Armenia PM Criticizes Russia as Rift With Moscow Grows Wider

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Friday that Russia had failed to deliver weapons Yerevan had already paid for and accused Russia’s media of destabilizing his country’s political situation. The remarks highlighted Armenia’s growing rift with its powerful ally after Russian peacekeepers failed to prevent Azerbaijan’s offensive to retake its Armenian-controlled separatist enclave of…

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Russian and Chinese Business Leaders Discuss Undersea Crimea Tunnel

Russian and Chinese business executives with government connections have secretly discussed building an underwater tunnel connecting Crimea to Russia, according to communications obtained by the Ukrainian security services and corroborated and reported by the Washington Post.  The Russian-built bridge over the Kerch Strait is vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks, having been hit twice since Feb. 2022.…

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Russia Opens Criminal Case Against Journalist Masha Gessen Over Ukraine War ‘Fake News’

Russia has opened a criminal case against prominent Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen on suspicion of spreading fake information about Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, the independent Dozhd television channel reported Thursday. Gessen, who was born in Russia but lives in the U.S., was accused of spreading false information about atrocities committed by the Russian army in…

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Student Who Photographed Moscow Enlistment Office Schedule Charged With Terrorism

A Russian university student has been placed in pre-trial detention on charges of undergoing terrorist training after he took a photograph outside of a Moscow military enlistment office, the independent Mediazona news website reported from the courtroom Thursday. Prosecutors claim that Ibragim Orudzhev, 22, a student at Belgorod State University, “conducted reconnaissance of the area ……

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The Lepse Floating Technical Base Dismantlement Project has been successfully implemented in the Murmansk Region

ROSATOM has completed a significant milestone of a large-scale environmental program for the elimination of the hazardous nuclear and chemical legacy. The Murmansk Region closes the more than ten-year history of the dismantlement of the Lepse Floating Technical Base (FTB), which supported the operation of the first nuclear-powered icebreakers and the spent nuclear fuel storage…

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Up to 90 Dagestan Residents Could Have Been Imprisoned Over Anti-Israeli Riot – Mediazona

As many as 90 residents of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan could have been jailed following the anti-Israeli riot at Makhachkala International Airport, according to an analysis of court records by the independent Mediazona news website.  A mob of about 1,200 locals stormed Makhachkala’s airport on Oct. 29, seeking to find and attack Jews and…

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Novokuznetsk Mayor Grapples with Record-Storm Aftermath Ahead of Moscow Official Visit

Officials in the Kemerovo (Kuzbass) region are grappling with the aftermath of a powerful storm that struck Siberia on Sunday, as Moscow begins scrutinizing how local authorities responded to the natural disaster, Telegram channel Russian Decadence said Wednesday, sharing video recordings of the officials’ meeting. While addressing subordinate civil servants, the Novokuznetsk mayor Sergei Kuznetsov resorted…

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Hours Before Declaring Mutiny, Prigozhin Secretly Planned Duma Speech to Win Back Putin’s Favor

On the evening of June 23, Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was preparing to give the order for his men to march to Moscow and demand the removal of Russia’s military leadership after months of rising tensions.  Meanwhile, a seemingly unremarkable event was unfolding inside the State Duma’s imposing Stalinist headquarters a few hundred meters…

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Russia Arrests French Citizen for Illegally Entering From Estonia – Russian Agencies

Russia has detained a French citizen for illegally entering the country from Estonia and opened a criminal investigation, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday. EU and NATO member Estonia shares a 300-kilometer border with Russia and tensions between the countries have increased since the beginning of Moscow’s large-scale military intervention in Ukraine last year.…

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Bears in Far East Russia Struggle to Hibernate Amid Abnormally High Temperatures

Abnormally high November temperatures in Russia’s Far East are preventing local bears from hibernating, with some animals wandering around their winter dens in a “half-asleep state,” the Amur region’s Wildlife Conservation Authority said Tuesday. While many bears have already accumulated the fat needed for their long seasonal sleep, the “improperly” high air temperature hinders them…

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Russia Arrests Pussy Riot Co-Founder Tolokonnikova in Absentia

A Moscow court has ordered the arrest of leading Pussy Riot member Nadya Tolokonnikova in absentia, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported on Tuesday. Tolokonnikova, 34, the feminist protest and performance art group’s co-founder, was charged with insulting the religious feelings of believers, RIA Novosti said, without providing further details. The activist, who currently…

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Czech Republic Proposes Limiting Russian Diplomats’ Movements in EU – FT

European Union countries are in talks to limit the movements of Russian diplomats within the EU’s border-free zone after the Czech Republic raised concerns about potential spies evading monitoring, the Financial Times reported Tuesday. Last week, Prague shared a document outlining ideas to prevent spying activities for the EU’s 12th package of sanctions against Moscow, which…

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Russia Planning to Overthrow Ukraine’s Leadership By End of Year – Zelensky

Russian special forces are planning to remove Ukraine’s leadership from power by the end of 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. In an interview with the British tabloid The Sun published late Monday, Zelensky claimed Russia would use “any means available to them,” including assassination, in the operation supposedly dubbed “Maidan 3.” “The goal…

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Russian Airlines Invited to Launch Flights to North Korea – Reports

Russian airlines have been invited to launch regular flights to North Korea, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday. Russia’s state civil aviation agency Rosaviatsia sent offers to airlines Aeroflot and Aurora to assess their readiness to launch flights to Pyongyang, Kommersant said, citing unspecified sources. A Rosaviatsia delegation visited counterparts in North Korea last week…

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Russian Theft of Ukrainian Grain Likely a War Crime, Legal Analysis Says

The scale of Russian grain theft in occupied Ukraine likely constitutes the war crimes of starvation and pillage, a new report by the Global Rights Compliance legal practice has said. Russia’s billion-dollar operation — which involved seizing Ukrainian grain storage facilities, building new railways, and transferring huge cargo ships to Black Sea ports both before…

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Artist’s Sentencing for Price Tag Swap ‘Mortally Dangerous,’ Member of Putin’s Rights Council Says

The sentencing of artist and musician Alexandra Skochilenko is “horrific” and “mortally dangerous,” a member of Russia’s presidential human rights council has said. “It was known from the very beginning that Alexandra has an intolerance to certain foods and a number of other illnesses,” the state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted Eva Merkacheva as saying…

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Finnish Military Assisting With Fence Construction Along Border With Russia

The Finnish Defense Forces are helping the country’s Border Guard construct temporary fences on the Russian border after the Finnish government closed four border crossing points in response to an increased flow of third-country asylum seekers coming from Russia. Since September, over 300 undocumented asylum seekers, mostly young men from the Middle East, have arrived…

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Russia Places Ukrainian Singer Jamala on Wanted List

Russia has placed Ukrainian singer Jamala on its federal wanted list on unspecified criminal charges, Russian state agencies reported Monday.  The singer’s name and photo appeared on the Interior Ministry’s database, without further information about what she was accused of doing.  A singer of Crimean Tatar origin, Jamala won the 2016 Eurovision contest with “1944,” a song about…

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