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In a landmark case highlighting a deepening purge within Russia's defense and security establishment, a court in Moscow sentenced former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov to 13 years in prison. The Moscow City Court on July 1 found Ivanov, the most visible figure in a massive probe into alleged military corruption that also targeted several other top officials close to former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, guilty of large-scale embezzlement and money laundering. In addition to the prison sentence, Ivanov was fined 100 million rubles ($1.1 million), and stripped of his state honors, including the prestigious Order "For Merit to the...

Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, traveled to Pyongyang on Tuesday under the direct orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, signaling a deepening of strategic military cooperation between North Korea and Russia. The visit, Shoigu's second in less than two weeks and third meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in just three months, comes as Moscow seeks to draw Pyongyang closer in its protracted war effort in Ukraine. Observers say the visit suggests a bid by Russia to leverage shifting global attention — particularly the West’s growing preoccupation with escalating tensions between Israel and Iran — to secure...

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday sacked Russia's chief of land forces, General Oleg Salyukov, the Kremlin said, in the latest removal of a high-profile military establishment figure amid the war in Ukraine. Salyukov, 70, will become a deputy to ex-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was removed last year and made Secretary of the Security Council. The move was announced in a Kremlin decree. Less than a week ago, Salyukov was running the grand Victory Day military parade in Red Square with current Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. Russian law enforcement has charged...

Vladimir Putin’s top security official has vanished during efforts to end the war in Ukraine, amid swirling health rumours and claims he could be caught up in a corruption probe. Sergei Shoigu, 69, is a Russian army general and currently the secretary of the powerful Russian Security Council. He served as defence minister for most of the war in Ukraine before being replaced one year ago, and is a very well-known member of Putin's entourage. Speculation is swirling in Moscow after he missed the Red Square parade on Friday amid claims his absence was health-related. But an explanation that he...

January 21, 2022 With inflation at a record high, millions of its citizens fleeing the country, and a political opposition recognized by most Western democracies as the legitimate government of Venezuela, the regime of Nicolás Maduro seemed to be on the brink of collapse in 2019. But Maduro regime survived, thanks to a number of factors — among them the external support it received from malign state actors such as Russia and China. Moscow and Beijing never wavered in their political support of the Venezuelan regime, or of Maduro himself, including by refusing to recognize the constitutionally mandated interim presidency...

Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that the United States should pay for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, which is now ruled by the fanatical Islamists of the Taliban as a human rights nightmare. “We discussed further cooperation across all areas. This includes economic issues, as well as detailed discussions on transportation. We addressed everything related to trade and discussed a major energy deal, all of which have promising prospects,” Shoigu said after a meeting with Taliban leaders in Kabul. “The topic of the United States was also raised, as it continues to plunder everything and everyone with...

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Sergei Shoigu, Secretary of the Russian National Security Council, has arrived in Kabul at the head of a high-level delegation for talks with senior Taliban officials. This marks the highest-ranking Russian delegation to visit Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.

Dozens of systems used by government bodies and IT companies in Russia have reportedly become the targets of Chinese hackers. Moscow-based cybersecurity provider Kaspersky Lab, revealed that the backdoor malware used to gain access to the systems was "GrewApacha," a Trojan used since at least 2021 by the Chinese cyber-espionage group known as APT31 (Advanced Peristent Threat 31). APT31 is believed to have ties to China's civilian spy agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS). Earlier this year, the United States Justice department indicted several Chinese nationals and one company for allegedly carrying out APT31 operations. "During these attacks, attackers...

The last few weeks have arguably been a period of change for the war in Ukraine, both on and off the battlefield. In Moscow, long serving Defence Minister Shoigu has been removed from that post, while a number of Russian Generals and senior figures have been arrested or otherwise removed. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Russia has escalated the previously quiet Kharkiv front, edging slightly closer to Ukraine's second city. In this episode, I want to unpack some of the current political and economic context and ask what may be next for a Russia war effort that is now 'under new management'

Follow along using the transcript. Show transcript

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia's defense minister reshuffle was a further indication of Russian President Vladimir Putin's "desperation to sustain" his invasion of Ukraine, U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Monday. Putin tapped a civilian economist as his surprise new defense minister on Sunday in an attempt to gird Russia for economic war by trying to better utilize the defense budget and harness greater innovation to win in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin tapped a civilian economist as his surprise new defence minister on Sunday in an attempt to gird Russia for economic war by trying to better utilise the defence budget and harness greater innovation to win in Ukraine. -snip Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the change made sense because Russia was approaching a situation like the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, when the military and law enforcement authorities accounted for 7.4% of gross domestic product (GDP). That, said Peskov, meant it was vital to ensure such spending aligned with and was better integrated into the country's overall...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in a Cabinet shakeup that comes as he begins his fifth term in office. In line with Russian law, the entire Russian Cabinet resigned Tuesday following Putin’s glittering inauguration in the Kremlin, and most members have been widely expected to keep their jobs, while Shoigu's fate had appeared uncertain. Putin signed a decree on Sunday appointing Shoigu as secretary of Russia's Security Council, the Kremlin said. The appointment was announced shortly after Putin proposed Andrei Belousov to become the country’s defense minister in place of Shoigu. The announcement...

Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov is siting in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, and that spells trouble for his boss Sergei Shoigu. -snip- In his latest job overseeing military construction, Ivanov was in charge of some of Russia’s most prestigious projects, including a giant military-themed cathedral and patriotic theme park on the outskirts of Moscow and, more recently, reconstruction work in the ruined city of Mariupol in occupied Ukraine. His access to astronomic funds earned him the nickname “Shoigu’s wallet.” Rather than hide his wealth, Ivanov flaunted it. For years, tabloids and independent journalists documented his love for women, opulent real estate,...

US Central Command reports destruction of seven drones. drone boats or ballistic missiles in and around... A federal judge in the US ruling that Google illegally monopolizes online searches... US military personnel hurt in a rocket attack on a US military base in Iraq...five military members hurt one seriously... Rioting on the Dutch island of St. Martin in the Carribean. A Dutch soldier hurt... Russian security official Sergei Shoigu visiting Iran amid tensions... Military forces from the US and Romania in the nation of Moldova.... Tonight video said to be of armed mobs of Muslims roaming the streets of Plymouth,...

Lt-Gen Yuri Kuznetsov was arrested "on suspicion of criminal activity" just after Putin dismissed his Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. A RUSSIAN general was dragged out of his bed at 5am to be taken into detention facing "criminal charges over state secrets" in Vladimir Putin's latest purge. Lt-Gen Yuri Kuznetsov, 55, was arrested by heavily armed cops in balaclavas who smashed their way into his home using crowbars. The top MoD official was reportedly “dragged out of bed and taken away for interrogation”. The arrest of the military chief comes a day after Vladimir Putin oversaw major changes in Russia's defence,...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed replacing his defence minister and long-term ally, Sergei Shoigu, more than two years into the Ukraine war, the upper house of parliament said on Sunday. Putin proposed Andrei Belousov, former deputy prime minister, as the new defence minister.

Russia needs to up the number and quality of its weapons heading for Ukraine to maintain Moscow's push on Ukraine's defensive lines, Russia's top defense official has said, ahead of a likely summer offensive expected to start in the coming weeks. "To maintain the required pace of the offensive and ensure the build-up of the combat strength of troop groups for further actions, it is necessary to increase the volume and quality of weapons and military equipment supplied to the troops," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said, according to comments published by Moscow on Wednesday.

UKRAINE has blitzed another major Russian oil refinery in a kamikaze drone strike, the explosions sparking a huge inferno near Moscow. Dramatic video from the scene showed flames raging from the Rosneft energy giant facility in the city of Ryazan on Wednesday. Residents of Ryazan, located 125 miles southeast of Moscow, were said to have heard the rumble of drones about 3am. Two explosions followed the sound, triggering the inferno. The attack came after another Ukrainian strike on two oil refineries in Krasnodar region -snip- Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu demanded more "means of destruction" as Western supplies...

The Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin has said Russia’s defence ministry concocted false pretences to trick Vladimir Putin into invading Ukraine and said Moscow could have avoided the war entirely. In a half-hour tirade Prigozhin, founder of the notorious Wagner mercenary group, claimed Russia had faced no immediate threat from Ukraine when Putin began his full-scale invasion last year and accused the army’s top brass of deceiving the Russian president for their own personal gain. The extraordinary rant, posted on social media on Friday, was the former caterer’s latest salvo in a long-running spat with defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who Prigozhin...