Moscow - Page 9

An article by Bloomberg’s Josh Rogin has triggered wide disparagement from Moscow, where officials implied all involved in the publication of a piece reporting that Russia was using mobile crematoriums to erase the presence of soldiers in east Ukraine needed mental help. A day later, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that makes all Russian soldiers’s deaths a state secret, even in a time of peace.

MOSCOW (AP) — The groom is approaching 50, a silver-haired boss in the Chechen strongman’s feared police force. The bride is 17, a shy beauty reportedly devastated at the idea of wedding a man nearly three times her age.

The Kremlin will stop at nothing to fully control all forms of media in Russia. The latest step included threats to Google, Facebook, and Twitter from Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor.

Russian police arrested seventeen people at a gay flashmob in Moscow, according to reports. The group descended upon the square to celebrate International Day Against Homophobia.

A new poll from the Levada Center think tank shows that 59% of Russians believe America is a real threat to the sovereignty of Russia. The results come after a friendly meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian President Vladimir Putin with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

There was a significant absence in Moscow on May 9. Even though it was the 70th anniversary of the official end of the European front of World War II, the leaders of the victorious allied powers decided not to attend the Victory Day parade due to increasing tensions with Russia over Ukraine.

It is Victory Day in Europe and Russia, but Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese President Xi Jinping instead of celebrating with his World War II allies. The talks include agreements on the economy and energy as Russia continues to suffer under sanctions for the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted this week that Western sanctions placed on Russia’s banks and oligarchs have damaged the nation’s economy, but he is confident Russia will remain strong and continue to grow.

A Buzzfeed report claims Russian President Vladimir Putin once recommended action movie star Steven Seagal as an official intermediary between himself and President Obama, following years of public friendship between Seagal and the Russian head of state.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing protests from unpaid government workers across the largest country in the world. Teachers, autoworkers, and construction workers were among the workers who protested against Putin.

The Norwegian government demanded Moscow explain why and how Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin visited the Svalbard Islands.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter told the world via Twitter that he just met with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He claims the tournament will “build bridges.”

Foreign airlines started to cancel flights to Moscow this week due to the sanctions against Russia from the West and the failing ruble. On Saturday, President Vladimir Putin said in public statements that Russia is more than ready to work closely with the United States.

The Russian government has added questions on the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the legacy of Josef Stalin to its already rigorous exam for any migrant seeking residency permits. The exam includes questions on “Russian history, language, and civics.”

The Syrian government and opposition members converged on Moscow to discuss humanitarian issues in the war torn country. Syria entered the fourth year of the civil war in March.

Anonymous International released over 40,000 text messages allegedly hacked from a Russian official showing Russia offering money to France’s National Front (FN) party if the party’s leader, Marine Le Pen, endorsed the annexation of Crimea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin received massive blacklash from countries at the Arab summit when he submitted a letter that stated he could not “express support for the Middle East.” The leaders at the summit accused Putin of hypocrisy since he is a known ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

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.