MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said late on Tuesday that new sanctions imposed by the United States were evidence of a “hostile anti-Russian lunge” and said it would retaliate to what it described as another blow to U.S.-Russia ties. In President Joe Biden’s most direct challenge yet to the Kremlin, the United […]
President Joe Biden said Friday that the United States will “never” accept Russia’s annexation of part of Ukraine seven years ago. “The United States does not and will never recognize Russia’s purported annexation of the peninsula, and we will stand with Ukraine against Russia’s aggressive acts,” Biden said in a statement marking the anniversary of […]
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been transferred to a penal colony where he will serve more than two years, the head of Russia’s prison service said on Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent was this month sentenced to two years and six months in a penal colony for breaching parole terms while recovering […]
Tens of thousands of young Russians are protesting the leadership of Vladimir Putin nationwide in freezing temperatures. Thousands have been arrested. Central to these well-organized protests is Russia’s opposition leader, Alexei Navalny. His courageous actions and words have inspired demonstrators to believe that they can change Russia. As a scholar of Catherine the Great and […]
A Moscow appeal court on Saturday upheld a prison sentence imposed on Alexei Navalny after he returned to Russia from Germany following a poisoning attack, shortening his nearly three-year jail term by just 1.5 months. Judge Dmitry Balashov rejected Navalny‘s appeal of the February 2 ruling, which had turned a 2014 suspended sentence on embezzlement […]
Europe’s rights court told Russia on Wednesday to release jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny out of concern for his life, but Moscow swiftly rejected the call. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken opponent, was arrested and jailed upon returning to Russia last month following months of treatment in Germany for a nerve agent poisoning he […]
The remains of French and Russian soldiers who died during Napoleon’s catastrophic retreat from Moscow in 1812 will be laid to rest Saturday in a rare moment of unity between the two countries. A ceremony near the western city of Smolensk will see the re-burial of 126 people killed in one of the bloodiest battles […]
Germany, Sweden and Poland on Monday each threw out a Russian diplomat in retaliation for Moscow’s expulsion last week of their diplomats for allegedly taking part in protests in support of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The three EU countries announced the tit-for-tat moves in coordinated statements, drawing an angry response from Russia which accused them […]
Russia on Friday said it was expelling diplomats from Germany, Poland and Sweden for participating in unauthorized demonstrations in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, a move the EU’s top diplomat and several European leaders condemned as “unjustified” and “completely unfounded”. The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that an unspecified number of […]
President Joe Biden said Thursday the United States will no longer be “rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions” and demanded the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In toughly worded remarks pivoting from his predecessor Donald Trump’s muted approach to Moscow, Biden warned of “advancing authoritarianism” in China and Russia. The […]
US President Joe Biden’s administration Wednesday extended the New START nuclear treaty with Russia by five years, saying it hoped to prevent an arms race despite rising tensions with Moscow including over its imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. One day before the treaty was set to expire, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the […]
A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to more than 2 1/2 years in prison on charges that he violated the terms of his probation while he was recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning. Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, had earlier denounced the proceedings as […]
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed off on legislation extending a key nuclear pact between Russia and the United States by five years, the Kremlin said on Friday. “Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the federal law ‘on the ratification of the extension of the agreement between Russia and the USA’,” the Kremlin said in a […]
Russian police raided the Moscow offices of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s group on Wednesday and came to search several other properties, including a flat where his wife was, as the country’s media watchdog said it would fine social media platforms for spreading protest calls. The police searches come after tens of thousands of Navalny‘s […]
President Joe Biden signalled a tougher US stance on Russia Tuesday in his first phone call with President Vladimir Putin, raising concerns over human rights and “aggression” against Ukraine, but welcoming cooperation on a new nuclear weapons accord. The call was initiated by the White House to discuss progress on extending the New START deal, […]
More than 3,400 people were detained when demonstrators took to the streets across Russia to demand the release of jailed dissident Alexei Navalny, civil rights activists said on Sunday. Of those, at least 1,360 were detained at the largest of Saturday’s protests in the capital Moscow, activist portal OVD-Info said. Another 523 detentions were made […]
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia is ready to set up a dialogue with the new Biden administration in which differences are expected to be aired, a Kremlin spokesman said on Sunday, adding that President Vladimir Putin would respond in kind to U.S. willingness to talk. Relations between Moscow and Washington have been at their lowest since […]
Russia and the United States drew closer Friday to extending a nuclear pact ahead of the fast approaching expiry date of the last arms control accord between the former Cold War rivals. The New START treaty, which is due to expire on February 5, is seen as a rare opportunity for compromise between Moscow and […]
In a move applauded by anti-war activists, U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday reportedly offered Russian President Vladimir Putin a five-year extension of the New START treaty just days before the pact—the only remaining nuclear arms control agreement regulating the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world—is set to expire. “President Biden’s offer signals a […]
The Kremlin on Tuesday dismissed Western demands to release Russia’s most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny, saying his calls for mass protests over his arrest were “troubling”. Legal pressure is ramping up against President Vladimir Putin’s best-known domestic critic, who is due in court on defamation charges on Wednesday, as his allies in Russia call […]
The team of US President-elect Joe Biden on Sunday called for the release of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny after he was detained upon arrival at a Moscow airport, as the Trump administration remained quiet on the subject. “Mr. Navalny should be immediately released, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be […]
Dissident Alexei Navalny has landed in Moscow after his plane was diverted to the Russian capital’s Sheremetyevo airport at the last minute, according to a dpa reporter. The plane was originally due to land at Vnukovo airport on Sunday evening, but display boards there said the plane had been diverted to the capital’s larger international […]
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s defiant pledge to return to Moscow from Germany after surviving a poisoning attack puts the Kremlin in a major bind. President Vladimir Putin, observers say, is caught between a rock and a hard place: allow his most outspoken critic to freely return to Russia and risk looking weak, or hand […]
A charismatic anti-corruption campaigner, Alexei Navalny has been Russia’s leading opposition politician for around a decade, determined to challenge Vladimir Putin’s grip on power despite frequent prison stays and harm to his health. The Yale-educated 44-year-old lawyer — who has said he will return to Russia from Germany on Sunday after treatment there for a […]
Russian officials on Thursday pointed to the storming of the US Capitol as evidence of America’s decline, with one saying it showed US democracy was “limping on both feet”. After the stunning events in Washington, many in Moscow said the United States was no longer in any position to lecture other countries on freedom and […]
The United States on Thursday voiced alarm after Russia expanded rules against NGOs and media considered “foreign agents,” accusing Moscow of stifling free expression. “Deeply troubled by Russia’s intensifying repression of its civil society,” Cale Brown, the State Department’s deputy spokesman, wrote on Twitter. “Changes to the ‘foreign agents law’ are particularly troubling, allowing authorities […]
Russian investigators on Tuesday opened a criminal probe into Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, alleging he used more than 356 million rubles ($4.8 million) of donations to his organizations for personal purposes including holidays abroad. The Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement that the money was part of more than 588 million […]
George Blake, who died in Russia on Saturday at the age of 98, was the last in a line of British spies whose secret work for the Soviet Union humiliated th Britain says he exposed the identities of hundreds of Western agents across Eastern Europe in the 1950s, some of whom were executed as a […]
With less than a month before Joe Biden moves into the White House, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he was not expecting much change in Moscow’s ties with Washington, while his aides said they were less optimistic. Biden is expected to take a tougher stance against Russia than Donald Trump, whose ascent to […]
Russia said Tuesday it was hitting EU officials with sanctions for their response to the poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who the Kremlin said was suffering from “delusions of persecution”. The foreign ministry in Moscow summoned several senior EU diplomats before announcing the new travel bans. In response to “confrontational” sanctions imposed by the […]