Category Archives: Russia

Facebook removes Africa accounts linked to Russian troll factory

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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.

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Blow to Trump as DoJ ordered to turn over evidence from Mueller grand jury

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  • Democrats must be given access to testimony, judge rules
  • Committees subpoena Trump officials who refused to testify

A judge on Friday ordered the justice department to give the House unredacted portions of grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, handing a victory to Democrats who want the material for the impeachment investigation of Donald Trump.

Related: Judge grants Democrats access to unredacted Mueller report – live

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Justice department opens criminal inquiry into origins of Russia investigation – report

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Trump has complained that his campaign was improperly targeted, but critics say department is being used to chase conspiracy theories

The US justice department has reportedly opened a criminal inquiry into the origins of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, a move that would raise concerns that Donald Trump and his allies may be using the powers of the government to go after their opponents.

The development, first reported by the New York Times, comes as Trump is already facing an impeachment inquiry examining whether he withheld military aid to pressure the president of Ukraine to launch an investigation of former vice-president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

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Central African Republic considers hosting Russian military base

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Kremlin denies discussion at Russia-Africa summit but CAR president says countries’ defence ministries were reviewing idea

The president of Central African Republic has said his country would consider hosting a Russian military base, as Vladimir Putin woos dozens of African leaders in an effort to spread Moscow’s influence at an investment summit in southern Russia.

In an interview with Russian state media, President Faustin-Archange Touadéra said he had also asked Russia for new weapons shipments for CAR’s soldiers, who have fought a civil war against rebel forces in the country since 2012. Asked about a potential military base, Russia’s first in Africa, he said that his government was “considering the possibilities”.

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Ex-US marine held in Russia on spy charges says he is Mr Bean not Mr Bond

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Moscow court extends detention until 29 December for Paul Whelan, who says he’s being kept for a potential prisoner swap

A former US marine who has been held in Russia since last year on spy charges insisted he was more Mr Bean than Mr Bond as a Moscow court extended his detention for another two months.

Paul Whelan, 49, who has US, Irish, Canadian and British citizenship, denounced the case against him and said he was being held “hostage” for a possible prisoner exchange.

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Turkey and Russia agree deal over buffer zone in northern Syria

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Erdoğan hails agreement with Putin in which Kurdish fighters will be moved from border area

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have agreed on the parameters of a proposed Turkish “safe zone” in Syria, a development that could bring an end to Ankara’s offensive against Kurdish forces over the border by severely curtailing their control of the area.

The two leaders were locked in marathon talks for more than six hours in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi, emerging just two hours before a five-day ceasefire brokered by the US expired at 10pm local time.

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Melting glaciers reveal five new islands in the Arctic

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Russian navy discovers yet-to-be-named islands previously hidden under glaciers

The Russian navy says it has discovered five new islands revealed by melting glaciers in the remote Arctic.

An expedition in August and September charted the islands, which have yet to be named and were previously hidden under glaciers, said the head of the northern fleet, Vice-Admiral Alexander Moiseyev.

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Dam collapses at Siberian gold mine, killing at least 15 people

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Investigation launched into safety regime at alluvial mine in remote Krasnoyarsk region

At least 15 gold miners were killed when a dam collapsed, flooding a mining encampment in a remote part of Siberia, officials have said.

Heavy rains weakened the dam and water broke through, sweeping away several cabins where the miners lived, about 100 miles south of the city of Krasnoyarsk.

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Trump calls decision to withdraw US troops from Syria ‘strategically brilliant’ – video

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Donald Trump on Wednesday played down the crisis in Syria touched off by Turkey’s incursion against US-allied Kurdish forces, saying the conflict was between Turkey and Syria and that it was okay for Russia to help Damascus. The US president, speaking to reporters at the White House, said the Kurds were ‘no angels’

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Three US diplomats held near Russian test site where mystery blast killed five

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  • Russian foreign ministry says trio ‘obviously got lost’
  • August explosion caused radiation levels to surge

Three American diplomats were briefly detained in Russia near the military test site where a mysterious explosion released radiation in August, several Russia state news agencies have reported.

The US embassy has confirmed the incident, the Interfax news service reported, but said the three diplomats had filed the proper paperwork to travel in the area.

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Russian troops patrol between Turkish and Syrian forces on border

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Soldiers’ presence underlines Moscow’s role as power broker after evacuation of US personnel

Russian units have begun patrolling territory separating Turkish-backed Syrian rebels from the Syrian army around the flashpoint town of Manbij in north-east Syria, in a clear sign that Moscow has become the de facto power broker in the region after the evacuation of US troops.

Oleg Blokhin, a Russian journalist usually attached to mercenaries in Syria, posted a video on social media on Tuesday from a deserted US military base in the village of al-Saadiya, near Manbij.

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30 years after communism, eastern Europe divided on democracy’s impact

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Pew research reveals very different views on whether countries are better off today

Thirty years on, few people in Europe’s former eastern bloc regret the monumental political, social and economic change unleashed by the fall of communism – but at the same time few are satisfied with the way things are now, and many worry for the future.

A Pew Research Center survey of 17 countries, including 14 EU member states, found that while most people in central and eastern Europe generally embraced democracy and the market economy, support was far from uniformly strong.

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Russian shadow falls over Syria as Kurds open door for Assad

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With the US gone, the implications of their departure is beginning to sink in across the Middle East

The moment that changed the Middle East arrived with a sudden silence. Just before 7pm on Sunday, the internet was cut across north-eastern Syria where, for half an hour, the Kurds of the region had been digesting a news flash. The Syrian government was returning to two towns, Manbij and Kobane. The implication quickly sunk in.

The regional capital, Qamishli, soon emptied; streets that had bustled with minibuses and shoppers became eerie and still. With the internet down phones were no help and nor were officials who had vanished along with the traffic. Air seemed to be suddenly vacuumed from the city, and the few people still around knew exactly what it meant: this was the moment power changed hands. It was a time to be scared.

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Nationalists march in Kyiv to oppose east Ukraine peace plan

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Ukrainian president calls on protesters to avoid violence as he is criticised for ‘capitulation’

Thousands of people have joined a march through Kyiv led by nationalist parties and veterans’ associations to protest against changes to a peace plan for east Ukraine that they have called a “capitulation” to Russia.

Police deployed around Ukraine’s capital closed off several major avenues for the demonstrations, as the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged participants to avoid violence. He also warned that images from the protests could be used by Russian state media to discredit Ukraine.

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Kurds reach deal with Damascus in face of Turkish offensive

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Agreement to hand over border towns comes after more than 700 Isis affiliates escape camp

More than 700 people with links to Islamic State have escaped from a detention camp in north-east Syria, as the Kurdish-led forces in control of the area reached a deal with the Assad regime to stave off a bloody five-day-old Turkish assault.

Kurdish fighters controlling the region would surrender the border towns of Manbij and Kobane to Damascus in a deal brokered by Russia, officials said on Sunday night.

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Erdoğan has managed the unthinkable: uniting all the other Middle East rivals

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Turkey’s Syria invasion following US withdrawal of its troops means that all bets are now off in the Middle East

By invading northern Syria last week, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan achieved what many thought impossible – uniting all the regional countries and rival powers with a stake in the country in furious opposition to what they see as a reckless, destabilising move.

A truculent nationalist-populist with dictatorial tendencies, Erdoğan has often cast himself as one man against the world during 16 consecutive years as Turkey’s prime minister and president. Now he really is on his own.

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Alexei Leonov, first human to walk in space, dies aged 85

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The Soviet cosmonaut almost didn’t make it back into his capsule in 1965, when his suit inflated in the space vacuum

Alexei Leonov, the legendary Soviet cosmonaut who became the first human to walk in space 54 years ago, has died in Moscow at 85.

The Russian space agency Roscosmos announced the news on its website on Friday, but gave no cause of death. Leonov had health issues for several years, according to Russia media.

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Syria: Erdoğan’s eyes more likely to be on Putin than Trump

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Russia and Iran have troops in Syria and will see opportunities amid chaos of US impulsiveness

Donald Trump’s decision to give the green light – now seemingly turning amber – for Turkey to enter northern Syria has produced a torrent of criticism from European capitals to Washington Republicans, all pointing out that Ankara’s move will revive Islamic State, cause untold civilian deaths and land the US with an indelible reputation across the Middle East as an unreliable ally.

But the west has been losing traction in Syria over the past two years, and it may be the reaction of Russia and Iran, who have forces on the ground in Syria, that will most concern the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Their reaction may also reveal more about the long-term future of Syria’s eight-year civil war.

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Magazine aimed at MEPs ‘filled with pro-Russia content’

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EP Today using articles from Kremlin-funded outlet RT, says EU disinformation taskforce

An EU taskforce responsible for tackling disinformation has revealed a self-styled “news magazine for the European parliament” is copying half of its articles directly from the Kremlin-funded news channel RT.

EP Today, whose readers include senior MEPs, the European commissioner for digital economy and society, Mariya Gabriel, and European ambassadors to the EU, is said to be dominated by articles from the Russian outlet.

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I thought I’d seen all the horrors possible here in Idlib – until now | Raed Al Saleh

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The terror being unleashed from the sky is the worst it’s ever been in my eight years of leading White Helmet rescue workers

Most of my country is in ruins. But the worst crisis of Syria’s conflict is unfolding now. Beautiful cities have become ghost towns, their inhabitants forced to flee the country or pushed into one of the last remaining areas outside of Assad’s control. More than 3 million people, half of whom are children, are trapped in Idlib, where a tyrant is unleashing horror from the sky. It’s the largest displacement crisis of the 21st century and yet Idlib’s people have been abandoned by the world.

After eight years leading teams of volunteer rescue workers, the White Helmets, I thought I had seen all the horrors possible. But looking at the state of Idlib today, I can honestly say it’s the worst my country has been.

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