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Russia - Page 1  Russia, Russian, Russians, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, Putin
Story by Charlie Jones

A sinister plot by covert Russian operatives to set fire to US bound planes has been uncovered.

The discovery came after two incendiary devices went off at DHL logistic hubs in Leipzig, Germany, and Birmingham, England.

The explosions triggered a massive global hunt to identify the perpetrators with investigators now thinking they were a test run to figure out how to get such incendiary devices aboard planes bound for the US.

European investigators and spy agencies have now determined how the devices - electric massagers implanted with a magnesium-based flammable substance - were made and concluded that they were part of a broader Russian plot, according to security officials and individuals familiar with the investigation.
Story by Oleksandra Bashchenko

Russian military launched a missile at a civilian vessel, targeting a wheat shipment bound for Egypt, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“A Russian missile struck a shipment of wheat for Egypt. Today’s attack in the Black Sea targeted a civilian vessel shortly after leaving Ukrainian territorial waters,” the president stated.

According to preliminary data, there were no human casualties.

Zelenskyy emphasizes that Ukraine is a key global donor to food security. The stability and survival of many countries worldwide depend on the smooth operation of Ukraine’s food export corridor.

"Our food supply to African and Middle East countries is critical. We will continue to do everything to protect our ports, the Black Sea, and our food exports to the global market. Protecting lives is Ukraine’s priority, and it must be a priority for every nation,” he noted.
By Christopher Bing, Katie Paul and Raphael Satter

Sept 9 (Reuters) - Russia is increasingly turning to American social media stars to covertly influence voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to U.S. officials and recently unveiled criminal charges.

“What we see them doing is relying on witting and unwitting Americans to seed, promote and add credibility to narratives that serve these foreign actors’ interest,” a senior intelligence official said in a briefing on Friday. “These foreign countries typically calculate that Americans are more likely to believe other Americans’ views.”

The approach is widely viewed by American security agencies as one of Russia’s preferred tactics this cycle in order to make their foreign psychological operations appear more authentic. Broadly, these missions typically seek to anger Americans, highlight societal divisions and emphasize partisan talking points while questioning the U.S. government’s effectiveness and role in global security, experts say.
Story by IntelliNews

FSB officers may have been in the concert hall during the terrorist attack in Moscow, according to speculation posted on the Nexta Telegram channel.

“We analysed the footage of the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall and found that in the concert hall where the bloodiest events of the terrorist attack took place, there are several people dressed similarly, wearing blue sweatshirts and jeans,” a post by Anna Lena said that includes pictures from the concert hall just before the shooting began.

While no concreate evidence has been presented, Russian social media is buzzing with conspiracy theories, linking the FSB security services to the attack on March 22 that killed more than 140 innocent victims.

Several observers have pointed out that there are at least four men wearing identical blue sweatshirts and jeans in the concert hall. Studying the video from those first moments after shots were fired the men appear to remain calm while the rest of the crowd panicked.
Story by Aurora Bosotti

Vladimir Putin has weighed in on multiple reports alleging Russian citizens have burned down ballot boxes in protest as the Russian election is underway.

Footage has emerged online showing Russian voters expressing their dissent by tampering with voting papers at polling stations.

In one video, a woman was filmed pouring what appeared to be ink into one of the ballot boxes.

In another clip, a woman wearing a black coat and scar can be seen setting fire to a ballot box before stepping away and seemingly pulling her phone out to document the incident.

Putin slammed the reports as he accused Ukraine of waging a "terrorist" campaign against Russia in an effort to thwart the election.
Story by Rebecca Robinson

A Russian airport went up in flames on Wednesday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Videos of the incident have been circulating on social media. These show billowing smoke and blazing flames rising from the airport.

The incident occurred 180 miles from Vladimir Putin's Black Sea Resort.

It comes just days before the Russian elections are due to begin, and marks yet another in a series of mysterious explosions that have occurred in Russia since its war with Ukraine.

Crimean Wind's Telegram channel report "something is happening at Sochi airport" alongside footage taken by a Sochi resident who believed a plane to be on fire.
Reuters

MOSCOW, March 1 (Reuters) - Thousands of Russians chanted Alexei Navalny's name and said they would not forgive the authorities for his death as the opposition leader was laid to rest in Moscow on Friday.

In video streamed from the Borisovskyoe cemetery, Navalny's mother Lyudmila and father Anatoly stooped over his open coffin to kiss him for the last time as a small group of musicians played.

Crossing themselves, mourners stepped forward to caress his face before a priest gently placed a white shroud over him and the coffin was closed.

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critic inside Russia, died at the age of 47 in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16., sparking accusations from his supporters that he had been murdered. The Kremlin has denied any state involvement in his death.
Alexei Navalny’s team, as well as the Russian authorities, have not confirmed the whereabouts of his body
Tom Watling, Stuti Mishra, Matt Mathers

Vladamir Putin believes that he is “untouchable” after years of an iron grip on Russia, the wife of jailed opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza has said, as she accused the autocrat of murdering Alexei Navalny.

Speaking to the BBC, Evgenia Kara-Murza said: “All that impunity that lasted for decades has led [Putin] to believe he’s somehow untouchable.”

It comes as an independent Russian newspaper cited an anonymous source claiming that Mr Navalny’s body had been delivered to the Salekhard District Clinical Hospital.

The unnamed source, identified as an experienced paramedic, said the body was bruised and had been transported from the nearby town of Labytnangi.
Story by Tucker Reals

"You're not allowed to give up." That was the central message Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny wanted to stress to his supporters in the event of his death. He said it in an Oscar-winning 2022 documentary about his life by Canadian director Daniel Roher, in which Navalny spoke about his political ideals and surviving a purported poisoning attack.

"If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong," said the anti-corruption campaigner who arguably turned into President Vladimir Putin's most potent political challenger. "We need to utilize this power to not give up, to remember we are a huge power that is being oppressed by these bad dudes."

Russian prison authorities said Friday that Navalny had died after going for a walk, feeling suddenly unwell and then collapsing. The Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District said medics at the IK-3 penal colony in Russia's far north were unable to revive him.
Story by tporter@businessinsider.com (Tom Porter,Thibault Spirlet)

Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Putin's political nemesis, died suddenly in prison at the age of 47, officials said. Russia's Federal Prison Service said Navalny felt unwell after taking a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness.

Medics were called and tried to revive him, but he was quickly pronounced dead, a statement said. It did not explain further.

Navalny was imprisoned in a detention facility about 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle, where he was serving a 19-year sentence which many saw as punishment for his opposition to the Russian president.

Hours after his death, the Russian SOTA social-media channel shared what it said was footage of Navalny in court this week. He appeared to be healthy and smiling.
Story by Brendan Cole

Kremlin-controlled media corrected a mistake that Vladimir Putin made about World War II in his interview with Tucker Carlson.

Interjections by the former Fox News anchor during his interview released on Thursday were also cut, it was reported, and a version viewed online omitted a controversial segment in which the Russian president spoke about Adolf Hitler.

The fallout from the interview continues as the American anchor faced criticism that he did little to challenge the Russian president, especially during monologues about Russian history that he used to justify his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In one part of the interview, Putin made a factual error in describing an alleged encounter with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, when according to the Kremlin website, Carlson asked him about whether the Ukrainian president had "the freedom to negotiate a resolution to this conflict."

Putin replied: "It's difficult for me to judge" and he said that Zelensky's "father fought against the fascists, the Nazis, during World War II."
By AFP

A fire broke out overnight at a major Russian oil refinery in the southwestern Volgograd region, authorities said Saturday, after a drone strike claimed by Ukraine.

A Ukrainian defense source told AFP that Kyiv's SBU security service had "organized" the attack, which came after months of Ukrainian drone attacks against Russia.

"Last night, the air defense and electronic jamming repelled an attack by drones in the Volgograd region's Kalachyovsky and Zakanalye districts," Governor Andrei Bocharov said on Telegram.
Story by Joyce Sundy

Astronomer Clifford Stoll was working as a systems manager at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California when he noticed a minor discrepancy in the shared-time computer system accounts. This seemingly insignificant error sparked a ten-month investigation that would eventually expose a German hacker selling defense secrets to the KGB.

Stoll’s story reads like a gripping spy thriller, full of twists and turns, suspense and intrigue, and a surprising finale. It’s a tale of how curiosity and determination can lead to unexpected discoveries and revelations, even in the seemingly innocuous corners of a computer system.

The story begins in 1986, when Stoll was asked to find out why the computer system accounts were off by 75 cents. He expected to find a simple explanation, such as a rounding error or a misplaced decimal point. Instead, he found evidence of a computer break-in.
Story by fdemott@insider.com (Filip De Mott)

Russia's war on Ukraine triggered a massive brain drain, and the toll it will take on the economy is coming into clearer focus. Since Vladimir Putin launched the invasion in February 2022, emigration out of Russia has exploded, with some estimates putting the exodus at 1 million people. A recent analysis from the policy platform Re: Russia narrowed the number to 817,000-922,000.

That's contributed to a record labor shortage, with 42% of industrial firms unable to find enough workers in July, up from 35% in April. The composition of Russia's exodus also points to the best and brightest fleeing the country. While a barrage of Western sanctions incentivized many to leave for economic reasons, others fled to avoid military service, skewing the numbers toward younger Russians. Workers under the age of 35 now account for less than 30% of the labor force, the lowest on record going back 20 years.
Story by Daniel Bonfiglio

Yevgeny Prigozhin
Yevgeny Prigozhin was the leader of the Wagner Group; a collection of private mercenaries that staged a coup against Russian president Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine. His private jet "crashed" on Wednesday, killing him and nine other people.

Sergei Yushenkov
On a fateful day in 2003, Sergei Yushenkov was greeted by a bullet outside of his Moscow home. Yushenkov believed Putin was responsible for a 1999 apartment bombing, had just registered the Liberal Russia movement as a political party.

Denis Voronenkov
Denis Voronenkov was a Putin-critical member of the Russian parliament, before smartly electing to flee to Ukraine for his safety. Not that it mattered, he was shot in Kyiv in 2017.
US refuses to say whether bomb suspected cause of ‘assassination’
Namita Singh, Jane Dalton, Andy Gregory

Joe Biden’s remarks about Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s suspected death in a plane crash near Moscow were unacceptable, Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov has said. The US president said on Wednesday that he was not surprised by the reports of Mr Prigozhin’s death, adding that not much happens in Russia that Vladimir Putin is not behind.

The crash, which killed 10 people on Wednesday, is widely claimed to be an assassination to avenge Mr Prigozhin’s mutiny in June that challenged Russia’s military leadership. After 24 hours of silence on the matter, Vladimir Putin appeared to eulogise Mr Prigozhin as “a talented businessman” who made “serious mistakes”, and sent his condolences to the families of those killed.
CNN

An expert panel joins CNN to discuss Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner mercenary group, who was reportedly on board a plane that crashed northwest of Moscow, according to the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency.

It was only a year ago that Beijing and Moscow touted a new world order, but things appear to be unraveling fast for their economies. Exports, manufacturing activity and property prices are sliding in China, which has decided to stop reporting the country's rising youth unemployment rate, while a worsening debt crisis and deflationary spiral are threatening growth. A collapse in commodity-based export revenues and extensive military spending have also weighed on sanctioned Russia, which just saw the ruble fall past the psychologically important level of 100 to the dollar after tumbling 37% YTD.

Tale of two central banks: While the news has been grim, the countries are responding to their economic problems in different ways. On Tuesday, China slashed a range of key interest rates to shore up its economy, aiming to reignite growth and investment. It followed missed payments by Country Garden Holdings (OTCPK:CTRYF) - one of China's largest developers of real estate - in a sector that accounts for a quarter of overall economic activity. On the other hand, Russia's central bank hiked rates by 3.5 percentage points at an emergency gathering, bringing its key rate to a total of 12%, fearing inflationary pressures that could ripple through its economy.
Story by Christiaan Hetzner

Not even Fed chair Jay Powell can be accused of ever moving that far this fast. In an emergency meeting on Tuesday, Russia's central bank governing board decided to increase interest rates by 3.5 percentage points, reaching 12%. This action aims to prop up the ruble, which has been significantly impacted by Western sanctions in response to the conflict in Ukraine.

“This decision is aimed at limiting price stability risk,” it said in a statement, justifying its second hike in less than a month by citing “substantial” upside risks to inflation from the collapsing currency. Just four days prior, a deputy governor had dismissed concerns around the exchange rate in comments to the state news agency TASS.

The move comes after the country’s ruble broke below the psychological floor of 100 to a U.S. dollar, rendering each less valuable than a penny. The currency has now surrendered all of its gains from last year to plumb depths not seen since an investor panic in the early days of the war.
Story by Allison Quinn

Agroup of Russian billionaires have reportedly been using their companies—some of which have dodged Western sanctions—to funnel mercenaries to the regular Russian army for the war against Ukraine. That’s according to a new investigation by the independent outlet iStories, which reports that companies under the control of several Vladimir Putin cronies are taking part in the alleged covert recruitment scheme.

Oleg Deripaska, the sanctioned tycoon and Putin confidante who made headlines at the start of the full-scale invasion for appearing to speak out against it, is allegedly at the center of one such scheme. According to iStories, a company owned by Deripaska’s Rusal–Russia’s largest aluminum producer–is bankrolling a volunteer battalion called Sokol. The battalion is officially considered a part of the Russian military, but financial compensation for the “volunteers” comes from both the Defense Ministry and a mysterious “sponsor.”
Story by Peter Suciu

Russia may be forced to employ nuclear weapons if Ukraine's counteroffensive is successful, warned a top Russian official on Sunday. In a message posted to his official social media account, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, suggested that the Kremlin could fall back on its own nuclear doctrine, which calls for nuclear weapons to be employed in response to aggression carried out against Russia that includes conventional weapons.

That response has typically been reserved should the existence of the Russian state be threatened, but Medvedev has suggested that could also include the loss of territory that Russia sees as its own – including Crimea. "Imagine if the ... offensive, which is backed by NATO, was a success and they tore off a part of our land then we would be forced to use a nuclear weapon according to the rules of a decree from the president of Russia," Medvedev wrote on the Telegram social messaging app.
Story by jepstein@insider.com (Jake Epstein)

Russian fighter jets have harassed and bullied US military drones operating above Syria routinely throughout July, with one engagement this week actually damaging an American aircraft.

US officials are frustrated with the repeated incidents, blasting Moscow's pilots for dangerous and reckless behavior, and accusing Russia of interfering with combat drones on high-profile counterterrorism missions. Experts say there are several reasons behind the spike in aggressive behavior, including Russian overcompensation for its military shortcomings in Ukraine and a desire to flex its muscles in an area where it still enjoys a certain degree of strength.
Story by Альона Сонько

"After Russia's withdrawal from the grain initiative, the occupying armed forces intensified combat training of the Black Sea Fleet's surface forces and naval aviation," the ministry stated. “In particular, the Russians are practicing blocking maritime areas, detecting and destroying ships.”

The defense ministry claims that the Russians are training to hit civilian vessels that will be sailing from Ukrainian ports, and that the occupation administration continues to improve the defense system of Crimea, in particular, the Armyansk and Perekop axes. The Kremlin announced the suspension of the "grain agreement" on July 17, previously brokered by the UN and Turkey last July. This agreement facilitated the unblocking of three Ukrainian ports for food exports.
Story by The Moscow Times

Russian authorities havereturned 10 billion rubles ($111.2 million) to exiled Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin which they had seized in police raids during his aborted rebellion last month. Law enforcement in St. Petersburg confiscated the large sum of money — along with “hundreds of thousands” of U.S. dollars and five gold bars — in raids on Prigozhin-linked properties on June 24, according to the Fontanka news website.

The searches were carried out as part of a criminal mutiny investigation into the Wagner leader, charges which President Vladimir Putin eventually agreed to drop in exchange for Prigozhin abandoning his revolt and leaving for neighboring Belarus.
Story by Allison Quinn

The Russian mercenary boss who got off unscathed after staging an armed uprising against the country’s military leadership has returned to St. Petersburg to collect an arsenal of weapons confiscated from him by the security services. Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was spotted Tuesday arriving at an FSB office in St. Petersburg along with his security team, local news outlet Fontanka reports. He had reportedly been invited to collect several weapons seized by security services in the wake of his attempted insurrection last month.

Authorities handed over two Saiga rifles, a Mannlicher rifle, and several other firearms, according to Fontanka. The lot reportedly also included a Glock pistol gifted to the foul-mouthed mercenary boss by none other than Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whom Prigozhin had allegedly hoped to capture in his armed uprising and march on Rostov. Prigozhin was also reportedly given back 10 billion rubles (more than $100 million) that law enforcement had found during a raid on one of his vehicles.
Story by Connor Surmonte

Vladimir Putin’s exiled mercenary chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has reportedly vanished eight days after launching a failed coup against the Russian leader, RadarOnline.com has learned.

In a sudden development to come after Prigozhin ordered his Wagner Private Military Company to march on Moscow on Saturday, June 24, Russian sources claimed the 62-year-old warlord has not been seen since arriving in Belarus on June 26.

Meanwhile, a number of Prigozhin’s media companies suddenly went dark over the weekend – indicating the exiled Wagner chief’s business empire is under assault. “I am announcing our decision to close down and to leave the country's information space,” said Yevgeny Zubarev, the director of Prigozhin’s Patriot Media, on Saturday.
Story by Ellen Ioanes

The US Treasury Department on Tuesday sanctioned gold and diamond mining concerns connected to the Wagner group in Mali and the Central African Republic after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary group’s founder, attempted to stage a mutiny in Russia last weekend.

The gold and diamond mining enterprises, as well as a UAE-based distributor and a Russian company that the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) says is involved in the scheme, serve to enrich some members of Wagner and their collaborators in Russia and the African countries where they have a foothold. However, the amount the group earns from its illicit mining activities is negligible compared to its significant funding from the Russian government.
Story by Matthew Chance

Documents shared exclusively with CNN suggest that Russian Gen. Sergey Surovikin was a secret VIP member of the Wagner private military company. The documents, obtained by the Russian investigative Dossier Center, showed that Surovikin had a personal registration number with Wagner. Surovikin is listed along with at least 30 other senior Russian military and intelligence officials, who the Dossier Center said are also VIP Wagner members.
MSN

Russia’s most senior generals have seemingly dropped out of public view following a failed mercenary mutiny aimed at toppling the top brass. The news comes amid a drive by President Vladimir Putin to try reassert his authority.

Second Russian general vanishes after failed Wagner coup
Armed forces chief of staff General Valery Gerasimov has not appeared in public or on state TV since the aborted mutiny on Saturday, when mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin demanded Gerasimov be handed over. Unconfirmed reports say at least one person has been arrested following the Wagner Group uprising.
Story by Paul Withers

The Russian commander who has mysteriously vanished since the attempted Wagner Group coup against Vladimir Putin was a secret VIP member of the private military group, it has been claimed. Gen. Sergey Surovikin is a decorated commander in Russia who has become known as "General Armageddon" for his ruthless tactics in bombing cities in Syria.

But he has not been seen in public since last Saturday when he was seen in a video pleading for Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to stop his insurrection. Surovikin's whereabouts are unknown, with some reports suggesting he may have been arrested by Russian officials and thrown in jail. Now stunning documents, which CNN has said were exclusively shared with the network and were obtained by the Russian investigative Dossier Center, have seemingly revealed an incredible new development.
By Patrick Hilsman

A Russian politician on Thursday backed up the claim that Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was asked to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense prior to the mercenary group's revolt.
Days before Wagner forces marched on Moscow all "groups and units that perform combat tasks" were ordered to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry, Russia's State Duma Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov said, according to Russian state-run outlets TASS and RIA Novosti.
Story by By JEAN FERNAND KOENA, CHINEDU ASADU and ZANE IRWIN, Associated Press

BIRAO, Central African Republic (AP) — The Russian mercenary group that briefly threatened President Vladimir Putin’s authority has for years been a ruthless force-for-hire across Africa, protecting rulers at the expense of the masses. That dynamic is not expected to change now that the group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been exiled to Belarus as punishment for the failed rebellion.

The Wagner Group brutalizes civilians in the Central African Republic, Mali and elsewhere to crush dissent and fend off threats to their leaders’ power. In exchange, Russia gains access to natural resources and ports through which weapons can be shipped, and receives payments that enrich the Kremlin and help it fund operations elsewhere, including the war in Ukraine.
Story by Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the finances of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's catering firm would be investigated after his mutiny, saying Wagner and its founder had received almost $2 billion from Russia in the past year.

Putin initially vowed to crush the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolutions of 1917 and then a civil war, but hours later a deal was clinched to allow Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus.

Speaking to soldiers from the Russian army at a meeting in the Kremlin, Putin said he had always respected Wagner's fighters, but that the fact was the group had been "fully financed" from the state budget. He said it had received 86 billion roubles ($1 billion) from the defence ministry between May 2022 and May 2023.
By Charles Maynes

MOSCOW — The head of the Wagner mercenary group said his forces were ending a march on the Russian capital after demanding the resignation of the country's top defense officials over alleged failures in the war in Ukraine.

In a statement to his Telegram social media account, Yevgeny Prigozhin said his fighters had led a "march for justice" over the past 24 hours that saw them travel from the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to the outskirts of Moscow "The whole time, not one drop of blood of our fighters was spilled," Prigozhin said. "But now the moment has arrived when blood could be spilt."

To avoid such a scenario, Prigozhin said he had ordered his forces to "turn our columns around and go in the opposite direction back to a field camp as planned." The sudden about-face appeared to hit pause on a political crisis that grew out of months of infighting between Russia's top brass and Prigozhin over the state of the military campaign in Ukraine.
Story by ktangalakislippert@insider.com (Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert,Erin Snodgrass)

Regardless of whether the Wagner Group leader ousts Russian military leadership in an apparent coup attempt that began Friday, the outcome of Yevgeny Prigozhin's bid for more control will have chaotic consequences for the war in Ukraine, according to a military strategist.

Mick Ryan, a retired major general in the Australian military and fellow for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Insider that while exactly what is happening on the ground in Russia remains unclear, "this is the kind of thing where no one wins — everyone loses something."

On Friday, the Wagner mercenary group leader issued a statement that said Russia's "evil" defense ministry "must be stopped." Early local reports from Russian media indicated Wagner troops had taken control of the city of Rostov-on-Don. Russian state security is pursuing a criminal case against Prigozhin in response to his calls for "armed rebellion."
Story by Ukrainska Pravda

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group private military company, has confirmed that Russian security forces had found boxes full of money near his office in St Petersburg. Russian media reported that the boxes contain a total of 4 billion roubles (approximately US$ 47 million).

Source: Fontanka, a St Petersburg-based news outlet; Yevgeny Prigozhin’s press service

Details: Fontanka reported that a Gazel minivan stuffed full of boxes containing money was found near Prigozhin’s office, in the courtyard of the Trezzini Hotel in St Petersburg.

According to Fontanka, Prigozhin is believed to have his office in the Trezzini Hotel. During a search conducted in the hotel the white Gazel minivan aroused suspicion as it did not belong to anyone living at the Akademichesky Lane [the street where the van was parked - ed.]. The van was checked for explosives; when it was unlocked, boxes stuffed with money were found inside.
Story by Daniel Hannan

This is the beginning of the end for Vladimir Putin. That may seem an odd thing to say when he is in command of nearly five million armed men in various police, military and paramilitary units. A mutiny by 25,000 mercenaries a thousand miles away might appear, at first glance, to be a minor irritant.

But that is not how autocracies work. Putin’s power rests on projection, on propaganda, on the image of invincibility. Now, all of a sudden, the curtain is being snatched back, revealing the Wizard of Oz as a small, mediocre, frightened man.

From the outside, dictatorships can look monolithic. One of the reasons that Western Kremlinologists failed to predict the end of the Soviet Union was that they knew little of the necessarily secret rivalries within it. None of them foresaw that the chief instrument in the dissolution of the USSR would be Boris Yeltsin’s Russian Federation.
By The Associated Press

The head of the private Russian military force Wagner said Saturday he has ordered his mercenaries to halt their march on Moscow and retreat to their field camps in Ukraine to avoid shedding Russian blood. The announcement from Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to defuse a dramatically escalating crisis that represented the most significant challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s leadership in his more than two decades in power.

Moscow had braced for the arrival of a private army led by the rebellious mercenary commander by erecting checkpoints with armored vehicles and troops on its southern edge. Red Square was shut down, and the mayor urged motorists to stay off some roads. Prigozhin said that while his men were just 200 kilometers (120 miles) from Moscow, he decided to turn them back to avoid “shedding Russian blood.” He didn’t say whether Moscow has responded to his demand to oust Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.
Washington Post

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the military to squash a rebellion led by Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin.
Associated Press

The owner of the Wagner private military contractor made his most direct challenge to the Kremlin yet, calling for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia’s defense minister. The security services reacted immediately by calling for the arrest of Yevgeny Prigozhin.

In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin was taking the threat, security was heightened in Moscow and in Rostov-on-Don, which is home to the Russian military headquarters for the southern region and also oversees the fighting in Ukraine.

While the outcome of the confrontation was still unclear, it appeared likely to further hinder Moscow’s war effort as Kyiv’s forces were probing Russian defenses in the initial stages of a counteroffensive. The dispute, especially if Prigozhin were to succeed, also could have repercussions for President Vladimir Putin and his ability to maintain a united front.

Prigozhin claimed early Saturday that his forces had crossed into Russia from Ukraine and had reached Rostov, saying they faced no resistance from young conscripts at checkpoints and that his forces “aren’t fighting against children.”
Story by htan@insider.com (Huileng Tan)

Russia has been using China's yuan to get around sanctions — but at least one major Chinese bank has restricted transfers from Russia over fears of secondary sanctions from the West. The Bank of China, a major Chinese lender, has started restricting transactions using the yuan between Russian clients and lenders in the US, the European Union, Switzerland, and the UK, Russia's privately owned RBC business-news outlet reported on Sunday, citing representatives from Modulbank and Finam.

The restrictions affect transfers involving the Bank of China as the correspondent, or intermediary, bank moving money from Russia to third-party countries. "The decision was not made by China, but rather by the EU and the US. That is how they are trying to ramp up the sanction pressure by choking off alternative channels in the form of yuan," Pavel Semyonov, the chairman of the board of Modulbank, told RBC, per a Novaya Gazeta Europe translation. Semyonov told RBC that Russian clients could still make yuan transfers within the Bank of China network.
Story by Віра Олійник

The mysterious user seems to have been able to put blockchain and Bitcoin technologies to work against the Russian terrorist state.

The hacker gained access to hundreds of crypto wallets that likely belong to Russian security agencies, cryptocurrency industry news site CoinDesk clarified, citing Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency monitoring company that works closely with the U.S. government.

Chainalysis analysts believe that the hacker used the transaction documentation feature of the Bitcoin blockchain to identify 986 wallets controlled by Russia’s foreign military intelligence agency (GRU), the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and the Federal Security Service (FSB).
Story by jma@insider.com (Jason Ma)

Russia's central bank sounded alarms on the economy Friday as the falling ruble and a record labor shortage add inflationary pressures. Policymakers kept the benchmark interest rate steady at 7.5%, where it has been since September, but signaled an increase may be coming soon.

"The option of hiking the rate was considered, but by consensus we decided to hold the rate, but tighten the signal," Governor Elvira Nabiullina said at a news conference, according to Reuters, adding that "the likelihood of a rate hike has increased." In fact, central bankers discussed a hike of 25-75 basis points, she said. That's as data out Wednesday showed weekly consumer prices jumped sharply.
Security council meeting discusses disaster as US, UK and French representatives call for an investigation
Patrick Wintour

Russia’s UN envoy was accused of floundering in a “mud of lies” after he claimed at an emergency session of the security council that Ukraine destroyed Kakhovka dam in a “war crime”.

Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukraine envoy to the UN, said it was typical of Russia to blame the victim for its own crimes, pointing out Russia has been in control of the dam for more than a year and it was physically impossible to blow it up by shelling. He said the dam was mined by the Russian occupiers and they blew it up. He accused Russia of “floundering again in the mud of lies”.

“By resorting to scorched earth tactics, or in this case to flooded earth tactics, the Russian occupiers have effectively recognised that the captured territory does not belong to them, and they are not able to hold these lands,” Kyslytsya said.

Neither the French, US or British representatives at the UN directly said there was evidence of Russian responsibility, but called for an investigation and insisted their support for Ukraine was unwavering.
Story by jma@insider.com (Jason Ma)

The Russian economy isn't just suffering from a record labor shortage, it's also losing some of its best and brightest workers.

Alexandra Prokopenko, a former adviser at Russia's central bank, told NPR last week that many educated and skilled workers have fled the country.

As a result, Russian firms are scaling back or shutting down, she said, citing a recent estimate that 1.3 million young workers left the labor force last year alone.

"I don't think Russian authorities will admit it, but we've seen a massive brain drain," Prokopenko told NPR.
Story by Allister Heath

There is only one winner from Vladimir Putin’s monstrous war on Ukraine, and that is the Chinese Communist Party. To our eternal shame, Xi Jinping has spectacularly outwitted the West, drastically expanded his global influence, and turned Russia into a Chinese protectorate in all but name.

Russia was meant to have collapsed by now. Britain, America and Europe’s gambit was that drastic trade, financial and technological sanctions, a cap on the price of Russian seaborne oil, and substantial help to Ukraine would be enough to defeat Moscow. It hasn’t worked. For all of the sacrifices of the Ukrainian people, the war has reached a stalemate, at least until Kyiv’s counter-offensive.
Story by The Moscow Times

Russia has seized four tugboats belonging to a subsidiary of Danish shipping giant Maersk in Russia's Far East, according to the group, which ceased operations in the country after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

"On April 25 we were informed a local court has ordered the tugboats cannot leave Russia and also transferred custody of the tugboats to a third party," Maersk said in a statement on Wednesday.

The four vessels, owned by Maersk unit Svitzer, were operating on a long-term contract for the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project in Russia's Far East.
Story by Sébastien Roblin

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been tough on Russia’s inventory ground attack aircraft, with photos confirming at least 60 of its Sukhoi bombers and attack jets destroyed or heavily damaged by early May 2020. And a recent incident suggests even those deployed thousands of miles away from Ukraine may still be in the line of fire.

On May 8, just prior to Russia’s Victory Day holiday, saboteurs filmed themselves setting fire to one Su-24 supersonic bomber parked near some woods by the Sukhoi aircraft factory at Novosibirsk—located 1,800 miles east of Ukraine in Siberia. The Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Association Plant there is engaged in producing the Su-24’s successor, the Su-34 Fullback bomber.

Exiled former Russian politician-turned-dissident Ilya Ponomarev claims Russian resistance fighters were behind the brazen drone attack on the Kremlin. "Russian resistance is growing," he tells Christiane Amanpour.
Story by Chris Strohm and Katrina Manson

(Bloomberg) -- The US and allied countries have disrupted a wide-ranging Russian hacking operation that spied on its adversaries over some 20 years, the Justice Department announced.

Law enforcement agencies penetrated a global network of computers infected with malicious software that the US said Russia’s federal intelligence service used to spy on computers in at least 50 countries, including governments belonging to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

“The Justice Department, together with our international partners, has dismantled a global network of malware-infected computers that the Russian government has used for nearly two decades to conduct cyber-espionage, including against our NATO allies,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. The operations disabled the so-called Snake malware on compromised computers through the use of an FBI-created tool named PERSEUS, which issued commands to overwrite the malware, according to the US.
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