Page 59 - Vladimir Putin

Putin to skip summit next month because of ICC arrest warrant: South Africa

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the BRICS economic summit in Johannesburg next month, the office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement Wednesday. The decision means South Africa will not face the dilemma of whether it should carry out an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against the Russian leader. South Africa is a signatory to the treaty that created the ICC and would have been obliged under that to arrest Putin, although the country had given strong hints that it would have likely not executed the arrest warrant. But Wednesday's announcement allows South Africa to avoid the problem and comes after Ramaphosa spoke with Putin by telephone in recent days. The decision for Putin not to attend was by mutual agreement," Ramaphosa's office said. Russia will instead be represented at the Aug 22-24 summit by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The BRICS economic bloc is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. South Africa

Arresting Putin in S Africa would be declaration of war: Prez Ramaphosa

Ramaphosa argued in his affidavit that South Africa's Bill of Rights required the government to protect and promote certain rights, including "the right to be free from all forms of violence."

Putin vows response against Crimea bridge blast, calls it terrorist attack

"Tonight another terrorist attack took place against the bridge," Putin said in a meeting with officials Monday

China intensifies joint military exercises with Russia amid US sanctions

China and the armed forces of Vladimir Putin conducted six joint military exercises together last year, the most in data going back two decades

Offered Wagner mercenaries option to keep operating as a single unit: Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he offered mercenaries from the Wagner private military company the option of continuing to serve as a single unit under the same officer when he met with them five days after the group's abortive revolt last month that posed the most serious threat to his 23-year rule amid the war in Ukraine. In remarks to the business daily Kommersant published Friday, Putin described a Kremlin event attended by 35 Wagner commanders, including the group's chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on June 29. He said that he talked to them about their actions in Ukraine, their mutiny which he denounced as an act of treason in a televised address to the nation and offered them various alternatives for future service. Putin told Kommersant that one option would see Wagner keep serving under the same commander who goes by the call name Gray Hair, a man who has led the military company's operations in Ukraine for the past 16 months. All of them could have gathered in one .

Putin says Wagner mercenary group 'doesn't exist' as it has no legal basis

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Wagner private military company simply doesn't exist as a legal entity, in comments adding to the series of often bizarre twists that have followed the group's abortive revolt last month the most serious threat to Putin's 23-year rule amid the war in Ukraine. There is no law on private military organisations. It simply doesn't exist, Putin told a Russian newspaper late Thursday, referring to the Wagner group. Putin recounted to Kommersant his own version of a Kremlin event attended by 35 Wagner commanders, including the group's chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on June 29. That meeting came just five days after Prigozhin and his troops staged a stunning but short-lived rebellion against Moscow authorities. The meeting was revealed earlier this week by a Kremlin official. Putin said that at the talks, Wagner rejected an offer to keep its troops in Ukraine, where they have played key battlefield roles, under the leadership of their direct ...

Putin hosted Russian mercenary leader Prigozhin at Kremlin after mutiny

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin at the Kremlin days after the commander led a short-lived rebellion, a senior government spokesman said Monday, the latest twist in a baffling episode that has raised questions about the power and influence held by both men. The three-hour meeting took place on June 29 and also involved commanders from Prigozhin's Wagner Group military contractor, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Putin gave an assessment of Wagner's actions on the battlefield in Ukraine - where the mercenaries have fought alongside Russian troops - and of the revolt itself. The Wagner forces pledged loyalty to Putin, according to Peskov. The confirmation that Putin met face-to-face with Prigozhin, who led troops on a march to Moscow last month in order to demand a change of defense minister, was extraordinary. Though the Russian leader branded Prigozhin a traitor as the revolt unfolded and vowed harsh punishment, the criminal case against

Nearly 50,000 Russian men died in conflict with Ukraine, shows report

Nearly 50,000 Russian men have died in the war in Ukraine, according to the first independent statistical analysis of Russia's war dead. Two independent Russian media outlets, Mediazona and Meduza, working with a data scientist from Germany's Tubingen University, used Russian government data to shed light on one of Moscow's closest-held secrets the true human cost of its invasion of Ukraine. To do so, they relied on a statistical concept popularised during the COVID-19 pandemic called excess mortality. Drawing on inheritance records and official mortality data, they estimated how many more men under age 50 died between February 2022 and May 2023 than normal. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv gives timely data on military losses, and each is at pains to amplify the other side's casualties. Russia has publicly acknowledged the deaths of just over 6,000 soldiers. Reports about military losses have been repressed in Russian media, activists and independent journalists say. Documenting the dead h

Armed rebellion by Prigozhin underscores erosion of Russian legal system

Russia's rebellious mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin walked free from prosecution for his June 24 armed mutiny, and it's still unclear if anyone will face any charges in the aborted uprising against military leaders or for the deaths of the soldiers killed in it. Instead, a campaign is underway to portray the founder of the Wagner Group military contractor as driven by greed, with only hints of an investigation into whether he mishandled any of the billions of dollars in state funds. Until last week, the Kremlin has never admitted to funding the company, with private mercenary groups technically illegal in Russia. But President Vladimir Putin revealed the state paid Wagner almost $1 billion in just one year, while Prigozhin's other company earned about the same from government contracts. Putin wondered aloud whether any of it was stolen. The developments around Prigozhin, who remains unpunished despite Putin's labeling of his revolt as treason, underscored what St. Petersburg ...

Putin says Russian economy faring better than expected; GDP positive

'Our results, at least for the time being, let's say, cautiously, are better than previously expected, better than predicted,' Putin said, according to a transcript on the Kremlin's website

Will stand up against sanctions and 'provocations', says Vladimir Putin

Putin told the group there was a growing risk of a new global economic and financial crisis fuelled by developed countries' debts and worsening food and environmental security

Russian President Putin losing control of his own people: Zelenskyy

Zelenskyy in an exclusive interview with CNN said: We see Putin's reaction. It's weak.

PM Modi to host Jinping, Putin, other leaders at virtual SCO summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host Chinese President Xi Jinping, his Russia counterpart Vladimir Putin, Pakistan's Shehbaz Sharif and other leaders of the SCO nations at a virtual summit of the bloc on Tuesday that is expected to focus on regional security situation and ways to boost connectivity and trade. It will be Putin's first participation in a multilateral summit after a mercenary group launched a short-lived armed rebellion last week that rocked Moscow. The summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) under India's presidency is also set to welcome Iran as the new permanent member of the grouping. The situation in Afghanistan, the Ukraine conflict and enhancing cooperation among the SCO member countries are expected to figure in the summit, people familiar with the matter said, adding boosting connectivity and trade is also likely to be discussed. The summit is also taking place against the backdrop of the over three-year eastern Ladakh border standoff between

A failure in Russia

The events in Russia last week reveal that Mr Putin's governance innovations are not as robust as claimed

Putin, PM Modi agree to further boost ties, discuss Ukraine war over phone

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held a "meaningful" conversation over the phone, and reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen the bilateral strategic partnership while exchanging views on the conflict in Ukraine, the Kremlin said. The telephone conversation between the two leaders came days ahead of the virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) which is being hosted by India on July 4. "The conversation had a meaningful and constructive character. The leaders reiterated mutual commitment to strengthening the privileged strategic partnership between Russia and India and agreed to continue communication, the Kremlin press service said. Russian President Putin informed Modi of Ukraine's categorical refusal to settle the conflict through diplomacy, it said about the raging war in Eastern Europe since February last year. "The two leaders discussed the situation around Ukraine. The Russian president assessed the ...

President Putin calls PM Modi big friend of Russia' at Moscow's ASI forum

President Vladimir Putin has called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a big friend" of Russia and said his 'Make in India' campaign has had a "truly impressive effect" on the country's economy. Putin made these remarks on Thursday at a forum in Moscow organised by Russia's Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI). Our friends in India and our big friend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, launched the Make in India' initiative several years ago. It has had a truly impressive effect on the Indian economy. It would do no harm to emulate what is working well, even if it was not us but our friends who created it, the president was quoted as saying by the RT News. Putin made a case for India as he discussed the opportunities for Russian companies due to the West's sanctions policies, and the need for Moscow to offer support tools to help our companies market their products more efficiently. Crediting Indian leadership for creating an effective model to develop local manufacturing capabilities and w

PM Modi's 'Make in India' had visible effect on Indian economy: Putin

The Russian President drew India's example to encourage domestic products and brands in Russia, as per RT

Russia's Vladimir Putin moves to seize control of Wagner's global empire

Russian General who allegedly knew of mutiny quizzed; ruble hits 15-month low

Russia's Wagner mutiny weakened Vladimir Putin, but not his ruling system

Russia under Putin's leadership is easy to see as a personalist dictatorship. The president has almost unlimited powers under Russia's much-rewritten, much-abused constitution

'You effectively stopped a civil war,' Vladimir Putin hails armed forces

Russia drops criminal case against Wagner leader, but his future still uncertain