Category Archives: Russia

Russia will act if Nato countries cross Ukraine ‘red lines’, Putin says

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Deployment of weapons or troops in Ukraine by Nato would trigger strong response, Russian president says

Vladimir Putin has warned Nato countries that deploying weapons or soldiers to Ukraine would cross a “red line” for Russia and trigger a strong response, including a potential deployment of Russian missiles targeting Europe.

Nato countries have warned Putin against further aggression against Ukraine as foreign ministers gathered in Latvia to discuss the military alliance’s contingencies for a potential Russian invasion.

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UK spy chief suggests Beijing risks ‘miscalculation’ over west’s resolve

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Island’s status and surveillance technology making China ‘single greatest priority’ for MI6

China is at risk of “miscalculating through over-confidence” over Taiwan, said the MI6 head, Richard Moore, in a statement clearly intended to warn Beijing to back off any attempt to seize control of the island.

Giving a rare speech, Britain’s foreign intelligence chief said in London that China was at risk of “believing its own propaganda” and that the country had become “the single greatest priority” for MI6 for the first time in its history.

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MI6 needs tech sector’s help to win AI race with China and Russia – spy chief

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New boss Richard Moore to say adversaries are ‘pouring money’ into technology and the agency needs outside funding to keep up

MI6 will have to become “more open to stay secret” and work with tech companies to counter threats posed by China and Russia who seek to gain advantage by mastering artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

In his first speech as the foreign spy agency’s head on Tuesday, Richard Moore is expected to admit that “unlike Q in the Bond movies”, MI6 cannot develop the tools it needs in-house to counter hybrid physical and virtual threats.

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Bosnian Serb leader: Putin and China will help if west imposes sanctions

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Exclusive: Milorad Dodik dismisses fears Serb separatists are planning breakup of Bosnia-Herzegovina

The Bosnian Serb leader accused of risking war by pursuing the breakup of Bosnia-Herzegovina has dismissed the threat of western sanctions and hinted at an imminent summit with Vladimir Putin, saying: “I was not elected to be a coward”.

In an interview with the Guardian, Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of the tripartite leadership of Bosnia-Herzegovina, said he would not be deterred by the outcry from London, Washington, Berlin and Brussels.

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Ukraine has uncovered Russian-linked coup plot, says president

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy says there is evidence of ‘coup d’état’ being planned for early December

Ukraine’s president has said intelligence services uncovered a plot involving a group of Russians and Ukrainians to overthrow his government next week.

Speaking at an hours-long press conference, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian intelligence had obtained audio recordings of the plotters discussing their plans, which he said involved tying to enlist the support of Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.

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Dozens killed in Siberia after coalmine explosion – reports

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Russian media reports emergency officials saying 52 miners and rescuers have died in the Listvyazhnaya mine

A devastating explosion in a Siberian coalmine on Thursday left 52 miners and rescuers dead about 250 meters (820ft) underground, Russian officials have said.

Hours after a methane gas explosion and fire filled the mine with toxic fumes, rescuers found 14 bodies but then were forced to halt the search for 38 others because of a buildup of methane and carbon monoxide gas from the fire. A total of 239 people were rescued.

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All options fraught with risk as Biden confronts Putin over Ukraine

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Analysis: Moscow presents Washington with a no-win situation: capitulate on Ukrainian sovereignty or risk all-out war

Joe Biden is preparing for a virtual summit with Vladimir Putin with the aim of fending off the threat of another Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The summit has been previewed by the Kremlin. The White House has not confirmed it, but Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that “high-level diplomacy is a priority of the president” and pointed to the teleconference meeting with Xi Jinping earlier in November.

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Roman Abramovich wins first round of libel battle over Putin’s People book

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UK judge rules some passages convey a defamatory meaning, including claim Putin told him to buy Chelsea

A judge has ruled that a number of passages in the bestselling book Putin’s People convey a defamatory meaning against Roman Abramovich, including a claim that he bought Chelsea football club on Vladimir Putin’s orders.

The Russian oligarch said he was defamed by 26 specific passages in the book by the journalist Catherine Belton, all of which he says convey untrue meanings about him.

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Court cases threatening human rights group Memorial start in Russia

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Cases under ‘foreign agents’ law mark attack on civil society and attempt to recast Soviet history

Russia may dissolve Memorial, the country’s premier human rights group, in an attack on civil society and symbolic reversal of the freedoms won by dissidents at the fall of the Soviet Union.

A supreme court case, to be heard on Thursday, may mark a watershed in Vladimir Putin’s campaign to recast Soviet history by banning International Memorial, which began meeting in the late 1980s to shed light on atrocities and political repression under Joseph Stalin and other Soviet leaders.

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Russia accuses west of building up forces on its borders

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Moscow, which has nearly 100,000 troops near Ukraine border, also criticises ‘provocative policy’ of US and EU towards Kyiv

Russia has accused the west of building up forces on its borders as well as those of Belarus in remarks that appeared tailored to mirror recent US warnings about Moscow’s aggressive positioning towards Ukraine.

The Kremlin, as well as Russian intelligence, security, and diplomatic officials, have all gone on the offensive in the past 48 hours after Vladimir Putin publicly instructed his diplomats that tensions should be maintained with the west as a form of aggressive deterrence.

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Instability grips a weakened Europe as global predators smell blood

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Threats from Russia and China, a weaker US security alliance and internal discord expose fundamental strategic weaknesses

Is Europe entering a dangerous new age of instability? Not since the height of the cold war with the Soviet Union has it looked so vulnerable to hostile forces.

Accumulating external threats and internal divisions, coupled with a weakening US security alliance, relentless Russian subversion, and power-hungry China’s war on western values are exposing fundamental strategic weaknesses.

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Migrant caravan and Qatar’s tarnished World Cup: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Pakistan to Poland

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Revealed: the places humanity must not destroy to avoid climate chaos

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Tiny proportion of world’s land surface hosts carbon-rich forests and peatlands that would not recover before 2050 if lost

Detailed new mapping has pinpointed the carbon-rich forests and peatlands that humanity cannot afford to destroy if climate catastrophe is to be avoided.

The vast forests and peatlands of Russia, Canada and the US are vital, researchers found, as are tropical forests in the Amazon, Congo and south-east Asia. Peat bogs in the UK and mangrove swamps and eucalyptus forests in Australia are also on the list.

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Lukashenko has got the ear of the EU at last – but it won’t help him

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The Belarusian leader may have won phone talks with Angela Merkel but Europe remains united against him

As migrants camped out in the woods prepared for another night of sub-zero temperatures, the Estonian foreign minister, Eva-Maria Liimets, on Tuesday revealed to an evening news programme the gist of what Alexander Lukashenko demanded of Angela Merkel in the first call between a European leader and Belarus’s dictator in more than a year.

“He wants the sanctions to be halted, [and] to be recognised as head of state so he can continue,” she said he told Merkel.

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Guests at a Kerala wedding included Marx and Lenin. Guess the groom’s name?

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Newlywed Engels was also joined by Ho Chi Minh at southern India ceremony highlighting popularity of communist names

Marx, Lenin and Ho Chi Minh gathered in southern India at the weekend to watch Engels tie the knot.

But there wasn’t a German, Russian or Vietnamese in sight as members of the local Communist party in Kerala state attended the wedding at a boutique tourist destination.

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Germany suspends approval for Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline

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Move follows mounting politcal pressure to scrap project in setback to Kremlin-backed project

Germany has suspended its approval process for the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline which would double its reliance on Russian gas following growing geopolitical pressure to scrap the project.

Energy markets across Europe surged after the German energy regulator suspended its certification process, in a big setback to Kremlin-backed Gazprom’s plans to extend Russian gas dominance via a new pipeline across the Baltic Sea.

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US accuses Russia of ‘dangerous’ behavior after anti-satellite weapons test

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Russia fired missile at its own satellite, generating debris that US says ‘threatens interests of all nations’

The US has accused Russia of “dangerous and irresponsible behavior” after it conducted an anti-satellite weapons test that forced astronauts on the International Space Station to prepare for evacuation.

Russia fired a missile at one of its own satellites over the weekend, generating more than 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital debris and hundreds of pieces of smaller debris, which the US said “now threaten the interests of all nations”.

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EU agrees new sanctions against Belarus over border crisis

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Sanctions to target ‘people, airlines, travel agencies and everyone involved in this illegal push of migrants’

The EU has agreed on new sanctions against Belarus targeting “everyone involved” in facilitating the transport of people to Belarus’s border with Poland, where thousands are stuck in makeshift camps in freezing weather.

The EU accuses Alexander Lukashenko’s regime of waging a “hybrid attack” against the bloc by allowing people from the Middle East who are desperate to reach the EU to fly into Minsk then head for the Polish border.

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UK must be ready for war with Russia, says armed forces chief

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Nick Carter says Russia has become bigger threat in eastern Europe, but he doesn’t think it wants ‘hot war’

The outgoing head of the UK’s armed forces has said the military will have to be ready for war with Russia after recent tensions in eastern Europe, but he does not believe Vladimir Putin really wants “hot war” with the west.

Gen Sir Nick Carter said Russia was now a greater threat in eastern Europe than it was when he started in the role eight years ago, as he gave a series of interviews before his departure as chief of the defence staff at the end of the month.

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