Russia’s most prominent opposition figure Alexei Navalny has been given nine years in a “strict regime penal colony” in a fraud case rejected by supporters as fabricated. Navalny was detained when he returned to Russia last year, after surviving a poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. He is already serving three and a half years […]
Russia-Ukraine war Eight years after Russian troops seized Ukraine’s southern region of Crimea, the event is being celebrated with flag-waving crowds in Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium and special lessons in schools. President Vladimir Putin made a special appearance before the crowd. State workers said they had been told to take part. In schools, teachers held lessons […]
Russia has accused Canada of “kindergarten-level” diplomacy in a Twitter tiff over a social media post by Canada’s United Nations mission. The diplomatic spat is over a letter seeking support for a draft Russian resolution about aid in Ukraine. Canada posted the letter to Twitter with “suggested edits”, which led to retweets from other UN […]
Russia-Ukraine war A video address by Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Russian people was trending on Russian Twitter on Friday and has sparked a reaction. In it, Schwarzenegger warns Russians they are being fed misinformation about their country’s assault on Ukraine. Addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, he says: “You started this war, […]
By Ben King Business reporter, BBC News Russia-Ukraine war Frozen Russian assets should be used to rebuild Ukraine after the war, the governor of Ukraine’s Central Bank has told the BBC. Kyrylo Shevchenko called for an extensive list of extra sanctions, from cutting card payments to suspending Russian access to the IMF. Every day […]
Successive US presidents have struggled to get the measure of Vladimir Putin but now that Brussels and Berlin have joined the fray with such resolve, it’s a different story, writes Nick Bryant. It is often tempting to look upon Vladimir Putin as the millennium bug in a human and deadly form. The Russian president rose […]
Shell has defended its decision to purchase Russian crude oil despite the invasion and bombardment of Ukraine. The oil giant said in a statement that the decision to purchase the fuel at a discounted price was “difficult”. It confirmed that it had bought a cargo of Russian crude oil on Friday but it had “no […]
Visa and Mastercard have announced they will suspend all operations in Russia in protest at its invasion of Ukraine. But Russia’s major banks, including state-backed Sberbank, have already downplayed the impact the move will have on consumers. Shoppers will still be able to use Mastercard and Visa-branded cards for purchases within Russia until they reach […]
Anthony Zurcher North America reporter @awzurcheron Twitter Joe Biden spent the first 15 minutes of his State of the Union address talking about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an event that certainly has transfixed the world more than the latest twists and stumbles of his domestic legislative agenda. Although Mr Biden’s annual speech is billed as […]
By Zoya Mateen BBC News, Delhi “We were sleeping when a deafening sound – an explosion – jolted us out of our beds. The whole building shook,” says 22-year-old Soumya Thomas, recalling the moment when she fled her college hostel in Kharkiv several days ago. Russia has been shelling the Ukrainian city since Saturday, shearing […]
