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Nato has expelled eight Russian diplomats it says have been working secretly as intelligence officers. The military alliance has also halved the size of Moscow’s mission working at its Brussels headquarters to 10. It is the first time Nato has taken such action against Moscow since it expelled seven Russian diplomats from the mission in the wake of the 2018 Salisbury spy poisonings.
A Russian actor and a film director rocketed to space Tuesday on a mission to make the world’s first movie in orbit, a project the Kremlin said will help burnish the nation’s space glory. Actor Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko blasted off for the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft together with cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, a veteran of three space missions.
Russia says it has successfully launched a hypersonic Tsirkon cruise missile from a submarine for the first time. The country’s defence ministry, which originally test fired the weapon – also known as Zircon – from a warship in July, said the second test, deployed in the Barents Sea, had hit its chosen target. Tsirkon is intended to arm Russian cruisers, frigates and submarines.
Russian authorities on Monday responded to a mass shooting in the city of Perm, resulting in at least eight deaths and six injuries, The Associated Press reported. The perpetrator– who was identified as a student in reports– used a non-lethal gun, according to the Perm State University press service. Students and staff of the university locked themselves in rooms, and the university urged those who could leave the campus to do so.
Russian opposition activists accused Alphabet’s Google and Apple of caving to Kremlin pressure on Friday after the U.S. tech giants removed an anti-government tactical voting app from their stores on the first day of a parliamentary election. The app, devised by allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, gives people detailed recommendations on who to vote for in an effort to thwart the ruling United Russia party.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said dozens of people in his inner circle at the Kremlin have tested positive for coronavirus, which has affected more than 7 million people in the badly-hit country. Earlier this week, the 68-year-old Putin said he was self-isolating after announcing an outbreak among members of his entourage. According to the latest figures, the country has recorded more than 7 million cases and 195,041 deaths.
Vladimir Putin personally authorized a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents. The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present.
Nineteen bodies have been found following a plane crash in a remote area of far-eastern Russia, authorities have said. The Antonov An-26 aircraft carrying 28 people crashed on Tuesday near its destination town of Palana in the region of Kamchatka. The emergency ministry in Russia said the remains of 19 victims have been found so far, and one of them has been identified.
A plane with 28 people on board has gone missing in Russia’s Far East region, the country’s emergencies ministry has said. The Antonov An-26 plane, with 22 passengers and six crew, was flying from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the village of Palana when it missed a scheduled communication, local emergency officials said. According to the local transport ministry, it also disappeared from the radars.
A Russian military ship fired warning shots at a British Royal Navy destroyer after it entered Russian waters in the Black Sea, and a Russian jet dropped bombs in its path as a warning, Interfax cited Russia’s defense ministry as saying on Wednesday. The HMS Defender left Russian waters soon after the incident, having ventured as much as 3 kilometers (2 miles) inside.