It’s just past 11 p.m. on Phuket’s neon-festooned Bangla Road and revelers are out in force, though the heady atmosphere is distinctly more Sochi than Southeast Asia. TVs overhanging the sprawling beer bars show ice skating instead of soccer; Cyrillic signage proliferates; and Russian-speaking touts dispense flyers for pole-dancing clubs exclusively featuring women from former … Read more
KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian attack struck a grocery store and a pharmacy in a Ukrainian village close to the border with Russia on Wednesday, killing three people including a 14-year-old girl, authorities said, as the Kremlin’s forces kept up their barrages of urban areas of Ukraine. The strike on Lyptsi, some 10 kilometers (6 … Read more
When President Biden proposed an additional $24 billion in supplemental funding for Ukraine in August, Moscow spin doctors working for the Kremlin were ready to try to undermine public support for the bill, internal Kremlin documents show. In an ongoing campaign that seeks to influence congressional and other political debates to stoke anti-Ukraine sentiment, Kremlin-linked … Read more
VIENNA — Austria faces its biggest espionage scandal in decades as the arrest of a former intelligence officer brings to light evidence of extensive Russian infiltration, lax official oversight and behavior worthy of a spy novel. Egisto Ott was arrested March 29. The 86-page arrest warrant, obtained by The Associated Press, alleges among other things … Read more
Fighting in Ukraine has given some of the ex-convicts Russia recruited their swag back. These men are granted freedom after surviving their military service. Around 15,000 ex-convicts have reportedly returned to Russia, per The New York Times. Ex-convicts who fought for Russia in Ukraine are heading home with newfound wealth and swagger, The New York … Read more
TALLINN, Estonia — Russian authorities on Friday again tried to link the deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall to Ukraine, saying one of the detained suspects had photos on his phone depicting troops in camouflage uniforms with the Ukrainian flag. Ever since the March 22 mass shooting and fire at the Crocus City Hall … Read more
The governor of Russia’s northwestern Murmansk region was stabbed in the stomach after a meeting with local residents, the most dangerous assault on a high-ranking government official in more than a decade. Governor Andrei Chibis, 45, had just finished a meeting at the cultural center in the town of Apatity on Thursday, when a man … Read more
BRUSSELS — NATO is debating a plan to provide more predictable military support to Ukraine in coming years as better armed Russian troops assert control on the battlefield, the organization’s top civilian official said Wednesday. “We strongly believe that support to Ukraine should be less dependent on short-term, voluntary offers and more dependent on long-term … Read more
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s defense minister warned his French counterpart against deploying troops to Ukraine in a rare phone call Wednesday and noted that Moscow is ready to take part in talks to end the conflict. Sergei Shoigu told French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu that if Paris follows up on its statements about the possibility … Read more
MOSCOW — Russia’s top security agency said Monday it has broken up what it called a “terrorist cell” in southern Russia whose members had provided weapons and cash to suspected attackers of the Moscow concert hall. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said that on Sunday it detained four suspected members of the cell in … Read more