Kremlin foe Navalny's lawyers to remain in detention at least through mid-March, Russian court rules

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Moscow court extended on Thursday pre-trial detentions for three lawyers who once represented imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The three were arrested in October on charges of participating in an extremist group, a case widely seen as a means to ramp up...

Putin moves a step closer to a fifth term as president after Russia sets 2024 election date

Lawmakers in Russia set the country’s 2024 presidential election for March 17, moving Vladimir Putin a step closer to a fifth term in office. Members of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, voted unanimously Thursday to approve a decree setting the date. ...

Allies of Russian opposition leader Navalny post billboards asking citizens to vote against Putin

LONDON (AP) — Opposition activists in Russia came up with a way to get around Kremlin censorship while urging citizens to vote against President Vladimir Putin in an election next year: billboards disguised as a New Year's greeting. The Anti-Corruption Foundation founded by...

Putin continues his blitz round of Mideast diplomacy by hosting the Iranian president

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Iran’s president Thursday as part of a blitz round of Middle East diplomacy that also included visits to United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in efforts to raise Moscow’s profile as a power broker in the region. Putin has...

Russian lawmakers set the country's presidential election for March 17, 2024, clearing way for Putin to seek a 5th term

As Ukraine aid falters in the Senate, Biden signals he's willing to make a deal on border security

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Senate Republicans blocked the advance of tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance for Ukraine Wednesday, President Joe Biden berated their tactics as “stunning" and dangerous. Yet he also signaled an openness to what GOP lawmakers ultimately want:...

A former Ukrainian lawmaker who fled to Russia found shot dead outside of Moscow

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A renegade Ukrainian lawmaker who fled to Russia shortly after Moscow's invasion was found dead on Wednesday near Moscow. The Ukrainian military intelligence lauded the killing, warning that other “traitors of Ukraine” would share the same fate. Illia...

Russia's Putin is visiting the UAE and Saudi Arabia, seeking to bolster Moscow's Mideast clout

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday in a lightning tour intended to raise Moscow's profile as a Middle East power broker, even as his war in Ukraine grinds on. Putin landed in Abu Dhabi,...

Under Putin, the uber-wealthy Russians known as 'oligarchs' are still rich but far less powerful

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — When Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the outside world viewed those Russians known as “oligarchs” as men who whose vast wealth, ruthlessly amassed, made them almost shadow rulers. A “government of the few,” in the word's etymology. The term has...

The West has sanctioned Russia's rich. But is that really punishing Putin and helping Ukraine?

VERONA, Italy (AP) — Sitting on a terrace in Verona as the bells toll at a nearby medieval church, Igor Makarov sips coffee as he describes his life as a billionaire under Western sanctions. Most of his fortune earned doing business in Russia and the former Soviet Union is frozen,...