Tag: russia

Russia outlaws Amnesty International in latest crackdown on dissent and activists

The Russian authorities on Monday outlawed Amnesty International as an “undesirable organization,” a label that under a 2015 law makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense.

The decision by the Russian Prosecutor General’s office, announced in an online statement, is the latest in the unrelenting crackdown on Kremlin critics, journalists and activists that intensified to unprecedented levels after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The designation means the international human rights group must stop any work in Russia, and it subjects those who cooperate with it or support it to prosecution, including if anyone shares Amnesty International’s reports on social media.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said the move was part of the Russian government’s efforts to silence dissent and isolate civil society. “The authorities are deeply mistaken if they believe that by labeling our organization ‘undesirable,’ we will stop our work documenting and exposing human rights violations – quite the opposite,” she said in a statement. “We will not give in to the threats and will continue undeterred to work to ensure that people in Russia are able to enjoy their human rights without discrimination.”

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US should never have intervened in Ukraine – Trump

US President Donald Trump has rebuked his predecessor, Joe Biden, for funneling vast amounts of American taxpayer money into a foreign conflict that “should have remained a European situation.”

Speaking to reporters at the White House following a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, Trump expressed frustration over the “crazy” scale of US involvement in the Ukraine conflict. He reiterated that it is “not our war” and stressed that his administration is working to end it through diplomacy.

“This is not our war. This is not my war… I mean, we got ourselves entangled in something that we shouldn’t have been involved in. And we would have been a lot better off – and maybe the whole thing would have been better off – because it can’t be much worse. It’s a real mess,” Trump said.

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As Rumors of a New Big Offensive Swirl, Putin Appoints Mordvichev as New Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces – A General that Ukraine Announced it Had Killed!

While the peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are still showing a lot of promise, the war continues unabated – top Russian negotiator Medinsky quoted famed French General Napoleon to say that ‘Wars & negotiations take place at same time’.

And it seems that the longer the conflict lasts, the more painful the territorial losses of the Kiev regime will be.

As rumors have been circling around for a few months of an upcoming big Russian offensive, President Vladimir Putin made a pivotal change in the command structure of his army, elevating a young, hungry and accomplished General that – if we are to believe the Ukrainians and the MSM – came back from the dead!

Colonel General Andrei Mordvichev has been appointed the new Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces.

He was the former commander of “Tsentr” (Center) forces, responsible for the conquest of Mariupol, Avdeevka, and surrounding areas.

His nomination is incredibly awkward for the Ukrainians and their cheerleaders in the MSM, who have reported that he was killed in a strike on an airfield!

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Russian-Born Harvard Scientist Detained By US Charged With Smuggling Clawed Frog Embryos

A Russian-born scientist and research associate at Harvard University has been arrested and charged with allegedly attempting to smuggle clawed frog embryos and embryonic samples into the United States, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced on May 14.

Kseniia Petrova, 31, was charged with one count of smuggling goods into the country.

If found guilty, she faces up to 20 years in prison, five years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

The charges were announced just hours after a federal judge in Vermont heard arguments in a lawsuit Petrova filed against the Trump administration alleging she has been unlawfully detained at an immigration detention center in Louisiana for months.

She was transferred out of the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to a nearby Louisiana parish jail shortly after being charged.

An initial hearing in her criminal case has been set for May 15.

Petrova, a Russian national, was first taken into immigration custody on Feb. 16 after arriving at Logan International Airport in Boston following a trip to Paris.

According to prosecutors, she was stopped by Customs and Border Protection agents after her checked duffle bag was flagged for inspection, revealing biological items including a foam box containing clawed frog embryos in microcentrifuges, as well as embryonic samples in paraffin well stages and on mounted dyed slides.

Such biological products must be declared and require a permit to be brought into the country.

Prosecutors said that Petrova initially denied carrying such material in her baggage but acknowledged she had biological specimens when asked again.

She was then advised that she was ineligible for entry to the United States, at which point prosecutors say she agreed to willingly withdraw her application for admission, prosecutors said.

The Trump administration has indicated it plans to deport her back to Russia.

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Trump envoy reveals NATO troop deployment plans for Ukraine

Washington is in talks with its European NATO allies about deploying military contingents to Ukraine as part of a possible post-conflict settlement, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Keith Kellogg, has said.

A group of European NATO member states has for months been seeking to muster a force to be deployed to Ukraine as part of a so-called “coalition of the willing,” purportedly in a post-conflict peacekeeping role. Russia has repeatedly warned it would treat any foreign troops on Ukrainian soil as legitimate targets, saying such a move could escalate the conflict.

Speaking to Fox Business on Tuesday, Kellogg said troops from France, Germany, the UK, and Poland could be part of what he described as a “resiliency force.”

“This is a force referred to as the E3, but it’s actually now the E4 – when you include the Brits, the French, and the Germans, and in fact, the Poles as well,” he said. Kellogg added the troops would be positioned west of the Dnieper River, placing them “outside the contact zone.”

“And then to the east you have a peacekeeping force, and what it would look like with a third party involved with that. So, you can actually monitor a ceasefire; we have this thing pretty well planned out,” he said.

The remarks come as preparations are underway for possible direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul. Kellogg and Steve Witkoff, another senior envoy for US President Donald Trump, are reportedly expected to attend. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday proposed conducting negotiations without preconditions in Türkiye on May 15.

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France can’t give Ukraine any more arms – Macron

France has reached the limit of its military support for Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.

In a televised interview with TF1 on Tuesday, Macron defended his administration’s handling of the Ukraine conflict, saying the French have done “the maximum we could” to help Kiev, given that the country’s military was not set up to conduct a protracted, high-intensity land war.

”We gave away everything we had,” Macron said. “But we can’t give away what we don’t have, and we can’t strip ourselves of what is necessary for our own security.” He noted that France’s approach, coordinated with those of other Western donors, aims to avoid direct confrontation with a nuclear-armed power.

France has committed more than €3.7 billion ($4.1 billion) in military assistance to Ukraine since the escalation of the conflict in February 2022, according to the Kiel Institute’s aid tracker. Macron highlighted efforts to scale up the domestic defense industry to continue supplying arms.

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Russia rejects ‘biased’ UN ruling on 2014 downing of Malaysian airliner

The Kremlin on May 13 rejected as biased a ruling by the UN aviation council that Russia was responsible for the downing of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine in 2017 that killed all 298 passengers and crew.

“Our position is well known. You know that Russia was not a country that took part in the investigation of this incident, so we do not accept any biased conclusions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, and was shot down over eastern Ukraine as fighting raged between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces.

The victims included 196 Dutch citizens and 38 Australian citizens or residents.

In November 2022, Dutch judges convicted two Russian men and a Ukrainian man in absentia of murder for their role in the attack. Moscow called the ruling “scandalous” and said it would not extradite its citizens.

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Kiev tried to intimidate foreign leaders in Moscow – Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the Ukrainian government of attempting to intimidate foreign leaders who traveled to Moscow for Victory Day celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany.

Putin criticized Kiev for escalating attacks ahead and during Russia’s unilaterally declared ceasefire period, which included numerous drone strikes on multiple regions and five attempted ground incursions into Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions. These actions, he told journalists in the early hours of Sunday, were intended not only to provoke militarily but also to pressure the foreign dignitaries in attendance.

“The Kiev authorities not only rejected our proposal for a ceasefire, but also, as we all saw, they tried to intimidate the leaders of states gathered for the celebrations in Moscow,” Putin said.

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Ukraine’s Parliament Ratifies US Minerals Deal In Hopes Of Securing Future Arms

The minerals deal is now official and legally binding for Ukraine as on Thursday Ukraine’s parliament voted in favor of ratifying the controversial resources agreement with the United States. This was a final key step in its adoption.

The Zelensky government is hoping this will more firmly secure future military assistance from Washington. The vote was unanimous: 338 Ukrainian lawmakers approved of ratifying it, and none opposed.

“The Ukrainian Parliament has ratified the historic Economic Partnership Agreement between Ukraine and the United States,” First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced on X.

“This document is not merely a legal construct — it is the foundation of a new model of interaction with a key strategic partner,” Svyrydenko added.

Critics have warned that this could be a big resource grab by the United States, but since it’s signing was accomplished in Washington last month, Trump administration rhetoric toward Kiev has softened. For example, Trump is no longer demanding that Ukraine quickly move toward holding new presidential and parliamentary elections.

Meanwhile, Moon of Alabama has highlighted that there’s still a fight on as well as confusion over some suppressed details of the deal, citing Strana, which reported (machine translation)…

The opposition already accuses the authorities of concealing the main points about the deal. The fact is that the agreement on the creation of the fund, signed last week and already made public, is being submitted for ratification, and there are very few specifics in it. This is essentially a framework agreement. For all the main points in the text of the agreement, there are references to another document – the Limited Partnership Agreement. There is also a third document – the Foundation’s charter.

A number of deputies claim that all three documents have actually been signed (or agreed upon). But they showed only one-the least important and most abstract of them, from which it is not even clear what the Foundation will do in general.

The government denies this, saying that only one document has been signed, and the rest will still be discussed.

Trump has indicated the US could just walk away from efforts to mediate peace, if neither side is a willing partner. The White House has not said whether this means it would halt arms for Ukraine’s military, or intelligence-sharing. 

But the minerals deal means the US is indeed very likely to continue arming Kiev. After all, the White House now has more of an interest in protecting US ‘investment’ now and into the future.

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Ukrainian drones target Moscow as foreign leaders arrive for Red Square parade

Attacks by Ukrainian long-range drones caused flight disruption at Moscow’s main airports for a third straight day on Wednesday as Russia prepared to receive the Chinese president and other foreign leaders for the annual Victory Day military parade in Red Square.

Russian flag carrier Aeroflot on Wednesday morning canceled more than 100 flights to and from Moscow. More than 140 Aeroflot flights also were delayed because of what officials described as the Ukrainian drone threat and amid heightened security measures around the Victory Day events.

Russian air defenses repelled an attack by nine drones close to the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in the early hours of Wednesday. In the evening, Sobyanin reported thwarting 15 more drones targeting Moscow, as flights were restricted in Moscow’s airports once again.

Though Ukrainian drones have targeted Moscow in the past, the sustained attacks appeared designed to disrupt preparations for the 80th anniversary celebrations marking victory over Nazi Germany in World War II — Russia’s biggest secular holiday of the year.

The repeated assaults could unnerve Russians, who have been told by President Vladimir Putin that the more than three-year war with Ukraine is going well, as well as potentially embarrass him in front of his illustrious guests.

Security is expected to be tight for Friday’s centerpiece parade. Foreign dignitaries, including China’s President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, arrived on Wednesday.

Russia plans a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire to coincide with the celebrations in Moscow. In March, the United States proposed a 30-day truce in the war, which Ukraine accepted, but the Kremlin has held out for ceasefire terms more to its liking.

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