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Russians lined up to purchase U.S. dollars after the Moscow Exchange enforced an immediate suspension of trading in dollars and euros in response to fresh U.S. sanctions, a video circulating on social media appears to show. Russia's central bank said Wednesday that exchange trading and settlements of deliverable instruments in U.S. dollars and euros were suspended effective June 13 "due to the introduction of restrictive measures by the United States against the Moscow Exchange Group." It added that over-the-counter trading data would be used to set official exchange rates for the currencies.

New U.S. sanctions against Russia will shut down trading in dollars and euros on its leading financial marketplace, the Moscow Exchange, the bourse and the central bank said on Wednesday. "Due to the introduction of restrictive measures by the United States against the Moscow Exchange Group, exchange trading and settlements of deliverable instruments in U.S. dollars and euros are suspended," the central bank said. -snip- The bank rushed out a statement, despite a public holiday in Russia, to reassure people that their dollar and euro bank deposits were secure. "Companies and individuals can continue to buy and sell U.S. dollars...

Russia has rolled back on comments suggesting that a major agreement with Iran had been suspended due to problems it faced with Tehran. Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, Tehran has supplied Moscow's war machine with equipment such as the Shahed drone, which has been used to attack Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. In September of that year, work on a new treaty between Moscow and Tehran was announced during a meeting between Putin and the late President of the Islamic Republic, Ebrahim Raisi. Russia's Foreign Ministry had said in January that the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty...

Russian anti-submarine ship Admiral Levchenko is burning in the Barents Sea after an engine malfunctioned and caught fire, Dmytro Pletenchuk, press chief for the Southern Defense Forces of Ukraine's Armed Forces, said on June 10.

About Sergey Karaganov (from Wiki): Karaganov Doctrine Karaganov is known as the progenitor of the Karaganov Doctrine, which states that Moscow should pose as the defender of human rights of ethnic Russians living in the 'near abroad' for the purpose of gaining political influence in these regions. This idea was first brought into domestic Russian Federation politics by Boris Yeltsin in 1992, although it was only a fringe ideology in Yeltsin's Russia. It has become a mainstream ideology in Putin's Russia after 2012. After Karaganov published an article advocating this stance in 1992, Russia's foreign policy position linked Russian troop...

According to the mathematician [Immanuel Niven], the "Putin system" is beginning to collapse, exactly what he predicted mathematically already in March: "The announced drastic tax increases in Russia (the highest tax increases in the history of modern Russia) as well as Putin's recently published slogans (according to which "everyone must work as if they were at the front") are dramatic signs that the toxicity of the Russian war economy is reaching a critical level." In a post on X some days ago, he explained what this 'toxicity' means: "If the cost of replacing material losses (in such a way that...

Watch the incredible clips of Kyiv's powerful drones annihilating Mad Vlad's tankers as debris and flames take over the battlefield. THIS is the dramatic moment Ukrainian kamikaze drones blow up Russian tanks in the latest blow to Putin's failing forces. Spectacular footage shows Kyiv's fierce determination as the drones reduce the hodgepodge "Franken-tanks" to fiery wreckage. The drones are seen in the daylight mission smoothly descending until they hit Mad Vlad's tinderboxes with pinpoint accuracy. The clunky military vehicles are then seen engulfed by bright orange flames in a brutal inferno. As smoke was blown away, what once was a...

Ukraine attacked several advanced Russian air-defense systems across Crimea overnight, Kyiv's military said on Monday, in the latest round of long-range strikes to menace vital Russian assets on the annexed peninsula Ukraine has vowed to reclaim from Moscow. -snip- Rybar, one of the influential Russian military blogger accounts often used as sources in lieu of official statements from Moscow, said on Monday that Ukrainian forces had attacked Crimea overnight with "at least 12" U.S.-supplied Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, fired from Ukraine's southern Mykolaiv region. Another prominent military blogger said Kyiv had attacked Crimea with an unspecified number of...

Ukrainian drones are threatening Russian vessels in the Sea of Azov, it has been reported, signaling an intention by Kyiv to target Moscow's infrastructure beyond the Black Sea. -snip- British outlet Sky News reported Ukrainian forces had carried out a "coordinated strike" against a Ropucha-class landing ship overnight Saturday, which had moved to the Sea of Azov, connected to the Black Sea by the Strait of Kerch. Ukrainian Telegram channel Crimean Wind and Ukrainian Mariupol mayoral adviser Petro Andryushchenko gave more details, saying a ship was hit near the port of Yeysk, located in Krasnodar. But there are conflicting reports...

A Ukrainian warplane has for the first time fired a weapon that struck a target inside Russia, a Ukrainian military source has told Sky News. The source said a "Russian command node" was hit on Sunday in the area of Belgorod, western Russia. Belgorod is close to the border with northeastern Ukraine. -snip- Speaking on condition of anonymity, the military source told Sky News: "A Ukrainian Air Force (UAF) mission has struck a Russian command node in Belgorod. "Whilst damage assessment is still occurring, it is confirmed as a direct hit. This is the first UAF air-delivered munition delivered against...

Ukrainian forces have damaged an advanced Russian Su-57 jet hundreds of miles away from the front lines inside Moscow's internationally recognized territory, Kyiv's military spy agency said on Sunday, adding this is the "first such case in history." An Su-57 jet was struck on Saturday at the Akhtubinsk airfield, in the southern Russian republic of Astrakhan, Kyiv's GUR military intelligence agency said in a statement. The site is around 365 miles from the current front lines in eastern Ukraine, according to the GUR. One of Russia's influential military bloggers—often considered sources for information on losses in lieu of official commentary...

THIS is the dramatic moment a Ukrainian drone destroys Russia's "indestructible" turtle tank in the latest blow to Putin's failing forces. Footage shows the sturdy military vehicle suddenly blowing up in flames after its crew left the hatch wide open in a fatal mistake. The drone is seen in the daylight mission smoothly descending until it enters Mad Vlad's tanker, hitting it with pinpoint accuracy. Bright orange flames engulf the turtle tank, reducing it to debris and melted metal. The precise attack was recorded by the Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade. Ukraine's Ministry of Defense confirmed the blow on X, writing:...

A crack Russian unit of fighters was almost totally destroyed during intense fighting near Kharkiv, rendering it inoperable, according to reports from the frontline. The devastating massacre took place last weekend during fighting for Vovchansk, a city located 73 km (45 miles) northeast of Kharkiv. The city has become the focus of heavy fighting after Russian troops launched a surprise attack in the Kharkiv region in early May. As of last week, the Russians claimed to control around and half of the city - but the situation on the ground remains very fluid. After making initial gains, the Russians have...

A large part of Russia's mauled Black Sea Fleet was seen leaving the port of Novorossiysk this week, with satellite images suggesting the berths of the southern Russian port had been largely emptied despite the ever-present threat posed by Ukrainian maritime drones and missiles. The intentions of the vessels departing Novorossiysk—further from Ukrainian-controlled territory and considered safer than the Crimean ports repeatedly bombarded by Kyiv's forces—remain unclear. -snip- The Black Sea Fleet has been forced to largely abandon its traditional bases of choice on the occupied Crimean Peninsula because of numerous—and ever more sophisticated—Ukrainian long-range attacks. Despite having no conventional...

Two of Vladimir Putin’s daughters have made rare public appearances despite efforts by the Russian president to keep his family tree a secret. Putin proudly traces his family tree back to the 1600s as it’s put on display at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum – but the names and details of his partners and children have been censored. Two of his children are speaking at the forum, but ordinary Russians are not allowed to know of their familial link. Endocrinologist Maria Vorontsova, 39, is Putin’s eldest daughter and was speaking at the forum about Russia’s bioeconomy. Younger sister Katerina...

Top officials in Russia have raised concerns about Kremlin moves to nationalize companies and an overheated economy in rare rebukes of Vladimir Putin's economic policy. On Tuesday, Herman Gref, the CEO of Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, warned about the negative effects of high state spending on the military to fund the war in Ukraine. "Our economy is definitely overheated," Gref told the Federation Council, Russia's upper house, on Tuesday, according to the Tass news agency. The next day, questions were raised about a Kremlin policy of forced nationalizations since the start of Putin's full-scale invasion, which has been followed by...

Ukrainian intelligence published a video on Thursday that purportedly shows the moment Kyiv's forces destroyed a Russian tugboat near annexed Crimea using naval kamikaze drones. "Maritime strike. All hits on target. Minus one more enemy ship," Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) spokesperson Andriy Yusov said during a national broadcast. The HUR said one of its units successfully attacked and destroyed a Russian "Saturn" tugboat. Kyiv has targeted Russia's Black Sea Fleet throughout President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of the country, which began in February 2022. Ukraine has vowed to reverse the Russian leader's 2014 annexation of Crimea, which now serves...

Ukrainian forces held their ground in the strategically important eastern Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar as Russian troops are reported to have failed an attempt to cross a canal in the area. The town, which had a pre-war population of more than 12,000, and is dissected by a canal, is located some 7 miles from the war-torn city of Bakhmut which was seized by Russian forces last May. The town in the Donetsk region has been the focus of Moscow's military since March.

When a combined force of 40,000 Russian troops launched an assault across Ukraine’s northern border with Russia on May 9 – that’s Victory Day, the day Russians celebrate the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II – observers tried to understand the Russians’ aim. Was the goal to drive on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city just 25 miles south of the northern border? Was it to capture a string of border settlements in order to push Ukrainian troops, and their artillery, farther from Russia? Was it to convince the Ukrainians that either of the above was the goal –...

Russia's new offensive into Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region has done what months of lobbying from President Volodymyr Zelensky could not: secured Kyiv's ability to fire advanced Western weapons at Moscow's forces within their borders. The Russian drive into the Kharkiv border region—where fighting is ongoing some 15 miles north of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city and an important political, economic, and cultural center—has prompted Kyiv's NATO backers into a flurry of diplomatic and military activity, with the result that Ukrainian cross-border strikes are now ravaging Russian forces operating in the Belgorod region.