DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Russian state TV has found itself a fur-clad, 'demonstratively heterosexual' GOP 'beauty' to fawn over: Marjorie Taylor Greene
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Kwan Wei Kevin Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Margarita Simonyan, RT's editor-in-chief, called MTG a blond, fur-wearing "beauty." NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has just won herself some new admirers. The GOP congresswoman was painted in glowing terms during a broadcast on Russian state television on Sunday. "Marjorie Taylor Greene, you've just shown is a beauty.

Persons: Margarita Simonyan, Simonyan, Greene, —, Marjorie Taylor Greene, you've Organizations: Georgia Republican, Ukraine, Service, GOP, RT

☆ Russia claimed the West, Kyiv ordered the Moscow terror attack. Now it has the problem of proving it
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Russian President Vladimir Putin at an expanded Prosecutor General's Office meeting on March 26, 2024, in Moscow. An investigation into the attack is ongoing, but the latest, outlandish accusations give Moscow a problem: It now has to find the evidence to back up its unsubstantiated claims. What's particularly awkward for the Kremlin is that the Islamic State militant group has already claimed responsibility for the attack. Ukraine denies any involvement in the attack, saying it was "absolutely predictable" that Moscow would look to blame it. The White House said Ukraine had "no involvement whatsoever" in the attack and that any claim to the contrary was "Kremlin propaganda."

Persons: Vladimir Putin, It's, Andrius, Putin, David Cameron, concertgoers, Alexander Bortnikov, Nikolai Patrushev, Sergei Karpukhin, Nikolai Patrushev —, —, Patrushev, Maria Zakharova, Dmitry Peskov, Peskov, Moscow, Margarita Simonyan, Putin's, Alexander Lukashenko, Rachabalizoda, Barotovich, Muhammadsobir, Shamsidin Fariduni, Tatyana Makeyevaolga Maltseva, Max Hess Organizations: General's, Getty, Ukraine, Crocus City Hall, Islamic State, West, Kremlin, Russia's Federal Security Service, Russian Security, AFP, Security, Islamic, RIA Novosti, Russian Foreign, U.S, Kremlin's, CNBC Wednesday, Institute for, Afp, Analysts, Foreign Policy Research Institute, CNBC, CIA Locations: Moscow, Russia, Ukraine, Crocus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukrainian, Europe, Russian, U.S, Kyiv, Belarusian, Belarus, Basmanny, Soviet Union

☆ Russia’s political class is taking a dark and vengeful turn
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Nathan Hodge | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Now comes another shock to the system, with the appalling murder of at least 139 people in a terror attack at a concert hall just outside Moscow. And with its brutal official response to the attack, Russia seems to have taken an even darker turn. But after Friday’s Crocus City attack, the brutality of Russian security services appeared on naked display. It sends a message to ordinary Russians – and the world – that Russian state security forces are capable of anything. “Everyone asks me, what is to be done?” Medvedev said, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Persons: Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Putin, Putin, – implausibly, ”, Dmitry Peskov, ” Peskov, ” Putin, Tatyana Makeyeva, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, Margarita Simonyan, approvingly, Simonyan, “, Alexander Zemlianichenko, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s, ” Medvedev, Vladimir Vasiliev Organizations: CNN, ISIS, “ Intelligence, Kremlin, KGB, Getty, VK, Putin, “, United Russia, Novosti Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, Kyiv, United States, Chechnya, Crocus, Basmanny, AFP, Russian

☆ Moscow Concert Hall Shooting Russia Begins Day of Mourning for Victims
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Mike Ives | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

The terrorist attack outside Moscow a few days later was a blow to his aura as a leader for whom national security is paramount. Just days later came a searing counterpoint: His vaunted security apparatus failed to prevent Russia’s deadliest terrorist attack in 20 years. Inside Russia, the election — and its predetermined outcome — underscored Mr. Putin’s dominance over the nation’s politics. The area is closed as part of increased security measures after the terrorist attack on Friday. Before Friday, the most recent mass-casualty terrorist attack in the capital region was a suicide bombing at an airport in Moscow in 2011 that killed 37 people.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, “, ” Aleksandr Kynev, ” Mr, Mr, ”, Nanna Heitmann, Aleksei A, ” Ruslan Leviev, Olga Skabeyeva, Margarita Simonyan, Russia’s, Aleksandr Dugin, Dugin, Dugin’s, Andriy Yusov, Putin’s, Shamil Zhumatov, Kynev, Vladimir Putin’s, Constant Méheut Organizations: Kremlin, Islamic State, Passengers, The New York Times, Terrorism, Islamic, ., Reuters Locations: Russia, Moscow, Ukraine, Russian, Beslan, United States

☆ Crocus City attack: The ghost of Russia’s past wars comes back to haunt Moscow
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Nick Paton Walsh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Twenty years ago, the Dubrovka gunmen were the disturbed product of Russia’s savage anti-terror campaign that summarily executed hundreds of military aged males in Chechnya in the early 2000s. Emergency services personnel and police work at the scene of the Crocus City Hall attack. First, there will be further efforts to suggest Ukraine and the West are somehow involved in these attacks. The Dubrovka attack was followed two years later by airplanes being blown out of the sky and the catastrophic nightmare of the Beslan school siege. In 2002, Dubrovka forced Moscow reluctantly yet closer to the United States’ war on terror.

Persons: Vladimir Putin’s, Putin, Kadyrov, Stringer, Maria Zakharova, Margarita Simonyan, overstretched Putin, Dubrovka, Yevgeny Prigozhin Organizations: CNN, Gunmen, Dubrovka Theatre, Chechen, Crocus City, Kremlin, Authorities, Getty, Russia Today, ISIS Locations: Moscow, Crocus, Russia, Chechnya, Iraq, Syria, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Caucasus, AFP, Ukraine, fatigues, Russian, Beslan, United States

☆ Germany to investigate after leaked recording emerges of secret army talks on Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-02 | by ( Sophie Tanno | Xiaofei Xu | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Germany says it will investigate after a recording leaked of a conversation between several top-ranking German officers on the country’s Ukraine war strategy. A spokesperson of the German Defense Ministry confirmed to CNN the recording was authentic. “According to our assessment, a conversation in the air force sector has been intercepted. The Kerch bridge has been a targeted for Ukraine throughout the conflict. Alexey Pavlishak/ReutersGermany has been resisting sending the weapons to Kyiv, fearing they could be used for attacks on Russian territory.

Persons: CNN —, Margarita Simonyan, Olaf Scholz, ” Scholz, Alexey Pavlishak, Maria Zakharova, Roberich, ” Organizations: CNN, German Defense Ministry, Ukraine, Reuters, Russian Foreign, Christian Democratic Union, ZDF, Deutsche Welle Locations: CNN — Germany, Ukraine, Kerch, Crimean, Russia, Rome, Reuters Germany, Moscow, Germany, Russian

☆ Plane Crash in Western Russia - What We Know and Don't Know
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Jan. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +3 min

(Reuters) - Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of shooting down a military transport plane carrying 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers to a prisoner exchange. The crash took place just northeast of Belgorod in western Russia, close to the border with Ukraine. The aircraft was an Ilyushin Il-76, a large military transport plane designed to carry troops, cargo or weapons. He said a second Il-76 transport plane carrying around 80 more Ukrainian soldiers to the exchange had managed to turn around. Ukraine's defence ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Persons: Here's, Andrei Kartapolov, Kartapolov, Ukraine's, Andriy Yusov, Margarita Simonyan, Mykhailo Podolyak, Mark Trevelyan, Andrew Osborn, Alexandra Hudson Organizations: Reuters, Ukraine, WHO, U.S . Patriots, IRIS, Radio Svoboda Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Belgorod, Russian, Ukraine's Kharkiv, Chkalovsky, Moscow, UKRAINE, Ukrainian

☆ A Kremlin propagandist faced backlash from Siberian officials after saying Russia should detonate a nuke in its own territory
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Kremlin propagandist suggested Moscow should drop a nuclear bomb over Siberia, reports said. A nuclear bombing over Siberia would send a "painful" message to the West, Simonyan reportedly said. A nuclear bombing over Siberia would send a "painful" message to the West, Simonyan said, according to a translation by The Moscow Times. Nikolai Korolev, an aide to Moscow City Duma deputy Evgeniy Stupin, petitioned Russia's Interior Ministry and Investigative Committee to probe Simonyan's comments, according to the news outlet. AdvertisementAdvertisementSimonyan wrote in a message on Telegram that she did not call for a nuclear strike on Siberia, Russian news outlet Meduza reported.

Persons: Margarita Simonyan, Simonyan, —, Vladimir Putin's, …, Julia Davis, Maria Prusakova, Anatoly Lokot, Simonyan's, Nikolai Korolev, Evgeniy Stupin, Dmitry Peskov, Davis Organizations: Service, US State Department, Moscow Times, Russian Media Monitor, Communist Party, State Duma, Moscow, Duma, Russia's Interior Ministry, Committee Locations: Moscow, Siberia, Ukraine, Russian, State, Siberia's Altai, Siberian, Novosibirsk

☆ Putin Holds Out Possibility That Russia Could Resume Nuclear Testing
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Oct. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +5 min

By Guy FaulconbridgeMOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin on Thursday held out the possibility that Russia could resume nuclear testing for the first time in more than three decades and might withdraw its ratification of a landmark nuclear test ban treaty. The Kremlin chief said there was no need to change Russia's nuclear doctrine however, as any attack on Russia would provoke a split-second response with hundreds of nuclear missiles that no enemy could survive. "I think no person of sound mind and clear memory would think of using nuclear weapons against Russia," Putin told a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. He noted that the United States had signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty but not ratified it while Russia had signed and ratified it. In February, Putin suspended Russia's participation in the New START treaty that limits the number of nuclear weapons each side can deploy.

Persons: Guy Faulconbridge MOSCOW, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Sergei Karaganov, Karaganov, Margarita Simonyan, UKRAINE Putin, Russia's, Guy FaulconbridgeEditing, Andrew Osborn, Andrew Heavens Organizations: Kremlin, State Duma, Inside, RT, United Nations, Soviet Union, United, Cuban Missile, West Locations: Russia, Moscow, Russian, Black, Sochi, West, United States, Inside Russia, Ukraine, Siberia, Ban, Soviet Union, UKRAINE, Afghanistan, Ukrainian

President Vladimir Putin, who rules the world's biggest nuclear power, has repeatedly cautioned the West that any attack on Russia could provoke a nuclear response. The Soviet Union's last nuclear test took place in 1990. The United States' last nuclear test took place in 1992 and France and China conducted their last nuclear tests in 1996, according to the United Nations. Simonyan said the Ukraine crisis was moving towards a nuclear ultimatum and that the West would not stop until Russia sent a nuclear message. He also cautioned that if the United States returned to nuclear testing, then Russia would resume too.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Margarita Simonyan, Dmitry Peskov, Peskov, Simonyan, Putin, Russia's, Guy Faulconbridge, Kevin Liffey, Nick Macfie, Gareth Jones Organizations: Donetsk, Kremlin, New York Times, Soviet, United, United Nations, RT, Soviet Union, Washington, Thomson Locations: Russian, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Siberia Kremlin, MOSCOW, Russia, Moscow, Siberia, United States, France, China, Ukraine, Alamogordo , New Mexico, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Soviet, Ban, Soviet Union

[1/2] Vehicles of Russian peacekeepers leaving Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region for Armenia pass an Armenian checkpoint on a road near the village of Kornidzor, Armenia September 22, 2023. Images of fleeing Armenians at Russia's own peacekeeping base at an airport in Nagorno-Karabakh have been harder for them to watch. But its handling of the Karabakh crisis has forced it into a blame game with Armenia and obliged it to defend its foreign policy in the region. It now accuses him of triggering the crisis by saying - after Russian peacekeepers were deployed to Karabakh in 2020 following Armenia's defeat in a 44-day war - that he recognised Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. Baku has long argued that Karabakh falls within its own borders, but Karabakh Armenians wanted Pashinyan to recognise their independence and unify them with Armenia.

Persons: Irakli, Alexander Baunov, Russia's, Sergei Markov, Pashinyan, Dmitry Medvedev, Medvedev, Margarita Simonyan, Andrew Osborn, Gareth Jones Organizations: REUTERS, Armenian, Soviet, Carnegie, Karabakh, Protesters, Kremlin, Russian, Security Council, NATO, Thomson Locations: Karabakh, Armenia, Kornidzor, Russia, Azerbaijan Moscow, Kabul, U.S, Afghanistan, Nagorno, Turkish, Moscow, Azerbaijan, Soviet Union, Turkey, Iran, Ukraine, South Caucasus, Stepanakert, Russian, America, Baku ., Yerevan, Baku, Pashinyan

☆ Azerbaijan-Armenia: The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh explained
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Christian Edwards | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Armenia and Azerbaijan have already fought two wars over Nagorno-Karabakh since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nagorno-Karabakh, known as Artsakh to Armenians, is a landlocked region in the Caucasus Mountains and lies within Azerbaijan’s borders. Under the Soviet Union, of which Azerbaijan and Armenia are both former members, Nagorno-Karabakh became an autonomous region within the republic of Azerbaijan in 1923. After years of sporadic clashes between the two sides, the Second Karabakh War began in 2020. The news of fresh strikes on Nagorno-Karabakh sparked cryptic reactions from prominent Russian figures showing little sympathy for Armenia.

Persons: –, Tofik Babayev, “, Siranush Sargsyan, Nikol Pashinyan, Ilham Aliyev, Aliyev, ”, Armenia’s, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Dmitry Peskov, Karen Minasyan, Vladimir Putin, Pashinyan, haven’t, Armenpress, Margarita Simonyan, Judas Organizations: CNN, Soviet Union, Karabakh, Artsakh Defense Army, Armenian Soviet, United Nations General Assembly, Kremlin, ” Analysts, Getty, Collective Security, Organization, US Locations: Nagorno, Karabakh, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Soviet, Artsakh, Azerbaijan’s, Soviet Union, Turkey, Russia, Moscow, AFP, Azerbaijani, Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, Turkish, Ottoman, Baku, Ukraine, Rome

☆ Nagorno-Karabakh crisis lays bare deteriorating Armenian relationship with Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Clare Sebastian Anna Chernova Katharina Krebs Tim Lister Christian Edwards | Clare Sebastian | Anna Chernova | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —The crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh has come amid a sharp deterioration in the relationship between historic allies Armenia and Russia, and has been amplified by sometimes incendiary commentary from prominent individuals in Moscow. Armenia’s Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan accused Russian peacekeepers of failing to protect Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijani aggression, according to state media Armenpress. The prominent Russian military blogger Rybar said Armenia was over reliant on Russia to provide security for Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia purports to provide security to Armenia through the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military alliance of post-Soviet states that includes Armenia but excludes Azerbaijan. The Armenian authorities handed over the Armenian shrine with their own hands… The fate of Judas is unenviable.”Simonyan also wrote on Telegram about protests in Yerevan.

Persons: Nikol Pashinyan, Pashinyan, Armenia’s, Armen Grigoryan, Dmitry Peskov, Pashinyan’s, Anna Hakobyan, ” Pashinyan, Dmitry Medvedev, “, ”, ” Medvedev, Rybar, –, ” Rybar, Margarita Simonyan, Judas, ” Simonyan, ’ They’ve, Vladimir Solovyov, Lavrov, Putin, Ivan, ” Solovyov, Meduza Organizations: CNN, Armenian, Armenia’s Security, Kremlin, CNN Prima News, Russia, NATO, Collective Security, Organization, Twitter Locations: Nagorno, Karabakh, Armenia, Russia, Moscow, Yerevan, United States, Ukraine, Kyiv, “, Azerbaijan, Russian, Soviet

☆ Airport chaos continues in Russia as Ukrainian drones target Moscow for the second time this week
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

All four Russian airports halted operations Monday after Ukrainian drones were shot down overhead. Ukrainian drones have been causing disruption in the airport district in recent weeks. On Friday, airports in the region were also closed due to another drone found in Russian airspace. Earlier this month, Ukrainian drone boats badly damaged the Russian warship Olenegorsky Gornyak. A day later, sea drones hit a critical link in the supply chain used to transport fuel and military equipment between Russia and Syria.

Persons: — Margarita Simonyan, Simonyan, Olenegorsky Organizations: Service, Tass, Russian Defense Ministry, The Telegraph, CNN Locations: Wall, Silicon, Moscow, Russian, Zhukovsky, Ruza District, Istra District, Western, Russia's, Ukrainian, Russia, Syria

☆ Russia's FSB thwarts attempts to kill two prominent journalists, Interfax reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

July 15 (Reuters) - Russia's FSB security service said on Saturday it had thwarted alleged Ukrainian-backed plots to kill two prominent Russian journalists, Interfax news agency reported. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which in the past has denied involvement in assassinations of pro-war figures inside Russia. Two prominent pro-war Russian figures, journalist Darya Dugina and military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, have been killed in bomb attacks inside Russia in the past year. Russia blamed their killings on Ukraine, while Kyiv denied that and portrayed them as evidence of Russian infighting. In May a prominent Russian nationalist writer, Zakhar Prilepin, was wounded in a car bombing that killed his driver.

Persons: Margarita Simonyan, Darya Dugina, Vladlen Tatarsky, Zakhar Prilepin, David Holmes Organizations: Kyiv, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Ukrainian, Ukraine, Russia, Russian

☆ Lindsey Graham is now a wanted man in Russia, and he said he will wear the arrest warrant like a 'badge of honor'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia issued an arrest warrant for Lindsey Graham after an edited video of him was posted online. Graham said that he would wear the arrest like a "Badge of Honor." Graham said in a statement on Monday that he would "wear the arrest warrant issued by Putin's corrupt and immoral government as a Badge of Honor." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office released an edited video from Graham's visit to Kyiv on Friday, where two clips of Graham were stitched together. The sequence of statements in the edited video, which made it appear that Graham was jubilant about Russians dying, angered Russian officials.

☆ Russian state media calling for unpaid 6th day of work to fund Ukraine invasion, Western intel says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russian state media and businesses are petitioning for a 6-day work week to fund war in Ukraine. The extra work day would likely come without additional pay, according to UK intelligence. Multiple 4-day work week trials in the UK and Spain have reported positive results for employees. The additional work day is marking a shift towards "mandating citizens to actively make sacrifices in support of the war effort." "I recommend that the elite of the Russian Federation gathers up, bitch, its youth and send them to war."

The Kremlin said Russia reserved the right to retaliate, and hardliners demanded swift retribution against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in comments sent to Reuters: "Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin. Another video circulating on Russian social media appeared to show a plume of smoke over the Kremlin after the purported attack. Russia marks the occasion with a huge military parade on Red Square, for which seating has already been erected. Ukraine typically declines to claim responsibility for attacks on Russia or Russian-annexed Crimea, though Kyiv officials have frequently celebrated such attacks with cryptic or mocking remarks.

☆ Russia says it arrests woman suspected of blowing up war blogger in cafe
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Andrew Osborn | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The woman arrested - Darya Trepova - was a Russian citizen who had previously been detained for protesting against the war in Ukraine, the state news agency TASS said. Some Russian commentators saw the bombing as the latest sign that violence related to the war in Ukraine is increasingly spilling onto Russian territory. Russian investigators said they had arrested Trepova, a 26-year-old, who they said was suspected of bringing the explosives into the St Petersburg cafe. Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist ideologue, was killed in a car bomb attack outside Moscow last summer that Russia blamed on Kyiv. Simonyan, like other hawkish commentators, made it clear on Telegram that she wanted Russia to hit back hard against whoever had killed Tatarsky.

☆ Analysis: Russian mercenary boss courts Putin with Ukrainian battlefield success
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Andrew Osborn | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Now as the founder of Russia's most powerful mercenary group, he is vying for Vladimir Putin's favour by claiming a rare battlefield win in Ukraine. Russia claimed victory on Friday after Ukraine said its forces were holding on after a 'hot' night of fighting. The defence ministry on Friday attributed victory to its airborne units, missile forces and "artillery of a grouping of Russian forces". Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the state-controlled RT channel and close to the Kremlin, thanked Prigozhin for Soledar. Despite its sometimes publicly strained ties with the Russian defence ministry, some Western military analysts suspect Wagner is closely affiliated with it.

[1/3] Suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout is escorted by members of a special police unit after a hearing at a criminal court in Bangkok October 5, 2010. "Everyone will forget about Griner tomorrow," Russian state television host Yevgeny Popov wrote on Telegram on Thursday. "Bout's life is only beginning." Bout arrived in Moscow late on Thursday after Russia and the United States swapped the arms dealer for Griner at Abu Dhabi airport. U.S. anger at Bout's release has been widely covered in the Russian media, with the pro-Kremlin tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets claiming that Department of Defense officials were "disturbed" by the exchange, citing U.S. media reports.

☆ Putin's top propagandist says Russia 'practically' took Kyiv at the start of the war, overlooking its humiliating retreat from the city
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The editor of Russia's RT outlet said Russia "practically" took Ukraine's capital in its invasion. In reality Russia never took Kyiv, and instead retreated and never returned. Simonyan did acknowledge that Russia's army left Kyiv earlier in the war, but not that the army was effectively forced to retreat. She said the main reason that Russia would "never bomb Kyiv" is because "our holy sites" are in the city. Simonyan hinted that Russia could bomb Washington, London, or Berlin, as Russia has no holy sites in those cities.

Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed "General Armageddon" by the Russian media for his reputed ruthlessness, on Nov. 9 recommended Moscow's forces quit Kherson and the west bank of the River Dnipro where they were dangerously exposed. Simonyan urged Surovikin, a hulking shaven-headed figure who has been shown on TV speaking in clipped Russian military language, to ignore "nonsense" from critics, a reference to influential military bloggers unhappy about his retreat. Nor is taking new ground in the east against a highly motivated and Western-equipped Ukrainian military an easy task, especially in the winter. The appointment of Surovikin on Oct. 8 was the first time Russia had publicly named an overall commander for its forces in Ukraine. With the exception of the city of Lysychansk, in eastern Ukraine, he said all the territory Russia held looked defensible.

The pullout proposed by General Sergei Surovikin, appointed last month to take overall charge of Russia's war effort, means Moscow is giving up a strategic city just north of annexed Crimea, the only Ukrainian provincial capital it had captured since its Feb. 24 invasion. The decision - described by one Russian military blogger as "a black page in the history of the Russian army" - was nonetheless quickly defended by some of the most high-profile proponents of the war as a wise and necessary action. But he said that ceding Kherson to Ukraine would put Russian-annexed Crimea within range of Ukrainian guided missile systems and U.S.-supplied HIMARS rockets. As Shoigu and Surovikin announced the retreat on Wednesday, Putin was congratulating employees of a leading scientific institute on its 75th anniversary. And after that, to understand who is right, who to blame and what is the essence of the problem".

☆ Elon Musk manages free speech versus 'hellscape' at Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The pressure is mounting on Musk and Twitter as he is set to address the Twitter staff on Friday after closing the deal. Fewer than 10% of 266 Twitter employees who participated in a poll on messaging app Blind expected to still have their jobs in three months. Musk fired Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, according to people familiar with the matter. Twitter, Musk and the executives did not immediately respond to requests for comment. As news of the deal spread, some Twitter users were quick to flag their willingness to walk away.

Search resuls for: "Margarita Simonyan"

25 mentions found