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☆ Inside the Chechen Units Helping to Fight Russia’s War
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-16 | by ( Nanna Heitmann | Neil Macfarquhar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Russia’s fighters are waging bloody battles in Ukraine’s east to add to its captured territory. Moscow supports this war effort with soldiers from outside the regular army, including some from a training camp in Chechnya. Some join for the money, others to escape everyday drudgery. Soldiers trained in Chechnya sign up to fight for Russia for a variety of reasons: money, boredom patriotism. Mayhem awaits them, as evident in the devastation of the city of Bakhmut.

Organizations: Russia Locations: Ukraine’s, Moscow, Chechnya, Bakhmut

☆ Russia's hunted A-50 command planes are its eyes over Ukraine. Here's how it compares to the Boeing E-3 Sentry.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Benjamin Brimelow | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Ukraine's most significant aircraft kills in 2024 are two Russian A-50 command planes. AP PhotoThe MainstayAEW&C aircraft are aerial radar stations meant to detect and track enemy weapon systems — namely aircraft, missiles, and naval ships. An E-3 Sentry takes off at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in January 2024. Last November, the Russians threatened to destroy a French Air Force E-3 that was operating over the Black Sea in what a French military spokesman described as "a particularly aggressive radio exchange." AdvertisementLast year, the US Air Force announced that it had selected the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail as the E-3's intended replacement.

Persons: —, Tupolev, William R, Park Chung, hee, Anwar Sadat, Joseph Barron, hasn't, Benjamin Brimelow Organizations: Service, Russian Aerospace Forces, Soviet Union, Machulishchy, State TV, Radio Company, AP, Western Allies, Beriev, Ilyushin, NATO, Nellis Air Force Base, US Air Force, System, Boeing, Air, Air Force, North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, Saudi, Royal Air Force, Control Force, NATO Air Base, U.S . Air Force KC, US Air Force Ukraine, Ukrainian Air Force, Allied, French Air Force, Global Affairs, Fletcher School of Law, Diplomacy, Business, Modern, Institute Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Soviet, Minsk, Belarus, Ukrainian, USSR, China, India, Turkey, Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, Syrian, Nevada, American, Latin America, South Korea, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, France, Chile, NATO, Germany, Europe, Azov, Russia, Poland, Romania, Australia, West

☆ Chechnya bans all music deemed too fast or too slow
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Jack Guy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Authorities in the Russian Republic of Chechnya have announced a ban on music that they consider too fast or slow. The ban will mean that many songs in musical styles such as pop and techno will be banned. Chechnya sits in the North Caucasus region between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. Kadyrov has been leader since 2007 and has used his time in office to stifle any form of dissent. The pro-Kremlin leader has also subdued the Chechen separatist movement that fought for independence from Russia for almost two decades.

Persons: Culture Musa Dadayev, Chechen Republic “, Chechen Republic Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov, ” Dadayev, Dadayev, Kadyrov, Mike Pompeo, ” Organizations: CNN, Authorities, TASS, of Culture, United, Kremlin, US State Department Locations: Russian Republic, Chechnya, Culture, Russian, Chechen Republic, North Caucasus, Russia’s, Georgia, United Nations, Chechen, Russia

☆ Opinion: Despite ISIS threat, Putin’s only concern is the politics of terrorism
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Opinion Douglas London | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Russia knows it has a terrorist problem, despite its deflection and spin to preserve Putin’s image, but his priorities are elsewhere. Russian intelligence also suffers from systemic failings in recognizing, penetrating and dismantling terrorist cells, failings that stem from doctrine and a deliberately stovepiped structure that obstructs information sharing and agility. FSB officers will coerce, threaten and intimidate potential sources with diminishing returns that will only fuel ISIS-K recruitment and fundraising, which is no doubt seeing a surge from its Moscow attack. Russian intelligence will be left to depend on the unwilling, ill-informed or duplicitous. At the Islamic State’s height, Tajik Gulmurod Khalimov commanded its Iraqi capital of Mosul.

Persons: Douglas London, ”, Vladimir Putin, Alexander Bortnikov, Douglas, Mike Pompeo, Russia’s, Sergey Naryshkin, Igor Korobov, Donald Trump, Pompeo, Russia Michael McFaul, Barack Obama, Trump, Putin, Gulmurod Khalimov, Khalimov, “ Omar al, “ Omar, ” Batirashvili, Washington, Sergei Skripal, Yulia Organizations: CIA, of American Intelligence, Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Global National Security Institutes, CNN, Federal Security Service, CBC, Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Russian Military Intelligence, Trump, White, ISIS, Central, Former, Terrorism, Embassy, K’s, Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry, Islamic Locations: South, Southwest Asia, London, Khorasan, United States, Afghanistan, Islamic State, Great Britain, Russia, Washington, State, Moscow, Syria, Iraq, Russian, US, Ukraine, St . Petersburg, Central Asia, Central Asian, Central, East, Turkey, Turkish, Istanbul, Mosul, Chechen, Georgian, Georgia, Iran, Kerman, Salisbury, England

☆ How ISIS has Europe and the US in sights after deadly Moscow attack
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-30 | by ( Tim Lister | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

ISIS claimed responsibility for the Moscow attack. Maxim Shemetov/ReutersHe regards the Moscow attack as a “breakthrough success” for the group, demonstrating a level of planning not previously seen beyond south Asia. Russia’s support for authoritarian regimes in central Asia – which ISIS-K has described as Russia’s “puppets” – has deepened the animus. The attitude of the Russian government, both pre- and post- the Moscow attack, may not help it confront the threat. For ISIS-K, the Moscow attack is a coup.

Persons: Erik Kurilla, “, Sanaullah Ghafari, Edmund Fitton, Brown, Fitton, Amira Jadoon, ” Jadoon, Hans, Jakob Schindler, Christine Abizaid, ” Fitton, Maxim Shemetov, –, Gabriel Attal, ”, Jadoon, Putin, Abu Bakr al, Sinai, Vladimir Putin, Assad, Shamsidin, Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Muhammadsobir Fayzov, Yulia Morozova, Shamil Hukumatov, ” Putin, ” Schindler, Alexander Bortnikov, they’ll, Rita Katz Organizations: CNN, Analysts, ISIS, Islamic, US Central Command, UN, Taliban, Russian, Clemson University, Counter, ”, K, US National Counterterrorism Center, –, Crocus City, US Defense Department, Paris, Central, Crocus City Hall, St, City, Tajik, Kyiv, SITE Intelligence Locations: State, Ukraine, Gaza, Moscow, Khorasan, Afghanistan, Europe, Asia, Russia, ‘, Islamic State, Pakistan, Iran, Crocus, United States, West, New York, Tajik, Kabul, Afghan, Kandahar, Central Asia, Baujur, Pakistani, Baluchistan, Iranian, Kerman, Germany, al Qaeda, Turkey, France, America, Russian, Sharm el, St . Petersburg, Syria, Kaluga, St Petersburg, Istanbul, Washington

CNN —Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned that Europe is in a “pre-war era” but still has a “long way to go” before its ready to confront the threat posed by Russia. We haven’t seen a situation like this since 1945,” Tusk said in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt published Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly denied that Russia intends to attack NATO countries. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and French President Emmanuel Macron in Berlin, Germany, March 15, 2024. Obviously, he feels the need to justify the increasingly violent attacks on civilian sites in Ukraine,” Tusk said.

Persons: Donald Tusk, ” Tusk, “, Vladimir Putin, Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron, Odd Andersen, Tusk, –, ”, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, doesn’t, Putin, “ Putin Organizations: CNN, Polish, Welt, NATO, European Union, Getty, Law, Justice Party, Poland, Crocus City Hall, Dubrovka, Chechen Locations: Europe, Russia, “, ”, Ukraine, Russian, Sweden, Finland, Baltics, Estonia, Lithuania, Moldova, France, Germany, Poland, Polish, Berlin, Moscow, Crocus, Beslan

For Evan Gershkovich, the dozen appearances in Moscow's courts over the past year have fallen into a pattern. Guards take the American journalist from the notorious Lefortovo Prison in a van for the short drive to the courthouse. The periodic court hearings give Gershkovich’s family, friends and U.S. officials a glimpse of him, and for the 32-year-old journalist, it’s a break from his otherwise largely monotonous prison routine. Friends and family say Gershkovich is relying on his sense of humor to get through the days. Every day, Milman said, “I wake up and look at the clock.”“I think about if his lunchtime has passed, and his bedtime," she said.

Persons: Evan Gershkovich, He’s, Gershkovich, it’s, “ It’s, ”, Ella Milman, Milman, Nicholas Daniloff, Emma Tucker, ” Milman, Evan, Francesca Ebel, Josef Stalin's, he’s, Polina Ivanova, He's, Pjotr Sauer, ” Sauer, Mikhail Gershkovich, doesn't, “, Biden, Lynne Tracy, Gershkovich “, Vladimir Putin, Vadim Krasikov, ” Ebel, Journal's Tucker, I’m, Tracy Organizations: Wall, Journal, Federal Security Service, U.S, Associated Press, Russian Foreign Ministry, Moscow Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Arsenal, British, Guardian, West Locations: Lefortovo, Yekaterinburg, Washington, Russia, Ukraine, “, New Jersey, Moscow, Russian, Germany, Berlin, Georgian

☆ Opinion: Watch carefully what Putin does next
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Opinion Frida Ghitis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Literally and figuratively, Putin was telling Russians — who would soon vote in a presidential election — that he was the man to protect them. Once in office, attack after attack gave him the pretext to dismantle democracy brick by brick. Once in office, attack after attack gave him the pretext to dismantle democracy brick by brick. Patrushev, incidentally, now heads the national security council, and as I recently wrote, is a possible successor to Putin. The terrorist attack was a glaring failure by the president and his regime.

Persons: Frida Ghitis, Vladimir Putin, Boris Yeltsin, Putin, —, ”, Yeltsin, Nikolai Patrushev, Alexander Litvinenko, Denis Sinyakov, Moscow’s, beholden, Oleg Nikishin, Crocus Organizations: CNN, Washington Post, Politics, Frida Ghitis CNN, Crocus City Hall, ISIS, Putin, FSB, European Court, Human Rights, Kremlin, Chechen, Getty Locations: Crocus, Moscow, Ukraine, Washington, Chechnya, Russian, Ryazan, AFP, Russia, Beslan, ”

☆ Opinion | Who Is Blowing Up Russia?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Bret Stephens | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

There are two plausible hypotheses regarding Friday’s terrorist attack at a concert hall outside Moscow, in which at least 139 people were killed. The first is that it was an inside job — orchestrated by Russian security services, or at least carried out with their foreknowledge. In closed societies, they’re a reasonable (if not always correct) way to understand political phenomena. In 1999, more than 300 Russians were killed and 1,700 injured in a series of apartment bombings for which authorities blamed Chechen terrorists. Initial tests of the powder found it contained the same explosive, hexogen, that had been used in other bombings.

Persons: —, Vladimir Putin — Organizations: Federal Security Service Locations: Moscow, Russian, Ryazan

☆ Putin expected to use deadly Moscow attack to Russia's advantage, whoever's to blame
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

U.S. officials and defense experts agreed that it's highly likely that IS was responsible for the attack. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that "what happened yesterday in Moscow is obviously just Putin and the other scum trying to blame it on someone else." Moscow openly rebuffed and ignored a warning from the U.S. earlier in March that "extremists" had "imminent plants" to attack large gatherings in Moscow. Law enforcement officers stand guard near the Crocus City Hall concert venue following a reported shooting incident, near Moscow, Russia. Just days before the attack, Putin instructed Russia's security services to focus their efforts on supporting Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Metzel, Vladimir Putin's, Olga Maltseva, hasn't, Ukraine —, Putin, Ali Cura, Dmitry Medvedev, Medvedev, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Maksim Blinov, Maximilian Hess, Hess, Putin's, Tatyana Makeyeva Organizations: Sputnik, Afp, Getty, Hall, Islamic State, Ukraine, West, Crocus City Hall, Anadolu, Russia's Security, NBC News, Foreign Policy Research Institute, CNBC, Islamic Locations: Russian, Moscow, Russia, Crocus, Ukraine, Kyiv, Europe, Basmanny, U.S, Chechen, Islamic State, Syria, Afghanistan

☆ 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

☆ Who are ISIS-K, the group that claimed it carried out the Moscow terror attack?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Jessie Yeung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

It is a branch of ISIS, the terror group that emerged in Syria and Iraq and, at its peak, controlled a huge stretch of territory. By 2018, ISIS-K was ranked the world’s fourth-deadliest terror group, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace, which monitors global terrorism. Video Ad Feedback What we know about ISIS group claiming responsibility for Moscow terror attack 04:16 - Source: CNNWhat do they want? Russian state media reported on March 7 that the FSB, Russia’s security service, prevented an ISIS attack on a synagogue in Moscow, according to Reuters. It is the most active terror group in the country, responsible for 73 deaths in 2023, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Persons: Kamala Harris, –, Joe Biden, Putin, ”, Daniel Byman, ” Byman, John Miller, Wakil Kohsar, Washington, Vladimir Putin Organizations: CNN, Islamic, ISIS, Sunday, US, Institute for Economics, The United Nations, Sharia, “, RIA Novosti, RIA, Reuters, Kabul University, CSIS, National Legal Training, US Central Command, National Intelligence, UN, Manchester Arena, State Department, Kyiv Locations: Moscow, Soviet, Tajikistan, Khorasan, Asia, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Africa, East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Kabul, Afghanistan’s Kunar, Nangarhar, United States, Britain, Europe, “ Russia, Georgetown, Caucasus, Pakistan –, Mastung, AFP, Germany, Paris, Ariana Grande, England, Orlando , Florida, Russian, Ukraine, Crocus

☆ 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

☆ Russia Has Suffered Other Major Attacks in Recent Decades
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

For many Russians, the massacre at a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow on Friday night brought to mind shootings and bombings across the country in recent decades, events that the authorities often described as terrorism. The authorities linked many of those attacks to Russia’s wars against Chechen separatists in the 1990s and 2000s. Those conflicts helped enable the rise of Vladimir V. Putin, who over his two decades in power has sought to project an image of being tough on terrorism.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin Organizations: Chechen Locations: Moscow

Theater CrisisAbout 40 Chechen militants on Oct. 23, 2002 stormed a Moscow theater where a popular musical was underway, taking some 850 people hostage and planting explosives in the auditorium. They demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya. Two days later, a severe explosion shook the building and Russian forces rushed in. A suicide bomber killed 41 people on a Moscow subway train in February 2004. Suicide bombings of two Moscow subway trains about 40 minutes apart in March 2010 killed about 40 people.

Persons: Vladimir Putin's, Friday's, Putin, Shamil Basayev Organizations: Crocus City Hall, Islamic, Officials, Federal Security Service, Public Transport, Air Transport, Moscow's Domodedovo, Islamic State Locations: Moscow, Crocus, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Ryazan, Russian, Chechen, Beslan, Volgograd, St, Petersburg, Moscow's

☆ Putin is coasting towards another term in power. Here’s what to know about Russia’s presidential election
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Rob Picheta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —Russia is holding a presidential election that is all but certain to extend Vladimir Putin’s rule throughout this decade and into the 2030s. But this is not a normal election; the poll is essentially a constitutional box-ticking exercise that carries no prospect of removing Putin from power. But that is not to say Russians expect the election to change the direction of the country. Russia’s elections are neither free nor fair, and serve essentially as a formality to extend Putin’s term in power, according to independent bodies and observers both in and outside the country. In order to vote against Putin, you just need to vote for any other candidate,” he said on February 8.

Persons: Vladimir Putin’s, Putin, Alexey Navalny, Natalia Kolesnikova, Joseph Stalin, Putin’s, Dmitry Medvedev, euphemistically, —, Abbas Gallyamov, Gallyamov, ”, Callum Fraser, Nikolay Kharitonov, Leonid Slutsky, Vladislav Davankov, Davankov, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Boris Nadezhdin, Yekaterina Duntsova, Duntsova, Leonid Volkov, Volkov, Stringer, Alexey Navalny –, –, Yulia Navalnaya, “, “ Putin, Don’t, Navalnaya Organizations: CNN, Russian, Duma, Getty, Levada, Central, Commission, Royal United Services Institute, Communist Party, Slutsky, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Kremlin, CEC, Freedom, Putin, European Union, Foreign Affairs Locations: Russia, Ukraine, AFP, Soviet, Lithuanian, Vilnius, Chechen, Grozny, Moscow, Russian

☆ Russian oligarch went to Moscow in effort to broker complex prisoner exchange that included Navalny, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Sebastian Shukla | Alex Marquardt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —A multi-country prisoner exchange that might have freed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was being discussed and progressing when he died last month, multiple sources have told CNN, and included the direct involvement of a Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich. However, a source close to Navalny’s team told CNN that on the evening of February 15 they had received word that a message had been delivered to Putin. Clinton “initially passed on the message” to US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Grozev told CNN. “We had to find a way to package the German asset [Krasikov] into an American negotiation,” the source close to the Navalny team said. Getting the message to Putin was one of the greatest challenges, the individual close to the Navalny team told CNN.

Persons: Alexey Navalny, Roman Abramovich, Navalny, Abramovich, Hillary Clinton, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Maria Pevchikh, “, ”, Dmitry Peskov, it’s, Christo Grozev, Clinton, Grozev, Biden, Viktor Bout, Brittney Griner, Clinton “, Jake Sullivan, Sullivan, Pevchikh, Vadim Krasikov, Krasikov, Tucker Carlson, Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, Whelan, Gershkovich, Whelan –, Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, ” Abramovich Organizations: CNN, United Arab, Kremlin, IK, Aspen Ideas, FSB, US National, National Security, Wall Street, Krasikov, Navalny, US Department of Justice Locations: Russian, Moscow, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Siberia, Western, Russia, Aspen, Colorado, Berlin, Chechen, Europe, Germans, Brazil

☆ Ukrainian POWs are being bought and sold on a Russian black market, report says
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russian fighters are operating a black market for Ukrainian prisoners of war, The Times of London reported. AdvertisementA black market in Ukrainian prisoners of war is being operated by Russian fighters, according to The Times of London. The Chechens were buying the POWs from other Russian forces in order to use them in prisoner exchanges for their own troops, he said. Soon, Levytskiy was taken to Grozny, where he recuperated and, in June 2023, was part of a group exchange of Ukrainian prisoners for Chechen ones, the paper reported. An estimated 4,000 Ukrainian combatants have been taken prisoner by Russian forces, The Guardian reported.

Persons: —, Petro Yatsenko, Ramzan Kadyrov, Vyacheslav Levytskiy, Levytskiy Organizations: Service, Russian, The Times, Donetsk People's, Guardian Locations: London, Russia, Grozny, Chechen, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Donetsk, Avdiivka, Donetsk People's Republic, Geneva, Russian

☆ Navalny was on the verge of being freed in a high-stakes deal with Putin when he suddenly died, his staffers claim
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Mikhaila Friel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Alexey Navalny was close to being freed in a prisoner swap at the time of his deathNavalny ally Maria Pevchikh said Putin had Navalny killed to prevent the swap. Navalny, Putin's political foe, died at an Arctic penal colony on February 16. Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Putin's pollitical nemesis, was close to being freed as part of a prisoner exchange before his death, according to one of his allies. Russian journalist and anti-corruption activist Maria Pevchikh alleged that Putin had Navalny killed because he didn't want the exchange to go through. "Navalny was supposed to be free in the coming days because we had received a decision on his exchange," Pevchikh said in the video.

Persons: Alexey Navalny, Maria Pevchikh, Putin, Vladimir Putin's pollitical, Navalny, Pevchikh, Vladim Krasikov, Krasikov, Tucker Carlson, Evan Gershkovich —, —, Zelimkhan Organizations: YouTube Locations: Russian, Berlin, Moscow, Georgian, Caucasus

☆ Navalny Allies Say He Was About to Be Freed in a Prisoner Exchange
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Anton Troianovski | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Aides to Aleksei A. Navalny asserted on Monday that the Russian opposition leader had been on the verge of being freed in a prisoner exchange with the West before he died earlier this month. Western officials were in advanced talks with the Kremlin on a deal that would have released Mr. Navalny along with two Americans in Russian prison, a top aide to the dead opposition leader, Maria Pevchikh, said in a video released on the Navalny team’s YouTube channel. As part of that deal, Ms. Pevchikh said, Germany would have released Vadim Krasikov, the man convicted of killing a former Chechen separatist fighter in a Berlin park in 2019. There was no immediate comment from any of the parties reportedly involved in the trade described by Ms. Pevchikh. A Kremlin spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Persons: Aleksei A, Navalny, Maria Pevchikh, Pevchikh, Vadim Krasikov, Mr, Putin, Krasikov, Tucker Carlson, Ms Organizations: West, Kremlin, YouTube, Fox News Locations: Russian, Germany, Chechen, Berlin

CNN —Negotiations to release Russia’s opposition leader Alexey Navalny in a prisoner swap had reached their “final stage” just before his sudden death, a top aide to Navalny has said. “Navalny was supposed to be free in the coming days because we had achieved a decision on his exchange,” Pevchik said. Putin had recently signaled his interest in a prisoner exchange with the West involving Krasikov and Gershkovich. Pevchik claimed that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich had served as “an informal negotiator” and delivered the prisoner swap proposal to Putin. Navalny’s body was returned to his mother on Saturday, more than a week after his death.

Persons: Alexey Navalny, ”, Navalny, Vadim Krasikov, Maria Pevchik, ” Pevchik, “, ” Navalny, CNN’s Matthew Chance, Dmitri Peskov, Ebrahim Noroozi, Matthew Miller, Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, Putin, Tucker Carlson “, Navalny “, Lyudmila Navalnaya, Pevchik, nodded understandingly, Henry Kissinger, Kissinger, Abramovich, Navalnaya, Alexey, ” Peskov, ” Kira Yarmysh, Alexey ” Organizations: CNN, YouTube, CNN’s, State Department, Wall Street, Fox News, Kremlin, “ Locations: Russian, Germany, Chechen, Berlin, Russia, Krasikov, Siberia, Ukraine, “

☆ Opinion: What is Putin afraid of?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Opinion Frida Ghitis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. But in its attempt to exercise and display its strength, Putin is showing his fear. Security forces have arrested Russians questioning the war in Ukraine, let alone questioning Putin. According to rights organization Freedom House, Russia has become one of the world’s top perpetrators of transnational repression. Criticism of the war or of Putin can lead to death in a Russian prison camp.

Persons: Frida Ghitis, Vladimir Putin, Ksenia, Putin, Karelina, Alexey Navalny, Navalny, Chris Van Heerden, didn’t, Boris Nemtsov, Anna Politkovskaya, There’s Navalny, Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, —, Gershkovich, Vadim Krasikov, ”, Maxim Kuzminov, Russia “, Alexander Litvinenko, Sergei Skripal, “ Organizations: CNN, Washington Post, Politics, Frida Ghitis CNN, Kremlin, Russia’s Federal Security Service, KGB, Security, US, Wall Street, House, Police Locations: Russia, Russian, Los Angeles, Ukraine, Yekaterinburg, Germany, Chechen, Alicante, Kuzminov, London, Salisbury, England, Moscow, Ukrainian

☆ US-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina ‘didn’t have a worry in a world’ when she went to Russia. Then she was arrested for treason
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Tara John | Mariya Knight | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —When dual US-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina boarded a flight from Istanbul to Russia in January, the last thing on her mind was that she would find herself behind bars weeks later on treason charges, her boyfriend told CNN’s Brianna Keilar Wednesday. She went on to Russia, while he returned to California - and that’s when he discovered she had been detained. Russian authorities took her cell phone then released her and she was able to see her family and contact him. Despite it all Van Heerden said he was hopeful the US would not give up on her. Ksenia Karelina's boyfriend said she had for years been a "semi-pro" ballerina.

Persons: Ksenia Karelina, CNN’s Brianna Keilar, Karelina “, ”, Chris Van Heerden, Karelina, Van Heerden, Ksenia, ” Karelina, Ukraine –, “, Nick Starichenko, Shutterstock, Andrei Soldatov, Evan Gershkovich’s, Vladimir Putin, Vadim Krasikov, ” Putin, Tucker Carlson Organizations: CNN, Angeles, Federal Security Service, Russia, Russia’s Federal Security Service, Court, Wall Street Locations: Russian, Istanbul, Russia, Yekaterinburg, California, Karelina, Ukrainian, Ukraine, America, Moscow, Germany, Chechen, Berlin, United States

CNN —A US-Russian dual citizen has been arrested in Russia on charges of treason for allegedly collecting funds for Ukrainian organizations and openly supporting Kyiv. It also accused the woman of taking part in “public actions in support of the Kyiv regime” while in the US. The court chose a preventive measure in the form of detention for the accused,” the statement added. Moscow has detained several US citizens in recent years, some of whom have been exchanged for Russian prisoners held in Western countries. The Moscow City Court on Tuesday rejected Gershkovich’s lawyers appeal and has upheld his pretrial detention until March 30.

Persons: Evan Gershkovich, “, Gershkovich, Vladimir Putin, Vadim Krasikov, Natalia Kolesnikova, ” Putin, Tucker Carlson, ”, Brittney, Viktor Bout, Griner, US Marine Paul Whelan Organizations: CNN, Russia’s Federal Security Service, Ukrainian Armed Forces, Embassy, US State Department, Wall Street, Court, Getty, Fox News, basketball, US Marine Locations: Russian, Russia, Los Angeles, Yekaterinburg, Moscow, “, Lefortovo, Germany, Chechen, Berlin, AFP, United States

☆ Navalny is the latest in a long line of Putin critics who met an early death
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Lauren Said-Moorhouse | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

CNN —When Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny returned to Russia in 2021, there were many who feared he would face an untimely end. The Kremlin has said it is investigating the critic’s death, the circumstances of which were not immediately clear. After his death, opposition leader Ilya Yashin said his friend had been working on a report about Russian troops and their involvement in Ukraine. Nemtsov’s death came two days before he was set to lead an opposition rally in the Russian capital. Alexander PerepilichnyyOver the years, suggestions have emerged of the possible use of a rare plant poison in the death of Russian financier Alexander Perepilichnyy.

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