Russian Peacekeepers Withdrawing From Nagorno-Karabakh, Kremlin Confirms

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The Kremlin confirmed Azerbaijani media reports on Wednesday that Russian peacekeepers have started withdrawing from Nagorno-Karabakh after Baku’s forces seized the disputed region from Armenian separatists last year.  “Yes, that’s really true,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters after the Azerbaijani news website Musavat reported on the Russian pullout Tuesday.  Unverified footage shared on Azeri-language…

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Telegram’s Durov Tells Tucker Carlson That Kremlin Pressure Forced Him Out of Russia

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Telegram founder Pavel Durov said he fled Russia over Kremlin pressure to share Ukrainian pro-democracy protesters’ personal data in 2013 in a rare interview with U.S. right-wing journalist Tucker Carlson. The eccentric tech CEO told Carlson that he and Telegram — one of the world’s fastest-growing messaging apps — relocated to Dubai in 2017 to avoid being…

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Russian-Backed Official Survives Assassination Attempt in Occupied Ukraine, Colleague Says

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A Russian-installed official in Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhia region has survived an assassination attempt at his workplace, his colleague said Tuesday. Anton Yakimenko sits on Zaporizhzhia’s Moscow-backed Yakimivka district council and is a member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. He also heads a local affiliate of the Russian state-run grain operator GUP GZO Akimovskoye. According to…

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Russia’s Orenburg Holds WWII Victory Parade Rehearsals Amid Flood Crisis

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Authorities in the southern Russian city of Orenburg announced that rehearsals for the annual Victory Day parade had started on Tuesday despite unprecedented floods submerging thousands of homes and forcing scores of residents to evacuate. “Starting today, Orenburg garrison troops began training for the ceremonial passing of the parade troops dedicated to the 79th anniversary of the…

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Putin Urges Restraint in Call With Iran’s Raisi

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Russian President Vladimir Putin warned during a phone call with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on Tuesday that any further escalation in the Middle East could have “catastrophic consequences.” “Vladimir Putin expressed the hope that all sides would show reasonable restraint and prevent a new round of confrontation [that could be] fraught with catastrophic consequences for the…

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Russia Adds Theater Director Berkovich, Playwright Petriychuk to ‘Terrorists and Extremists’ List

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Russia’s state financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring on Monday added theater director Yevgenia (Zhenya) Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk to its list of “terrorists and extremists.” Berkovich and Petriychuk were arrested in May 2023 over their award-winning play “Finist the Brave Falcon,” which tells the story of Russian women who correspond with Islamist militants, fall in love with them and…

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Russia’s Novosibirsk Bans Migrants From Working as Taxi Drivers

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Russia’s Novosibirsk region has banned migrants from working as taxi drivers and selling beverages and tobacco, according to a decree signed by Governor Andrei Travnikov on Monday. The measure comes amid mounting pressure on foreign workers — mostly from Central Asian countries  —across Russia in the aftermath of last month’s deadly concert hall attack outside Moscow. The four…

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Russian Regional Governor Predicts ‘Very Difficult’ Flood Situation

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Floodwaters in southern Russia on Sunday threatened to submerge thousands more homes in the Kurgan region, where the governor predicted a “very difficult situation” in the coming hours. There is widespread flooding in the Russian Urals regions and neighboring Kazakhstan, caused by melting ice swelling rivers, exacerbated by heavy rainfall. In Kazakhstan, more than 107,000…

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Ukraine Says Strengthening Defenses in Battered Frontline Town

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Ukrainian troops defending the frontline town of Chasiv Yar under relentless Russian attack have received additional drones and weaponry, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi said Sunday. Syrskyi wrote on Facebook after visiting troops defending the battered town that “measures were taken to significantly strengthen the brigades with ammunition, drones and electronic…

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Russia Halts Flights to Israel, Jordan, Iran Following Attack on Israel

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Russia has suspended flights to Israel, Jordan and Iraq after Tehran launched an unprecedented attack against Israel overnight. Late Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps announced that they had launched “dozens of drones and missiles” toward military sites on Israeli territory. Tehran the attack as a justified response to a strike that destroyed its consulate building in…

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Kyiv Says Eastern Front ‘Deteriorated’ as Russia Claims Village

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Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Saturday the situation on the eastern front had worsened significantly as Russia claimed the capture of a village near the occupied industrial town of Avdiivka. “The situation on the eastern front has deteriorated significantly in recent days,” said Syrsky, who took over as commander-in-chief in February after Ukrainian President Volodymyr…

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‘There Will Be No Beautiful Russia of the Future Unless We Take Responsibility’: Activist Anastasia Shevchenko

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AMSTERDAM — “My point is to talk to everyone,” says Anastasia Shevchenko. After losing a child while under house arrest in Russia and witnessing the atrocities of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, the exiled civil activist sees it as her mission to speak to Russians across the political spectrum and win over as many minds…

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Bake a Cake That is Out of This World

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Space flights are definitely important and certainly exciting. But even cosmonauts (and astronauts) flying in space need to have lunch. Of course, when Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov blasted off the launchpads as the first and second Soviet citizens in space, they weren’t thinking about food. But later space nutrition became very important in longer…

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Ukraine Says Situation in East Has ‘Deteriorated Significantly’

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Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Saturday that the situation on the eastern front has “deteriorated significantly” in recent days amid mounting Russian attacks. Syrsky, who took over as commander-in-chief in February after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky relieved his popular predecessor, Valery Zaluzhny, also said that Russian forces had superior weapons. He spoke of “a significant…

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Tajikistan Condemns Alleged Torture of Crocus Attack Suspects

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Tajikistan’s Foreign Minister condemned the alleged torture of four suspected gunmen behind last month’s deadly attack on a Moscow region concert hall, media in the Central Asian country reported Friday. “The open display of detaining suspected terrorists with the use of torture, by inflicting bodily harm against them, is unacceptable,” Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin told the Tajik…

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Car Bomb Reportedly Injures Former Ukrainian Agent in Moscow

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A former Ukrainian intelligence officer who defected to Russia before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was injured in a car bomb attack in northwestern Moscow on Friday afternoon, state media reported. Vasily Prozorov was injured after an explosive device detonated under his Toyota Land Cruiser, the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing anonymous law enforcement sources and people…

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Belgium Probing Russian ‘Interference’ in European Parliament, PM Says

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Belgian prosecutors have opened an investigation into Russian “interference” in the European Parliament following allegations that lawmakers were paid to spread Kremlin propaganda, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Friday. “Our judicial authorities have now confirmed this interference is subject to prosecution,” De Croo said. “The cash payments did not take place in Belgium,…

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Russia, Ukraine Swap 122 Fallen Soldiers’ Bodies

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Russia and Ukraine announced Friday that they exchanged the bodies of 122 fallen soldiers, the fourth publicly known swap between the two warring sides since the start of this year. Moscow received the remains of 23 soldiers, the RBC news website reported, citing Russian lawmaker Shamsayil Saraliyev.  Kyiv, meanwhile, repatriated 99 bodies, according to Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters…

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The Kremlin’s Creeping Nationalizations Hit Chelyabinsk Businesses

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The Kremlin’s wartime campaign of forced nationalization has hit the Ural Mountains region of Chelyabinsk, a major industrial center, harder than most.  Since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russian prosecutors have targeted 55 enterprises — metals, chemicals, agribusiness and even a major car dealership — for compulsory state takeover, according to figures from the…

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Navalny’s Posthumous Memoir ‘Patriot’ to Be Published This Fall

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A memoir written by the late Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny will be published posthumously this fall, his wife and allies announced Thursday. Navalny died at an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16 while serving a 19-year sentence on “extremism” charges widely seen as politically motivated. As one of President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal political opponents, the…

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Russia Seizes Country’s Largest Winemaker Amid Re-Nationalization Wave – RBC

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Russia has nationalized the country’s largest winemaker linked to an arrested billionaire whose business assets were confiscated earlier this year, the RBC news website reported Thursday, citing the tax service’s corporate database. Kuban Vino, which produced 95.5 million bottles of wine in 2023, was reportedly one of four nationalized wine and food companies that were…

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Russia’s FSB Says Foiled Ukrainian Landing Attempt in Kherson Region

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Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday that it thwarted an attempted landing in southern Ukraine’s partially occupied Kherson region carried out by Ukrainian special forces who received training from British commandos. A video published by the Russian Defense Ministry broadcaster Zvezda showed what was said to be the Ukrainian special forces’ landing boat being…

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Russia Fires Dozens of Missiles and Drones at Ukraine Overnight, Hitting Kharkiv and ‘Critical’ Infrastructure

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The southern Zaporizhzhia and Odesa regions and the western region of Lviv were also hit, officials said. Zelensky urged Ukraine’s Western partners not to “turn a blind eye” to what was happening and to provide Kyiv with more air defense systems. His call came as he traveled to Lithuania — one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies…

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Russian Security Agents Say Killed 2 Militants in North Caucasus Anti-Terrorism Operation

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Russian law enforcement agents in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria killed two armed militants during a counterterrorism operation, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) said Thursday.  A firefight erupted between “members of a gang that is part of an international terrorist organization who were planning to commit a number of acts of sabotage and terrorism”…

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