Category Archives: Russia

US charges 11 people in Russia-based scheme to bilk Medicare of $10bn

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Prosecutors allege more than a million Medicare recipients had their information stolen and used by the defendants for fraudulent claims

US federal prosecutors charged 11 people on Friday in a Russia-based scheme to bilk Medicare – the American health insurance program for the elderly and disabled – out of $10.6bn through fraudulent billing for expensive medical equipment.

The “transnational criminal organization” orchestrated a “multi-billion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme” that included purchasing dozens of medical equipment companies from prior legitimate owners to perpetrate the fraud, according to the indictment dated 18 June.

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Ukraine and UK to jointly produce long-range drones, Zelenskyy says

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Ukrainian president says two countries will deepen defence cooperation with the objective to ‘stop Russian terror’

Ukraine and the UK are to deepen their defence cooperation by jointly producing long-range drones, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday after talks with Keir Starmer in Downing Street aimed at forcing Russia to “think about peace”.

Zelenskyy said his main objective was “to save as many lives as possible” and to “stop Russian terror”. Writing on social media, he called for “maximum political and diplomatic coordination” and closer work on “joint defence projects and weapons production”.

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‘My husband is free!’ Belarus opposition leader freed after nearly five years in jail

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Syarhei Tsikhanouski arrested shortly after announcing candidacy in rigged 2020 election won by Lukashenko

One of the leaders of Belarus’s opposition movement, Syarhei Tsikhanouski, has been released from jail after being pardoned after almost five years behind bars.

His wife, the exiled politician Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, who took over the opposition cause after his jailing, on Saturday shared a video of him smiling and embracing her after his release.

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Banned from home for 40 years: deportations are Russia’s latest move to ‘cleanse’ Ukraine

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A deal freezing frontlines would be unacceptable for Serhiy Serdiuk, who was taken to Georgia in handcuffs with his family after refusing to teach the Russian curriculum

Earlier this year, Serhiy Serdiuk was deported from Russia, along with his wife and daughter. He was given a 40-year ban from re-entering the country.

Serdiuk’s home town of Komysh-Zoria, in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, was part of the territory occupied in the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion in spring 2022. According to Moscow, it is now part of Russia. And because Serdiuk, the headteacher of a local school, refused to work for the new authorities, they decided he had no place living there.

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Denmark deploys ‘saildrones’ in Baltic to protect undersea cables from Russia

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US-made unmanned vessels will monitor maritime activity as part of trial, amid criticism over closer ties with America

Denmark is deploying floating drones on the Baltic Sea to protect undersea infrastructure and bolster maritime surveillance amid the growing threat of hybrid attacks from Russia.

The arrival of Saildrone, a California-based company, has prompted criticism in Denmark over forging tighter bonds with the US in such a sensitive area as digital security.

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Spanish PM rejects Nato’s ‘unreasonable’ 5% GDP target for defence spending – as it happened

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This blog is now closed, you can read more of our European news coverage here

Earlier today, I cheekily suggested that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is probably wondering how to persuade US president Donald Trump to stay at the Nato summit in The Hague next week long enough to get to discussions on Ukraine and Russia – and not leave early, as he did at the G7 summit.

Well, looks like this issue may have actually influenced the planning.

“Budapest city hall will organise the Budapest Pride march on 28 June as a city event. Period.”

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Iranian regime collapse would be serious blow for Russia

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While some in Moscow have tried to put positive spin on Israel’s assault, Kremlin risks losing key strategic partner

When a group of Russian and Iranian foreign policy officials arranged to meet in Moscow for a conference titled “Russian-Iranian cooperation in a changing world”, they probably did not anticipate just how timely that phrase would turn out to be.

Seated around a table on Wednesday at the President hotel near the Kremlin, officials from both sides were forced to confront a stark new reality: Iran’s regime – a key ally of Moscow – is facing its most serious threat in decades.

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UK firm not racist for rejecting Chinese applicant over security concerns, tribunal rules

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Judge says not discrimination to refuse to hire people from ‘hostile’ states like China and Russia if it may pose risk to British security

Refusing to give a job to Chinese and Russian people in companies that deal with issues of national security and require security clearance is not racist, an employment tribunal has ruled.

It is not discriminatory to stop people from “hostile” states taking up certain jobs in the defence sector because of the risk to British security, the judgment says.

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Europe will never return to Russian gas, European Commission insists

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Body unveils plans to ban all gas imports from Russia by January 2028 – but faces backlash from Hungary, Slovakia and Austria

The European Commission has insisted there will be no return to Russian gas, as it published plans to phase out fossil fuel imports from its eastern neighbour by 2028.

The EU energy commissioner, Dan Jørgensen, said a proposed ban on Russian gas imports would remain, irrespective of whether there was peace in Ukraine.

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Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv kills at least 15 people

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls it ‘one of the most horrific attacks’ on Ukraine’s capital since full-scale war began

Russia launched a sustained missile and drone attack on Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 100 in what the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called “one of the most horrific attacks” on the Ukrainian capital since the full-scale war began in spring 2022.

Officials warned that the death toll from one of the deadliest Russian attacks on Kyiv this year could rise, as rescue operations continue.

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UK ‘woefully’ unprepared for Chinese and Russian undersea cable sabotage, says report

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CSRI finds China and Russia may be coordinating ‘grey zone’ tactics against vulnerable western infrastructure

China and Russia are stepping up sabotage operations targeting undersea cables and the UK is unprepared to meet the mounting threat, according to new analysis.

A report by the China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI) analysed 12 incidents in which national authorities had investigated alleged undersea cable sabotage between January 2021 and April 2025. Of the 10 cases in which a suspect vessel was identified, eight were directly linked to China or Russia through flag-state registration or company ownership.

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KGB defector turned to Britain only after US rejected him several times, book reveals

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Vasili Mitrokhin defected in 1992 after spending years copying top-secret documents on Soviet spies and operations

One of the most consequential Russian defectors in history was turned away several times by the US before he was eventually accepted by Britain and exfiltrated with his family from Russia, according to revelations in a new book.

Vasili Mitrokhin, a KGB archivist who spent years copying top-secret documents on some of the most sensitive Soviet spies and operations, was brought out of Russia in 1992 by MI6. His archive of copied documents was exfiltrated separately. But London got hold of his trove only after Mitrokhin gave up trying to get the US to take him seriously.

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Astronaut missions postponed amid concerns about leaks at International Space Station

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Chartered spaceflight for India, Poland and Hungary’s first astronauts in decades delayed indefinitely

A chartered spaceflight for India, Poland and Hungary’s first astronauts in decades has been delayed indefinitely because of leak concerns at the International Space Station.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) said Thursday that it had postponed the Axiom Mission 4 to the ISS to monitor the cabin pressure on the Russian side of the orbiting lab before accepting visitors. Officials stressed that the seven astronauts currently at the space station are safe and that other operations up there would not be affected.

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Zelenskyy calls for ‘concrete actions’ as Russian strikes hit seven of Kyiv’s 10 districts

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Ukraine president criticises lack of response from US and others after one of Moscow’s largest attacks of war on Kyiv

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has voiced his frustration with Donald Trump by calling for “concrete actions” rather than “silence” after Russia launched one of its largest attacks on Kyiv, with seven of the Ukrainian capital’s 10 districts hit overnight.

A total of 315 drones and seven missiles were launched at Ukrainian targets across the country in the early hours of Tuesday, including Odesa in the south-east. But it was the capital that was the focus of Russia’s ferocious barrage.

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EU calls for lower price cap on Russian oil in move to tighten sanctions

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Other measures include greater restrictions on ‘shadow fleet’, banks and Nord Stream investment

The EU executive has called for lowering the price cap on Russian oil as it seeks to tighten energy and financial sanctions against the Kremlin’s ability to wage war.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed that western countries reduce the price at which Russian oil can be sold to $45 (£30) a barrel, down from the current $60.

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Russia could be ready to attack Nato within five years, says secretary general

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In speech in London Mark Rutte says he expects alliance members to agree to raise military spending to 5% of GDP

Russia could be ready to attack Nato within five years and leaders of the western alliance are expected to agree to increase military spending to 5% of GDP this month to contain the threat, the alliance’s secretary general has said.

Mark Rutte said in a speech in London on Monday that Nato needed “a quantum leap in our collective defence”, which would include significant rearmament to deter an increasingly militarised Russia.

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‘It will lift the spirits’: Kyiv to stage ‘most English of ballets’ after Russian repertoire boycott

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Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée to be performed for first time, replacing classics by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky after fundraising in London

One of the “most English of ballets” will be performed for the first time at the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv after a boycott of the classic Russian repertoire, including Swan Lake and the Nutcracker.

Sir Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée, a celebrated romantic comedy, will be performed to a sell-out audience on Thursday after Ukraine turned away from the works of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Prokofiev.

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Russian forces closing in on Sumy city three years after Ukraine forced them out of region

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Independent monitors confirm Kremlin claims of new and symbolically important advances in east of Ukraine

Russian military units appear to be within 18 miles (29km) of the city of Sumy, three years after Ukraine forced them out of the northern region, while also making new and symbolically important ground in the east.

Independent monitors confirmed Kremlin claims to have retaken the village of Loknia, which had been liberated along with the rest of the Sumy region during Ukraine’s 2022 spring counteroffensive.

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Neo-Nazi group ‘actively seeking to grow in US’ with planned paramilitary training event

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The Base is emerging from shadows and ramping up its ranks as White House turns blind eye to the far right

An international neo-Nazi terrorist organization is boldly continuing to build in the US and planning a new paramilitary training event without fear of local authorities or the FBI, which once dismantled it in a nationwide effort.

The Base, founded in 2018 by a former Pentagon contractor living in Russia and now suspected of Kremlin-sponsored espionage, once boasted close to 50 stateside members before the bureau made more than a dozen arrests in a years-long counter-terrorism operation.

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Russia is at war with Britain and US is no longer a reliable ally, UK adviser says

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Government defence expert Fiona Hill warns UK to respond to threats by becoming more cohesive and resilient

Russia is at war with Britain, the US is no longer a reliable ally and the UK has to respond by becoming more cohesive and more resilient, according to one of the three authors of the strategic defence review.

Fiona Hill, from County Durham, became the White House’s chief Russia adviser during Donald Trump’s first term and contributed to the British government’s strategy. She made the remarks in an interview with the Guardian.

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