Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered to allow visa-free travel from countries regardless of their visa policies toward Russian citizens. A Kremlin decree dated Oct. 30 instructs Putin’s cabinet to facilitate visa-free tourism, business, educational, sports and cultural travel even if these countries require visas for Russians to visit. Ukraine, for example, introduced visa requirements…
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North Korea and Russia have resumed cross-border railway trade, ending a two-year hiatus caused by Covid-19 border restrictions, media reported Wednesday. Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that the first freight train carrying 30 thoroughbred horses has departed for the country’s only border crossing with North Korea, Khasan-Tumangang. Russian federal customs service data viewed by The…
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At least 100 mobilized Russians have been killed on and off the battlefield since President Vladimir Putin announced his chaotic military call-up last month, according to an analysis of confirmed deaths by independent media published Tuesday. One in five of the mobilized men were said to have died before deployment due to alcohol, drugs, physical…
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Russian occupation authorities announced Tuesday the movement of further large numbers of people from Ukraine’s Kherson region amid a counteroffensive by Kyiv, which has already seen 70,000 people flee. “I decided to extend the evacuation zone by 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Dnipro,” pro-Moscow governor Vladimir Saldo said in a Telegram video. “Measures for forced…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin told Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday that he wanted “real guarantees” from Kyiv before potentially rejoining the grain deal. In a phone call, Putin told Erdogan that Russia sought “real guarantees from Kyiv about the strict observance of the Istanbul agreement, in particular about not using the humanitarian corridor…
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A Russian court on Tuesday fined Wikipedia 2 million roubles ($32,600) over articles related to Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. A Moscow-based group that supports projects by Wikipedia’s owner Wikimedia said it was fined by Moscow’s Tagansky district court for refusing to remove two articles related to Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine. Vladimir Medeiko, director of…
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Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Tuesday that he had been placed in solitary confinement for the seventh time in several months. The opposition figure, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence on charges of fraud, parole violations and contempt of court, said that he had just been released from his most recent spell in…
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The Victory Museum, one of the largest museums of military history in Russia, has announced it will ring in the New Year by hosting a series of patriotic, World War II-themed games for children. The game, called Protect New Year, will require its participants between 6 and 12 years old to “overcome dark forces” that have…
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The Kremlin on Tuesday accused Britain of “directing and coordinating” explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines. “Our intelligence services have data indicating that British military specialists were directing and coordinating the attack,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. “There is evidence that Britain is involved in sabotage, in a terrorist attack on vital energy…
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A group of activists has occupied the multimillion-dollar Amsterdam home of EU-sanctioned Russian tech tycoon Arkady Volozh, Dutch media reported Monday. Volozh, 58, is the co-founder and former CEO of tech giant Yandex, Russia’s equivalent of Google. He stepped down in June after the European Union sanctioned him in its response to Moscow’s invasion of…
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Russian occupation authorities in southern Ukraine said Tuesday that tens of thousands more people would be evacuated from the Kherson region amid Kyiv’s counteroffensive. The Russian-installed leader of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said some 70,000 people along a 15-kilometer (10-mile) stretch of the left bank of the Dnipro River would be moved deeper into…
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Moldova has expelled a Russian diplomat after debris from a Russian missile shot down by Ukrainian air defenses landed on the northern tip of the country’s territory. Ukraine said it was subjected to a “massive” wave of missile strikes Monday, with more than 50 cruise missiles launched at targets across the country including Kyiv’s power and…
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Russia’s “partial” mobilization drive is over, President Vladimir Putin said late Monday in an apparent attempt to ease concerns that the Russian military would attempt to call up more reservists than promised for its Ukraine offensive. But the Russian leader appeared to waver on how to formalize the end of Russia’s first mobilization since World…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he hopes for “normalization” of ties between rivals Armenia and Azerbaijan who pledged not to resort to force in their territorial dispute after tripartite talks, reasserting Moscow’s role as Caucasus powerbroker. The summit was held as Western engagement grows in the volatile Caucasus region, where Russia — distracted by…
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Billionaire banker and entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov on Monday said he renounced his Russian citizenship because of the conflict in Ukraine, which he had previously criticised. “I have taken the decision to exit my Russian citizenship. I can’t and won’t be associated with a fascist country, that started a war with their peaceful neighbour and killing…
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The United States on Monday accused Russia of extortion at the expense of the developing world after it demanded Ukrainian security guarantees on its Crimea fleet for preserving a secure corridor to export grain. “What you’re describing appears to be either collective punishment or collective extortion,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. “It is…
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Cargo ships loaded with grain and other agricultural products left Ukrainian ports on Monday despite Russia’s decision to pull out from a landmark deal designed to ease the global food crisis. As one of the brokers of the grain deal, Turkey has stepped up diplomacy with the two warring countries in a bid to save…
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Russia stripped renowned climate activist Arshak Makichyan of his Russian citizenship Monday, according to a post on his Instagram page. “The Russian state has deprived me of my only citizenship,” the activist, who is currently living in exile in Germany, wrote on Monday. Renowned as Russia’s “lone climate activist” for his solo protests on Moscow’s…
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Moscow on Monday summoned the Dutch ambassador to “protest strongly” against Western efforts to “recruit” Russian diplomats in the Netherlands, the Foreign Ministry said. Ambassador Gilles Beschoor Plug was called in to hear Moscow “protest strongly against an attempt to recruit the military attache of Russia’s Embassy in The Hague on Oct. 20 by a…
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The Russian-born co-founder and CEO of British digital bank Revolut has become the fourth billionaire to renounce his Russian citizenship, The Telegraph reported on Saturday. Nik Storonsky, 37, had dual British and Russian citizenship until his decision to renounce his Russian citizenship earlier this year, the report said. Storonsky, who has publicly condemned Moscow’s invasion…
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Russia’s military said it successfully hit several Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities in the latest round of missile strikes fired at the war-torn country Monday. “The Russian Armed Forces continued to launch strikes with high-precision long-range air and sea-based weapons against Ukrainian military and energy facilities,” the Defense Ministry said in an update on its Telegram…
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Japanese tiremaker Bridgestone said Monday it was seeking a local buyer for its business in Russia due to “general uncertainty and the ongoing supply issues” in that country. The company suspended manufacturing activities in Russia and exports to the country in March — shortly after Moscow invaded Ukraine — while freezing new investments, it said. Bridgestone said in a…
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Police in Finland have raised the alarm over the smuggling of Western-donated weapons from Ukraine by criminal gangs, Finland’s Yle broadcaster reported Sunday. Weapons originally sent as military aid to Ukraine including assault rifles, pistols, grenades and combat drones, had been found in multiple European countries, Christer Ahlgren, head of organized crime at the Finnish…
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Russia and Ukraine over the weekend announced a fresh prisoner exchange involving 50 captives on each side. Unlike previous exchanges carried out since the Russian invasion, the prisoner swap was made public by both Moscow and Ukraine on Saturday. Russia’s military said its 50 soldiers returned from Ukraine had been “in mortal danger in captivity”…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday after the leftist ex-president narrowly won a divisive runoff against far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. “The results of the vote have confirmed your high political authority,” Putin said in a telegram published by the Kremlin after Brazilian electoral officials called the election for…
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Russia’s blockade of grain exports makes it “impossible” for fully loaded ships to leave port, Ukraine charged Sunday after Moscow claimed drone attacks on its Crimea fleet had exploited the grain corridor safe zone. Kyiv’s maritime grain exports were halted after Russia pulled out of a landmark agreement that allowed the vital shipments. The July…
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Russia said Sunday it recovered debris from drones that attacked its fleet in Sevastopol, exploiting the “safe zone” of a grain corridor, and could have been launched from a civilian ship. “The marine drones were moving in the safe zone of the ‘grain corridor’,” Russia’s defense ministry said, adding it had “lifted” some of the…
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Ukraine’s maritime grain exports were halted Sunday after Russia suspended its participation in a landmark agreement that allowed the vital shipments, blaming drone attacks on its ships in Crimea. The July deal to unlock grain exports signed between Russia and Ukraine and brokered by Turkey and the UN, is critical to easing the global food…
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Russia on Saturday suspended its participation in a landmark agreement that allowed vital grain exports from Ukraine, blaming drone attacks on Russian ships in Crimea. Russia made the announcement after its army accused Kyiv earlier Saturday of a “massive” drone attack on its Black Sea fleet, which Ukraine labeled a “false pretext” and the UN…
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The Russian army accused Ukraine Saturday of a “massive” drone attack on its Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, while Britain bluntly rejected Moscow’s claims its specialists were involved. Sevastopol in Moscow-annexed Crimea, which has been targeted several times in recent months, serves as the headquarters for the fleet and a logistical hub for operations in…
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Russia’s army on Saturday accused the U.K. of being “involved” in explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, alleging the same British military specialists helped Ukraine plan a drone attack on Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet. Russia did not provide any evidence, but considers the U.S. one of the countries most unfriendly to Moscow, with relations…
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Stem cells for bone marrow transplants have just 48 hours to reach the patient in need. Any longer than this, and they’ll die. In peacetime, 48 hours was more than enough time to ship stem cells from the Stefan Morsch Stiftung in Germany’s Black Forest to Moscow — the delivery would take just one flight…
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A veteran Russian state media journalist has been killed in an accident on a shooting range in Moscow-annexed Crimea, Russia’s main Rossiya Segodnya state media group has said. Svetlana Babayeva, the head of the Kremlin-backed media’s Crimea bureau, “died due to an accident” while practicing shooting on Friday, Russian agencies quoted the media outlet as…
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A joke in Russian goes like this: some people eat meat, some people eat cabbage, but on average people eat cabbage rolls. Today everyone in Russia knows what cabbage rolls are. But 200 years ago this was a culinary novelty for Russians. The traditional territory of cabbage rolls is Eastern Europe and Scandinavia — although…
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Norway’s counter-intelligence service (PST) on Friday revealed what it said was the true identity of a Russian spy posing as a Brazilian researcher. The PST named the suspect as Mikhail Mikushin, a Russian born in 1978, who they said had been passing himself off as a 37-year-old Brazilian named Jose Assis Giammaria. Mikushin is a…
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Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced that on Friday that the partial mobilization campaign declared to boost the Russian military campaign in Ukraine has come to an end. “The dispatch of citizens called up during mobilization was completed today. The notification of citizens [to report for military duty] has ended,” the state-run RIA Novosti quoted…
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The battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut has intensified as Russian troops led by the murky Wagner mercenary group relentlessly exchange artillery fire with Ukrainian forces in their attempt to seize the small but strategically important city. The fighting, which has grown increasingly deadly in recent days, underscores Russia’s desperation to declare a…
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Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who spent more than a decade in a U.S. jail before being returned to Russia in a prisoner swap, was appointed a member of Russia’s Civic Chamber by President Vladimir Putin on Friday. Yaroshenko, who was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the United States on drug charges, was…
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The Russian Central Bank kept its key rate at 7.5% on Friday, an expected measure aimed at supporting the economy against a global trend of rising borrowing costs. For the first time since the beginning of the military operation in Ukraine, the key rate remains unchanged. After Russia was hit by Western sanctions over the Ukraine offensive,…
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Russia on Friday put the son of a senior official arrested in Italy on a U.S. order for alleged sanctions evasion on a wanted list, potentially paving the way for Moscow to demand his extradition. Artyom Uss, the son of a Siberian governor, was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa Airport on Oct. 17, with Washington saying…
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President Vladimir Putin’s veiled threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine have fueled huge increases in demand for iodine pills in Russia, the RBC news website reported Thursday. Potassium iodide sales in Russian pharmacies have risen by 150% since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, RBC cited the pharmaceutical marketing agency DSM Group as saying. …
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President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the war in Ukraine was part of Russia’s wider struggle against Western domination, and warned that the world is probably entering the “most dangerous” decade since the end of World War II. The Russian leader showed no sign of backpedaling on the eight-month-old invasion of Ukraine, and indeed painted the…
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Russia’s use of Iranian drones in Ukraine is “appalling,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday, adding that the United States and allies would seek to block such shipments. Russia has used the drones to “kill Ukrainian civilians and destroy the infrastructure they rely on for electricity, for water, for heat. It’s appalling,” Blinken…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that a mission of the UN’s atomic agency should inspect Ukraine’s nuclear sites “as fast as possible”, reiterating Moscow’s claims Kyiv is preparing to use a “dirty bomb”. “They say the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wants to come and check Ukraine’s nuclear facilities. We are in favour. And…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the coming decade will be the “most dangerous” since the end of World War II, while accusing the West of seeking to dominate the world. “Ahead is probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and at the same time important decade since the end of the Second World War,” Putin…
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Andrei had been serving his second prison term in St. Petersburg for car theft when he was released and sent to the frontline in Ukraine. The 22-year-old is one of the thousands of Russian inmates believed to have been recruited to fight in the war by Russia’s notorious Wagner group, being offered a reduced sentence…
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EU chief Charles Michel called on Thursday for closer ties with Central Asia on his first official visit to Kazakhstan, the main economic powerhouse in a region where Russia’s influence has come under question. In the first European Union-Central Asia summit, Michel met the leaders of the region’s five countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan…
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A Western cap on Russian energy prices destroys individual countries’ sovereignty and plays into the hands of the United States, Igor Sechin, the chief executive of state oil giant Rosneft, said Thursday. “The idea is to essentially abolish the sovereign rights of countries to their own resources,” the Kommersant business daily quoted Sechin as saying. “Because the…
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The Kremlin blamed the United States for the breakdown in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine on Thursday, claiming that Kyiv pulled out of negotiations on Washington’s orders. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed the two warring sides had drafted a peace deal in March, one month into Moscow’s full-scale invasion, when Kyiv’s delegation suddenly stepped…
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Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine’s occupied region of Zaporizhzhia ordered phone checks on local residents on Thursday, announcing the implementation of military censorship under Russian President Vladimir Putin’s martial law decree. “From today in the Zaporizhzhia region, law enforcement officers have begun a selective preventing check of the mobile phones of citizens,” Moscow-appointed official Vladimir Rogov…
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Commercial satellites used by the United States to assist Ukraine in its war against Russia are “legitimate” targets for attacks, a Russian diplomat said Wednesday. Private assets like Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet constellation, as well as Maxar and Planet Labs earth observation satellites, have proven critical in keeping Ukrainians online and piercing the fog of…
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Russian lawmakers on Thursday voted unanimously in favor of a bill to forbid the spreading of “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” toward minors and adults. While Russian law currently prohibits the spread of so-called “gay propaganda” to minors under 18, the new bill would expand the ban to content aimed at all age groups. Activists…
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U.S. automaker Ford Motor announced Wednesday it has finalized a full exit from Russia with the sale of its minority stake in a Moscow region-based joint venture. Ford was among a number of foreign automakers to suspend operations in Russia in March after President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine eight months ago.…
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Russia’s Embassy in Oslo criticized what it called Norway’s “spy mania” on Wednesday, a day after the Scandinavian country announced the arrest of a suspected Russian sleeper agent. The Norwegian counter-intelligence service PST on Tuesday said it had arrested a Russian so-called “illegal” agent masquerading as a Brazilian researcher at the University of Tromso, in…
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Nobody can accuse Adam Curtis of lacking ambition in his new BBC series “Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone.” In a harrowing seven-hour viewing experience made up entirely of archival footage, the British filmmaker attempts to recreate the atmosphere of the Soviet Union’s final years and Russia’s brief experiment with democracy. While not as broad in scope as…
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Nobody can accuse Adam Curtis of lacking ambition in his new BBC series “Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone.” In a harrowing seven-hour viewing experience made up entirely of archival footage, the British filmmaker attempts to recreate the atmosphere of the Soviet Union’s final years and Russia’s brief experiment with democracy. While not as broad in scope as…
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Russian media figure Ksenia Sobchak has fled Russia after authorities raided her villa outside Moscow in connection with an extortion case which she dismissed as government pressure on her media group, AFP and state-run media reported Wednesday. Agents searched Sobchak’s property in the Moscow region village of Gorki-8, according to the 112 Telegram channel, which…
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Russian authorities have raided television presenter Ksenia Sobchak’s villa outside Moscow in connection with the arrest of an executive in her media holding, while Sobchak herself appeared to have fled the country, state-run media reported Wednesday. Agents searched Sobchak’s property in the Moscow region village of Gorki-8, according to the 112 Telegram channel, which is…
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President Vladimir Putin oversaw training exercises of Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrence forces on Wednesday, the Kremlin said. State television aired footage of Putin overseeing the drills in the Barents Sea in the Arctic and the Kamchatka peninsula in the Far East from a control room. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin in televised remarks that the drills…
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Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday reiterated claims that Ukraine is preparing a provocation using a “dirty bomb” in a video call with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe, according to Moscow’s Defense Ministry. “The situation in Ukraine was discussed. Army General Sergei Shoigu conveyed to his Chinese counterpart concerns about possible provocations by Ukraine…
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