Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Russia Issues Arrest Warrant for ICC Judge
Moscow on Wednesday put another judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on its wanted list, months after the Hague-based court announced that it would seek the arrest of President Vladimir Putin over war crime allegations. A notice on the Russian Interior Ministry’s website said that Judge Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez was “wanted in the framework of…
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Ukraine Says It Was Behind Car Bombing of Russian Proxy Politician
Ukraine said Wednesday it was behind the assassination of a Russia-backed politician and former militia leader who died in a car bomb attack in eastern Ukraine. Mikhail Filiponenko, a deputy in the pro-Moscow Luhansk regional parliament, was killed on Wednesday morning when an “unidentified explosive device” detonated under his 4×4, Russian investigators said earlier. In…
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Russia Hands Jehovah’s Witness Follower 7-Year Jail Term for ‘Extremism’
A court in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region has sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness follower to seven years in prison on charges of “extremism,” the religious organization’s Russian branch said Tuesday. Yevgeny Bushev had been under house arrest since September 2022 on allegations of “organizing actions to continue the illegal activities of a banned religious organization,” the religious…
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As Russia’s Permafrost Thaws, Ancient Pathogens Risk Re-Awakening
Ancient pathogens that have been preserved in northern Russia’s permafrost for millennia could reawaken as global temperatures rise, scientists warn, potentially putting humanity at risk of never-before-seen diseases. Jean-Michel Claverie, a virologist and emeritus professor at the Aix-Marseille University School of Medicine, is one of the few scientists worldwide who has studied “zombie viruses” in…
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Russian Pro-War Pop Star’s Thesis Heavily Plagiarized From Wikipedia – Dissernet
Pro-Kremlin pop singer Shaman plagiarized large portions of his final thesis at a prestigious musical college in Moscow, according to the prominent anti-plagiarism project Dissernet. Shaman, whose real name is Yaroslav Dronov, has emerged as one of Russia’s most well-known pop stars over the past year, as he has been regularly invited to perform at state-sponsored…
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Deputy Police Chief in Russia’s Dagestan Arrested After Anti-Israeli Riots
Updated to include official confirmation of Ismailov’s arrest. The deputy police chief of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan has been arrested over a week after an anti-Israeli mob stormed a local airport, state media reported Tuesday. Searches were underway at the home and workplace of Dagestan’s Deputy Interior Minister Rufat Ismailov, according to the…
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Exiled Pussy Riot Member Arrested in Absentia for ‘War Fakes’
A Russian court has ordered the arrest of Pussy Riot member Lucy Shtein in absentia for spreading “fake news” about the Russian military, the state-run news agency TASS reported Tuesday. Moscow’s Basmanny District Court authorized Shtein’s two-month placement in pre-trial detention once she is extradited or returns to Russia, a court spokesperson told TASS. “She…
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Odesa Museum of Fine Arts Damaged in Bombing
On Monday the Odesa Fine Arts Museum suffered extensive damage from aerial strikes that cracked walls, blew out windows, did harm to art works and left an enormous crater in front of the building. The museum has one of the most extensive collections of art from Ukraine, Russia and other countries and regions. The collection…
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Russia Formally Quits Post-Cold War Arms Treaty With Europe
Russia has formally withdrawn from a key conventional arms control treaty with Europe decades after suspending cooperation over NATO expansion, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. The 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) placed limits on the number of conventional weapons that could be deployed by NATO and Warsaw Pact countries west of…
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Russia Says Foiled Ukrainian Drone Attack on Annexed Crimea
Russia foiled an attempted Ukrainian drone attack Tuesday morning, shooting down drones over the Black Sea and the annexed Crimean peninsula, Russia’s Defense Ministry said. “On the morning of November 7, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using 17 unmanned aerial vehicles against buildings on Russian territory was repelled,”…
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Russia’s Navy Chief Kicks Off Myanmar Naval Drills
The head of Russia’s navy met Myanmar’s junta chief ahead of joint naval exercises due to begin Tuesday, according to Myanmar state media, the first combined drills by the two countries at loggerheads with the West. The security exercises involving Russia’s Pacific Fleet and Myanmar’s navy will continue until November 9 in the Andaman Sea,…
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Russian Troops Kill Georgian Man Near Breakaway Region
Updated with Borrel’s, Peskov’s remarks. Georgia said Monday that Russian troops had killed a Georgian civilian near the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which has been under Moscow’s effective control since the brief 2008 war between the two countries. Detentions of Georgian villagers by Russian troops — who patrol the de facto border between the separatist…
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Russian Subsea Telecoms Cable Damaged in Baltic Sea
Finnish authorities said Monday that a Russian telecommunications cable in the Baltic Sea was discovered damaged in October, roughly coinciding with damage to subsea infrastructure in Sweden and Finland. “The Russian salvage vessel Spasatel Karev began to repair Rostelecom’s Baltika telecommunications cable in the Gulf of Finland on Nov. 6,” Finland’s economic affairs ministry said…
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Russia Calls for ‘Collective Action’ to End Hamas-Israel War
Russia on Monday called for “collective action” to end fighting between Israel and Hamas, almost a month into the war that has left thousands dead. Moscow maintains ties with both the Hamas militant group and Israel and has said it can mediate the war which began in early October. “Amid the unprecedented escalation of violence…
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Putin to Seek Re-Election in 2024 – Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to run in next year’s presidential election, Reuters reported Monday, citing six anonymous sources familiar with the matter. In power since 2000, Putin is widely expected to run for a fifth term as president in the 2024 election, a move made possible by constitutional changes that allow him to…
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Russia Appeals World Olympic Body Suspension
Russia’s Olympic body on Monday launched an appeal against its suspension by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the sports tribunal said. The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) on Oct. 12 for violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine’s membership after it recognized Olympic regional organizations in…
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Rare Solar Storm Bathes Russia in Scarlet Northern Lights
Northern lights lit up most of Russia on Sunday after solar flares collided with Earth’s magnetic field and unleashed a strong geomagnetic storm. Known as aurora borealis, the dancing scarlet and green lights were visible from Russia’s Far East and Siberia, to the Ural mountains and North Caucasus. The rare night-time light show was also spotted…
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Activists Take Over Vacant ‘Russian’ Building in Amsterdam – Het Parool
Russian and Ukrainian activists have taken over a vacant building in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam that purportedly belongs to the Russian government, the Dutch newspaper Het Parool reported Sunday. Citing a member of the self-identified “group of international artists,” the publication said the four-story corner building in southern Amsterdam is believed to be “owned…
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Ukraine Says Russia Attacked Overnight With Missiles, 22 Drones
Ukraine said Monday that Russian forces had launched four missiles and nearly a dozen attack drones from occupied regions of the country in the south overnight. “Fifteen Shaheds and one Kh-59 air-guided missile were shot down,” the Ukrainian air force said, referring to the Iranian-designed kamikaze unmanned aerial vehicle. Ukrainian Presidential Chief of Staff Andriy…
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Ukraine Probes Deadly Russian Strike on Brigade
Ukraine has opened an investigation after it was reported a number of its soldiers were killed by a Russian missile strike during an “award ceremony” this week, officials said. The Ukrainska Pravda media outlet said over 20 Ukrainian soldiers from an assault brigade died in the attack, which took place in the southern region of…
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Ukraine’s Zelensky Says ‘Not Ready’ to Talk to Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday he was “not ready” for talks with Russia unless its troops withdraw from his country, denying Western officials had suggested holding peace negotiations. He was commenting on reports that US and European officials had spoken with his government about negotiations to end the war, and after a senior Ukrainian…
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Russia Test Fires Nuclear-Capable Ballistic Missile
Russia said Sunday it had successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads from one of its submarines. The launch of the “Bulava” missile, the first in just over a year, comes as Russia ramps up nuclear rhetoric since revoking its ratification of a key nuclear test ban treaty. “The new nuclear-powered…
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Ukraine Says Struck Shipyard in Russian-Annexed Crimea
Ukraine said Saturday its forces struck a shipyard in the port city of Kerch, on the east coast of the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula. Since launching its counteroffensive against Moscow’s forces this summer, Kyiv has ramped up attacks on the Black Sea peninsula that Russia seized in 2014. “On the evening of November 4, the Armed…
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Ukraine’s Zelensky Denies War with Russia at ‘Stalemate’
President Volodymyr Zelensky denied on Saturday that Ukraine’s war with Russia had reached a “stalemate”, pushing back at suggestions Western leaders were lobbying for peace talks. The sprawling frontline between the two warring sides has barely moved in almost a year, with one senior Ukrainian official warning this week that the conflict was deadlocked. “Time…
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Ukraine Files Charges Against Russian Orthodox Chief
Ukraine said Saturday it had filed criminal charges against Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, in absentia for ‘justifying’ Russia’s invasion. Moscow’s most influential spiritual leader, a fervent supporter of President Vladimir Putin, has called the war a historic battle against the ‘forces of evil’. The Security Service of Ukraine said it…
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Russia Says Palestinian Leader Abbas ‘Postponed’ Visit to Moscow
Russia said Friday that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had ‘postponed’ a trip to Moscow that was planned for this month. Russia – which has working relations with Israel, with Palestinian authorities and with Hamas – has said several times that a visit by Abbas to Moscow was possible without previously giving a date. Russia’s deputy…
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Mikhail Bulgakov and the Mystery of ‘Julienne’
Hundreds of works of fiction have been written about Russia in the 1920s: satirical short stories, long novels, documentary dramas by Andrei Platonov, Mikhail Bulgakov, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov. Have you ever wondered why? It’s a good question. Why has this period — certainly not the best from the point of view…
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Kremlin Sacks TASS Chief for Wagner Mutiny Coverage
When Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko walked up to the state-run TASS news agency’s Soviet brutalist headquarters a few blocks from the Kremlin on July 5, no one suspected that he would announce the appointment of a new general director. TASS’s general director Sergei Mikhailov, 54, who was honored with the presidential Order of Friendship…
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Russia Jails 6 for ‘Trafficking’ in First Surrogacy Probe
Four Russian fertility clinic employees and two surrogate mothers have been handed jail sentences of varying lengths as part of the country’s first surrogacy investigation, state media reported Friday. Authorities launched Russia’s first-ever surrogacy probe in 2020 after one of the babies born to a surrogate mother was found dead in an apartment outside Moscow. Moscow’s…
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Russia Says Intends to Continue Nuclear Test Moratorium
Russia intends to stick to a nuclear test ban moratorium despite withdrawing its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Foreign Ministry said Friday. “We intend to keep the moratorium that was introduced more than 30 years ago in place,” said a ministry statement. But any nuclear tests by the United States would…
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Russian State Pipeline Firm Recruited Employees for Ukraine War – IStories
Russia’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft sent hundreds of its employees to fight in Ukraine last summer as the Kremlin struggled to recruit soldiers for its war, according to an investigation by the independent news website IStories. Journalists said that, in the months before President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial” mobilization in September 2022, Transneft was sending and…
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Secretly, Silently and Sneakily Yours
Втайне: secretly, in secret A translator friend of mine recently announced with some fanfare that he had found the most misspelled word in the Russian language. He had documented 11 misspellings, which is impressive — although I’m sure my personal record for misspelling здравствуйте over the years has topped that. In any case, the word…
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Residents Outraged as Snow Penises Take Over Russia’s Yekaterinburg
Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg has been plagued by snow sculptures of erect penises over the past week, prompting calls among some residents for authorities to crack down on the practice. Local media first spotted a giant snow penis in a public square outside the Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater and the Ural State University on…
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Alexander Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus, and Alexey Likhachev, Rosatom Director General, visited Belarus NPP
Alexander Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus, and Alexey Likhachev, Rosatom Director General, visited Belarus NPP. The ceremony at the NPP was attended by Alexander Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus, and the management of the fuel and energy sector of the country. Alexey Likhachev, ROSATOM Director General, and Viktor Karankevich, Minister of…
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Russia Shrugs Off Latest U.S. Sanctions
The Kremlin on Friday dismissed a new package of U.S. sanctions, saying Russia had learned to “overcome” such economic hurdles since the Ukraine conflict began. Washington on Thursday sanctioned several Russian energy and finance companies as well as individuals and firms in Turkey, China and the United Arab Emirates it said were supporting Russia’s offensive…
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Russian Activist Found in Moscow Jail After Disappearing in Kyrgyzstan
Russian left-wing activist and anarchist Lev Skoryakin has been found inside a Moscow detention center weeks after going missing in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, the Memorial human rights group said Friday. Skoryakin was allegedly tortured at Moscow’s Butyrka detention center after being abducted from a Kyrgyz jail on Oct. 17 and flown to Moscow…
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St. Petersburg Court Holds Session Inside Strip Club
A court in St. Petersburg made an unusual move to hold a session inside a strip club as part of litigation over unauthorized renovations. The court described the off-site session at the X.O. Men’s Club as an “official necessity” in a tongue-in-cheek statement released Thursday. Local authorities accuse X.O. Men’s Club of “impacting the apartment building”…
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Russia’s Tver Region Outlaws ‘Coercion’ Into Abortion
Russia’s Tver region has outlawed the act of “coercing women” into undergoing an abortion, becoming the second such region to do so amid growing concerns about a looming nationwide abortion ban. “Persuading, suggesting, bribing or deceiving” a woman into having an abortion is now punishable by a range of fines, according to the new regional law…
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Ostracized From Kremlin-Aligned Church, Russia’s Anti-War Priests Offer ‘Alternative Orthodoxy’
When Father Alexei Volchkov signed an open letter to the Russian government in March 2022 calling for peace and an end to the war in Ukraine, he knew there would be backlash. “What happened was inevitable, really,” he told The Moscow Times. “I was severely reproached by people who were close to me. Some thought…
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Russia Jails Activist Pyotr Verzilov 8.5 Years in Absentia for ‘War Fakes’
A Moscow court has sentenced exiled Russian-Canadian activist Pyotr Verzilov to more than eight years of prison in absentia for spreading “war fakes,” the Mediazona news website reported Friday. Moscow’s Basmanny District Court found Verzilov, who is currently residing outside Russia, guilty of spreading “deliberately false” information about the Russian Armed Forces. He was handed…
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Russian Firm to Make ‘Agricultural’ Drones in Uzbekistan
A Russian drone manufacturer announced this week it would open a production line in Uzbekistan, as one local official said Thursday the drones were designed for “agricultural” purposes only. Flyseeagro, a Russian firm which says it makes drones for crop spraying, said this week it had signed an agreement to build drones in Uzbekistan’s Navoi…
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Kremlin Orders Regions to Recruit Marginalized Groups for Military Service – IStories
The Kremlin has ordered regional officials to file weekly reports on the recruitment of marginalized people in Russia for its war in Ukraine, the investigative news website IStories reported Thursday, citing an official letter it obtained. The letter, which is dated Oct. 3, lists the office of the Presidential Envoy to Russia’s Central Federal District…
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Kyiv Names Nestle ‘Sponsor of War’ Over Russia Operations
Kyiv on Thursday named Swiss food giant Nestle as a “sponsor of war” over the Kit Kat-maker’s continued operations in Russia. Hundreds of Western firms quit the Russian market following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year, and Kyiv has not shied away from publicly criticizing those that have remained. “Despite Russian aggression, Nestle…
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Siberian Opposition Deputy Arrested on Extortion Charges
An opposition deputy who ran for governor of Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region this fall has been arrested on charges of extortion, which the politician on Thursday dismissed as politically motivated. Investigators accuse Alexander Gliskov of blackmailing a state-owned company executive in 2016-17 in order to receive a large bribe. Krasnoyarsk’s Tsentralny District Court ruled after a…
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U.S. Sanctions Turkey, China, UAE Entities to Disrupt Russia War
The United States announced sanctions Thursday on individuals and companies it accused of abetting Russia’s war against Ukraine, targeting entities in Turkey, China and the United Arab Emirates in a bid to disrupt Moscow’s supply chains. This comes as Russia has offshored the production of technology, equipment and other goods it needs for its military,…
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Russia Says It Shot Down Ukrainian Drones Near Occupied Nuclear Plant
Russia said Thursday it had intercepted nine Ukrainian drones near the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, where the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is located. The plant, which was captured by Russian forces in March 2022, has been rocked by repeated drone attacks and shelling that Kyiv and Moscow have blamed on each other. “At around 12:30…
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Russia’s Chief Rabbi Condemns ‘Propaganda of Hate’ After Anti-Israeli Riots
The leader of Russia’s Jewish communities has condemned what he called the “propaganda of hate” after anti-Israeli riots rocked the country’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar linked Sunday’s violence at Makhachkala International Airport to previous anti-Semitic attacks in Russia’s Muslim-majority regions that took place in the weeks since Israel launched a…
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Kazakhstan Grants Asylum Seeker Status to Jailed Yakutian Anti-War Activist
Anti-war activist and punk musician Ayhal Ammosov has been granted asylum seeker status by Kazakh authorities, his lawyer said on social media Wednesday, just weeks after his arrest in Kazakhstan. Ammosov, a Russian national hailing from the republic of Sakha (Yakutia), was ordered to 40 days of arrest by an Almaty-based court on Oct. 9 in connection with…
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Israel Has No Right to Self-Defense as ‘Occupier,’ Russia Says
Israel has no right to self-defense against Hamas militants in Gaza as an occupying power in Palestine, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday. Vasily Nebenzya used his speech at the special UN General Assembly session on Palestine to condemn Western “hypocrisy” over Palestinian civilian deaths amid their criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.…
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Ukraine Says Russian Attacks Easing Around Embattled Town
Ukraine said Thursday that Russian assaults on the nearly encircled eastern town of Avdiivka had eased as the Kremlin rejected Kyiv’s assessment that the 20-month conflict was deadlocked. Avdiivka, an industrial hub at the center of fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces since 2014, came under a renewed Russian effort last month to besiege the…
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Putin Signs Law Revoking Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed into law Russia’s de-ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), a landmark agreement that aims to completely ban all nuclear tests. The law’s text on Russia’s legal portal states that Moscow will no longer be bound by the UN-backed nuclear test ban starting Nov. 2. Both Russia and the…
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France Charges Russian Billionaire Kuzmichev With Tax Fraud
Russian billionaire Alexei Kuzmichev, an associate of Vladimir Putin targeted by EU sanctions, was charged with tax fraud in France on Wednesday, the country’s financial prosecutor said. Kuzmichev was “placed under judicial supervision” and banned from leaving the country, according to the French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF). He also faces charges of concealing work…
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U.S. Charges 3 More Russians Over Sanctions Evasion
U.S. prosecutors charged two Russian nationals and a Russian-American Wednesday over an alleged plan to evade export controls to help Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, a day after three others were charged in a similar scheme. Nikolay Grigorev, Nikita Arkhipov and Artem Oloviannikov were charged by federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York…
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Russia Jails 3 More Captive Ukrainian Troops
Russia said Wednesday it had sentenced three more Ukrainian soldiers who fought in the city of Mariupol to jail, as it continued to put soldiers held in captivity on trial. Around 2,500 people were taken into Russian captivity after the fall of Mariupol last May, some of whom were sent to Russia or occupied east…
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Wagner Resumes Recruitment Under New Leadership – Reports
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has resumed recruiting fighters in at least two regions months after the death of its founder and longtime leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, local media have reported. Wagner halted recruitment in the chaotic months following Prigozhin’s late-June mutiny against Russia’s military leadership. In August, Prigozhin and his close associates were killed in a…
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Bulgaria Expels Russian State Media Correspondent
Bulgaria on Wednesday said it had expelled the correspondent of the Russian state-owned newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, weeks after sending home the head of the local Russian Orthodox Church. Journalist Aleksander Gatsak had been found to be performing “activity that poses a threat to Bulgaria’s national security,” Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security said in a…
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Russian State Duma Lawmakers Stripped of Mandates
One of Russia’s youngest lawmakers and a fugitive deputy sentenced in absentia on bribery charges have been kicked out of Russia’s lower-house State Duma. Vasily Vlasov, 28, and Vadim Belousov, 63, were formally dismissed for skipping committee meetings for more than a month, Russia’s lower house of parliament said in a statement on Wednesday. Vlasov…
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Russia’s Muslims Dismayed By Anti-Israeli Airport Riot
When Fatima Abdulkarim arrived in her native republic of Dagestan early on Sunday, she had hoped to take care of business matters, visit family and — not least importantly — obtain a permit to hold a rally in support of Palestine in the region’s capital Makhachkala. “We applied for a protest permit to ensure that…
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Pussy Riot Decries Russian Wartime Propaganda in New Music Video
Members of the feminist activist group Pussy Riot on Wednesday released their latest anti-war music video “Swan Lake,” where they decry the effects of Kremlin propaganda and call for the return of Ukrainian children forcibly transferred to Russia since the start of the war. “Children are the most vulnerable in this war. Children should not suffer,” the group said…
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Russian Courts Sentence 15 Over Anti-Israeli Airport Riot
Russian courts have sentenced 15 anti-Israeli rioters who stormed an airport in the North Caucaus republic of Dagestan to short terms in prison. Hundreds of protesters overran Dagestan’s Makhachkala International Airport on Sunday, charging onto the tarmac and jumping onto an airplane as they searched for Israelis rumored to have arrived on a flight from Tel…
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