Analysts following what appears to be a developing political crisis in Russia suspect the growing tensions engulfing the Kremlin may be a product of the workings of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, once a loyal ally to President Vladimir Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s absence from the public eye this month has spawned a bevy of rumors about what could prevent him from being seen in public. One rumor gaining traction on social media and in Russia arrives via Switzerland tabloid Blink, which is reporting that Putin, 62, is attending the birth of the child of his alleged girlfriend.
Russians on social media have begun circulating rumors that President Vladimir Putin is ill or dead, after Moscow postponed a meeting with Putin and the Kazakh and Belarusian presidents on March 12. Russian government spokesmen have denied all rumors, claiming Putin is doing well, but the rumors persisted after a Kazakh official also claimed Putin was ill.
Russia and North Korea continue to develop increasingly close ties. The regimes announced a program this week titled the “year of friendship.” The deep links between the two countries could cause more strains in an already vulnerable relationship between Russia and the West.
Russian media went into a frenzy when former Chechen policeman Zaur Dadayev confessed to the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, but now Dadayev claims authorities forced him to confess and tortured him in the process.
For the first time in the year since the conquest, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained in the documentary “Homeward Bound” the exact plan he concocted to capture Crimea out of Ukrainian possession. He also went into detail regarding how Russian soldiers prepared to rescue ousted pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Russian authorities have arrested two suspects in the death of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. The arrest did not cause celebration but doubt over the legitimacy of the announcement.
Russian authorities have reported that the cameras on Bolshoi Moskvoretsky are broken, which prevents them from identifying the person who shot opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on the streets of the Kremlin.
(Reuters) – A Russian lawyer for Edward Snowden said on Tuesday the fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor who leaked details of the government’s mass surveillance programs was working with American and German lawyers to return home.
Ukrainian photojournalist Serhiy Nikolayev, 43, was killed on Saturday while working during a shelling attack in Pesky, Ukraine, in the heart of the nation.
The Kremlin arrested Ukrainian Member of Parliament Alexei Goncharenko during the memorial march for Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
An opposition march in Moscow evolved into a memorial march for opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down blocks from the Kremlin on Friday. Thousands of Russians streamed through Moscow to show Russian President Vladimir Putin they are not afraid to voice their opinions and wish for a “Russia without Putin.” Images of the march flooded social media.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claims Nemtsov died because he was going to reveal information about Russia’s involvement in east Ukraine.
A gunman murdered Boris Nemtsov, a leader in the Russian opposition and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the middle of Moscow early Saturday morning.
NATO member Poland has announced plans to send Polish military personnel to Ukraine to help train the Ukrainian military in their fight against Russian-backed troops in the east.
Russians celebrating the Army’s Day holiday paraded through the streets of St. Petersburg this week with a prop “ballistic missile,” threatening to “personally deliver” the missile to American President Barack Obama.
Asked while providing congressional testimony whether Russia had lied to the public and the United States regarding whether its troops were present in Eastern Ukraine, Secretary of State John Kerry answered for the first time in the affirmative, implying that he had previously believed Moscow even though journalists provided evidence of Russians on the ground in almost every month of 2014.
General Sir Adrian Bradshaw, NATO’s deputy commander of forces in Europe, told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute that Moscow’s ambitions on Ukraine are “an obvious existential threat to our whole being.”
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is leading a group of senators pressuring the White House to send weapons to the Ukrainian army. The war between Ukraine and Russia has killed over 5,000 Ukrainians since the war started in April 2014.
Russian President Vladimir Putin took another step to disturb ties between Russia and Europe when he invited new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Moscow on May 9.
Ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being a pedophile a few months before he was poisoned in 2006. He gave Putin the nickname “The Kremlin Pedophile” after he kissed a young boy’s stomach in public.
Russian officials raided ATR, an independent Tatar Crimean television station on January 26. The deputy director said the men took equipment and tapes, which basically shut down all operations. Russians have consistently targeted the Tatar minority since Moscow annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk confirmed more Russian forces entered Ukraine on Monday after he spoke with the National Security and Defense Council.
800,000 people attended a rally in the Russian region of Chechnya to condemn the Mohammed cartoons published in France’s Charlie Hebdo magazine. President Ramzan Kadyrov attended, delivering an anti-West, pro-Islamic speech.
Interpol placed former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on their most wanted list. The red notice means Ukraine can extradite Yanukovych when he is caught regardless of where the arrest occurs.
