Russian forces pressed further toward encircling the Ukrainian stronghold of Vuhledar in recent days, sparking worries that a key defensive outpost for Kyiv could soon fall into Russian hands. On Wednesday, British intelligence reported that Russian troops had closed in on Vuhledar from three directions, threatening to cut off the last remaining roadway out of…
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The co-chair of an independent Russian election monitoring watchdog, Grigory Melkonyants, went on trial Friday accused of cooperation with an “undesirable” organization. The trial of the co-leader of Golos, one of Russia’s most prominent rights movements, comes as Moscow has intensified its crackdown on critical voices since launching its offensive in Ukraine. Melkonyants, who denies…
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An explosion tore through a service station in Russia’s Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Friday, killing at least nine people and injuring 10 others, the emergency situations ministry said. Two children were among the dead, the ministry added on social media network Telegram. A previous ministry statement put the toll at five dead and three…
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Gazprom, once Russia’s most profitable company, has dropped out of Forbes Russia’s 2024 top 100 list, the business magazine wrote Friday. “Last year’s leader Gazprom fell off the list with a record loss of 583 billion rubles [$6.3 billion] in 2023,” Forbes Russia wrote. However, it noted that the record loss was “more on paper,”…
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The Russian judge who convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich said the trial was short because the court did not examine any “material evidence” and the verdict did not take long because he could “type quickly.” “The case itself was small. I don’t remember how many folders there were, three or five,” Judge Andrei…
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Finland will place a key NATO base less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from its eastern border with Russia, a move that Helsinki says will “send a message” to Moscow, the Finnish Defense Ministry said Friday. Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia, became a NATO member last year, dropping decades of military…
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A bill submitted to the Russian parliament has raised fears that the thousands of Russian dissidents seeking political refuge in post-Soviet and other non-Western states could soon be at risk of arrest and extradition back to Russia. The bill, recently introduced to the lower-house State Duma by the ruling United Russia party, would allow prosecutors…
DetailsThe Inner Containment is one of the key elements that ensures the nuclear and environmental safety of the facility Dr. Amged El Wakeel, Board Chairman of the Nuclear Power Plants Authority, announced on 26 September 2024 the Nuclear Power Plants Authority witnessed the installation of the first tier of the Inner Containment of the reactor…
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High school students in Russia’s Far East were shown a graphic video of a medical abortion video during an unannounced lecture, the Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti reported Friday. “Many felt sick while watching,” the outlet wrote, citing students from school No. 7 in the Sakhalin region town of Okha, around 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles)…
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Russian law enforcement authorities arrested the manager of a Russian defense contractor, accusing him of defrauding the military by supplying substandard equipment, Russia’s Investigative Committee said Friday. Vladislav Pylsky, who manages a subsidiary of the Siberian Navigation Company, allegedly provided the military with goods that “did not meet technical requirements,” costing the armed forces 164 million rubles ($1.76…
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Russian prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Alexander Permyakov, who is accused of trying to assassinate pro-war nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, the independent news website Mediazona reported Friday. Permyakov was arrested last May after a car bomb wounded Prilepin and killed his security guard in the Nizhny Novgorod region. According to his lawyer, Permyakov…
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U.S. intelligence officials believe Russia could retaliate with lethal force if the Biden administration allows Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike deep within Russian territory, The New York Times reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. The warning comes as President Vladimir Putin this week announced plans to revise Russia’s nuclear weapons…
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A Moscow court has begun hearings into a 72-year-old American man accused of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, state media reported Friday. The state news agency RIA Novosti identified the man as Stefan Hubbard, though another possible spelling of his name could be Stephen Hubbard. In May, a Facebook user named Trisha Hubbard Fox…
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Russian authorities may soon block the popular messaging platform Discord, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. Discord, which allows users to communicate in virtual communities known as “servers,” is widely used by gamers, students and cryptocurrency traders. It reportedly has between 29 and 40 million active users in Russia.…
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Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) pressed criminal charges against two Australian journalists and one Romanian journalist for illegally crossing the border into the southwestern Kursk region while on reporting assignments, state media reported Friday. Authorities in Russia have so far charged 12 foreign journalists over their work in the Kursk region following a surprise incursion…
DetailsSeptember 26, 2024 – Büyükeceli, Mersin, Türkiye. ROSATOM management delegation headed by Director General Alexey Likhachev visited Akkuyu nuclear power plant construction site in Türkiye. Likhachev held a meeting with the project management and examined the progress at the main facilities of the first start-up complex. ROSATOM’s executives were accompanied at the site by Anton…
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Alexei Soldatov, a pioneering figure of the Russian internet and former deputy minister, is “dying in prison” while serving a two-year sentence for “abuse of power,” his son, investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov, said in a social media post on Thursday. Known as the father of the Russian internet, Alexei Soldatov led the Relcom computer network…
DetailsOn September 26, 2024, on the sidelines of the international forum Russian Energy Week, ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev met with Nenad Popović, Minister in charge of International Economic Cooperation in the Serbian Government. Alexey Likhachev and Nenad Popović discussed the prospects for cooperation with Serbia in non-power nuclear applications, as well as national personnel…
DetailsOn September 26, 2024, on the sidelines of the Russian Energy Week, ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev held negotiations with Alexey Kushnarenko, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Belarus. Alexey Likhachev has emphasized that ROSATOM attaches great importance to developing cooperation with the Republic of Belarus. The dialogue partners discussed existing and promising bilateral…
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An American rejected his U.S. citizenship in a Moscow court on Thursday, saying he was the victim of political persecution in the United States, Russian state news agencies reported. Joseph Tater was in court after being accused of assaulting a police officer after abusing staff at a hotel in the Russian capital last month. In…
DetailsOn September 26, on the sidelines of the international forum Russian Energy Week 2024, ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev met with Nyan Tun, Union Minister for Electric Power, Republic of the Union of Myanmar. The parties commended the progress made in implementing the project for building a small nuclear power plant (SNPP) in the Republic…
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Google has restricted the creation of new accounts inside Russia, state media reported Thursday, citing Russia’s Digital Communications Ministry. Authorities said that Telecom operators reported a “significant decrease in the number of SMS messages sent by” Google to users in Russia, referring to messages the tech company uses to verify new account creation. While two-factor authentication…
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The Kremlin said Thursday that an updated nuclear doctrine allowing Moscow to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states should be seen as a warning to the West. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced plans to broaden Russia’s rules on the use of its nuclear stockpiles, allowing it to unleash a nuclear response in the…
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Russia’s army said Thursday it had captured the Ukrainian town of Ukrainsk in the eastern Donetsk region, the latest in a series of territorial gains for Moscow’s advancing forces. In a daily briefing posted on Telegram, the Russian Defense Ministry said its troops “liberated” Ukrainsk, a town that once had more than 10,000 residents before…
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School buses in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region will soon be outfitted with “electronic warfare systems” designed to counter drone attacks, the region’s governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Thursday. These electronic warfare systems work by disrupting radio frequencies, effectively jamming communication, targeting systems and radars used by drones. The Belgorod region received 55 of the systems, according…
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Beer sales in Russia have seen significant growth since the start of the year, outpacing other fast-moving consumer goods, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday, citing market data. According to NielsenIQ, a global marketing research firm, beer sales in Russia rose 8.7% year-on-year between January and July, a stark contrast to the modest 1.6% growth…
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Authorities in Moscow returned nine Ukrainian children with the help of Qatari mediators, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, announced Thursday. Lvova-Belova posted photos on Telegram showing her alongside Qatari Ambassador Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, speaking to the children at the Qatari Embassy in Moscow. “There are eight boys, ages 12 to…
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Russia has convicted 785 foreign nationals for fighting on the side of Ukraine since hostilities between the two countries first broke out in 2014, Russia’s Investigative Committee said Thursday. Investigators disclosed the figure while announcing criminal charges against Georgian citizen Giorgi Goglidze, accusing him of fighting for Kyiv “for monetary compensation.” In November 2023, Russia’s…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced plans to broaden Russia’s rules on the use of its nuclear weaponry, allowing it to unleash a nuclear response in the event of a “massive” air attack. Under the proposed rules, Russia would also consider any attack by a non-nuclear country supported by a nuclear power as a…
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Russia’s parliament Wednesday voted to back a bill banning the adoption of Russian children in countries that allow gender reassignment, the latest in a series of ultra-conservative social measures. Moscow has long portrayed itself as a bulwark against liberal values, but that trend has hugely accelerated since the Kremlin launched its war in Ukraine, further…
DetailsOn 25 September, Nikolay Spasskiy, Deputy Director General – Director of the International Cooperation Unit of ROSATOM, met with a delegation from Mali led by Alusseni Sanou, Minister of Economy and Finance. From the Malian side, the Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Bintou Camara, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Madina Sissoko Dembele, and…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday he expected his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to attend a BRICS summit in Russia next month, after Turkey requested to join the group of emerging economies. Putin said he was due to meet Erdogan on Oct. 23, a day after the start of the summit in the Russian…
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President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia on Wednesday of plotting potentially catastrophic attacks on Ukrainian nuclear plants, in a defiant UN address in which he denounced bids to impose peace from the outside. Zelensky sought to rally support among world leaders at their annual gathering in New York as his concerns grow, weeks before a U.S.…
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Russian screen and theater actor Roman Madyanov, known for his roles as a military officer in the TV show “Soldaty” and as a corrupt official in the critically acclaimed 2014 drama “Leviathan,” passed away at the age of 62, media reported Wednesday. “You’re loved by the entire nation,” Madyanov’s friend and state television host Yekaterina Strizhenova wrote on…
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A Russian non-profit organization focused on church restoration is set to launch a faith-based messaging app dubbed “Orthodox WhatsApp” this November, state media reported Tuesday. The app, officially called “Zosima,” will allow users to communicate directly with their local churches and clergy, as well as to make donations, according to a statement by the Innotekh…
DetailsACRA Rating Agency confirmed the rating of ROSATOM in the area of sustainable development (the ESG rating) at the level of ESG-2 (corresponding to “a very high grade”). The grade remains unchanged as compared with the results of 2023. Six main divisions took part in formation of the final ESG rating: Ore Mining, Power Engineering,…
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Vladislav Bakalchuk, the estranged husband of Wildberries CEO Tatyana Kim, credited Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov with helping him stay alive and out of jail amid a family dispute over a controversial business merger that escalated into a shootout at the company’s headquarters last week. Bakalchuk made those comments in an interview just days before he led…
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Russia’s armed forces said Wednesday it captured two more villages in eastern Ukraine, the latest gains as Moscow’s troops inch closer to the strategically important city of Pokrovsk. The Russian military has claimed a series of territorial gains in the area since the start of the year, pressing on even as Kyiv mounts its own…
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The imprisoned mother of a prominent critic of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has seen a dramatic deterioration of her health in recent weeks, her lawyer said Wednesday. Zarema Musaeva, the mother of activist Abubakar Yangulbaev and the wife of a retired federal judge, was initially sentenced last summer to five and a half years in…
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The Kremlin said Wednesday that “forcing” Russia into peace would be a “fatal mistake,” rejecting remarks made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations. Zelensky said Tuesday that Russia could only be forced into peace, and vowed not to negotiate on Moscow’s terms to end the conflict. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters…
DetailsA meeting between Alexey Likhachev, Director General of ROSATOM, and Huynh Thanh Dat, Minister of Science and Technology of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, was held on September, 24. The parties discussed the progress of works within the main project of the Russian and Vietnamese cooperation in the nuclear area – construction of the…
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Moscow has been secretly negotiating the delivery of anti-ship cruise missiles to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militias, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing anonymous Western and regional sources. “Russia is negotiating with the Houthis for the transfer of [P-800] Yakhont supersonic anti-ship missiles,” a Western intelligence told Reuters. The talks are reportedly brokered by Iran, though Tehran seeks to…
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Valentina Matviyenko was re-elected Wednesday for her fourth term as speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council. Matviyenko, 75, is third in line for the presidency, following the prime minister, in the event of Vladimir Putin’s death. “We all work on the president’s team,” Matviyenko said during the opening of the 178-member…
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Lawmakers in Russia’s Far East Primorye region on Wednesday passed a law outlawing the act of “coercing” women into having an abortion, a move that comes as federal lawmakers debate a bill to ban the so-called “childfree movement.” The new law defines “coercion” into abortion as actions such as persuasion, bribery, deceit, blackmail or workplace pressure…
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that Russia can only be forced into peace, as he denounced Iran and North Korea as “accomplices” in the war. Addressing a special UN Security Council session attended by a representative of Russia, Zelensky described Moscow as insincere in its calls for dialogue. “We know some in the world…
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The Kremlin is attempting to create the illusion that Russian men who fight in Ukraine will enjoy greater career prospects — including the possibility of future government roles — as it grapples with a shortage of military volunteers and seeks to quell criticism from Ukraine war veterans. Russian media reported Monday that several veterans of…
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Russian strikes on a residential quarter of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv killed three civilians and wounded more than 30 on Tuesday afternoon, Ukrainian officials said. Kharkiv lies around 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Russian border and has been pounded by Russian aerial attacks throughout the two-and-a-half-year war. “The targets of the Russian bombs…
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A Russian warship taking part in naval drills fired a warning shot at a Norwegian fishing boat in the Arctic Ocean earlier this month, the boat’s captain told local media on Monday. The confrontation occurred on Sept. 12 in the Barents Sea between the anti-submarine destroyer Admiral Levchenko — one of Russia’s largest warships — and…
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A park dedicated to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine was torn down in order to make way for the construction of a new business center, the regional news outlet Govorit Moskva reported Tuesday. The “Homecoming Alley,” unveiled in the Bashkortostan capital of Ufa in September 2022, featured 130 tree saplings planted by soldiers’ relatives, local…
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JPMorgan and HSBC unknowingly processed payments for companies controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary group, according to a new report by the U.S.-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS). According to the center, Wagner was able to establish an early foothold in Africa during the mid-2010s thanks to access it had to an international “network of financial services and…
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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will hold talks with Vladimir Putin during a visit to Russia next month to attend the BRICS summit, an Iranian government spokeswoman said Tuesday. The visit to the BRICS summit in the Tatarstan capital of Kazan from Oct. 22 to 24 will be Pezeshkian’s first to Russia since he took office…
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Russian lawmakers adopted a bill Tuesday allowing criminal defendants to serve in the military, closing a loophole that previously limited enlistment to suspects and convicts. The lower-house State Duma said its deputies voted in favor of two bills that, if signed into law, will allow defendants to sign military contracts or be mobilized. “Criminal proceedings against such persons will be…
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Several men accused of being involved in last week’s shootout at the headquarters of online retailer Wildberries are seeking to join the Russian military and fight in Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter. Two security guards were killed and several others injured during the Sep. 18 shooting outside the…
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Three Russian men were detained in the African nation of Chad, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said late Monday, confirming earlier reports. The ministry identified the detained Russians as Maxim Shugaley, Samer Sueifan and E. Tsaryov, saying it was in “close contact” with authorities in Chad and taking the “necessary steps in the interests of their swift…
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The Kremlin said Monday that it was “extremely” concerned over relentless Israeli airstrikes that have killed over 500 people and wounded around 1,800 others, as the Russian Embassy in Lebanon urged citizens to leave the country. “This development is potentially extremely dangerous,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, warning of the “widening area of conflict…
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Russia plans to boost defense spending to 13.2 trillion rubles ($142 billion) in 2025 from 10.4 trillion rubles projected for this year, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing draft budget proposals it had seen. That increase would represent 6.2% of Russia’s projected GDP, a historically high figure as the war in Ukraine shows little sign of ending…
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Two teenagers in western Siberia’s Omsk region were arrested and charged with terrorism for setting fire to a helicopter, the regional court’s press service announced Tuesday. Baza, a Telegram news channel with reported links to Russia’s security services, published a video Monday in which one of the teenagers admits to breaking into the helipad and…
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Russia on Monday sentenced an American man to six years in prison on charges of trying to take his son, a Russian citizen, out of the country illegally, officials said. Moscow has jailed several American citizens in recent years in cases ranging from allegations of espionage and attacking police officers to theft and family disputes.…
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Jails controlled by Russia are deliberately withholding medical care for Ukrainian prisoners, with doctors in one prison even taking part in what it called “torture,” a commission mandated by the UN rights council said. The commission, set up by the Human Rights Council to investigate violations in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, had already concluded that…
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Russian troops edged closer to encircling Kyiv’s stronghold of Vuhledar in the eastern Donetsk region on Monday, according to the Ukrainian crowd-sourced tracking site DeepState. The advance is a part of Moscow’s wide-reaching offensive in eastern Ukraine that rapidly accelerated last month despite Ukraine’s surprise incursion into western Russia’s Kursk region. “The situation is difficult,”…
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