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Moscow and Tehran will strengthen their security partnership and team up to counter sanctions imposed by the West, a key architect of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has said. Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia's Security Council, announced closer cooperation between the allies after a meeting with the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Akbar Ahmadian. Ties between Tehran and Moscow have deepened since the start of the war in Ukraine, with Iran supplying Russian forces with Shahed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which have wreaked havoc on Ukrainian infrastructure.

Vladimir Putin has complained that his old friends often no longer recognise him amid rumours he regularly uses body doubles. The Russian dictator, 71, told an audience in the country's remote Chukotka region that school and university classmates do not believe it's really him. 'When I [very occasionally] meet my classmates or fellow university students, they often look at me and say - "I don't believe it, is it actually you, or not you?",' he said. -snip- Solovey - who once taught future Russian spies and diplomats - was challenged by a top Ukrainian TV interviewer Dmitry Gordon over his...

Reflecting on the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s dissolution, Russian President Vladimir Putin termed the event as one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century. This sentiment stems primarily from its immediate impact on the ethnic Russian population, a theme that has found recurring resonance in Putin’s rhetoric. According to Putin, the collapse of the Soviet Union led to an unprecedented situation where overnight, 25 million Russians found themselves living outside Russia’s borders. These individuals suddenly transitioned from being citizens of a dominant global power to becoming ethnic minorities in newly formed nations. This demographic shift, Putin underscores, elucidates...

The assassination of warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin was 'put in motion' by Vladimir Putin's closest security aide Nikolai Patrushev, it was reported today. Progozhin - formerly close to Putin and the boss of Wagner private army - died in a plane crash in August, months after he launched a failed coup against the Kremlin. Now an investigation by The Wall Street Journal says a 'small explosive device' was 'slipped under the wing', and that shadowy ex-FSB security service chief Patrushev, 72, was behind the assassination. -snip- The WSJ said the bomb was planted on Prigozhin's Embraer Legacy 600 before it took...

-snip- The assassination of the warlord was two months in the making and approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s oldest ally and confidant, an ex-spy named Nikolai Patrushev, according to Western intelligence officials and a former Russian intelligence officer. The role of Patrushev as the driver of the plan to kill Prigozhin hasn’t been previously reported. The Kremlin has denied involvement in Prigozhin’s death, and Putin offered the closest thing to an official explanation for the plane’s fiery crash, suggesting a hand grenade had detonated onboard. -snip- Controlling the levers of that machine is Patrushev. He has climbed to the...

Russian war fanatics are enraged over an 'almost naked' party staged in Moscow by wealthy showbiz celebrities including Vladimir Putin's 'goddaughter'. The 'debauched' gathering was likened to Sodom and Gomorrah by critics claiming the antics of the wealthy stars insulted those on the frontline in the Kremlin's illegal war against Ukraine. Among the most visible guests was a pregnant and braless Ksenia Sobchak, 40, a TV presenter and 'liberal' Russian presidential candidate in 2018, in a nude-coloured Sorelle outfit. She is known as Putin's goddaughter after he attended her baptism and viewed her late father Anatoly Sobchak as his political...

Tackling cost of eggs and putting western company exits on hold among measures aimed at containing surging prices. Vladimir Putin’s re-election campaign has prompted a fresh drive by Russian officials to curb inflation as disquiet grows over soaring prices for consumer goods and as technocrats move to rein in a weakening rouble. -snip- Pressures on consumers were a central feature of Putin’s telethon last Thursday, the first time he had held his usually annual press conference or phone-in since ordering the invasion in 2022 — and, since “eggs” are slang for testicles in Russian, he could not pass up an...

A Russian television serial exploring the tragedy wrought by brutal teenage street gangs fighting for survival, money and love in the last years of the crumbling Soviet Union has become a sensation in Russia. The series – “A hoodlum’s promise – blood on the asphalt” – shows the savagery of the gangs which carved up the Russian city of Kazan in 1989 as the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev gyrated the Soviet Union towards its 1991 demise. In the Kazan badlands, many of the teenagers tried to make sense of their Soviet world turned upside down by flocking to the gangs...

Sharply rising prices for eggs led another weekly rise in consumer inflation in Russia as the central bank hiked interest rates by 100 basis points, data from the federal statistics service showed on Wednesday. The government last week said it would exempt 1.2 billion eggs from import duty in the first half of next year to try to rein in prices that have risen by more than 50% this year, a surge in costs for Russia's poorest that led to a rare apology from President Vladimir Putin. -snip- The Bank of Russia said its interest rate hiking cycle may be...

Russian imports of 1.2 billion eggs will be exempt from duty for the first six months of 2024, the economy ministry said on Wednesday, to help rein in prices as some shops run low on supplies. Egg prices have risen more than 40% so far this year and empty egg shelves have been seen in some Moscow supermarkets in the past week. -snip- Natalia Chernovolova, a resident of Valuyki in the Belgorod region, said prices above around 150 roubles were too much for her. "I have to look for other options, cheaper ones," she said. "Because we need eggs not...

Russia said today that the European Union's decision to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova was a politicised decision that could destabilise the bloc. 'Negotiations to join the EU can last for years or decades. The EU has always had strict criteria for accession and it is obvious that at the moment neither Ukraine nor Moldova meets these criteria,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 'It is clear that this is an absolutely politicised decision, the EU's desire to demonstrate support for these countries. But such new members could destabilise the EU.'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed "problems" for Finland after he says the Nordic country was "dragged into NATO" amid the war in Ukraine. "Look, Finland was taken and dragged into NATO," Putin said in a new on-camera interview. "What did we have, some kind of dispute with Finland? All disputes, including those of a territorial nature in the middle of the 20th century, were all resolved a long time ago. We had the best, most heartfelt relations. Economically, everything was developing. Yes, in the timber industry, there were some problems linked to the necessity to develop timber processing within...

Russia's central bank has today raised its key interest rate by 100 basis points to 16%, hiking borrowing costs for the fifth meeting in a row under stubborn inflation pressure from widespread labour shortages, high lending and the weak rouble. The central bank has now raised rates by 850 basis points since July, including an unscheduled emergency hike in August as the rouble tumbled past 100 to the dollar and the Kremlin called for tighter monetary policy. The bank said pro-inflationary risks over the medium-term horizon remained substantial and warned that stabilising inflation near its 4% target would require high...

NATO’s newest member, Finland, has announced it will sign a bilateral defence cooperation agreement next week with the United States. The deal will allow Washington to station troops and store weapons inside the Nordic country, which shares a sprawling border with Russia.

The departure of foreign auto makers from Russia has ultimately caused domestic car prices to rise, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, a rare acknowledgement of the harm caused by Western measures imposed over Moscow's actions in Ukraine. Most European, Japanese and South Korean carmakers suspended production and gradually left the Russian market following Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, taking technology, know-how and access to parts with them. Putin said car prices had risen by about 40%, without specifying a period, blaming this on low production and domestic carmakers' increased costs as they import components. "When European brands left...

Russia's Central Bank on Friday raised its key interest rate to 16%, the fifth hike since summer as it fights to keep accelerating inflation down and a move widely anticipated by analysts. "Current inflationary pressures remain high," the Central Bank said in a statement explaining the rate hike, adding that "annual inflation for 2023 is expected to be close to the upper bound of the 7.0–7.5 percent forecast range." This is a developing story.

Rumours of Vladimir Putin's 'ill health' have been swirling for years, with recent sources claiming the Russian President has died and his corpse is being stored in a freezer 'used for deep-frozen food'. Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding his first major news conference today, since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year. At the annual event (which didn't happen last year), he has claimed that peace with Ukraine will only occur "when we achieve our objectives". -snip- Speculation has mounted online for years about the Russian President's 'ill health', with claims he is allegedly suffering from...

Vladimir Putin's annual end-of-year press conference was thrown into disarray after messages embarassing the Russian President appeared on screen. The 71-year-old was told to "quit" in multiple messages which apearred on giant screens behind him, while he was also accused of not living the same "reality" as the rest of the country. And in another bizarre turn during the event, an AI video of Putin even asked the President whether he used body-doubles to go about his duties. In total about two million questions were submitted for answering, according to state media. The annual press conference gives Russian journalist and...

Some Moscow residents claim egg prices have doubled, as Russia continues to battle persistent inflation and Western sanctions. Surging egg prices, against a backdrop of high inflation and economic sanctions, are worrying the Russian authorities, especially as eggs are a symbolic and central ingredient of the festive season. -snip- In November, the average price of eggs in Russia rose by 40.29% year-on-year, according to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat). Muscovite consumers report even steeper rises. "Before, I used to buy eggs for 70 roubles a dozen. Now they cost between 130 and 140 roubles - twice as much,"...

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a rare apology on Thursday when a pensioner complained to him about the price of eggs. During Putin's end-of-year question and answer session with the media and with members of the public calling in from across Russia, pensioner Irina Akopova was shown seated at her kitchen table and addressing the president by video link. She complained that prices for eggs, chicken breasts and wings had all skyrocketed. "Vladimir Vladimirovich, take pity on pensioners! We don't get millions in our pensions. Sort this out - we have no one to turn to," she said. "I'm very...