Russia

Ars Technica reports: For 2022, the state budget for space activities will be set at 210 billion rubles ($2.9 billion), a cut of 40.3 billion rubles ($557 million) from the previous year. Similar cuts will follow in subsequent years. The most significant decreases will be in areas such as “manufacturing-technological activities” and “cosmodrome development.” Funding for “scientific research and development” …

Axios reports: NATO has removed eight “undeclared Russian intelligence officers” and reduced the number of accredited members allowed to work for the Russian mission from 20 to 10, a NATO official confirmed to Axios. Why it matters: It’s the first time NATO has expelled Russians claiming to be diplomats since 2018, after Russian military intelligence officers were accused of poisoning …

The Moscow Times reports: Russia’s LGBT, radical feminist and child-free groups should be recognized as “extremist,” the chairman of an influential government commission said Wednesday. “LGBT ideology, radical feminism and child-free movements should be recognized as extremism — an extremist ideology,” the state-run TASS news agency cited Andrei Tsyganov, chairman of a commission for the protection of children at the …

Reuters reports: Russia has threatened to ban YouTube and block German news media websites after the American site removed two online channels run by RT, the Kremlin-funded television station. YouTube said that it had deleted RT’s German-language channels, RT DE and Der Fehlende Part, for repeated breaches of its policies on spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. The decision provoked a …

CBS News reports: A gunman opened fire on a Russian university campus on Monday killing at least six people, investigators said, in the country’s second mass shooting this year to target students. Videos circulating on social media showed people throwing belongings from windows of university buildings in the central city of Perm before jumping to flee the shooter. State media …

Politico Europe reports: Boris Vishnevsky has been in politics for some 30 years. In that time, he thinks he’s participated in at least that many electoral campaigns. So when Vishnevsky — a central opposition figure in St. Petersburg fighting pro-Kremlin candidates — started campaigning for this year’s legislative elections, he wasn’t expecting any surprises. Then he saw a voting poster …

The Moscow Times reports: Dozens of people in Vladimir Putin’s entourage have tested positive for the coronavirus, the Russian leader said Thursday, as his country struggles with high infection rates and a vaccine-skeptic population. Earlier this week, 68-year-old Putin canceled all in-person events and said he was self-isolating after announcing an outbreak in the Kremlin. “Cases of the coronavirus were …

The Associated Press reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin entered self-isolation after people in his inner circle became infected with the coronavirus, the Kremlin said Tuesday, adding that the leader himself tested negative for COVID-19. Putin, who is fully vaccinated with Russia’s Sputnik V, held several public engagements indoors Monday and even said that he may have to quarantine soon. An …

The BBC reports: A major operation to influence public opinion saw comments posted on Western media articles in support of Russian interests, according to new research. Cardiff University’s Crime and Security Research Institute found 32 prominent media websites across 16 countries were targeted including Mail Online, the Express and the Times. The comments were fed back into Russian-language media outlets …

The Guardian reports: Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents. The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, …

The Washington Post reports: President Biden told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that the United States will take “any necessary action” after the latest massive ransomware attack, the White House said. Biden has been under pressure to counter and blunt the impact of the costly, increasingly brazen assaults by what the United States says are Russia-based hackers. The president …

Axios reports: “Oh f—, how did we miss this?” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asked, looking around at the somber faces of his top executives, the N.Y. Times’ Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang write in their book, “An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination,” out Tuesday. In an excerpt provided first to Axios, the authors write that the executives met …

Bloomberg News reports: Russian government hackers breached the computer systems of the Republican National Committee last week, around the time a Russia-linked criminal group unleashed a massive ransomware attack, according to two people familiar with the matter. The government hackers were part of a group known as APT 29 or Cozy Bear, according to the people. That group has been …

The Moscow Times reports: Russian organic grocer VkusVill has pulled its promotional material featuring an LGBT family and replaced it with an apology less than a week after posting it. Social media users reportedly swarmed VkusVill’s and the same-sex family’s accounts with death threats after their story ran Wednesday as part of a series spotlighting the retail chain’s regular customers. …

The Moscow Times reports: Russia on Saturday reported 697 Covid-19 deaths in the previous 24 hours, the fifth straight day the country has set a new record as it battles the surging Delta variant. It also recorded 24,439 new coronavirus infections, the highest figure since the middle of January when Russia was emerging from its second wave of the pandemic. …

The Daily Beast reports: Star Trek star William Shatner has taken to Twitter to trade blows with journalists who called him out for hosting a new show on the Kremlin’s notorious state-funded network, RT. Earlier this week, the 90-year-old Canadian actor—known for taking on the legendary role Captain James Kirk in the Star Trek saga—announced he would be hosting a …

From the Russian state media outlet RT: RT America is proud to announce the premiere of I Don’t Understand, hosted by world-famous actor and author William Shatner. I Don’t Understand will see Shatner seeking to answer fascinating and timely questions that pique the natural interest of everyone, but that the establishment media all too often hesitates to tackle. From “should …

Reuters reports: The Kremlin on Friday blamed a surge in COVID-19 cases on reluctance to have vaccinations and “nihilism” after a record 9,056 new infections in Moscow, mostly with the new Delta variant, fanned fears of a third wave. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin extended restrictions he had imposed this month, which include a ban on events with more than 1,000 …

NBC News reports: Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that President Joe Biden has to clean up the “disaster” that former President Donald Trump created by emboldening Russian President Vladimir Putin. Clinton, a former secretary of state, said Biden will make clear that Russia will face consequences if there are further cyberattacks against the United States, arguing that Trump left Putin unchecked …

Mediaite reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday cited Ashli Babbitt’s death to deflect from a question about his treatment of political opponents. “On the question of who is murdering whom, people rioted and went into the Congress in the United States with political demands,” Putin replied, invoking the mob that entered the Capitol on Jan. 6. “Many people were …