NEW DELHI: Several regional leaders in Russia have decided to reduce their local New Year’s celebrations, opting instead to allocate funds towards supporting Moscow’s military efforts in Ukraine. This decision reflects a trend of utilizing existing municipal decorations for New Year’s Eve, while refraining from extravagant fireworks displays and largeContinue Reading
TALLINN: Behind bars in penal colonies or in self-exile abroad, Russian opposition figures vow they will still put up a fight against President Vladimir Putin as he seeks yet another term in office in an election in March. Although they believe Putin will be declared the winner no matter howContinue Reading
DUBAI: Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday before departing for Saudi Arabia in a one-day lightning tour intended to raise Moscow’s profile as a Middle East power broker, even as his war in Ukraine grinds on.Putin landed in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates,Continue Reading
MOSCOW: Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on social media on Friday that he had been informed of new criminal charges against him.Navalny, 47, is already serving sentences in a penal colony totalling more than 30 years on charges including extremism, which he denies, and has spent much of the lastContinue Reading
MOSCOW: Russian president Vladimir Putin has approved changes to the law that governs presidential elections putting new restrictions on media coverage, local news agencies reported on Tuesday. The changes come ahead of the election to be held in March in which Putin, who has ruled Russia for the last 24Continue Reading
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is launching his biggest scaling back of country’s embassies, likely betting he can earn a larger payout in arms deals with the Kremlin than through missions suspected of sending him a cut of their alleged crimes.While Kim’s isolated regime has ramped up its diplomaticContinue Reading
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw ballistic missile drills Wednesday, the Kremlin said, with Moscow‘s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announcing forces will practise a “massive” retaliatory nuclear strike. The exercises came after Moscow moved to revoke a key nuclear test ban treaty, 20 months into Russia’s Ukraine offensive. During theContinue Reading
Russia’s parliament has passed the last stage of a law to withdraw Moscow’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which now goes to President Vladimir Putin for signing. Here is a look at some questions that raises.What is the CTBT?The CTBT, agreed in 1996, bans “any nuclearContinue Reading
Ukraine’s military has formed a battalion of soldiers made up entirely of Russian citizens who want to fight against President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.The Sibir (Siberia) battalion has brought together dozens of Russians and people from ethnic minorities in Russia who traveled via third countries because they wanted to join theContinue Reading
KYIV: A Russian missile attack killed two civilians in an apartment building in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, local authorities said, as President Vladimir Putin dismissed the importance of a new US-supplied weapon that Kyiv used to execute one of the most damaging attacks on the Kremlin’s air assets since theContinue Reading