Secret diplomatic talks are ongoing between former senior U.S. national security officials and high-ranking members of the Kremlin, a former U.S. official directly involved in the talks has confirmed to The Moscow Times. Earlier this month, NBC first reported the existence of these back-channel discussions, which involve former U.S. officials engaging in discreet exchanges with…
Details
Moldova has ordered 45 Russian diplomats and embassy staff to leave the country “over numerous unfriendly actions,” officials said Wednesday, as tensions between the two countries reach an all-time high. “This decision comes as a result of numerous unfriendly actions towards the Republic of Moldova… as well as attempts to destabilise the internal situation in…
DetailsThe award ceremony for The Precise Energy-2023 Science Olympiad in Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry, organized by ROSATOM Engineering Division (JSC Atomstroyexport), took place on the 26th of July at the Russian House in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. This Olympiad was hosted in collaboration with ANO Energy of the Future, and was supported by the Russian House…
Details
A Russian court has sentenced Ilya Sachkov, the founder of one of Russia’s top cybersecurity firms, to 14 years in prison for treason, the independent news website Mediazona reported Wednesday. Sachkov, 37, co-founded the Group-IB cybersecurity firm in 2003. The firm specializes in the detection and prevention of cyberattacks and works with Interpol and several other…
Details
Boris Kagarlitsky, a Russian sociologist and Marxist theorist who has openly opposed Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, has been detained on charges of “justifying terrorism” online, his lawyer said Wednesday. The Federal Security Service (FSB) transferred Kagarlitsky to the city of Syktyvkar in northwestern Russia’s republic of Komi, where the case against him is being investigated,…
Details
Russian soldiers may now be able to avoid criminal prosecution if they serve on the frontline in Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday, citing a recent ruling by Russia’s Supreme Court. The new legal precedent was set in a deadly automobile accident case where Corporal Vladislav Ustinov was handed a two-year prison sentence in…
Details
A former U.S. Marine who spent more than two years in a Russian prison was injured fighting in Ukraine, the State Department said Tuesday. Trevor Reed, who was released by Moscow in an April 2022 prisoner swap, has been sent to Germany for the treatment of unspecified injuries incurred while fighting for Ukraine, said Vedant…
Details
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday hailed his country’s partnership with North Korea during a meeting with his counterpart Kang Sun Nam in Pyongyang. “For Russia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is an important partner, with which we share a common border and a rich history of cooperation,” Shoigu said according to a ministry…
Details
North Korea rolled out the red carpet for the Russian Defense Minister, state media said Wednesday, with delegations from Moscow and Beijing set to attend Korean War anniversary events. Pyongyang on Thursday will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the signing of the July 27, 1953 Korean War armistice, which ended open hostilities and is marked…
Details
Russia is doubling down in its efforts to block Ukrainian grain exports and maximize damage to Kyiv’s profits one week after it pulled out of a landmark grain deal securing Ukrainian grain exports. In addition to its systematic attacks on three Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea near Odesa in recent days, Moscow for the…
Details
The Kremlin will be seeking to clinch new economic agreements and partnerships across the African continent as it hosts delegations from dozens of African states this week — but may come away with less than it hopes for. The second Russia-Africa Summit, due to commence in St. Petersburg on Thursday, comes as Moscow increasingly turns…
DetailsROSATOM will act as the general partner of the 2nd Russia-Africa Summit, Economic and Humanitarian Forum to be held on July, 27-28 at EXPOFORUM Congress and Exhibition Center in St. Petersburg. Discussion of the joint nuclear solutions, particularly in the area of nuclear power engineering, nuclear medicine, food security assurance, is planned within the framework…
Details
President Vladimir Putin is planning to visit China in October, the Kremlin said Tuesday, as Russia aims to shore up ties with one of its closest allies. “It is known that we have received an invitation and that we intend to go to China when the Belt and Road Forum is held in October,” Yuri Ushakov, an…
Details
Russia said Tuesday that its forces had progressed by up to two kilometers (1.2 miles) along a section of the front in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. “The total advance of our units amounted to up two kilometers in depth along up to four kilometers of the front” in the direction of Lyman, the Defense Ministry said…
Details
Russian President Vladimir Putin “was paralyzed and unable to act decisively” during the first hours of the mutiny launched by Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin last month, The Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing Ukrainian and European security officials. Putin did not issue orders for most of the day of Prigozhin’s June 24 rebellion, The…
DetailsSpecialists of Kursk Branch Office of Trest RosSEM LLC (subsidiary construction organization of ROSATOM Engineering Division) completed the installation of ventilation stack of the auxiliary reactor building of Kursk NPP-2 Unit 2. The installation of the complex metal structure was carried out in three main stages. After the stack elements had been manufactured in the…
Details
MOSCOW — With its blue-and-yellow branding and stuffed sharks adorning the entrance, it’s easy to recognize what this small store in a shopping mall located in southwest Moscow is aiming for. Гуд Лакк (“Good Luck” in Cyrillic letters), which opened earlier this month, is in many ways a carbon copy of IKEA, the Swedish furniture…
Details
Russian authorities on Tuesday designated the exiled independent news channel Dozdh as an “undesirable” organization. The designation bans Dozhd’s work in Russia, puts staff members at risk of jail time and criminalizes engagement with the broadcaster, including sharing its content online. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement that Dozhd “systematically” violated the country’s…
Details
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Tuesday that pro-war nationalist Igor Girkin, who was arrested last week on extremism charges, should be recognized as a political prisoner. Girkin, a Russian army veteran and ex-FSB officer also known as Igor Strelkov, was arrested last Friday on charges of “public incitement of extremist activity.” The move was…
Details
Russian lawmakers on Tuesday passed a bill raising the upper age limit for military conscription and banning draftees from leaving the country, as Moscow continues its efforts to widen the pool of potential recruits for its war in Ukraine. Under current Russian law, all men aged 18-27 are required to complete a one-year term of…
Details
Russia said Tuesday that one of its military patrol boats had repelled an attack overnight in the Black Sea, where tensions have been building after Moscow backed out of a deal protecting Ukrainian grain shipments. “Ukraine’s armed forces carried out an unsuccessful attack with two naval drones against the Sergei Kotov patrol ship overnight,” the…
Details
Russia will receive “super priority” rights in acquiring the assets of strategic foreign companies that leave the country, Interfax reported Monday, citing an unpublished draft presidential decree. “Russia’s preferential right to acquire shares is realized regardless of the preferential rights of other persons,” the text reportedly reads. The list of strategic companies includes around 200…
Details
Moscow residents were startled awake in the middle of the night as Ukrainian drones crashed close to the Russian Defense Ministry building in the city center on Monday and another hit an office building in a southern area of the capital. “Around 3:30-3:40 a.m. I heard a very loud sound of an explosion and then…
Details
President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a controversial law that bans legal and surgical sex changes, a move that deprives transgender Russians of the right to access gender-affirming services. The law, which makes “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person” and “the state registration of a change of gender without an operation”…
Details
A record $253 billion has been pulled out of Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Russian Central Bank has said. The net capital outflow from Russia starting February 2022 and ending June 2023 was calculated by the Bank’s Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Forecasting. “Net inflows on current…
Details
Russia said Monday that drone attacks in central Moscow and annexed Crimea could warrant a harsh response, after Ukraine claimed an attack on the capital. “We regard what happened as yet another use of terrorist methods and intimidation of the civilian population by the military and political leadership of Ukraine,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. “The Russian Federation reserves the…
Details
President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed into law a bill to raise the upper age limit for military reservists eligible for mobilization by five years. The amendments to Russia’s law on military duty and military service introduce a four-year transition period — between 2024 and 2028 — during which the reservist age limit will be…
DetailsRussian experts have participated in the international scientific and technical conference TopFuel 2023 held in Xian, China. The event was dedicated to the development and operation of nuclear fuel for pressurised water reactors (PWR), boiling water reactors (BWR), and VVER-type reactors. Specialists from TVEL Fuel Company and other ROSATOM enterprises involved in nuclear fuel production…
Details
A former regional coordinator of jailed Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny was sentenced to nine years in prison for participating in an “extremist” organization, the activist’s allies announced Monday. Vadim Ostanin, 46, was detained in December 2021 alongside five other Navalny allies across Russia when the authorities blacklisted the Kremlin critic’s activist network as “extremist.”…
Details
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had blocked a foreign cargo ship accused of supplying Ukraine with explosives from entering Russian waters, state-run news agencies reported Monday. The vessel, traveling from Turkey to southern Russia’s port of Rostov-on-Don to load grain, was banned from crossing the Kerch Strait that leads to ports in occupied…
Details
Ukrainian drones hit two buildings in Moscow and an ammunition depot in annexed Crimea on Monday, Russian officials said. Authorities in Moscow reported two Ukrainian drones had been downed over the Russian capital during the night. “Around 4:00 a.m. today, drone strikes on two non-residential buildings were recorded. There is no serious damage or casualties,”…
Details
Russia and China have ended their joint naval exercises in the Sea of Japan, the Russian Defense Ministry announced Sunday, as the two allies seek to deepen their military ties. The two massive countries, which share a common desire to counter what they see as American hegemony, have grown closer in the military sphere since…
Details
Two-time Russian Olympic champion and former pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva has come under fire from both Kremlin supporters and opposition figures after it was revealed that she lives in Europe. Isinbayeva, 41, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and a one-time trustee of President Vladimir Putin, was one of the Russian athletes sanctioned…
Details
Russia’s latest missile attack on Odesa left two dead Sunday, wounded many and badly damaged a UNESCO-listed Orthodox cathedral, drawing a vow of retaliation from Ukraine’s leader. The strike on the port city, which Russia has pounded since quitting the Black Sea grain deal, came just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Belarus…
Details
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that Kyiv’s counteroffensive had “failed”, as he began two-day talks with his Belarus counterpart and closest ally Alexander Lukashenko. The longtime leaders met for the first time since Lukashenko helped end a mutiny by Russian Wagner mercenaries in Russia last month, in the biggest threat to Putin’s more than…
Details
Russia’s latest strike on Odesa on Sunday killed two people and severely damaged a historic Orthodox cathedral, drawing a vow of retaliation from Ukraine’s leader. The 18th-century Transfiguration Cathedral, the biggest Orthodox church in Odesa, lies within the UNESCO-protected historic city center. The strike on the port city, which Russia has pounded since quitting the Black Sea…
Details
The Ukrainian port city of Odesa came under renewed Russian missile attack early Sunday, just hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to hold a summit with his staunch Belarus ally Alexander Lukashenko. At the meeting in St. Petersburg, the pair plan to discuss the “strategic partnership and alliance” between their countries, according to the…
Details
Russian former world number two Vera Zvonareva has been denied entry to Poland where she was to participate in next week’s Polish Open WTA tournament, the interior ministry said on Saturday. “Vera Zvonareva was trying to enter our country with a visa granted by France, via a flight from Belgrade,” according to a statement issued…
Details
A Russian war correspondent working for the state RIA Novosti news agency, Rostislav Zhuravlev, was killed in a Ukrainian strike in the southern Zaporizhzhia region on Saturday, the military announced. The agency also reported his death, saying he was killed near the frontline village of Pytikhatki. “As a result of a strike by the Ukrainian…
Details
A Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow-annexed Crimea caused the “detonation” of an ammunition depot Saturday, the Moscow-installed leader of the peninsula said, ordering the evacuation of people living within five kilometers of the attack and halting rail traffic. The attack came five days after the only bridge linking annexed Crimea to Russia was hit, killing…
Details
There was no hidden advertising in the Soviet Union. Today viewers understand that James Bond wears a particular kind of watch and drives a certain brand of car for a commercial reason. But under socialism, there wasn’t much point in mentioning a particular brand of product in a radio program or movie: the filmmakers just…
Details
Russia said Friday that it understood the concerns African nations may have after Moscow left the Ukrainian grain deal, promising to ensure deliveries to countries in need. Those countries in need would receive the necessary assurances at a summit later this month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin told journalists. “We understand the concerns our…
Details
Russian shelling killed two children — a brother and sister — in the village of Druzhba (Friendship) in eastern Ukraine on Friday, the local governor said. “At about three o’clock in the afternoon, the Russians shelled the village with artillery — one of the shells hit the yard where the children were,” Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko…
Details
A Russian prosecutor on Friday requested an 18-year prison sentence for Ilya Sachkov, founder of one of the country’s top cybersecurity firms, on treason charges. Sachkov, 37, co-founded the Group-IB cybersecurity firm in 2003. It specializes in the detection and prevention of cyberattacks and works with Interpol and several other global institutions. “State prosecutors requested…
Details
Residents of the village of Sosva have been losing their homes to forest fires for years. In the most recent major incident in April, a wildfire destroyed 130 houses, killed two individuals and left 659 people homeless in this village in the Sverdlovsk region. When Novaya Gazeta Europe reporter Irina Kravtsova arrived in Sosva, locals…
Details
Давать на лапу: to grease someone’s palm The other day someone asked me if I’d ever written about the language of bribe-giving. I haven’t. In fact, I don’t think I ever offered a bribe, although in the days before Moscow installed about a million predatory street cameras that fine you online, гаишники (traffic cops, aka…
Details
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been ordered to spend 13 days in a solitary confinement cell until a court verdict that could see him sentenced to a further 20 years in prison, his lawyer said Friday. “Just an hour ago, Alexei Navalny was again placed in a solitary punishment cell [for] introducing himself incorrectly,”…
Details
Russian army veteran and ex-FSB officer Igor Girkin has been detained, his wife and the RBC business daily’s sources said Friday. Girkin, who helped Moscow annex Crimea in 2014 and then organized pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine, was detained by law enforcement officers around 11:30 a.m. Moscow time, his wife Miroslava Reginskaya said on his…
Details
Ukraine’s counteroffensive to recapture occupied territories is failing even with Western military support, President Vladimir Putin said Friday. “Today it’s clear that the Kyiv regime’s Western curators are disappointed with the results of the so-called counteroffensive,” Putin said at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council. “There are no results, at least not yet,” he told senior government…
Details
Russia’s Central Bank hiked interest rates on Friday for the first time in 16 months, as Moscow’s spending on its invasion of Ukraine, shortages across the labor market and a sharp fall in the value of the ruble trigger fresh concerns over inflation. The regulator raised its key rate from 7.5% to 8.5% — ahead…
Details
Russian schoolchildren will learn the basics of combat drone flying as part of military training classes starting this fall, a senior lawmaker said Friday. Basic military training, which was abolished after the Soviet collapse, will become part of the curriculum for Russian high schoolers in grades 10 and 11 as part of curriculum changes following…
Details
Russia will keep its minimum conscription age at 18 despite a promise to raise the limit as part of the military’s plans to increase troop numbers, a senior lawmaker said Friday. A bill backed by President Vladimir Putin originally envisioned an increase in age limits for compulsory military service from the current range of men…
Details
Russian oil exports to China reached an all-time record last month as Moscow’s “pivot to Asia” continues to gather steam amid its isolation from the West, the business daily Vedomosti reported Friday, citing Chinese customs data. Russia exported 10.5 million tons of crude oil to China in June, breaking the previous record of 9.71 million…
Details
Russia’s navy carried out a live fire “exercise” in the northwest Black Sea, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said Friday, days after the Kremlin said it would consider ships traveling to Ukraine through the waterway potential military targets. The Black Sea Fleet “carried out live firing of anti-ship cruise missiles at the target ship in the combat…
Details
The United States placed more than 120 companies from Russia as well as several Kyrgyzstan firms on its sanctions blacklist Thursday for what it said were their contributions to Russia’s war on Ukraine. The sanctions aimed at further choking off Russia’s access to critical raw and manufactured materials as well as financing in order to hinder its war machine,…
Details
Russian prosecutors have requested a 20-year prison sentence for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on a new string of “extremism” charges, his team reported Thursday. Navalny, 47, has been charged with creating an extremist community and an organization that infringes on the rights of citizens; financing extremism; making calls to extremism; and involving minors in dangerous acts…
Details
Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, many Russian artists have been using their craft to show their resistance to the war and the Kremlin’s ever-widening crackdown on Russian society. With his latest collection of paintings, “Acting Out,” award-winning artist Pavel Otdelnov sought to produce a “reflection on the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe caused by…
Details
Business at RTSB-RUS, a logistics company that ships cargo by rail across Russia, has boomed over the last 18 months. Amid an exodus of Western rivals and a surge in trade with China, its freight volumes jumped nearly fourfold in 2022 alone, Chief Executive Alexander Baskakov told The Moscow Times. Elevated cargo shipments are just…
Details
Moscow on Thursday announced that British diplomats working in Russia will need to notify authorities in advance about their movements around the country. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Britain’s charge d’affaires Tom Dodd to inform him of a “notification procedure for the movement of employees of British diplomatic missions on the territory of our country.”…
Details
The United Kingdom on Thursday lifted sanctions against the exiled former banking tycoon Oleg Tinkov. The decision was announced just days after British billionaire Richard Branson called on his government to lift the “unwarranted” sanctions imposed against Tinkov last year. Allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny had also previously urged London to lift sanctions…
Details