#russia

#russia

"We are not given academic leave... the rector's office does its best to send its students to serve under contract,"

Defence ministers of the E5 grouping France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom are meeting in the Polish city of Krakow this morning.

Two years ago the Kremlin could not have been more frigid about the Paris Olympics. In fact, the few Russians who competed as authorised neutral athletes, after they were vetted to check they did not explicitly support the war in Ukraine, were criticised. Irina Viner, Russia's rhythmic gymnastics president, even went as far as to call those who went traitors, and suggested that only homeless athletes competed without their flag and anthem.

Five European countries have accused Russia of using a toxin from dart frogs to kill the Kremlin critic. The United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden issued a joint statement on Saturday saying they believed he had been poisoned with epibatidine a toxin found in poison dart frogs and that the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to administer it.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground.

Now Donald Trump is dismantling the order that Putin had so long abhorred, and a new multipolar world is emerging in its place. Putin had thought he could rise to the top of such a system, in which raw economic and military might outweigh diplomacy and alliances. But he was mistaken: The norms and institutions of the postwar order actually masked Russia's vulnerabilities.

Russia's military is scrambling to find alternatives to Starlink satellite internet after access to the network was curtailed, disrupting a key communications system that its forces had been using illicitly on the battlefield. Ukraine said last week that Starlink terminals being used by Russian troops had been deactivated after talks between its defence minister and Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX operates the satellite network. Ukrainian officials said the move had already begun to affect Russian operations, including the use of drones.

Moscow resident David Gevondyan, who is 22 years old, was given a fine for his post on European social media site VK. In his appeal, Gevondyan argued that he had not violated the law and that Queen's outfit choices did not constitute 'LGBT Propaganda'. According to Verstka, the court rejected his argument, noting that Gevondyan's page also showed photos of men kissing and men dressed in miniskirts. He was fined an undisclosed amount for all of the images.

Diplomat Yury Filatov hits out at Helen McEntee and says Ireland is hostile to Russia