Kremlin

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 18 KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The European Union will unveil its 10th package of sanctions against Russia on Feb. 24 to mark the anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a senior official from the bloc said in Kyiv on Friday, as Ukrainian forces gird for an expected Russian offensive in the coming weeks. The sanctions will target technology used by Russia’s war machine, among other things, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference. The sanctions will take aim in particular at components used in the manufacturing of drones, she said, naming Iran as a key supplier of Russia. Closing loopholes that the Kremlin uses to circumvent sanctions will also be a priority, according to Von der Leyen, who was on her fourth visit to the Ukrainian capital since the war … [Read more...] about EU prepares more Russia sanctions; Kremlin readies offensive

The Kremlin has insisted Boris Johnson told "a lie" when he claimed Vladimir Putin threatened to kill him in a rocket attack. Ahead of the invasion of Ukraine , the ex-PM says the Russian President told him: “I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute.” Mr Johnson said the "extraordinary" telephone conversation took place last February as fears grew that Putin was about to launch a war. But Moscow disputed the claim, saying there were "no threats with missiles" during the call. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Johnson’s account "was a lie". "There were no threats with missiles," Mr Peskov said during a conference call with reporters. Boris Johnson claims Vladimir Putin threatened to kill him ( Image: Mikhail Klimentyev/AP/REX/Shutterstock) "While talking about security challenges to Russia , President Putin said that if Ukraine joins Nato, the potential deployment of US or other Nato missiles near our borders would … [Read more...] about Boris Johnson’s claim Putin threatened to kill him with missile is a ‘lie’, says Kremlin

Russia on Friday pushed back against a report that claimed President Joe Biden offered Russian President Vladimir Putin a portion of Ukraine in order to end the ongoing war. "That's a canard," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked by media about the report, according to TASS, the Russian state-controlled news outlet. On Thursday, the Swiss-German newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) wrote that CIA Director William Burns had traveled to Moscow with a peace proposal from Biden that would see Ukraine giving up 20 percent of its territory to Russia. The newspaper's story followed an article by The Washington Post last month that said Burns had recently met in secret with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine. However, Sean Savett, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, previously told Newsweek that the report from NZZ was not accurate . A CIA official also called the information "completely false." When asked another … [Read more...] about Kremlin calls report of Biden offering Putin part of Ukraine “canard”

The United States, Russia and China are now aggressively pursuing a new generation of smaller, less destructive nuclear weapons. The buildups threaten to revive a Cold War-era arms race and unsettle the balance of destructive force among nations that has kept the nuclear peace for more than a half-century. It is, in large measure, an old dynamic playing out in new form as an economically declining Russia, a rising China and an uncertain United States resume their one-upmanship. American officials largely blame the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, saying his intransigence has stymied efforts to build on a 2010 arms control treaty and further shrink the arsenals of the two largest nuclear powers. Some blame the Chinese, who are looking for a technological edge to keep the United States at bay. And some blame the United States itself for speeding ahead with a nuclear “modernization” that, in the name of improving safety and reliability, risks throwing fuel on the fire. … [Read more...] about Race for Latest Class of Nuclear Arms Threatens to Revive Cold War

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Thursday that the United States should greatly “expand its nuclear capability,” appearing to suggest an end to decades of efforts by presidents of both parties to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in American defenses and strategy. Mr. Trump’s statement, in a midafternoon Twitter post, may have been a response to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who in a speech to his military’s leadership in Moscow earlier on Thursday vowed to strengthen Russia’s nuclear missiles. Mr. Putin said nuclear forces needed to be bolstered so they could “reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defense systems,” apparently a reference to the Pentagon’s efforts to develop systems capable of shooting down nuclear-armed rockets. Shortly after Mr. Putin’s comments were reported by the news media, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that the United States must “strengthen and expand” its nuclear forces “until such time as the world … [Read more...] about Trump Says the U.S. Should Expand Its Nuclear Capacity

James Bond, poisoned by a villain in the film “Casino Royale,” almost died in the forecourt of the Grandhotel Pupp, a majestic reinvention of what, under Communism, was called the Grand Hotel Moskva, a shabby lodge popular with members of the Czech and Soviet nomenklatura . Rival hotels in the area have complained that widespread hostility to Russia and its people engendered by the carnage in Ukraine is crippling their business, built up over centuries around serving visitors from Russia. But the Pupp is doing well with a different approach. “Our focus now is fully on the West, not the East,” said the hotel’s general manager, Jindrich Krausz. “Russia for us is the past, and it was not pleasant.” A favorite playground for wealthy Russians since Peter the Great visited in the early 18th century, the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary is studded with grandiose hotels and luxury boutiques with Russian-speaking staff, along with plaques honoring famous Russian visitors like the … [Read more...] about At Czech Spa Town, ‘Russia for Us Is the Past, and It Was Not Pleasant’

KARLOVY VARY, CZECH REPUBLIC — As President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia and President Barack Obama prepare to arrive in Prague on Thursday to sign a landmark arms control treaty, Marcela Balounova, like many Czechs, remains haunted by her memories of 1968, when nearly one million Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia, ushering in a period of political repression. “The Russians invaded us before and they are invading us again,” Ms. Balounova, 50, said from her art gallery in this picturesque spa town, where Peter the Great first came for a treatment in 1711 and which has since become so popular with Russians that most signs offering luxury products and services — from million-euro villas to colonic irrigation — are in Russian. “I still remember crying when the Russians came here. And now here we are more than 40 years later and this place has become a Little Moscow.” For the United States, the signing of an arms reduction treaty with Russia in the heart of the former Eastern … [Read more...] about In Eastern Europe, Pact With Russians Raises Old Specters

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — The United States marshaled 40 allies on Tuesday to furnish Ukraine with long-term military aid in what could become a protracted battle against the Russian invasion, and Germany said it would send dozens of armored antiaircraft vehicles. It was a major policy shift for a country that had wavered over fear of provoking Russia. The announcement by Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and one of Russia’s most important Western trading partners, was among many signals on Tuesday pointing to further escalation in the war and disappointment for diplomacy. Germany’s shift on weapons also was seen as a strong affirmation of a toughened message by the Biden administration, which has said it wants to see Russia not only defeated in Ukraine but seriously weakened from the conflict that President Vladimir V. Putin began two months ago. The increasing flow of Western weapons into Ukraine — including howitzers, armed drones, tanks and ammunition — also amounted to … [Read more...] about As Diplomacy Hopes Dim, U.S. Marshals Allies to Furnish Long-Term Military Aid to Ukraine

WARSAW — They were among the final few words of a carefully crafted speech. But they strayed far from the delicate balance that President Biden had tried to strike during three days of wartime diplomacy in Europe. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Mr. Biden said Saturday, his cadence slowing for emphasis. On its face, he appeared to be calling for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to be ousted for his brutal invasion of Ukraine. But Mr. Biden’s aides quickly insisted that the remark — delivered in front of a castle that served for centuries as a home for Polish monarchs — was not intended as an appeal for regime change. Whatever his intent, the moment underscored the dual challenges Mr. Biden faced during three extraordinary summit meetings in Belgium and an up-close look at the war’s consequences from Poland: keeping America’s allies united against Mr. Putin, while at the same time avoiding an escalation with Russia, which the president has said could lead … [Read more...] about Biden’s Barbed Remark About Putin: A Slip or a Veiled Threat?

European Union member states, the Group of Seven industrialized countries and Australia said Friday that they have reached an agreement on price caps for Russian petroleum products. The move is the latest part of an international push to limit Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest for his assault on Ukraine by targeting his key exports. The caps involve two price levels, $100 per barrel for more expensive fuel like diesel and $45 on lower-quality products such as fuel oil, according to officials. Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency, called it an “important agreement as part of the continued response by EU and partners to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine." The EU in December imposed an embargo on Russian crude oil coming in by sea and — together with its G7 partners — set a $60-dollar-per-barrel cap for exports around the world. The second embargo, on Russian fuel, is set to come into force on Sunday or soon after. It targets Russian refined oil … [Read more...] about EU, G7, Australia Reach Consensus on Price Cap Targeting Russian Refined Oil Products