Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

The Associated Press reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a law that significantly expands restrictions on activities seen as promoting LGBT rights in the country. A 2013 law banned what authorities deem to be spreading “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” to minors. The new law expands that ban to spreading such information to people aged 18 and older. …

The Associated Press reports: Former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who fled prosecution after revealing highly classified surveillance programs, has received a Russian passport and taken the citizenship oath, Russian news agencies quoted his lawyer as saying Friday. Lawyer Anatoly Kucherena was reported as saying that Snowden got the passport and took the oath on Thursday, about three months after …

Reuters reports: Russia’s parliament on Thursday passed the third and final reading of a law that expands an existing ban on promoting “LGBT propaganda” to children by banning it among people of all ages. Under the new law any event or act regarded as an attempt to promote homosexuality – including online, in film, books, advertising or in public – …

The Associated Press reports: Russia pounded Ukraine’s energy facilities Tuesday with its biggest barrage of missiles yet, striking targets across the country and causing widespread blackouts, and a U.S. official said missiles crossed into NATO member Poland, where two people were killed. Polish media reported that two people died Tuesday afternoon after a projectile struck an area where grain was …

The Daily Beast reports: Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has joined Fox News as a paid contributor one month after leaving the Democratic party, a representative for the cable channel confirmed to the Los Angeles Times. The rep said the deal had been inked on Monday and that Gabbard will begin to appear on its programs as of next week. …

Reuters reports: Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Monday he had interfered in U.S. elections and would continue doing so in future, the first such admission from a figure who has been formally implicated by Washington in efforts to influence American politics. In comments posted by the press service of his Concord catering firm on Russia’s Facebook equivalent VKontakte, Prigozhin …

The New York Times reports: Russia’s Parliament is set to pass a legislative package that would ban all “gay propaganda,” signaling an even more difficult period ahead for a stigmatized segment of society. The laws would prohibit representation of L.G.B.T.Q. relationships in any media — streaming services, social platforms, books, music, posters, billboards and films — and, activists fear, in …

Reuters reports: Western countries accused Russia on Monday of plotting to use a threat of a bomb laced with nuclear material as a pretext for escalation in Ukraine, as Moscow evacuated civilians from a southern city in anticipation of a major battle. With Ukrainian forces advancing into Russian-occupied Kherson province, Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu phoned Western counterparts on Sunday …

The Moscow Times reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared martial law in four partially occupied regions of Ukraine that Moscow claims to have annexed. Kyiv’s forces have been clawing back territory in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in recent weeks as the Russian military has been plagued by setbacks. Putin said that extra security powers will be …

The BBC reports: Russia has hit Ukraine with a wave of attacks, including Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones on the capital, Kyiv. The strikes hit critical infrastructure in three regions, cutting off electricity in hundreds of villages across the country, according to Prime Minister Denys Shmygal. At least seven people have died so far – four in Sumy and three in Kyiv. …

The Guardian reports: Russian soldiers have shot dead a Ukrainian musician in his home after he refused to take part in a concert in occupied Kherson, according to the culture ministry in Kyiv. Conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko declined to take part in a concert “intended by the occupiers to demonstrate the so-called ‘improvement of peaceful life’ in Kherson”, the ministry said …

The Washington Post reports: Police and military officers swooped down on a Moscow business center this week unannounced. They were looking for men to fight in Ukraine — and they seized nearly every one they saw. Some musicians, rehearsing. A courier there to deliver a parcel. A man from a Moscow service agency, very drunk, in his mid-50s, with a …

Reuters reports: At least 11 people were killed and 15 more wounded at a Russian military training ground on Saturday when two attackers opened fire on a group of volunteers who wished to fight in Ukraine, RIA news agency said. The deadly incident is just the latest in a series of high-profile setbacks for Moscow’s forces since the Feb. 24 …

Reuters reports: Some of oilfield service firm Schlumberger’s more than 9,000 Russian employees have begun receiving military draft notices through work, and the company is not authorizing remote employment to escape mobilization, according to people familiar with the matter and internal documents. Schlumberger’s cooperation with authorities by delivering the military call-ups and its refusal to allow Russian staff to work …

The Hill reports: Tesla CEO Elon Musk is denying claims by Ian Bremmer, president of political risk research firm Eurasia Group, that he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin before posting a controversial tweet implying that Ukraine should not retake more land from Russia than it has lost this year. Musk had a “direct conversation” with Putin about the war, …

CNN reports: More than a dozen public-facing airport websites, including those for some of the nation’s largest airports, appeared inaccessible Monday morning, and Russian-speaking hackers claimed responsibility. No immediate signs of impact to actual air travel were reported, suggesting the issue may be an inconvenience for people seeking travel information. “Obviously, we’re tracking that, and there’s no concern about operations …

Politico reports: The Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan on Sunday unilaterally cancelled joint military drills between the six nations making up the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, less than a day before they were due to start on its territory. The Kyrgyz defense ministry did not specify the reason for cancelling the “Indestructible Brotherhood-2022” command and staff exercises, which were …

Reuters reports: Russia fired cruise missiles at cities across Ukraine during rush hour on Monday morning, killing civilians and knocking out power and heat, in what President Vladimir Putin declared to be revenge for Ukrainian attacks including on a bridge to Crimea. The missiles tore into busy intersections, parks and tourist sites in the centre of downtown Kyiv with an …

Bloomberg News reports: The Czechs have backed up their government’s rejection of Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions with a time-honored national tradition: mockery and dark humor. Politicians and bloggers have embraced a website dedicated to the purported decision by 97.9% of residents in the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad to join the Czech Republic — and change its …

The Times of London reports: Russia’s beleaguered enlistment officers were given a new way to entice men to join up this week: plying their families with fresh fish. The local chief of President Putin’s ruling party, Mikhail Shuvalov, promised islanders in the far-eastern Sakhalin island 5kg of flounder, pollock and salmon in exchange for sending their men to a war …