Tag: russia

Russia’s Rumored Telegram Block Appears Underway As Outage Reports Surge

Reports are flooding in from across Russia that Telegram is suddenly going dark, fueling speculation that the Kremlin may already be testing a nationwide block ahead of a rumored planned crackdown next month.

“Over the last 24 hours, Telegram has effectively stopped working through some providers if you are using Russian IP addresses,” tech sector observer Vladislav Voytenko told Kommersant FM on Monday. “As for using Telegram via mobile internet, you can basically forget about it,” he added.

Russia’s Main Radio Frequency Center, an arm of media watchdog Roskomnadzor, said a surge of complaints began appearing over the weekend, with at least one-third coming from Moscow, followed by St. Petersburg and other cities spread across the country’s vast 11 time zones.

Regional media has tracked user reports on outage monitors such as Downdetector and Sboi.rf, which show complaints spiking sharply over the weekend as the app began failing across multiple regions.

Some Russian users have described the platform is barely functioning “in any form”. They complain the app won’t open, messages won’t send, and neither will photos and videos load.

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Iran Receiving ‘Military Cooperation’ From Russia and China, Iran Foreign Minister Confirms

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has openly admitted that the Islamic terror regime is receiving active “military cooperation” from Russia and China, confirming the worst fears of the axis of evil now openly uniting against America and its allies in the escalating Middle East war.

The revelation came during an exclusive interview with MS Now, in which Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that Tehran maintains ongoing military cooperation with Moscow and Beijing, though he refused to provide details.

MS Now’s Ayman Mohyeldin pressed Araghchi on mounting reports that Russia and China may be providing targeting intelligence and military support to help Iran strike U.S. military facilities and infrastructure across the Middle East.

Instead of denying the allegations, Araghchi appeared to confirm the growing alliance.

Ayman Mohyeldin:
I wanted to ask you about the war strategy from an Iranian perspective. Can you tell us right now, because, as you know, there has been reporting that both Russia and China are providing targeting intelligence to Iran to target U.S. positions, facilities, and infrastructure across the region—can you confirm or deny whether Russia or China is providing military support and intelligence to Iran?

Abbas Araghchi:
Well, Russia and China are our strategic partners, and we have had close cooperation in the past, which still continues, and that includes military cooperation as well. I’m not going into any details of that. We have good cooperation with these two countries politically, economically, and even militarily.

But let me say once again that this is not our war. This is an imposed war against us. We didn’t start this war. It was an unprovoked, unwarranted, illegal act of aggression against us. We are only defending ourselves, and we will continue to defend ourselves as much as it takes and for as long as it takes in order to end this war in a way that it will not be repeated in the future.

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“Unprovoked act of aggression,” Russia claims Israel attacked its cultural center in Lebanon

Russia’s international humanitarian cooperation agency said on Monday that Israel attacked the partner Russian House in the Lebanese city of Nabatieh, calling it an “unprovoked act of aggression,” Anadolu reports.

In a statement on Telegram, head of the agency, Rossotrudnichestvo, Evgeny Primakov said the cultural center was strictly civilian.

“Israeli aviation struck the partner Russian House in the Lebanese city of Nabatieh. The director of the cultural center, Assaad Deia, is alive and safe. These are our good friends, there was no military activity in the cultural center. The strike was not provoked by anything,” he said.

He added that the agency’s official representative office, the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, is in contact with colleagues from the Nabatieh office.

“We regard its destruction as an act of unprovoked aggression,” Rossotrudnichestvo said in an official statement published on Russian social media platform Max.

It also noted that the Soviet Cultural Center in Syria’s capital Damascus was destroyed by a direct hit from Israeli bombs on Oct. 10, 1973, during the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, killing two people.

Tension escalated across the region on Feb. 28, when the US and Israel launched large-scale attacks on Iran that have so far killed around 1,300 people, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Tehran has responded with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, as well as Gulf countries that are home to US assets.

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The Satanic Temple working to save Satanists in Ukraine

The Satanic Temple launched an effort to save fellow worshippers of Baphomet in war-torn Ukraine:

“As the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine continues unabated, The Satanic Temple is organizing its networks to ensure TST members trying to flee can reach safety,” the organization posted on its website. “By coordinating donations to pay for transport and accommodations, and strategically locating members who can physically aid refugees, we are doing what we can to assist our members who are caught in the conflict.”

The site called for Ukrainian Satanists to contact them.

Jack Matirko, formerly associated with the  Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and now an advocate for The Satanic Temple, covered the story for Only Sky Media.

“While it is taken for granted that larger religious organizations will be offering aid to members of their communities who need help, we rarely focus on the plights of members of severely marginalized religions, such as Satanism,” Matirko wrote.

Though it is unknown how many, or even if there are any Satanists in Ukraine, Russia has accused several members of the Ukrainian government of worshipping the devil. In 2014, Rossia 24, a state-owned Russian news channel, accused Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov of allying with Satanists in a plot to destroy the Russian Orthodox Church. The report claimed that the group had received permission from local authorities to build a church, focusing on footage of a lamb that is apparently about to be slaughtered in a ritual sacrifice. As a Baptist, Turchynov drew suspicion. Yatsenyuk was even worse, accused of practicing Scientology, which the Russian government does not recognize.

It should be noted that there are Satanists on both sides of the conflict. The Satanic Church of Russia began operating in 2013 and received legal recognition on May 10, 2016 

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Bessent Says US May “Unsanction” More Russian Oil Amid Energy Crisis

Yesterday, when discussing the stunning development that Russia would be granted a one-month license to sell (formerly) sanctioned oil to india while the Straits of Hormuz are blocked, we said that this step is just the start, and precited “unlimited extensions” in the future. We had to wait less than 24 hours for this to come true.

Speaking to Fox Business, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US may lift sanctions on further Russian oil supply after a move Thursday to give Indian refiners the green light to purchase crude from the nation.

“Treasury agreed to let our allies in India start buying Russian oil that was already on the water,” Bessent said, explaining that “to ease the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept the Russian oil. We may unsanction other Russian oil.”

Bessent said there’s “hundreds of millions of sanctioned barrels of crude on the water now and in essence, by unsanctioning them, Treasury can create supply,” he said, quoting verbatim what we said on February 19.

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Finland To Allow Import and Storage of Nuclear Weapons in Its Territory Bordering Russia

Helsinki has joined the nuclear-mania.

The world is getting more dangerous by the day, and especially in Europe, where a race for rearmament is in full display. More and more countries are starting to think about nuclear weapons in a way that would seem impossible just a few years ago.

From France vowing to increase its presently limited number of nuclear warheads and extend its protection to other EU nations, to Poland floating the idea of developing its own nuclear arsenal, Europeans have ‘learned to stop worrying and love the bomb’, to paraphrase Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Dr. Strangelove’.

Today (5), the Finnish government announced it will ‘ease its ban’ on nuclear weapons.

This will allow the country to import, transport, and store nukes on Finnish territory.

Politico reported:

“[Defense Minister Antti] Häkkänen told a press conference that the country’s legislative ban on nukes, dating back to 1980, was no longer relevant in the current geopolitical context. ‘The legislation does not meet the needs that Finland has as a NATO member’, Häkkänen said, according to regional media.”

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Russian mogul who called Ghislaine Maxwell his ‘soulmate’ is found dead in luxe Moscow pad

A Russian mogul who once called sex-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell his “soulmate” was found dead in a luxury Moscow apartment Monday, according to reports — just weeks after his name surfaced in the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Umar Dzhabrailov, a Chechen businessman and former senator, was discovered lying in a pool of blood with a gunshot wound to his head at about 3 a.m., Russian outlet Kommersant reported, citing police sources who called it a suspected suicide.

Police discovered a Luger pistol lying by the 67-year-old’s body. But Dzhabrailov — who had tried to take his life in 2020 — didn’t leave a suicide note, the sources said.

The businessman’s apparent suicide comes after he was among the Russian names that appeared in the Justice Department’s latest Epstein document dump.

Emails show him trying to meet the pedophile’s madam in Moscow in 2001.

“Dear Ghislaine, I’m back from London, planing 2 B in Moscow. Really want 2 C U, but I need 2 know exactly when U arive, cause I want 2 take care of U and arrange welcoming things. Wishing U all the best! Umar,” read the email, dated May 24.

Maxwell responded the following day, writing: “Umar, sorry that we did not come last week. Got side tracked and ended up in France. However we Jeffrey Tom and I are coming next week arriving Fri. Will you be around and can we get together? Let me know. Hope you are well. Ghislaine.”

The extent of their relationship, or how they initially met, wasn’t immediately clear.

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Medvedev warns WW3 could begin at any moment if Trump ‘continues his insane course’

The Kremlin has warned that World War Three could start at any moment if Donald Trump ‘continues his insane course’.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, a close Putin ally, claimed that a new global conflict will make the nuclear bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like ‘child’s play’.

The US president has made a ‘gross mistake’ by attacking Iran and he will spark all out conflict if he ‘continues his insane course of criminal regime change’, Medvedev warned.

‘This is a war of the US and its allies for maintaining global dominance.

‘The pigs don’t want to part with the trough.’

Medvedev, who was Russian president from 2008 to 2012, was asked if WW3 had begun.

He replied: ‘Formally, no, but if Trump continues his insane course of criminal regime change, it will undoubtedly begin.

‘And any event could be the trigger. Any event.’

Medvedev, Putin’s deputy on the Russian security council, said of Western leaders: ‘There’s no magic cure for the actions of hardcore idiots and clinical bastards.

‘There’s only one guarantee: the USA is afraid of Russia and knows the price of a nuclear conflict.

‘In the event of its occurrence, Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be child’s play in the sandbox [sandpit]’.

He told state news agency TASS that US and Israeli citizens were now at risk after the military operation against Iran.

‘I think their vulnerability has significantly increased,’ he said.

‘The fact that the Iranians haven’t responded too seriously yet means that they don’t have many options.

‘But they know how to wait, this is an ancient civilisation.

‘Trump made a gross mistake.

‘By his decision, he put all Americans under potential attack, even though the Iranian regime is not well-liked in neighbouring Arab countries.

‘The main thing, however, is that the late Ayatollah was the spiritual father of almost 300 million Shiites. And now he’s a martyr. You can fill in the rest yourself.

‘And now there’s no doubt that Iran will strive with redoubled energy to acquire nuclear weapons.’

Medvedev claimed that Iran — a key Russian ally, who Moscow is so far failing to support militarily – will withstand the US and Israeli onslaught.

‘I’ve already said that Iran, as the heir to the former Persian Empire, is an ancient world and culture,’ he said.

‘They will cope, but the price of revival will be high.

‘It requires a high level of societal consolidation. And the Americans have provided such consolidation.’

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‘This could spark the largest regional war yet’: Russian analysts on the Iran strikes

As the United States and Israel launch a military operation against Iran on February 28, 2026, global attention turns to the Middle East, where the stakes could not be higher. Analysts and experts from Russia are weighing in, offering a wide range of perspectives on the strategic calculations, potential consequences, and risks of escalation. From regime change ambitions to Iran’s military capabilities, from oil markets to the broader geopolitical fallout, these voices provide a nuanced look at a rapidly unfolding crisis.

Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs:

Trump has delivered a full-blown ultimatum to the Iranian leadership – in effect, a declaration of war until the objective is achieved, with maximalist aims that extend all the way to regime change. Apparently, he has concluded that the risks – including potential losses – are acceptable (something he had hesitated over before), and that success would yield decisive strategic gains: a final reshaping of the Middle East in the interests of Israel and the United States.

A military campaign of this scale, launched without the consent of Congress, runs counter to the US Constitution. In the case of Iraq, Congress granted authorization for the use of force in advance. Nothing of the sort has happened here. If it’s all in, then it’s all in – a bet on a swift and spectacular outcome.

But what if it isn’t?

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IMF approves $8.1 billion loan for Ukraine, with $1.5 billion to go immediately

The International Monetary Fund’s executive board on Thursday approved an $8.1 billion, four-year loan for Ukraine, with $1.5 billion to be disbursed immediately to help keep the government running as its war against Russia’s invasion drags into a fifth year.

The IMF said the new Extended Fund Facility arrangement for Ukraine would help anchor a $136.5 billion international support package for the war-torn country, which this week marked the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The new loan, which replaces a $15.5 billion program that was approved in 2023, will help Kyiv to maintain economic stability and keep public spending flowing, the IMF said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko hailed the IMF loan as part of a broader financial framework that would cover an estimated budget shortfall of $136.5 billion over four years, including a 90 billion euro loan from the European Union.

“It is very important for us that in the fifth year of the full-scale war, against the backdrop of systematic attacks on the energy sector, Ukraine has guaranteed international financial support from partners and the resources for the stable functioning of the state,” she wrote on Telegram.

The World Bank, European Union, United Nations and the Ukrainian government this week issued a new report that put the cost of rebuilding Ukraine at $588 billion over the next decade.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the IMF loan would resolve Ukraine’s balance of payments problem and restore medium-term external viability, while boosting prospects for reconstruction and growth after the war ended and help to facilitate Ukraine’s steps to join the European Union.

“Ukraine and its people have weathered a long and devastating war for over four years with remarkable resilience,” she said in a statement, lauding work by Ukrainian authorities to maintain overall macroeconomic and financial stability, boost domestic revenues and advance some critical reforms.

She said officials were committed to “tackling longstanding bottlenecks to growth,” including through continued efforts to combat corruption, address tax avoidance and evasion, reform energy markets, and strengthen financial market infrastructure.

The program would be “promptly recalibrated” in the case of successful peace negotiations, she said in a statement.

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