Contents tagged with Putin

  • Two thirds of Russians speak of 'overall degradation' of government

    The Russian population at large is becoming increasingly convinced that the country’s government is totally corrupt. The arrests of high-ranking officials are perceived not as evidence of the fight against corruption, but merely a show, or evidence of infighting between members of the elite.

    This was the conclusion reached by the Levada Center’s survey in February dedicated to the Rauf Arashukov case. Arashukov, a former senator from Karachay-Cherkessia, was arrested during a session of the …

  • US considers cutting Russia off from world oil market

    A new round of US sanctions, enshrined in the Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression (DASKA) Act, threatens to cause the outright collapse of the Russian oil sector, which for more than half a century has been the country’s primary source of foreign currency earnings, enabling it to import western technologies, goods and the consumer lifestyle, finanz.ru writes.

    As the old, Soviet-era oil fields run dry, if the country is unable to identify large deposits that can be easily and …

  • Putin’s chef Prigozhin wins multi-billion ruble government contracts

    The companies connected to the Russian businessman Yevgeny “Putin’s chef” Prigozhin have acquired more than 10 billion rubles worth of new contracts in 2019, the Russian news agency The Bell reported, citing the state procurements website and the SPARK-Interfax company monitoring service.

    The Bell examined the contracts of 13 legal entities believed to be connected to Prigozhin. Aside from Concord M and the Concord catering company, companies to which Prigozhin acknowledges his connection, …

  • Putin congratulates Gorbachev on his birthday

    Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated former USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev on his birthday. Putin’s message was published on the Kremlin website. On March 2nd, Gorbachev turned 88.

    Putin noted that in Russia and abroad Gorbachev is known as an authoritative government and public figure with great experience. According to the Russian President, Gorbachev is currently actively involved in expert discussions and contributes significantly to dialogue on the most critical problems of …

  • Prigozhin’s propagandists claim to have repelled US military and FBI cyberattacks

    The Russian Federal News Agency (FAN), which is believed to be connected to Yevgeny “Putin’s Chef” Prigozhin, has published its response to a reported US military cyberattack against the Internet Research Agency (IRA, a.k.a. the “Troll Factory”) on US Congress election day. The FAN claims the Americans were “unprofessional” and that their attempts were “unproductive”. 

    The Russian propagandists say that there is “neither official confirmation nor any other reasons” to believe that the IRA and …

  • Russia and Israel will assess possibility of removing foreign forces from Syria

    Russia and Israel will set up a working group with a number of other countries to assess the possibility of removing foreign forces from Syria, a high-ranking source in the Israeli government told reporters on Wednesday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Moscow, TASS reported. 

    “It was decided to set up a working group with the participation of Russia, Israel and several other countries to work on removing foreign forces from Syria,” the source said. 

    Netanyahu's visit …

  • Putin thanks Russian special forces for annexation of Crimea

    On the occasion of the Russian memorial day “Special Operations Forces Day” on 27 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the personnel of Russia’s Special Operations Forces on their professional holiday, and thanked the soldiers for the annexation of Crimea and the combat in Syria. 

    “Five years ago, Special Operations Forces fighters and commanders did their utmost to keep the peace in Crimea and Sevastopol,” TASS cites Putin as saying. 

    The Russian president said that …

  • Netanyahu tells Putin that Israel is determined to continue attacks against Iran in Syria

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. According to Israeli media, his visit was shortened because Netanyahu was required to attend to urgent internal issues in Israel. 

    At the meeting in the Kremlin, the Israeli Prime Minister said that Israel "is determined to continue attacks against Iran and its attempts to entrench military in Syria." According to Netanyahu, Iran and its allies are the biggest threat to the security of the region.  …

  • Volker announces plans to intensify anti-Russian sanctions

    The US does not recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and believes that “words are not enough”, US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker said on 26 February during the opening of the fifth international forum titled: “Occupation of Crimea: 5 years of opposition” in Kyiv.

    “We does not and will not accept Russia’s claimed annexation of Crimea. But words are not enough. We are very clearly and closely following the human rights situation in Crimea, and we are carefully following the …

  • Netanyahu: Iran’s presence in Syria will be main topic of the meeting with Putin

    Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is in Moscow, where he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Before his departure, the head of the Israeli government announced that the focus of the meeting will be Iran’s military presence in Syria.

    “Today I am going to Moscow, where tomorrow I will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the center of our talks will be Iranian consolidation in Syria. We act and will continue to act against it and attack their bases. I will talk …