Rights activists criticise trial, saying members of the Network group were tortured
A Russian court has sentenced a group of anti-fascists to between six and 18 years in prison on terrorism and other charges, with rights activists describing the punishment as monstrous.
Sergei Morgunov, a lawyer for one of the seven defendants, said a military court in the central city of Penza had handed down the verdict in the Network case. All seven had denied the charges.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson says during talks in Berlin there will be no normalisation of UK-Russia ties
Boris Johnson has told Vladimir Putin there will be no normalisation of the relationship between the UK and Russia, almost two years on from the Salisbury attack.
The pair met in Berlin on the sidelines of an international summit about the future of Libya. According to an account of the conversation released by Downing Street, Johnson stuck closely to the robust stance taken by Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May.
Continue reading...Russian president’s supporters praise Mikhail Mishustin as technocrat and self-made man
Russian opposition figures have raised questions about how Vladimir Putin’s surprise choice for new prime minister has acquired properties worth millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, the Russian president’s allies have rushed to support Mikhail Mishustin, the former head of Russia’s tax service, who claimed to have been stunned and “not [to have] slept all night” after Putin named him as the replacement for Dmitry Medvedev.
Continue reading...Corruption allegations and embarrassing public moments weakened Russia’s former PM
Vladimir Putin’s decision on Wednesday to accept the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev was not a surprise. For some time, Medvedev’s standing within the Russian government has been inexorably sinking.
There have been embarrassing public moments. Medvedev has been spotted nodding off during Putin’s presidential addresses, not once but on several occasions.
Continue reading...President, due to step down in 2024, suggests two-term limit for successors
Vladimir Putin has embarked on a sweeping reshuffle of Russia’s leadership, accepting the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev and proposing constitutional amendments that would limit the power of a potential successor as president if he steps down in 2024.
In a surprise move, Russia’s government said it would resign in full just hours after Putin announced plans for a national referendum that would shift power away from the presidency.
Continue reading...The looming question is not whether Putin will stay in control after 2024, but how he plans to do so
Vladimir Putin made two things clear as he embarked on a sweeping reshuffle of Russia’s government on Wednesday: first, that Russia will probably bid farewell to him as president after 2024. And second, that when he leaves the presidency, he will definitely not be leaving power.
No one really expected Putin to retire in 2024, when term limits dictate he cannot run for re-election. But pride and an interest in self-preservation dictate that he keep his hands on the levers of power.
Continue reading...Erdoğan and Putin make call for ceasefire, as Italian PM hosts Libyan factions in Rome
An unprecedented drive involving Europe, Russia and Turkey has been launched to broker a Libyan ceasefire, and end the risk of the country collapsing into total all-out war.
However, it is unclear to which extent the joint Russian-Turkish call for a ceasefire by 12 January should be seen as complementary or in competition to an intensified Italian-led European push to end the fighting.
Continue reading...Kremlin website recognises global heating as a problem but lists ‘positive’ economic effects
Russia has published a plan to adapt its economy and population to climate change, aiming to mitigate damage but also “use the advantages” of warmer temperatures.
The document, published on the government’s website on Saturday, outlines a plan of action and acknowledges changes to the climate are having a “prominent and increasing effect” on socioeconomic development, people’s lives, health and industry.
Continue reading...Mateusz Morawiecki attacks Russian president’s ‘lies’ blaming Poland for start of war
Poland’s prime minister has launched a furious response to claims by Vladimir Putin that Poland was partially responsible for the outbreak of the second world war.
It is the latest episode in a bitter conflict over historical memory that is likely to intensify as the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazism approaches next May.
Continue reading...Five riot police suspected of killings among those handed to separatists, provoking outrage
Ukrainian authorities and Russia-backed separatists in the war-torn east of Ukraine have exchanged 200 prisoners, swapping detained fighters for civilians and service personnel held captive in some cases for years.
The exchange provoked outrage in government-held Ukraine after Kyiv handed over to separatists five riot police suspected of killing protesters during a pro-western uprising in 2014 as part of the swap.
Continue reading...Opposition leader Alexei Navalny says 23-year-old is a ‘political prisoner’ after being taken to secret and remote air defence base
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has said that one of his allies had been forcibly conscripted and sent to serve at a remote Arctic base, in a move his supporters said amounted to kidnapping.
Ruslan Shaveddinov, a project manager at Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, went missing Monday after police broke into his Moscow flat and his phone’s SIM card was disabled.
Continue reading...Speaking at his annual end-of-the-year press conference, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said pressure on Ukraine by Donald Trump was 'made up' by the Democrats in order to impeach the US president
Continue reading...Zelenskiy sitcom lasted just one night after alluding to Putin in crude sub-language
A Russian television channel has abruptly cancelled a sitcom starring Ukraine’s president after an allusion to a crude joke about Vladimir Putin was aired in Russia’s far east.
The political satire Servant of the People served as a platform for the former comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy to gain popularity and eventually win the Ukrainian presidency, in a vote largely driven by anger at the country’s previous leaders.
Continue reading...Politicians in Germany say claims from Russian leader are designed to muddy waters around murder
Vladimir Putin has claimed the Chechen separatist shot dead in Berlin in what prosecutors believe was a state-sanctioned assassination had been responsible for carrying out killings on Russian soil, frustrating German politicians who have sought clarification over the Kremlin’s involvement in the murder.
At a joint press conference with the leaders of Germany, France and Ukraine at the end of a summit in Paris, Putin described the Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili as “a cruel and bloodthirsty person” whom Russian authorities had sought to have extradited from his exile in Germany.
Continue reading...Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet Russian counterpart at summit on Kyiv’s five-year war with Russian separatists
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, faces a major test at a high-stakes summit with Vladimir Putin in Paris as he pursues a campaign promise to negotiate an end to the war in south-east Ukraine despite vocal opposition at home.
Zelenskiy and his Russian counterpart will meet at the Élysée Palace on Monday alongside European leaders for their first face-to-face talks since the comedian-turned-president took office in May.
Continue reading...Ukrainian film-maker Oleg Sentsov gives stark assessment of leader’s dictatorial rule
The children of Russian oligarchs learn about freedom in the UK only to return to Moscow to reinforce Vladimir Putin’s dictatorial rule, Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian dissident jailed for five years by Russia, has warned in a stark assessment of Putin’s stranglehold on power.
Sentsov, Russia’s most famous political prisoner, was released with 35 other Ukrainians in a high-profile prisoner swap in September, in which an equal number of Russians were released.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has said he is considering attending a Russian military parade in May, claiming he has been invited by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. The US president spoke to reporters on the White House lawn, where he also talked about Michael Bloomberg entering the Democratic primary. 'He’s not going to do well, but I think he’s going to hurt Biden actually … There’s nobody I’d rather run against than little Michael,' he said
Continue reading...President says user-edited site should be replaced with Big Russian Encyclopaedia
Vladimir Putin has called for the creation of a more “reliable” Russian version of Wikipedia.
The president told a Kremlin meeting on the future of the Russian language: “As for Wikipedia … it’s better to replace it with the new Big Russian Encyclopaedia in electronic form,” RIA Novosti news agency reported. “At least that will be reliable information, presented in a good, modern way.”
Continue reading...Fake networks in eight nations are connected to man allegedly behind disinformation empire
Facebook has taken down accounts linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin – the businessman allegedly behind Russia’s notorious troll factory – which were actively seeking to influence the domestic politics of a range of African countries.
The company said on Wednesday it had suspended three networks of “inauthentic” Russian accounts. The Facebook pages targeted eight countries across the continent: Madagascar, the Central African Republic (CAR), Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Sudan and Libya.
Continue reading...