Russia

Russia

Ukraine hits Russian data centres in blow to Moscow's AI capabilities

Drones hit three Yandex facilities, a Sber centre and a VKontakte server farm across five Russian regions, causing persistent failures in payments, navigation and cloud services. Experts say restoring the infrastructure could take months or years.

23 October 2026

Russia

Kremlin open to new Ukraine peace talks as Russia frees US teacher

Moscow says Putin, Trump and Xi will meet in Shenzhen next month after "constructive" talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff, while a US diesel deal easing sanctions on Russia has angered Kyiv and European capitals.

21 October 2026

Russia

More Russians are settling in the EU with each year of war in Ukraine

Eurostat data show 876,600 Russian nationals held valid EU residence permits at the end of 2025, with Germany, Spain and Estonia hosting the largest communities.

21 October 2026

Russia

Russia woos Asian tourists to try and counter European visits collapse

EU tourist arrivals fell from 5 million in 2019 to 160,000 in 2025 as sanctions, cancelled flights and other restrictions due to Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine severed Western leisure travel, prompting Moscow to look east.

19 October 2026

No Comment

Russia: Huge flames and smoke rise over St Petersburg after drone strikes

Huge plumes of black smoke billowed over St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, on Sunday, 18 October, as a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack sparked fires at industrial and logistics facilities. Russian officials said 126 drones had been intercepted in the surrounding region.

18 October 2026

Europe News

Ukrainian forces strike St Petersburg and Leningrad region

It comes as Zelenskyy said Russian forces had targeted Ukraine's energy sector in strikes on four regions on Saturday night. He said attacks on residential buildings had also left two people dead and 12 others reportedly injured.

18 October 2026

Russia

Ukrainian drones force closure of all four Moscow airports overnight

Moscow’s airports were closed for 101 hours in the first 14 days of October, more than double the total for all of September.

16 October 2026

Russia

Putin seizes five European firms in ongoing hostile asset crackdown

The decree covers a flooring manufacturer, a paper packaging firm, a hygiene products maker, and two metal- and plastic-packaging companies, all of which continued operating in Russia after the all-out invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

16 October 2026

Russia

Russia detains Swedish citizen as Moscow eyes future prisoner swaps

The FSB arrested the Swedish citizen in Pskov region on terrorism charges and Japanese journalist Yuki Imai on Sakhalin on espionage charges, days after former president Medvedev wrote that Russia may need to “fill up the exchange pool with European and American idiots” to recover Russians abroad.

15 October 2026

Russia

Russia’s internet shutdowns push state firms back to landlines

State procurement of landline telephones tripled in the first eight months of 2026 as mobile internet outages hit nearly 80% of the country. Rostelecom’s chief urged Russians to keep one at home “like a fire extinguisher".

14 October 2026

Russia

Japan summons Russian ambassador to protest journalist's arrest

Moscow's FSB security service said a Japanese national was arrested on the Far East island of Sakhalin, near a disputed cluster of islands, but did not name the individual.

14 October 2026

Russia

Russia funnels nearly half its budget into war as social funds shrink

Russia’s 2027 draft budget allocates a record share to defence and security, as regions quietly divert funds for foster children and orphans to war payments and “coffin money” for soldiers’ families is cut by up to 95% in some areas.

13 October 2026

Russia

Rent surges in Georgia and Armenia as Russians flee mobilisation fears

Monthly rents in Yerevan now run to €800–900 for a two-room flat, up 23.5% year on year in August, while Tbilisi rents have stabilised after 60–70% jumps following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russian nationals account for 72% of all foreign property transactions in Armenia.

13 October 2026

Russia

Russia slashes cancer care as defence spending hits post-Soviet record

The federal cancer programme budget falls from 44.9 billion to 3.87 billion roubles in 2027 — a nearly 40-fold reduction against 2025 levels — as defence spending reaches 35% of all federal expenditure, the highest share since the Soviet Union collapsed.

9 October 2026

Russia

Russia dismisses transparency calls amid reports of second plague case

Rospotrebnadzor said nearly 5,000 tests found no dangerous pathogens and saw "no epidemic risk," while the Kremlin called most media reporting "false" and said it had no knowledge of a US demarche formally requesting additional information.

7 October 2026

Russia

Trump to talk plague with Putin as Russia plays down fears of outbreak

The Kremlin welcomed the offer while Russia's health watchdog shot back that Moscow was "ready to assist the US in tackling infectious disease outbreaks" as the WHO asked Russia for additional information.

7 October 2026

Health news

Plague fears in Siberia: How are Irkutsk residents reacting?

Irkutsk residents react to reports of a suspected pneumonic plague death at a local anti-plague institute, with authorities saying the cause of death remains unconfirmed.

7 October 2026

Russia

Russia asks Vietnam for planes as seized Western fleet falls apart

Moscow proposed wet-leasing Vietnamese aircraft, crews and maintenance, but any transfer would involve Airbus or Boeing jets, exposing Vietnamese carriers to secondary sanctions. Nearly a fifth of Russia's largest airlines' planes are already grounded, double the normal downtime rate.

7 October 2026

Russia

Russia denies plague death but quarantines 200 without explanation

Rospotrebnadzor said Darya Shipilova, 28, died of "pneumonia of unknown aetiology" with no links to her work at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, but imposed quarantine on her contacts, confined 60 colleagues inside the facility and restricted access to hospitals including a maternity ward.

6 October 2026

Russia

Russia denies lab worker died of plague as quarantine stays in place

Rospotrebnadzor said tests found no pathogen linked to the deceased lab worker's work at the Irkutsk anti-plague institute, but more than 60 colleagues remained isolated inside the building and several hospitals stayed closed without explanation.

5 October 2026

Russia

Russia leads world in cat ownership — yet has 2.8 million strays

Nearly 59% of Russian households own at least one cat, the highest rate globally, but the 2022 mobilisation order left hundreds of thousands of animals abandoned when owners fled the country or were sent to the front in Ukraine. Up to 98% of Russia's stray cats and dogs were once domestic pets.

3 October 2026

Europe News

Putin says all weapons 'on agenda' if Russia's Kaliningrad attacked

Russia would consider using "all types of weapons" if its exclave of Kaliningrad was attacked, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, while insisting that Moscow had "no intention of attacking anyone."

2 October 2026

Russia

Russia expels Hungarian diplomats as Budapest breaks with Orbán era

Moscow ordered Hungarian embassy and consulate staff out just weeks after Budapest expelled 10 Russian diplomats on national security grounds in September, the first such move by Hungary since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

1 October 2026

Russia

Russia's jury reform draws fire for handing verdicts back to the state

The Supreme Court proposals would allow presiding judges to "clarify" questions during deliberations and reduce jury panels from six or eight members to four, changes lawyers say undermine the independence of a system that acquits at 60 times the national average in non-jury trials.

1 October 2026

Russia

Russian nuclear-capable Tu-95 crashes in Far East, killing six crew

The bomber went down near Krasnoyarovo shortly after taking off from the Ukrainka air base, which Russia had used to shelter surviving strategic bombers after Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb destroyed or damaged more than 40 aircraft at Russian airfields in June 2025.

29 September 2026

Russia

Putin expands army for fourth time this year as war losses mount

The decree adds 15,500 troops, bringing the authorised military strength to 1.55 million, the fourth such increase since March. Zelenskyy said Moscow had "already begun additional mobilisation" and that North Korea was preparing to send a further 10,000 soldiers to Russia.

29 September 2026