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☆ 3 Takeaways From Putin’s Trip to Vietnam
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( Sui-Lee Wee | Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A day later, in Vietnam, the Russian leader was far less provocative. Vietnam values its relations with the United States, which would be jeopardized if Mr. Putin were to make fiery statements about Washington on its soil. So even though Vietnam and Russia have deep military relations and a shared communist history, leaders in Hanoi instead focused talks with Mr. Putin on boosting ties in areas like trade, education, energy, and science and technology. The Russian leader kept his formal remarks muted. There were no major breakthroughs, but the show of unity with Vietnam was designed to give Mr. Putin a veneer of international legitimacy at a time of increasing isolation in the West.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Mr Locations: North Korea, Vietnam, Russian, United States, Washington, Russia, Hanoi, West

☆ Putin Threatens to Arm North Korea, Escalating Tension With West Over Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia directly warned the United States and its allies that he is willing to arm North Korea if they continue to supply Kyiv with sophisticated weapons that have struck Russian territory, raising the stakes for the Western powers backing Ukraine. Mr. Putin made the threat in comments to reporters traveling with him late Thursday in Vietnam before he flew home to Russia after a trip there and to North Korea. Mr. Putin cast his threat to arm Pyongyang, in violation of United Nations sanctions, as a response to decisions by the United States and its allies in recent months to allow Ukraine to make certain strikes on Russian territory with their weapons. “Those who supply these weapons believe that they are not at war with us,” Mr. Putin said. “Well, as I said, including in Pyongyang, then we reserve the right to supply weapons to other regions of the world.”

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Kim Jong, ” Mr, ” Organizations: United Nations Locations: Russia, United States, North Korea, Ukraine, Vietnam, Pyongyang, North

☆ Putin Will Head to North Korea as Ukraine War Redefines Ties With Kim
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-18 | by ( Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The war against Ukraine has driven Mr. Putin closer to the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, who has won new status with the Kremlin by opening his vast munitions stores to Moscow. Nine months ago, after Mr. Kim arrived by armored train in the Russian Far East, the two men met at a Russian cosmodrome and toasted their “sacred struggle” against the West. The North Korean leader, in between visiting sensitive Russian rocket and fighter jet facilities, invited Mr. Putin to make a reciprocal visit. Now, the Russian president has taken him up on the offer. The United States once relied on Moscow’s cooperation in its attempts to curb North Korea’s nuclear and missile program.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Kim Jong, Kim, Mr Organizations: Kremlin, West, North, Washington, United Locations: Russia, North Korea, Pyongyang, United States, Ukraine, Moscow, Russian

The new policy from the Biden administration is one of the most significant actions to protect immigrants in years. Credit... Tierney L. Cross for The New York Times

Persons: Biden, Tierney L Organizations: The New York

☆ Optimistic About the War in Ukraine, Putin Unleashes a Purge at Home
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-26 | by ( Paul Sonne | Anatoly Kurmanaev | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Periodic outcries over incompetence and corruption at the top of the Russian military have dogged President Vladimir V. Putin’s war effort since the start of his invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. When his forces faltered around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, the need for change was laid bare. When they were routed months later outside the city of Kharkiv, expectations of a shake-up grew. And after the mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin marched his men toward Moscow, complaining of deep rot and ineptitude at the top of the Russian force, Mr. Putin seemed obliged to respond. Now, with the battlefield crises seemingly behind him and Mr. Prigozhin dead, the Russian leader has decided to act, changing defense ministers for the first time in more than a decade and allowing a number of corruption arrests among top ministry officials.

Persons: Vladimir V, Yevgeny V, Prigozhin, Putin Locations: Ukraine, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Moscow, Russian

☆ Russia Starts Tactical Nuclear Drills, in a Warning to Ukraine’s Allies
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-21 | by ( Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Russia sent a pointed reminder on Tuesday that it could use battlefield nuclear weapons in Ukraine, releasing video of its forces beginning exercises to practice their use, two weeks after President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the provocative drills. Video released by the Russian Defense Ministry showed a caravan of military vehicles moving down a wooded road, as well as mobile Iskander missile systems — which can deliver conventional or nuclear explosives — getting into position to launch, with their warheads blurred out. The footage also showed a supersonic strategic bomber armed with missiles and an attack aircraft being prepared for takeoff. In a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said the exercise, carried out near Ukraine, was aimed at preparing the force for the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons. The goal is to “unconditionally ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state in response to provocative statements and threats of individual Western officials,” the ministry said.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, “, Emmanuel Macron, David Cameron, Britain’s Organizations: Russian Defense Ministry, Kremlin Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Russian, France

☆ The Technocrat Who’s Taking Control of Putin’s War Effort
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-19 | by ( Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In more than two years of war against Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has found that the technocrats he assembled to manage the Russian economy have turned out to be his most reliable foot soldiers. The Russian leader has now tapped one of them, Andrei R. Belousov, who has no military experience, to become his next defense minister. Mr. Belousov, however, has been a true believer. His rise shows how Mr. Putin is fully redirecting Russia’s economy toward the war effort and suggests that the Kremlin may grow even more deeply involved in mobilizing industry for the fight. Mr. Putin cast his new defense chief, who joined him on a trip to China in recent days, as a much-needed coordinator for a rapidly changing Russian military industrial complex that is critical to success in the war.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Andrei R, Belousov, Rembrandt, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Carl Jung, Mr Organizations: Ukraine Locations: Russia, China

☆ Putin Will Visit Xi, Testing a ‘No Limits’ Partnership
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( David Pierson | Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, hosts President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in China this week, it will be more than two years since the two autocratic leaders declared a “no limits” partnership to push back against what they consider American bullying and interference. Growing challenges from the West have tested the limits of that partnership. Mr. Xi is walking a narrowing tightrope, coming under increasing diplomatic and economic pressure to curtail Chinese support for Russia and its war in Ukraine. “China sees Russia as an important strategic partner and wants to give Putin proper respect, but it also wants to maintain sound relations with Europe and the United States for economic reasons and beyond. It is a very difficult balancing act,” said Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based international relations scholar.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Vladimir V, Putin, ”, Shen Dingli Locations: Russia, China, Ukraine, Europe, Beijing, United States, Shanghai

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia replaced his minister of defense on Sunday as he shook up his national security team for the first time since his invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Putin kept the minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, in his inner circle, tapping him to run the country’s security council. Andrei R. Belousov, an economist who served as first deputy prime minister in the last government and previously was the economic development minister, was nominated to become the new defense chief. It is unclear how much authority over the war effort Mr. Shoigu will retain. colleague of Mr. Putin who has headed the Russian security council for 16 years, would be moved to another position to be announced in the coming days.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Sergei K, Andrei R, Shoigu, Nikolai P, Mr Locations: Russia, Ukraine

☆ Putin’s War Will Soon Reach Russians’ Tax Bills
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-27 | by ( Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is about to institute a rare tax increase on corporations and high earners, a move that reflects both the burgeoning costs of his war in Ukraine and the firm control he has over the Russian elite as he embarks on a fifth term in office. Financial technocrats in Mr. Putin’s government are searching for new ways to fund not just an expensive war in Ukraine but also a broader confrontation with the West that is likely to remain costly for years. Russia is allocating nearly a third of its overall 2024 budget to national defense spending this year, a huge increase, adding to a deficit that the Kremlin has taken pains to keep in check. The proposed tax increase underscores Mr. Putin’s rising confidence about his political control over the Russian elite and his country’s economic resilience at home, showing that he is willing to risk alienating parts of society to fund the war. It would represent the first major tax overhaul in over a decade.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin Locations: Russia, Ukraine

☆ Arrests of Europeans for Aiding Russia Raise Fears of Kremlin’s Reach
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Paul Sonne | Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The authorities in Poland and Germany have arrested at least five of their citizens in recent days and accused them of spying for Russia or of offering to help Moscow commit violence on European soil, including a “possible attack” on the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. The arrests underscored fears of the Kremlin’s furtive network in the West and its use of foreign nationals, including violent criminals and soccer hooligans, to terrify or possibly even kill opponents sheltering abroad. The Polish National Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that a Polish citizen, identified as Pawel K., was detained on Wednesday. It said he had offered to assist Russian agents in a possible plot aimed at killing Mr. Zelensky. It gave few details, other than saying he had “declared his readiness to act for the military intelligence of the Russian Federation and established contacts with citizens of the Russian Federation directly involved in the war in Ukraine.”

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, “, ” Organizations: Prosecutor’s, Russian Federation Locations: Poland, Germany, Russia, Moscow, Ukraine, Polish, Russian

A day before the U.S. embassy in Moscow put out a rare public alert this month about a possible extremist attack at a Russian concert venue, the local C.I.A. station delivered a private warning to Russian officials that included at least one additional detail: The plot in question involved an offshoot of the Islamic State known as ISIS-K.American intelligence had been tracking the group closely and believed the threat credible. Within days, however, President Vladimir V. Putin was disparaging the warnings, calling them “outright blackmail” and attempts to “intimidate and destabilize our society.”Three days after he spoke, gunmen stormed Crocus City Hall outside Moscow last Friday night and killed at least 143 people in the deadliest attack in Russia in nearly two decades. ISIS quickly claimed responsibility for the massacre with statements, a photo and a propaganda video. What made the security lapse seemingly even more notable was that in the days before the massacre Russia’s own security establishment had also acknowledged the domestic threat posed by the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, called Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, ” Organizations: Crocus City Hall, Moscow, ISIS, Islamic State Locations: U.S, Moscow, Russian, Islamic, Crocus, Russia, Afghanistan, State Khorasan Province

When four men were detained by the Russian authorities in connection with the massacre at a concert hall outside Moscow last week, they were dressed in the same attire as the assailants seen in videos of the attack, according to a New York Times analysis of footage from the hall, social media profiles and images leaked or released by Russia. The identical clothing and other corresponding details suggest they carried out the attack. A video of one of the suspects being detained, for instance, shows him wearing a light brown T-shirt with a distinctive logo on the left breast and pants with a Boss label: Those details match the clothes worn by a gunman in propaganda footage of the attack released by the Islamic State, a.k.a. In addition, the Times analysis shows, the car that the suspects were driving when they were apprehended is the same color and type as one seen in footage from outside the concert hall during the attack.

Organizations: New York Times, Islamic, a.k.a, ISIS Locations: Moscow, Russia, Islamic State

Bodies were recovered, flowers were laid and fingers were pointed on Sunday as competing narratives took shape over who was behind the terrorist attack on a Russian concert hall where at least 137 people out to enjoy an evening of music were killed. President Vladimir V. Putin has hinted that Ukraine was behind the Friday night attack. He stopped short of accusing Kyiv directly, but on Sunday, some of his allies showed no such compunction. American officials have said that the attack appeared to be the work of an offshoot of the Islamic State, and that there is no evidence connecting Kyiv to it. But many Russian nationalist commentators and ultraconservative hawks are pushing the idea that Ukraine is the obvious culprit.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Sergei A, Markov Organizations: Islamic, Kremlin, “, ISIS Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Kyiv, Islamic State

☆ Behind Putin’s Potemkin Vote, Real Support. But No Other Choices.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Kremlin stage-managed Russia’s presidential vote over the weekend to send a singular message at home and abroad: that President Vladimir V. Putin’s support is overwhelming and unshakable, despite or even because of his war against Ukraine. Mr. Putin, they said, won more than 87 percent of the vote, his closest competitor just 4 percent. The Levada Center, an independent pollster, reported last month that 86 percent of Russians approved of Mr. Putin, his highest rating in more than seven years. But while the figures may suggest unabiding support for Mr. Putin and his agenda across Russia, the situation is more complex than the numbers convey. The leader of one opposition research group in Moscow has argued that backing for Mr. Putin is actually far more brittle than simple approval numbers suggest.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Potemkin Organizations: Ukraine, Levada, Mr Locations: Russia, Moscow

His most beloved crooner sang a nationalistic ballad with an appeal to Russians: “The Motherland is calling. Don’t let her down.”His favorite band belted out a moody song about wartime sacrifice. And then he took the stage, under a banner celebrating the 10th anniversary of Crimea’s seizure from Ukraine, to remind thousands of Russians gathered on Red Square that his fight to add territory to Russia wasn’t over. President Vladimir V. Putin, a day after declaring victory in a performative election, signaled on Monday that the war against Ukraine would continue to dominate his rule and called for unity in bringing the people of eastern Ukraine “back to their home family.”“We will move on together, hand in hand,” Mr. Putin told the crowd, boasting of a restored railroad line that he said would soon connect to Crimea through territory taken from Ukraine. “And this is precisely what really makes us stronger — not words, but deeds.”

Persons: Don’t, ”, Vladimir V, Putin, Mr Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Crimea

The Kremlin has fired its top naval commander, the biggest fallout yet from a series of devastating attacks by Ukraine on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, according to a Ukrainian and a Western official. Adm. Nikolai Yevmenov, the head of the Russian Navy for the past five years, was removed from command and replaced by the head of the Russia’s Northern Fleet. Russian publications, citing anonymous sources, reported on Sunday that Admiral Yevmenov had been fired. The Financial Times, citing Ukrainian officials, reported the development on Monday. U.S. officials have assessed that while Kyiv’s counteroffensive last year in eastern and southern Ukraine largely failed, its strikes on the Crimean Peninsula and attacks on the Black Sea Fleet were unexpectedly effective.

Persons: Adm, Nikolai Yevmenov, Yevmenov Organizations: Russian Navy, Fleet, Financial, Black Locations: Ukraine, Russia’s, Ukrainian, Crimean

☆ Top Navalny Aide Attacked With Hammer Outside Home in Lithuania
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Leonid Volkov, who served as one of Mr. Navalny’s top organizers, was pulling up to his house in Vilnius when the attack happened. Mr. Volkov survived the attack. Photographs posted online by another top aide to Mr. Navalny showed Mr. Volkov conscious but injured, with a mark on his head and blood streaming from one leg. Other photographs showed the bashed-in window of his car, which was parked in a driveway in front of a children’s basketball hoop. Later in the evening, the aide posted a photograph of Mr. Volkov being loaded into an ambulance and taken to the hospital.

Persons: Aleksei A, Navalny’s, Leonid Volkov, Kira Yarmysh, Volkov, Navalny, Ms, Yarmysh Locations: Russian, Lithuania’s, Vilnius, “

☆ Kremlin Seeks to Suppress Navalny’s Influence, in Death as in Life
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-03 | by ( Paul Sonne | Oleg Matsnev | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Aleksei A. Navalny was alive, the Kremlin sought to portray him as an inconsequential figure unworthy of attention, even as the Russian authorities vilified and attacked him with a viciousness that suggested the opposite. President Vladimir V. Putin has not said a word in public about Mr. Navalny in the two weeks since the opposition campaigner’s death at age 47 in an Arctic prison. Russian state television has been almost equally silent. And on Friday, as thousands gathered in the Russian capital for Mr. Navalny’s funeral, cheering his name, official Moscow acted as if the remembrance was a nonevent. When asked that morning if the Kremlin could comment on Mr. Navalny as a political figure, Mr. Putin’s spokesman responded, “It cannot.”

Persons: Aleksei A, Navalny, Vladimir V, Putin, Navalny’s, Yulia Navalnaya, Putin’s, ” Organizations: Kremlin Locations: Moscow

☆ Kremlin Warns Against NATO Ground Intervention in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Paul Sonne | More About Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Kremlin warned on Tuesday that the intervention of NATO troops on the ground in Ukraine would inevitably lead to a direct confrontation between Russia and the Western military alliance, describing the discussion of such a possibility as “a very important new element.”The warning comes a day after President Emmanuel Macron of France said “nothing should be ruled out,” when he was asked about the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine to help the nation defend against Russia. “Anything is possible if it is useful to reach our goal,” Mr. Macron said, speaking after a meeting with European leaders in Paris about future support for Ukraine. He said the goal was to ensure “Russia cannot win this war.”The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said such an intervention would lead to a direct clash between NATO troops and Russian forces.

Persons: Emmanuel Macron, ” Mr, Macron, ”, Dmitri S, Peskov Organizations: NATO, Russia, Ukraine, Kremlin Locations: Ukraine, Russia, France, Paris, Russian

☆ Russia’s Brutal War Calculus
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Paul Sonne | Josh Holder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

Russia’s Brutal War Calculus Freedoms Wages The costs of two years of war in Ukraine have been enormous. Here is a look at how Russia at war has changed — suffering enormous costs by some metrics but faring better than expected by others. But Mr. Putin has convinced many that in invading Ukraine, Russia is defending itself against an existential threat from the West. Blood and TreasureIn the early months of the war, Mr. Putin’s military made grave mistakes, but it has regrouped. But despite their stated support for the war, many Russians would be happy for it to end.

Persons: languish, Instagram, Vladimir Putin, Putin, ”, “, Putin’s, Aleksei A, Navalny Organizations: Daily Life People, Facebook, Travel, Trade, Russia, Military Locations: Ukraine, Russia, China, Soviet Union, India, Moscow, Europe, Turkey, Ukrainian

☆ Russian Authorities Threaten to Bury Navalny on Prison Grounds, Aides Say
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Paul Sonne | More About Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Russian authorities have warned Aleksei A. Navalny’s mother that if she doesn’t agree to a secret funeral, the late opposition campaigner will be buried by the state on prison grounds, according to Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman. Lyudmila Navalnaya, Mr. Navalny’s mother, was given three hours to agree — or until about 12:30 p.m. E.S.T. — but she refused to negotiate, arguing that the Russian authorities had no legal right to decide the time and place of her son’s burial, according to Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh. “She is demanding compliance with the law, which requires investigators to hand over the body within two days, from the moment the cause of death is established,” Ms. Yarmysh said in a statement released on X. Mr. Navalny’s mother is “insisting the authorities allow a funeral and memorial service to be held in accordance with tradition,” Ms. Yarmysh added.

Persons: Aleksei A, Navalny’s, Lyudmila Navalnaya, Kira Yarmysh, Ms, Yarmysh

☆ From Frigid Cells to Mystery Injections, Prison Imperiled Navalny’s Health
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Paul Sonne | Ivan Nechepurenko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Aleksei A. Navalny portrayed himself as invincible, consistently using his hallmark humor to suggest that President Vladimir V. Putin couldn’t break him, no matter how dire his conditions became in prison. But behind the brave face, the reality was plain to see. Since his incarceration in early 2021, Mr. Navalny, Russia’s most formidable opposition figure, and his staff regularly suggested his conditions were so grim that he was being put to death in slow motion. The cause of Mr. Navalny’s death in prison at 47 has not been established — in fact his family has not yet even been allowed to see his body — but Russia’s harshest penal colonies are known for hazardous conditions, and Mr. Navalny was singled out for particularly brutal treatment. “As Navalny’s doctor told me: the body cannot withstand this.”

Persons: Aleksei A, Navalny, Vladimir V, Putin, Navalny’s, “ Aleksei Navalny, Dmitri A, Muratov, ” Locations: Russian

The news of Mr. Navalny’s death shocked many at the conference and could add new urgency to the discussion. Ms. Harris said at the start of her address to the conference — which had already been expected to focus on Russia — that the United States was still trying to confirm the reports of Mr. Navalny’s death, but that it held Russia’s government responsible. “I made it clear to him that I believe the consequences of that would be devastating for Russia,” Mr. Biden told reporters after meeting with Mr. Putin in Geneva in 2021. “What do you think happens when he’s saying it’s not about hurting Navalny, all the stuff he says to rationalize the treatment of Navalny, and then he dies in prison?” Mr. Biden continued. “I saw Yulia Navalnaya and Leonid Volkov last night here in Munich,” said Michael McFaul, a former American ambassador to Moscow.

Persons: Aleksei A, Yulia Navalnaya, clampdown, Navalnaya, Leonid Volkov, Kamala Harris, Antony J, Blinken, Vladimir V, Putin, Navalny’s, Harris, ”, Mr, Biden, Navalny, “, ” Mr, it’s, Ms, Michael McFaul, Aleksei, ” Edward Wong Organizations: Munich Security Conference, ” Locations: Munich, Europe, Ukraine, Moscow, Russia, United States, Geneva, American

☆ Putin to U.S.: Let’s Make a Deal on Ukraine (on My Terms)
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-09 | by ( Paul Sonne | Anton Troianovski | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia kept returning to one message over and over in his meandering, two-hour interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson: Russia wants to negotiate a peace deal in Ukraine, albeit on the Kremlin’s terms. That message seemed aimed at the American right and Republicans in Congress, with an eye to undermining support for aid to Ukraine. If so, the day after the long-anticipated interview, it seemed lost in the muddle. The Russian leader’s discursive historical diatribes, delving into everything from the Rurik dynasty to the Golden Horde, dominated commentary about the interview online and overshadowed the message he intended to deliver. In Russia on Friday, experts and even some of Mr. Putin’s allies were also puzzling over why he gave short shrift to his main ideological commonality with Mr. Carlson’s followers: opposition to L.G.B.T.Q.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Tucker Carlson, Rurik, Putin’s, Carlson’s Organizations: Fox News, Golden Horde Locations: Russia, Ukraine

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