Section: Los Angeles Times (USA)
Former Russian lawmaker shot dead in Ukraine
Former Russian lawmaker Denis Voronenkov was shot and killed in Kiev on Thursday in what Ukrainian police described as a contract hit probably ordered by Russia. Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko blamed the Kremlin for Voronenkov’s killing, saying Russia wanted to punish him for his testimony… …read more Source: Los...
Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort hid payments from pro-Russian party, Ukrainian lawmaker says
Pressure from Kiev and Washington is mounting on President Trump’s former campaign manager after a Ukrainian lawmaker released documents Tuesday he says prove Paul Manafort tried to hide payments received from Ukraine’s ousted former president through an offshore shell company. The new allegations… …read more Source: Los...
In Belarus, a rising fear: Will we be the next Ukraine?
The relationship between Russia and Belarus has never been an easy one. The two former Soviet republics have spent the last two decades on a roller coaster ride—sometimes allies, sometimes in the middle of heated public rows. Now, as Russia’s neighbors grow increasingly worried about Moscow’s ambitions… …read more Source:...
Russians march to honor slain opposition leader and Putin critic Boris Nemtsov
Thousands of Russians marched in Moscow on Sunday to mark the death of Boris Nemtsov, an outspoken opposition leader who was gunned down two years ago. The protesters chanted “Putin is a thief!” and “Give Crimea back!” and carried portraits of Nemtsov, who was one of the best known critics of Russian… …read more Source: Los Angeles...
Residents in eastern Ukraine face worst fighting in years in war with Russian-backed separatists
The news reached Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko via a morning phone call from an assistant: A rocket attack damaged 11 houses on the outskirts of the Ukrainian city. There were no casualties, but a major concern had become a reality: The escalation of fighting elsewhere in the nation in recent… …read more Source: Los Angeles...
Obama’s final foreign trip was his last chance to warn the world about Trump, and to warn Trump about the world
In a brief, presumably final, face-to-face encounter, President Obama on Sunday appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to fulfill agreements to scale back incursions into eastern Ukraine and work with the U.S. to bring order to chaos in Syria. The night before, Obama sat with his Chinese… …read more Source: Los Angeles...
In the U.S. election, Russia’s cyber-spies push the bounds of traditional espionage
In February 2014, the Obama administration was embarrassed when a secretly recorded phone conversation between the U.S. ambassador in Ukraine and Victoria Nuland, a senior State Department official, was posted on YouTube. The two officials could be heard privately picking who should be in the new… …read more Source: Los Angeles...
Moscow welcomes the (would-be) sovereign nations of California and Texas
The speaker was calling for California’s independence from the United States. Alexei Gavrilko nodded approvingly. A burly, bearded, camouflage-wearing separatist from eastern Ukraine, he said he had come to the posh Moscow hotel just outside the Kremlin to “communicate with colleagues” representing… …read more Source: Los...
Tensions rise around Crimea: Putin accuses Ukraine of ‘terror’ and Kiev beefs up military
Tensions ratcheted up Thursday around the Russian-annexed province of Crimea, as Ukraine’s president ordered the reinforcement of nearby military installations and Crimea’s pro-Moscow leader accused the United States of meddling in the dispute. The developments came one day after Russian President… …read more Source: Los...
Ukrainian separatist leader wounded in car bombing
A pro-Russian leader of Ukraine’s breakaway region of Luhansk was wounded on Saturday in a car bombing that supporters called an assassination attempt. Igor Plotnitsky, a burly, bull-necked warlord who has been at the helm of the unrecognized Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine since 2014,… …read more Source: Los...
