Novosibirsk Mayor Says China ‘Ready’ to Help Develop Public Transport Network

A major state-owned Chinese construction company is prepared to help expand the public rail and road networks in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, the mayor’s office announced Thursday. Novosibirsk Mayor Maxim Kudryavtsev said in a statement that his administration met with representatives from the China Railway Tunnel Group, a subsidiary of the government-owned China Railway…

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A Timeline of Russia’s Defense Ministry Purge

Since at least April, the Russian military has been in upheaval, punctuated by arrests of senior Defense Ministry officials on charges including bribery and abuse of power. This turmoil appears to have peaked in May with the dismissal of longtime Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who faced accusations of mishandling the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While…

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Ukrainian Shelling of Russia’s Belgorod Region Kills Man

One man was killed and two others were injured in a Ukrainian attack on the town of Shebekino in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region, officials said Thursday. “A tragedy happened,” Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. “A man died from his injuries before an ambulance could arrive.” Gladkov said regional defense fighters transported the two wounded…

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Ex-Russian Military Construction Head Arrested for Abuse of Power – Kommersant

The former head of the Russian military’s construction company has been arrested on abuse of power charges, the Kommersant business daily reported late Wednesday, citing anonymous government sources familiar with the matter. Andrei Belkov headed the Defense Ministry’s chief military construction authority for special facilities until 2021, when he was picked to head the newly…

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Putin Meets With Syrian President Assad in Moscow

President Vladimir Putin met with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Moscow to discuss what the Russian leader described as continued “escalation” in the Middle East, state media reported on Thursday. The meeting, held late Wednesday, comes at a time when Russia — which saved Assad’s government through its military intervention in 2015 during a…

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Russian Chef Behind Alleged Olympic Games Plot – Le Monde

A Russian man arrested this week for allegedly planning to “destabilize” the Paris Olympics is an intelligence officer for Moscow who worked undercover as a chef in France for over a decade, Le Monde reported late Tuesday, citing anonymous European security and intelligence officials. French prosecutors said the 40-year-old Russian national was arrested Tuesday for…

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Russia, Kyrgyzstan Sign Radioactive Decontamination Deal

Kyrgyzstan ratified an agreement with Russia on Wednesday for the mass decontamination of radioactive areas that pose a threat to the local population. The mountainous central Asian country, a former Soviet republic, is still suffering the environmental consequences of uranium and other heavy metals mining during the Soviet era. Ninety-two sites contain more than 300…

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Wildberries Founder Announces Divorce as Husband Enlists Kadyrov to Fight ‘Hostile Takeover’

Russia’s wealthiest woman Tatiana Bakalchuk has announced that she is divorcing her husband and business partner Vladislav Bakalchuk, who is seeking the help of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to fight what he characterized as a “hostile takeover” of the leading online retailer Wildberries. “I confirm the start of divorce proceedings,” Tatiana Bakalchuk, who founded Wildberries in…

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Russia Bans Entry of Top Japanese Business Execs

Russia has banned the head of Toyota and 12 other senior Japanese business figures from entering the country, prompting a protest from authorities in Tokyo on Wednesday. The list, published by Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, includes Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda, Rakuten chief Hiroshi Mikitani and Akihiko Tanaka, president of the government-backed Japan International Cooperation…

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Russian-German Citizen Held in Moscow on Treason Charges

A Moscow court on Tuesday extended the pre-trial detention of a dual Russian-German citizen accused of treason in an ultra-secret criminal case. Russia has arrested a spate of Western citizens amid its offensive on Ukraine, drawing accusations that it is taking “hostages” to use as bargaining chips for prisoner exchanges. According to state-run news agency…

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Russian Lawmakers Pass Bill Expanding ‘Undesirable’ Label to Include State-Affiliated Orgs

Lawmakers in Russia’s lower-house State Duma voted Tuesday to expand the criteria for blacklisting organizations as “undesirable” to include any entity affiliated with a foreign government. The 2015 law, initially aimed at foreign-funded NGOs, has gradually been extended to target independent news outlets, human rights groups, environmental organizations and educational institutions. The recent amendments would empower Russia’s…

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Igor Sechin: Realignment of routes to Asia-Pacific markets and stable oil exports ensure resilience of the Russian economy

The reorganisation of logistics routes to Asia-Pacific markets and stable oil exports have played a major role in ensuring the sustainability of the Russian economy, said Igor Sechin, Executive Secretary of the Presidential Commission on the Strategy for the Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex and Environmental Safety, Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft

Igor Sechin: The West overestimated the impact of its pressure on the powerful potential of the Russian and Chinese economies

Western countries have overestimated the effectiveness of their pressure on the potential of the Russian and Chinese economies; all efforts to curb growth have the opposite effect, said Igor Sechin, Executive Secretary of the Russian Presidential Commission on the Strategy for the Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex and Environmental Safety, Chief Executive Officer…

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Moscow Says Captured Small Village in Eastern Ukraine

Russia’s military said Tuesday it captured another small village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where its forces have been making incremental advances for the past several months. The defense ministry said its troops “liberated” the settlement of Ivano-Dariivka, a village that consisted of just a few streets and houses before Russia launched its full-scale invasion…

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Exiled Russian Journalist Mikhail Zygar Jailed 8.5 Years in Absentia for Bucha ‘Fakes’

A Moscow court has sentenced exiled journalist Mikhail Zygar to eight-and-a-half years in prison in absentia for spreading so-called “fake” information about the Russian military’s actions in Ukraine, the independent Mediazona news website reported Tuesday. The criminal case against Zygar stems from his April 2022 Instagram post in which he spoke about the Russian army’s atrocities against…

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Putin Transfers Seized TGK-2 Utility to Gazprom

President Vladimir Putin has ordered the transfer of the nationalized power-generating company TGK-2 to a subsidiary of Russian state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom. TGK-2 is one of northwestern Russia’s largest thermal power companies with 12 plants, 30 boiler houses and four heat network enterprises spanning six regions. A court in the city of Yaroslavl northeast of Moscow ruled…

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Russian Army Says Killed 50 ‘Western Instructors’ in Missile Attack

A Russian ballistic missile attack on northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed dozens of Western military instructors, state media reported on Tuesday, citing Russia’s Defense Ministry. “[An] Iskander-M missile defense system launched an attack on the temporary deployment point of instructors and mercenaries from Western countries in the locality of Derhachi, Kharkiv region,” the state-run TASS…

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Rejecting Kremlin Propaganda’s ‘Russophobia’ Claims, Russian Exiles in Warsaw Hope for a Bright Future

WARSAW, Poland — “Poland has never been a popular immigration destination for Russians,” says Alexandr Menyukov, a Warsaw-based coordinator of Kovcheg, an international group supporting Russian wartime emigres and activists.  “This is, perhaps, understandable, because in Russian propagandists’ list of enemies Poland ranks second after the U.S. It even seems like Russia is fighting the…

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‘Worse Than a Monkey With a Grenade’: Russian State TV Reacts to Biden’s Withdrawal, Harris’s Presidential Bid

Russian state-run TV channels mocked the United States presidential election after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race on Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s new nominee. Vladimir Solovyov, the host of a popular evening talk show broadcast on the Rossiya 1 channel and one of the Kremlin’s most loyal…

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Indonesia Seeks to Buy Russian Oil for the First Time in Decade – Reuters

Indonesia’s state-owned oil and natural gas corporation Pertamina is looking to purchase Russian oil for the first time in more than a decade, Reuters reported on Monday, citing three anonymous traders familiar with the matter. As Southeast Asia’s largest economy, Indonesia stepped back from buying Russian oil following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but the country…

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Russia Sentences U.S.-Russian Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to 6.5 Years in Prison – AP

A court in the republic of Tatarstan has sentenced Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to six-and-a-half years in prison for spreading “fakes” about the army, the Associated Press reported on Monday, citing court records and a court spokeswoman. Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen who works for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was arrested in October of last…

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Liquor Store in Southern Russia Explodes

A gas explosion ripped through storefronts in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region, injuring at least four people, investigators said Monday. “Building structures collapsed in the city of Apsheronsk as a result of the explosion of a gas-air mixture early this morning,” Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement. Videos published by independent…

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Russia’s FSB Says Dismantled Explosives Smuggling Channel From Italy, Germany

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Monday that it dismantled a channel for smuggling explosives and detonators into St. Petersburg from Europe, allegedly intended for carrying out terrorist attacks. “The terrorist weapons were transported in several packages in stages from Italy and Germany and were hidden in spare car parts,” the law enforcement agency said…

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Russia Says Captured Two Villages in East Ukraine

Russia said Sunday that its forces had captured two frontline villages in Ukraine, Andriivka in the eastern Luhansk region and Pishchane in the northeast Kharkiv region. The two villages are less than 20 kilometers from each other on a section of the frontline where Moscow has made grinding advances in recent weeks. Russian army units…

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Russia Says Intercepted U.S. Bomber Planes Over Arctic

Russia said Sunday that it scrambled fighter jets to prevent two U.S. strategic bomber planes from crossing its border over the Barents Sea in the Arctic. The U.S. military routinely carries out flights over international waters, operations that it says are conducted in neutral airspace and in accordance with international law. But Moscow has responded…

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