Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

President Vladimir Putin calls improving the Russian navy’s combat capabilities a priority. The unfinished husks of three guided-missile frigates that have languished for three years at a Baltic shipyard show that is easier said than done. Earmarked for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the frigates fell victim to sanctions imposed by Ukraine in 2014 after Russia…

Russia must prepare for possible Western attempts to deny it access to the global internet by creating its own self-sufficient ‘segments’ of the web, President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying on Wednesday by Russian news agencies. “I think, they [foreign countries] will think through carefully before doing it, but there is a theoretical possibility…

Russia’s Defense Ministry released footage of what it said was a successful test launch of its new submarine drone missile system, hours after President Vladimir Putin said there had been major advancements in the system. Putin announced the development of a series of new advanced weapons ahead of his re-election in March 2018. Of those,…

Russian military police and Syrian troops have blockaded food and goods supply routes to the Rukban refugee camp in Syria in a bid to force thousands of desperate residents to leave the U.S.-protected area near a Pentagon-run base, camp residents and rebels said on Wednesday. Russia’s defense ministry announced on Tuesday it was opening two…

U.S. citizen Michael Calvey, the founder of major private equity fund Baring Vostok in Russia, was detained on Feb. 14 on suspicion of defrauding Vostochny bank shareholders. On Saturday, a Moscow court placed him under arrest on fraud charges until April 13. The arrest has sparked an outcry among Western businessmen, political officials and members…

Venezuela on Wednesday received a shipment of humanitarian aid sent from Russia, including medicine and medical equipment, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing a Russian diplomatic source. Russia has sided with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in his stand-off with opposition leader Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president late last month. Maduro retains…

A majority of Russians say that doing business in the country without breaking a few rules is impossible, according to a newly released state-funded survey. The poll was carried out a day after Michael Calvey, a U.S. citizen and one of the biggest private equity investors in Russia, was detained on suspicion of embezzling $37.7…

Russia will respond to any U.S. deployment of short or intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe by targeting not only the countries where they are stationed, but the United States itself, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. In his toughest remarks yet on a potential new arms race, Putin said Russia was not seeking confrontation and would not take…

Against a backdrop of falling approval ratings and a faltering economy, Russian President Vladimir Putin began his annual address to the Federal Assembly on Wednesday with an emphasis on domestic issues. Speaking at Gostiny Dvor to 2,000 senior government officials, he focused on questions of internal economic and social development, before discussing Russia’s new missile…

A spokesman for the Jehovah’s Witnesses has said that Russian investigators have brutally tortured adherents of the group who are currently held in detention. Russia’s Supreme Court declared the Jehovah’s Witnesses an extremist organization in 2017, leading to mass raids and causing hundreds of its estimated 175,000 members to flee the country. Earlier this month,…

Residents of a central Russian town plagued by air pollution are beginning to sue over health complications that they say are caused by toxic emissions from a nearby copper mine, local authorities have said. The town of Sibai has been hit by thick smog since November, sparking protests and leading to the distribution of medical…

Russia’s FSB security service has asked a Moscow court to extend the detention of former U.S. marine Paul Whelan who is being held on suspicion of spying, the Interfax news agency cited a court spokeswoman as saying on Wednesday. Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained in a Moscow hotel room…

Russia‘s largest oil company could take over and renovate a ruined palace once used by the tsars, under draft legislation provisionally backed on Tuesday by lawmakers. The bill, approved by lawmakers in its first of three readings, seeks to save thousands of dilapidated listed buildings by creating a mechanism for investors to take them over…

Animal rights activists have staged a picket in Moscow demanding the release of more than 100 orcas and belugas held in so-called “whale jails” in Far East Russia. Activists have raised the alarm about the mistreatment of 11 killer whales and 90 belugas that they say are kept in cold and cramped pens in Srednyaya…

Danske Bank A/S will close its operations across the Baltic states and in Russia after authorities in Estonia kicked out the Danish lender amid a deepening money-laundering scandal. The Financial Supervisory Authority in Tallinn took the extraordinary step on Tuesday of ordering Danske to close its operations in the Baltic country. The agency is giving…

All but a handful of Russians living on the disputed Kuril Islands in Far East Russia have overwhelmingly rejected the prospect of being transferred to Japan, a state-funded survey said Tuesday. The dispute over the four islands, which Soviet troops captured from Japan in the final days of World War II, is so acrimonious that…

Russia’s state space agency has announced plans to send tourists into space along the route taken by the first man in space over the next two years. Legendary Soviet cosmonaut Yury Gagarin made history as the first human to orbit the Earth when he spent 108 minutes in space in 1961. “We’re […] launching a…

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in a telephone conversation, voiced their support for continued coordination on the global energy markets, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. The Kremlin also said the two leaders praised bilateral cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia. “Mutual attitude for further strengthening of multifaceted Russia-Saudi…

Russian soldiers will no longer be able to take selfies or share information online under new legislation passed by the State Duma on Tuesday. In recent years, online investigative journalism sites like Bellingcat have used open source data to cast light on Russia’s alleged role in eastern Ukraine and other countries. In a third and…

Serial production of Russia’s first post-Soviet mainline commercial aircraft will be delayed by a year due to U.S. sanctions, the head of state-owned industrial conglomerate Rostec said on Monday, Russian news agencies reported. Russia hopes the MS-21, a twin-engine, medium-range passenger plane, will give Boeing and Airbus a run for their money. Three prototypes have…

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov temporarily transferred power to the head of the legislative assembly of his republic early last week as he battled what he said was a common cold. Kadyrov, 42, has ruled Chechnya, a Russian region that was devastated by two bloody separatist conflicts in the 1990s and early 2000s, since he was…

The detention in Russia of Baring Vostok’s U.S. founder Michael Calvey is an emergency for the Russian economy, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin, now head of the Audit Chamber, said on Monday. “I find this particular situation (to be) an emergency for the economy,” Kudrin tweeted. He said Calvey’s detention shows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s…

Facebook has taken down the Kremlin-funded RT network’s In the Now viral video page days after it was accused of hiding its ownership structure. RT’s American branch was ordered to register as a “foreign agent” in the United States after accusations that it had interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. RT ceased broadcasting in…

An independent news outlet in southern Russia has reported that its journalist was attacked over the weekend in an incident it linked to a corruption investigation into a local official. An increasing number of civil activists, politicians and journalists have been assaulted in Russia since 2015, the Agora human rights group said in a report…

The Kremlin said the arrest of Michael Calvey, founder of the private equity firm Baring Vostok Capital Partners, shouldn’t hurt the confidence of foreign investors in Russia and it’s “very closely watching” developments in the case. But investors and analysts said they were disturbed by the arrest of one of the country’s longest-standing American investors…

Russia’s Pobeda budget airline eased up its hand luggage policy on Monday to allow passengers to carry backpacks and other items free of charge, following numerous complaints and lawsuits from passengers. Earlier this month, Russia’s Supreme Court ordered Pobeda to change its hand luggage allowance to reflect the Transport Ministry’s 2017 ruling that gave all…

Around 60 percent of Russian military police officers have received wartime experience in Syria in fewer than three years of deployment, a Russian Defense Ministry official said Monday. Officers began patrolling the Golan Heights frontier between Syria and Israel in 2016 and installed observation posts in the area. “Currently around 60 percent of the military…

The Kremlin is following the situation around the detention of Baring Vostok’s head Michael Calvey very closely and hopes it will not affect the Russian investment climate, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. He said President Vladimir Putin had met Calvey many times in the past but that his detention was beyond Putin’s…

A group of budding football players from Nigeria has been stranded in Russia since arriving on a visa-waiver system for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a Russian anti-slavery NGO has said. Russian police have said that an estimated 5,500 foreigners who traveled to Russia visa-free for the football tournament have remained in the country since…

Dutch police briefly detained a Russian journalist and a Russian human rights activist at Amsterdam airport on unknown charges, Novaya Gazeta reported Monday. Yelena Milashina, a journalist with the investigative Novaya Gazeta newspaper, and Milana Bakhayeva, an activist with the Memorial human rights NGO, reportedly arrived in Amsterdam to meet with activists investigating the plight…

Russian lender Gazprombank has decided to freeze the accounts of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA and halted transactions with the firm to reduce the risk of the bank falling under U.S. sanctions, a Gazprombank source told Reuters on Sunday. While many foreign firms have been cutting their exposure to PDVSA since the sanctions were imposed,…

A university building partly collapsed on Saturday in the Russian city of St Petersburg, trapping people under debris, but emergency services reported no casualties, Russian news agencies reported. Around two dozen people were trapped in the building of the University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics in the centre of Russia’s second biggest city, the…

A day after British Defense Minister Gavin Williamson accused Moscow of “trying to goad the West” in a bellicose speech, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called him Britain’s minister of war. Williamson, addressing the Munich Security Conference on Friday, accused Russia of “illegal activity” on land and at sea, and called on Moscow to reset…

A Moscow court has ordered Baring Vostok’s founder Michael Calvey to be kept in custody until April 13. The Basmanny court’s judge, Artur Karpov, said on Saturday that Calvey, a U.S. citizen, was accused of a “serious crime” and could try to flee. Baring Vostok is a major equity fund group in Russia. Its website says…

A Moscow court has ordered Baring Vostok’s founder Michael Calvey to be kept in custody until April 13. The Basmanny court’s judge, Artur Karpov, said on Saturday that Calvey, a U.S. citizen, was accused of a “serious crime” and could try to flee. Baring Vostok is a major equity fund group in Russia. Its website says…

Voronezh wasn’t cutting it. Artyom had been out of college for four years, and job openings in the southern Russian city were sparse. Last fall, in search of better employment opportunities, he headed north to St. Petersburg. But the journey wasn’t cheap. “I needed money for the move, an apartment and for daily expenses before…

Turkey will not turn back from its deal to buy S-400 missile systems from Russia, President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Saturday, a day after an informal deadline Washington set for Ankara to respond to arival offer passed. NATO member Turkey has repeatedly said it is committed to buying the Russian missile defense…

Belarus is ready to merge with Russia, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said on the third and last day of his bilateral talks with President Vladimir Putin on Friday. Rumors resurfaced this year that Russia could annex Belarus as Putin’s constitutional term limits bar him from running for the presidency in 2024. Read More A Brotherly…

Belarus is ready to merge with Russia, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said on the third and last day of his bilateral talks with President Vladimir Putin on Friday. Rumors resurfaced this year that Russia could annex Belarus as Putin’s constitutional term limits bar him from running for the presidency in 2024. “The two of us…

Feb. 15, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the Soviet withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.  The nine-year Afghan War claimed the lives of over 1 million Afghani civilians and over 14,000 Soviet troops. In 1989, Gorbachev’s decision to withdraw the Soviet military from the country was hailed as a long overdue ending to a bloody conflict…

Nuclear-capable Russian bombers carried out a training flight over the Sea of Japan, prompting Tokyo to scramble air force planes to intercept them, the Interfax news agency cited the Russian defense ministry as saying on Friday. Read More 77% of Russians Oppose Ceding Kuril Islands to Japan, Poll Says Japanese fighter jets accompanied the Russian…

Russia has detained the U.S. founder of Baring Vostok, the biggest private independent equity fund in the country, in Moscow on suspicion of embezzling $37.5 million. Michael Calvey, 51, and three other partners in the fund who have also been detained face up to 10 years if convicted. Two more suspects, both bank executives, have also…

Russia has detained the U.S. founder of Baring Vostok, the biggest private independent equity fund in the country, in Moscow on suspicion of embezzling $37.5 million. Michael Calvey, 51, and three other partners in the fund who have also been detained face up to 10 years if convicted. Two more suspects, both bank executives, have also…

An officer in Belgium’s military intelligence service is reportedly under investigation for spying for Russia. The unnamed officer was accused of providing a Serbian national, who is suspected of being a Russian agent, access to classified information, Belgium’s De Morgen newspaper reported. Read More Two Estonians Convicted of Spying for Russia The case reportedly reflects internal…

A Russian Orthodox priest has been defrocked for his adult-themed sermons that shocked congregations, church authorities have said. The news comes a little over two months after another Russian priest was investigated for publicizing his love of luxury brands including Gucci on social media. Read More Russian Priest Investigated After Flaunting ‘Gucci’ Lifestyle on Instagram…

Russia has detained the U.S. founder of the Baring Vostok private equity group in Moscow on suspicion of fraud, a spokeswoman for Moscow’s Basmanny court told Reuters on Friday. Yunona Tsaryova, the spokeswoman, said Michael Calvey was detained on Thursday. Read More U.S. Founder of Major Private Equity Group Detained in Russia on Embezzlement Charges, Explained…