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,”…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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,…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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.…
Details
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…
Details
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,…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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,…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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…
Details
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.…
Details
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…
Details
Updates with Novaya Gazeta statement. A Moscow court on Monday revoked the print license of independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, whose chief editor last year was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. “The Basmanny court of Moscow invalidated the registration certificate of the print version of Novaya Gazeta,” the outlet said on social media. Novaya Gazeta’s chief…
Details
Eight climbers have died on the highest active volcano in Russia’s Far East, the Interfax news agency reported Monday. A party of 12 climbers from seven Russian regions, including two Novosibirsk-based guides, set off to climb the Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula last week. Six people fell to their deaths, Interfax reported Sunday,…
Details
The ambassadors of the United States and the European Union in Russia have left Moscow after ending their diplomatic tenures as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine plunged relations to their lowest point since the Cold War. John Sullivan, 62, left Russia on Sunday and will retire from four decades of public service under five U.S. presidents,…
Details
How long will Russia’s war in Ukraine last? Will Kyiv regain its territories lost to Moscow under President Volodymyr Zelensky’s leadership? What will trigger the end of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s rule? Inquiring minds can find the answers to all these questions and more on Russian YouTube, where self-described “tarologists” give readings several times a…
Details
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is often called “Putin’s war,” based on the assumption that Russia’s authoritarian leader has a firm grip on power and virtually single-handedly influences Russian politics. And as the only country to wage a war in Europe in the 21st century, Russia is viewed as an exceptional state that operates by its…
Details
Updates with details of the burial, quotes from mourners, background. Last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was laid to rest Saturday in a Moscow ceremony, but without the fanfare of a state funeral and with the glaring absence of President Vladimir Putin. Several thousand mourners queued up to quietly file past Gorbachev’s open casket as it…
Details
“What do you mean, jam from Kyiv? From where?” a patron of a Moscow restaurant shouted aggressively at the waiter. “Yes, it’s from the time of Catherine the Great,” the waiter said calmly. “Well, if that’s the case, all right then…” the diner muttered, mollified. That scene really happened about five years ago. Even then,…
Details
Gazprom said Friday that a gas pipeline to Germany due to reopen at the weekend would remain shut until a turbine is repaired, cutting off indefinitely a key supply route to Europe. In a statement, state-owned gas giant Gazprom indicated it had discovered “oil leaks” in a turbine during a planned three-day maintenance operation. Gazprom…
Details
Тузик: Ace (classic dog name) When I moved to Riga, the first morning I was woken up by the unmistakable pitter patter of little dog paws in the apartment above me. Later that day when I was walking my dog, we met the pitter-patterer: a very friendly, sweet-natured dog of mixed, rather confused origins –…
Details
Sitting before a group of children on their first day back at school in the Russian region of Kaliningrad on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin set out the importance of Moscow’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. “An anti-Russian enclave has begun to be created on the territory of today’s Ukraine that threatens our country,” Putin said. …
Details
Russian officials threatened Friday to stop all oil and gas imports to Europe if major Western countries go ahead with plans to implement energy price caps. The angry response from Moscow came as the G7 group of industrialized nations said in a statement that it was “urgently” seeking a price cap on Russian oil and…
Details
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday at the age of 91, presided over period of artistic freedom in the U.S.S.R. that had not been seen since the post-Revolutionary era. Russian culture flourished under his leadership, particularly in the theater, in which he took an active interest. But unlike other Soviet leaders, Gorbachev did…
Details
Russia’s banking sector lost 1.5 trillion rubles ($24.8 billion) in the first half of 2022, a top Central Bank official said Friday. This is the first time the Central Bank has disclosed financial results since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February. “The loss-making banks lost 1.9 trillion rubles and profit-making banks made 400 billion rubles,” Dmitry…
Details
One hundred Russians have been accused or convicted under Russia’s draconian wartime censorship law on spreading “false information,” according to leading human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov. Those convicted under the so-called “war fakes” law face up to 15 years in prison. Two people have so far been sentenced to prison terms and 28 people accused…
Details
China’s UnionPay paymentsystem has stopped accepting cards issued by Russian banks under Western sanctions over fears of penalties, the RBC news website reported Friday, citing financial industry sources. Demand for UnionPay cards in Russia surged following Visa and Mastercard’s exit in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. A number of major Russian banks subsequently…
Details
UN inspectors arrived at a Russian-held nuclear plant in southern Ukraine Thursday despite an early shelling attack, as the ICRC warned the consequences of a strike on the facility could be “catastrophic”. After crossing the frontline into Russian-held territory, the 14-strong team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reached the facility around 3:00 pm,…
Details
Alexei Kovalev was found Sunday shot to death in his home in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Hola Prystan. Nearby lay his girlfriend, reportedly badly injured with stab wounds to her neck, and a Mossberg pump-action shotgun. Prior to Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February, Kovalev was a deputy in the Ukrainian parliament and a…
Details
Russia has lost more than 900 special forces soldiers, paratroopers, marines and pilots in over six months of war in Ukraine, the BBC’s Russian service reported Thursday citing publicly available data. The deaths of such soldiers are particularly problematic for the Russian Armed Forces because they are very costly to replace. At least 337 marines…
Details