Russia

Russia is a country full of surprises.

The Wagner Group chief was traveling on board a private jet that crashed in Russia with no survivors

One of Russia's leading military figures, Gen Sergei Surovikin, has reportedly lost his job as air force chief after weeks of speculation about his disappearance from public view.

The public broadcast of police raids on Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin’s home and office are an obvious attack on the mercenary’s cherished reputation as a straight-talking patriot fighting against corruption – and, experts say, a warning to anyone else who might challenge President Vladimir Putin’s rule. 

Prigozhin’s press secretary declined to comment on the incident, Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak reported.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger list of a jet which crashed killing all on board, Russia's civil aviation authority has said.

At least 10 people died in the crash of a Wagner-linked private plane outside Moscow, according to Russia’s emergency services. Yevgeniy Prighozin, who led a failed mutiny in June, was on the plane’s manifest, according to a state-run outlet.

More than a dozen countries have plans for missions to the moon in the coming years

Leaders of some of the developing world's most important economies turned Wednesday to the main business of their summit in South Africa, a day after a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the gathering an anti-Western tinge that officials had been hoping to avoid. 

A Russian missile strike on Ukraine's northern city of Chernihiv on Saturday killed seven people and wounded more than 100 others on Saturday, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said. 

At least two civilians were killed when Russian air strikes hit an abandoned water pumping station in Syria's rebel-held northwest, rescuers said Wednesday, amid a recent uptick in attacks by Damascus ally Moscow.

According to a recent Google Flights search, there were no direct or connecting flights from Minsk to the United States.

Putin won't attend BRICS summit this week because he could face arrest over alleged war crimes in Ukraine

Authorities say they can no longer guarantee the safety of those who stay in Kupyansk amid Russian shelling. Some 2,000 residents have signed releases saying they won’t hold officials responsible.
 

Officials from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa gather in Johannesburg on Tuesday for a three-day BRICS summit, a five-nation club comprising 40% of the world’s population and more than 25 percent of global GDP that positions itself as an economic counterweight to the West. Almost 15 years on from the group’s founding, FRANCE 24 takes a look at the BRICS nations in numbers and their relative weight in the global economy.

Without more advanced weapons slated to bolster the front line or fully committing forces still being held in reserve, it is unlikely that Ukraine will be able to secure a breakthrough in the counteroffensive, according to analysts.

Russia has been in a race with India to become the first country to land a rover on the moon’s unexplored south pole.

 

Seven people, including a six-year-old child, were killed when a Russian missile struck a theatre in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, officials say.

Kiev should sue for peace before it loses the remnants of its sovereignty, the leader of Belarus said in an interview