Category Archives: Russia

Nazi shipwreck found off Poland may solve Amber Room mystery

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Polish divers locate Karlsruhe, which they hope holds treasure Nazis looted from Russia

Polish divers say they have found the wreck of a German second world war ship that may help solve a decades-old mystery about the whereabouts of the Amber Room, an ornate chamber that the Nazis looted from a tsarist palace in Russia.

Decorated with amber and gold, the room was part of the Catherine Palace near St Petersburg. It was last seen in Königsberg, then a Baltic port city in Germany but now the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

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Russia says it and Turkey urge end to hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh

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Russia says two countries’ foreign ministers have found common ground after French journalists injured during shelling

Russia and Turkey’s foreign ministers have agreed to the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to a Russian statement, opening the door to a possible end to fighting in the breakaway region.

The potential breakthrough was at odds with an earlier statement by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who hours earlier had called for a full Armenian withdrawal from the area – which is legally Azerbaijani territory but administered by ethnic Armenians – and condemned international efforts to resolve the conflict.

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Alexei Navalny says he believes Vladimir Putin was behind poisoning

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Russian opposition figure poisoned with nerve agent says he has no ‘other versions’ of how crime was committed

The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he believes Vladimir Putin ordered intelligence agencies to poison him, possibly to avoid a “Belarusian scenario” of civil unrest.

Navalny, who is recovering in Germany after falling ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow in August, told the news magazine Der Spiegel that the use of the rare nerve agent novichok meant the assault on his life would have been ordered from the top.

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Russia spreading lies about Covid vaccines, says UK military chief

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Head of armed forces says both China and Russia trying to undermine cohesion in west

Russia is seeking to destabilise countries around the world by sowing disinformation about coronavirus vaccines that is shared rapidly across social media, the head of the armed forces has warned.

Gen Sir Nick Carter, the chief of defence staff, said the propaganda tactic reflected a strategy of “political warfare” aggressively undertaken by Beijing as well as Moscow “designed to undermine cohesion” across the west.

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Nagorno-Karabakh: at least three Syrian fighters killed

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Syrians on the ground are believed to be contractors working for Turkish security companies

At least three Syrian opposition fighters have been killed in skirmishes in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Guardian has learned, confirming earlier reports of foreign involvement in the battle between Armenian and Azerbaijan over the territory and increasing fears it may spiral into a wider regional conflict.

As fierce combat between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces stretched into a fourth day, the presence of Syrians on the ground – believed to be contractors working for Turkish security companies – signalled a new frontier for Ankara’s increasingly assertive foreign policy.

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The Guardian view on the US presidential debate: a bad night for the world | Editorial

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The dismal spectacle reminded viewers what is at stake in November for the US – and the rest of us

One unmistakable winner emerged from Tuesday’s presidential debate: Xi Jinping. The loser was the American public – and anyone else unfortunate enough to have sat through the grim 90-minute spectacle.

Variously described by commentators as a trainwreck, dumpster fire, shitshow and the worst debate in presidential history, it reflected the state of the race and the nation after four years of Donald Trump. This is America in 2020: wracked by a pandemic that has killed 200,000 people and highlighted its deep structural failings on healthcare and inequality, as well as the parlous state of its politics – a realm of bitter divisions in which facts appear to be optional.

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‘Only time will tell’: Russia places huge bet on Covid vaccine

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Country will be giving 10m doses of Sputnik V a month by December, says head of fund backing vaccine

For Kirill Dmitriev, the man in charge of selling Russia’s coronavirus vaccine to the world, there’s a simple rationale behind Moscow’s accelerated push to be the first country to roll out a coronavirus vaccine for widespread use.

“It’s part of the Russian mentality to save the world,” said Dmitriev, head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund, in an interview with the Guardian.

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‘Terrible tragedy’: Ukraine air force plane crash kills at least 22

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Most of those killed in the crash near Kharkiv were military cadets, officials say

At least 22 people including military cadets were killed and two others were seriously injured when a Ukrainian air force plane crashed near Kharkiv in the east of the country, the interior ministry said.

Deputy interior minister Anton Gerashchenko confirmed the death toll, describing the incident as a “shock”, and saying that the cause of the crash on Friday was being investigated.

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Alexei Navalny’s Moscow flat seized as he recovered from poisoning

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Bank accounts also frozen as part of lawsuit filed by catering firm, his spokeswoman says

Alexei Navalny’s bank accounts were frozen and his Moscow apartment seized as part of a lawsuit while the Russian opposition politician was recovering from a suspected poisoning in a Berlin hospital, his spokeswoman has said.

His assets were seized on 27 August in connection with a lawsuit filed by the Moscow Schoolchild catering company, Kira Yarmysh said in a video posted on Twitter on Thursday. The politician and his allies have been involved in a long-running dispute with the company.

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Alexei Navalny out of German hospital after treatment for poisoning

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Doctors say Russian opposition leader could make full recovery from exposure to suspected novichok

Alexei Navalny has been discharged from Berlin’s Charité hospital after spending 32 days as an inpatient, following what German authorities say was poisoning with a novichok nerve agent and with doctors suggesting he could make a full recovery.

The hospital said in a statement on Wednesday morning that the Russian opposition politician’s condition had “improved sufficiently for him to be discharged from acute inpatient care”, and added that he had left on Tuesday.

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‘Our 1945 moment’: UN faces fears of a ‘great fracture’ at general assembly

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Amid prerecorded speeches, secretary-general issues warning over US-China rivalry at an unprecedented moment

“Today, we face our own 1945 moment,” the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said as he opened the UN’s 75th general assembly, to a thinly populated chamber of socially distanced diplomats.

Guterres meant the historical reference as a call to action inspired by the generation who had survived the second world war and sought to build a new world. A similarly concerted effort, he said, would be needed to defeat Covid and the pandemics that may follow, and the climate emergency.

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Russian authorities arrest cult leader who claims to be Jesus – video

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The leader of a cult who claims to be a reincarnation of Jesus was arrested in Russia in a special operation.

Armed officers stormed communities in the depths of Siberia that have been run by Sergei Torop, known to his followers as Vissarion, for the past three decades, with masked troops leading the 59-year-old to a helicopter.

Russia’s investigative committee said it would charge him with organising an illegal religious organisation, alleging that the cult extorted money from followers and subjected them to emotional abuse

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United Nations general assembly: China rejects Trump’s ‘baseless’ Covid accusations – live

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Follow live as Jair Bolsonaro, Donald Trump, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin – among others – deliver video messages

...and we have photos of Xi Jinping’s background:

Some more analysis, this time from our diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, on Turkey’s talk:

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used his general assembly address to set out Turkey’s bitter objections to its exclusion from the East Mediterranean, but said he was ready to resume talks bound by international law to address their contested maritime claims in the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean. By his recent rhetorical standards, the speech was one of Erdoğan’s mildest.

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Cult leader who claims to be reincarnation of Jesus arrested in Russia

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Former traffic officer Sergei Torop, AKA Vissarion, arrested in special operation in Siberia

Russian authorities have mounted a special operation to arrest a former traffic police officer who claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus and has run a cult based in the depths of Siberia for the past three decades.

Helicopters and armed officers stormed communities run by Sergei Torop, known to his followers as Vissarion, and arrested the leader and two of his aides. Russia’s investigative committee said it would charge him with organising an illegal religious organisation, alleging that the cult extorted money from followers and subjected them to emotional abuse.

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Labs found novichok in and on my body, says Alexei Navalny

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Russian opposition leader demands in blogpost clothes be returned as evidence

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has said in his first blogpost since emerging from a coma that western laboratories had found traces of novichok in and on his body and demanded that Moscow return his clothes.

Navalny, who is recovering in Berlin’s Charité hospital, fell critically ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow and spent two days in hospital in Russia before being airlifted to Germany.

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Alexei Navalny walks down stairs as recovery continues

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Russian opposition leader describes ‘clear path’ to recovery and praises Berlin doctors

The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been pictured walking down stairs, five days after a Berlin hospital said he had been taken off a ventilator and could breathe independently.

Navalny, the leading opponent of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, fell ill in Siberia last month and was airlifted to Berlin. Germany said laboratory tests in three countries determined he was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent, and western governments have demanded an explanation from Russia.

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US deploys additional troops and armoured vehicles to eastern Syria

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The move follows a number of clashes with Russian forces now stationed along the Turkish border

The US military has stepped up its deployment of troops and equipment in north-eastern Syria after a rise in tensions with Russia in the region.

US central command “has deployed Sentinel radar, increased the frequency of US fighter patrols over US forces, and deployed bradley fighting vehicles to augment US forces” in the area, which is controlled by the US and its Kurdish allies, spokesman Captain Bill Urban said in a statement.

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‘Steady drumbeat of misinformation’: FBI chief warns of Russian interference in US elections

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  • Chris Wray says bureau has seen ‘very active efforts by Russians’
  • Efforts are primarily meant to denigrate Joe Biden

Christopher Wray, the FBI director, on Thursday warned that Russia is interfering in the 2020 US presidential elections with a steady stream of misinformation aimed at undermining Democrat Joe Biden as well as sapping Americans’ confidence in the election process.

Moscow is also attempting to undercut what it sees as an anti-Russian US establishment, Wray told the Democratic-led House of Representatives’ homeland security committee in a hearing on Capitol Hill.

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Novichok ‘found on water bottle in Alexei Navalny’s hotel room’

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Development suggests Russian opposition leader poisoned in Tomsk, not at airport

Associates of Alexei Navalny have said traces of novichok were found on a bottle of water in his hotel room in Tomsk, suggesting he was poisoned while in the Siberian city, and not, as previously suspected, from a cup of tea he drank at the airport.

The Russian opposition leader fell ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow on 20 August. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, where he spent two days in a coma before being flown by a medical jet to Berlin. He remains in the Charité hospital in the German capital.

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Belarus charges opposition leader with ‘undermining national security’

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Maria Kolesnikova could face up to five years in prison as president cracks down on opposition

Belarusian authorities have charged the opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova with “actions aimed at undermining national security”, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The charge, announced by the country’s investigative committee, is the latest move in a crackdown on opposition leaders by the embattled president, Alexander Lukashenko, who has lost legitimacy among much of the population but retains the support of law enforcement agencies.

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