Category Archives: Russia

Neo-Nazi Russian militia appeals for intelligence on Nato member states

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Move by Task Force Rusich raises fears of rogue paramilitary attacks on Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia

A neo-Nazi paramilitary group linked to the Kremlin has asked its members to submit intelligence on border and military activity in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, raising concerns over whether far-right Russian groups are planning an attack on Nato countries.

The official Telegram channel for “Task Force Rusich” – currently fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and linked to the notorious Wagner Group – last week requested members to forward details relating to border posts and military movements in the three Baltic states, which were formerly part of the Soviet Union.

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Biden faced internal opposition to Brittney Griner swap, reports say

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Department of Justice viewed deal to exchange basketball star for Russian arms dealer as a mistake

Joe Biden has faced pressure from within his own administration, as well as his political opponents, in securing the release of basketball player Brittney Griner from Russia, according to reports.

On Thursday, Biden hailed the “intense and painstaking negotiations” that led to the release of Griner in a prisoner swap deal with the arms dealer Viktor Bout. Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possession of a small amount of cannabis oil, while Bout, nicknamed ‘the merchant of death’, was serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison for fueling conflicts in Africa and the Middle East.

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Russia-Ukraine war – as it happened: Moscow has turned entire city of Bakhmut to ‘burnt ruins’, says Zelenskiy

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Ukraine’s president says Russian shelling has ‘actually destroyed’ the city

Russian forces have “destroyed” the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, while Ukraine’s military reported missile, rocket and airstrikes in multiple parts of the country.

The latest battles of Russia’s nine-and-a-half-month war in Ukraine have centred on four provinces that Russian president Vladimir Putin illegally claimed to have annexed in late September, the Associated Press reported.

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In the ‘Bakhmut meat grinder’, deadlocked enemy forces slog it out

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Ukrainians have the technical advantage but Russians persist in sacrificing troops to take an area with no strategic value

In a smothering fog cloaking the woods of the Donbas, the sound of artillery takes on a spooky, disconnected quality.

Guns crack nearby, invisible among the skeletal branches. Shells whicker in the gloom towards the Russian lines around the key city of Bakhmut, distant thuds marking when they hit their targets. When the Russian guns fire back, it’s with a different sound, the crump of incoming fire.

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Australia imposes sanctions on Iran’s morality police and 13 Russians and Iranians

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Penny Wong announces Magnitsky-style sanctions to punish Iran’s violent crackdown on protesters and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

The Australian government will use human rights sanctions to punish “egregious human rights violations and abuses” by Iranian and Russian perpetrators.

The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced the Magnitsky-style sanctions (named for the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison after exposing corruption in Russia) have been imposed on 13 Russian and Iranian individuals.

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Brittney Griner arrives in US after prisoner exchange with Russia

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Basketball star lands at Texas airbase after being swapped for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout

The American basketball star Brittney Griner returned to the US early on Friday after being freed in a high-profile prisoner exchange from nearly 10 months in detention in Russia.

The deal, in which she was swapped for the Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, secured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad and achieved a top goal for Joe Biden. But Washington failed to win freedom for another US citizen, Paul Whelan, who has been jailed for nearly four years.

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Russian opposition figure Ilya Yashin jailed for denouncing Ukraine war

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Politician sentenced to eight and a half years over series of posts about atrocities in Bucha

A Russian court has sentenced the opposition politician Ilya Yashin to eight and a half years in prison, in the most high-profile case to date of a Russian dissident being jailed for opposing the invasion of Ukraine.

Yashin was tried on charges of spreading false information meant to discredit the Russian army, under a law introduced after Russia launched its invasion, due to a series of posts in May about the murder and torture of Ukrainian civilians by Russian troops in the town of Bucha.

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Putin suggests possibility of settlement to end war in Ukraine

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Russian president still claims ‘special military operation’ going to plan during Kyrgyzstan press conference

Vladimir Putin mentioned a potential settlement to end his war in Ukraine on Friday while still claiming that his “special military operation” was going to plan.

“The settlement process as a whole, yes, it will probably be difficult and will take some time. But one way or another, all participants in this process will have to agree with the realities that are taking shape on the ground,” the Russia president said during remarks at a press-conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

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Biden hails release of Brittney Griner from Russian prison: ‘She’s safe, she’s on her way home’ – as it happened

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Russia exchanged Brittney Griner for arms dealer Viktor Bout at Abu Dhabi airport, Politico reports, and the two walked past each other on the tarmac.

Biden said Griner would be back in the United States “in the next 24 hours”. According to Politico, Griner is heading to a military facility in San Antonio, Texas, to be evaluated.

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Brittney Griner freed from Russian prison in exchange for Viktor Bout

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Basketball star released as US agrees to free convicted arms dealer in dramatic prisoner swap

Russia has freed the jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange for the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, the so-called “Merchant of Death” who had been held in a US prison for 12 years.

Joe Biden, who had made Griner’s release a top priority after she spent almost 10 months in jail on drug charges, said in an address from the White House he found her “in good spirits” when speaking after the swap in Abu Dhabi.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv ‘working with UN to demilitarise Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant’ – as it happened

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This live blog has now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here

Before I hand you over to my colleague, Harry Taylor, here are some of the latest snaps to come out of Ukraine today.

The number of oil tankers waiting in the Black Sea to cross Istanbul’s Bosphorus strait on the way to the Mediterranean rose by five to 16 on Thursday, a shipping agency said, according to a Reuters report.

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Vladimir Putin says Russia’s war in Ukraine could be ‘long-term process’

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President says potential of nuclear war more likely but Russia has ‘not gone crazy’ and will not use nuclear weapons first

Vladimir Putin has admitted Russia’s war in Ukraine could turn into a “long-term process” as he sought to defend an invasion in which Russian troops have been forced to retreat and even airbases deep inside Russia have come under attack.

Speaking to members of his personal human rights council on Wednesday, Putin claimed that Russia would not use nuclear weapons first in any conflict, denied that Russian troops were deserting en masse from the field of battle, and claimed he would not need to mobilise more troops, a process that has caused considerable upheaval in Russia.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Putin hints at ‘long’ conflict and says risk of nuclear war is on the rise – as it happened

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This live blog has now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine coverage here

More now on Europe’s energy crisis, via AFP:

Sky-high energy prices have caused numerous factories, particularly in Germany’s chemicals sector, which was highly dependent upon cheap Russian gas, to halt operations. But European nations were able to fill their gas reservoirs and no one has been cut off yet.

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‘They want to kill us’: mayor Vitali Klitschko plans for the worst as Russia tries to freeze Kyiv

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Klitschko says capital taking no chances, working day and night readying for critical strike on power supplies

In his office in Kyiv’s city hall, mayor Vitali Klitschko is planning for the worst and hoping for the best.

The previous day, in the middle of the sixth mass Russian missile strike against Ukrainian cities that had sent Kyiv’s resident to the bomb shelters and metro stations, no rockets had made it through to hit the capital.

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Saudi Arabia readies full state pageantry for Xi Jinping visit

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Chinese president’s three-day trip to Riyadh will lead to a ‘strategic agreement’ between the authoritarian powers

Xi Jinping will arrive in Riyadh on Wednesday on a long awaited visit to a regional ally that has readied full state pageantry and a round of agreements likely to cement ties between China and Saudi Arabia – and deepen alarm in Washington.

China’s president will meet more than 30 heads of state and business leaders during his three-day visit to the Saudi capital, which is set to lead to a “strategic agreement” between the authoritarian powers. The trip is the culmination of decades of cooperation once based on oil sales, which has grown into bilateral trade of close to $90bn a year.

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Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak agree to increase gas exports from US to UK

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Leaders announce partnership to reduce global dependence on Russian energy

Joe Biden has agreed a deal to ramp up gas exports from the US to the UK as part of a joint effort to cut bills and limit Russia’s impact on western energy supplies.

Sunak and Biden announced an “energy security and affordability partnership” and set up a joint action group, led by Westminster and White House officials, with the aim of reducing global dependence on Russian energy.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia claims Ukraine shelling Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and says there is ‘no prospect for peace talks’

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Moscow accuses Ukraine of ‘nuclear terrorism’; Kremlin spokesperson says there is no prospect for negotiations with Kyiv at the moment

The Latvian broadcasting regulator cancelled the licence of Russian independent television station TV Rain on Tuesday, the regulator’s chairman said.

“In connection with the threat to the national security and public order, [the regulator] has made a decision this morning to annul the broadcast licence of TV Rain”, Ivars Abolins said on Twitter, adding the broadcasts will cease on Thursday.

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Iran has not sent ballistic missiles to Russia so far, says Ukrainian official

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Mikhailo Podolyak says pressure on Tehran from overseas and distraction of civil unrest mean helping Moscow is not a priority

Iran has so far not delivered ballistic missiles to Russia and may not do so, as a result of diplomatic pressure and Iran’s own internal political turmoil, a senior Ukrainian presidential adviser has said.

Mikhailo Podolyak also told the Guardian that Russian forces had run short of their first batch of Iranian drones – and only had enough of their own cruise missiles in their stockpile for “two or three” more mass strikes against Ukraine.

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Russian TV station in Latvia loses licence over Ukraine war coverage

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TV Rain had relocated from Russia soon after invasion but on-air remarks by presenter were deemed to take Moscow’s side

Latvia has revoked a broadcast licence for TV Rain, the independent Russian TV station broadcasting from exile, following a scandal over its coverage of the war in Ukraine.

The liberal television station relocated to Riga, the Latvian capital, as well as Tbilisi and Amsterdam shortly after Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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