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Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has reportedly kicked the Wagner PMC out of Belarus, after refusing to finance the Russian mercenaries. (snip) But reports have now emerged suggesting Lukashenko has refused to finance their stay in the country and the mercenaries are being 'bussed' back to Russia for a “vacation.” According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, operations to remove all Wagner Group men began earlier in the month, with a second phase to remove the rest going into effect this weekend. Wagner’s services don’t come cheap. Putin recently admitted that the Kremlin has spent around $1bn on the private military company...

Vladimir Putin has accused the West of "outright satanism" during a 37-minute tirade at a ceremony announcing the annexation of four Ukrainian territories. The Russian President and leaders of the four regions signed treaties to annex Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia - a move that has been dismissed as a "sham" by Ukraine and Western nations.During the 37-minute speech Putin said the West had no right to speak of democracy and that Western nations were acting like the imperialist states they had "always been"."The dictatorship of the Western elites is directed against all societies, including the peoples of the Western...

A nephew of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has been appointed the new head of Russia's Danone subsidiary (DANO.PA) after the Kremlin ordered the state to take temporary control of the French yoghurt maker's business in Russia. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, many Western companies have fled Russia and some assets have been put under state management, with close allies of President Vladimir Putin gaining day-to-day control. Many investors say a new generation of tycoons is being created in Russia. Loyalty to the Kremlin is rewarded with effective control over assets that garner significant cash-flow and have major growth potential.

A leading Russian investigative journalist has been brutally attacked on a working trip to Chechnya - a republic of Russia governed by close Vladimir Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov who had previously described the reporter as a 'terrorist'. Elena Milashina, 45, and lawyer Alexander Nemov - who was also savagely beaten - were stopped by armed and masked men as they arrived in the regional capital Grozny to attend a court case linked to human right abuses. The pair received death threats and had guns pointed at their heads, according to reports, while Milashina's head was shaved and her fingers broken...

VLADIMIR Putin's warlord Ramzan Kadyrov today admitted he "might not live long" as he appeared bloated in a bizarre video. The Chechen brute - one of Putin's closest allies - posted the footage to "prove he is still alive". The 46-year-old bearded strongman was hit by a swirl of rumours over the weekend that he was close to death from kidney or liver problems. His discoloured right hand in the video suggests he has undergone recent medical treatment, according to reports. In the footage, Kadyrov is seen with Russian MP Adam Delimkhanov - who was reported to have been killed...

A Russian commander who fought against Ukraine since the war's inception has been killed in action in the Donbas region. Yevgeny Pisarenko, commander of the Chechen armed formation known as Akhmat, was pronounced dead on Monday by two fellow soldiers. He went by the nickname "Big," which also translates to "The Great" in a Russian context. "Thanks to the parents who raised such a Hero...A BIG man with a BIG heart!" Akhmat unit commander Apta Alaudinov wrote on Telegram

In the wake of the failed rebellion in Russia, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is positioning himself as a warlord ready to go into battle for Vladimir Putin. But unlike the paramilitary Wagner group, which Moscow is now seeking to disband, Chechen special forces have earned a reputation as “TikTok fighters” more concerned with their social media appearance than battlefield successes. Following rival warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny, Kadyrov has sought to emphasise his continuing close ties to Putin, posting a selfie with the Russian president on his Telegram channel on Wednesday and bragging about their meeting the day before. Yet the...

Palestine | Special Dispatch No. 10669 Samir Zaqout, the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's Political Bureau in Gaza, said in a June 8, 2023 show on Al-Quds Al-Youm TV (Palestinian Islamic Jihad - Gaza) the Muslims will conquer Rome and Europe as the .. Muhammad foretold in the Hadith." He said that this will happen "at its destined time."

Yevgeny Prigozhin's paramilitary outfit the Wagner Group leaked the location of Adam Delimkhanov, a lawmaker and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was reportedly wounded in Ukraine, according to a Russian Army lieutenant colonel. Lieutenant Colonel Roman Venevitin, who was recently captured and held briefly by members of Wagner Group before being released to "Russian law enforcement," made the claim in a post on the Venevitin_72 Telegram channel. The "Prigozhinites" handed over to Kyiv the coordinates of Delimkhanov—the right-hand man to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, he said. The accusations come as tensions between the Wagner boss and Russia's military...

The speaker of Russia's parliament said a senior Chechen commander was alive and well on Wednesday, following reports he had been killed or wounded in Ukraine. The commander, Adam Delimkhanov, is a member of parliament as well as heading the Chechen division of the Russian national guard. He is widely seen as the Caucasian region's second most senior official after its leader Ramzan Kadyrov. "I've just spoken to him. He's alive and well. Not only that, but he wishes you all good health," Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Duma, told lawmakers.

A senior commander of Russia’s Chechen forces fighting in Ukraine has been wounded, Russia’s Defense Ministry television channel Zvezda reported on Wednesday, citing the press service of the State Duma lower house of parliament. Adam Delimkhanov, who is a member of the Duma as well as commander of the Chechen division of the Russian national guard, is widely seen as the Caucasian region’s second most senior official, behind Ramzan Kadyrov. In a message posted on Telegram, Kadyrov wrote that he could not contact Delimkhanov, and asked for help finding his “dear brother.” -snip- Ukrainian media had, earlier on Wednesday, reported...

Russia appears to have moved to take direct control of Wagner, after months of infighting between defence officials and the private military group. Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Pankov said on Saturday "volunteer formations" will be asked to sign contracts directly with the ministry of defence. The vaguely worded statement is widely believed to target the group. But in a furious statement on Sunday, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said his forces would boycott the contracts. The private military group has played a major role in the war in Ukraine, fighting on the side of Russian forces. But Prigozhin, who is said...

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has mocked the battlefield achievements of the Wagner Group chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, as a dispute between the two key figures in Russia's full-scale invasion continues to ramp up. -snip- The Chechen leader then said that despite the phone call, Prigozhin had again made "an ironic statement" that Chechen fighters could only liberate a few settlements and not the DPR as a whole. But Kadyrov said his troops had "liberated" 36 settlements, including Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, and the city center of Popasna in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic. He also said that Mariupol, the city Russia seized...

amzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen Republic, offered on Sunday to send military forces from his country to help Russian President Vladimir Putin ward off attacks in the Belgorod region. Belgorod has been the site of numerous attacks in recent weeks. The region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, and other Russian officials have blamed the attacks on Ukraine, but Kyiv has denied responsibility while two anti-Putin paramilitary groups—the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom for Russia Legion—have claimed credit for them. Though Belgorod has experienced brief conflicts since Putin ordered his invasion of Ukraine more than 15 months ago, the recent...

Ukrainian forces have advanced on Bakhmut, Kyiv's deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said, describing the embattled city as the 'epicentre of hostilities'. Ms Maliar said Kyiv's troops had 'some success' on the battlefield surrounding Bakhmut and they are 'advancing on a wide front', but she dismissed suggestions of a major operation. 'The main focus now is on the Bakhmut sector,' she said. 'This has resulted in certain successes, including advances. We have taken control of certain heights.' -snip- News of the Ukrainian advances came after the head of Russia's feared paramilitary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, slammed claims by the Russian...

Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that Kremlin factions were destroying the state by trying to sow discord between him and Chechen fighters. -snip- Putin held a Security Council meeting of Friday about what he said were “interethnic” relations inside the country. Prigozhin said Chechen remarks made about him sounded like something out of the early 1990s when conflicts gripped Russian cities after the collapse of the Soviet Union. “Clearly the statements made were rather provocative, aimed at hurting me and freaking me out,” Prigozhin said. Prigozhin also said any battle between Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s Akhmat special...

A feud between two of Russian President Vladimir Putin's top allies—Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov—has spilled out into the open. Adam Delimkhanov, a close ally of Kadyrov, attacked Prigozhin on his Telegram channel after the Wagner Group boss suggested the Chechen Akhmat battalion likely lacks the capability to occupy the self-proclaimed "Donetsk Republic" region of Ukraine. -snip- "If you don't understand, then you can contact us and tell us the place and the time. We will explain to you what you don't understand," Delimkhanov said. "You have become a blogger who screams and shouts off...

One of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's close allies on Thursday publicly criticised Russia's most prominent mercenary, casting Yevgeny Prigozhin as a blogger who yells all the time about problems, drawing a stern rebuke from a top Wagner fighter. Addressing Prigozhin in a video message using the diminutive of "Zhenya" and the familiar Russian form of you ("ty"), Adam Delimkhanov, a close ally of Kadyrov, told Prigozhin: "If you don't understand, then you can contact us and tell us the place and the time, I we will explain to you what you don't understand," Delimkhanov said of Prigozhin. "You have become...

Japan was the first country to break its silence after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. Tokyo said of the Kuril Islands that it was “completely unacceptable that the Northern Territories have yet to be returned since the Soviet Union’s illegal occupation of them 77 years ago”. That annexation saw the expulsion of Japanese people from the southern islands, and since then, the countries have failed to reach a compromise. Talks broke down when Putin showed he was not willing to share lands but only to gain new ones. Then China started drawing maps marking part of Siberia and...

Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov has blasted Vladimir Putin's war tactics for not being 'brutal' enough amid his invasion of Ukraine and demanded that Russia declare martial law. The strongman, previously seen as a close Kremlin ally, said the drone onslaught on Moscow this week showed a tougher response is needed from Russia's military that would see the war taken to NATO countries. 'Responses to such attempts to attack should not be harsh - they should be brutal,' Kadyrov said. 'In my opinion, it is necessary to declare martial law in Russia, to use all the combat resources intended for this,...