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The US Treasury Department has imposed a USD 7.1 million fine on a New York-based property management firm, accusing it of violating sanctions by managing luxury real estate properties for oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said Gracetown Inc. had received 24 payments between April 2018 and May 2020 totaling USD 31,250 on behalf of a company owned by Deripaska. OFAC says it gave Gracetown notice that dealings with Deripaska were prohibited, but the firm proceeded anyway. Justice Department filings from 2022 connect Gracetown Inc. with UK businessman Graham Bonham-Carter, who was arrested in October 2022 for conspiracy to violate US sanctions imposed on Deripaska as well as for wire fraud connected to funding Deripaska's US properties and efforts to expatriate the oligarch's artwork to New York. A lawyer who has represented Deripaska previously didn't immediately respond to a request for comment
Talks between Russia and the US on ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine were productive, but much work remains, Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin, told reporters on Wednesday. Putin met US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin in talks that began late Tuesday as part of a renewed push by the Trump administration to broker a peace deal. Both sides agreed not to disclose the substance of the talks. Ushakov called the five-hour conversation rather useful, constructive, rather substantive, but added that the framework of the US peace proposal was discussed rather than specific wording. Putin's aide also said that so far, a compromise hasn't been found on the issue of territories, without which, he said, the Kremlin sees no resolution to the crisis. Some of the American proposals seem more or less acceptable, but they need to be discussed. Some of the wording that was proposed to us doesn't suit us. So, th
The United States and Russia have both recently threatened to resume nuclear testing, alarming the international community and jeopardising a global norm against such tests. Experts say these threats from the world's two largest nuclear powers put pressure on nonproliferation efforts and endanger global peace and security. Because of other countries' testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis, US President Donald Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site at the end of October. That process will begin immediately. Moscow quickly responded. Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Security Council that should the US or any signatory to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty conduct nuclear weapons tests, Russia would be under obligation to take reciprocal measures. Here's a look at what a resumption of nuclear testing could mean. The treaty established a norm against nuclear ...
US and Ukrainian officials completed roughly four hours of talks Sunday aimed at finding an endgame to the war between Russia and Ukraine. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters afterward that the session was productive but work remains in the search for a peace deal. It's not just about the terms that ends fighting, Rubio said. It's about also the terms that set up Ukraine for long-term prosperity. ... I think we built on that today, but there's more work to be done." The high-level negotiations in Florida came days before President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will be in Moscow to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Rubio, Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, represented the American side in the talks, held at a sensitive time as Ukraine continues to push back against Russian forces that invaded in 2022 while dealing with a domestic corruption scandal. Diplomats have focused on revisions to a proposed US-authored plan that was developed in
Money is as central to Europe's vital support of Ukraine as ammunition and intelligence. Yet, the bloc's most viable funding mechanism involves seizing billions of dollars worth of Russian assets that US President Donald Trump has proposed taking over. The first draft of Trump's 28-point peace plan called for an investment scheme for Ukraine's reconstruction controlled by the US but financed by USD 100 billion in frozen Russian assets matched by another USD 100 billion from the European Union with 50 per cent of profits sent back to Washington. The plan surprised Europeans, who have spent years fiercely debating the fate of Russia's frozen fortune. Those funds are central to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's plan to both maintain pressure on Russia and increase support for Ukraine as mysterious drone incursions and sabotage operations rattle European capitals. "I cannot see any scenario in which the European taxpayers alone will pay the bill," she said Wednesday
The soil surrounding the gas facility in Ukraine was once pitch-black before it was burned to a rusty red by a massive Russian drone and missile assault. Scattered remnants of Shahed drones littered the reservoir designated for storing tanks of liquefied propane gas. Nearly a month after the October 30 attack, several tanks lay empty and in ruins. It hurts to look at all this (damage) because I saw firsthand (the facility's) establishment, construction and development, said Victor, who has worked there for 28 years and who cannot be named in full for security reasons. But we have, what we have and we must continue to work. The Associated Press gained exclusive access to Naftogaz's gas extraction fields in central Ukraine last week. The AP is the first and only news outlet to be allowed to film and photograph war damage at the facilities. Due to strict security protocols, the AP cannot name the facility or its exact location. Russia has targeted Ukrainian gas extraction this year in
Russia launched a wave of attacks on Ukraine's capital Kyiv early Tuesday, striking residential buildings and energy infrastructure, according to video footage and local authorities. A residential building in the central Pechersk district and another in Kyiv's eastern district of Dniprovskyi were badly damaged, Mayor Vitalii Kitschko said. Video footage posted to Telegram showed a large fire spread through multiple floors of the nine-story building in Dniprovskyi. At least four people were injured, the head of Kyiv city administration, Tymor Tkachenko, said. Ukraine's energy ministry said that energy infrastructure had been hit, without specifying what type or the extent of the damage. The Russian attack followed talks between US and Ukraine representatives in Geneva on Sunday about a US-Russia brokered peace plan. Oleksandr Bevz, a delegate from the Ukrainian side, told The Associated Press on Monday that the talks had been "very constructive" and the two sides were able to discu
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday cautiously welcomed a US proposal to end Moscow's nearly four-year war in Ukraine, saying it could form the basis of a final peace settlement." Putin said Moscow had received the plan, which he called a new version and a modernised plan," which he said could form the basis for a final peace settlement. "But this text has not been discussed with us in any substantive way, and I can guess why, Putin said in Moscow. "The US administration has so far been unable to secure the consent of the Ukrainian side. Ukraine is against it. Apparently, Ukraine and its European allies are still under illusions and the dream of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield. Earlier Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address that his country is at a pivotal point in its four-year fight to defeat Russia's invasion, with Ukrainians potentially facing a choice between standing up for their sovereign rights or losing American
Russian lawmakers approved a new bill Thursday boosting taxes for those labelled foreign agents by the government. The bill, which passed its third and final reading in the lower house of parliament, outlines an income tax rate of 30 per cent for individuals with the designation and takes away their right to government tax breaks. Income tax for most residents ranges between 13 per cent and 22 per cent, depending on their earnings. The 30 per cent tax rate previously only applied to nonresidents who were working for foreign companies. The bill also bars organisations labelled as foreign agents from applying for reduced corporate income tax rates. Those who betrayed our country should not receive tax breaks, lawmaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in a social media post announcing the bill's passage. They will pay higher taxes to the state budget. The legislation must be approved by the upper house and then signed by President Vladimir Putin before it becomes law. The changes are just on