Russia has covertly sent at least $300 million to foreign political parties and candidates in more than two dozen countries since 2014 in bids to gain influence, a declassified U.S. intelligence assessment said Tuesday. U.S. intelligence “assesses that these are minimum figures and that Russia likely has transferred additional funds covertly in cases that have gone undetected,” a…
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull out his troops from Ukraine, as a counteroffensive by Kyiv’s forces made swift progress. Scholz in a 90-minute telephone call “urged” Putin to “come to a diplomatic solution as quickly as possible, based on a ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Russian forces and respect…
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YEREVAN, Armenia — Russia said Tuesday it had negotiated a ceasefire between ex-Soviet Armenia and Azerbaijan after clashes between the historic rivals left at least 49 Armenian troops dead. The Armenian Defense Ministry said the fighting started early Tuesday, with the Armenian cities of Goris, Sotk, and Jermuk coming under fire from Azerbaijani artillery, mortars…
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Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive in the northeastern region of Kharkiv has severely reduced Russia’s military capabilities and means Moscow will be unable to achieve its current war aims, analysts said Tuesday. “The overall situation for Russia is becoming increasingly difficult,” said Konrad Muzyka of Poland-based Rochan Consulting. “It will be up to Ukraine to decide when,…
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Russian climate activists have filed the country’s first-ever lawsuit demanding stronger government action toward the climate crisis, The Guardian reported Tuesday. Russia, the world’s fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, is warming twice as fast as the planet as a whole — a trend that is already fueling major environmental disasters like wildfires, floods and permafrost melt.…
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Russia is not planning to declare a mass national draft for the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said Tuesday. The denial comes amid growing speculation that Russia may be looking to reverse its flagging fortunes in its six-month invasion of Ukraine by declaring mass mobilization and shoring up its apparent military manpower shortage. “Not at…
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Russian security services said Tuesday they had arrested an employee of an aerospace factory on suspicion of high treason for passing classified defense-related information to Ukraine. The Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that it had detained a Russian national suspected of “high treason for transferring data to…
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Moscow will not respond in kind to the European Union’s new hurdles for Russians visiting the bloc’s visa-free travel zone, a senior diplomat said Tuesday. The European Union last week formally suspended a 2007 visa facilitation deal with Moscow that had made it easier and cheaper for Russians to travel to Europe as part of the…
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Updated at 12:00 p.m. on Sept. 13 to add Russia’s ceasefire announcement. Russia said Tuesday it had negotiated a ceasefire between ex-Soviet Armenia and Azerbaijan, after fresh border clashes between the historic rivals left dozens dead. Armenia and Azerbaijan traded blame for exchanges of fire around the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region that began at about midnight…
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Moscow confirmed Tuesday the arrests of Russian teachers who had been deployed to northeastern Ukraine after Kyiv’s forces recaptured swathes of the region from Russia in a lightning counteroffensive. The confirmation by Russian investigative authorities came one day after Ukraine’s top government official announced the arrests of Russian teachers in the Kharkiv region. Prime Minister Iryna…
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Russian pro-government figures have voiced concern and frustration over Kyiv’s weekend counteroffensive that saw its forces retake swathes of northeastern Ukraine, amid mounting domestic criticism of the Kremlin’s handling of its six-month invasion. Ukraine recaptured almost all of the Kharkiv region from Russian forces in a shock counteroffensive over the weekend, in what observers say…
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Dozens of municipal deputies from Moscow and St. Petersburg have called on President Vladimir Putin to resign in an open letter published Monday. The call for the Russian president to step down comes amid claims of vote rigging in this weekend’s local and regional elections as well as a massive advance by Kyiv’s forces that…
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The Russian Defense Ministry said Monday it is carrying out strikes in areas of northeastern Ukraine that Kyiv’s forces recaptured in recent days in a shock counteroffensive. Ukraine over the weekend retook nearly all of the Kharkiv region, including the strategic cities of Izyum and Kupiansk, ending months of Russian occupation and marking one of…
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At least two Russian-installed officials who were said to have been assassinated in occupied Ukraine over the summer are in fact alive, authorities and state media said Monday. Sergei Tomko and Vitally Gura from southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, which Russian forces captured in early March, were reported to be among the 20 Moscow-installed officials killed since…
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Pro-Kremlin candidates swept the field in Russia’s local and regional elections over the weekend, the first since the country invaded Ukraine, according to preliminary results published Monday. Already overshadowed by the arrests or disqualification of opposition politicians as well as wartime censorship laws, Russia’s 2022 elections were further marred by claims of fraud over the…
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The Kremlin has put on hold referendums to annex territories claimed by Russian forces in Ukraine amid Kyiv’s shock counteroffensive in the northeast, the independent Meduza news website reported Sunday, citing unnamed sources close to the Kremlin. Kremlin-linked political strategists preparing the annexation votes had been reportedly called back to Russia from southern Ukraine’s partially…
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Officials in east Ukraine on Sunday blamed Russian attacks on key facilities for widespread blackouts that hit large areas of the country where Kyiv’s forces have been making gains in a counteroffensive. The blackouts, which came after Ukrainian forces said they had recaptured dozens of towns and villages in eastern Ukraine, hit regions with pre-war…
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Mary E. Sarotte’s book “Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate” is the history of negotiations on arms control, security issues and NATO conducted by the leaders of the U.S., the Soviet Union and Russia, and the broader Western community from the beginning of Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika up through the…
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A few days after Russia launched its invasion of neighboring Ukraine, Russian conscript sailor Mark Tarasov wrote to his mother in St. Petersburg from aboard the Black Sea Fleet’s flagship, the Moskva. “I’m fine. Alive. We are all good. I don’t really know what is happening in the world right now, only in basic terms,”…
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Russia said it was pulling back troops from the eastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine as Kyiv announced massive territorial gains in its lightning counteroffensive. A Moscow-backed separatist leader in the east meanwhile said Russian forces were fighting “difficult” battles against Kyiv’s troops in several parts of eastern Donetsk region. A Ukrainian official also said Kyiv’s…
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Updates with Pushilin comments and Kupiansk seizure. Kyiv said Saturday its forces were making lightning gains in the east of the country in a shock counteroffensive to recapture territory that fell to Russia shortly after Moscow’s February invasion. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock meanwhile arrived in the Ukrainian capital for a surprise visit, which she…
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Today if you asked Russians, most of them would tell you that forshmak is part of Jewish cuisine. But 150 years ago it was absolutely considered a Russian dish. In the 19th century forshmak was as familiar to the Russian people as sausages are today. Somehow this dish managed to assimilate the traditions of German,…
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Russian forces controlling Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have killed two staff at the facility and detained and abused dozens of others, the head of Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency told AFP on Friday. The Zaporizhzhia plant — the largest in Europe — was captured by Russian troops in March. An uptick in fighting around it in recent weeks has raised fears of a nuclear disaster with both Moscow and Kyiv blaming the other for the escalation. “A regime of harassment of personnel was gradually established,” following the Russian takeover, Petro Kotin said. “Two people were beaten to death. We do not know where about…
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Russia said on Friday it was dispatching reinforcements to the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine where Kyiv’s forces have announced robust gains as part of a broader counteroffensive. State media broadcast footage of columns of Russian tanks, support vehicles and artillery travelling along paved roads and dirt tracks, emblazoned with the letter “Z,” the symbol of…
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Макбет: Macbeth If you can believe it, I had been been working on a continuation of my serious, scholarly study of traditional Russian pet names — such an important, under-researched topic — when I got sidetracked by the extraordinary news that “По словам премьер-министра Лиз Трасс, 73-летний принц Уэльский Чарльз возьмет имя Карл III” (In…
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Russians began voting Friday in the country’s first elections since the start of the invasion of Ukraine — a vote that is unlikely to yield any political upsets for the Kremlin, but will be seen as an indicator of the public mood following six months of war. More than 31,000 positions are up for grabs…
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Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday at age 96, ending the longest reign in the history of the British monarchy and leaving behind a legacy that spans seven decades. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Queen Elizabeth II made a historic visit to Russia in 1994, becoming the first ruling British monarch to set foot…
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The U.S. oilfield services corporation Halliburton announced Friday it has fully exited the Russian market in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The corporation, one of the world’s largest energy product and service suppliers, said it sold its Russian operations to a Russia-based management team composed of former Halliburton employees. “The Russia-based management team now…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday offered his condolences to King Charles III following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, wishing the new monarch “courage and resilience” after his mother’s passing. “The most important events of the United Kingdom’s recent history are inextricably bound with the name of Her Majesty. For many decades Elizabeth II…
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Ukraine on Thursday claimed a military breakthrough in its counter-offensive against Russian invaders as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a surprise visit to Kyiv, unveiled another $2.8 billion in military aid. Ukraine said its forces made gains in the north, the south and the east, prying back land seized by Russia which had hoped for…
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The South Caucasus nation of Georgia, a popular destination for Russians opposed to the invasion of Ukraine, is increasingly denying entry to Russian citizens, local activists told The Moscow Times. More than a dozen Russians are blocked from Georgia every day, Yegor Kuroptev, director of the Free Russia Foundation in the South Caucasus, said Thursday.…
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Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny said Thursday he has been barred from confidential communications with his lawyers or family at the penal colony where he’s currently serving a nine-year prison sentence. “It has been established that you continue your criminal activity, you are committing crimes directly from the prison facilities and you communicate with your…
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Russian forces appeared to be struggling to contain a Ukrainian counteroffensive around the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Thursday amid claims that Kyiv’s forces had advanced as far as 50 kilometers in a breakthrough involving tanks and artillery. “During defense operations to recapture lost territory in the Kharkiv direction, since the start of the week,…
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Poland and the three Baltic states said Thursday they would temporarily restrict access for Russian citizens holding EU visas by Sept. 19 to address “public policy and security threats.” The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland said in a statement they were concerned “about the substantial and growing influx of Russian citizens” into…
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Western sanctions for Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine have “failed” to undermine the “financial stability” of Russia, the country’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Thursday. Western capitals pummeled Moscow with a barrage of sanctions after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine, but the Kremlin maintains that Russia has weathered the economic penalties. “Unprecedented sanctions…
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Several Russian journalists in at least six regions had their homes searched by police Thursday, with state media citing their alleged ties to a pro-Ukraine former lawmaker and a legion of Russian soldiers fighting alongside Kyiv’s forces. The raids come amid Russia’s sweeping crackdown on dissent and independent media since the start of its invasion…
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid a surprise visit Thursday to Kyiv as the United States unveiled more than $2.6 billion in new military aid, saying the assistance was visibly paying off on the battlefield against Russian invaders. The latest package includes $675 million to be shipped shortly in arms, ammunition and supplies, $1 billion…
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Russian consumers will be able to buy the newly unveiled iPhone 14 in Russia despite Apple’s exit from the market over the invasion of Ukraine, a government minister said Thursday. “If consumers want to buy these phones, you’re welcome. They will have that chance,” Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov told state-run RIA Novosti news…
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China has ramped up imports of Russian energy and raw materials this year without doing the same for tech exports, the Kommersant business daily reported late Wednesday, citing Chinese customs data. China imported $72.9 billion worth of goods from Russia between January and August, a 50% increase on the same period last year. Its exports…
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The United Nations cited “credible accusations” Wednesday that Moscow’s forces have forcibly taken Ukrainian children to Russia, while Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of benefitting from the eased grain blockade. Kyiv meanwhile said its forces had recaptured significant territory in a counter-offensive southeast of Kharkiv that experts say could threaten key Russian supply…
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President Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party on Wednesday proposed holding referendums on Nov. 4 to annex territories taken by Moscow’s forces in Ukraine. “It would be right and symbolic” to hold the votes on Nov. 4, Russia’s Day of National Unity, party secretary general Andrey Turchak said on its website. After the votes, he…
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A growing number of Russians are choosing neighboring Belarus for their next vacation in a bid to access Western goods and financial services no longer available at home because of sanctions imposed on Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine. Unlike Russia, most foreign retailers and major payment companies retain a presence in ex-Soviet Belarus that…
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Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny said Wednesday he had been placed in a solitary confinement cell for the fourth time in little over a month. The opposition figure, who is serving an 11.5 year sentence on charges of fraud, parole violations and contempt of court, said he had just been released from a spell in…
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Updated with Putin comments. Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed Western governments’ “sanctions fever,” defended the invasion of Ukraine and warned Europeans they could “freeze” without Russian energy exports at an economic forum in Russia’s Far East on Wednesday. “The [coronavirus] epidemic has been replaced by other global challenges that threaten the entire world,” Putin told…
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Russia has put Vitaly Mansky, one of the country’s leading documentary filmmakers and a critic of the invasion of Ukraine, on a wanted list, Russian media reported Tuesday. Mansky, 58, was recently implicated in a defamation case brought by prominent film director and Kremlin supporter Nikita Mikhalkov. In a recent Youtube interview, Mansky said “at…
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Myanmar has begun buying petroleum products from Russia and is expecting the delivery of diesel fuel in the coming days, the Southeast Asian country’s military leader said Wednesday. Senior general Min Aung Hlaing shared the news on his second visit to Russia in less than two months as both isolated countries seek to deepen ties in…
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The UN’s atomic watchdog called Tuesday for a security zone to be set up around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russia, as the area was hit by more shelling. Russian troops seized control of the plant — Europe’s biggest atomic facility — in March and there have been repeated attacks in…
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Russian tank losses in Ukraine have passed 1,000, according to the Oryx intelligence blog that tracks equipment losses in the fighting, highlighting the attrition suffered by Russian forces in more than six months of war. Over half of Russia’s tank losses recorded by Oryx, which verifies destroyed, captured or abandoned tanks using open source information,…
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Russian gas giant Gazprom said Tuesday that China will start paying for Russian gas in rubles and yuan instead of Western currency, as Moscow seeks closer ties with Beijing in the wake of economic sanctions over the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. “A transition was made to making payments for Russian gas supplies to China in…
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BELGRADE, Serbia — The lavishly decorated main entrance of Serbia’s baroque-style parliament building was barely visible behind a sea of protest tents and a makeshift stage adorned with billboards. One of the billboards featured the face of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov alongside the caption “the world’s greatest diplomat.” “We are the same people,” one…
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Twice as many people left Russia in the first half of 2022 than during the same period last year as the country faced international isolation over its invasion of Ukraine, according to data released by state statistics agency Rosstat on Tuesday. A total of 419,000 people departed Russia between January and June compared with 202,000 in…
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Douglas Smith is an historian and translator, author of seven books on Russia. In the 1980s, he was a Russian-speaking guide on the U.S. State Department’s exhibition “Information USA” that traveled around the Soviet Union and served as an interpreter for late President Reagan. In 2016 he found an extraordinary cache of color photographs and…
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President Vladimir Putin attended large-scale military exercises on Tuesday involving China and several Russia-friendly countries as Moscow seeks to strengthen partnerships in Asia in the face of Western sanctions. Russia has found itself increasingly isolated as tensions between Moscow and Western capitals soared since Russia sent troops into pro-Western Ukraine in February. Slapped with unprecedented…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that employers should guarantee the jobs of men who volunteer to fight in Ukraine amid a widely reported troop shortage in Moscow’s ongoing invasion of its neighbor. Putin pledged to order the government to enshrine the provision in law after receiving complaints that some employers had threatened to fire…
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Russia has raked in 158 billion euros ($158 billion) in energy exports in the six months following its invasion of Ukraine, a think tank said Tuesday. The Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air called for more effective sanctions against Moscow after the invasion sent oil, gas and coal prices soaring. “Surging fossil fuel…
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Russia and China have slowed construction of what would have been the world’s first cross-border cable car due to EU sanctions, the governor of a region where Russia’s section was to be built said Monday. Construction of the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe cable car across the Amur River began in April 2021 and was due to wrap up…
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Russia barred 25 U.S. citizens from entering the country Monday, including actors Ben Stiller and Sean Penn, in its latest round of personal sanctions. The Hollywood actors were included on a list published by the Russian Foreign Ministry alongside high-ranking business and political figures. “The hostile actions of the American authorities, which continue to follow…
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Updated with reaction to the sentence. A Moscow court sentenced reporter Ivan Safronov to 22 years in prison Monday, Russia’s first treason conviction for a journalist since 2001. Safronov, a defense journalist at top Russian newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti who went on to work for state space agency Roscosmos, was convicted of collecting secret information…
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Chinese tech giant Huawei has moved some of its staff from Russia to Central Asia over fears of Western sanctions, the Vedomosti business daily reported Monday, citing sources close to the company. Huawei began relocating Chinese and Russian managers and heads of divisions to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to Vedomosti.…
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The Afghan interior ministry told AFP that a suicide attacker was shot dead by Taliban guards at the embassy. “It was a suicide attack, but before the bomber could reach his target, he was targeted by our forces and eliminated,” Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafy Takor told AFP. Asked whether the target was the…
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