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☆ Meet the woman who engineered Russia's wartime economy and helped secure another term for Putin
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Russian central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina has played a key role in stabilizing Russia's sanctions-hit economy. It's also aimed at the woman behind him: Elvira Nabiullina, the country's central bank governor, who plays a chief role in keeping Russia's wartime economy ticking. At the time, she was the first woman to lead a Group of Eight, or G8, central bank. In 2015, Euromoney, a finance trade publication, named Nabiullina Central Bank Governor of the Year. In December, she issued a warning that Russia's economy was at risk of overheating.

Persons: Elvira Nabiullina, —, Putin, It's, Nabiullina, Daniel McDowell, McDowell, wined, Christine Lagarde, Nabiullina —, Richard Portes, Portes —, Portes, Anders Åslund, Åslund, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka, Yaroslav Kuzminov, Kuzminov, Nabiullina's, Alan Harvey, Herman Gref —, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, Maxim Shemetov, Michel Camdessus, she's, isn't, Sergei Aleksashenko, Alexei Makarkin, Vladimir Pesnya, Nabiulina, let's Organizations: Ukraine, Service, Russian, KGB, Syracuse University, Kremlin, International Monetary Fund, US, London Business School, Moscow Times, Bloomberg, Higher School of Economics, —, Moscow State University, SNS, USSR, Industrial Union Board, Gref, Central Bank Governor, Nabiullina Central Bank Governor, Banker, Central Banker, IMF, Monetary Fund, Financial Times, Government, Political Technologies, Wall Street Journal, RBC, Politico Europe Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Russia, Brussels, Nabiullina, Swedish, Moscow, Ufa, Central Russia, Tatars, Crimea, Euromoney, Europe, steadying

☆ Russia Arrests U.S. Citizen, Accusing Her of Treason by Aiding Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Ivan Nechepurenko | More About Ivan Nechepurenko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Russia’s main security agency said on Tuesday that it had arrested a dual citizen of Russia and the United States on accusations of committing state treason by raising funds for Ukraine. The Federal Security Service, known as the F.S.B., identified the detainee as a 33-year-old woman who lives in Los Angeles. It said in a statement that she had raised money for a Ukrainian organization that bought weapons and other equipment for Ukraine’s military. said that the woman had been arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg in central Russia. RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency, published a video that it said showed the woman, wearing a white hat that covered her eyes, being handcuffed and escorted by masked security service officers.

Persons: Perviy Organizations: Ukraine, Federal Security Service, RIA Novosti Locations: Russia, United States, Los Angeles, Razom, Ukraine, New York, Yekaterinburg, Russian

☆ How Russia has avoided bankrupting itself after 2 years of waging war in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

1: By waging war outside its own bordersOne critical reason Russia's economy is still ticking is because of the location of the war. AdvertisementConsider the impact of the war on the economies of both Russia and Ukraine. In 2022, the first year of the war, Russia's economy contracted 1.2%, according to official statistics. Russia was facing a demographic crisis with a declining population and falling fertility rate even before its war with Ukraine. 4: By stimulating and steadying its economy with subsidies and policiesGovernment subsidies, spending, and policies are also propping up Russia's economy.

Persons: —, Hassan Malik, Loomis Sayles, it's, Malik, Vladimir Putin's, Sergei Guriev, Malik isn't, Alex Isakov, Putin, Alexandra Prokopenko Organizations: Service, Business, Reuters, US, Exchange, European Bank for Reconstruction, Bloomberg Economics, Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies Locations: Russia, Moscow, Boston, Crimea, Ukraine, Russian, China, India, Austrian

Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests, died in prison Friday, Russian authorities said. Before his arrest, he campaigned against official corruption, organized major anti-Kremlin protests and ran for public office. Shortly after Navalny’s death was reported, the Russian SOTA social media channel shared images of the opposition politician reportedly in court yesterday. In the footage, Navalny is seen standing up and is laughing and joking with the judge via video link. The day before the sentence, Navalny had registered as a candidate for Moscow mayor.

Persons: Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin, Navalny, Dmitry Peskov, Putin, Kira Yarmysh, Boris Nemtsov, —, ”, Dmitry Medvedev’s, Sergei Skripal, “ Alexei, David Roher, Oscar, Navalny’s, “, Alexei, alexey, navalny Organizations: Kremlin, Federal Penitentiary Service, People’s Friendship University, Yale, Moscow, Fund, Fighting, YouTube, Federal Security Service, Navalny’s Foundation Locations: ”, Moscow, Germany, Russian, Russia, Kharp, Butyn, Crimean, St, Petersburg, Siberian, Tomsk, Omsk, England, Ukraine

Supporters of prominent Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., who is serving a 25-year sentence for treason, said Monday that he has disappeared from the Siberian prison where he was behind bars. Transfers within Russia’s prison system are shrouded in secrecy and inmates can disappear from contact for several weeks. Backers of Russia's most noted opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, were alarmed in December when he couldn't be found. Navalny, serving a 19-year sentence, resurfaced in a prison colony above the Arctic Circle. He previously had been held in the Vladimir region in central Russia about 230 kilometers (140 miles) from Moscow.

Persons: Vladimir Kara, Murza Jr, Murza, Alexander Podrabinek, Kara, Podrabinek, Vadim Prokhorov, Alexei Navalny, Russia’s, poisonings, Vladimir Putin, Josef Stalin, Putin Organizations: Facebook, Telegram Locations: Omsk, Vladimir, Russia, Moscow, Arizona, Ukraine

☆ Russia Says Dual Russian-Italian National Arrested for Train Bombing on Behalf of Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Dec. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +1 min

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian investigators said on Friday a dual Russian-Italian national had been detained for planting bombs on railway tracks as part of a sabotage campaign orchestrated by Ukrainian military intelligence. After his arrest, the man, born in 1988 and a resident of Ryazan, confessed to planting home-made bombs that derailed a freight train in central Russia on Nov. 11, according to investigators. The Committee said the detained man admitted undergoing "sabotage training in Latvia with the direct participation of the Latvian special services." Ukrainian military intelligence could not be reached for immediate comment. (Writing by Felix Light; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Jamie Freed)

Persons: Felix Light, Guy Faulconbridge, Jamie Freed Organizations: Main Intelligence, Ministry of Defense, Reuters Locations: MOSCOW, Russian, Ukrainian, Ryazan, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Latvian, Rybnoe, Moscow

☆ Russian Court Extends Detention of American Reporter
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Ivan Nechepurenko | More About Ivan Nechepurenko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A Moscow court on Tuesday extended the pretrial detention of Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal who has been held in Russia for nearly eight months on an espionage charge that he, his newspaper and the U.S. government vehemently reject. Mr. Gershkovich, 32, has been held in the notoriously strict Lefortovo prison in Moscow since his arrest on March 29 during a reporting trip to the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in a Russian penal colony. Wearing jeans and a checkered shirt under a dark jacket, Mr. Gershkovich listened to the judge on Tuesday from a white courtroom cage, according to a video shared by the press service for Moscow courts. The ruling means that Mr. Gershkovich will remain in custody until Jan. 30; it was the third time his detention has been extended.

Persons: Evan Gershkovich, Gershkovich Organizations: Wall Street, U.S Locations: Moscow, American, Russia, Russian, Yekaterinburg

Ten days after that, Russia said a Hamas delegation was in Moscow for talks. Moscow has offered to host a regional meeting of foreign ministers and Putin has said that Russia is well placed to help. "My explanation is it's because the war is becoming the organising principle of Russian foreign policy and (because of) ties with Iran, which brings military materiel to the table. The central Russian war effort is more important than, for example, the relationship with Israel." "We're going to finish this war (with Hamas) ... After this, Russia will pay the price," Weitmann said in a stormy October interview with Russian state broadcaster RT.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Yosri, Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Sergei Markov, Washington, Hanna Notte, Moscow, Alexei Pushkov, Pushkov, Markov, Alex Gabuev, Anatoly Viktorov, Alexander Ben Zvi, Mikhail Bogdanov, Amir Weitmann, Weitmann, we're, Andrew Osborn, Mike Collett, White, Nick Macfie Organizations: Hamas, West Bank, REUTERS, West, EU, Kremlin, U.S, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, Likud, RT, Ukraine, Thomson Locations: Russian, Gaza, Israel, Hebron, Russia, Moscow, United States, U.S, EU, Iran, Tehran, Ukraine, Berlin, Washington, Palestine, Arab, Jerusalem, Syria

☆ 'They're just meat': Russia deploys punishment battalions in echo of Stalin
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +12 min

"Storm fighters, they're just meat," said one regular soldier from army unit no. He said he didn't know why the commander gave the order, but claimed that it typified how Storm-Z fighters were considered of lesser value than ordinary troops by officers. Three of the five Storm-Z fighters interviewed by Reuters, and the relatives of three other Storm-Z fighters, described nightmarish engagements that saw much of their squads wiped out. At a televised meeting with a small group of regular Russian servicemen, he said he was aware that two of their comrades, former prison inmates, had been killed in action. Three Storm-Z fighters said they were offered wages of about 200,000 roubles ($2,000) per month, though said they had been paid roughly half that amount, on average.

Persons: Polina Nikolskaya, Maria Tsvetkova, who've, Wagner, Reuters wasn't, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Josef Stalin, Artyom, Shchikin, Vladimir Rogov, Rogov, Shchikin's, Z, Igor, they'd, we've, Christian Lowe, Pravin Organizations: REUTERS, REUTERS Acquire, Maria Tsvetkova LONDON, Convicts, Storm, Reuters, Kremlin, 237th, Intelligence Team, Institute for, Red Army, 291st Guards, Rifle Regiment, 291st, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Bakhmut, Russia, Russian, Ukrainian, U.S, Soviet, Mordovia, Zaporizhzhia, Geneva, France, Siberia

☆ Ten people killed in fierce storms in central Russia - government ministry
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MOSCOW, July 30 (Reuters) - Ten people were killed in central Russia after strong winds toppled trees and heavy rains disrupted the electricity supply in hundreds of settlements, Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations said on Sunday. Eight of the ten were killed and 29 more injured at a camping location near Lake Yalchik in the Mari-El region, the ministry said. Russia's Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal case into the incident that killed three children. Pictures posted by the ministry on the Telegram app showed cars and tents badly damaged and crushed by fallen trees. Storms disrupted the power supply in 520 settlements, damaged the roofs of 41 residential buildings and seven buildings that provide social services in eight different Russian regions, officials said.

Persons: Andrew Osborn Organizations: Russia's Ministry, Emergency, Russia's, Reuters, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russia, Lake Yalchik, El

☆ Factbox: Europe sees another year of droughts and wildfires
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Last year, heat waves resulted in over 61,600 heat-related fatalities across 35 European countries and triggered devastating wildfires. Below is a list of the most recent blazes and heat-related warnings issued in Europe. **********CROATIAA bushfire near the coastal town of Sibenik quickly spread on July 13, fuelled by strong southerly winds. Emergency services were also dealing with fires on the island of Evia, east of Athens, and Aigio, southwest of Athens. RUSSIAIn central Russia's Urals region, in the small village of Shaidurikha near Yekaterinburg, wildfires spread on July 12 and caused significant damage.

Persons: BRGM, Rhodes, El, Dina Kartit, Gaëlle Sheehan, Piotr Lipiński, Alexandra Hudson, Milla Nissi Organizations: Firefighters, Flames, El Pais, Caldera, SWITZERLAND Swiss, Swiss, TURKEY, Directorate of Forestry, Thomson Locations: Europe, Sicily, CROATIA, Sibenik, Grebastica, FRANCE, Nouvelle, Aquitaine, Occitanie, Grand Est, Bouches, Du, Rhone, Corsica, France, GREECE, Corfu, Evia, Athens, Cyprus, Israel, Italy, ITALY, Calabria, Italian, Rome, Lazio, PORTUGAL Mainland Portugal, May, RUSSIA, Russia's, Shaidurikha, Yekaterinburg, SPAIN, La Palma, Spanish, Spain, Bitsch, Valais, Turkey's, Hatay, Mersin, Canakkale, Turkish

☆ Russian ex-arms dealer freed for Brittney Griner to run for far-right party in local vote
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

July 2 (Reuters) - A Russian arms dealer freed last December in a prisoner swap for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner has been chosen as the candidate of a far-right party for a seat in a Russian regional legislature, state news agency RIA reported on Sunday. RIA cited an official in Russia's ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR)'s local organisation as saying that Bout had been nominated as a candidate for the legislative assembly of the Ulyanovsk region in central Russia. Bout publicly joined the LDPR following his return to Russia. Despite its name, the LDPR holds far-right, ultra-nationalist views and strongly supports President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Lugovoi has served as an LDPR member of Russia's national parliament since 2007.

Persons: Brittney Griner, Viktor Bout, RIA, Bout, Griner, Vladimir Putin's, Andrei Lugovoi, Alexander Litvinenko, Lugovoi, Felix Light, Gareth Jones Organizations: U.S, Liberal Democratic Party, U.S . Department of Justice, Thomson Locations: Russian, United States, Ulyanovsk, Russia, Thailand, Washington, Ukraine, Britain

☆ Chinese Firm Sent Large Shipments of Gunpowder to Russian Munitions Factory
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Ana Swanson | John Ismay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The powder had been shipped by Poly Technologies, a state-owned Chinese company on which the United States had previously imposed sanctions for its global sales of missile technology and providing support to Iran. Its destination was Barnaul Cartridge Plant, an ammunition factory in central Russia with a history of supplying the Russian government. These previously unreported shipments, which were identified by Import Genius, a U.S.-based trade data aggregator, raise new questions about the role China has played in supporting Russia as it fights to capture Ukrainian territory. U.S. officials have expressed concerns that China could funnel products to Russia that would help in its war effort — what is known as “lethal aid” — though they have not said outright that China has made such shipments. Speaking from Beijing on Monday, Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said China had assured the United States that it was not providing lethal assistance to Russia for use in Ukraine, and that the U.S. government had “not seen anything right now to contradict that.”

Persons: Antony J, Blinken, “, ” Organizations: Poly Technologies Locations: China, Russia, Zabaykalsk, United States, Iran, U.S, Beijing, Ukraine

☆ Russia's war on Ukraine latest: Wagner group appears to do U-turn on withdrawal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

CONFLICT* Russian forces are evacuating residents from the town that serves the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said. * Russian missiles targeted an industrial site in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine, while Ukrainian and Russian media reported multiple explosions across Russian-occupied Crimea. * Russia's defence ministry said its air defences had detected and destroyed 22 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea overnight. * Air raid alerts blared for several hours overnight into early Sunday over roughly two-thirds of Ukraine, with officials saying air defence systems shot down a number of drones. * The head of the U.N.'s nuclear power watchdog warned on Saturday that the situation around the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear station has become "potentially dangerous" as Moscow-installed officials began evacuating people from nearby areas.

☆ Three dead as blast shuts part of Russia-Ukraine gas export pipeline
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MOSCOW, Dec 20 (Reuters) - A blast ripped through a gas pipeline in central Russia, killing three people and disrupting some of the limited amount of Russian gas that is still reaching Europe, local officials said on Tuesday. He said it was unclear when gas supplies via the pipeline could resume, and authorities were trying to work that out. The pipeline, built in the 1980s, enters Ukraine via the Sudzha metering point, currently the main route for Russian gas to reach Europe. Europe's gas prices have surged this year after Russia cut exports through its main gas pipeline route into Germany, leaving only pipelines via Ukraine to ship Russian gas to European consumers. The head office of the state-owned gas producer Gazprom and its local branch did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

☆ Drone strikes deep in Russia seen as Ukrainian rebuff to missile barrages
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Tom Balmforth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Military analysts saw the attacks as Kyiv's response to Russia on the same day that Moscow conducted another wave of missile strikes on critical infrastructure in Ukraine. wrote Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. Musiyenko added: "It's a moment for Russia to wonder about continuing to conduct missile strikes on Ukrainian territory. It was not the first time Russia accused Ukraine of using such drones for attacks inside its borders. In an opinion piece on Nov. 29, Ukroboronprom's general director Yuriy Gusev called for an "asymmetrical response" by the Ukrainian army to Russian missile volleys.

☆ Drone strikes in Russia seen as Ukrainian rebuff to missile barrages
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Tom Balmforth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Ukrainian officials revelled in the blasts but declined to acknowledge Kyiv's role, after Russia said Ukraine used unmanned Soviet-era aerial vehicles to attack two air force bases in the Ryazan and Saratov areas of south-central Russia. On Tuesday, a third Russian airfield in Kursk, which lies closer to Ukraine, was set ablaze in another drone strike. Military analysts saw the attacks as Kyiv's response to Russia on the same day that Moscow conducted another wave of missile strikes on critical infrastructure in Ukraine. wrote Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. It was not the first time Russia accused Ukraine of using such drones for attacks inside its borders.

[1/3] Firefighters work outside an office building destroyed in shelling in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, Ukraine December 5, 2022. A new Russian missile barrage had been anticipated in Ukraine for days and it took place just as emergency blackouts were due to end, with previous damage repaired. "In many regions, there will have to be emergency blackouts," he said in a late Monday video address. The United States said it would convene a virtual meeting on Thursday with oil and gas executives to discuss how it can support Ukrainian energy infrastructure, according to a letter seen by Reuters. Russia says it is waging a "special military operation" in Ukraine to rid it of nationalists and protect Russian-speaking communities.

That the WNBA star, who lost her appeal Tuesday, is a gay Black woman could add unknown variables to a penal system that is known to be remote and harrowing. “Conditions in prisons and detention centers varied but were often harsh and life threatening,” a 2021 State Department report on Russian human rights abuses said. “Russian prisons are grim, even relative to prisons in other countries. Prisoners were used for farming, mining or logging in sparsely populated areas of the country or worked in sweatshop conditions. It can often take weeks for prisoners to arrive at the prisons on prison trucks and specially designed train carriages called Stolypins.

☆ Russian roulette: Is Putin serious about nuclear war, or bluffing?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Jason Corcoran | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

On Oct. 26, President Vladimir Putin appeared on Russian state television overseeing a practice run of Russia's strategic nuclear deterrence forces. The conflict has revived Cold War-era fears of nuclear war across the region. In August, a Ukrainian official said that 9,000 Ukrainian military personnel had been killed, though another source said the number could be far higher. (President Zelensky previously estimated that 30% of Ukraine's power stations have been damaged or destroyed, although the figure is now likely to be greater.) In a wide-ranging answer, Putin had offered, almost as an aside, that Russian victims of nuclear war "will go to heaven as martyrs" while Western citizens would perish without having "time to repent."

☆ Factbox: The Druzhba oil pipeline from Russia to Europe
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Oct 12 (Reuters) - Polish operator PERN has detected a leak in one pipeline in the Druzhba system that carries oil from Russia to Europe, it said on Wednesday, an event that will add to concerns about Europe's energy security after the Nord Stream gas pipeline leak. Below are a few facts about the pipeline:* Druzhba is one of the largest oil pipelines in the world, and was built by the Soviet Union. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register* It starts in central Russia and connects West Siberian oil fields to major refineries in Europe. * The Druzhba pipeline splits into two legs with the bigger, northern one going to Poland and Germany. This section has been pumping around 2 million tonnes, or 490,000 bpd, in recent months.

☆ Russian School Shooting Leaves 15 Dead
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Ann M. Simmons | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

People gathered outside the school in the Russian city of Izhevsk, where a gunman opened fire killing at least 15 people, most of them children, on Monday. MOSCOW—A gunman stormed a school in a provincial central Russian city on Monday, leaving 15 people dead, including 11 children, before killing himself, authorities said. At least 24 people were wounded in the school shooting in Izhevsk, some 600 miles southeast of Moscow in the Udmurtia region, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee, which said it had opened a probe into the incident.

☆ 13 dead, 21 wounded in school shooting in Russia
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

A gunman killed 13 people, including seven children, and wounded 21 other people in a school in central Russia on Monday, authorities said. Russia's Investigative Committee said the shooting took place in a school in Izhevsk, a city about 960 kilometers (600 miles) east of Moscow in the Udmurtia region. The governor of Udmurtia, Alexander Brechalov, said in a video statement that the still unidentified gunman shot himself. According to the Investigative Committee, the gunman wore a black t-shirt with "Nazi symbols." Izhevsk, a city of 640,000, is located west of the Ural mountains in central Russia.

☆ A Russian woman nicknamed 'Simba' who defected and fought for Ukraine buried in a military funeral
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-18 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A funeral was held in Kyiv on Friday for a native-Russian woman who joined the Ukrainian army. Olga Simonova, 34, previously fought in the war in the Donbas for Russia before switching sides. AP reports that an honor guard fired a three-gun salute to honor Olga Simonova, 34, who was killed in combat. Simonova said she never hid her Russian origin from the people she fought alongside. Friends and colleagues told AP that Simonova was redeployed to the Kherson region after Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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