Category Archives: Russia

Putin critics ask how his PM choice acquired expensive properties

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Russian president’s supporters praise Mikhail Mishustin as technocrat and self-made man

Russian opposition figures have raised questions about how Vladimir Putin’s surprise choice for new prime minister has acquired properties worth millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, the Russian president’s allies have rushed to support Mikhail Mishustin, the former head of Russia’s tax service, who claimed to have been stunned and “not [to have] slept all night” after Putin named him as the replacement for Dmitry Medvedev.

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Dmitry Medvedev: the rise and fall of the Robin to Putin’s Batman

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Corruption allegations and embarrassing public moments weakened Russia’s former PM

Vladimir Putin’s decision on Wednesday to accept the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev was not a surprise. For some time, Medvedev’s standing within the Russian government has been inexorably sinking.

There have been embarrassing public moments. Medvedev has been spotted nodding off during Putin’s presidential addresses, not once but on several occasions.

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Russian PM and government quit as Putin proposes constitutional changes

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President, due to step down in 2024, suggests two-term limit for successors

Vladimir Putin has embarked on a sweeping reshuffle of Russia’s leadership, accepting the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev and proposing constitutional amendments that would limit the power of a potential successor as president if he steps down in 2024.

In a surprise move, Russia’s government said it would resign in full just hours after Putin announced plans for a national referendum that would shift power away from the presidency.

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Putin’s plans are all about keeping his hands on levers of power

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The looming question is not whether Putin will stay in control after 2024, but how he plans to do so

Vladimir Putin made two things clear as he embarked on a sweeping reshuffle of Russia’s government on Wednesday: first, that Russia will probably bid farewell to him as president after 2024. And second, that when he leaves the presidency, he will definitely not be leaving power.

No one really expected Putin to retire in 2024, when term limits dictate he cannot run for re-election. But pride and an interest in self-preservation dictate that he keep his hands on the levers of power.

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Libyan warlord Haftar leaves Moscow without signing ceasefire deal

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General had been in Russian capital seeking deal with head of Libya’s UN-recognised government

Libya’s eastern strongman Gen Khalifa Haftar has left Moscow without signing a ceasefire agreement to end nine months of fighting in the country, leaving the future of a fragile truce uncertain..

The commander’s abrupt departure in the early hours of Tuesday was a setback for an international diplomatic push in recent days, though Moscow insisted it would continue mediation efforts.

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Russian hackers targeted Burisma amid impeachment inquiry, cybersecurity firm says

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A leak of stolen data could potentially affect the impeachment process and the US election contest

Russian military hackers tried to steal emails from the Ukrainian energy firm where Hunter Biden, the son of the Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden, had a seat on the board, a US cybersecurity firm said.

The energy company Burisma Holdings was at the center of attempts by president Donald Trump last July to pressure Ukrainian authorities to announce an investigation into the Bidens for purported corruption, an effort that has led to the Republican being impeached by the US House of Representatives on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

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Libya ceasefire in doubt as rival forces accuse each other of breaches

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Warring sides also plan to deploy more troops despite Russian-Turkish brokered deal

A Russian-Turkish brokered ceasefire between the two warring groups in Libya was struggling to take hold in Tripoli as both sides accused the other of breaches and laid out plans to mobilise more forces.

In a breakthrough on Saturday, both sides in the civil war – the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), based in Tripoli, and the Libyan National Army (LNA) forces led from the east of Libya by Gen Khalifa Haftar – agreed to a ceasefire proposed last week by Russia and Turkey.

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Confusion clouds international efforts to reach Libya ceasefire

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Erdoğan and Putin make call for ceasefire, as Italian PM hosts Libyan factions in Rome

An unprecedented drive involving Europe, Russia and Turkey has been launched to broker a Libyan ceasefire, and end the risk of the country collapsing into total all-out war.

However, it is unclear to which extent the joint Russian-Turkish call for a ceasefire by 12 January should be seen as complementary or in competition to an intensified Italian-led European push to end the fighting.

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Russia announces plan to ‘use the advantages’ of climate change

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Kremlin website recognises global heating as a problem but lists ‘positive’ economic effects

Russia has published a plan to adapt its economy and population to climate change, aiming to mitigate damage but also “use the advantages” of warmer temperatures.

The document, published on the government’s website on Saturday, outlines a plan of action and acknowledges changes to the climate are having a “prominent and increasing effect” on socioeconomic development, people’s lives, health and industry.

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Cyber attacks and electronic voting errors threaten 2020 outcome, experts warn

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Key Democrats and election analysts say more needs to be done to ensure safe elections free from ‘foreign malicious actors’

Potential electronic voting equipment failures and cyber attacks from Russia and other countries pose persistent threats to the 2020 elections, election security analysts and key Democrats warn.

Related: Embassy protesters in Iraq deal symbolic blow to US prestige

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Kim Jong-un signals North Korea could resume nuclear missile tests

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Trump says he trusts leader to refrain from testing, despite Kim’s criticism of Washington’s ‘gangster-like demands’

Kim Jong-un has signalled that North Korea will lift its moratoriums on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests in a move likely to anger Donald Trump.

The North Korean leader told a four-day meeting of party officials in Pyongyang that the test ban, which Kim agreed to in talks with the US president, was no longer needed, state media said on Wednesday.

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MoD proposed Russian membership of Nato in 1995, files reveal

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Released papers expose ‘associate membership’ plan and Yeltsin’s drinking habits

Russia could have become an “associate member” of Nato 25 years ago if a Ministry of Defence proposal had gained support, according to confidential Downing Street files which also expose Boris Yeltsin’s drinking habits.

The suggestion, aimed at reversing a century of east-west antagonism, is revealed in documents released on Tuesday by the National Archives at Kew.

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Polish PM furious at Putin rewriting history of second world war

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Mateusz Morawiecki attacks Russian president’s ‘lies’ blaming Poland for start of war

Poland’s prime minister has launched a furious response to claims by Vladimir Putin that Poland was partially responsible for the outbreak of the second world war.

It is the latest episode in a bitter conflict over historical memory that is likely to intensify as the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazism approaches next May.

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Tonnes of fake snow brought to Moscow after warmest December in 140 years – video

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Tonnes of snow have been brought by truck to the centre of Moscow in an attempt to boost holiday spirit in what has so far been an almost snow-free December. The snow started appearing at the capital's Zaryadye Park and central Tverskaya Street on Friday. Alexei Nemeryuk, the head of Moscow’s trade and services department, told the Govorit Moskva radio station that the snow had been brought in from the city's ice rinks and will be used to create snowboarding slopes as part of the Journey to Christmas festival. According to meteorologists, the unseasonable warmth has been brought by an atmospheric front from the Atlantic Ocean. Rain – not snow – is forecast for the New Year holiday, Russia's main festive celebration.

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Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists exchange 200 prisoners

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Five riot police suspected of killings among those handed to separatists, provoking outrage

Ukrainian authorities and Russia-backed separatists in the war-torn east of Ukraine have exchanged 200 prisoners, swapping detained fighters for civilians and service personnel held captive in some cases for years.

The exchange provoked outrage in government-held Ukraine after Kyiv handed over to separatists five riot police suspected of killing protesters during a pro-western uprising in 2014 as part of the swap.

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Moscow resorts to fake snow in warmest December since 1886

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Hibernation disrupted at city’s zoo and gardens bloom early as temperatures hit record high

Moscow has been so warm this December that the government has resorted to sending trucks filled with artificial snow to decorate a new year display in the city centre.

Videos of the delivery for a snowboarding hill went viral as observers noted the irony of bringing snow to a city that spends millions each year on its removal.

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The power behind the thrones: 10 political movers and shakers who will shape 2020

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Some are trusted aides, others are fixers who work in the shadows. Often unelected and unaccountable, they all have the ear of national leaders

The role of Dominic Cummings in plotting and facilitating Boris Johnson’s drive for power has focused attention on the influence exerted by behind-the-scenes advisers and confidants who have the ear of prominent politicians.

Powerful men and women around the world all have personal counsellors, trusted aides and backroom mentors. Then there are the “insiders” – string-pullers, fixers and manipulators with ambitions of their own. Few become well-known, although Cummings’s notoriety is by no means exceptional.

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US isolationism leaves Middle East on edge as new decade dawns

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With Trump deciding against protecting allies, old rivalries are converging across the region

Throughout the Middle East’s modern history, a constant remained – the US held a prominent stake and would throw its weight around to protect its interests and allies. The maxim held true as ideologies rose and fell, Gulf monarchies, Israel, and Arab nationalist police states took root – and war and insurrection periodically raged.

But it ended during Donald Trump’s third year, a time when an isolationist, unworldly president began to see regional interests through a much narrower lens. The effect has been profound and 2020 will continue the process of recalibration by traditional friends of the US without a country whose clout they used to defer to and whose agenda they could more or less understand.

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Russia deploys first hypersonic missiles

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Avangard capable of carrying 2-megaton nuclear weapon at 27 times the speed of sound

Russia has deployed its first hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles, with Vladimir Putin boasting that it puts his country in a class of its own.

The president described the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, which can fly at 27 times the speed of sound, as a technological breakthrough comparable to the 1957 Soviet launch of the first satellite.

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Anti-Putin activist Ruslan Shaveddinov ‘forcibly conscripted’ and sent to Arctic

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Opposition leader Alexei Navalny says 23-year-old is a ‘political prisoner’ after being taken to secret and remote air defence base

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has said that one of his allies had been forcibly conscripted and sent to serve at a remote Arctic base, in a move his supporters said amounted to kidnapping.

Ruslan Shaveddinov, a project manager at Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, went missing Monday after police broke into his Moscow flat and his phone’s SIM card was disabled.

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