Ukrainian drone strikes targeted three towns in Russia’s Belgorod region, seriously damaging a church and hitting public and commercial buildings, local authorities said early Tuesday. “An FPV drone struck St. Nicholas Church in the village of Gruzskoye in the Borisov district,” Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram. Gladkov shared photos showing the church’s…
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Two U.S. researchers claim to have identified a new potential deployment site of Russia’s nuclear-armed cruise missile Burevestnik, Reuters reported Monday. Decker Eveleth, an analyst with the CNA research and analysis organization, and Jeffery Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey said they identified a construction project near a nuclear warhead storage facility 475…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrival in Mongolia marks his first trip to an International Criminal Court (ICC) member state since the body issued a warrant for his arrest over the illegal deportations of Ukrainian children to Russia in March 2023. While bolstering Putin’s defiance of the West, the visit carries wider implications for international law…
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Russia advanced on 477 square kilometers (184 square miles) of Ukrainian territory in August, Moscow’s biggest monthly increase since October 2022, according to data supplied by the Institute for the Study of War and analyzed by AFP. The Ukrainian army, for its part, made rapid gains in early August in Russia after a surprise incursion…
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Viktor Bout, the notorious Russian arms dealer released in a 2022 prisoner exchange for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, has applied to trademark his name for beverages. According to the news website RBC-Wine, Bout applied to register his first and surname in Cyrillic, the Latin transcription “Victor Bout” and the phrase “Kroot Kak Boot” (“Tough…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Mongolia late Monday, marking his first visit to a country that is a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since it issued an arrest warrant for him last year. Russian state television broadcasted Putin’s plane landing in the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar. Putin is wanted by the ICC for…
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On August 29, the Venice Film Festival screened Greek filmmaker Alexandros Avranas’ “Quiet Life,” the story of a Russian immigrant family. The film instantly became one of the most talked-about screenings of the festival to date. The film follows a Russian couple, Natalia (Chulpan Khamatova) and Sergei (Grigory Dobrygin), who flee their homeland after Sergei’s…
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Russia imported more than $29 million in U.S. dollar and euro banknotes from Rwanda this year, despite Western sanctions on cash imports, the investigative outlet Vyorstka reported on Monday, citing confidential customs data. The United States and the European Union banned the export of their banknotes to Russia in March 2022 following the full-scale invasion…
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A small village in a national park in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region is boycotting the upcoming regional elections where the pro-Kremlin incumbent governor seeks to secure his mandate because they have been cut off from the outside world by authorities’ negligence. The village of Tyulyuk, some 1,700 kilometers from Moscow, is located in a region nicknamed…
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Russia’s manufacturing sector saw its slowest pace of growth in more than a year in August, a business survey published on Monday showed. S&P Global’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for Russian manufacturing fell to 52.1 last month compared to 53.6 in July. A PMI value above 50 points indicates growth, whereas anything below signifies a…
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A large fire at an oil storage facility in southern Russia’s Rostov region has been extinguished two weeks after a Ukrainian drone strike set it off, Russian state media reported Monday, citing emergency services. Ukraine’s military claimed responsibility for the Aug. 18 attack on the Kavkaz oil and petroleum storage facility in the town of…
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A Beluga whale whose unusual harness sparked suspicions it was trained by Russia for spying purposes has been found dead in Norway, according to an NGO that tracks the animal’s movements. Nicknamed “Hvaldimir,” a pun on the Norwegian word for whale hval and the Russian name Vladimir, the beluga first appeared off the coast of…
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Rescuers on Sunday said they found 17 bodies after a helicopter with 22 people on board crashed in Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula in the Far East. The helicopter went missing shortly after takeoff Saturday, carrying 19 tourists and 3 crew members, according to authorities in Kamchatka, a picturesque region popular among adventure tourists and known for its active…
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Relatives of the victims of the Beslan school siege gathered Sunday to pay tribute at the ruins of the school, remembering the 330 people, including 186 children, who lost their lives in Russia’s deadliest terror attack. School bells rang at 9:15 a.m. local time, marking the start of the siege 20 years ago, while mourners laid…
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Russia’s Defense Ministry said early Sunday that its air defense systems downed nearly 160 Ukrainian drones across 15 regions, including two over Moscow, making it one of the largest coordinated attacks on the country since the start of the war. “During the night, the Kyiv regime attempted a terrorist attack using drones against targets in…
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Independent Russian media outlet Mediazona said Saturday more than 66,000 Russian military personnel have died during the war in Ukraine according to its estimates. Mediazona has been drawing up a list of known soldier deaths in conjunction with the BBC Russian Service using open-source data. Previously in April, they announced they had found more than…
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A helicopter with 22 people aboard, most of them tourists, has gone missing in Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula in the far east, regional authorities said Saturday. “Today at about 16:15 [0415 GMT] communication was lost with a Mi-8 helicopter…which had 22 people on board, 19 passengers and three crew members,” Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in…
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Apples are not at all as simple as they seem. Although they seem ordinary, no other fruit has left such a large trace in world history. In Russia, cultivated varieties of apples appeared in the 11th century during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise. It is believed that the first apple orchard was planted on…
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Ukraine’s cross-border incursion into Russia has disrupted Russian mercenaries’ plans in junta-led Burkina Faso, with many now pulled out to help boost Moscow’s defenses back home, a paramilitary commander said on Friday. In an interview with AFP, Viktor Yermolaev, head of a paramilitary unit known as Medvedi (Bears) in Russia and the Bear Brigade in…
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Ukraine was fully within its rights to launch its surprise offensive into Russia’s Kursk border region as an act of self-defense, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told German newspaper Die Welt. The offensive launched on Aug. 6 caught the Kremlin off guard, with Kyiv claiming to have captured dozens of settlements and more than 1,200 square…
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At least five people were killed and 37 others injured in Ukrainian airstrikes on Russia’s Belgorod region Friday evening, local authorities said. Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov accused Ukrainian forces of using “Vampir” multiple-launch rocket systems with cluster munitions in the attack on the city of Belgorod and its surrounding areas. Among the dead were…
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Russian authorities designated Galina Timchenko, the exiled founder and CEO of the independent news website Meduza, as a “foreign agent” on Friday. The Russian Justice Ministry accused Timchenko of opposing the country’s “special military operation” in Ukraine and spreading “inaccurate information aimed at forming a negative image of the Russian armed forces.” Timchenko served as…
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Russian authorities have added Chechen MMA fighter Ilyas Yakubov to the country’s list of “extremists and terrorists” ahead of a court ruling on a criminal case against him. Yakubov was arrested last fall after posting an Instagram video of a training session set to an audio track featuring Shamil Basayev, a notorious Chechen guerrilla leader.…
DetailsDelegation of the Agency also visited some events of ROSATOM. The delegation from the IAEA Department of Safeguards led by its head Massimo Aparo, Deputy Director General of the Agency, visited Russia on August, 26-29, 2024. Consultations with Sergey Ryabkov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, and Nikolay Spassky, Deputy Director General…
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Russia’s military said Friday that it captured three more villages in eastern Ukraine, where its forces continue to advance even as Kyiv mounts a major cross-border incursion into Russian territory. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces gained control of towns and villages in Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions. Among the settlements captured…
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A cultural center dedicated to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin announced the creation of a new Komsomol, the Communist Party’s youth wing, as Soviet-era symbolism continues to resurface in Russia. The Stalin Center, located in the Altai region city of Byisk, launched the Stalin Young Communist League, aiming to attract members aged 14-20 who share the…
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The Kremlin said Friday that it was not concerned about authorities in Mongolia arresting President Vladimir Putin during his visit to the Asian country next week, even though it would technically be required to do so after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest last March. Putin will travel to Mongolia…
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Russian payments for Chinese goods faced increasing delays and rising costs this past month due to stricter banking compliance in response to U.S. threats of secondary sanctions, Reuters reported Friday, citing Russian sources familiar with the matter. Chinese state banks have reportedly halted transactions with Russian companies “en masse,” leaving payments worth billions of yuan…
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Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Friday that it detained two Colombian citizens on suspicion of fighting as mercenaries on the side of Ukraine. The detentions came after a Moscow court ruled Wednesday to place Jose Aron Medina and Alexander Ante in pre-trial detention until at least Oct. 22. Both men face up to 15…
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A court in Siberia’s republic of Altai sentenced a newspaper publisher to eight years in prison for spreading “false information” about the Russian military, the internet rights group Setevye Svobody (Net Freedoms Project) said Friday. Sergei Mikhailov, who ran the “Listok” weekly newspaper in the regional capital of Gorno-Altaisk, was arrested in April 2022 after…
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Lawmakers from the liberal opposition party Yabloko have called on Russia’s Defense Ministry to stop deploying conscripts in the southwestern Kursk region as the Russian military struggles to halt Ukraine’s assault near the border. “A number of media reports said it was conscripts who took up the fight when the Ukrainian armed forces invaded the…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Mongolia next week, the Kremlin announced Thursday, marking his first trip to a country that is legally obligated to arrest and hand him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Last March, the ICC issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest over accusations that Moscow unlawfully deported Ukrainian children amid…
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Pro-war singers Shaman and Grigory Leps visited southwestern Russia’s Kursk region on Thursday to entertain wounded soldiers and send off children who were being evacuated from their homes as Ukraine’s incursion in the area continued into its fourth week. Between air raid alerts, acting Kursk region Governor Alexei Smirnov shared videos on Telegram of Shaman and…
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Former Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov was arrested on fraud charges related to a sprawling military theme park outside Moscow, federal investigators announced Thursday. Popov is accused of misusing Patriot Park resources for personal gain, allegedly coercing the park’s contract workers into performing unpaid construction work at his private property in the Moscow region between…
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Five new suspects linked to the deadly March attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall are now facing trial on terrorism and weapons charges, the city’s court system said Thursday. More than 20 individuals, including four alleged gunmen, were arrested following the March 22 attack, which resulted in 145 deaths and hundreds of injuries, making it…
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Russia’s media regulator has warned internet providers to stop efforts that speed up YouTube loading speeds, an apparent acknowledgment of government attempts to throttle the popular video streaming platform, the independent news outlet Sotavision reported late Wednesday. Roskomnadzor’s control and regulatory arm, the main radio frequency center GRChTs, sent out the warning message following reports…
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Authorities in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region late Wednesday ordered schools near the border with Ukraine to switch to remote learning for the start of the upcoming academic year amid intensifying clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces in recent weeks. “We must not only take all measures to ensure the safety of children but also give…
DetailsThey noted a fast pace of construction of the power units. Alexey Likhachev, ROSATOM Director General, and Mostafa Kamal Madbouly, the Prime Minister of Egypt, held negotiations on August 28. A fast pace of construction of the power units was noted. The meeting was also attended by Mahmoud Esmat, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy…
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Ukrainian strikes on the southwestern Belgorod region killed one person and injured two others, regional authorities said early Thursday. “The town of Shebekino was targeted by Ukrainian forces” and “unfortunately, one person was killed,” Belgorod region Governor Vyachelsav Gladkov wrote on Telegram. Two other people were hospitalized with shrapnel wounds, he said, while the airstrikes…
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France on Wednesday charged Pavel Durov, the founder and chief of Telegram, with a litany of violations related to the messaging app and banned him from leaving the country while allowing the billionaire to walk free after four days under arrest. Durov, 39, was charged on several counts of failing to curb extremist and illegal…
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Russian authorities will restrict entry to Kurchatov, the town where the Kursk nuclear plant is located, amid Ukraine’s ongoing incursion in the Kursk border region, the region’s acting governor said Wednesday. “Despite the fact that the security of the Kursk nuclear power plant is maximized, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not abandoning their attempts to penetrate…
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Russia has permanently banned 92 U.S. citizens from entering the country in response to the Biden administration’s “Russophobic” policies, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. The ministry said that the move was a response “to the Russophobic course pursued by Joe Biden’s administration with the declared aim of delivering a strategic defeat to Moscow, which includes…
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At least 165 graves of Russian soldiers have been uncovered in the Arctic city of Murmansk, a significantly higher death figure than local authorities have publicly acknowledged, opposition activist Violetta Grudina said Wednesday. Grudina, an exiled former regional coordinator for Alexei Navalny’s now-banned political network, said the graves were found in a separate section of…
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A Russian military court sentenced an engineer to 18 years in prison on Wednesday after authorities claimed they foiled his attempt to blow up an army recruitment office, the state-run TASS news agency reported. The court found Artyom Lozovoi, 39, guilty of treason in the form of espionage, of preparing a “terrorist attack” and of…
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North Korea has sent Russia at least 13,000 shipping containers believed to be carrying arms since mid-2022, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Tuesday, citing a military intelligence report submitted to lawmakers in the East Asian nation. “To prepare for a prolonged war in Ukraine, Russia has moved to formalize North Korea as a…
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Telegram founder and chief Pavel Durov was transferred to a courthouse in Paris on Wednesday where he may be formally charged, a source close to the case against the billionaire told AFP. The Russian-born tech entrepreneur was arrested at the French capital’s Le Bourget airport late Saturday on suspicion of failing to act against illicit…
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Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in Russia’s Kirov region, located some 700 kilometers east of Moscow, regional authorities said Wednesday, marking the first such attack on the region since Moscow’s full-scale invasion. “Two drones were shot down, and three fell on the grounds of the Zenit plant in the town of Kotelnich, where they…
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Siberian journalist and activist Maria Ponomarenko, imprisoned under Russia’s wartime censorship laws, threatened to cut her wrists in protest against the abuse she says she has endured while incarcerated. Ponomarenko was sentenced to six years in prison in February 2023 for spreading “fake news” about Russia’s 2022 bombing of a theater in Mariupol, Ukraine —…
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Russian attacks on eastern Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk region killed six people, the governor of the region said Wednesday, as Moscow announced the capture of another village in the area. The industrial region has suffered some of the heaviest fighting since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, as well as going back to 2014.…
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Russian internet providers have started implementing workarounds to speed up YouTube amid what appears to be a government effort to throttle the video streaming platform, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday, citing industry insiders. The move comes nearly a month after online users in Russia started experiencing sharp declines in YouTube loading speeds. These disruptions coincided…
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French and Emirati spies hacked Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s iPhone in 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. The joint spy operation code-named “Purple Music” reportedly stemmed from concerns about the Islamic State’s use of Telegram, a private messaging app, for recruitment and plotting attacks — and came years…
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Indonesian authorities have “no information” to confirm earlier reports alleging that their citizens are being recruited to fight in Ukraine, the Southeast Asia country’s embassy in Russia said in a statement sent to the Moscow Times. “So far, the Embassy has no information that may corroborate the alleged involvement of Indonesian nationals fighting for either…
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Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested six “adherents of an international terrorist organization” in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, state media reported Wednesday, citing law enforcement officials. According to the FSB, the six arrested men were planning an attack on the police and an Orthodox church. Authorities say all of those who were arrested…
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A second oil depot in southern Russia’s Rostov region was set on fire within a month following an overnight drone attack by Ukraine, local authorities said early Wednesday. “A drone attack caused a fire at a fuel depot in the Kamensky district,” Rostov region Governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram, adding that there were no…
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Mira also grapples with his relationship with Islam. Volga Bulgaria, the historical Bulgar state that many consider to be the direct predecessor of modern Tatarstan, adopted Islam as the state religion in 922. In the centuries since, Islamic traditions became firmly woven into the fabric of Tatar cultural identity. And while most Tatars who practice…
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Читайте русскую версию здесь. Artists Against the Kremlin is an exhibition of Russian-speaking artists organized by All Rights Reversed gallery with the support of The Moscow Times at De Balie arts center in Amsterdam.The more than 100 paintings, installations, photographs and sculptures — most of them new — on display were created by artists who,…
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A little-known company that posted Russia’s third-highest profit in just one year has vanished as mysteriously as it appeared, according to a new investigative report by the broadcaster RTVI. Banknota LLC, registered in June 2023, reported 3.7 trillion rubles ($40.4 billion) in revenue and 3.4 trillion rubles ($37.1 billion) in net profit last year — or about…
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The Russian television channel TNT has begun production on a comedy series about U.S. President Joe Biden that is set to premiere next year, the network announced Tuesday. The show, called “Goodbye,” revolves around the American leader traveling to Russia “incognito” to find out “why his sanctions aren’t working against Russians,” TNT said in a press release.…
DetailsHe had an opportunity to assess the nuclear safety risks posed by attacks on the facility. On 27 August, the IAEA delegation headed by Director General Mr. Raphael Grossi visited the sites of the Kursk NPP and the Kursk NPP-2, as well as the town of Kurchatov. The visit was organized at the invitation of…
DetailsThe next shipment of equipment confirms Russia’s to fulfill its obligations under the project. Project Center ITER (ROSATOM’s enterprise) has carried out one of the largest shipments of equipment for the fusion mega-facility this year. The common frame of the first (of four) stand for vacuum, strength, thermal and functional tests of the port plugs…
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