Pyotr Tolstoy, great grand-son of writer Leo Tolstoy and deputy speaker of parliament, blames the Jews for the campaign to prevent the return of St. Isaac’s Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church.
A Russian weapons foundry in the Ural Mountains has issued a commemorative silver and gold coins for the 45th US president’s inauguration, with the slogan, “In Donald Trump We Trust.”
Spanish police arrested prominent Dutch corporate lawyer Peter Wakkie, at the Madrid Airport as part of an investigation into the insolvency of the Russian-Spanish telecoms firm ZED+. The story attracted more interest because Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman has an interest in ZED+ and is also mentioned in the Trump “kompromat” dossier.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said he saw no linkage in president-elect Donald Trump’s offer to remove sanctions if Russia reduced its nuclear weapons.
US President Barack Obama extends sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin deferred a response to president-elect Donald Trump’s offer to trade an end to sanctions for Russia’s nuclear cuts.
A number of stories in Chechnya this week indicate that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is bringing further control over the Islamist insurgency remaining in the republic and cracking down on the independent press to prevent public criticism of his harsh methods.
LIVE UPDATES: Trump denies allegations that he’s being blackmailed by the Kremlin. The Interpreter investigates
US Pilots complain about ‘near misses’ with Russian planes over Syria. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu characterizes the work of the International Coalition in Syria as “null”.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zakharov scorns US intelligence report on Moscow’s breach of US cybersecurity, says Russian hackers ‘hacked Obama’s brain’. Caucasian Knot editor Grigory Shvedov threatened by Chechen parliamentary speaker.
Russia claims a NATO jet flew ‘dangerously close’ to a Russian passenger plane, but both NATO and the Russian airline deny the claim.
