The Art of Russian Mumbling, Grumbling, and Babbling

Под нос: under your breath Russian – I suppose like all languages — has a bit of fun with various words for speaking outside the normal range of шептать–говорить–орать (whisper-talk-shout). Here we get into onomatopoeia, which in Russian is the more immediately understandable звукоподражание (literally “sound imitation”). This kind of colorful speech might be divided…

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Russia Bans Bellingcat, Insider as ‘Undesirable’ Orgs

Russia has designated the Bellingcat investigative outlet as an “undesirable” organization on Friday, outlawing its operations inside the country. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office accused Bellingcat and its Russian partner The Insider of “posing a threat to the security of the Russian Federation.”  Any Russian who cooperates with the outlets or cites their work now faces…

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Russian Feminist Activist Acquitted of ‘Porn’ Charges

A court in Far East Russia has acquitted feminist and LGBT activist Yulia Tsvetkova of “pornography” charges for what supporters call body-positive images posted on social media, her mother said Friday. Tsvetkova, 29, spent several months under house arrest after authorities in the remote city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur launched a criminal case into the “spread of…

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Russian Team Praises U.S. Basketball Star Griner in Court

U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner’s Russian team praised her contribution to the country’s sport on Thursday as they shared testimony during her high-profile trial. Griner, a two-time Olympic basketball gold medalist and WNBA champion who had played in Russia, was detained in February, just days before Moscow launched its offensive in Ukraine. The 31-year-old was charged with…

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Putin Signs Expanded ‘Foreign Agents’ Law

President Vladimir Putin signed into law Thursday legislation expanding the “foreign agent” label to encompass anyone deemed to have fallen under “foreign influence.” Russia’s registry of “foreign agents,” a name with Soviet-era connotations, lists “politically active” people and organizations that Russian authorities determine to have received foreign funding and subjects them to strict auditing requirements.…

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Kazakhstan Seeks to Attract Foreign Brands Exiting Russia

Kazakhstan must work to accommodate the hundreds of international businesses that have left Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, the ex-Soviet republic’s president said Thursday. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has walked a diplomatic tightrope since the start of the war in February, maintaining close ties with Moscow while refusing to recognize the independence of Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern…

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Rosatom Technical Academy, Rosenergoatom and Uzatom Agency signed the Memorandum of Understanding in the area of nuclear infrastructure development

The Memorandum of Understanding between Rosenergoatom JSC, Rosatom Technical Academy Independent Non-Profit Organization for Continuing Professional Education (INO CPE) and the Agency for Nuclear Power Engineering Development at the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Uzbekistan (Uzatom Agency) was signed on July 13. Zhurabek Mirzamakhmudov, Chief Executive Officer of Uzatom Agency, signed the Memorandum…

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Russia Reports First Female Military Death in Ukraine

The first Russian female soldier has died in Ukraine four and a half months into Russia’s war against its pro-Western neighbor, local media reported Tuesday. Anastasia Savitskaya was a corporal from the southwestern Russian city of Volgograd, according to the v1.ru news website. It was not clear where in Ukraine, or under what circumstances, she had…

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Europe Aborts Joint Mars Mission With Russia

The European Space Agency (ESA) pulled the plug Tuesday on a joint Russian-European rover mission to Mars in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ESA chief Josef Aschbacher tweeted that the agency’s council of ministers had determined the circumstances surrounding the March suspension of cooperation with Russia over ExoMars “continue to prevail” and that the official partnership…

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Putin’s Daughter Takes Top ‘Import Substitution’ Role

President Vladimir Putin’s youngest daughter Katerina Tikhonova has been appointed to oversee Russia’s struggling import substitution program at a leading business lobby group, the RBC news website reported Wednesday.  Western sanctions and the exit of Western companies following the invasion of Ukraine mean Russia has seen a collapse in imports and is facing shortages of key…

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Heavy Floods Hit Russia’s Far East

Several villages in Russia’s Far East republic of Sakha are facing severe flooding following heavy rainfall, local authorities said, prompting a state of emergency in the country’s coldest and largest region. The government of Sakha said the rains had broken structures around a dam and left a remote village in Siberia “almost entirely” flooded. “Due…

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Russian Court Fines Apple for Breaching Data Storage Rules

Russia has fined American tech giant Apple for failing to store Russian citizens’ personal data on Russia-based servers, Interfax reported Tuesday.  The fine comes amid Russia’s wider crackdown on Western tech companies in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine that has seen Facebook and Instagram banned as “extremist” organizations and Twitter blocked. Moscow’s Tagansky…

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In Memory of Francesca Mereu

We are deeply saddened to write that Francesca Mereu, an author, playwright, tireless advocate of blues music and former Moscow Times reporter who split her time until recently between Moscow and Alabama, died June 24 in Tijuana, Mexico. Since 2011, Francesca published three books in her native Italian—one on Putin, one on Russia’s transition to capitalism…

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Myanmar Junta Chief Visits Moscow

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing visited Moscow Tuesday, Russian media reported, as the U.S. vowed to put pressure on his military regime over a 2021 coup.  Russia’s Embassy in Myanmar told the Interfax news agency that Hlaing was in Moscow on a “private” visit.  “He plans to take part in the opening of a…

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Russia Confirms First Monkeypox Case

Russia has registered its first case of monkeypox, federal health authorities confirmed Tuesday. “The infection was found in a young man who came back from a trip through European countries and went to a medical facility with a characteristic rash,” state consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement.  Rospotrebnadzor said the patient, whose symptoms…

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Effectiveness of Ukraine’s HIMARS Fuels Concern in Russia

Pro-Kremlin figures have expressed rare public concern after Western-supplied weapons allowed Ukraine to carry out a series of successful attacks on Russian targets far behind the frontlines. The M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which the United States started sending to Ukraine last month, appear to have been most effective at damaging Russian military…

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Moscow-Backed Authorities Say Foiled Attack in Southern Ukraine

Moscow-backed authorities of the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson said Monday they had foiled an attack against their local leader. In recent weeks, attacks against pro-Russian representatives have increased in the occupied southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. On Monday, the Moscow-backed administration claimed that its leader, Vladimir Saldo, narrowly escaped an attack. An…

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Russian Court Overturns Ban on Kazakh Oil Exports

A Russian court on Monday overturned a ruling for a 30-day ban on the unloading of oil deliveries from Kazakhstan, a source of tensions between the two countries. Last week, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered officials to find oil export routes bypassing Russia in a move that risked deepening tensions that have emerged between the…

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Russia Recruits Prisoners En Masse for Ukraine Deployment – NGO

Prisoners with combat experience across Russia are being recruited en masse to fight in Ukraine, the Gulagu.net prisoner’s rights group has reported. Representatives from the Kremlin-linked Wagner private military contractor and Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) are reportedly offering convicts deployment or work on restoring and demining occupied Ukrainian territories. According to Gulagu.net, the recruitment…

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