Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has issued shoot-to-kill orders against protesters to prevent unrest similar to Sunday night’s anti-Israeli riot in neighboring Dagestan, state media reported Tuesday. The RIA Novosti news agency said Kadyrov had instructed Interior Ministry and National Guard forces to detain anyone who takes to the streets in the Muslim-majority republic of Chechnya…
Details
The Kremlin has reduced the mandatory quarantine period to meet President Vladimir Putin to five days as the 2024 presidential election, in which he is widely expected to run for a fifth term, draws nearer. At the same time, personal meetings with Putin now hold greater significance for members of the establishment than ever amid…
Details
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday accused Ukraine and the West of instigating the anti-Israel riot at Dagestan’s Makhachkala airport Sunday evening, an accusation that Washington has called absurd. Security forces have detained over 80 people since the incident, which saw rioters in the Muslim-majority region take over the runway in an attempt to encircle…
Details
An anti-Israeli mob stormed Makhachkala International Airport in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Sunday evening, searching for Jews and Israelis rumored to have arrived on a flight from Tel Aviv. To some observers, the scenes harkened back to the pogroms of the 19th and early 20th centuries, during which Jews in the Russian Empire…
Details
The anti-Israeli riot in Russia’s republic of Dagestan has exposed the Kremlin’s failure to maintain stability as it has exerted total control over the country, three Russian officials, a former Kremlin official and independent experts told The Moscow Times. Dagestan, a majority Muslim region and political stronghold for the Kremlin in the North Caucasus, was…
Details
Russia’s senior rabbi has called on authorities to “severely punish” anti-Israeli rioters who stormed an airport in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Sunday as they searched for rumored Jewish passengers on a flight from Tel Aviv. Alexander Boroda, president of Russia’s Federation of Jewish Communities, said the Sunday evening violence laid bare the extent to…
Details
President Vladimir Putin has replaced the commander of Russia’s Dnipro grouping of forces in southern Ukraine, the state-run news agency TASS reported Monday, citing an anonymous source. Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky, who served as the head of the Russian Airborne forces, was reportedly named commander of the Russian Army in southern Ukraine’s partially occupied Kherson region.…
DetailsOn October 25, 2023, the Core Catcher for Unit 2 has been successfully delivered to the construction site of the El-Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant in the Arab Republic of Egypt (its General Designer and General Contractor being the Engineering Division of ROSATOM). The Core Catcher is one of the main passive safety systems of the…
Details
France is seeking the deportation of 39 Russian nationals suspected of holding “radical” Islamist views, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said Monday. Russian citizens are under “the strictest control” following a deadly Oct. 13 school stabbing in northern France that authorities have described as an Islamist terrorist attack, Darmanin told France’s RMC radio. Shortly after…
Details
Moscow’s Orthodox spiritual leader, Patriarch Kirill, on Monday condemned an anti-Israel riot at an airport in the Muslim-majority region of Dagestan as a bid to “sow discord” between Russia’s Jews and Muslims. The powerful religious leader spoke a day after a violent mob descended onto Makhachkala airport looking for Jews after a flight from Israel…
Details
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and other Russian political prisoners, including journalist and activist Vladimir Kara-Murza as well as opposition politician Ilya Yashin, staged a one-day hunger strike on Monday in a show of solidarity with political prisoners worldwide. Dating back to the Soviet period, “Political Prisoner Day” used to take place each year on Oct. 30,…
Details
Police in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan have carried out a search at the home of a journalist known for his regular protests against political repression, local media reported Monday, citing his relatives. Authorities raided the home of Idris Yusupov in the regional capital of Makhachkala early Monday morning, according to the news outlet…
Details
Ukraine said it had struck part of Russia’s air defense system in annexed Crimea overnight, as Moscow said it repelled a major attempted missile strike on the peninsula on Monday. Kyiv has increased attacks on the Black Sea peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, since it launched a counteroffensive against Russian forces earlier this year.…
Details
Updated with Peskov’s remarks. At least 60 people were arrested after an anti-Israeli mob stormed an airport in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Sunday night, Russia’s Interior Ministry has said. “More than 150 active participants of the riots have been identified, 60 of them have been detained and taken in for further investigation,” law enforcement…
Details
From the outside, it may seem that Moscow life hasn’t changed at all, but this is a false impression. To understand how people who remain in Russia feel, here are three poems, all written after February 2022. Their authors describe what they see around them, and also what it’s like to write poetry in Russian…
Details
A mob of anti-Israeli protesters stormed an airport in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Sunday night following calls on social media to block a flight from Tel Aviv from landing in the majority-Muslim region. Video shared on social media showed hundreds of people gathered outside Makhachkala International Airport in the evening, with demonstrators brandishing Palestinian…
Details
Russian forces shot down 36 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula overnight, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said Sunday. “On the night of October 29, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using air-type drones against facilities on the territory of the Russian Federation was stopped,” the ministry…
Details
Russians commemorated the victims of Stalinist terror on Sunday, more than 20 months into Moscow’s Ukraine offensive that has been accompanied at home by a major crackdown on dissent. The Kremlin has doubled down on its version of history as troops fight in Ukraine, which often glosses over Stalinist crimes, with public commemoration of Soviet-era…
Details
Hamas is trying to locate eight Russian-Israeli dual citizens among nearly 230 taken hostage during its attack on Israel after Moscow’s request to free them, Russian news agencies reported Saturday. Russia has good relations with the Palestinian militant group, which it does not consider a terror group, and has launched a diplomatic effort to try…
Details
Hamas is trying to locate eight Russian-Israeli dual citizens among nearly 230 taken hostage during the Palestinian militants’ attack on Israel after Moscow’s request to free them, Russian news agencies reported Saturday. Russia has good relations with Hamas, which it does not consider a terror group, and has launched a diplomatic effort to try to…
Details
A dispute once arose in a Moscow liberal drawing room in the late 1870s. Did the heir to the throne (the future Tsar Alexander III), who considered himself purely Russian, have much Russian blood in him? The dispute was resolved by turning to the famous historian Sergei Solovyov, who happened to be among the guests.…
Details
To his critics, Maxim Katz’s ideas for uniting Russia’s anti-Kremlin opposition are as realistic as a unicorn. Katz proposed last month what he calls “a concrete plan” to ensure that Putin is removed from power and asked opposition figures, including allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, to unite behind it. “The Russian opposition should…
Details
An updated version of Russia’s climate doctrine signed by President Vladimir Putin on Thursday has dropped language that directly links the burning of fossil fuels to greenhouse gas emissions. Russia’s climate doctrine, first introduced in 2009, outlines the government’s policy on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Thursday’s updated doctrine notes the “unprecedentedly high” rate of…
Details
Moscow’s Roscosmos space chief warned Friday that most Russian equipment on the International Space Station (ISS) was beyond its warranty, weeks after the station’s Russian segment sprang another coolant leak. The leak, Russia’s third in less than a year, raised new questions about the reliability of the country’s space program, even as officials said crew…
DetailsRosenergoatom (Electric Energy Division of ROSATOM) as part of bilateral interaction between ROSATOM and representatives of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (Institute of Atomic Energy and Institute of Radiation Polymer Technologies) on the implementation of a project to modernize the RPP-350 gamma installation intended for radiation processing agricultural products and research work, demonstrated to representatives…
Details
A Moscow court has sentenced a physicist who worked on hypersonic development to 12 years in a penal colony on treason charges, the independent Mediazona news website reported Friday. Anatoly Gubanov, 66, is the former head of the Aerodynamics of Aircrafts and Rockets Department at the Moscow region’s Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI). He was detained…
Details
Russian prosecutors are seeking a three-year prison sentence for veteran human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov, who was fined by a Moscow court earlier this month, after he wrote an article saying Russia had become a “fascist” country under President Vladimir Putin, the Memorial rights group said Friday. Orlov, who serves as Memorial’s co-chair, was fined…
Details
Клёво: cool, great, fab, super When things are good, you exclaim: Хорошо! When things are good and you are too young to legally drink you exclaim: Клёво! If you want, you can exclaim it when you’re old enough to drink or even get a pension — but the word does have a young vibe. So…
Details
Updated with criminal investigation. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has launched a criminal investigation into the attempted assassination of Oleg Tsaryov, a former Ukrainian lawmaker who was reportedly slated to lead a pro-Russian puppet government in Kyiv. Oleg Tsaryov was shot and badly wounded at his home in annexed Crimea, his associates said earlier on Friday. “[Tsaryov]…
Details
Russia’s Central Bank raised interest rates from 13% to 15% on Friday as it warned of higher-than-expected inflation across the economy. “Current inflationary pressures have significantly increased to a level above the Bank of Russia’s expectations,” the Central Bank said in a statement. The bank said domestic demand was increasingly outpacing the provision of goods and…
Details
Far East Russia’s republic of Sakha (Yakutia) has banned Halloween celebrations at schools across the region, local media reported Friday. Sakha’s Deputy Education Minister Alevtina Argunova circulated a letter to school principals demanding that they cancel all Halloween celebrations in classrooms, according to the news website SakhaDay. Instead, Argunova was said to have encouraged school…
Details
Russian security forces killed what they claim was a Ukrainian GUR military intelligence agent and arrested two others in southern Ukraine’s partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Friday. The FSB described the shootout and arrests as a “special operation” that “thwarted the activities of three large secret intelligence groups.” “One of…
Details
At least three Ukrainian drones attempted to attack a Russian nuclear plant located some 110 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, Russia’s state nuclear plant operator said Friday. Rosenergoatom stressed that the incident at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant did not cause any damage or affect the plant’s operations. “We confirm that on the evening…
Details
Russia is executing soldiers who refuse to follow the orders of their commanders as it carries out a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, the White House said Thursday, noting that Russian forces were suffering “significant” losses of armor and personnel. “We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who are refusing to…
Details
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the first segment of the new space station that Moscow plans to construct to replace the ISS should be in orbit by 2027, despite recent setbacks. Russia previously announced its intention to withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS), where its cosmonauts are permanently stationed and the country…
Details
Russia’s Sakhalin region has become the first in the country to set carbon quotas, the latest step in its goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2025. In light of President Vladimir Putin’s 2021 announcement of Russia’s aim to reach climate neutrality by 2060, Sakhalin has emerged as a testing ground for mechanisms that could pave…
Details
Russia on Thursday criticized Ukrainian-backed peace talks set to be held in Malta this weekend, warning any discussions without its participation would be counterproductive. The talks, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hopes will drum up support for his own peace plan, come after similar gatherings in Jeddah and Copenhagen earlier this year. “Obviously such gatherings…
Details
Delegates from the Palestinian militant group Hamas have arrived in Moscow for talks, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced Thursday evening. “I can confirm that representatives of the [Hamas] Palestinian movement are visiting Moscow,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a weekly briefing. “We will inform you additionally about its contacts,” she added. Moscow had…
Details
Russia has issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian World War II veteran in Canada who fought alongside the Nazis after Russian investigators pressed genocide charges against him. Yaroslav Hunka was celebrated in Canadia’s parliament as a veteran who had “fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians” during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in…
Details
Russian lawmakers backed a record increase in military spending to fund Moscow’s offensive on Ukraine, in a first reading of the bill Thursday. Defense spending will account for almost a third of all outlays in 2024 — up 68% to 10.8 trillion rubles ($115 billion). At more than 6% of the country’s GDP, military spending…
Details
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday it had killed a Russian man accused of planning to attack a military enlistment office on orders from Ukrainian intelligence services. Video shared by the state-run TASS news agency showed the unidentified man talking on the phone while filming a thermal power station in the city of Tver, located some…
Details
Former Russian state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova has lost custody of her two children after a court battle with her ex-husband, independent media reported Thursday. Moscow’s Shcherbinka District Court issued the ruling behind closed doors as it dealt with issues relating to minors, according to the independent Sota news outlet, which cited the court’s spokesperson in…
Details
Israel has resumed accepting applications from Russians for its repatriation program days after suspending document processing over fears of protests outside the Israeli embassy in Moscow, Israel’s Ambassador in Russia Alexander Ben Zvi said Thursday. Ben Zvi told the state-run news agency TASS that his diplomatic mission stopped accepting repatriation applications on Tuesday to avoid…
Details
A polar bear has been making regular intrusions into an arctic town in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region over the past month, prompting officials to declare a “high alert” as the animal poses a threat to local residents, Russian media reported. Although the bear has not yet attacked anyone, authorities in the port town of Dikson —…
Details
A Stockholm court on Thursday acquitted a Russian-Swede accused of passing Western technology to Russia’s military, ruling that while he did export the material his actions did not amount to espionage. Prosecutors had sought a five-year sentence against Sergei Skvortsov, a 60-year-old dual national who has lived in Sweden since the 1990s running import-export companies.…
Details
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday oversaw ballistic missile drills remotely, the Kremlin said, hours after Russia moved to revoke its ratification of a landmark nuclear test ban treaty. “Under the leadership of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces, Vladimir Putin, a training exercise was conducted with the forces and equipment of ground,…
Details
Russia’s Armed Forces have recruited 385,000 people so far this year, officials said Wednesday, as Moscow needs masses of soldiers for its Ukraine offensive. Russia does not say how many troops it has lost during the 20-month offensive, but independent estimates put the numbers well into the tens of thousands. Moscow has launched an aggressive…
Details
Russian authorities have placed a street artist famous for his anti-war graffiti on a federal wanted list in relation to an unspecified crime. Filipp Kozlov, who goes by the artist name Philippenzo, is listed in the Russian Interior Ministry’s database of suspected criminals. The registry does not disclose the charges that the 39-year-old Kozlov faces.…
Details
The Russian branch of the Catholic Church on Wednesday called for the restoration of a dismantled memorial to an archbishop who was a victim of Stalin-era repression. Authorities in central Russia’s Vladimir region recently took down a prison wall that featured a commemoration of Lithuanian archbishop Mecislovas Reinys and other foreigners who were imprisoned as…
Details
Over 15% of Russians who left the country following the invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin’s “partial” military mobilization have since returned, either temporarily or permanently, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing new research. Researchers Emil Kamalov and Ivetta Sergeeva from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy conducted a long-term survey of 5,000 Russian…
Details
Russian authorities have declined to designate the Hamas militant group as a terrorist organization since none of its members have been convicted of any crimes in the country, the independent news outlet Mozhem Obyasnit reported Wednesday. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office explained in a letter sent to a politician from St. Petersburg that labeling Hamas…
Details
Russia’s trade turnover with China is on track to reach $220 billion this year, surpassing government projections by some $20 billion, the acting head of Russia’s customs agency said Wednesday. Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping pledged to boost bilateral trade to $200 billion in 2023 as the sides grow closer over their mutual scorn…
Details
Seven Ukrainian men released from Russian captivity have been stranded at the Russia-Georgia border for two weeks after Georgia denied them entry, a Georgian volunteer organization told the independent Meduza news website Wednesday. The group tried to enter Georgia via the Verkhny Lars border crossing in the Caucasus mountains on Oct. 11. Georgian authorities said…
Details
The head of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov awarded the teenage son of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov with his region’s second-highest ranking, Kadyrov’s ally Adam Delimkhanov said Tuesday. Minnikhanov presented the Duslyk (“friendship” in Tatar) Order to 15-year-old Adam Kadyrov during an official visit to Chechnya’s capital Grozny, as seen in a video posted…
Details
The Kremlin plans to boost President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating ahead of next year’s elections by launching a nationwide lottery among Russian families, the independent news website Meduza reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. A source close to the Kremlin, two high-ranking regional officials and a senior United Russia ruling party member…
Details
Russia said Wednesday it would study U.S. proposals to resume dialogue on nuclear arms control, but that it would not accept them unless Washington dropped its “hostile” stance towards Moscow. The U.S. and Russia used to regularly inspect each other’s nuclear facilities and limit warheads under the New START treaty, but Moscow suspended the treaty…
Details
Volga River water levels have plummeted to a 37-year low in Russia’s southern Saratov region, media reported Tuesday, citing data from the regional hydrometeorological agency. The water level around the city of Saratov, which lies on the eastern bank of the 3,500-kilometer-long Volga River, fell to 13.69 meters on Oct. 20, just slightly above the…
Details
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered senior officers to prepare soldiers for the winter during a visit to a command post in eastern Ukraine, the military said Wednesday. In a video posted online, Shoigu was shown visiting the Vostok command post, where he was said to have been briefed about the situation on the front line. …
Details
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed fears of a sharp deterioration of the situation in besieged Gaza during a call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Kremlin said Tuesday. The leaders expressed “deep concern over the growing number of civilian casualties and the catastrophic deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” the…
Details
A Russian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by an opposition activist who was sentenced to seven years in prison over social media posts that prosecutors said “justified terrorism.” Russia has banned criticism of its military campaign and has orchestrated a huge crackdown on dissent as troops fight in Ukraine. The activist, 63-year-old Mikhail Krieger,…
Details