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☆ Putin congratulates 'dear friend' Erdogan for winning Turkish election
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MOSCOW, May 28 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated his "dear friend" Tayyip Erdogan who claimed victory in Turkey's presidential election on Sunday, saying the win was evidence the Turkish people appreciated Erdogan's independent foreign policy. "The election victory was a natural result of your selfless work as the head of the Republic of Turkey, clear evidence of the support of the Turkish people for your efforts to strengthen state sovereignty and conduct an independent foreign policy," Putin said in a message to Erdogan, according to the Kremlin. "We highly appreciate your personal contribution to the strengthening of friendly Russian-Turkish relations and mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas," Putin said. Putin said he attached great importance to joint projects such as Turkey's Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which is being built by Russia's state energy group Rosatom, and a gas hub which Putin has proposed in Turkey. Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Giles ElgoodOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Belarus official: West left us no choice but to deploy nuclear arms
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 28 (Reuters) - Western countries left Belarus no choice but to deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons and had better take heed not to "cross red lines" on key strategic issues, a senior Belarusian official was quoted as saying on Sunday. Russia moved ahead last week with a decision to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory aimed at achieving specific gains on the battlefield. "The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus is therefore one of the steps of strategic deterrence. He said any resort to using "even tactical nuclear weapons will lead to irreversible consequences." The United States has denounced the prospective deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus but says its stance on the use of such weapons has not been altered.

☆ Putin is still too reliant on Prigozhin's 'meat army' to punish the mercenary leader for his public defiance: reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The minor victory comes as Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin continues to publicly slam Russia's military. The Wagner-won victory in the strategically-unimportant city complicates Russian President Vladimir Putin's likely response to Prigozhin's exceedingly defiant and chaotic attitude. And yet Prigozhin continues to play an important role in the war, even after taking a veiled barb at the Russian president, himself, earlier this month. In a rare moment of recognition, Putin even directly congratulated the Wagner Group following their alleged seizure of Bakhmut. Prigozhin said Saturday he would pull his Wagner troops from Bakhmut come Thursday, where they would reorganize and undergo additional training.

☆ UN concerned by lack of grain ships going to one Ukrainian port
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Michelle Nichols | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The Black Sea grain deal - brokered by the U.N. and Turkey last July - allows for the safe export of ammonia and Russia has been pushing for the pipeline to be restarted. Russia agreed last week for the Black Sea pact to be extended for two months. The Black Sea grain deal ground to a halt last week as Russia decided whether to continue it. He noted that no fertilizers, including ammonia, had yet been exported under the Black Sea agreement. The Kremlin said on Monday that the EU's reluctance to reconnect Russia's state agricultural bank to SWIFT showed the bloc's "non-constructive stance" on the Black Sea grain deal.

☆ UK targets grain theft and energy sector with new Russian sanctions
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) - Britain announced a new wave of sanctions against Russia on Friday, targeting companies connected to the theft of Ukrainian grain and those involved in the shipment of Russian energy. Britain said in a statement that it was sanctioning 86 individuals and entities as part of a new crackdown on what it called "shady individuals and entities" connected to the theft and resale of Ukrainian grain. The sanctions would also target Russia's major energy and arms shipping companies, including those connected to Russia's state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom, and the owner of the Russian Copper Company, Igor Altushkin. The designations came after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced new import bans on Russian diamonds and copper, aluminium and nickel. Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Kate HoltonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia's scramble to find microchips for its weapons hints at struggles the US and China could face in a future war
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Stavros Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Russia's scramble to find microchips for its weapons hints at struggles the US and China could face in a future war. Russian strikes and microchipsA Ukrainian military official with electronics from a destroyed Russian T-90M tank in Kyiv in March. Oleksii Chumachenko/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesWestern-made microchips and processors power many of Russia's weapon systems, even its most advanced missiles and aircraft. ASML is the only firm that produces extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, lithography machines, which are needed to make advanced microchips. A US-Chinese clash over Taiwan, or some other disruption, like a Chinese blockade, that halts exports of advanced semiconductors would affect numerous other industries.

Under the terms of the agreement, up to $4 billion in Turkish energy payments to Russia may be postponed until next year, both sources told Reuters under condition of anonymity. Turkey, which is preparing for elections on Sunday, depends heavily on energy imports and Russia is its largest supplier. The source said Turkey could push back further such payments in the coming months depending on the course of energy prices. The Russian and Turkish energy ministries, and their respective energy companies Gazprom and Botas, have not responded to requests for comment on the issue. Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said last week that Turkey and Moscow agreed a deal allowing Ankara to defer energy payments up to a certain amount, but did not give details.

☆ Wagner boss Prigozhin took a rare and not-so-subtle swing at Putin, profanely hinting he could be a problem for Russia's war
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin profanely mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin in a new video. profanely mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin in a new video. The military group's leader hinted Putin was a "grandfather" who could turn out to be a "complete asshole." Prigozhin has been stepping up his feud with Russian leadership as Wagner troops are dying in Ukraine. Prigozhin releasing the video during Russia's Victory Day Parade is also significant.

☆ Russia's invasion of Ukraine is bringing Japan closer to NATO, in yet another own goal for Putin
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Its foreign minister said this was sparked by Russia's Ukraine invasion making a "more unstable" world. Hayashi said the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine was the catalyst. Putin partly justified his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 by saying he wanted to stop NATO's expansion. Japan moving closer to NATO is not just significant for Japan, but also for the Asia-Pacific region's relationship with NATO. The four countries are known as NATO "Partners," who work with NATO in some areas but are not alliance members.

☆ Ukraine says it has alternatives if grain export deal not extended
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KYIV, May 9 (Reuters) - Ukraine has alternative ways of transporting grain if a deal on safe Black Sea exports is not extended on May 18, and would not see that outcome as an "apocalyptic scenario", its agriculture minister said. Ukrainian Black Sea ports were blockaded after Russia's invasion last year, but access to three of them was cleared last July under a deal between Moscow and Kyiv that was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey. The United Nations said on Monday that so far nearly 30 million metric tonnes of grain and foodstuffs had been exported from Ukraine under the Black Sea deal, including nearly 600,000 metric tonnes of grain in World Food Programme vessels for aid operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Yemen. Russia's state-owned RIA news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin as saying a high-level four-way meeting on the Black Sea grain deal would take place in Istanbul on May 10-11. Ukraine also exports grain via Danube River ports and has said previously that what is known as the Danube Cluster offers a viable alternative export route.

☆ Russian nationalist writer describes surviving attack Moscow blamed on U.S., Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A view shows a damaged white Audi Q7 car lying overturned on a track next to a wood, after Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin was allegedly wounded in a bomb attack in a village in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Russia, May 6, 2023. REUTERS/Anastasia MakarychevaMay 7 (Reuters) - The prominent Russian nationalist writer, Zakhar Prilepin, on Sunday described breaking both legs in a car bomb that killed his driver and which Moscow blamed on the United States and Ukraine. Russia's Foreign Ministry blamed Ukraine and the Western states backing it, particularly the United States, for the attack on the writer, an ardent proponent of Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine. Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he believed Russian authorities had staged the attack. He said the regional Nizhny Novgorod governor, Gleb Nikitin, had sent a helicopter to fly him to the city in 16 minutes, sparing him a three-hour drive.

☆ Putin has given up on his ambition to conquer Ukraine after military losses that may take a decade to repair, US intel claims
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russian President Vladimir Putin has scaled back his ambitions in Ukraine, US intel says. Russia has suffered serious setbacks in its bid to seize control of Ukraine. But Ukrainian forces repelled the Russian military in the Kyiv region, then pushed them back along a broad front of territory they had seized in southern and eastern Ukraine. Despite the setbacks, last June Haines said Putin still believed that seizing control of most of Ukraine was possible. Putin may believe that a ceasefire would be to his advantage as a way of prolonging the conflict, and eroding Western support for Ukraine, said Haines.

[1/4] A logo is on display in the office of Sberbank, Russia's state-owned dominant lender and one of the country's leading technology players, in Moscow, Russia, March 28, 2023. But it also highlights challenges as Russia's tech development becomes increasingly reliant on one state-owned player. Since 2020 it has cast itself as a technology company as well, and is now seeking a bigger slice of Russia's shrinking technology pie. "There are restrictions on some of them, it is a very complex technology," Belevtsev said. "There is already a lot of cooperation on engineers and technology," Belevtsev said.

☆ Details in the drone incident the Kremlin says aimed to assassinate Putin 'don't quite add up.' Experts have 3 theories on what happened.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | Sophia Ankel | Ryan Pickrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Russia claimed Wednesday that Ukraine tried to assassinate Putin with a drone attack at the Kremlin. James Patton Rogers, a military historian and adviser to NATO on drones and warfare, said that "there's a few things that don't quite add up in this situation." Its ability to fly comparatively low, and slowly, would potentially help it evade some radar, Patton Rogers said. Claiming that Ukraine tried to assassinate Putin would potentially "open up a new norm in the war," Patton Rogers said. Patton Rogers said he hasn't "seen any indication" that such groups have the capacity to use drones in their attacks.

☆ Gamers are using a secret level to dodge Russian censorship and share news about the war in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Gamers are using a secret room in "CS:GO" to share news about the Ukraine war with Russian players. A Finish newspaper designed the room to bypass Russian censorship and get the news to citizens. Players can find the secret room and read information about Russia's shocking war crimes and high casualties in the ongoing conflict. A map shows Russia's civilian targets in the war, mass graves in Bucha and Irpin, 70,000 Russian deaths in the war so far, and more. They wrote that while "Countless Russians are unaware of what is happening in Ukraine," the secret room is where "they are forced to see the truth with their own eyes."

May 1 (Reuters) - International Boxing Association (IBA) president Umar Kremlev blasted the national federations who broke away from the body to form a new world boxing federation, describing the officials as 'black sheep' and 'hyenas' who do not belong in sport. But Russian Kremlev, who is in Tashkent for the IBA men's world championships, said the IBA is the only international association that governs the sport. Someone tried to register an international association from their garage, why should we even consider them," Kremlev told a news conference. "We did not terminate the (Gazprom) contract as there were obligations to complete... Most federations were against Gazprom being sponsor, but at the (IBA) Congress there were no objections."

☆ Russia's domestic stock investors, shut off from the international financial system, have helped send the Moscow Exchange to a 12-month high
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Russia's benchmark MOEX index is trading at levels not seen in over 12 months. The MOEX Russia Index has gained 24% so far this year after tanking 42% in 2022. The benchmark MOEX Russia Index on the Moscow Exchange hit a high of 2,646.18 on Thursday — its highest level since early April 2022. Despite the surge in the MOEX index, trading volumes in its equities market fell 41% from a year ago amid sanctions. The MOEX Index ended at 2,634.96 on Friday.

☆ Putin hails Turkey ties as first Turkish nuclear plant inaugurated
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/4] Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony for nuclear fuel loading at the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which is under construction in Turkey, via video link in Moscow, Russia April 27, 2023. Russia's state nuclear energy company Rosatom built the Akkuyu nuclear power plant and Thursday's ceremony saw the first loading of nuclear fuel into the first power unit at the site in Turkey's southern Mersin province. "But Turkey will enjoy the advantage of a country that has its own nuclear energy, and nuclear energy, as you know, is one of the cheapest," he added. Erdogan thanked Putin for his support on Akkuyu, adding: "We will take steps to build a second and a third nuclear power plant in Turkey as soon as possible." In a phone call before the ceremony at Akkuyu, Erdogan and Putin also discussed the situation in Ukraine and the Black Sea grain deal, the Turkish leader's office said.

☆ Russian sales of weapons to India are being held up by a dispute over which currency to use
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Jason Ma | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Deliveries of Russian weapons to India have been on hold due to a currency dispute. Russia is the top supplier of weapons to India, which uses the Su-30 fighter and T-90 tanks. Meanwhile, Russia won't take Indian rupees because of exchange-rate volatility, the report added. Russia is the top supplier of weapons to India, which uses the Su-30 and MiG-29 fighter jets as well as T-90 tanks, among other Russian-made arms. Last month, India complained that Russia isn't delivering weapons it owes because it's throwing everything at Ukraine.

☆ Russian jets are dropping bombs rejigged with guidance systems that are delivering 'devastating hits' upon Ukrainian lines, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia is modifying regular bombs to have guidance systems, a report says. The regular bombs appear to be being converted to smart ones using UMPK (unified module for gliding and guidance) systems, according to Illia Ponomarenko of the Kyiv Independent. Ponomarenko wrote that the upgraded guided or gliding bombs pose "an especially serious threat to Ukraine" that can "deliver devastating hits upon Ukrainian lines and the rear front." In order to combat the Russian bombardment, Ukraine needs to defend against the jets using air defense systems such as the S-300. Germany this week approved Poland's request to transfer five MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine.

☆ Erdogan offers free gas pre-election after first Black Sea field shipment
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERSANKARA, April 20 (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday flicked the switch on Turkey's first delivery of natural gas to an onshore plant from a reserve discovered in the Black Sea, and promised to provide free natural gas for households before May 14 elections. "We will provide free natural gas for household consumption up to 25 cubic meters monthly for one year," Erdogan said at the inauguration of an onshore natural gas port in the northern province of Zonguldak. Limitless natural gas for all household consumption will be free for the next month, Erdogan said. 10 million cubic metres of gas per day in Turkey's Black Sea gas fields will be produced initially, Erdogan said. Production will be increased to 40 million cubic metres of gas per day in the coming period, he said.

☆ Bangladesh to pay Russia in yuan for nuclear plant
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Ruma Paul | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 17 (Reuters) - Bangladesh and Russia have agreed to use yuan to settle payment for a nuclear plant Moscow is building in the South Asian country, a Bangladesh government official said on Monday. Bangladesh is constructing the first of two nuclear power plants in collaboration with Russia's state-owned atomic company Rosatom in a $12.65 billion project, 90% of which is financed through a Russian loan repayable within 28 years, with a 10-year grace period. "Russia wanted us to make payment in rouble but that's not possible for us. So we have agreed to pay in Chinese yuan," Uttam Kumar Karmaker, a senior official in the Bangladesh Economic Relations Division, told Reuters. Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Editing by Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia is equipping simple bombs with guidance systems, turning them into cheap substitutes for expensive cruise missiles
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia is modifying regular bombs to have guidance systems, a report says. They are a cheap and effective substitute for expensive guided missiles, which Russia's stock of is low. The regular bombs appear to be being converted to smart ones using UMPK (unified module for gliding and guidance) systems, according to Illia Ponomarenko of the Kyiv Independent. By comparison, a single Kalibr cruise missile, which Russia had been using widely in its invasion of Ukraine, is worth nearly $6.5 million. In order to combat the Russian bombardment, Ukraine needs to defend against the jets using air defense systems such as the S-300.

The sanctions, imposed by the Treasury and State departments in concert with Britain, hit entities and individuals across over 20 countries and jurisdictions, including facilitators of sanctions evasion, the State Department said in a statement. Separately, the Treasury said it imposed sanctions on Russian financial facilitators and sanctions evaders around the world, including Turkey, United Arab Emirates and China-based people and companies. The Treasury also targeted King-Pai Technology HK Co, Ltd, which it said is a China-based supplier for multiple entities in Russia's military-industrial complex. Washington has not yet imposed sanctions on Rosatom itself. "It will always be a race between sanctions enforcement and sanctions evaders.

☆ Russia is set to pass a measure that bans people who have been drafted to the military from leaving the country
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Azmi Haroun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The measure would ban people who have been drafted from leaving the country, and track summons. According to The New York Times, Russia's state Duma has passed a measure which bans those who have been drafted to the military from leaving the country, imposing electronic draft summons and other measures. In Ukraine, the army is also trying to recruit more manpower amid heavy casualties sustained in the ongoing battle with Russia in eastern Bakhmut. At the outset of the war, Ukrainian imposed martial law, banning men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country in case they're needed for a draft. The country also instituted mobilization rules which make that same pool of men eligible to be drafted on a whim.

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