Russia

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov regularly voices support for Russia’s war against Ukraine, but Chechnya’s authorities do not actually share the Kremlin’s interests in that war, The Economist reports.

On July 29, Russia’s Central Election Commission registered the liberal party Yabloko for elections to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. On August 7, however, another party, Rodina, filed suit at Russia’s Supreme Court demanding that the decision be overturned. Rodina said Yabloko had repeatedly violated copyright in its campaign […]

On August 10, Russia’s Supreme Court barred Yabloko — the only party in the race campaigning for peace with Ukraine — from the State Duma elections. The formal pretext was a lawsuit from the Rodina party, which accused Yabloko of numerous violations of election law: copyright infringement, incitement to extremism, and “gray-area” […]

Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, threatened Elon Musk that Poland would stop paying for the American billionaire’s Starlink satellite service to Ukraine unless Poland is restored to the European communications region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in Belgrade on August 8. The visit, and Zelensky’s remarks about Kosovo during it, caused an uproar that is still being felt days later, Politico reported on August 12.

Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 1.3% in the second quarter of 2026 compared with the same period last year, according to preliminary data published by Russia’s official statistics agency, Rosstat, on August 12.

Russia has released Robert Gilman, a 32-year-old American whom a court had sentenced to 10 years in a penal colony. Gilman was detained in Voronezh in January 2022. According to the Russian authorities, he kicked a police officer in the leg after being pulled off a train for causing a drunken disturbance. The court first gave him four and […]

The writer and screenwriter Pavel Tetersky has left Russia, his lawyer, Oskar Cherdzhiev, said on Telegram on August 12. Mediazona, an independent Russian news outlet, drew attention to the post.

Organizers have canceled “Dronnitsa,” the all-Russian gathering of combat drone operators that had been scheduled for August 29–30 in Veliky Novgorod, about 100 kilometers (75 miles) from Vladimir Putin’s residence.

Ukrainian drones damaged two grain terminals at the port of Novorossiysk overnight, the Russian business daily Vedomosti and Reuters reported.

In Russia’s Tyumen region, authorities in several villages of the Golyshmanovsky district have begun seizing pigs from farmers and killing the animals, citing an unidentified disease.

Inside Russia, loneliness has become one of the war’s less visible but pervasive consequences. Many people are afraid to interact with others, because even an innocent conversation about peace could cost them their freedom — and so they remain alone with their pain. Others have lost interest in public life, seeing little opportunity to make […]

The Russian Defense Ministry has shined the spotlight on a female drone pilot whose unit played a key role in a recent battle Read Full Article at RT.com

Long before the Soviet air force, Imperial Russia fought a brutal and largely forgotten war in the skies of WW1 Read Full Article at RT.com

Vladimir Zelensky’s long-range strikes provoked a fierce Russian retaliation, and an interceptor shortage has left Ukraine defenseless Read Full Article at RT.com

Demand among Russian commercial companies for drone defense equipment jumped 6.6-fold in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year, reaching 441.3 million rubles, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported, citing analysts from Tenderplan, a tender-tracking platform.

Russia has issued the largest non-dollar stablecoin via its A7 cross-border payment system, PSB ban chairman Pyotr Fradkov has said Read Full Article at RT.com

In early August, judging by reports from the regions, a new wave of the fuel crisis hit Russia following Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries. Residents of various regions, from the south to the Far East, report lines at gas stations. Limits on how much fuel a person can buy at a time have returned in Orenburg Region and Sochi. The Sochi city […]

At the Karelia Zoo, a white-tailed eagle listed in Russia’s Red Book of endangered species has died, months after it was found in June with a gunshot wound near Smolensk. Wildlife rescuers said obtaining the documents needed from authorities to treat the bird took 50 days. A post on the zoo’s social media on August 9 said:

Russia needs to set up own payment framework that will be domestic in origin, but international in function, the PSB bank chairman has said Read Full Article at RT.com

Romania is attempting to prove that drones falling on its territory are Russian by showing “pieces of foam plastic,” Moscow has said Read Full Article at RT.com

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would respond in kind to the seizure of Russian vessels by European Union countries, speaking during a visit to Pacific Fleet exercises in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

Cross-border payments are increasingly relying on sovereign financial infrastructure to avoid foreign pressure, PSB’s Pyotr Fradkov says Read Full Article at RT.com

Moscow is mulling tit-for-tat retaliation to Western seizures of trade ships with Russian cargo, President Vladimir Putin has warned Read Full Article at RT.com

Yandex Pay has disappeared from the App Store, the company announced.

The Russian Aerospace Force marks its 11th anniversary as a formidable multidomain force Read Full Article at RT.com

Russia has received its first shipment of gasoline from India, the Bloomberg news agency reported, citing data from the Kpler service.

Advertising activity on Wildberries has “noticeably declined” following Ukrainian drone attacks on the marketplace’s warehouses, sources at major advertising agencies told the Russian business daily Kommersant.

Ukrainian drones attacked Russia’s Krasnodar Krai in the early hours of August 12, with “several hundred” of them targeting Novorossiysk, Anapa, Gelendzhik, and the Temryuk District, according to Governor Veniamin Kondratyev.

Two people were killed and a dozen others wounded in a Ukrainian drone raid on Krasnodar Region, the local governor has said Read Full Article at RT.com