Since the start of Russian invasion in 2022, #Kremlin played the nuclear card – to frighten Ukraine & deter West from assisting
Putin cast a nuclear threats over his full-scale invasion from the start. After Russian troops invaded Ukraine Putin put his nuclear forces on special combat readiness
The Kremlin’s most recent nuclear card was May 6. Russia held exercises involving tactical nuclear weapons
Two pro-Russian activists in #Germany, whose ties to the #Kremlin were revealed in a Reuters investigation last year, have left Germany and moved to #Russia the couple’s lawyer said in a statement on Monday.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of #Ukraine in 2022, Elena #Kolbasnikova and her romantic partner Max #Schlund have been active in Germany, organising pro-Kremlin rallies to urge #Berlin to abandon its military support to #Kyiv.
Leaked internal documents have exposed the activities of a Russian state-backed legal defence foundation that European intelligence agencies and analysts say is in fact a #Kremlin influence operation active in 48 countries across Europe and around the world
More than 40 #Pravfond documents, obtained by the Danish public broadcaster DR, show that the organisation has had a number of documented former intelligence agents among its leadership
#ussia has dramatically increased its spending on patriotic education and state-run militarised groups for children and teens, from £25m in 2021 to more than £382m in 2024. Since the onset of the conflict, public school textbooks have been rewritten to align with the #Kremlin’s foreign policy, reflecting Russia’s interpretation of history that emphasises the need to reclaim “historical territories” lost to #Ukraine.
Het #kremlin probeert al sinds 2013 banden te ontwikkelen met de #pvv. En met succes. De partij figureert prominent in Russische beïnvloedingscampagnes, blijkt uit gelekte documenten. Geert #wilders probeert om connecties met Rusland uit het zicht te houden.
(Benieuwd hoe Dick #schoof als Kremlin watcher daarmee om gaat. Hij en Putin waren vergelijkbaar in hun carrière.
#Putin grossly misrepresented the Ukrainian constitution and Ukrainian domestic law on May 28 in order to further promote the #Kremlin information operation claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr #Zelensky is no longer the legitimate president of #Ukraine.
The leader of #Russia's #Chechnya region, Ramzan #Kadyrov, said early on Thursday he had met President Vladimir #Putin in the #Kremlin and offered to send more fighters to help Moscow in its more than two-year-old conflict in #Ukraine.
He said tens of thousands of "well trained and equipped fighters from the reserves" were prepared to fight for Russia in Ukraine if such an order were given.
The #US and most #EU nations will boycott a #Kremlin ceremony to swear in Vladimir #Putin for a new six-year term as president on Tuesday, but #France and some other EU states were expected to send an envoy despite a plea by #Kyiv.
The varying diplomatic response by the Western powers underscored differences over how to handle the Russian leader more than two years after he launched a full-scale invasion of #Ukraine.
As many as a million Russians fled abroad in the first year of the #Kremlin’s invasion of #Ukraine. Now thousands are returning home, delivering a propaganda victory to President Vladimir #Putin and a boost to his war economy.
Russian citizens have faced difficulty or refusal when trying to renew expiring residence permits, according to Finion’s Kartamyshev. Most of those who do wind up choosing to return to #Russia.
Over the past several months, #Ukraine drones have penetrated ever deeper into Russian territory, striking an oil refinery as far away from the border as the northwestern city of St. Petersburg, and more recently, a drone assembly plant in the republic of #Tatarstan. Increasingly, these air attacks are sapping into #Russia’s diesel and gasoline production, which #Kyiv hopes will hit the #Kremlin’s wallet and reduce the availability of fuel for Russia’s war machine.
Sinon puisqu'on parle de la Géorgie, en ce moment même la jeunesse géorgienne manifeste contre le gouvernent complaisent envers le Kremlin qui la gouverne et fait face à une répression brutale.
A wave of Ukrainian drone strikes on oil refineries deep inside #Russia has left the #Kremlin racing to defend its own territory while still waging war on its neighbor. But the attacks have also achieved the unthinkable — leaving the world’s largest petrostate running low on petrol.
Diesel prices for Russian consumers have skyrocketed, rising almost 10 percent in the past week alone.
2 Russian-born #Czech citizens ran a #hotel in #Greece that doubled as #SafeHouse for infamous unit of Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) as it carried out #bombings & #poisonings across Europe
Husband/wife Nikolay & Elena #Saposnikov ran Villa Elena, a 3-story hotel hosted members of #Kremlin's “most grimly accomplished #assassination and #sabotage squad,” Unit #29155, on a regular basis for the last 15 years.
The largest western banks that remain in #Russia paid the #Kremlin more than €800mn of taxes last year, a fourfold increase on prewar levels, despite promises to minimise their Russian exposure after the full-scale invasion of #Ukraine.
The seven top European banks by assets in Russia — #Raiffeisen Bank International, #UniCredit, #ING, #Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo and OTP — reported a combined profit of more than €3bn in 2023.
ℹ #russia's Deputy Defense Minister #Timur_Ivanov was arrested and officially he has been charged with bribery, but unofficially there’s talk of treason and #Kremlin power struggles
#RomanAnin, the Editor-in-Chief at russian independent investigative #journalism outlet #Vazhnye_Istorii, was interviewed hoping to clarify the context and implications of #Ivanov’s arrest ⤵
V BBC #Russian :
A 17 year old schoolgirl has been sentenced to 3.5 years hard labour for her anti-war social media posts. She’s the second minor to be given a real prison term for anti-#Kremlin views in #Russia
How a second #Trump presidency
could tear #Europe apart
This is the moment most of Europe’s leaders hoped they would never see. The date is November 7, 2024, two days after Donald Trump edged out Joe #Biden in the #US presidential election, and already the once-and-future president has announced he will force #Ukraine to strike a peace deal with #Russia and cede territories the #Kremlin has claimed as its own.
The Russian government last year announced a lucrative package for foreign fighters to join the country’s military, including a monthly salary of at least $2,000 and a fast track to Russian citizenship – but the #Kremlin has not said how many foreigners it has recruited under the plan.
By some estimates, #Russia has been sending thousands of foreign men to fight in #Ukraine since #Putin ordered the invasion.