Russia has added exiled actor Artur Smolyaninov and former Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksii Arestovych to its list of “terrorists and extremists,” the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday. Russia’s Investigative Committee opened a criminal case in January against war movie star Smolyaninov, 39, for his support of Ukraine and criticism of the war. At the time,…
Details
Armenia and Azerbaijan on Thursday blamed each other for an exchange of fire along their restive border, which killed one person and wounded four days ahead of EU-hosted peace talks. The Caucasus neighbors have been locked in a decades-long territorial dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, which has reignited in recent months. Russia urged…
Details
Russian authorities will launch construction of a village outside Moscow for conservative-minded Americans and Canadians next year, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday. Russia has for years positioned itself as a bastion of “traditional” values in contrast with Western liberalism as its relations with the West have deteriorated over its 2014 annexation of Crimea…
Details
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Thursday that he has been returned to solitary confinement for the 15th time since he was imprisoned in 2021. “Yesterday at 8 in the evening I was released from solitary confinement. Today at 9:30 in the morning I’m back in solitary,” read a tweet shared by Navalny’s team. According…
Details
A Russian court has sentenced a former teacher to five and a half years in prison for referring to last fall’s Crimean Bridge explosion as President Vladimir Putin’s “birthday gift” online, independent media reported Thursday. Nikita Tushkanov, 28, was accused of “approving of” the blasts, which badly damaged the bridge linking mainland Russia to annexed Crimea,…
Details
A Moscow confectioner fined for making cakes decorated with anti-war slogans told The Moscow Times that she plans to keep opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine despite harassment from pro-war figures and the risk of jail. Anastasia Chernysheva was ordered to pay 35,000 rubles ($446) last month on charges of “discrediting” the military over cakes with…
Details
Russia is waging a “very difficult” military campaign in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a rare concession of the Russian military’s underwhelming performance over a year into its war on Kyiv. “It’s a very, very difficult operation and of course certain goals have been achieved in a year,” Peskov told the Bosnian Serb broadcaster ATV…
Details
Russia’s budget deficit has surpassed the government’s entire 2023 target in the first four months of the year as wartime spending and falling energy revenues continued to cut into the state budget. The federal budget deficit rose to 3.42 trillion rubles ($45 billion) in January-April 2023, according to the Finance Ministry figures published Wednesday. Revenues fell…
Details
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Wednesday calling up military reservists for annual training as legal experts say those who turn up could face pressure to sign contracts to be sent to fight in Ukraine. Such trainings are a routine event in which reservists undergo two-month combat readiness drills in the Armed Forces, National…
Details
The United States has for the first time transferred millions seized from a Russian oligarch to a fund for rebuilding Ukraine, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. Some $5.4 million seized from Russian tycoon Konstantin Malofeyev was handed over to the State Department to be used to “remediate the harms of Russia’s unjust war,” Attorney General…
Details
A senior Ukrainian military official said Wednesday that Russian forces had dropped back from some areas near Bakhmut after limited counterattacks by Kyiv’s forces in the longest-running battle of Moscow’s invasion. Commander of Ukrainian ground forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said Russian troops had fallen back in some regions of the front in the eastern Donetsk region…
Details
Russia said on Wednesday that a roadmap to normalize ties between Syria and Turkey will be drafted following a meeting of their foreign ministers in Moscow. Earlier Wednesday the foreign ministers of Turkey and Syria held their first official meeting since the start of the Syrian civil war more than a decade ago. The talks in…
Details
Type “Is Russia fascist?” into a search engine and you will find no shortage of op-eds and articles seeking to enlighten you. RFE/RL, Al Jazeera, Politico, and The New York Times are just some of the major outlets that have published articles weighing up divided expert opinion on the issue. The title of “Z Generation:…
Details
Poland will stop using the official name for Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave and revert to its historic equivalent, the government in Warsaw said Wednesday, drawing Moscow’s ire. Citing a recommendation by a state commission tasked with standardizing foreign names in the Polish language, Poland’s development minister Waldemar Buda said Kaliningrad would now officially be called Konigsberg (“Krolewiec”…
Details
Russia has seized four tugboats belonging to a subsidiary of Danish shipping giant Maersk in Russia’s Far East, according to the group, which ceased operations in the country after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “On April 25 we were informed a local court has ordered the tugboats cannot leave Russia and also transferred custody of the…
Details
A total of 7.4 billion Swiss francs ($8.3 billion) of reserves and assets of the Russian Central Bank are being held in Switzerland, the Swiss economic affairs ministry said Wednesday. Transactions related to the management of Russia’s Central Bank assets and reserves have been prohibited since a month after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in…
Details
President Vladimir Putin has lifted a flight ban and visa regime with Georgia, against which Russia fought a brief war in 2008, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. According to a decree released on Wednesday, Putin has introduced a 90-day visa-free regime for Georgian citizens from May 15. Another decree resumed air travel between Russia and Georgia.…
Details
The two military veterans seated next to President Vladimir Putin at Tuesday’s Victory Day parade on Red Square did not fight in World War II, the Agentsvo investigative outlet reported. Putin is traditionally flanked by World War II veterans on Victory Day, which celebrates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 with a…
Details
AFP’s Ukraine video coordinator Arman Soldin was killed on Tuesday by rocket fire near Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine, AFP journalists who witnessed the incident said. The attack happened at around 4:30 p.m. (13:30 GMT) on the outskirts of the town close to Bakhmut, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine for several months.…
Details
Support for Yevgenia (Zhenya) Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk has flooded Russian media abroad and social media inside and outside Russia. The director and author of the play “Finist the Brave Falcon” were taken into custody on May 5 for two months of pre-trial detention under the charge of “justifying terrorism.” The charge is punishable by…
Details
KURSK, Russia — The main World War II memorial complex in this western Russian city was fenced off and guarded by dozens of police officers on Tuesday morning as celebrations marking the 78th anniversary of the Soviet defeat over Nazi Germany got underway. Visitors who came to lay flowers were carefully checked with metal detectors. …
Details
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said peace negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine were “not possible at this moment,” in an interview published by Spanish daily El Pais on Tuesday. His statement came as the leaders of Russia and Ukraine both called for victory during events commemorating the end of World War II. “It is…
Details
Russia’s ambassador to Poland was blocked by activists from laying flowers at a Soviet memorial in Warsaw on Tuesday, the day Russia celebrates Victory Day over Nazi Germany in World War II. Several dozen activists also unveiled an art installation at the entrance to the memorial, comprising hundreds of Ukrainian flags and crosses for Ukrainians…
Details
Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said Tuesday that he had received a letter from Russia’s Defense Ministry threatening to charge his mercenary outfit with treason if they withdrew from Bakhmut, for months the focal point of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In a video published on the messaging app Telegram as Russia kicked off Victory Day…
Details
Updated with details of military parade in Moscow and recast throughout. Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a combative speech Tuesday attacking the West and claiming that Russia’s future depended on the outcome of the war in Ukraine as he attended a slimmed-down military parade on Red Square to mark Victory Day. “Civilization again finds itself…
Details
Ukraine was hit by a barrage of Russian missiles for the second night in a row Monday and early Tuesday, just hours before Moscow’s planned May 9 celebration of the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in the Second World War. Russia fired 25 missiles between late Monday night and early Tuesday morning, according to the…
Details
Updates with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko’s arrival in Moscow on Monday evening. The leaders of six former Soviet republics are now expected to attend Russia’s annual Victory Day parade in Moscow on Tuesday, after Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko arrived unannounced in Moscow on Monday evening for what his press service said would be a “working visit.”…
Details
Russia will “develop” its military installations in Central Asian ally Kyrgyzstan, the Kremlin said Monday, following talks between the two countries’ leaders in Moscow. “The heads of state emphasized the importance of strengthening the Kyrgyz Republic’s armed forces and developing Russian military facilities on its territory,” the Kremlin said in a statement. Kyrgyzstan, a majority-Muslim…
Details
Updated with leaders of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan planning to attend Russia’s Victory Day celebrations. Russia is due to hold drastically scaled-back Victory Day celebrations Tuesday amid heightened security concerns following last week’s drone attack on the Kremlin and an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive. The 78th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of…
Details
The suspect in the car blast that wounded pro-Kremlin nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin and killed another person has been indicted on charges of terrorism and arms smuggling, Russia’s top investigative body said Monday. Alexander Permyakov faces up to 20 years in prison on charges of terrorism and 15 years for arms smuggling, Russia’s Investigative Committee, which…
Details
President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Monday that Russian forces would be defeated in Ukraine just as Nazi Germany was beaten in 1945, during an address commemorating the end of World War II. His speech recorded at a war memorial in Kyiv comes one day ahead of Victory Day in Moscow, a Soviet war anniversary to be…
Details
Several people have been killed, more than 300 homes destroyed and states of emergency declared in two Russian regions as forest fires raged across western Siberia, news agencies reported Monday. The governors of the Tyumen and Kurgan regions issued back-to-back emergency declarations Sunday as residents were evacuated and efforts to contain the fast-moving flames proved unsuccessful. Siberia’s…
Details
At least five civilians were injured in Russian drone strikes on Kyiv early Monday, according to authorities in the Ukrainian capital. Kyiv’s military administration reported that fallen debris had likely hit a two-story building, roads and vehicles. The administration said it was the fourth air attack on Ukraine’s capital in the first eight days of…
Details
The leader of Russia’s paramilitary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that he had received “a promise” of more ammunition from the Russian army on Sunday, following his unprecedented public threat to pull his forces from the embattled Ukrainian town of Bakhmut due to a lack of ammunition. “They promised to give us all the ammunition…
Details
In 1993 Natasha Lance, a television producer with excellent Russian who had made documentaries in the Soviet Union and the newly formed Russian Federation, was hired to be the executive producer of a Russian Sesame Street. This was not as crazy as it perhaps sounds today: the Children’s Television Workshop behind Sesame Street were working…
Details
Investigators said Ukraine was behind a car explosion on Saturday that killed one person and wounded pro-Kremlin writer Zakhar Prilepin, one of Russia’s best-known novelists. Investigators said they were “probing Alexander Permyakov’s involvement in the assassination attempt on Zakhar Prilepin”. “During the interrogation [the suspect] testified that he acted on the instructions from the Ukrainian…
Details
Dan Andreevich, a Russian who grew up in Italy, bicycled 5,000 km from Italy to the Russian-Estonian border to spread the message that not all Russians support Russia’s war against Ukraine. But by the end of his trip, the 18-year-old Andreevich no longer called himself Russian. “I have Russian blood — but I don’t have…
Details
A prominent pro-Kremlin writer and Russian nationalist was injured Saturday in a car “explosion” and one other person was killed, the interior ministry said, after a string of recent drone attacks in Russia amid the fighting in Ukraine. “According to initial reports, one person was killed by the explosion, and the writer Zakhar Prilepin, who…
Details
Borodinsky has been one of the most popular types of bread in Russia for many decades. When foreigners visit they are given a taste of Borodinsky to show them what Russian cuisine is all about. And when Russians go abroad they bring loaves for their friends who long for the flavors they left behind in…
Details
Preparations in Moscow for the Victory Day holiday on May 9 are already underway, with decorations, public memorials and a children’s Immortal Regiment event all taking place. One of the country’s most significant holidays, Victory Day has been a central part of the Kremlin’s efforts to rally patriotism by invoking the Soviet Union’s World War…
Details
The border authority in Belarus has begun setting up temporary checkpoints at its land borders with Russia to screen arrivals from its neighbor, the independent news outlet Zerkalo reported Friday, citing official sources. Readers told Zerkalo that work on installing the checkpoints began Thursday evening, with guards putting up barriers, barricade tape, and spikes on the…
Details
Russia on Friday ordered the evacuation of families with children and of the elderly from Russian-held frontline areas in southern Ukraine because of an increase in shelling from the Ukrainian side. “In the past few days, the enemy has stepped up shelling of settlements close to the front line,” the Russian-installed head of the Zaporizhzhia region,…
Details
Russia on Friday announced the full restoration of rail traffic on the controversial Crimean Bridge, which had been closed and under repair since it was badly damaged in an explosion in October. “We managed to finish this work in just seven months. During normal times, it would certainly take over a year, and maybe even…
Details
Задубеть: to be frozen stiff In the part of the world where I’m now living, oaks are protected. They have little green oak leaf badges on their trunks to remind everyone that they may not be cut down or harmed in any way. And so there are some truly mighty oaks around, including one that…
Details
Russian authorities have ramped up their GPS suppression measures following a slew of drone attacks in recent weeks. Since April, “strong” interference has been observed in at least 15 regions across Russia, according to data from gpsjam.org, which tracks satellite communication based on radio messages from civilian aircraft. Interference is considered “strong” if more than…
Details
A Russian military court has sentenced a former soldier from a western region bordering Ukraine to 13 years in prison on treason charges, the state-run TASS news agency reported Friday. According to Interfax, Artyom Semyonov was detained on March 30, 2022, on accusations of treason that the news agency noted was committed before Russia invaded Ukraine one…
Details
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said the alleged drone attack on the Kremlin could not have happened without Washington’s awareness and warned Russia would respond with “concrete actions.” “It’s clear that without the knowledge of their minders, the terrorists from Kyiv could not have carried out (the attack),” Lavrov said during a visit to India, referring…
Details
Russian tech giant VK is developing its own dating service that could launch this summer following Tinder’s planned exit from Russia, the Vedomosti business daily reported Friday, citing two unnamed sources close to VK and a third source close to the dating app. Experts estimate the development and promotion of VK’s dating app — based on…
DetailsRio de Janeiro, 4 May. – ROSATOM takes part in the Nuclear Trade and Technology Exchange international conference (NT2E) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 3–5. Kirill Komarov, First Deputy Director General for Development and International Business, took part at the conference as the head of the ROSATOM delegation and spoke on “The…
Details
The arrival of more than 100,000 Ukrainians in southern Russia following Kyiv’s recapture of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson has driven up housing prices and sparked tensions with local residents, independent media reported Thursday. Russia’s military estimates it had evacuated 115,000 residents of Kherson — nearly half of the city’s pre-war population — before…
Details
Updated to add Prigozhin’s withdrawal announcement. Russia’s Wagner mercenary group will exit eastern Ukraine’s Bakhmut next week after suffering losses due to critical ammunition shortages, the private military contractor’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin announced Friday. Wagner fighters, many of whom are convicts recruited from Russian prisons, have been at the forefront of Russia’s efforts to capture…
Details
As the fallout from Wednesday morning’s apparent drone strike on the Kremlin continued to dominate the Russian news cycle, the deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee made an unusual call for a “squadron of eagle interceptors” to be created to help defend Moscow from future drone strikes. “We need to think about protecting…
Details
Russian forces in Ukraine are so degraded they cannot mount any significant offensive moves and are focused for now on consolidating control of occupied territory, the U.S. intelligence chief said Thursday. As Ukraine prepares for its own offensive in the coming months, Russian President Vladimir Putin still likely aims to prolong the conflict until Western…
Details
The U.S. ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy visited former U.S. marine Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russia on spy charges for over four years, on Thursday. Permission to pay a visit to Whelan in Mordovia, a southeastern Russian region, comes just over two weeks after Tracy was given access to U.S. journalist Evan…
Details
Moscow claimed Wednesday that Ukraine attempted to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin in an early morning drone attack on the Kremlin. Dramatic video published online showed at least one drone bursting into flames as it flew into a flagpole on top of the Kremlin’s Senate House, where Putin’s office and apartment are located. Photos taken…
Details
At least two high-profile Russian officials have called on the Kremlin to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine in retaliation for an alleged drone strike on Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin residence and as the prospect of an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive looms. State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin on Wednesday called the attempted strike a “terrorist attack” while claiming…
Details
Ukraine on Thursday said it arrested the mayor of the Black Sea port of Odesa in a major corruption case dating from before the invasion. Kyiv has struggled to rid itself of corruption, one of the declared aims of the 2014 Maidan revolution, with authorities for years vowing to stamp it out in efforts to…
Details
Authorities in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar raided the office of prominent human rights NGO The Crew Against Torture (CAT) on Thursday. The raid by the Russian Interior Ministry’s counter-extremism unit was, according to the NGO’s own Telegram channel, carried out in connection to CAT’s work in the North Caucasus republic of North Ossetia-Alania where…
Details
Updates with Berkovich being remanded in custody. A Moscow court ordered the director of an award-winning play about Russian Islamic State brides to be remanded in custody for two months on Friday, a day after she was arrested for allegedly “justifying terrorism,” Interfax reported. Lawyers representing Yevgeniya (Zhenya) Berkovich had requested the court place their client…
Details
Updates with Berkovich’s arrest. Russian authorities have opened a criminal “justifying terrorism” case over theatre director Yevgeniya (Zhenya) Berkovich’s award-winning play about Russian Islamic State brides, her mother said Thursday. Berkovich’s mother, activist Yelena Efros, said the case was opened in connection with the play, “Tiercel the Brave Falcon,” which tells the stories of real…
Details