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, and opened fire on civilians, law enforcement agencies said Thursday. The statements could not be independently verified, and Kyiv dismissed the claims from Moscow as a “deliberate provocation.” Bryansk region Governor Alexander Bogomaz said a sabotage and reconnaissance…
Moscow claimed that a group of Ukrainian saboteurs crossed into Russia and opened fire on civilians on Thursday, an allegation denied by Kyiv as a “deliberate provocation.” While Russia claims its regions bordering Ukraine are routinely shelled by Ukrainian forces, the alleged incursion, if confirmed, would be a rare instance of fighting inside its territory.…
Ukraine said it had survived a months-long winter onslaught of Russian strikes on water and energy infrastructure, as it marked the first day of spring Wednesday. But Kyiv was under intense pressure in eastern Ukraine, while Moscow said it had downed a “massive” barrage of Ukrainian drones launched at the Crimean peninsula, annexed by the…
Russia has opened a criminal case against Pussy Riot founding member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova for allegedly “insulting religious sensibilities,” human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov said on his Telegram channel on Wednesday. The Investigative Committee opened the case due to various of Tolokonnikova’s posts on social media, Chikov said, adding that a series of police searches had…
New legislation preventing the general public from accessing entries to Russia’s real estate register came into force on Wednesday, independent Russian-language news website Meduza reported. The move, which restricts information on the register to “competent state agencies” is expected to act as a massive hindrance to Russian investigative journalists, who have used the register on…
Russian President Vladimir Putin officially opened the Moscow metro’s Big Circle Line on Wednesday, though he surprisingly elected to do so via video link rather than attending the ceremony in person. Calling the new line “a much-needed project for the city,” Putin congratulated “Muscovites and residents of the Moscow region,” on the opening of the…
Russian authorities have arrested a single father and sent his daughter to an orphanage after she drew an anti-war picture at school, the independent rights watchdog OVD-Info reported Wednesday. Alexei Moskalev, 53, and his daughter Masha Moskaleva, 12, came to the attention of local law enforcement in the town of Yefremov in the Tula region,…
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that his country “fully supports” Beijing’s proposals for ending the Ukraine war when the two leaders met Wednesday. The state visit to the Chinese capital by Lukashenko — a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin — comes after Beijing published a position paper on…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed legislation that bans government officials from using foreign words in official documents and correspondence as well as while carrying out their duties. “When using Russian as the state language of the Russian Federation, it is not allowed to use words and expressions that do not correspond to the norms…
Russian tech giant VK has effectively banned employees from working abroad permanently, state news agencies reported Wednesday, citing a company letter to workers. VK, which employs more than 10,000 people, owns the popular Mail.ru email and news services as well as the VKontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks, among others. Its letter to employees comes as…
Pressure is mounting on Ukrainian forces as fighting for the eastern frontline city of Bakhmut is getting ever more brutal with Russia losing hundreds of troops a day, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday. As the battle raged, Moscow said it shot down Ukrainian drones targeting civilian sites in Russian territory while another one crashed near the capital.…
Russia’s governing body for chess said Tuesday it had been admitted into the game’s Asian federation and will leave Europe as Russian players face restrictions over Moscow’s assault in Ukraine. The shift, finalized by a vote at the Asian Chess Summit in Abu Dhabi earlier Tuesday, comes as other Russian sports federations, including football, are…
Finland has begun construction of its planned 200-kilometer fence along part of its border with Russia, the country’s border guard announced on Tuesday, as Helsinki fears Moscow could use migrant flows at the frontier for political purposes. Terrain work would begin on Tuesday “with forest clearance and will proceed in such a way that road…
Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the loss of life members of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) have suffered in the war in Ukraine and urged the agency to step up its counterintelligence activities in a speech to an expanded FSB board meeting in Moscow on Tuesday. “I would like to thank the leadership and all…
Russian President Vladimir Putin may have earned up to $500 million from sales of a popular vodka branded under his own name between 2004 and 2019, according to an investigation published on Tuesday by independent media outlet Proekt. Russian vodka sold under the Putinka brand hit the shelves in Russia in 2002 and became the…
The lists of Russia’s war dead may be hundreds and thousands of names long but some casualties stand out to the journalists who painstakingly compile them. Olga Ivshina, a senior reporter at the BBC Russian Service, can instantly recall Mikhail Shuvalov, a retired power plant worker who volunteered to fight in Ukraine at the age…
Moscow and Baku on Tuesday criticized the deployment of an expanded EU monitoring mission to Armenia’s volatile border with Azerbaijan. Arch Caucasus foes Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh border region but have recently made progress toward a peace deal. The EU announced last week it had deployed a…
A Russian anti-war activist has been detained upon arrival in Armenia’s capital Yerevan, he told independent Russian human rights watchdog OVD-Info. Nikita Kamensky had arrived at Zvartnots International Airport on a flight from Istanbul early Tuesday, OVD-Info reported, when he was detained for an unknown reason. The detention could be linked to Armenia’s obligations under…
Russian authorities said Tuesday that several regional television and radio stations that have recently broadcast air raid alerts had been breached by hackers. The alerts are common across Ukraine, which is routinely targeted by drone and missile attacks, but the impact of fighting within Russia is limited to regions bordering the conflict. “As a result of hacking…
A Russian journalist was fined Tuesday for “discrediting” the Russian army by describing her anti-war tattoo in a televised interview, the independent Mediazona news website reported. Yulia Starostina, a former journalist for news outlets The Bell, Proekt and RBC, spoke to the independent broadcaster Dozhd for a December segment about Russians providing assistance to Ukrainian…
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Central Asia hoping that greater U.S. engagement will reassure former Soviet republics rattled by the Ukraine war, although Russia’s historic clout limits the extent of cooperation. Days after the anniversary of the Ukraine invasion, the top U.S. diplomat will hold talks Tuesday in Kazakhstan and then Uzbekistan and…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has submitted more than 50 official complaints to Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova during his year-long incarceration, the state-run TASS news agency reported Monday. “Of the more than 50 appeals that we received — none of them was ignored, each was investigated by the prosecutor’s office, the leadership of the Federal…
Days after the United Nations General Assembly in New York voted overwhelmingly to demand Russia’s immediate withdrawal from Ukraine, Moscow’s war also dominated the opening sessions of the UN Human Rights Council and Conference for Disarmament, both of which opened in Geneva on Monday. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most massive violations…
The Moscow custom of leaving floral tributes to honor the memory of murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov on Feb. 27 each year appears to have spread throughout Russia, according to reports from six other cities. Makeshift flower memorials have appeared in Russia’s five biggest cities, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Kazan, on the eighth anniversary…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday awarded Steven Seagal, the U.S. action star turned vocal Kremlin supporter, the Order of Friendship medal, an award given to those working to improve Russia’s international relations. Seagal, 70, was granted Russian citizenship in 2016 and has been serving as a special envoy of the Russian Foreign Ministry for…
Prosecutors in Moscow-allied Belarus have asked the courts to jail Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and a close aide to nearly two decades behind bars as they are tried in absentia. The recommendation reported on Belarusian state media is part of a long-running and brutal campaign to silence critics who led historic rallies in 2020…
Jailed Russian journalist Ivan Safronov has been transferred to the maximum-security prison where he will serve his sentence, he wrote on Monday in a letter to his supporters. Savronov, 32, has been moved to the IK-7 prison in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region, where inmates serve a combination of penal detention and compulsory labor. “My route from…
The Kremlin on Monday acknowledged China’s proposal for a political solution in Ukraine but said the conditions for a peaceful resolution of the conflict were not in place “at the moment.” “We paid a lot of attention to our Chinese friends’ plan,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, adding that: “for now, we don’t…
Prominent Russian political scientist and former Kremlin adviser Gleb Pavlovsky has died at age 71 following a serious illness, Simon Kordonsky, head of the local self-government department at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, told the Vedomosti business daily Monday. Pavlovsky had been an influential figure in Russian politics in the first decade of President Vladimir…
Belarus’s exiled opposition said Sunday that partisans had destroyed a Russian plane at an airstrip near the capital Minsk. “Partisans… confirmed a successful special operation to blow up a rare Russian plane at the airfield in Machulishchy near Minsk,” tweeted Franak Viacorka, a close adviser of opposition figurehead Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. “This is the most successful…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused NATO members of entering the Ukraine conflict by donating arms to the country and said the West planned to break Russia up. “They are sending tens of billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine. This really is participation,” Putin said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 channel that aired…
The EU approved a new round of sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine late on Friday, only just meeting a self-imposed deadline for a 10th sanctions package to mark the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion, the bloc’s Swedish presidency announced. The full details of the package, which contains “targeted restricted measures against individuals and entities…
New EU sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine adopted on Saturday target 121 individuals and entities, including Iranian drone manufacturers, officials said. The measures, which were formally adopted on Saturday, are the 10th round of European Union sanctions aimed at undercutting Russia’s finances and military supplies used in its invasion of Ukraine. They echo sanctions…
TBILISI, Georgia — Thousands of people took to the streets of the Georgian capital on Friday in a show of support for Ukraine, one year after Russia launched its invasion of the country. Large crowds moved down Tbilisi’s main thoroughfare Rustaveli Avenue, carrying Ukrainian flags, pro-Ukrainian banners and anti-Putin signs. Some 30,000 demonstrators gathered outside…