A Russian court on Monday ordered opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his allies to pay $1.4 million in damages, a blow to the Kremlin critic’s group, whose bank accounts have been frozen amid what he says is a broad government crackdown. The Moscow Arbitration Court told Navalny, his Anti-Corruption Foundation and ally Lyubov Sobol each to pay 29 million rubles ($455,000)

Russia’s military top brass are forcing junior officers to serve in the armed services against their will, often long after they apply for dismissal, the investigative Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported Monday.  Russian law makes it “nearly impossible” to resign from the army without a compelling reason, lawyers say.   “This issue affects everyone [in the military], but it’s true that it’s most difficult

The firing of Russia’s R-30 “Bulava 30” submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) does not include the possibility of breaking through the ice, writes military expert Maxim Klimov in an article for LiveJournal. According to him, the R-30 Bulava 30 can only be fired from a Borei-class nuclear submarine through “a large, clean opening in the ice”. Searching for such an opening could

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered to create a gambling zone “Golden Coast” in the city of Yalta, occupied Crimea. The text of the order was published on October 28, the official portal of legal information of the Russian Federation reports. “To create a gambling zone “Golden Coast” in the territory of Yalta municipality,” the order reads. The gambling

Another militant who escaped from the “LNR” due to lack of money was detained by the SBU counterintelligence, – the press center of the department reports. The resident of Luhansk joined the militants in search of profit in the summer of 2015. After training at the firing range, he was enrolled in the so-called howitzer battalion. The militant “earned his

A leading Russian human rights writer and activist, Bukovsky spent a total of 12 years imprisoned by the USSR. Courtesy photo/Radio Liberty Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky, once dubbed “a hero of almost legendary proportion among the Soviet dissident movement” by the New York Times, died of cardiac arrest in Addenbrookes Hospital, in Cambridge, England at 9:46 PM Greenwich Time on October 27,

The number of Russians has increased who consider relations with Ukraine “tense”. REUTERS A survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center says 53% of Russian respondents believe that the United States is a key potential source of military threat, while 26% name Ukraine, and another 7% point to China. Russians, as before, believe that relations between Russia and

The Russian Defense Ministry reported that it knew nothing about “allowing the flight of US aircraft” into Syrian airspace to conduct the special operation to eliminate the leader of the Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, reports RBC news agency, citing the statement of the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry Igor Konashenkov. The Russian Defense Ministry claims that there are

Deputy Head of Ukrainian National Police Vadym Troyan said that after the meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and conversation with the police, the fighters of Azov volunteer battalion in the Zolote of the Luhansk region of Ukraine withdrew the legal weapon. He also said that at the moments there is only a group of volunteers without weapons who stayed

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised not to press the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) but called on them to bring top corrupt officials to account. He said this at a meeting with NABU and SAPO employees, which was broadcast live on the Facebook page of the Office of the President. “The

According to conservative estimates, the gambling revenues in Ukraine may reach UAH 5-9 billion. “According to our conservative estimates, this [gambling revenues] is UAH 5-9 billion of a resource that can be fully mobilized if everything works out,” Finance Minister of Ukraine Oksana Markarova said in an interview with LB.ua Ukrainian online media outlet. At the same time, she noted