#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.

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

The French navy has diverted an oil tanker, suspected of being part of Russia's sanctions-busting shadow fleet, towards the port of Marseille-Fos for further investigation, according to reports. The office of the prosecutor in the southern French city of Marseille, which handles matters related to maritime law and is investigating the case, said on Friday that the ship had been diverted, but did not specify where to.