Thousands of people in cities across Russia have been defying police threats and staging protests against the invasion of Ukraine. Authorities have a low tolerance for demonstrations and marches, and attending them can have serious consequences including fines, arrests and even imprisonment
Continue reading...Category Archives: Vladimir Putin
Ikea closes all stores and factories in Russia amid exodus of western firms
Top brands from M&S to Apple, Jaguar Land Rover, Expedia and Coca-Cola are suspending operations
Ikea has temporarily closed all stores and factories across Russia in a move affecting 15,000 workers, becoming the latest in a swathe of western firms to halt operations in the country since it invaded Ukraine.
The Swedish flatpack furniture company has mothballed its 17 outlets across Russia but said it would keep its Mega shopping centres open to allow access to essential retailers, such as food shops and pharmacies. The news prompted a rush of shoppers at the stores due to close.
Continue reading...UK politics live: we must ensure Putin fails, UK foreign secretary says
Latest updates: Liz Truss says Putin must lose in Ukraine as she praises courage of Baltic states
The UK health secretary Sajid Javid has said the NHS must stop using energy supplied by the Russian-owned firm Gazprom, the PA news agency reports.
A senior government source told PA that Javid has been in talks with NHS England over ending the contracts, which are reported by Politico to have been worth 16 million in 2021.
Sajid has spoken with NHSE and been clear that trusts need to stop using Gazprom as a supplier. He has also requested a wider review of any Russian role in supply chains across the health service.
It’s clearly unsustainable for a humanitarian organisation like the NHS to have any commercial links whatsoever with Putin’s murderous regime.
It is time to sanction them all - and freeze their assets, including any property they own in the UK.
These properties should then be used to house any Ukrainian refugees, on a temporary basis, while they await permanent resettlement. Rather than languishing in hotel rooms - or worse, unsuitable barracks, we should be putting Putin’s cronies’ assets to good use.
Continue reading...‘There’s no other choice,’ says 35-year-old Ukrainian volunteer joining fight against Russia – video
Thousands of Ukrainians have volunteered to defend their country and to fight Russia’s invasion. ‘History is happening right now. I don’t want to be on the sidelines,’ Vitali, the 35-year-old boss of a Lviv startup, said at an assembly point. ‘The truth, the good, everything is on our side. We have the whole world’s support.’ Vitali said he and his company’s 15 employees had begun weapons training five days before Russia’s attack. He volunteered on the day of the invasion
- ‘We are a huge amount of ants’: the united front of Ukrainian volunteers
- Russia-Ukraine crisis: live news
Could the international criminal court bring Putin to justice over Ukraine?
Even if Russian leader were charged, he would have to be arrested in a state that accepts the court’s jurisdiction
The prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague announced this week that he would launch an investigation into possible war crimes or crimes against humanity in Ukraine. How likely are Putin or other Russian political or military leaders to be brought to justice and what are the obstacles that must be overcome for that to happen?
Continue reading...Russian armoured vehicles and soldiers patrol Kherson, Ukraine – video
Heavy fighting has been reported in Kherson, a city along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, where the mayor said Russian forces had taken control of the railway station and the port by the early hours of Wednesday. Videos shared on social media show Russian military vehicles and soldiers patrolling the streets
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war latest: UN general assembly votes overwhelmingly to deplore invasion – live
Russia intensifies bombardment of cities as Ukraine’s president insists Moscow will not be able to take his country with bombs and air strikes
- Russia aims to erase Ukraine, says Zelenskiy, as bombardment intensifies
- Biden vows to ‘make Putin pay’ for invasion
- ‘It might be the last chance’: citizens flee Kyiv as assault intensifies
- Tell us: how have you been affected by the situation in Ukraine?
Researchers are gathering evidence of possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
My colleague, Dan Sabbagh, reports that an ‘open-source intelligence community’ is already collecting and studying video and photo evidence that Russia’s military is committing war crimes with deadly attacks on civilians and the use of cluster munitions.
Continue reading...‘Our fates are united’: Syrians rally behind Ukraine after years of Russian torment
Bombed and menaced by an unchecked Putin since 2015, Syrians hope the tide might be finally turning
When a Russian air raid in north-western Syria killed 34 Turkish troops, Ankara’s revenge quickly followed. But, instead of targeting the forces of Vladimir Putin, whose jets had caused the carnage, Turkey sent armed drones towards the Syrian army, pulverising hundreds of pieces of weaponry and killing scores of troops – all as Russia watched on blithely.
In the years since Putin intervened in Syria in 2015 to save the regime of Bashar al-Assad there had been countless examples of Russian attacks on civilian sites – schools, bakeries and hospitals – all of which had met meek responses from global leaders and drawn scant attention from war crimes prosecutors.
Continue reading...Russia’s NHL hero Alex Ovechkin has a rare chance to hit Putin where it hurts
The Washington Capitals star is popular among Russians who may not usually question their leader. And he has debated the need for war
In 2017, Alexander Ovechkin, inarguably the best Russian hockey player alive or dead and the country’s most famous male athlete, started something called PutinTeam.
“I have never hidden my attitude towards our president, always supporting him,” the Muscovite and captain of the NHL’s Washington Capitals wrote, three years after Russia annexed Crimea. “I am confident that there are many of us, supporting Vladimir Putin. So let’s unite and show everyone a united and strong Russia!”
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war latest news: 70 Ukrainian soldiers killed in Okhtyrka, huge Russian army convoy nears Kyiv – live updates
Convoy north of Ukraine capital has more doubled in length, images suggest; ICC prosecutor to open possible war crimes inquiry; Kharkiv civilians ‘massacred’, says mayor
- More than 70 soldiers killed in Russian attack on base near Kharkiv
- At a glance: what we know so far on day six of Russian invasion
- ICC prosecutor to investigate possible war crimes in Ukraine
- Rockets kill dozens in Kharkiv as Russia ‘adapts its methods’
- Tell us: have you been affected by the situation in Ukraine?
Satellite images taken on Monday show a Russian military convoy north of Kyiv that stretches for about 40 miles (64km) in an area north-west of Kyiv. It is substantially longer than the 17 miles (27km) reported earlier in the day, according to the US company Maxar.
Maxar, which filed a series of satellite images on the Russian military buildup on the Ukraine border, also said additional ground forces deployments and ground attack helicopter units were seen in southern Belarus, less than 20 miles (32km) north of the Ukraine border.
Continue reading...More than 70 Ukrainian soldiers killed in Russian attack on base near Kharkiv
Rescuers searching rubble of base in Okhtyrka in eastern Ukraine as Russian forces gather outside Kyiv
More than 70 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the eastern city of Okhtyrka after a Russian missile strike on a military base, in what is thought to be the biggest loss of life in a single incident in Moscow’s invasion.
The death toll – reported by Ukrainian officials in the city – follows a sharp intensification of the Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities, including the use of multiple-launch rocket systems against civilian areas, which has led to increasing casualties.
Continue reading...Ukraine: what we know on day six of Russia’s invasion
Rocket attacks on the city of Kharkiv have left several civilians dead, as the ICC launches an investigation into possible war crimes
Continue reading...Godfather of Vladimir Putin’s daughter among latest names on EU sanctions list
Sergei Roldugin, 71, formerly a high-profile orchestra cellist, is one of 26 new additions to 680-strong list
A Russian oligarch, who is part of a financial network known as ‘Putin’s wallet’ in Moscow, according to the EU, is one of 26 businessmen, officials and military figures who have been added to the bloc’s expanding sanctions list.
Sergei Roldugin, 71, the former principal cellist of the Kirov Opera Theatre’s orchestra in the 1980s and godfather to Putin’s eldest daughter, Maria, is among those who it is claimed are threatening the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Continue reading...UK politics live: Truss warns of ‘some economic hardship’ as she gives more detail of Russian sanctions
Truss says officials ‘working through the night’ to draw up sanctions against oligarchs; Kwasi Kwarteng in Commons on economic crime bill
- UK law firms aiding Russian oligarchs could face penalties, No 10 suggests
- Ukrainians denied entry to UK despite being eligible for visa
- No 10 distances itself from Truss comments on UK volunteers
- Russia-Ukraine crisis: live news
In a thread on Twitter, Rob Ford, the politics professor and co-author of Brexitland, a book explaining the attitudinal shifts (including on immigration) that led to Brexit, says that the public may be much more supportive of opening the borders to Ukrainian refugees than people (like Priti Patel?) assume. It starts here.
And here is one of Ford’s conclusions.
Continue reading...Biden under pressure on Ukraine, inflation and more as State of the Union looms – live
- Tuesday night speech comes as approval rating drops to 40.4%
- President warns crisis and sanctions could drive up gas prices
- Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email
The Republican governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, has come under fire for saying he needs the support of a far-right state senator who told a white nationalist event in Florida she fantasises about building gallows on which to hang her enemies.
State progressive groups said Ducey should “stop catering to hate”.
Continue reading...Germany’s ‘Putin-caressers’ start coming to terms with their naivety
Analysis: politicians who believed Putin could be ‘tamed by empathy and accommodation’ are having to hurriedly rethink their positions
Prominent figures in Germany are coming under increasing pressure to publicly distance themselves from Vladimir Putin amid accusations that they are bringing shame on the country and themselves.
The range of so-called Putin-Versteher (Putin-understanders) – those who have sought to explain or justify the Russian leader’s actions – include figures from the far-left Die Linke and the far-right AfD, as well as members of the Social Democrats and some conservatives who have tried to keep him on side in the interests of their constituents and German energy security.
Continue reading...Russian rocket strikes kill ‘dozens’ in Kharkiv as Kyiv-Moscow talks begin
Negotiations come as western nations agree to send advanced arms to Ukraine and rouble enters free fall
Russian rocket attacks killed “dozens” of people in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv as officials from both countries met for ceasefire talks, with Moscow facing unprecedented western sanctions that it said had created “a new economic reality”.
The Élysée Palace said after a call between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin that the Russian president had said he was “willing to commit” to ending attacks on civilians and civil infrastructure while the talks were taking place.
Continue reading...Would Vladimir Putin actually use nuclear weapons?
Russian president has ordered nuclear deterrence forces on high alert. We look at what that means
Russia’s president summoned the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and military chief of staff, Valery Gerasimov, to a public meeting on Sunday and ordered them to “transfer the deterrence forces” – a reference to nuclear weapons – “of the Russian army to a special mode of combat duty”.
Continue reading...What sanctions have been imposed on Russia over Ukraine invasion?
We look at different economic measures deployed around world to counter aggression from Putin
Countries around the world have imposed an unprecedented array of economic and other sanctions on Russia after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, targeting its finance, energy and military-industrial sectors as well as individuals and sporting events.
Here are some of the measures adopted by the US, EU and UK, with countries including Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand all taking similar steps:
The EU, US, UK and Canada have agreed to prevent the Russian central bank from deploying its €640bn (£540bn) of international reserves “in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions”.
The EU has banned all transactions with the institution. The US has done the same, and added the Russian finance ministry and national wealth fund. The Russian state has, in effect, been banned from raising sovereign debt; shares of Russian state-owned entities may no longer be listed on EU stock exchanges.
A range of Russian banks – their names have not yet been announced – are also being cut out of the Swift international payments system by the EU, US, UK and Canada. Brussels has said this will “stop them from operating worldwide, and effectively block Russian exports and imports”.
The US has placed Russia’s top 10 financial institutions, representing about 80% of the country’s banking sector, under restrictions, including cutting off the biggest – Sberbank, which accounts for about 30% of Russian banking – and its subsidiaries from conducting transactions through the US system.
The assets of many other Russian banks, including VTB, the country’s second largest, Bank Rossiya and Promsvyazbank, have also been hit with strict asset freezes and/or new business restrictions in the EU, UK, US and elsewhere.
The foreign assets of the Russian president, his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, have been frozen in the EU, US and UK, as have those of the FSB security head, Alexander Bortnikov, the armed forces chief, Valery Gerasimov, and members of the Kremlin’s security council. The EU has imposed sanctions on all 351 members of Russia’s parliament, the Duma; the US and UK are punishing selected members as are Australia, Japan and New Zealand.
More than a dozen billionaire oligarchs with ties to Putin’s regime, including Andrey Patrushev (oil company Rosneft), Petr Fradkov (Promsvyazbank), Yury Slyusar (United Aircraft), Boris Rotenberg (gas pipeline company SMP), Denis Bortnikov (VTB bank) and Kirill Shamalov, ex-husband of Putin’s daughter Katarina, are on asset freeze and travel ban lists around the world. The US is also sanctioning top state-owned bank executives from VTB and Sberbank. Canada and Australia have also imposed sanctions on multiple oligarchs.
The UK has imposed a £50,000 limit on bank accounts held by Russian nationals in the UK), and the EU a limit of €100,000 in EU banks.
Russian airlines and private jets have been progressively banned from UK and EU airspace and the US is considering similar action but has yet to make a final decision. Aeroflot has said it will cancel all flights to European destinations; multiple European airlines have said they are halting routes to Russia.
The US has in effect banned the Russian energy company Gazprom, the oil pipeline company Transneft, and the power company RusHydro, as well as the country’s biggest freight, rail and telecoms companies, from its credit markets.
The EU has introduced a ban on exports of aircraft and aviation parts to Russia, as well as exports of hi-tech goods including semiconductors, computers, telecoms and information security equipment and sensors. UK and EU-based companies are also banned from exporting to a wide range of Russian defence, naval, transport and communications companies, including the infamous Internet Research Agency troll farm in St Petersburg.
The Uefa Champions League final has been removed from St Petersburg to Paris.
Fifa and Uefa have suspended Russian clubs and national teams from all competitions.
The Formula One grand prix and all World Cup skiing events in Russia have been cancelled.
Russia has been banned from taking part in the Eurovision song contest.
Continue reading...Ukraine: what we know on day five of Russia’s invasion
Putin change to Russia’s nuclear stance an ‘unacceptable’ escalation, says US, as rouble set to crash on Monday in wake of global sanctions
Continue reading...