Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to take the steps “necessary” to reopen a key transit corridor between Armenia and the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Since mid-December, a group of Azerbaijanis has been blocking the only road into Karabakh from Armenia to protest what they claim is illegal mining by the…
Details
An ex-commander with Russia’s notorious mercenary group Wagner who is currently seeking asylum in Norway described witnessing summary executions of fellow soldiers during an interview with The Moscow Times on Tuesday. Andrei Medvedev, 26, said that he witnessed a double execution at a Wagner center where the group was training inmates recruited from Russia’s jails.…
Details
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which represents journalists from 146 countries, has initiated the expulsion of Russia’s Union of Journalists from its ranks, Reuters reported Tuesday. The IFJ announced its decision to expel the Russian union after journalist unions from Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland threatened to withdraw from the federation in protest at what…
Details
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday backed a plan to set up joint military training centers with Belarus, with fears mounting that Minsk could enter the Ukraine conflict to fight with Moscow. In a decree published Tuesday, Putin tasked the defense and foreign ministers to conduct talks with Belarus and sign an agreement to establish the…
Details
Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused Ukraine of using banned anti-personnel landmines against invading Russian forces, saying almost 50 civilians, including five children, had been wounded. Ukraine’s defense ministry insisted the army upholds its treaty obligations against mines, but it would not comment on the types of weapons used until the war ends. Distributed by…
Details
The “Harry Potter” movies will disappear from Russia’s streaming services from Wednesday as Russians continue to face dwindling access to Western-made films and television following the invasion of Ukraine. Kinopoisk and Amediateka, two of Russia’s largest movie platforms, announced last week that Tuesday is the last day when the wizard franchise based on the widely…
Details
The Russian economy is predicted to grow 0.3% in 2023 despite setbacks from unprecedented Western sanctions over the Ukraine invasion, according to data released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday. Russia’s projected economic growth stands in sharp contrast with the 2.3% contraction forecast by the IMF in October and marks an improvement from…
Details
A Russian court has issued the country’s first prison sentence on terrorism charges for an arson attack on a military recruitment office, state agencies reported Tuesday. Two men were arrested in mid-May on suspicion of throwing Molotov cocktails at the enlistment office in the west Siberian city of Nizhnevartovsk earlier that month. No one was hurt in…
Details
Leaders of Russia’s pro-Kremlin ruling party have advised members to publicly compare the war in Ukraine with a key World War II battle on its 80th anniversary this week, the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday. On Feb. 2, 1943, Soviet soldiers successfully beat back Nazi soldiers and delivered Adolf Hitler his first surrender in the war…
Details
President Joe Biden said Monday the United States would not provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, as Kyiv expands the list of weaponry it needs to be better able to drive Russian forces from occupied territories. Fighting continued at key points along the long front as Russian forces sought to expand their hold on territory…
Details
Most of Russia’s 47 officially recognized small indigenous ethnic minority groups are shrinking in size, according to a report published by independent media outlet iStories on Monday. The investigation discovered that over two-thirds of Russia’s small indigenous groups have decreased in size since the last national census a decade ago. While Russia’s multinational population includes over…
Details
The head of the Russian Republic of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov criticized Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Saturday for comments he made in support of Chechnya’s independence during an interview with French news channel LCI. “There are parts of Russia that are prisons for other nations,” Morawiecki said in an interview with LCI on Friday.…
Details
A Russian company has offered a cash bounty of up to 5 million rubles ($71,648) for the destruction or capture of Western-made tanks recently promised to Ukraine by its European and American allies. Multiple Western countries including the United States and Germany announced they would provide advanced combat tanks to help boost Kyiv’s military capacity last…
Details
Russia’s top carmaker is facing a car paint shortage, limiting color options for car-buyers to white, black and dark green, Vedomosti business newspaper reported Monday. Representatives of AvtoVaz told the publication that its flagship Lada models have been available in white and black instead of the original six to eight colors since late 2022. Its…
Details
Slovenian authorities have arrested two foreign nationals suspected of spying for Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, the Slovenian newspaper Delo reported Monday. The arrest operation was conducted in December by the Slovene Intelligence and Security Agency (SOVA) in the capital Ljubljana, with suspects reportedly being arrested at a rented office space in the city’s Bežigrad…
Details
A Moscow proxy official said Monday that Russian forces were advancing near Vuhledar, a town in the eastern Donetsk region, which is the epicenter of fighting in Ukraine, but Kyiv denied the claim. “Our units continue advancing in the direction of Vuhledar,” said Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-appointed leader of the Donetsk region. “Now we can…
Details
Improvised memorials to the victims of this month’s deadly Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro continue to appear across Russian cities in one of the most sustained public expressions of opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. At least 50 Russian cities’ residents started laying flowers and children’s toys at Ukraine-related monuments in the wake…
Details
Russia’s largest airline, Aeroflot, is poised to resume regular scheduled flights to Kazakhstan, despite a substantial chunk of its fleet being at the heart of legal action from plane-leasing firms seeking the return of their aircraft. The airline said in a statement on Jan. 27 that it is already selling tickets for flights from Russia to Astana,…
Details
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russian President Vladimir Putin had threatened him with a lethal missile attack days before the Russian leader ordered his troops into Ukraine. “He sort of threatened me at one point and said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a…
Details
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russian President Vladimir Putin had threatened him with a lethal missile attack days before the Russian leader ordered his troops into Ukraine. “He sort of threatened me at one point and said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a…
Details
Russian shelling of Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson left at least three people dead on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, while a strike on Kharkiv killed one person, according to the regional governor. “Today, the Russian army has been shelling Kherson atrociously all day,” Zelensky said in his evening address. “Two women, nurses, were wounded…
Details
A Russian polar research vessel docked in South Africa’s Cape Town harbor at the weekend as climate protesters raised fears it could be used to help Moscow explore for minerals in protected Antarctica. The Akademik Aleksandr Karpinskiy icebreaker is on its way to the Antarctic as part of a scientific expedition launched late last year,…
Details
Ukraine’s military said Sunday its forces repelled an attack near Blahodatne in the eastern Donetsk region after Russia’s Wagner mercenary group claimed it took control of the village. Kyiv’s forces “repelled attacks near…Blahodatne” and 13 other settlements in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian General Staff said in its daily report. Earlier, Russia’s private military group Wagner said…
Details
North Korea on Sunday denied providing arms to Moscow after the United States said the nuclear-armed state supplied rockets and missiles to Russia’s private military group Wagner. Washington earlier this month designated the Wagner group as a “transnational criminal organization,” citing its weapons dealings with Pyongyang in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. The White House…
Details
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday accused the Ukrainian army of striking a hospital in the eastern Luhansk region, leaving 14 dead and injuring 24 others. On Saturday morning in the town of Novoaidar, “the Ukrainian armed forces deliberately attacked the building of a district hospital with rockets of a U.S.-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system,”…
Details
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday called for “maximum restraint” following violence in Israel and the West Bank that marked another escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “We perceive this development of events with deep concern. We call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and prevent further escalation of tension,” the ministry said in a statement.…
Details
YEREVAN, Armenia — At a recent event in Armenia’s capital, Olga Yelsakova was composing a letter to a longtime correspondent. That correspondent was Yuri Zhdanov, 68, who is currently serving a three-year prison sentence in Russia that many link to his son’s political activities. Yelsakova is one of a growing movement of people using pen…
Details
Ukrainian troops were locked in a “fierce” confrontation with Russian fighters Friday for control of the town of Vuhledar southwest of Donetsk as the two sides battle along the southern front. Both sides claimed success in the small administrative center of apartment blocks surrounded by flat fields, a short distance from the strategic prize of…
Details
Moscow said on Friday that Latvia’s ambassador had been given two weeks to leave Russia, accusing the Baltic state and EU member of “total Russophobia.” The latest expulsion comes after Russia on Monday downgraded diplomatic relations with Estonia and ordered its ambassador to leave the country, having made the same accusation against Tallinn. Estonia retaliated,…
Details
Residents of the Kremlin-controlled areas of four Ukrainian regions will soon have to put their clocks forward by an hour as their time zone switches to Moscow time, Russia’s Trade and Industry Ministry announced on Friday. The move, which affects the Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine, is part of what the ministry…
Details
Russia’s funeral industry is experiencing unprecedented growth due to military deaths from the nearly year-long invasion of Ukraine as well as high Covid-19 fatalities, the investigative news website The Insider reported Thursday. The outlet said it spoke with funeral and crematorium workers who reported high demand from both clients and those seeking training to become service…
Details
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday repeated a claim that neo-Nazis were committing crimes in Ukraine — an allegation Moscow has used to justify its military intervention — as the world marked Holocaust Remembrance Day. “Forgetting the lessons of history leads to the repetition of terrible tragedies,” Putin said. “This is evidenced by the crimes…
Details
A disgraced Russian monk who had barricaded himself inside his monastery with dozens of followers was sentenced to a total of seven years in prison on Friday. Father Sergiy — whose secular name is Nikolai Romanov — was already serving a 3.5-year prison sentence for inciting suicide, offending religious beliefs and vigilantism. Moscow’s Babushkinsky District Court…
Details
Russia’s defense industry has stepped up production of ammunition for the military to use in Ukraine, Sergei Chemezov, who heads the state defense conglomerate Rostec, said Friday. “Our enemies’ chatter about Russia allegedly running out of missiles, shells, etc. is complete nonsense,” Chemezov told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. “We have increased the production of…
Details
Russia on Thursday accused the EU of seeking to fuel “geopolitical confrontation” by sending a civilian mission to monitor Armenia’s volatile border with Azerbaijan. Moscow has sought to maintain its role as a powerbroker between the ex-Soviet republics despite being bogged down in its offensive in Ukraine. On Monday, the EU launched a civilian mission to…
Details
The U.S. Treasury Department declared Russia’s shadowy Wagner Group a “transnational criminal organization” and imposed fresh sanctions on several other Russian political and business figures, according to a statement released on Thursday. “Today’s expanded sanctions on Wagner, as well as new sanctions on their associates and other companies enabling the Russian military complex, will further impede Putin’s…
Details
Russian and international human rights activists on Thursday condemned the dissolution of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), Russia’s oldest independent human rights organization after it was ordered to close by a Moscow court the day before. “The shutdown of the organization is the final nail in the coffin in the destruction of the human rights…
Details
Updates with Timchenko comments Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office has added the independent news outlet Meduza to the country’s list of “undesirable” organizations, a sanction designed to force entities to disband and which puts its staff and financial donors at risk of significant jail time. The General Prosecutor’s Office said on Thursday that it believed the…
Details
Uzbekistan will import natural gas from Russia for the first time ever as the Central Asian country faces an energy crisis, the authorities in Tashkent announced on Thursday. Despite being home to a wealth of natural resources, including gas, Uzbekistan has faced energy shortages amid historically cold temperatures this winter. Like its Central Asian neighbors…
Details
A blistering wave of Russian strikes targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure killed 11 people on Thursday, a day after Germany and the United States pledged heavy tanks for Kyiv. The stepped-up military aid swept aside long-standing misgivings among allies and signalled a surge of Western support for a counteroffensive against the Russian invasion. The latest wave…
Details
Russian and Belarusian athletes will be able to compete in this year’s Asian Games despite the invasion of Ukraine, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said on Thursday. The offer comes after the International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday that a return for Russians at the 2024 Paris Games should be “further explored” despite calls…
Details
Russian soldiers were nearly three times more likely to be accused of crimes against military service including desertion and insubordination in 2022 than the previous year, the Prosecutor General’s Office has said. Courts issued 2,835 guilty verdicts for crimes against military service out of 3,047 cases opened in 2022, the RBC news website reported Wednesday,…
Details
Russian forces fired dozens of missiles at Ukraine on Thursday in a blistering wave of strikes targeting energy infrastructure a day after Germany and the United States pledged modern tanks for Kyiv. The latest wave of attacks came as the Kremlin said Moscow perceived the tank deliveries “as direct involvement in the conflict” and Ukraine…
Details
The new U.S. Ambassador to Russia has arrived in Moscow, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow announced Thursday, for what is expected to be a challenging tenure as Russia’s war in Ukraine has brought bilateral ties to historic lows. Lynne Tracy, a career diplomat who was a second-ranking official at the embassy from 2014-17, returned to Moscow…
Details
UNESCO added the historic center of Ukraine’s port city Odesa, often described as “the pearl of the Black Sea,” to its World Heritage List on Wednesday, overcoming opposition from Russia. The 21 member states of the agency’s world heritage committee approved inscribing designated areas of the city with six votes in favor, one against and…
Details
The United Kingdom said Wednesday it was reviewing how sanctioned individuals are permitted to use the country’s legal services, after reports the government helped the head of Russian mercenary group Wagner sue a British journalist. The finance ministry currently grants licenses letting sanctioned people to circumvent restrictions so as to hire U.K. lawyers and pay…
Details
Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was returned to solitary confinement for the 11th time since his nine-year prison sentence began in March, his press secretary Kira Yarmysh said on Wednesday. Navalny said that he was sent to solitary confinement for “introducing himself incorrectly,” according to Yarmysh. “Apparently, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin does not like our campaign…
Details
The United States announced Wednesday that it would provide 31 Abrams tanks to help Ukraine repel Russia’s forces, mirroring a similar move announced earlier in the day by Germany and in spite of dire warnings against escalating the conflict from Moscow. The twin announcements will come as a major relief for Kyiv which has pleaded…
Details
A court in the Russian capital ordered the closure of the Moscow Helsinki Group, one of Russia’s most prominent and respected human rights organizations, on Wednesday. Last month, Russia’s Justice Ministry filed a court order to shut the group down, claiming that it had violated unspecified “legal requirements” while carrying out its activities, according to a statement…
Details
The Norwegian police are planning to release a former member of the Russian mercenary group Wagner who was arrested for entering the country illegally after he fled Russia earlier this month, the National Police Immigration Service told local media on Wednesday. Twenty-six-year-old Andrei Medvedev made a dramatic run for it across the Arctic border between the…
Details
Kremlin officials and Russian cabinet members will file anonymous tax returns, Russia’s Vedomosti business newspaper reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources close to the government. President Vladimir Putin in late December waived requirements for government officials to disclose their income tax returns for the duration of Russia’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine. According to Vedomosti, Russia’s…
Details
Spanish police arrested a pensioner Wednesday on suspicion he sent letter bombs targeting the prime minister and the Ukrainian embassy, authorities said. The 74-year-old Spanish citizen was taken into custody in Miranda de Ebro in northern Spain with investigators searching his home where he was thought to have made six letter bombs, police and the…
Details
Ukraine’s military conceded to AFP Wednesday that its troops had pulled out of the town of Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region, which Russian forces said they captured earlier this month. “After months of heavy fighting, including over the past weeks, the Armed Forces of Ukraine left (Soledar) and retreated along the outskirts to pre-prepared…
Details
Russian officials warned of a possible escalation in its war on Ukraine as Germany agreed to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine following weeks of pressure from Kyiv and its allies. “This extremely dangerous decision takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation,” Russia’s Ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechayev said in a statement Wednesday. Nechayev…
Details
Germany has agreed to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine after weeks of pressure from Kyiv and its allies, the German government announced on Wednesday. Berlin will provide a company of 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks from the Bundeswehr stocks and is also granting approval for other European countries to send tanks from their own stocks…
Details
Flights between Russia and Georgia have not taken off for more than three years, but they have still managed to cause turbulence in Tbilisi. In 2019, following anti-Russian protests in Tbilisi in response to the controversial appearance of a Russian MP in the Georgian parliament, Moscow unilaterally banned direct flights between the two countries, citing concerns for…
Details
More Russian soldiers were killed than officially confirmed in Ukraine’s New Year’s Day strike on a temporary barracks in Russian-occupied Makiivka, the BBC Russian service reported Wednesday. BBC Russian journalists used open-source data to verify the identities of 92 Russian soldiers killed in the strike, the outlet said. Another 16 soldiers who were at the makeshift…
Details
Russia’s top diplomat on Tuesday pledged security training to Eswatini, just days after the brutal murder of a leading human rights lawyer and opposition politician. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was speaking in the landlocked country, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, a day after visiting neighboring South Africa and just two days after Thulani Maseko was shot.…
Details
Kyiv on Tuesday announced the dismissal of a dozen top officials in its biggest political shakeup following the country’s first major corruption scandal linked to the Russian invasion. Ukraine has long suffered endemic corruption, but Moscow’s nearly year-long full-scale war has overshadowed government efforts to stamp out graft. Western allies have allocated billions of dollars…
Details
After weeks of prevarication and increasingly fraught exchanges with its European allies, Germany has agreed to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, according to a report by Der Spiegel on Tuesday evening. The report said that Berlin had agreed to supply Kyiv with at least one tank company comprising 14 tanks, as well as allowing…
Details