Detained U.S.-Russian Journalist Hit With Fresh Charges

Russian authorities have opened a new criminal case against detained U.S.-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, the state-affiliated news agency Tatar.Inform reported Tuesday.  Kurmasheva, a journalist for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was arrested in October in Kazan, the capital of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan, for failing to register as a “foreign agent.” The new…

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Russian Anti-War Sociologist Fined for ‘Justifying Terror’

Anti-war sociologist and Marxist theorist Boris Kagarlitsky has been fined 600,000 rubles ($6,600) for “justifying terrorism” in comments he made about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, independent media reported Tuesday.  Kagarlitsky, founder and chief editor of the left-wing news organization Rabkor, was detained in July in connection with a since-deleted YouTube video about the 2022 Crimea…

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Russian Forces Claim ‘Significant’ Advance in Southern Ukraine

Russian forces in southern Ukraine have “advanced significantly” around the village of Novopokrovka in the Zaporizhzhia region, Kremlin-installed officials said Tuesday. “I’m in constant contact with our units… The situation is always tense, but not only do our guys continue to hold the line of defense, but they’re also gradually moving forward,” the Moscow-backed head of…

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Putin Unveils 2 New Nuclear Submarines

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday promised to reinforce Russia’s “military-naval might” as he attended the inauguration of two nuclear submarines in the country’s Far North. The Russian leader took part in a flag-hoisting ceremony in Severodvinsk on the White Sea where the Krasnoyarsk and Emperor Alexander III were built over the past six years.…

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Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya Says She Hasn’t Given Up On a Democratic Belarus

“Lukashenko’s regime is very vulnerable,” says Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, “and because of that, its cruelty is becoming more and more extreme.” It has been three years since Tsikhanouskaya ran in the 2020 Belarusian presidential elections and mounted a historic challenge to longtime ruler Alexander Lukashenko that brought tens of thousands of citizens to the streets to call…

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Russia Greenlights Presidential Election in Occupied Ukraine

Russia’s Central Election Commission has given the green light on holding next year’s presidential election in partially occupied Ukrainian regions, Interfax reported Monday. Russia’s Armed Forces and the Federal Security Service (FSB) had previously said that they “deem it possible” for the vote to go ahead in areas where fighting continues, nearly two years into Russia’s war…

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Siberian Ex-Lawmaker, Aluminum Magnate Jailed 12 Years for Murder – Interfax

A once-powerful Siberian businessman and former regional lawmaker has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on his third murder charge dating back to the 1990s, Interfax reported Monday. Anatoly Bykov chaired the Rusal aluminum giant’s Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant until his firing in 2000 and served as a lawmaker in the Krasnoyarsk regional legislature from 1997-2016. Prosecutors…

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Authors Oxana Shevel and Maria Popova Write the History of Ukraine-Russia Relations

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago, scholars and journalists have rushed to make their contribution to the growing number of titles seeking to shed light on this devastating conflict. “Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States” by Maria Popova, Associate Professor of Political Science at McGill University, and Oxana…

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Russia Issues Arrest Warrant for U.S.-Russian Journalist Masha Gessen

Russian authorities on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Russian-American journalist and writer Masha, who earlier this year was charged with spreading “fakes” about Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Russia’s Interior Ministry lists the 56-year-old by the full name Maria Alexandrovna Gessen, as well as her date of birth, gender and nationality. The ministry does not provide…

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Words of the Year 2023

Слово года 2023: Word of the Year 2023 In the Before Times I wrote my favorite column of the year in early December, when a group of Russian language fanatics headed by Mikhail Epstein, a linguist and professor of Russian language and literature, would cast their votes for the words that best captured the spirit…

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Russia Announces 3-Day Vote for 2024 Election

Russian election officials announced Friday that the 2024 presidential race will be held over three days, the first time that multi-day voting has been used for a presidential election.  “Three-day voting is already becoming a tradition in our electoral system,” said Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) chairwoman Ella Pamfilova. “It was first used during the [Covid-19]…

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Finland Refuses Russian Nationalist Fighter’s Extradition to Ukraine – Reports

A court in Finland has refused to extradite a Russian nationalist fighter to Ukraine and ruled to release him from detention, Finnish media reported Friday. Since 2016, Ukrainian authorities have sought the arrest of Yan Petrovsky, a Russian-Norwegian national, on terrorism charges, accusing him of assisting pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine as a member of…

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Russia Outlaws U.S.-Based RAND Corporation as ‘Undesirable’

Russia’s Justice Ministry has added the U.S. global policy think tank RAND Corporation to its list of “undesirable” organizations, banning its activities and putting staff at risk of jail in Russia. RAND’s designation, dated Dec. 6 on the ministry website, is not accompanied by a statement explaining Moscow’s decision to blacklist the research and development nonprofit.…

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U.K. Accuses Moscow of Cyber Campaign Against Top Politicians

The British government on Thursday accused Russian security services of engaging in a sustained cyber espionage campaign against top politicians, journalists and NGOs. Russia has been suspected of meddling in U.K. politics before, including the divisive 2016 Brexit referendum, however, the Conservative Party-led government has been criticized for failing to investigate. In the latest claims,…

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ROSATOM and DP World to create a global logistics operator

The parties agreed to jointly develop logistic integration amongst BRICS members and partner countries. ROSATOM and DP World have signed an agreement on strategic cooperation in the global market aimed at increasing the efficiency of international trade, primarily among the BRICS countries and their partners, and at creating seamless, sustainable global transportation and logistics supply…

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Russia Accuses Ex-Soldier of Helping Ukraine Organize Arson Attacks

Russia’s Security Service (FSB) on Thursday said it detained two people suspected of organizing several arson attacks on behalf of Kyiv and transferring money to the Ukrainian military. A 21-year-old ex-soldier in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad was accused of being paid by the Ukrainian special services to recruit potential arsonists inside Russia. “The suspect involved several…

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ROSATOM manufactures first bundles of BN-800 MOX fuel with minor actinides

ROSATOM’s Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk region, has manufactured the first three fuel assemblies with uranium-plutonium MOX fuel, which contain in their fuel matrix not only plutonium, but also other transuranic elements — americium-241 and neptunium-237. The fuel bundles have been successfully accepted and will be loaded into the BN-800 fast neutrons reactor…

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Russia’s State Duma Bans Cellphones in School Classrooms

Russian lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favor of banning the use of cellphones in school classrooms, a move they argue will help improve the learning process for students.  The speaker of Russia’s lower-house State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin said cellphones would no longer be permitted in classrooms except for “emergencies.” “Parents and teachers asked us to back this rule. The…

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In First, Russia Jails 2 Soldiers for ‘Failure to Prevent’ Ukrainian Strike – Kommersant

Two senior Russian officers have been imprisoned on charges of failing to prevent a Ukrainian missile strike on Russia, the first such case of its kind, the business daily Kommersant reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the trial. Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Bondarev and Major Dmitry Dmitrakov were accused of allowing a Ukrainian missile strike…

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