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A decision has been made to create a security buffer zone along the border between Russia and Ukraine, said Russian President Vladimir Putin, APA reports. "I have already said that a decision has been made to create a necessary security buffer zone along the border. Our armed forces are now solving this task," Putin said during a meeting with members of the government.

We have been reporting on the two different mindsets in Russian society these days: on the one hand, there’s a real engagement from the Vladimir Putin Government to rebuild diplomatic and commercial ties with the US administration of Donald J. Trump – this is personalized by Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev. But on the other hand, there’s profound mistrust of Ukraine – or rather, of the Kiev regime – and a sense that maximalist goals in the war are the safest way to go. This school of thought can be best represented by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Kirill Dmitriev is...

Russian TV host Vladimir Solovyov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, recently called for Alaska's return to Russia during a recent Russian-state media program. -snip- During the recent program, Solovyov said Finland, Warsaw, the Baltics, Moldova, and Alaska should be "returned to the Russian Empire." "Do you think I'm joking when I mention Finland, Warsaw, the Baltics, Moldova? Everything returned to the Russian Empire. And Alaska too, while you're at it," Solovyov said in a translated video.

Vladimir Solovyov, media personality and ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin, recently suggested that Moscow launch a missile strike at the torch of the Statue of Liberty in New York City. Amid Moscow's ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine that Putin launched in February 2022, Solovyov has been a source of Russian propaganda. He has talked about Russia expanding its war, claiming that the country owns Ukraine and even parts of Europe like Poland and Finland.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has unilaterally moved to revise the borders of Russian territorial waters in the Baltic Sea, drafting a government decree on the expansion without even bothering to notify NATO members Finland and Lithuania. In reaction to the surprised responses of the Baltic Sea states, the Kremlin on Wednesday issued a statement that seems bound only to make matters worse. Insisting that there’s “nothing political” about the proposed border change, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in the same breath that the “political situation” has in fact “changed significantly” since the borders were drawn. “You see how tensions are...

In recent days, hundreds of thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets of their country’s capital, Tbilisi, to protest a controversial draft law being debated in the Georgian Parliament. The government, led by the Georgian Dream party, calls the draft law the “Transparency of Foreign Influence” bill. Opponents refer to it as the “Russian law” because it mirrors a Kremlin law designed to silence, stifle, and shut down political opposition. In the latest escalation overnight, Georgian police used water cannon, tear gas, and rubber bullets to break up continuing protests against the law. If passed, the law would require...

Army officers have appeared on national television in Gabon to say they have taken power. They said they were annulling the results of Saturday's election, in which President Ali Bongo was declared the winner. The electoral commission said Mr Bongo had won just under two-thirds of the votes in an election the opposition argued was fraudulent. His overthrow would end his family's 53-year hold on power in Gabon. Gabon is one of Africa's major oil producers, while nearly 90% of the country is covered by forests. It joined the Commonwealth in June 2022, becoming one of its few members not...

Russian president Vladimir Putin over the weekend celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany with a military parade on Red Square and a series of smaller events. But while standing next to German chancellor Angela Merkel, he appeared to justify the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact which the Soviet Union signed with the Nazi regime in 1939. “This pact made sense in terms of guaranteeing the Soviet Union’s security,” he said on Sunday (10 May). Putin noted that Moscow, in the 1930s, had tried to stop Nazi Germany, but felt isolated after Germany, France, and the UK signed the...

In an interview with Germany's ARD television in 2008, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Moscow recognizes all of Ukraine's borders, and that there is no issue of ethnic conflict in Crimea. His comments, delivered shortly after Russia's military intervention in the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia, stand in stark contrast with Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its support of armed separatists in eastern Ukraine. VIDEO https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-crimea-ukraine/26942862.html

Russian language transcript at the link. Go to "more" and expand the page to see this option.

Russian language transcript available at the link. Click "more" and then "Show Transcript"

Kazakhstan has significantly boosted its defence spending while seeking to strengthen ties with China and Nato nations amid anxieties that Moscow could expand its geopolitical ambitions beyond Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported, citing a Kazakh official. The ex-Soviet state is committing an additional Kazakhstani tenge (KZT) 441bn ($918mn) to its defence budget, marking a nearly 1.5-fold rise from last year’s budget of $1.7bn, the newspaper reported. Part of the money would go to increasing Kazakhstan’s military reserves, according to a the quoted senior official, who added that Kazakhstan has learned lessons from Ukraine’s fierce resistance to the...

GROZNY - Russia’s ruling party, United Russia, has maintained its substantial lead in the parliamentary elections in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya with votes from 306 of 430 polling stations counted as of 5 a.m. GMT Tuesday, the local election commission chairman said. Ismail Baikhanov said that according to preliminary results from Sunday’s poll for the 58-seat bicameral parliament, the party had already taken 60.38% of the vote, while the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was in second place with 12.05% of the vote, and the Union of Right Forces (SPS) was third with 11.14%. The other five...