Russia Labels Radio Liberty ‘Undesirable’

Russia authorities have designated the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) news outlet as an “undesirable” organization.  The outlet appeared in the Justice Ministry’s database of “undesirable” organizations on Tuesday, making it the latest news organization to be blacklisted in Russia amid a sweeping crackdown on independent journalism that has dramatically intensified since Moscow invaded Ukraine…

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Britain Charges Ex-Head of Annexed Sevastopol With Breaching Sanctions

A London court has charged the former Moscow-installed head of Sevastopol in annexed Crimea with violating sanctions and money laundering, BBC Russian reported Tuesday. Dmitry Ovsyannikov was appointed as the governor of Crimea’s largest city in 2016, around two years after the Kremlin invaded and subsequently annexed the Ukrainian peninsula. He stepped down from the industry and trade ministry in…

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Russia Designates U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham as ‘Terrorist’

Russia’s state financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring has added U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham to its list of “extremists and terrorists.” Russia’s Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant for Graham in May after Russia’s Investigative Committee chairman Alexander Bastrykin ordered criminal charges to be pressed against him. “A video circulating online shows U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham saying during a…

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Kremlin Pushes to Extinguish Grieving for Navalny as Election Nears

The Kremlin is working to suppress memorials for the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny in a bid to prevent his death from spoiling President Vladimir Putin’s expected re-election next month. Authorities are using harsh detentions of Navalny’s grieving supporters and censorship to prevent acts of mourning from turning into political protests, sources in the Russian…

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Russia Returns 11 Children to Ukraine After Qatari Mediation

Eleven Ukrainian children left Russia for Ukraine on Monday to be reunited with their families, the latest transfer between the warring sides under a Qatari-mediated scheme. “This is the largest group of children in our family reunification activities, which we’re carrying out on behalf of the Russian president,” Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights Maria Lvova-Belova wrote…

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Russian Tattoo Artist Charged With Offending Religious Believers – Reports

A St. Petersburg tattoo artist has been charged with offending religious believers with her tattoos of Jesus Christ and other Christian symbols deemed “blasphemous,” the Fontanka news website has reported. Daria Krichker, 24, whose tattoos depict cats and anime characters alongside religious imagery, was detained at Pulkovo Airport on Saturday as she was attempting to flee to Armenia to…

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Disgraced Russian Pop Star Kirkorov Returns to TV After Performing for Troops

Pop star Filipp Kirkorov has made his first TV appearance since he and other prominent Russian celebrities faced a powerful conservative backlash for attending a “nearly naked” party. In mid-December, the singer and other famous stars and bloggers sparked a major sc andal when they attended a “nearly naked” party at a Moscow nightclub, wearing only lingerie, mesh…

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Moscow Claims Ukraine Poisoned Head of Occupied Luhansk Region

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Monday accused Kyiv of trying to poison the Kremlin-backed head of eastern Ukraine’s occupied Luhansk region Leonid Pasechnik. “Pasechnik was severely poisoned with phenolic compounds on Dec. 5, 2023,” said the head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s radiation, chemical and biological protection forces, Igor Kirillov. Phenol is a chemical compound used in…

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Thank the Persians for the Bazaar

Сарай: shed All languages borrow words from other languages. Most of the time we borrow words for things or actions that we didn’t have in our own country/culture/language. This includes a lot of food, drink, handy phrases, or objects like expresso, borshch, tsar, ciao, or sushi. Sometimes it’s just a word the borrowers like, even if…

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Pro-Kremlin Party Orders Lawmakers to Ignore Navalny’s Death – Agentstvo

The pro-Kremlin party United Russia has ordered lawmakers to avoid commenting on the death of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the investigative news outlet Agentstvo reported Friday. Deputies in the lower-house State Duma were reportedly told they should “keep strictly in line with the Federal Prison Service’s version [or] better to refrain from commenting at…

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Alexei Navalny Dies in Jail – Prison Service

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has died in jail, Russian prison authorities announced Friday. “The inmate A.A. Navalny started to feel unwell after a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness at correctional facility No. 3 on Feb. 16,” the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district prison service said. “Medical staff arrived immediately, an ambulance was called. None of the resuscitation…

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Second Mass Rally Participant Dies in Russia’s Bashkortostan – Reports

Activists in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan have confirmed the passing of a local man who faced criminal investigation over the mass protests that erupted in the republic last month, the SOTA media outlet reported Thursday.  Minniyar Bayguskarov, 65, was buried in his native village of Kaskinovo in the region’s southwestern Kugarchinsky district on Tuesday, according to local…

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‘Alcoholics and Criminals’ Dominate Russian Army Recruits, Says Siberian City MP

Prisoners, homeless people and other socially disadvantaged individuals made up the majority of military recruits in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk over the past year, a local assemblyman has said. “Over the last year our contract soldiers were mostly alcoholics, homeless people, derelicts, prisoners and others,” the local news website ngs24.ru quoted Krasnoyarsk city council member Vyacheslav Dyukov as…

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Black Sea Fleet Commander Sacked Over Warship’s Sinking, Russian Pro-War Bloggers Say

The commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has been sacked after Ukraine said it had destroyed another Russian warship, according to unconfirmed reports by pro-war bloggers. Ukrainian military intelligence said Wednesday its naval drones attacked and sank the Caesar Kunikov landing ship off the coast of the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula. Rybar, an influential Telegram channel…

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Russia Launches Supply Rocket to ISS

Russia on Thursday launched a supply rocket to the International Space Station, one of the rare Russia-U.S. projects kept alive since Russia’s offensive against Ukraine. A Soyuz-2 rocket carrying the Progress MS-26 cargo ship was launched at the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, Russia’s space agency said on its Telegram channel, showing a video of…

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