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☆ Russia is again the president of the UN Security Council. Last time Russia held the position it invaded Ukraine.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Sarah Al-Arshani | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Russia was the president of the UN Security Council when it invaded Ukraine last February. The last time that Russia held the position of president — in February 2022 — it invaded Ukraine, the BBC noted. The UN Security Council is made up of 15 members, 10 of which are voted in for two-year stints. Russia's term as Security Council president comes less than two weeks after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin's arrest. Ukraine's presidential adviser, Mykhaylo Podolyak, called Russia's presidency of the Security Council another "rape of international law."

☆ North Korea accuses Ukraine of having nuclear ambitions - KCNA
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SEOUL, April 1 (Reuters) - North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, accused Ukraine of calling for nuclear weapons, state media KCNA reported on Saturday, basing her assertion on an online petition in that country that has drawn under 1,000 signatures so far. Kim said this kind of petition could be a political plot by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, but did not provide any evidence for the assertion. Following Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement last week that Moscow plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, a public petition was filed to the Ukrainian presidential office's website on Thursday, calling for Ukraine to host nuclear weapons on Ukrainian territory, or for it to be armed with its own nuclear weapons. By Saturday afternoon, the petition had gained only 611 signatures, far short of the 25,000 needed for a response from Zelenskiy. Reporting by Hyunsu Yim in Seoul and Max Hunder in Kyiv Editing by Frances KerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ North Korea accuses Ukraine of having nuclear ambitions
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Kim said this kind of petition could be a political plot by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, but did not provide any evidence for the assertion. Following Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement last week that Moscow plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, a public petition was filed to the Ukrainian presidential office's website on Thursday, calling for Ukraine to host nuclear weapons on Ukrainian territory, or for it to be armed with its own nuclear weapons. By Saturday afternoon, the petition had gained only 611 signatures, far short of the 25,000 needed for a response from Zelenskiy. North Korea is forging closer ties with Kremlin amid shared isolation by the West and it supported Moscow's position after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, including its later proclaimed annexation of parts of Ukraine that most U.N. members condemned as illegal. Reporting by Hyunsu Yim in Seoul and Max Hunder in Kyiv Editing by Frances KerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Wimbledon lifts ban on Russian and Belarusian players who will compete as 'neutral athletes'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Amar Mehta | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Wimbledon logo amongst flowers The Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 10, 2019 in London, England. Wimbledon has lifted a ban on Russian and Belarusian players from its tournament this year, with players agreeing to sign neutral declarations. Last year, players from Russia and Belarus were banned from Wimbledon in response to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. The Lawn Tennis Association was hit with a fine and world ranking points were removed from last year's Championships. Earlier this month, Russian player Daniil Medvedev said ahead of Indian Wells that he would respect any decision taken by organisers.

☆ EU agrees to ramp up 2030 renewable energy targets, accelerating shift from fossil fuels
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The EU has pledged to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels by 2027 in response to President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The European Union is poised to ramp up its 2030 renewable energy targets, accelerating a shift away from fossil fuels as the bloc seeks to rapidly cut emissions and reduce its dependence on Russia. It is set to replace the EU's current renewable energies directive target for a 32% share of renewable energy by 2030, which has been in place since Dec. 2018. The EU has pledged to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels by 2027 in response to President Vladimir Putin's hostilities in Ukraine. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, is the chief driver of the climate crisis.

☆ Russia arrests WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Russian FSB says it arrested a Wall Street Journal reporter. The reporter, Evan Gershkovich, has been accused of espionage. The Wall Street Journal issued a statement denying the allegations and demanding Gershkovich's immediate release. According to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Ural mountains. The headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in central Moscow on February 25, 2021.

☆ Zelenskyy fears Ukrainians will lose the will to fight and push him to negotiate with Moscow if Bakhmut falls
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Zelenskyy worries that if Bakhmut falls, he'll face pressure to negotiate with Russia. "Our society will push me to have compromise with them," he told AP. In a new interview, Zelenskyy told the Associated Press that if Russian forces conquered the eastern Ukrainian city, he would rapidly feel pressure from the wider world and from Ukrainians. Kyiv has pushed back against calls for talks with Moscow as Russian forces continue to launch attacks, including in civilian areas. "If he will feel some blood — smell that we are weak — he will push, push, push."

☆ Russian officer sentenced to 6.5 years for deserting amid war he opposed
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 24 (Reuters) - A Russian security officer who fled the country because he objected to the invasion of Ukraine has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in high-security prison, the Taiga.info news website reported on Friday. Federal Protective Service Major Mikhail Zhilin, 36, fled to Kazakhstan last year when Russia announced a conscription campaign, illegally crossing the border through woods while his wife and children drove through a checkpoint. Zhilin sought refugee status in the former Soviet republic but his request was denied and authorities there stopped him from leaving for Armenia. Kazakhstan handed him over to Russia late last year, leading to the rare conviction of an officer for desertion. A Barnaul court clerk reached by telephone confirmed that Zhilin has been sentenced but declined to provide any further information.

☆ Europe’s rush to LNG could turn into ‘world’s most expensive and unnecessary insurance policy'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The Golar Tundra project is a key part of Italy's plan to reduce its reliance on Russian gas following the invasion of Ukraine. Europe must carefully balance its gas and LNG systems, and avoid tipping the scale from reliability to redundancy. "This is the world's most expensive and unnecessary insurance policy," said Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz, energy analyst for IEEFA Europe and author of the analysis. "Europe must carefully balance its gas and LNG systems, and avoid tipping the scale from reliability to redundancy. Boosting Europe's LNG infrastructure will not necessarily increase reliability — there's a tangible risk that assets could become stranded," Jaller-Makarewicz said.

☆ Days after Putin's dead-of-night trip to a city far from the front, Zelenskyy visited the heart of the bloodiest fighting in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( John Haltiwanger | Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Days after Putin's dead-of-night trip in Ukraine, Zelenskyy visited troops near the front lines. State media followed the Russian President meeting with residents who told him the occupied, war-torn Ukrainian city is a "little piece of paradise." Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) visits a recently renovated theater in Mariupol. In the original video, Putin meets with local residents near a new apartment complex in the dead of night. Zelenskyy visits troops fighting on the front lines in BakhmutUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks with troops near the front lines of Bakhmut.

☆ Putin's tour of Mariupol is like a murderer returning to the scene of a crime, Ukrainian official says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Vladimir Putin's visit to the occupied region of Mariupol on Sunday was criticized by Ukrainians. Ukrainian officials have estimated that 25,000 people died in Mariupol during the war. Putin's visit comes two days after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest. Photos that emerged from the trip showed Putin speaking with residents and driving himself around the region at night. In a Sunday tweet, Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called Putin the "murderer of thousands of Mariupol families."

☆ China's Xi to go to Russia next week for his first visit since Putin ordered invasion of Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to China's President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization leaders' summit in Samarkand on Sept. 16, 2022. BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit Russia from March 20 to 22, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Friday. This is Xi's first visit to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in late February last year. The ministry said the visit was at Russian President Vladimir Putin's request. Beijing has refused to call Moscow's unprovoked attack on Ukraine an invasion.

☆ Russian state media touts video of schoolchildren in Crimea drilling with rifles and training in hand-to-hand combat
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A new video shows schoolchildren in Crimea training with rifles and completing hand-to-hand combat. The lessons are reportedly part of a training course that will come to other schools this year. The lessons appear to be part of a military training course that students across grade levels are participating in. In the video, originally shared by RIA Novosti Crimea, students first handle rifles in a competitive timed exercise. The new strategy marks a shift from Wagner's previous efforts to recruit Russian prisoners in exchange for reduced jail time.

☆ Russia's oil revenues fall sharply as the West's price cap starts to bite, IEA says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Russia announced that it would cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day in March after the West slapped price caps on Russian oil and oil products. The International Energy Agency on Wednesday said Russia's oil export revenues fell sharply in February, prompted by bans and price caps designed to curtail President Vladimir Putin's ability to finance the war in Ukraine. The IEA said Russia's estimated oil export revenues fell to $11.6 billion last month, down $2.7 billion from January when volumes were significantly higher. Revenues are already dwindling," the group said in its latest oil market report. The latest figures come shortly after the IEA said in mid-February that the West's oil war against Russia appeared to be having the "intended effect" despite surprisingly resilient production and exports in recent months.

☆ A Russian trainspotter who became obsessed with taking photographs of Putin's 'ghost train' now lives in exile: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A trainspotter spent years tracking Putin's secret train, which he reportedly uses to get around. Mikhail Korotkov told The Washington Post that in 2021, he felt like he was being watched. Mikhail Korotkov, 31, spent years tracking, photographing, and blogging about Putin's armored train, which he reportedly uses to travel inconspicuously around the country. But the 31-year-old was also careful to not be too public about his hobby, telling the Post that he did not post all the pictures of Putin's train online. He now lives in Sri Lanka, but told The Post that he is "ready to move around the world."

☆ Chris Christie compares Ron DeSantis' stance on Ukraine to appeasing Hitler before WWII
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Chris Christie compared Ron DeSantis to British PM Neville Chamberlain over his Ukraine stance. Chamberlain is accused of appeasing Adolf Hitler before World War II. DeSantis, who is rumored to be preparing a 2024 bid, has questioned US support for Ukraine. Chris Christie has compared Ron DeSantis to the British Prime Minister accused of appeasing Adolf Hitler before World War II. "[DeSantis] sounds like Neville Chamberlain talking about when Germany had designs on Czechoslovakia," Christie told Axios Tuesday.

It has also denied that its military commanders are aware of sexual violence by soldiers. When Reuters asked for the identities of both soldiers, prosecutors provided only the name of the younger man. Russia has also accused Ukrainian forces of war crimes, including the execution of 10 prisoners of war. A U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine has said that most of the dozens of sexual violence accusations pointed at the Russian military. So far, Ukrainian prosecutors have convicted 26 Russians of war crimes - some prisoners of war, some in absentia - of which one was for rape.

[1/2] Gas bubbles from the Nord Stream 2 leak reaching surface of the Baltic Sea in the area shows a disturbance of well over one kilometre in diameter near Bornholm, Denmark, September 27, 2022. "In an attempt to cover up the true people behind the crime, pro-government Anglo-Saxon media - on orders from above - have named a culprit - a group of Ukrainian terrorists," Patrushev told the Argumenti i Fakti newspaper. As a former Soviet spy who has known Putin since the 1970s, Patrushev is seen by diplomats as one of the major influences on Putin, who has accused the "Anglo-Saxons" of sabotaging Nord Stream in what he has called a terrorist attack. The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines have a joint annual capacity of 110 billion cubic metres - more than half of Russia's normal gas exports volumes. Sections of the 1,224-km (760-mile) long pipelines, which run from Russia to Germany, lie at a depth of around 80-110 metres.

☆ After losing more than 30,000 soldiers, the brutal Wagner Group is now recruiting in Russian schools
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Wagner Group, which has lost 30,000 soldiers in Ukraine, is now recruiting in Russian schools. It's opened six recruitment centers to attract "impressionable" youth recruits, an ISW report said. The Wagner Group, considered President Vladimir Putin's private army, has already lost some 30,000 fighters to death and injury since Russia started the war last February, Insider previously reported. In Apatity, Murmansk Oblast, members of the Wagner Group shared "heroic stories" and promoted the "little Wagner" youth camp in Crimea, according to the ISW report. In the past, Putin has also relied on the Wagner Group for Russian influence efforts in the Central African Republic, Libya, Mali, and Syria.

☆ Ukraine detains officials over destruction of famous plane at start of war
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] A Ukrainian service member walks in a front of the Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane, the world's biggest aircraft, destroyed by Russian troops as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, at an airfield in the settlement of Hostomel, in Kyiv region, Ukraine April 3, 2022. REUTERS/Gleb GaranichKYIV, March 10 (Reuters) - Ukraine handed suspicion notices on Friday to three former top managers of aircraft manufacturer Antonov for obstructing the country's military and allowing Russia to destroy the iconic giant "Mriya" cargo plane at the start of the full-scale war. The Ukrainian-made "Mriya", which is Ukrainian for "dream", weighs some 705 tonnes and has a wingspan of 290 feet. The cargo plane was originally built in the late 1980s to transport a Soviet space shuttle. "Our state will definitely build a new plane, because the Dream, like Ukraine, cannot be destroyed," Malyuk said.

☆ In a worrying sign, NATO ally says Russia can fight in Ukraine for two more years at current intensity
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Lithuanian intelligence estimated that Russia can hit Ukraine hard for two more years, per Reuters. Support from Iran and North Korea will also impact how long it can fight intensively, the intel said. Lithuania has long called for greater military support for Ukraine. He added: "How long Russia is be able to wage the war will also depend on the support for Russia's military from states such as Iran and North Korea." Russia has also taken delivery of drones from Iran and ammunition from North Korea throughout the war.

☆ 4 bankers have been accused of helping Putin launder $50 million through Switzerland via his cello-playing best friend
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A cellist is accused of helping Vladimir Putin channel $50 million into Swiss accounts. 4 bankers are also accused of not having checked the real source of the money. The deposits were made between 2014 and 2016 and there is no plausible explanation about where they came from, Swiss prosecutors say. In addition to the $50 million, Roldugin was planning on chanelling another $10 million annually into accounts, which prosecutors say "were in general no way plausible as Roldugin's own assets." Switzerland has put aside its traditional neutrality in conflicts to adopt the EU's sanctions against Putin, Roldugin, and other members of the Russian elite.

☆ Wagner Group mercenaries are being butchered in Ukraine, but US intel expects them to keep stirring up trouble elsewhere on Russia's behalf
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The notorious Wagner Group has operated around the world on Russia's behalf for years. For years, the Wagner Group has put boots on the ground in countries across Africa and the Middle East. A pedestrian walks past a mural depicting the logo of the Russian mercenary 'Group Wagner' and a slogan in Russian on January 20, 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia. Graves of Russian Wagner mercenary group fighters are seen in a cemetery near the village of Bakinskaya in Krasnodar region, Russia, January 22, 2023. Like Russia's regular military, Wagner has endured heavy losses on the battlefield.

☆ Russia will have to rely on nukes, cyberattacks, and China since its military is being thrashed in Ukraine, US intel director says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Chris Panella | John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russia's military losses in Ukraine will leave it reliant on "asymmetric" options, the US intel director said. Discussions on Russia's relationship with China have also been ongoing, including speculation that Beijing might be considering sending lethal aid to Russia. In late February, a top Pentagon official told lawmakers Russia had lost the war and will emerge from war in Ukraine a "shattered military power." "Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a strategic defeat. Russia's military is going to have to be rebuilt," George Barros, a military analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, told Insider in September.

☆ 'I hate him passionately': New court documents reveal Tucker Carlson's true feelings about Donald Trump
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | Sonam Sheth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Fox News host Tucker Carlson's true feelings about former President Donald Trump have been revealed. 'I hate him passionately'In one exchange, Carlson fantasized about not having to cover Trump after the 2020 election, saying that he "passionately" hated Trump. Referring to the decision desk staffers who made the Arizona call, Carlson texted: "Those fuckers are destroying our credibility. At another point in the same day, Carlson texted that "we've got to be incredibly careful right now. Tucker Carlson, who's ardently supported former President Donald Trump on his show, privately said he hated Trump, court filings show.

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