Category Archives: Vladimir Putin

Russian forces make significant gains in eastern Ukraine

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Regional armed forces admit ‘difficult situation’ as Kyiv awaits western military aid

Russian forces have made significant advances in a narrow corridor in eastern Ukraine as an offensive by Moscow to take territory before western military aid arrives appears to be gathering pace.

Footage posted by Kremlin military bloggers shows a Russian tricolour flying above the shattered village of Ocheretyne. Russian troops reportedly entered the territory on Sunday, north-west of the town of Avdiivka, after advancing about 5km in 10 days.

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Soiled nappies and karate: AI-rendered Putin biopic to be released

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Polish director Besaleel’s film will feature an AI-rendered Russian president and footage shot by Ukrainian film-makers during the Russian invasion

The “world premiere” of a new biopic of Russian president Vladimir Putin featuring an AI-rendered central character, has been announced for 26 September. In a statement released via PR Leap, Polish studio AIO said the film, titled Putin, will be released in 35 countries, and describes itself as “up close and personal with the Kremlin leader’s story”.

First announced in May 2022, Putin is the English-language debut of Polish director Besaleel, also known as Patryk Vega, who was responsible for a string of homegrown box-office hits characterised by grisly violence and glossy production values including Pitbull, Mafia Women and Botoks.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia says US aid will not change war dynamic; Poland ready to host nuclear weapons, says president

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Kremlin says ‘more Ukrainians will die’ following US agreement of new aid package; Andrzej Duda says country could host nuclear arms

A new US package of military aid to Ukraine will not change the situation on the frontlines, where Russia has the upper hand, the Kremlin said.

“The Russian armed forces are improving their positions at the front … The money allocated and the weapons that will be supplied will not change this dynamic,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

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Belarusian held in Poland suspected of ordering hammer attack on Navalny ally

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Two Polish citizens detained earlier on suspicion of attacking Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov in Lithuania

A Belarusian national has been detained in Poland on suspicion of ordering the attack on a top Russian opposition leader, Leonid Volkov, on Moscow’s behalf, the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, has announced.

Volkov, a close aide of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was briefly admitted to hospital last month after he was ambushed and attacked outside his house in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The assailant smashed open Volkov’s car window and repeatedly struck him with a hammer, breaking Volkov’s left arm and damaging his left leg before fleeing the scene.

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Vladimir Putin not welcome at French ceremony for 80th anniversary of D-day

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France says Russia can be represented but president will not be invited because of war in Ukraine

Russia will be invited to send representatives to an international ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-day – but not Vladimir Putin, the French organisers have announced.

The Élysée is reported to have accepted that the country should be represented but said its leader is not welcome because of Moscow’s ongoing war on Ukraine.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Nuclear watchdog urges restraint after Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant attack – as it happened

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International Atomic Energy Agency warns about safety after Russia says Ukrainian drone detonated at nuclear power plant

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed on Sunday by authorities at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that a drone detonated on site today.

“IAEA experts have been informed by ZNPP that a drone detonated on site today. Such detonation is consistent with IAEA observations,” the nuclear watchdog said in a post on a social media.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Ukraine’s top general says Russian forces carrying out offensive operations day and night – as it happened

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Oleksandr Syrskyi says all enemy attempts to break through to the settlement have failed

A new Russian strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, killed one civilian and injured several more, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Saturday.

“There is information about one death as a result of a strike on a residential area of the city. There are also injuries,” Terekhov said on the Telegram messaging app.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: 20 members of Russian airfield personnel killed or injured in drone attack, Kyiv says – as it happened

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Ukraine led attack on to military airfield near town of Morozovsk in Rostov region in Russia

The Kremlin has called French President Emmanuel Macron’s assertions that Russia plans to disrupt the Olympics “absolutely unfounded.”

Macron said on Thursday that he had “no doubt” that Russia would target the Paris Olympics this summer.

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Russia demands extradition of Ukraine security chief and others for ‘terrorism’

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SBU dismisses demand as pointless and hypocritical, ‘coming from the terrorist state itself’

Russia has demanded that Ukraine extradite a number of people, including the head of the country’s SBU security service, over claims they are connected with “terrorist” acts.

The SBU immediately dismissed the Russian demand as “pointless” and said the Russian foreign ministry had “forgotten” that Vladimir Putin was the subject of an international arrest warrant.

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Russia-Ukraine war: White House says US passed written warning of Moscow attack to Russia – as it happened

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US describe Russian’s allegation that Ukraine was involved in attack as ‘nonsense’ and says it passed warning to Russian security services

The Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor has restricted access to 11 channels in the Telegram messaging app “with terrorist content” over the past two days, reports Reuters citing an article by the state-owned news agency RIA Novosti on Thursday.

Poland’s prime minister on Thursday hosted his Ukrainian counterpart for long-awaited talks designed to ease friction over Ukrainian farm imports and border blockades by disgruntled Polish farmers, reports news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russian foreign ministry claims it’s ‘extremely hard to believe’ Islamic State could launch Moscow attack – as it happened

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Russian officials have repeatedly cast doubt over who was behind attack despite IS claiming responsibility and Western intelligence evidence. This live blog is closed

Here are some of the latest images from Ukraine:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his government to look at how to organise the production of homegrown gaming consoles, state news agency TASS reports.

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Russian detention of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich extended by three months

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Friday will mark one year since the journalist was arrested on espionage charges

A Russian court has extended by three months the pre-trial detention of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter arrested almost a year ago on suspicion of espionage while on a reporting trip in the city of Ekaterinburg.

Gershkovich, 32, became the first US journalist arrested on spying charges in Russia since the cold war when he was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on 29 March 2023.

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Terrorism and the battle for the truth in Moscow – podcast

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Footage of four gunmen appears to support Islamic State’s claim that it masterminded the worst terrorist attack in Russia in two decades. But the Kremlin has put Ukraine in the frame. Andrew Roth reports

The attack on Crocus concert hall near Moscow was the worst act of terrorism carried out in Russia in more than 20 years. More than 130 people were killed after gunmen stormed the venue on Friday night.

Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility for the attack and provided additional video footage of the massacre.

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Four suspects in Moscow concert hall terror attack appear in court

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Footage of gunmen reinforces Islamic State’s claim to have masterminded worst terror attack on Russia in two decades

Four suspects have appeared in court in Moscow charged over the terrorist attack on the Crocus City concert hall on Friday that left 137 people dead.

The men were officially identified as citizens of Tajikistan, the Tass state news agency said, and were remanded in custody for two months at Sunday’s hearing.

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West condemns ‘undemocratic’ Russian election as results show Putin landslide

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UK, US and Germany denounce poll that was said to give president vote share of 87.28% amid crackdown on dissent

Western nations have widely condemned Russia’s presidential election, in which Vladimir Putin claimed a landslide victory that will keep him in power until at least 2030 amid a crackdown on dissent and opposition.

“These Russian elections starkly underline the depth of repression under President Putin’s regime, which seeks to silence any opposition to his illegal war,” said the British foreign secretary, David Cameron, as EU foreign ministers met to approve new sanctions against 30 individuals and organisations in response to the death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

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Putin’s vote share nears outer limits but still the only way is up

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Observers say Russian leader’s election numbers approaching 90% mark final break with western conventions

Vladimir Putin is approaching the electoral outer limits. Claiming a record landslide on Sunday of 87.28% of the vote on a 77.44% turnout, Putin has launched himself into the stratosphere of post-Soviet election results.

It is a mathematical axiom for any president-for-life: support should never go down, only up; turnout should never go down, only up. And as Putin’s one-man rule extends past a quarter of a century, Russian officials retain straight faces even as they post astronomical numbers that would make many convinced autocrats blush.

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Vladimir Putin claims landslide Russian election victory

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Russian president uses victory speech to say war in Ukraine and strengthening military will be his main tasks

Vladimir Putin has claimed a landslide victory in Russia’s presidential vote, as thousands in the country and around the world protested against his deepening dictatorship, the war in Ukraine and a stage-managed election that could have only one winner.

In a vote denounced by the United States as “obviously not free nor fair”, Putin won 87% of the vote, according to exit polling published by the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center and the Public Opinion Foundation.

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Putin claims he agreed to prisoner swap involving Navalny before his death

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Re-elected Russian president makes first public comment on death of opposition leader, which he calls ‘sad event’

Vladimir Putin has claimed he had agreed to a prisoner swap involving Alexei Navalny before the opposition leader’s sudden death in an Arctic prison last month.

Speaking in central Moscow after early results indicated he had won Russia’s presidential election in a landslide, Putin said unnamed people made an offer to release Navalny in a swap deal with the west a few days before he died.

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‘A farce, not an election’: Russians abroad join ‘Noon against Putin’ protest

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Voters turn out at midday from the UK to Latvia and Turkey to Thailand in action Alexei Navalny endorsed before his death

The queue to vote at the Russian embassy stretched for more than half a mile along Kensington Gardens on Sunday as hundreds of Russians arrived at midday as part of a worldwide act of protest to show their opposition to Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.

It took a quarter of an hour to walk to the end of the queue past people bearing signs that read: “These ‘elections’ are fake”, “My president is Alexei Navalny” and “Vladimir Putin, go fuck yourself”.

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Exit polls show Putin winning huge majority in Russian presidential election with only one possible result – as it happened

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US says vote was ‘obviously not free, nor fair’ with exit poll suggesting 88% of Russians voted for the incumbent

Investment demand and agricultural exports are two of “several factors” which have driven an increase in Ukraine’s GDP seen during the first two months of this year.

According to Reuters, economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Sunday that Ukraine’s GDP rose 3.6% during this period.

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