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☆ Russia backs banning of maps disputing official 'territorial integrity'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A woman walks past a building with Russian flags placed on its wall in Saint Petersburg, Russia April 24, 2022. REUTERS/Anton VaganovJan 8 (Reuters) - Russia's government extended support to a legislative amendment that would classify maps that dispute the country's official "territorial integrity" as punishable extremist materials, the state-owned TASS news agency reported on Sunday. The amendment to Russia's anti-extremism legislation stipulates that "cartographic and other documents and images that dispute the territorial integrity of Russia" will be classified as extremist materials, the agency reported. The new amendment, TASS reports without citing sources, emerged after its authors pointed out that some maps distributed in Russia dispute the "territorial affiliation" of the Crimean Peninsula and the Kuril Islands. Ukrainians and their government have since often objected to world maps showing Crimea as part of Russia's territory.

☆ Russia's Medvedev snaps back after U.S. appeal over Ukraine war
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the most deadly wars in Europe since World War Two and the deepest crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Medvedev said the missiles could be placed 100 miles (160 km) off the U.S. coast, adding: "So rejoice! He was speaking after the U.S. embassy to Russia released a video that it called an "an appeal to the people of Russia". The 50-second video included images of the impact of bombing in Ukraine, saying what was happening there "is not worthy of you". Since the war began, Medvedev's rhetoric has become increasingly vitriolic though his published views sometimes chime with thinking at the top levels of the Kremlin elite.

☆ Pro-Putin operatives in Germany work to turn Berlin against Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +17 min

Now the main Russian Cossack organisations are loyal to Putin, and they are fighting alongside Russia’s forces in Ukraine. He is regularly pictured on his and other social media pages at Cossack gatherings, often wearing Cossack military uniform. Felk has worked as a security guard and has run a logistics firm, according to posts on Felk’s OK social media account. Photos shared by Kharkovsky on social media show him and other participants standing in front of a Great Don Army flag. Eremenko confirmed to Reuters that he worked for Russian military intelligence, the GRU.

☆ Moscow's military leadership is under fire after a Ukrainian HIMARS strike killed scores of Russian soldiers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Russia said a recent Ukrainian HIMARS strike in the occupied Donetsk region killed 63 of its soldiers. Over the weekend, Ukrainian forces used a US-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to attack Russian positions in Makiivka, a city with a pre-war population of nearly 350,000 people in eastern Ukraine's occupied Donetsk region. Russia's defense ministry said on Monday that Ukrainian forces fired six rockets and that the strikes on Russian positions killed 63 soldiers, state news agency TASS reported. Videos of the aftermath of the deadly attack, which have been published on social media by top Ukrainian officials, showed a scene of rubble and smoke. Ukraine's HIMARS strike came as Russian forces fired a barrage of Iranian-made suicide drones into Ukraine over a two-day period, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

☆ Tennis star Martina Navratilova is diagnosed with throat and breast cancer
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( The Associated Press | Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK — Tennis great Martina Navratilova said Monday that she has been diagnosed with throat and breast cancer. “This double whammy is serious but still fixable, and I’m hoping for a favorable outcome,” the 66-year-old Navratilova said. While Navratilova was undergoing tests on her throat, she said, the unrelated breast cancer was discovered. Navratilova was diagnosed with a noninvasive form of breast cancer in 2010 and had a lumpectomy. Navratilova originally retired in 1994, after a record 167 singles titles and 331 weeks at No.

☆ Bulgaria summons Russian envoy over Bellingcat journalist Grozev
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SOFIA, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's foreign ministry said it would summon on Thursday the Russian ambassador to Sofia "for explanations" after Moscow put Christo Grozev, a Bulgarian citizen and the executive director of investigative news outlet Bellingcat, on a wanted list. Grozev, Bellingcat's chief investigator on Russia, is "wanted under an article of the Criminal Code," according to information published on Russia's interior ministry website earlier this week. "The Russian ambassador will be summoned for explanations," a foreign ministry spokesperson said, after leading Bulgarian political parties called for official support for Grozev. Grozev "focuses on security threats, extraterritorial clandestine operations, and the weaponisation of information" according to Bellingcat's website. Grozev said he has been offered help by the Netherlands, Sweden, Estonia and Austria, where he has been living in recent years.

☆ Star rising in Kremlin, Russia's Medvedev predicts war in West
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Medvedev, deputy head of Putin's advisory security council, served as president during a four-year spell when Putin held the office of prime minister. ", although he also criticised some of Medvedev's predictions. Medvedev has praised Musk in the past for proposing Ukraine cede territory to Russia in a peace deal. Since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Medvedev has reinvented himself as an arch-hawk, framing the conflict in apocalyptic, religious terms and referring to Ukrainians as "cockroaches" in language Kyiv says is openly genocidal. Political scientist Vladimir Pastukhov said Medvedev's newly outspoken public persona appeared to have found favour with his boss.

☆ Russia's Putin and China's Xi to confer this week - TASS quotes Kremlin
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 26 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will speak before the end of the year, Russian state news agency TASS said on Monday, without giving details of the timing or format. It quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying the two sides would release details in due course. Putin and Xi proclaimed a "no limits" partnership between the two countries when the Russian leader visited Beijing in February, three weeks before his invasion of Ukraine. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Putin's Security Council, met Xi on a visit to Beijing last week. Xi told Medvedev that China hopes all parties in the Ukraine crisis maintain restraint and resolve security concerns through political means, China's state news agency Xinhua reported.

☆ Russia's former deputy PM said he was injured by a shell blast in occupied Ukraine after his location was leaked
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Bethany Dawson | Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A former Russian space chief said he was wounded by an exploding artillery shell in a Donetsk hotel. The former head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos said that he was wounded on his shoulder and needed surgery. FILE PHOTO: Russia's Roscosmos former space agency Director General Dmitry Rogozin looks on at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan July 20, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File PhotoWriting on Telegram, Rogozin suggested that his location had been "leaked," resulting in what he says was a "targeted attack." Rogozin now appears to lead a volunteer unit that supports Russia's proxy forces in eastern Ukraine, the BBC reported.

☆ Ukraine shelling attack injures two top pro-Russia officials in Donetsk - agencies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/PoolDec 21 (Reuters) - A former Russian deputy prime minister and a pro-Moscow official were injured when Ukrainian forces shelled the eastern city of Donetsk on Wednesday, Russian news agencies said. Donetsk, controlled by pro-Moscow troops, is in the industrial Donbas region, epicentre of recent bitter fighting between Russia and Ukraine. Also hurt was Vitaly Khotsenko, the head of government of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, his press secretary told Russian news agencies. The two men were injured when a hotel on the outskirts of Donetsk came under fire from high-precision weapons, aides told Russian agencies. Rogozin used to head Russia's space agency but was replaced in July.

☆ Russia's Medvedev meets China's Xi in Beijing, says Ukraine conflict discussed
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/6] Deputy Chairman of Russia's Security Council Dmitry Medvedev and China's President Xi Jinping shake hands during a meeting in Beijing, China, December 21, 2022. Sputnik/Yekaterina Shtukina/Pool via REUTERSDec 21 (Reuters) - Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has undertaken a surprise trip to Beijing and held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping during which he said they discussed the Ukraine conflict. Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, posted a video on his Telegram channel showing him meeting Xi, smiling for photos and a meeting between Chinese and Russian officials. Medvedev said he and Xi had discussed the two countries' "no limits" strategic partnership, as well as Ukraine. We also discussed international issues - including, of course, the conflict in Ukraine," Medvedev said.

☆ Putin oversees launch of Siberian gas field feeding pipeline to China
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in a ceremony launching production at the Kovykta gas field, which will feed into the Power of Siberia pipeline carrying Russian gas to China, via a video link with head of Gazprom Alexei Miller in Moscow, Russia, December 21, 2022. Dec 21 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over the launch of a major new Siberian gas field on Wednesday to help drive a planned surge in supply to China. The Kovykta gas field will feed into the Power of Siberia pipeline carrying Russian gas to China. In February, Putin reached an agreement to sell an additional 10 bcm of gas to China from Russia's Far East through a new, smaller pipeline to China's northeast. Putin said last week the projects would allow Russia to boost its gas sales to China to 48 bcm annually by 2025 and to 88 bcm by 2030.

☆ Russian oligarchs believe Putin tricked them into appearing to support the war in Ukraine, and got them all sanctioned, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russian oligarchs say Putin tricked them into supporting his war in Ukraine, per The New York Times. When Putin announced the invasion, they were gathered before cameras "to tar everyone there," The Times reported. "Russian businesspeople, Russian officials, the Russian people — they saw a czar in him. He joined rows of other business moguls who were equally surprised by Putin's invasion. In the weeks and months that followed, Russian oligarchs had their assets frozen and were banned from traveling to some countries as the Ruble fell into freefall.

Since the early days of the invasion, Mr. Putin has conceded, privately, that the war has not gone as planned. “I think he is sincerely willing” to compromise with Russia, Mr. Putin said of Mr. Zelensky in 2019. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. “I think this war is Putin’s grave.” Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, a Russian prisoner of war held by Ukraine, in October.

☆ Ukraine orders punitive measures on clerics with Moscow links
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Nick Starkov | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KYIV, Dec 12(Reuters) - Ukraine's top security officials have ordered punitive measures against seven senior clerics, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, part of a crackdown on a branch of the Orthodox Church with longstanding ties to Moscow. The clerics are among Orthodox leaders known to have been sympathetic to Russia's portrayal of its 10-month-old invasion of Ukraine. The Moscow-linked church severed ties with the Russian Orthodox Church after the February invasion, but many Ukrainians remain deeply suspicious of its motives. The Russian church wholeheartedly backs the invasion. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev described the authorities in Kyiv as "satanists" and "enemies of Christ and the Orthodox faith".

☆ Ukrainian security service accuses Orthodox cleric of supporting Russia
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KYIV, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Ukraine's SBU security service accused a senior Orthodox Christian cleric on Friday of engaging in anti-Ukrainian activity by supporting Russian policies in social media posts. The announcement followed a series of raids of property used by a Ukrainian branch of the Orthodox Church that is historically tied to Russia and has come under increasing pressure since Russia's invasion. The Orthodox Church in Russia has backed Moscow's invasion, and Kyiv says some clerics in Ukraine could be taking orders from Moscow. Orthodox Church officials in Ukraine did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Since the collapse of Soviet rule, tensions have been high between the Moscow-subordinated church and an independent Ukrainian church.

☆ Ex-Russian operative who visited the front in Ukraine says Russian troops are in disarray due to a 'crisis of strategic planning'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Igor Girkin is a former Russian military commander who led the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The soldiers are facing "the deepest crisis of strategic planning," Girkin wrote on Telegram. On Tuesday, Girkin recounted what he saw at the front on Telegram and said that Russian troops are fighting with no clear "strategic goals." It's a mystery for them: What is the condition for victory or just a condition for ending the war," Gurkin wrote. His remarks to the presidential Human Rights Council came shortly after Ukrainian forces sent drone attacks deep into Russian territory.

☆ Russian Oligarch Seizes 400,000 Acres of Ukrainian Farmland, Owners Say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Alistair Macdonald | Oksana Pyrozhok | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Soon after Russian tanks rolled into eastern Ukraine, three of that country’s biggest farming operators lost tracts of land equivalent to more than twice the area of New York City. It wasn’t taken by the military. In all three cases, leaders of the Ukrainian farming operations say, the land ended up in the hands of the family company of a former Russian agriculture minister, Alexander Tkachev .

☆ Ukraine conflict spurs some Russians to seek Kalashnikov training
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Guy Faulconbridge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] A woman takes part in an initial military training for civilians at the sports and patriotic club "Yaropolk" in Krasnogorsk outside Moscow, Russia December 3, 2022. Russia, Putin says, is defending Russians in Ukraine against a decadent West that ultimately wants to carve up Russia's vast resources and eradicate Russian civilisation. The club's videos show training to a popular song with the lyrics: "Be afraid - we, the Russians, are coming." Directorate "A", known as Alpha Group, is one of Russia's most elite special forces units. Russia presents the conflict in Ukraine as an attempt to root out neo-Nazis who Moscow says have persecuted Russian speakers.

One of the most influential voices bolstering Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine belongs to a 71-year-old billionaire who argued that a war could prove Russia’s strength. Yuri Kovalchuk, for decades a close friend of the Russian leader, shares Mr. Putin’s vision of Russia as a powerful military and cultural counterpoint to the U.S., people who know him say. The billionaire and Mr. Putin have met frequently since the start of the war in February, and also talk by phone or video, according to a friend of the Kovalchuk family as well as to a former Russian intelligence official.

☆ Dutch prosecutors won't appeal in MH17 case, making verdicts final
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

AMSTERDAM, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Dutch prosecutors said on Thursday they would not file an appeal regarding the outcome in the trial over the 2014 downing of Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine, making the verdicts final although the suspects remain at large. A Dutch court last month convicted three men and sentenced them to life in prison for the shooting-down of the Malaysian airliner as it flew over eastern Ukraine on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014. The three convicted were former Russian intelligence agents Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian separatist leader. Prosecutors said on Thursday they were satisfied with the "clarity" the case had brought to relatives of the victims about what had happened to MH17. Reporting by Bart Meijer Editing by Mark Heinrich and Alistair BellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ukraine says it will work to convince Germany to provide Patriot systems
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( John Irish | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BUCHAREST, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Ukraine needs the U.S. made Patriot missile defence systems to protect its civilian infrastructure, under heavy attack by Russia, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Wednesday, adding he would try to convince Germany to allow their delivery. Russia has carried out regular missile bombardments on Ukraine's energy infrastructure since early October, with damage accumulating as temperatures drop. Spare parts to repair the energy sector, air defence systems to prevent future attacks and NATO-style tanks were the priority, he said. "If Germany is ready to provide Patriots to Poland and Poland is ready to hand them to Ukraine then I think the solution for the German government is obvious," he said, adding that Kyiv would work with Berlin on the issue. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned NATO on Tuesday against providing Ukraine with Patriot systems.

☆ Russia's Medvedev warns NATO over supplying Ukraine with Patriot systems
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 29 (Reuters) - Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned NATO on Tuesday against providing Ukraine with Patriot missile defence systems, denouncing the alliance as a "criminal entity" for delivering arms to what he called "extremist regimes". "If, as (NATO Secretary-General Jens) Stoltenberg hinted, NATO were to supply the Ukrainian fanatics with Patriot systems along with NATO personnel, they would immediately become a legitimate target of our armed forces," Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging app. It was not clear from his message whether he was referring to Patriot systems, Ukrainian forces or NATO personnel becoming a target. Ukraine has asked its Western partners for air defences, including U.S.-made Patriot systems, to protect it from Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure. NATO ministers have condemned what they call Russia's "persistent and unconscionable attacks on Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure", and pledged to step up their support for Kyiv.

☆ Russia's Kudrin to leave Audit Chamber, opening door to Yandex move
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Kudrin, who has been seen as both a pro-Western economic liberal and close ally of President Vladimir Putin throughout his career, would become the highest profile government official to leave a post since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February. "In total, I spent about 25 years in the public sector," Kudrin wrote on his Telegram channel. He served as a powerful finance minister for more than a decade between 2000 and 2011, and while maintaining close ties with Putin, Kudrin kept a relatively low profile in his current role as head of the Audit Chamber, Russia's public spending watchdog. In a late-night meeting last week, Kudrin and Putin discussed Yandex's future, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Reporting by Marina Bobrova, Jake Cordell and Alexander Marrow; Editing by Himani SarkarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Former Russian finance minister Kudrin announces departure from Audit Chamber
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Nov 29 (Reuters) - Former Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin said he is leaving his role as head of Russia's Audit Chamber, the country's public spending watchdog, paving the way for a possible move to technology company Yandex. In a statement posted on his Telegram channel, Kudrin said: "I have spent about 25 years in the public sector. Now I would like to focus on large projects that are related to the development of private initiatives ... therefore, I am leaving the post of Chairman of the Audit Chamber." Reporting by ReutersOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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