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Tag: Russian President

  • Putin proven in tense encounter with chief of workers at Far East struggle video games

    Russian President Vladimir Putin was proven in a clumsy encounter together with his army chief of workers on Tuesday as he inspected struggle video games in Russia’s Far East, hundreds of miles from the struggle in Ukraine.

    The Zvezda army information service revealed video of Putin and chief of workers General Valery Gerasimov getting into an statement sales space, sitting down with a large area between them and sustaining an uncomfortable silence whereas ready for Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to reach.

    Gerasimov stroked his hair and shuffled papers and Putin picked up and peered by means of a pair of binoculars, at one level acknowledging a remark from the final by nodding tersely.

    The awkward physique language drew scrutiny from political and army analysts on social media.

    “Putin obviously doesn’t even want to talk with the commander of the Russian armed forces,” wrote former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt on Twitter.

    In a separate clip, the temper appeared lighter as Putin and Shoigu have been proven exchanging a joke whereas Gerasimov spoke on the cellphone.

    Gerasimov has been virtually absent from public view through the 195 days of Russia’s struggle in Ukraine, prompting hypothesis about his standing with Putin and even at occasions about his well being.

    Having captured a few fifth of the nation, Russia has been fought to a digital standstill whereas struggling heavy losses in troops and tools.

    By continuing with the four-yearly “Vostok” (East) struggle video games, Putin gave the impression to be sending a sign that Russia’s army is ready to conduct enterprise as typical regardless of the calls for of the struggle.

    But the defence ministry says the workout routines that started on Sept. 1 contain solely 50,000 troops, a fraction of the 300,000 they mentioned took half in 2018. Western army analysts say they imagine each figures are exaggerated.

    The manoeuvres have included forces from each India and China, although it was not clear if Putin had seen troops from these nations in motion.

    On Tuesday the defence ministry launched video of the naval a part of the train, exhibiting Russia’s Pacific Fleet practising launching Kalibr cruise missiles which it mentioned had efficiently struck a goal greater than 300 km (185 miles) away.

    On Monday, Russian and Chinese fight ships practised repelling an enemy air assault utilizing air defence artillery programs. Last week warships from the 2 nations carried out anti-ship, anti-air and anti-submarine defence duties within the Sea of Japan, the ministry mentioned.

    Putin and Chinese chief Xi Jinping declared a “no limits” partnership in February, promising to collaborate extra carefully in opposition to the West.

    Russia is the most important provider of army {hardware} to India, which went forward with the train days after the United States mentioned it had issues about any nation holding such manoeuvres with Russia now.

    Moscow says the struggle video games additionally contain army contingents and observers from Algeria, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Syria and 6 former Soviet republics.

  • Yacht of wealthiest Russian oligarch docked in haven Dubai

    The man thought of to be the wealthiest oligarch in Russia, who has been photographed enjoying ice hockey with President Vladimir Putin, joins a rising listing of these transferring or, crusing their prized belongings to Dubai because the West tightens its huge sanctions program on Russia’s financial system.

    Vladimir Potanin, head of the world’s largest refined nickel and palladium producer, will not be sanctioned by the United States or Europe but; such sanctions may roil metallic markets and doubtlessly disrupt provide chains, specialists say. As the largest shareholder in mining firm Nornickel, Potanin had a private fortune of $30.6 billion earlier than the conflict on Ukraine, in keeping with Forbes.

    But like an rising variety of blacklisted Russian oligarchs, he has apparently taken the precaution of shifting his $300 million superyacht to the protected haven of Dubai, within the US-allied United Arab Emirates.

    It known as the Nirvana, and the modern 88-meter-long superyacht, outfitted with a glass elevator, gymnasium, sizzling tub, 3D cinema and two terrariums of unique reptiles, stands out even in a port filled with flashy, floating mansions.

    The big Dutch-built vessel with a navy blue hull was docked on Tuesday flying the flag of the Cayman Islands when Associated Press journalists noticed the ship at Dubai’s Port Rashid within the eyeshot of sanctioned Russian parliamentarian Andrei Skoch’s $156 million Madame Gu.

    Representatives for Potanin didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
    The arrival of Russian-owned luxurious vessels in Dubai has turn out to be an outsized image of the UAE’s reluctance to oppose Moscow’s conflict on Ukraine and implement Western sanctions. One of a shrinking variety of nations the place Russians can nonetheless fly straight, the monetary centre has turn out to be a thriving hub for Russia’s wealthy, partly due to its popularity for welcoming cash from anyplace each reliable and shady.

    “They haven’t tried to hide the fact they’re accepting oligarchs themselves and their yachts,” stated Julia Friedlander, a former senior coverage adviser for Europe within the US Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “When it comes to taking sides in the conflict, it’s not in their political interest to do so. They want to keep their access to money from around the world.” The UAE Foreign Ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

    The Emirati stance has stoked tensions with the United States, which has sought to stress its Gulf Arab ally to assist fight Russian sanctions evasion. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, one of many major US coordinators on the Russian sanctions technique, visited the UAE final week to voice American issues about Russian monetary flows and demand elevated vigilance.

    Still, there’s no indication that President Joe Biden will impose secondary sanctions, leaving Washington with few stress factors.

    As Moscow’s conflict on Ukraine grinds on, Western financial sanctions have proliferated in an effort to stress Putin to alter course. The European Union has captured billions of {dollars} in artwork, yachts and property. Britain, Fiji, Italy, Spain and different nations have impounded oligarchs’ yachts. The US has seized vessels and plane.
    Some distinguished oligarchs, nevertheless, have escaped the blacklist due to their strategic holdings. Although Potanin has been hit with Canadian and Australian sanctions for his shut ties to the Kremlin, his popularity because the “King of Nickel” has to this point spared him.

    “We’re reaching a critical metal shortage and we don’t know where those supply chains are headed, so you have to ask, would sanctioning him make things worse?” Friedlander stated. “Those are serious considerations.”

  • Putin guarantees Belarus Iskander-M missiles to counter “aggressive” West

    Russia will provide Belarus with Iskander-M missile techniques inside a couple of months, Russian President Vladimir Putin informed a televised assembly with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Saturday.

    At the assembly, held in St Petersburg, Lukashenko informed Putin that Belarus was involved by the “aggressive”, “confrontational” and “repulsive” insurance policies of its neighbours Lithuania and Poland.

    He requested Putin to assist Belarus mount a “symmetrical response” to what he stated have been nuclear-armed flights by the U.S.-led NATO alliance close to Belarus’s borders.

    “Minsk must be ready for anything, even the use of serious weaponry to defend our fatherland from Brest to Vladivostok,” he stated, placing Belarus and its shut ally Russia below one umbrella.

    In explicit, he requested for assist to make Belarus’s army plane nuclear-capable.

    Putin stated he noticed no want at current for a symmetrical response, however that Belarus’s Russian-built Su-25 jets might if vital be upgraded in Russian factories.

    He did, nevertheless, promise to produce the Iskander-M, a cellular guided missile system codenamed “SS-26 Stone” by NATO, which changed the Soviet “Scud”. Its two guided missiles have a spread of as much as 500 km (300 miles) and might carry standard or nuclear warheads.

    Tensions between Russia and the West have soared since Moscow despatched troops into Ukraine 4 months in the past, alleging amongst different issues that NATO deliberate to confess Ukraine and use it as a platform to threaten Russia.

    Russia’s transfer has not solely triggered a barrage of Western sanctions but in addition prompted Sweden and Russia’s northern neighbour Finland to use to affix the Western alliance.

    In the previous week, Lithuania specifically has infuriated Russia by blocking the transit of products topic to European sanctions travelling throughout its territory from Russia, by means of Belarus, to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.

    Russia has termed it a “blockade”, however Lithuania says it impacts just one% of the traditional items transit on the route, and that passenger visitors is unaffected.

  • Chinese President Xi expresses readiness to assist settle Ukraine disaster

    Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday expressed his readiness to play a “constructive role” to assist settle the Ukraine disaster, China’s state media reported.

    In a telephonic dialog along with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Xi mentioned, “All parties concerned must take a responsible stance, thus promoting the correct settlement of the crisis in Ukraine.” “China is prepared to keep playing its constructive role,” the Chinese state-run TV quoted Xi as saying.

    Xi emphasised that China has all the time independently assessed the state of affairs on the premise of the historic context and the deserves of the difficulty, and actively promoted world peace and the steadiness of the worldwide financial order, China’s official Xinhua information company reported.

    All events ought to push for a correct settlement of the Ukraine disaster in a accountable method, Xi mentioned, including that China for this goal will proceed to play its due position.

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    However, it isn’t but clear whether or not Xi has supplied to mediate to finish the Russia-Ukraine struggle, shedding Beijing’s earlier reluctance to take action.

    China, an in depth ally of Russia, steadfastly declined to sentence Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ever since Putin launched a particular navy operation, which led to the United States and its allies imposing sweeping sanctions on Russia and stepping up weapons provides to Kiev.

    The Russian-Ukraine battle become a struggle when Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

    For his half, Putin whereas congratulating China’s outstanding growth and achievements underneath the robust management of Xi, expressed Russia’s help to the Chinese president’s new initiatives, the Global Security Initiative (GSI) and opposes any pressure to intrude with China’s inner affairs utilizing so-called points like Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, amongst others, as an excuse.

    He famous that Russia is able to strengthen multilateral coordination with China in order to make constructive efforts in boosting multipolarisation of the world, and establishing a extra simply and cheap worldwide order, the Xinhua report mentioned.

    During his dialog with Putin, Xi famous that for the reason that starting of the yr, bilateral relations between China and Russia have maintained a sound growth momentum within the face of world turbulence and transformations.

    The financial and commerce cooperation between the 2 international locations has made regular progress, Xi mentioned, including that the Heihe-Blagoveshchensk cross-border freeway bridge has opened to visitors, creating a brand new channel connecting the 2 international locations.

    The Chinese facet stands able to work with the Russian facet to push for regular and long-term growth of sensible bilateral cooperation, Xi mentioned.

    China is prepared to work with Russia to proceed supporting one another on their respective core pursuits regarding sovereignty and safety, in addition to on their main issues, deepening their strategic coordination, and strengthening communication and coordination in such essential worldwide and regional organisations because the United Nations, the BRICS mechanism and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, he mentioned.

    China can be prepared to work with Russia to advertise solidarity and cooperation amongst rising market international locations and creating nations, and push for the event of the worldwide order and international governance in direction of a extra simply and cheap course, Xi added.

  • Russia’s Navalny loses attraction on terrorist, extremist label

    Imprisoned Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny on Tuesday misplaced an attraction contesting the choice by penitentiary officers to label him as “inclined to commit crimes of a terrorist or extremist nature.” Navalny, who has been behind bars since January 2021, was first designated by the penitentiary authorities as a flight threat, which implied extra checks and inspections in jail. But in October final 12 months officers changed that label with the “terrorist or extremist” one.

    “I was worried they would demand that I kissed portraits of (President Vladimir) Putin and learned quotes by (his top associate Dmitry) Medvedev, but it wasn’t necessary. It is just that my bunk bed now has a label that describes me a terrorist,” Navalny, in his regular sardonic matter, commented on the transfer on the time in a social media put up.

    He and his protection workforce filed an attraction contesting the label, however a panel of judges within the Russia’s Vladimir area about 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Moscow on Tuesday rejected the attraction and dominated to maintain the designation in place.

    Navalny, Putin’s fiercest foe, was arrested in January 2021 upon getting back from Germany, the place he had been recuperating from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin, and handed a 2½-year sentence for a parole violation.

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    In March, Navalny was sentenced to 9 years in jail on fraud and contempt of court docket expenses that he rejected as politically motivated. The transfer signaled an try by the authorities to maintain him behind bars for so long as doable.

    The new sentence adopted a year-long Kremlin crackdown on Navalny’s supporters, different opposition activists and impartial journalists, during which authorities seem desperate to stifle all dissent.

    Navalny’s shut associates have confronted felony expenses and left the nation, and his group’s political infrastructure — an anti-corruption basis and a nationwide community of regional places of work — has been destroyed after being labeled an extremist organisation.

    Navalny and a number of other of his associates have been added to Russia’s registry of terrorists and extremists.

  • Britain imposes sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughters

    Britain has added two grownup daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin to its sanctions record, following comparable strikes by the US and the European Union.

    The authorities stated Friday it’s imposing asset freezes and journey bans on Putin’s daughters Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, in addition to Yekaterina Vinokurova, daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

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    Britain says it has sanctioned greater than 1,200 Russian people and companies because the invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24, together with 76 oligarchs and 16 banks.

    It says Western nations have collectively frozen 275 billion kilos ($360 billion), amounting to 60% of Russian overseas forex reserves.

  • Zelenskyy asks Putin to fulfill, says ‘I don’t chew’

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has known as for Russian President Vladimir Putin to fulfill him, salting the proposal with sarcasm.

    “Sit down with me to negotiate, just not at 30 meters,” he stated Thursday, apparently referring to current photographs of Putin sitting at one finish of an especially lengthy desk when he met with French President Emmanuel Macron.

    “I don’t bite. What are you afraid of?” Zelenskyy stated at a Thursday information convention.

    Zelenskyy stated it was wise to have talks: “Any words are more important than shots.”

     

  • Russia: Over 5,000 arrested for protesting towards opposition chief Alexei Navalny’s nabbing

    Image Source : AP A policeman detains a person whereas protesters attempt to assist him, throughout a protest towards the jailing of opposition chief Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia.
    Chanting slogans towards President Vladimir Putin, tens of hundreds took to the streets Sunday throughout Russia to demand the discharge of jailed opposition chief Alexei Navalny, maintaining nationwide protests which have rattled the Kremlin. More than 5,100 folks had been detained by police, in keeping with a monitoring group, and a few had been overwhelmed.

    The large protests got here regardless of efforts by Russian authorities to stem the tide of demonstrations after tens of hundreds rallied throughout the nation final weekend within the largest, most widespread present of discontent that Russia had seen in years. Despite threats of jail phrases, warnings to social media teams and tight police cordons, the protests once more engulfed cities throughout Russia’s 11 time zones on Sunday.

    Navalny’s crew shortly referred to as one other protest in Moscow for Tuesday, when he’s set to face a court docket listening to that would ship him to jail for years.

    The 44-year-old Navalny, an anti-corruption investigator who’s Putin’s best-known critic, was arrested on Jan. 17 upon coming back from Germany, the place he spent 5 months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusations. He was arrested for allegedly violating his parole circumstances by not reporting for conferences with regulation enforcement when he was recuperating in Germany.

    The United States urged Russia to launch Navalny and criticized the crackdown on protests.

    “The U.S. condemns the persistent use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by Russian authorities for a second week straight,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned on Twitter.

    The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected Blinken’s name as “crude interference in Russia’s internal affairs” and accused Washington of attempting to destabilize the scenario within the nation by backing the protests.

    On Sunday, police detained greater than 5,100 folks in cities nationwide, in keeping with OVD-Info, a gaggle that displays political arrests, surpassing some 4,000 detentions on the demonstrations throughout Russia on Jan. 23.

    In Moscow, authorities launched unprecedented safety measures within the metropolis middle, closing subway stations close to the Kremlin, slicing bus visitors and ordering eating places and shops to remain closed.

    Navalny’s crew initially referred to as for Sunday’s protest to be held on Moscow’s Lubyanka Square, dwelling to the principle headquarters of the Federal Security Service, which Navalny contends was accountable for his poisoning. Facing police cordons across the sq., the protest shifted to different central squares and streets.

    Police had been randomly selecting up folks and placing them into police buses, however hundreds of protesters marched throughout the town middle for hours, chanting “Putin, resign!” and “Putin, thief!” — a reference to an opulent Black Sea property reportedly constructed for the Russian chief that was featured in a broadly fashionable video launched by Navalny’s crew.

    “I’m not afraid, because we are the majority,” mentioned protester Leonid Martynov. “We mustn’t be scared by clubs because the truth is on our side.”

    At one level, crowds of demonstrators walked towards the Matrosskaya Tishina jail the place Navalny is being held. They had been met by phalanxes of riot police who pushed the march again and chased protesters by courtyards.

    Demonstrators continued to march across the Russian capital, zigzagging round police cordons. Officers broke them into smaller teams and detained scores, beating some with golf equipment and infrequently utilizing tasers.

    Over 1,600 folks had been detained in Moscow, together with Navalny’s spouse, Yulia, who was launched after a number of hours pending a court docket listening to Monday on fees of collaborating in an unsanctioned protest. “If we keep silent, they will come after any of us tomorrow,” she mentioned on Instagram earlier than turning out to protest.

    Amnesty International mentioned that authorities in Moscow have arrested so many individuals that the town’s detention amenities have run out of house. “The Kremlin is waging a war on the human rights of people in Russia, stifling protesters’ calls for freedom and change,” Natalia Zviagina, the group’s Moscow workplace head, mentioned in an announcement.

    Several thousand folks marched throughout Russia’s second-largest metropolis of St. Petersburg, chanting “Down with the czar!” and occasional scuffles erupted as some demonstrators pushed again police who tried to make detentions. Over 1,100 had been arrested.

    Some of the most important rallies had been held in Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk in jap Siberia and Yekaterinburg within the Urals.

    “I do not want my grandchildren to live in such a country,” mentioned 55-year-old Vyacheslav Vorobyov, who turned out for a rally in Yekaterinburg. “I want them to live in a free country.”

    Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde, who at present chairs the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, condemned “the excessive use of force by authorities and mass detention of peaceful protesters and journalists” and urged Russia “to release all those unjustly detained, including Navalny.”

    As a part of a multipronged effort by authorities to dam the protests, courts have jailed Navalny’s associates and activists throughout the nation over the previous week. His brother Oleg, prime aide Lyubov Sobol and three different folks had been put beneath a two-month home arrest Friday on fees of allegedly violating coronavirus restrictions throughout final weekend’s protests.

    Prosecutors additionally demanded that social media platforms block calls to hitch the protests.

    The Interior Ministry issued stern warnings to the general public, saying protesters could possibly be charged with collaborating in mass riots, which carries a jail sentence of as much as eight years.

    Protests had been fueled by a two-hour YouTube video launched by Navalny’s crew after his arrest in regards to the Black Sea residence purportedly constructed for Putin. The video has been seen over 100 million occasions, inspiring a stream of sarcastic jokes on the web amid an financial downturn.

    Russia has seen intensive corruption throughout Putin’s time in workplace whereas poverty has remained widespread.

    “All of us feel pinched financially, so people who take to the streets today feel angry,” mentioned Vladimir Perminov who protested in Moscow. “The government’s rotation is necessary.”

    Demonstrators in Moscow chanted “Aqua discotheque!” — a reference to one of many fancy facilities on the residence that additionally encompasses a on line casino and a hookah lounge outfitted for watching pole dances.

    Putin says neither he nor any of his shut family members personal the property. On Saturday, building magnate Arkady Rotenberg, a longtime Putin confidant and his occasional judo sparring companion, claimed that he himself owned the property.

    Navalny fell right into a coma on Aug. 20 whereas on a flight from Siberia to Moscow and the pilot diverted the aircraft so he could possibly be handled within the metropolis of Omsk. He was transferred to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and exams by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was uncovered to the Novichok nerve agent.

    Russian authorities have refused to open a full-fledged legal inquiry, claiming lack of proof that he was poisoned.

    Navalny was arrested instantly upon his return to Russia earlier this month and jailed for 30 days on the request of Russia’s jail service, which alleged he had violated the probation of his suspended sentence from a 2014 money-laundering conviction that he has rejected as political revenge.

    On Thursday, a Moscow court docket rejected Navalny’s attraction to be launched, and the listening to Tuesday may flip his 3 1/2-year suspended sentence into one he should serve in jail.

    ALSO READ | Russia: 3,000 arrested at protests demanding Navalny’s launch
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  • After the death of 5 thousand, Russian President Putin announced the Armenia-Azerbaijan ceasefire

    Russia has intensified its efforts to prevent the ongoing war between Armenia and Azerbaijan since last 27 September. President Vladimir Putin declared that peace was agreed between Armenia and Azerbaijan through Russia’s intervention. He also said that Russian peacekeeping forces would be deployed in the area to maintain peace in the war-torn region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Putin also said that he hoped that this agreement would lead to the implementation of the necessary long-term and full ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Armenia and Azerbaijan have also confirmed the agreement in this regard. After this, it is believed that the end of the fight that has been going on for 44 days has now come to a close.

    After mediating Russia, Armenian Prime Minister Nicholas Pashinyan announced on social media on Tuesday that he had a peace agreement with Azerbaijan with the cooperation of Russia. Soon after, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev also confirmed it.

    At the same time, Nagorno-Karbakh region leader Araiq Harutuyan also announced that he had signed an agreement for peace, whereas earlier, the US intervened between the two countries to establish peace and stop the war. Had initiated from both sides. The cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan itself was announced by US President Donald Trump and Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo. But this did not work and the war broke out on both sides.
    Let me tell you, Armenia and Azerbaijan are two small countries, but the fierce battle between these two for Nagorno Karabakh was going on for the last 29 days. It is being claimed that the people killed in this battle have killed about 5 thousand people from both sides.

    Because of the war going on for so many days and the killing of thousands of people, the US interfered in it. Let it also be said that in this war, there was an attempt to intervene twice before from Russia, but both times the war could not be stopped and the war broke out again, but this time from both the countries. Consent has been given and a peace deal has also been signed.