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Seven government officials and 13 companies sanctioned as Biden administration says more punitive measures to be issued soonThe US has announced sanctions on seven Russian government officials and 13 Russian and European companies in response to the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which a US intelligence assessment confirmed to be the work of the FSB. Related: US refuses to say whether crown prince...

Opposition leader faces accusations over nationalist past but allies call for support to ensure his safetyThe Kremlin is taking aim at Alexei Navalny’s reputation, as the opposition leader was sent to a prison colony in Russia, a journey into a “grey zone” where supporters say he will need maximum international support to ensure his safety.For years Navalny was a phantom in Russian state media,...

In normal times, most diplomats can expect to end a foreign posting with an official – if not always fond – farewell from their hosts and a comfortable journey back to their native country.But for one group of Russian envoys and their families, the coronavirus pandemic meant there was only one way home: under their own steam on a hand-pushed rail trolley.A more conventional exit from North...

Coronavirus pandemic meant the envoys and their families had to travel home in an unconventional way In normal times, most diplomats can expect to end a foreign posting with an official – if not always fond – farewell from their hosts and a comfortable journey back to their native country.But for one group of Russian envoys and their families, the coronavirus pandemic meant there...

Rights group has been under pressure to condemn past statements by Kremlin criticAmnesty International has said it will cease calling Alexei Navalny a “prisoner of conscience”, following pressure to condemn anti-migrant statements he made in the 2000s as hate speech.Employees of Amnesty International said the organisation had received messages about Navalny’s past remarks that they felt “were part of a coordinated campaign to discredit...

Kremlin has rejected diplomacy over Alexei Navalny imprisonment, says EU foreign chief ahead of meeting Russia must be met with “united and determined” action over the imprisonment of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, has said ahead of ministerial discussions on sanctions.Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister, who was widely seen as being humiliated during a press conference...

Seven poultry workers found to be infected, but no evidence of transmission between humansA H5N8 strain of bird flu has been detected in humans for the first time, among seven workers who were infected at a Russian poultry plant in December.There is no evidence of the strain being transmitted between humans, but Russia has reported the transmission to the World Health Organization. Continue reading...

The opposition leader Alexei Navalny has appealed to Russians after a Moscow court on Saturday rejected his appeal against his prison sentence, despite the European court of human rights' order to free the Kremlin’s most prominent foe. The judge slightly reduced his sentence to just over two and a half years in prison, ruling that the month and a half Navalny spent under house...

While the UK and US strive for herd immunity, Russia and China are leveraging their Covid jabsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage“Today it is easier to get a nuclear weapon than to get a vaccine,” the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, declared in January. He was bragging. The Balkans country had just received its first shipment of almost 1m Covid-19 vaccine doses from...

Russia says it will ignore ruling, which it calls a ‘blatant and gross interference’ in its affairsThe European court of human rights has told Russia to free Alexei Navalny, prompting a new standoff between Europe and Moscow over the fate of Vladimir Putin’s staunchest critic.Russia has said it will ignore the ruling despite a requirement to comply as a member of the Council of...

Project aims to identify paleoviruses and study virus evolution using the remains, Siberian lab saysA Russian state laboratory has announced that it is launching research into prehistoric viruses by analysing the remains of animals recovered from melted permafrost.The Siberia-based Vektor lab said in a statement on Tuesday that the aim of the project was to identify paleoviruses and conduct advanced research into virus evolution....

Prosecutors call for fine as punishment for describing war veteran as a traitorRussian state prosecutors have asked for Alexei Navalny to be fined 950,000 roubles (£9,300) for slandering a second world war veteran, a charge the Kremlin critic calls politically motivated.Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, was jailed this month for almost three years for parole violations he said were trumped up. The west...

About 300 women gathered in Moscow holding a white ribbon in -13CSeveral hundred women formed human chains in Moscow and St Petersburg on Sunday, using Valentine’s Day to express support for the wife of the jailed opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, and other political prisoners.About 300 women gathered on Arbat Street in Moscow’s city centre holding a long white ribbon in temperatures of -13C. Continue...

Opposition leader accuses state of orchestrating case to damage his image among RussiansAlexei Navalny, the leading opposition figure whose jailing this month sparked protests across Russia, has been back in court to face charges of slandering a war veteran in a separate case.Navalny denies the charges and has accused the state of orchestrating the case to damage his image among the Russian public. Continue...

The Muscovite’s work is arriving in English this year in three books of remarkable memoir, poems and essays that, she explains, reach for ‘the truth of the past’Years ago, Maria Stepanova visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC to do research for a book she would end up working on for 30 years. After telling him of her plan, the museum...

Associates say departure of Yulia Navalnaya, wife of jailed opposition leader, is temporaryThe wife of the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has arrived in Germany on a flight from Moscow.Yulia Navalnaya touched down at Frankfurt am Main airport on Wednesday evening on a Lufthansa flight, German magazine Spiegel reported in its online edition. Continue reading...

President who won rigged election last August has backing of Putin and has resumed attacks on dissentNearly six months after huge street protests over a rigged presidential election were met with a ruthless, violent crackdown by his riot police, the Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko is still clinging on to power, and appears more determined than ever to prevail in his standoff with much of...

Coordinated dismissals come in response to expulsion of three EU diplomats by Moscow last weekGermany, Poland and Sweden have each expelled a Russian diplomat in a coordinated act of retaliation over the expulsion of three EU officials by Moscow while the bloc’s foreign policy chief was visiting last week.The tit-for-tat expulsions on Monday underscored the volatility in east-west relations and an erosion of trust...