Contents tagged with Kremlin

  • Russia expels 10 U.S. diplomats

    The Russian Foreign Ministry reported that it handed a note to the Deputy Chief of the U.S Diplomatic Mission, Bart Gorman, declaring persona non grata 10 employees of the U.S. diplomatic mission, whose expulsion was announced last week.

    "On April 21, Bart Gorman, deputy head of the U.S. diplomatic mission in the Russian Federation, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, and was presented with a note declaring 10 employees of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow persona non grata. These persons …

  • Kremlin: Russia prepares to part ways with Visa and Mastercard

    Russia is "hedging its risks" in the event of a disconnection from international payment systems, including Visa and Mastercard, said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

    According to him, such a scenario "cannot be ruled out" given the "unfriendly and sometimes even hostile behavior" of Western countries.

    "Restrictions on Russia are used by a number of countries that as such an illegal from the international law point of view deterrent for Russia," Peskov said.

    He added that the …

  • Russia prepares for yet another round of ‘terrible sanctions’

    The U.S. has reached out to Russia in connection with the situation in southeastern Ukraine, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

    The contacts took place "at a high level" and the U.S. side "expressed concern” about “Moscow’s actions”, Ryabkov said.

    The Pentagon estimated that 4,000 troops and equipment were transferred to the border with Ukraine.

    "We are carrying out on our territory, on Russian territory, those steps that we consider necessary," Ryabkov reiterated the …

  • Russian government websites inaccessible after Kremlin attempts to slow down traffic to Twitter

    From March 10, the speed of the internet traffic to Twitter will be slowed down for Russian users, announced the Russian media watchdog, Roskomnadzor. According to Roskomnadzor the "slowdown in the speed of service" was a measure intended to force Twitter to comply with Russian law and protect Russians from "influence of illegal content."

    In the first stage, access to Twitter will be slowed down from half of computers in Russia and from all mobile devices. Roskomnadzor threatened that if …

  • Kremlin: Russia prepares for new U.S. ‘radical sanctions’

    The Kremlin considers the possibility that the U.S. could impose new sanctions against Russia, said Russian Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov at a press briefing.

    "We understand that the second part of sanctions will be announced by Washington based on the mechanisms in place," Peskov said.

    Peskov stressed that, although the possible radical sanctions have only been reported by the media, Moscow is still "working out different scenarios on how to better protect the interests of the …

  • Kremlin: Russia is ready to sever relations with the EU due to sanctions

    It is possible that Russia would sever relations with the European Union if it imposes sanctions which would hurt the Russian economy, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an interview with the talk show “Solovyov LIVE”.

    "We believe that we are ready. If we see again, as we have already felt more than once, that in some areas sanctions are imposed, which create risks for our economy, including in the most sensitive areas...," he said.

    Lavrov specified that the Kremlin does not want …

  • Kremlin: European Union’s plan to stage ‘public flogging’ of Russia failed

    The purpose of the visit of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrel, to Moscow was to stage a "public flogging" of Russia, said Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Maria Zakharova, RIA Novosti reports.

    In her opinion, the leadership of the European Union planned such a scenario for Borrell's visit in advance, but it did not work.

    "I will tell you a secret about our Western partners: when they do not succeed in flogging, they start to tantrum. …

  • Kremlin gives Russian special services full access to users' cellular geolocation data

    The Russian Ministry of Digital Development has prepared amendments to the Communications Act, which will allow the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Federal Protective Service (FSO) to obtain data on the location of users' mobile devices from telecom operators without a court decision.

    The text of the document was published by the telegram channel OrderCom and later confirmed by the news website Kommersant.

    The Ministry of Digital Development stated that the …

  • Russian consulate in New York left without any telephone connection

    The Russian consulate in New York has no telephone connection.

    Since January 18, the U.S. side has disconnected all city telephone lines in the diplomatic mission building, RIA Novosti reports citing Russian diplomats. The Americans explain the issue by technical problems, but the consulate finds it hard to believe it.

    "Allegedly, they cannot solve the issue for 2 days," one of the diplomats told RIA Novosti. He added that the outage was "unprecedented."

    "The Russian diaspora has huge …

  • Kremlin promises to detain Navalny on his return to Russia

    The Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) in Moscow confirmed the intention to detain Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny after his return from Germany, where he was recovering from severe poisoning.

    Navalny has been in Germany since August 2020, where he was undergoing treatment and recovery after he was poisoned on a plane flying from Tomsk to Moscow.

    An examination carried out in Berlin showed that Navalny was poisoned with a substance belonging to Novichok nerve agents. …