President Vladimir Putin
Russia calls U.S. allegations over Putin-directed election meddling ‘baseless’
Russia on Wednesday described U.S. intelligence allegations that President Vladimir Putin had likely directed efforts to try to swing the 2020 U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump as baseless. A 15-page American intelligence report, released on Tuesday, added heft to longstanding allegations that some of Trump’s top lieutenants were playing into Moscow’s hands by amplifying claims made against then-candidate Joe Biden by Russian-linked Ukrainian figures in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election. “The document prepared by the U.S. intelligence community is another set of baseless accusations against our country for interfering in American domestic political processes,” Russia’s embassy in the United States said in a statement on Facebook. “The conclusions of the report on Russia conducting...
Russia invades homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses
Russian police and officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) today raided the homes of several Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow, in an ongoing crackdown. Moscow outlawed the sect in 2017, labelling it “extremist,” following up with the sentencing of apprehended members to lengthy jail terms. The Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, confirmed the detaining of several leaders and members. Prosecutors, the FSB security services and the national guard carried out searches at 16 addresses, the committee said. Investigators said the Jehovah’s Witnesses had established a branch in the capital where “secret meetings” were convened to study “religious literature”. Founded in the United States in the late 1870s by Charles Taze Russell, the religious movement has been repeatedly accu...
Kremlin slams German medics’ ‘haste’ on Alexei Navalny poisoning
The Kremlin on Tuesday accused German medics of being too hasty after they said tests on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny indicated he had been poisoned. The 44-year-old Navalny, who is one of the fiercest critics of President Vladimir Putin, is being treated at Berlin’s Charite hospital after falling ill on a flight in Siberia last Thursday. He was treated for two days in a hospital in Siberia before being transferred to Germany. His supporters claim he was poisoned by something in his cup of tea at a Siberian airport before taking a flight to Moscow, pointing the finger of blame at Putin. The German clinic said Monday that clinical tests “indicate poisoning with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors,” substances that are used in nerve agents as well as some medi...
