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Vladimir Putin's annual end-of-year press conference was thrown into disarray after messages embarassing the Russian President appeared on screen. The 71-year-old was told to "quit" in multiple messages which apearred on giant screens behind him, while he was also accused of not living the same "reality" as the rest of the country. And in another bizarre turn during the event, an AI video of Putin even asked the President whether he used body-doubles to go about his duties. In total about two million questions were submitted for answering, according to state media. The annual press conference gives Russian journalist and...

Some Moscow residents claim egg prices have doubled, as Russia continues to battle persistent inflation and Western sanctions. Surging egg prices, against a backdrop of high inflation and economic sanctions, are worrying the Russian authorities, especially as eggs are a symbolic and central ingredient of the festive season. -snip- In November, the average price of eggs in Russia rose by 40.29% year-on-year, according to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat). Muscovite consumers report even steeper rises. "Before, I used to buy eggs for 70 roubles a dozen. Now they cost between 130 and 140 roubles - twice as much,"...

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a rare apology on Thursday when a pensioner complained to him about the price of eggs. During Putin's end-of-year question and answer session with the media and with members of the public calling in from across Russia, pensioner Irina Akopova was shown seated at her kitchen table and addressing the president by video link. She complained that prices for eggs, chicken breasts and wings had all skyrocketed. "Vladimir Vladimirovich, take pity on pensioners! We don't get millions in our pensions. Sort this out - we have no one to turn to," she said. "I'm very...

Vladimir Putin was caught off guard today during his marathon end of year press conference when he looked up to the big screen expecting to see a Russian citizen phoning in - and instead came face to face with an AI deepfake of himself. A student from Saint Petersburg State University had constructed the visual and audio likeness of the Russian President, and took the opportunity to ask the real Putin to share his thoughts on the dangers of AI and if he uses body doubles. 'Vladimir Vladimirovich, hello... I would like to ask you, is it true that you...

Vladimir Putin found himself facing unexpected challenges at his annual end-of-year press conference, as questions about the perceived "reality" of Russia were prominently displayed on screens throughout the venue. -snip- Among the displayed messages challenging the official narrative, one boldly questioned Putin's version of "reality" compared to the daily experiences of ordinary citizens: "Why is your 'reality' at odds with our lived reality?" Another message highlighted the escalating grocery prices in Russia, saying: "Cucumbers cost 900 roubles per kilo, tomatoes 950 roubles. It costs me 1,500 roubles to make a salad. I won't even mention fruit. Make the prices normal!"...

Vladimir Putin faced humiliation today during he end-of-year press conference when questions about the 'reality' of Russia were displayed on screens. -snip- 'Why is your "reality" at odds with our lived reality?' one message displayed on the screens around the room asked the Russian president. disappeared says she 'seemed calm' but her behaviour was 'a bit off' - as search enters sixth day Another query said: 'When will the real Russia be the same as the one on TV?', and another, albeit politely, questioned: 'Hello. When will it be possible to move to the Russia which they tell us about...

Russia’s foreign minister on Wednesday said Moscow cannot recognize Israel’s methods against the Palestinian group Hamas as "acceptable." -snip- “Neighborhoods are being razed to the ground, more than 18,000 civilians have already died, this figure is increasing every day, two-thirds of them are women and children. The situation is terrible," Lavrov said. His remarks come days after a conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Vladimir Putin, in which the former criticized the cooperation between Russia and Iran, and expressed his dissatisfaction with the positions taken “against Israel by Russian representatives at the UN and in other forums.”

The Kremlin is unable to track individual prisoners, a spokesperson said. The Kremlin has claimed it does not know where the Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny is currently held and it has no intention of looking into his status. -snip- Navalny's team on Monday said he had disappeared from the prison camp where he is held and accused authorities of refusing to say where he had been moved. Peskov on Tuesday claimed the Kremlin is unable to track individual prisoners. "We have neither the intention nor the ability to track the fate of prisoners and the process of their stay...

President Vladimir Putin will hold his annual press conference and field questions from the public on Dec. 14 -snip- "On the 14th December, Vladimir Putin will sum up the results of the year," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "It will be a programme, a project of the TV channels as before, and it will be a combined format of the Direct Line (live question and answer session with the public) and the President's end of year press conference," said Peskov. -snip- Only Josef Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953, has been in...

This is the moment Vladimir Putin warns that Ukraine 'has no future' while sipping champagne at a Kremlin awards ceremony for troops as fears are growing that Western support for Kyiv is fading. In footage posted to X, the Russian president assured attendees Russia's defence plans were 'working more and more competently', with the country's arms industry allegedly producing 'several times more'. He claimed that meanwhile Ukraine was running out of weapons. 'They don't have their own foundations,' Putin added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin bizarrely refused to stand within 70ft of Britain's new ambassador to Moscow at a diplomatic ceremony yesterday - blaming 'sanitary reasons'. In awkward scenes that resembled the height of the Covid pandemic, Putin insisted on keeping a huge distance between himself and other diplomats at the Kremlin event which saw him accept the diplomatic credentials of several new ambassadors to Russia, including Britain's new man in Moscow Nigel Casey.

Russia's upper house of parliament will on Dec. 13 officially announce the date of the March presidential election, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said on Tuesday - a step that marks the start of overt campaigning. According to Russian law, the upper house of parliament must announce the exact date at least 100 days before the vote. Election day is widely assumed to be March 17. President Vladimir Putin has not yet said whether he plans to run again

Fierce storms killed three people on the Russian and Crimean Black Sea coast on Monday, with hundreds evacuated. -snip- Video published online showed large waves sweeping over the seafront in Sochi, and carrying away cars. In the Crimean town of Yevpatoriya, streets were flooded. The Russian-installed governors of Crimea and Sevastopol, both of which Moscow seized and unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, declared states of emergency. And the Energy Ministry said bad weather had left about 1.9 million people without electricity on Monday morning in the southern Russian regions of Dagestan, Krasnodar and Rostov, as well as Crimea and...

Russia has launched its biggest drone attack on Kyiv since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began last year, the city's mayor has said. Residents were woken by explosions before dawn on Saturday, and for more than six hours, the booms of Kyiv's air defences echoed through the city. There was wave after wave of attacks from the north and east. Officials said that more than 75 Iranian-made Shahed drones were fired at the capital, and 74 were shot down. With Russia's dwindling missile stocks, Shahed drones are seen as a cheap alternative. They are slower than ballistic missiles and have...

Vladimir Putin will test the world's largest ballistic missile by flying it over the South Pole, a shocking report by state media has revealed before being rapidly censored. The Russian dictator is determined to flex his nuclear muscle to the West and will put his first regiment to be armed with the apocalypse 208-ton intercontinental nuclear weapon - the RS-28 Sarmat, aka 'Satan 2' - on 'combat duty' next month. This is despite an astonishing admission that the 'unstoppable' 15,880mph doomsday missile - as tall as a 14-storey tower block - is not properly tested. Putin's own state news agency...

The Kremlin said on Monday it deeply regretted Finland's decision to shut crossings on its border with Russia, a move it said reflected Helsinki's adoption of an anti-Russian stance. Finland, a member of the European Union and - starting this year - also of the NATO military alliance, closed four crossings on its border with Russia on Saturday as it seeks to halt a flow of asylum seekers it says was instigated by Moscow. The border crossings it closed were by far the busiest crossing points. -snip- Russia's foreign ministry said later on Monday it had lodged a formal protest...

Pro-war Russian nationalist Igor Girkin, who is in custody awaiting trial for inciting extremism, said on Sunday he wanted to run for president even though he understood the March election would be "sham" with the winner already clear. Girkin, who is also known by the alias Igor Strelkov, has repeatedly said Russia faces revolution and even civil war unless President Vladimir Putin's military top brass fight the war in Ukraine more effectively. A former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who helped Russia to annex Crimea in 2014 and then to organise pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine, Girkin said before his...

An outspoken pro-war blogger who has fiercely criticised Russia's military strategy in Ukraine has said he wants to challenge Vladimir Putin in next March's presidential elections. Igor Girkin, 52, led pro-Russian fighters in eastern Ukraine in 2014, following Moscow's annexation of the southern Crimea peninsula. Girkin is in jail awaiting trial for extremism, which he denies. He said he wanted to disrupt the "sham" poll with the winner already known. This comment is widely seen in Russia as a reference to President Putin, who is yet to publicly declare that he will run again. In a letter to supporters published...

The families of Russian men drafted under President Vladimir Putin's partial mobilization last year have planned mass protests demanding their return home, amid reports that soldiers are being prohibited from leaving the military. The soldiers' relatives published a manifesto on the Telegram channel The Way Home on November 12 demanding that their men be allowed home, and inviting Russians nationwide to participate in rallies on November 19. Since 2014, protesters in Russia have faced punishment for holding demonstrations without the permission of the authorities. The RAND Corporation, an American think tank and research institute, said in a report in June...

The successor of sitting Russian President Vladimir Putin will be very similar to him politically, the Kremlin suggests. -snip- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a university student-run channel operated by the Moscow State Institute of International Relations that Putin's eventual successor will be "the same. Or different, but the same," according to the Moscow Times. -snip- Peskov told news outlets in October that there is no competition against Putin ahead of the next presidential election next year. "We have repeatedly said that President Putin is undoubtedly the number-one politician and statesman in our country," said Peskov. "In my personal opinion...