Russia

NATO Commits To Future Ukraine Membership

The Associated Press reports: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg reaffirmed the military alliance’s commitment to Ukraine on Tuesday, saying that the war-torn nation will one day become a member of the world’s largest security organization. Stoltenberg’s remarks came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his NATO counterparts gathered in Romania to drum up urgently needed support for Ukraine aimed …

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US Frustrated In Russian Talks To Free Brittney Griner

Reuters reports: The United States is still talking to Russia about a deal to free jailed Americans Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan but Moscow has not provided a “serious response” to any of its proposals, a senior U.S. diplomat said in comments published on Monday. Elizabeth Rood, the U.S. chargée d’affaires in Moscow, told Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency that …

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Pope Compares Putin’s War To Stalin’s “Genocide”

The New York Times reports: Pope Francis on Wednesday compared the war in Ukraine to the “terrible Holodomor genocide” of the 1930s, when the policies of the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, caused a devastating famine in Ukraine. The pontiff’s comparison of Moscow’s attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine to Stalin’s decision to let millions in Ukraine starve represents one of …

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Russian Parliament Bans “LGBT Propaganda” For Adults

Reuters reports: Russia’s parliament on Thursday passed the third and final reading of a law that expands an existing ban on promoting “LGBT propaganda” to children by banning it among people of all ages. Under the new law any event or act regarded as an attempt to promote homosexuality – including online, in film, books, advertising or in public – …

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Russia Floats Prisoner Swap For Brittney Griner

Reuters reports: Russia said on Friday it hoped to clinch a prisoner swap with the United States to return convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death”, in an exchange that would likely include U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner. Amid the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two, Russia and the United States are exploring …

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Brittney Griner Transferred To Russian Penal Colony

Reuters reports: U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner has been taken to a penal colony in the Russian region of Mordovia, a source familiar with the case told Reuters on Thursday. In August, Griner was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony on drugs charges following her arrest at a Moscow airport in February with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil …

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Ireland Mocks Russia’s New Travel Ban On Their Leaders

Politico Europe reports: The Kremlin has banned most, if not all, of Ireland’s leaders from visiting Russia — a punishment being met with official indifference and unofficial mockery in Dublin. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow defended Wednesday’s action as necessary to counteract what it called Ireland’s “aggressive anti-Russian propaganda campaign” and “Russophobic hysteria in Irish society.” Outside the chamber, politicians …

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Polish President: Fatal Missile Strike Was Accidental

CNN reports: Polish President Andrzej Duda said the missile that killed two people in eastern Poland on Tuesday was likely fired by Ukrainian forces defending against a wave of Russian missile strikes, and that the incident appeared to be an accident. “There is no indication that this was an intentional attack on Poland. Most likely, it was a Russian-made S-300 …

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Russian Missiles Strike Polish Territory, Killing Two

The Associated Press reports: Russia pounded Ukraine’s energy facilities Tuesday with its biggest barrage of missiles yet, striking targets across the country and causing widespread blackouts, and a U.S. official said missiles crossed into NATO member Poland, where two people were killed. Polish media reported that two people died Tuesday afternoon after a projectile struck an area where grain was …

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“Putin’s Chef” Admits Interfering In US Elections

Reuters reports: Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Monday he had interfered in U.S. elections and would continue doing so in future, the first such admission from a figure who has been formally implicated by Washington in efforts to influence American politics. In comments posted by the press service of his Concord catering firm on Russia’s Facebook equivalent VKontakte, Prigozhin …

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Russia Threatens To Destroy US Commercial Satellites

Reuters reports: A senior Russian foreign ministry official said that commercial satellites from the United States and its allies could become legitimate targets for Russia if they were involved in the war in Ukraine. Konstantin Vorontsov, deputy director of the Russian foreign ministry’s department for non-proliferation and arms control, told the United Nations that the United States and its allies …

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Mercedes-Benz To Withdraw From Russian Market

Reuters reports: Mercedes-Benz said on Wednesday it would withdraw from the Russian market and sell shares in its industrial and financial services subsidiaries to a local investor, becoming the latest carmaker to exit the country. Japan’s Nissan this month took a $687 million loss in handing over its business in Russia to a state-owned entity for one euro, mirroring an …

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Russian TV Suspends “Drown Ukrainian Children” Host

The BBC reports: Russian state broadcaster RT has suspended and condemned one of its top presenters, Anton Krasovsky, after he called for the burning and drowning of Ukrainian children. His remarks on TV provoked uproar on social media and he has now apologised. Krasovsky was responding to science fiction writer Sergei Lukyanenko, who said that in western Ukraine back in …

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Russian Court Upholds Brittney Griner’s Sentence

NBC News reports: A Russian court on Tuesday denied WNBA star Brittney Griner’s appeal and upheld her nine-year prison sentence on drug charges. Griner, 32, looked despondent as she appeared at the hearing in the Moscow Regional Court via video conference from the detention center where she has been held since her arrest in February. The athlete is now expected …

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Russian TV Host Calls For Drowning Ukrainian Children

The Daily Beast reports: Pro-war commentator Anton Krasovsky was speaking with sci-fi author Sergei Lukyanenko about the writer’s first trip to Ukraine in 1980, when local kids told him their lives would be better if Moscow wasn’t occupying their homeland. “They should have been drowned in the Tysyna [river],” Krasovsky said. “Just drown those children, drown them.” He added that …

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Russia Accused Of Plotting “Dirty Bomb” Attack

Reuters reports: Western countries accused Russia on Monday of plotting to use a threat of a bomb laced with nuclear material as a pretext for escalation in Ukraine, as Moscow evacuated civilians from a southern city in anticipation of a major battle. With Ukrainian forces advancing into Russian-occupied Kherson province, Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu phoned Western counterparts on Sunday …

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Mastriano Uses Russian Propaganda Clip In New Ad

The Insider reports: Over the summer, as its soldiers were bogged down in a war that has made their nation an international pariah, Russia’s embassy in Spain posted a video on Twitter encouraging people to move to their country, boasting that newcomers would enjoy a land of traditional values free from “cancel culture.” Doug Mastriano, a state senator and the …

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Putin Declares Martial Law In Annexed Ukraine Areas

The Moscow Times reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared martial law in four partially occupied regions of Ukraine that Moscow claims to have annexed. Kyiv’s forces have been clawing back territory in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in recent weeks as the Russian military has been plagued by setbacks. Putin said that extra security powers will be …

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Zelensky: 30% Of Our Power Stations Are Destroyed

Reuters reports: Ukraine said Russia had destroyed almost a third of its power stations over the past week as Moscow stepped up a pre-winter campaign to strike infrastructure, a move the West says is a calculated attempt to disrupt and demoralise. Missiles struck power generating facilities in a clutch of Ukrainian cities home to millions of people and several people …

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Iranian-Made “Kamikaze Drones” Rain Down On Kyiv

The BBC reports: Russia has hit Ukraine with a wave of attacks, including Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones on the capital, Kyiv. The strikes hit critical infrastructure in three regions, cutting off electricity in hundreds of villages across the country, according to Prime Minister Denys Shmygal. At least seven people have died so far – four in Sumy and three in Kyiv. …

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