Category Archives: Vladimir Putin

‘I considered him a decent person’: how Putin’s puppets help to dupe Russia’s voters

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As Russians prepare to give the president another six-year term this week, an ex-rival has gone from protest candidate to grotesque war hawk

Two election cycles ago, in 2012, Sergei Mironov was loudly playing the role of opposition to Russia’s ruling party, wearing the white ribbon of the protest movement in the State Duma and claiming his run against Vladimir Putin was “serious”.

If made president, he said, he would even appoint the now deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny as the head of Russia’s accounts chamber as an anti-corruption measure.

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Russia-Ukraine war: British defence secretary in Kyiv to ‘raise alarm’; three dead in Kharkiv region after Russian shelling – as it happened

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Grant Shapps visits Ukraine and urges ‘wake up call for the world’; overnight Russian artillery and mortar attacks kill two women and a man in Kharkiv region

Ukraine’s defence ministry said that “overnight, Ukrainian air defenders shot down 33 our of 37 Russian ‘Shahed’ UAVs.”

Here is footage of a woman pulled from the rubble after Russian missiles hit Kharkiv region.

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Yulia Navalnaya asks Russians to join anti-Putin polling station protest

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Alexei Navalny’s widow urges supporters to arrive en masse at midday for presidential election to overwhelm polling stations

The widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has called for people to protest against Vladimir Putin at polling booths in the forthcoming presidential election.

Yulia Navalnaya urged her supporters to protest against Putin by voting en masse at noon local time in the 17 March election, forming large crowds and overwhelming polling stations.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Alexei Navalny’s mother visits grave in Moscow; three killed in reported Russian drone attack

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Navalny’s mother visits dissident’s grave day after thousands attended funeral in Moscow; three killed and eight injured after Russian drone attack on apartment block in southern port city, authorities say

The German defence ministry is checking whether a confidential videoconference on the Ukraine war had been wiretapped after a recording was posted on Russian social media, in a potentially huge embarrassment for Berlin.

The head of Russia’s state-backed RT channel, Margarita Simonyan, on Friday posted a 38-minute audio recording of what she claimed were German army officers discussing striking Crimea.

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Sending troops to Ukraine would risk provoking nuclear war, Putin tells Nato

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Russian president threatens ‘tragic’ consequences for war interventionists during state of the nation speech

Vladimir Putin has told Nato countries that they risk provoking a nuclear war if they send troops to fight in Ukraine, in an annual state of the nation speech ramping up his threats against Europe and the US.

In a reference to Emmanuel Macron’s comments earlier this week in which he opened the door to sending European ground troops to Ukraine, the Russian president said it would lead to “tragic” consequences for the nations who decided to do that.

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Russia could attack Nato states if west fails to support Ukraine, Macron says

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French president tells Paris conference Moscow ‘must not and cannot’ win the war and that Europe’s security is at stake

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called for western countries to step up their support for Ukraine, warning that Moscow’s actions in recent weeks signal that Russia could attack Nato states in the next few years.

Speaking at the opening of a hastily convened conference of 20 mainly European leaders in Paris designed to speed up the supply of weapons and financial aid to Ukraine, Macron said Russia “must not and cannot win this war” and that Europe’s own security was at stake.

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31,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed since Russia invaded, Zelenskiy says – as it happened

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Ukraine president makes announcement during news conference in Kyiv

Ukraine expects to receive $11.8 billion in economic support this year from the United States, its prime minister said on Sunday.

Denys Shmyhal said during a televised conference in Kyiv that he was hopeful that US lawmakers would approve long-awaited economic and military aid.

In the Donetsk direction, units of the Southern grouping of troops improved the situation along the front line and defeated formations of the 22nd, 28th and 92nd mechanised brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Klishchiivka, Dyleyevka and Kurdiumivka.

In the Avdiivka direction, units of the Centre group of forces occupied more advantageous lines and positions, and also defeated manpower and equipment of the 3rd Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the 107th Air Defence Brigade.

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‘Putin must lose everything’: defiant Zelenskiy hosts western leaders in Kyiv to mark two years of war

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Ukraine’s president met the prime ministers of Italy, Canada and Belgium in a show of unity after recent battlefield defeats

Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed western leaders to Kyiv on Saturday on the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, declaring that Vladimir Putin “must lose absolutely everything”.

Ukraine’s president met the prime ministers of Italy, Canada and Belgium – Giorgia Meloni, Justin Trudeau and Alexander De Croo – as well as the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

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Alexei Navalny’s body given to mother by Russian authorities

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Remains handed to Lyudmila Navalnaya nine days after Putin critic’s death in Arctic prison, say supporters

The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed over to his mother nine days after he died in an Arctic prison, his spokesperson announced on Saturday.

In a post on X, Kira Yarmysh thanked “all those who had demanded” the return of his body, but added that she did not know if the authorities would allow a public funeral to be held.

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‘More deaths are coming’: fears over fate of other Russian political prisoners after Navalny’s death

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Critics of Ukraine war among dozens who may be at risk in penal system, say campaigners and journalists

Just days after the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a prison colony, human rights activists and journalists are warning that dozens of other political prisoners may be at risk of death from deliberate abuse of ill convicts in the Russian prison system.

Dmitry Muratov, the Nobel-prize winning editor of Novaya Gazeta, told the Observer that Navalny’s death had sent a clarion call for the world to save the Russian political prisoners who could die next.

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Navalny’s body released to his mother, says spokesperson

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Spokesperson for the Russian opposition politician, who died in prison last week, said funeral arrangements are still to be determined

King Charles III praises the “determination and strength” of the Ukrainian people in a message marking the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion. The monarch said he was “greatly encouraged” by the UK’s efforts to support Ukraine and commended their “true valour”. He has said:

The determination and strength of the Ukrainian people continues to inspire, as the unprovoked attack on their land, their lives and livelihoods enters a third, tragic, year.

Despite the tremendous hardship and pain inflicted upon them, Ukrainians continue to show the heroism with which the world associates them so closely.

Right now, it looks as though Russia will not take part in a first round of the conference.

We’re in the process of starting off with a very broad alliance consisting of the BRICS countries, countries from the Arab world, as well as from the global south.

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Biden met with Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya, White House says

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US to impose over 500 new sanctions on Russia after Navalny, main opposition leader to Putin, died after being imprisoned by Kremlin

Joe Biden met with Alexei Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and the activist’s daughter, Dasha Navalnaya, in California on Thursday.

Navalny, the main opposition leader to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, died in an Arctic penal colony last Friday after being imprisoned by the Kremlin.

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Navalny’s mother shown body and ‘blackmailed by authorities’ over funeral

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Lyudmila Navalnaya says she was told to agree to secret burial as Kremlin appears to fear funeral turning into political action

Alexei Navalny’s mother has said she has been shown the body of her son but that the authorities were “blackmailing” her into burying him in a secret ceremony without mourners.

In a video message on Thursday, Lyudmila Navalnaya said she was driven to a morgue on Wednesday evening where authorities showed her the body.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy downplays loss of Avdiivka to Russian forces

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President points to Ukrainian victories in Kharkiv and Black Sea since invasion began and questions the value of Russia capturing eastern city

Italy hopes to sign a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine “in the coming days”, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday.

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni is negotiating the agreement with Ukrainian authorities, Tajani said during a parliamentary hearing.

We count on being able to finalise [it] in the coming days.

The use of such language against the head of another state by the president of the United States is unlikely to infringe on our president, President Putin.

But it debases those who use such vocabulary.

Has Mr. Putin ever used one crude word to address you? This has never happened. Therefore, I think that such vocabulary debases America itself.

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‘I hope he got the extended warranty’: US jokes about Russian car Putin gave to Kim Jong-un

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State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington he ‘didn’t know there was such a thing as a Russian luxury car’

A US spokesperson has mocked president Vladimir Putin’s gift of a Russian car to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as he accused Moscow of violating UN resolutions.

North Korean state media said on Tuesday that Kim was “presented with a car made in Russia for his personal use by Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, president of the Russian Federation.”

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Ursula von der Leyen vows never to work with Europe’s far-right parties

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European Commission president seeks a second term and says there’s no place for ‘Putin’s friends’ in bloc

The chief of the European Commission has vowed to never work with extremist parties such as the far-right Alternative für Deutschland, no matter how big a vote they get in the European elections in June.

Ursula von der Leyen, officially launching her campaign for a second term in Brussels’s top job against a backdrop of rising concern over security and Russia, said on Wednesday she would only work with “pro-European, pro-Nato, pro-Ukrainian, clear supporters of our democratic values”.

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US to unveil major Russia sanctions in wake of Alexei Navalny death

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Joe Biden declines to give details but says sanctions will coincide with second anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine

The US will announce a major package of sanctions against Russia on Friday prompted by the death of political opposition leader Alexei Navalny but also devised as retaliation for the two-year war Vladimir Putin initiated against Ukraine, Joe Biden said on Tuesday.

The US president spoke to reporters on the south lawn of the White House as he headed for a campaign fundraising trip to California, starting with a flight to Los Angeles.

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Jailed Russian activist says he fears for his life after death of Navalny

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Ilya Yashin says Vladimir Putin ordered murder of Alexei Navalny, as Russian state opens new criminal case against latter’s brother

A jailed member of Russia’s opposition has said he fears for his life after the death of Alexei Navalny, as the Putin critic’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, demanded the Kremlin release his body so he can be “buried with dignity”.

Yet as the appeals came, the Russian state opened a new criminal case on Tuesday against Navalny’s brother, Oleg, signalling it would continue the pressure on his family and supporters as they seek to mourn the late opposition leader.

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Yulia Navalnaya vows to continue husband Alexei’s fight and says Putin killed him

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Widow of Alexei Navalny says she wants to ‘build a free Russia’ and says she will reveal why ‘Putin killed him’

Yulia Navalnaya has published a video address in which she vowed to continue her late husband’s political work and called on Russians to rally around her as Alexei Navalny’s family were told they would not get access to his body for another two weeks.

“I will continue Alexei Navalny’s work … I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia,” Navalnaya said in a powerful nine-minute video published on social media.

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UK minister rules out swap for Briton Vladimir Kara-Murza jailed in Russia

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Foreign Office says it will not trade Putin opponent for spies in jail in Britain, despite fears for his life after Navalny’s death

A Foreign Office minister has ruled out a prisoner swap for the imprisoned Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British citizen, who MPs have expressed concern about after the death of Alexei Navalny.

Kara-Murza’s wife was now adamant that she wanted everything to be done to get her her husband out of Russia, said the Conservative backbencher Bob Seely, who urged the government to countenance swapping imprisoned spies for the pro-democracy activist who was now the most high-profile Russian political prisoner.

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