THIS is the nerve-wracking moment Vladimir Putin’s manned space rocket launch was aborted within seconds.

The Russian Soyuz spacecraft was almost ready to take off towards the International Space Station when a technical problem set off alarm bells.

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Smoke could be seen billowing from beneath the rocket as it prepared to blast into space, with personnel having already evacuated the area.

But with just 20 seconds to go, it was announced that “an automatic launch abort has been initiated.”

The technical glitch was spotted with seconds remaining in the launch capsule, prompting space chiefs to immediately pull the plug on the mission.

The three-man crew – two women and one man – were safely evacuated from the rocket, narrowly avoiding disaster.

“The reason was a voltage drop in the chemical power source,” said Yuri Borisov, head of the Russian space agency.

“The automation worked during launch control and prevented the spacecraft’s systems from malfunctioning.

“The crew is safe, left the rocket and went to take off their spacesuits.”

The explosion has now been moved to Saturday afternoon.

The crew included NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, 54, along with Belarus’ first female cosmonaut, Marina Vasilevskaya, 33.

Vasilevskaya is normally a flight attendant for Belavia airline and flies on Boeing and Embraer aircraft.

Before that, she was a professional ballroom dancer for 15 years.

The commander is Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, 52.

“Colleagues, the space is like this and the situation is very understandable,” said Borisov, who spoke to Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko to explain why Vasilevskaya was still on the ground.

But the aborted launch is highly unusual.

In the history of modern Russia, manned launches have never been canceled while the crew was already in a spacecraft, TASS news agency reported.

In the USSR this happened only once, when the launch of the Soyuz-4, manned by cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov, was aborted in 1969.

However, in 2018, a rocket functioned and shot into space at a speed of 7,790 km/hour.

Two astronauts miraculously survived an emergency landing after the rocket boosters of Russia’s Soyuz MS-10 failed at 160,000 feet shortly after takeoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Russia’s latest rocket launch comes after plans were announced jointly with China to place a nuclear reactor on the moon within ten years.

With the space race intensifying, the two countries hope to install the unit by 2035.

Putin would also like to put his own space station in the sky.

The former spy said in October that the first segment of Russia’s new space station should be fully operational in 2027.

But a bombshell warning from US intelligence last month suggested that Russia could be planning to launch a satellite-destroying weapon armed with a nuclear bomb into space.

Mad despot Putin has already tested orbital weapons designed to destroy Western equipment, such as the Cosmos 2543 anti-satellite weapon.

Whatever happens, Putin hopes his next space launch will be more successful than last year’s Russian Luna-25 disaster.

The country’s first moon mission in fifty years ended in catastrophic failure when Putin’s robotic spacecraft went out of control and crashed.

The 800 kg Luna-25 probe was shattered into pieces when it crashed onto the surface from space.

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A leather-clad Kim Jong Un was seen raising his fist in the air as he oversaw a live-fire exercise of a series of ‘newly equipped super-sized’ rocket launchers, after he was spotted driving around in a limousine Vladimir Putin had given him .

It came after North Korea fired several ballistic missiles when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Seoul, itself the first time the dictator launched such weapons in two months.

The state-run new agency Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the rocket launcher exercises conducted by North Korea’s Western Region Artillery Unit tested the “real war capabilities” of the massive 23-inch multiple rocket launchers .

“They fully demonstrated their excellent artillery marksmanship and quick and thorough combat readiness,” KCNA said.

The dictator told troops present at the launch that the new missiles would be a “central strike tool” in a war.

“The destructive offensive means at our military’s disposal should more thoroughly fulfill their missions of blocking and suppressing the possibility of war with the constant perfect readiness to collapse the enemy’s capital and the structure of its armed forces,” he said .

Late last week he was seen in a luxury limousine gifted to him by fellow dictator Vladimir Putin.

He was sent the Aurus Senat limousine in February after it was shown to him during a visit to Russia in September.

Kim’s sister and senior official Kim Yo Jong said: “The special function of the private car is perfect and can be fully trusted.

“Kim Jong Un’s use of the private car gifted by the President of the Russian Federation is clear evidence of the friendship between North Korea and Russia, which is developing in a comprehensive manner at a new high level.”

South Korea accused Kim Jong Un on Monday of directly supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by supplying about 7,000 containers of military aid and ammunition since last year.

In return, North Korea may have received much-needed food, economic and military assistance aimed at upgrading Kim’s armed forces, according to South Korean officials and private experts. Both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the existence of an arms deal between the countries.

At a news conference in Seoul, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said the military believes the North, after initially relying on ships, is increasingly using its rail networks to send weapons supplies to Russia via the land border.

In exchange for sending possibly several million artillery shells and other supplies, North Korea has received more than 9,000 Russian containers, likely filled with aid, Shin said.

He expressed suspicion that Russia could supply North Korea with fuel, possibly in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions that tightly restrict the country’s imports of oil and petroleum products.

While fuel shortages have likely forced North Korea to scale back winter training activities for its soldiers in recent years, South Korea’s military estimates the North expanded such exercises in January and February, Shin said.

US President Joe Biden made a snide and joking comment about his rival, Republican Party candidate Donald Trump.

Joe Biden vs Donald Trump: The process to elect the next US president has begun and the two contenders, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, are leaving no opportunity to get on the nerves of the others.

In this turn of events, Democratic Party candidate and current US President Joe Biden made a snide and teasing remark about his rival, Republican Party candidate Donald Trump, during a weekend in Washington in which it was said that two candidates were had secured their party’s nomination for president.

“But one was too old, too mentally unfit for the job. The other is me,” Biden said.

It is said that Biden made this statement due to the continued criticism and questioning of his memory and the claim that he appears to be confused.

It was at the annual Gridiron Club and Foundation Dinner that Biden dispelled these perceived doubts by highlighting moments when the 77-year-old Trump also made a mistake.

“Don’t tell him, he thinks he’s running against Barack Obama, that’s what he said,” the 81-year-old Biden said, joking about staying up way past his bedtime.

It was the first time Biden had attended the dinner during his presidency, with the 2024 election just around the corner, in an action replay of the Biden-Trump rematch.

On a serious note, Biden said he sees a real threat to democracy if Trump, who continues to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen, returns to the White House. The speech had echoes of Biden’s campaign remarks, which both criticized Trump for being too soft on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We are living in an unprecedented moment in democracy,” he said. “An unprecedented moment in history. Democracy and freedom are literally under attack. Putin is on the march in Europe. My pastor bows to him and tells him: ‘do whatever you want.’

“We will not bow down. They will not bow, and I will not bow,” he said.

Biden was accompanied by his daughter Ashley.

Biden closed the dinner and also spoke about the importance of a free press.

“Good journalism holds a mirror up to society,” he said. “We need you.”

The dinner took place at the Grand Hyatt and no photos or TVs were allowed.

(With AP inputs)

A “double tap” Russian missile attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa killed at least 14 people and injured 46 others, including emergency workers who rushed to the scene to rescue the first victims, local officials said.

The two waves of strikes early Friday resulted in one The rocket hit homes before a second was shot at the same location as emergency services arrived on the scene, authorities said.

A paramedic and an emergency worker were among those killed, with photos from the scene showing the victims in pools of blood and the firefighters covered in dust.

At least 10 houses in Odesa were damaged in the attack, which caused a fire, which firefighters fought despite the looming threat, according to Ukraine’s emergency services and regional governor Oleh Kiper.

After the brutal attack by Vladimir Putin’s forces, bodies littered the streets of the residential area early on, and a day of mourning was declared in Odesa Oblast on March 16.

The tactic of firing a second missile at the same location, aiming to hit rescuers, is known in military parlance as a double tap.

Such attacks often target civilians, as was the case today, and it is a method Russia has used in the past with devastating consequences.

In August last year, two Iskander rockets hit the city center of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, killing nine people, including civilians, a first responder and a soldier.

The number of injured exceeded 80 in the double attack, which hit 12 high-rise buildings, a hotel, a pharmacy, shops and cafes, Ukrainian authorities said, blaming Russia.

The number of civilian deaths has continued to rise as a result of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Two people were killed and three injured in Ukraine’s central Vinnytsia region last night after Russia attacked a building with a drone, according to regional governor Serhii Borzov.

The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down all 27 Shahed drones that Russia launched over the Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytskyi and Kiev regions.

The attack came as Russians voted in a presidential election that will almost certainly extend Vladimir Putin’s rule for another six years.

The elections come amid a brutal Kremlin crackdown that has paralyzed independent media and prominent rights groups, putting Putin in full control of the political system. as Moscow’s war in Ukraine enters its third year.

Voters cast their ballots from Friday to Sunday at polling stations across the vast country’s 11 time zones, as well as in illegally annexed regions of Ukraine.

Ukraine and the West have also condemned Russia for holding votes in Ukrainian regions captured and occupied by Moscow’s forces.

In many ways, Ukraine is at the center of these elections, political analysts and opposition figures say.

Putin wants to use his virtually assured election victory as proof that the public supports his approach to the war, which he continues to call a “special military operation.”

Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Kiev’s forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian allies on the other.

Tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides have been killed and many more injured, thousands of Ukrainian civilians are dead, and Ukraine’s economy and infrastructure have suffered hundreds of billions of dollars worth of damage.

Russian Presidential Elections: President Vladimir Putin requested his compatriots to participate in the upcoming presidential elections. The elections for the country’s highest post will take place from March 15 to 17.

Moscow: Ahead of the presidential elections, which will take place from March 15 to 17, President Vladimir Putin addressed the nation and called on them to participate in the elections, TASS news agency reported on Thursday. In the meantime, early voting for the presidential elections abroad continued, with more than 40,000 people having already cast their ballots, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “We must reaffirm our consolidation, our determination to move forward together. Every vote counts. That is why I call on you to realize your right to vote in the next three days,” Putin said.
According to TASS, the Russian president addressed compatriots eight times ahead of the elections: 2000, 2004, 2016, 2018 (twice before the presidential elections), 2021 and in 2020 before the nationwide referendum on constitutional changes.

Early voting took place in 23 countries

“There is early voting. It has already taken place in 23 countries and 29 election commissions monitor it. More than 40,000 Russians have already voted on March 12,” the diplomat said. “The voting takes place without serious incidents,” Maria Zakharova said.
The Russian officials offer their citizens voting assistance

The Council of the Russian Federation, or the Upper House of the Russian Parliament or Duma, has officially scheduled the presidential elections for March 17.
Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) then announced that the vote will take place in three days – from March 15 to 17, making it the first three-day presidential election in Russia.

President Putin expected to secure his fifth term in office

President Putin is expected to receive a majority of votes. If Putin wins the majority of votes, it will be his fifth term in presidential office and a full third decade as Russia’s supreme leader, CNN reported.

The death of Alexei Navalny

With the death of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, it is fair to say that Putin’s political career has reached the president-for-life stage, CNN noted in the report, adding that his re-anointing is an inconvenient fact exposes Russia’s future political stability.
The president and his circle have made no visible preparations for a post-Putin era, it added.

Putin’s longest-serving leader

Putin is the longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, CNN noted, adding that Russian voters in 2020 approved constitutional changes that would allow him to remain in power until 2036.

Even before Putin announced his candidacy, the Kremlin made it clear that it saw no alternatives in sight to his system of one-man rule, the report said.

(with input from authorities)

Putin’s statement on Wednesday comes ahead of this week’s presidential elections.

Russian nuclear weapons: As the war between Russia and Ukraine continues, President Vladimir Putin made a big, bold statement Wednesday saying Russia is willing to use nuclear weapons if there is a threat to its statehood, sovereignty or independence.

There is speculation that President Putin made this worrying statement, expressing hope that the US and NATO would refrain from actions that could trigger a nuclear conflict.

Putin’s statement on Wednesday comes ahead of this week’s presidential election, in which he is certain to win another six-year term.

The former KGB described US President Joe Biden in an interview with Russian state television early Wednesday as an experienced politician who fully understands the potential dangers of any escalation and said he does not think the world is heading towards nuclear war. .

He stressed that Russia’s nuclear forces are in full readiness and “from a military-technical point of view we are prepared,” adding that Moscow, in line with the country’s security doctrine, is ready to use nuclear weapons in case of a threat to “ the survival of the country”. of the Russian state, our sovereignty and independence.”

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the subsequent armed conflict between the two neighbors, the Russian leader has repeatedly spoken of his willingness to use nuclear weapons. The latest threat came in his state of the nation speech last month, when he warned the West that deepening his involvement in the fighting in Ukraine would risk nuclear war.

When asked in the interview whether he had ever considered using nuclear weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine, Putin said there was no need for it.

He also expressed confidence that Moscow will achieve its goals in Ukraine and kept the door open for talks, stressing that Russia will maintain its gains and seek firm guarantees from the West.

“It should not be a pause for the enemy to rearm, but a serious conversation about security guarantees for the Russian Federation,” he said, adding that a recent spike in Ukrainian drone attacks deep inside Russia is part of the attempts to derail the Russian Federation. three-day presidential elections, which begin Friday.

Meanwhile, Russian authorities reported another major attack by Ukrainian drones early Wednesday, when the country’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses had shot down 58 drones over six regions.

However, one drone hit an oil refinery in the Ryazan region, injuring at least two people and causing a fire. Another drone was shot down as it approached a refinery near St. Petersburg.

Ukraine, meanwhile, reported more Russian attacks early Wednesday, with a Russian strike killing two people and wounding another five in the city of Myrnohrad in the eastern Donetsk region, Governor Vadym Filashkin said. Local rescuers managed to pull a 13-year-old girl from the rubble of an apartment building that was hit by a Russian missile.

In President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown of the central Dnipropetrovsk region, the death toll from a Russian missile attack the night before rose to four.

(With PTI inputs)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused of the murder of 17 politicians, journalists and activists in a chilling new documentary published by the team of late dissident Alexei Navalny.

The explosive feature aired by Navalny LIVE to some 3.3mn followers on Monday accuses Putin of being a ‘brutal killer’ and ‘mass murderer’, directly blaming him for the assassinations of various high-profile critics and investigators in recent decades.

It comes as pressure mounts on Putin to explain the sudden death of Russian opposition leader Navalny aged 47 in a brutal Arctic penal colony on February 16 ahead of the president’s bid for re-election this week.

In a stark warning to viewers they assert: ‘There’s no doubt they’ll kill again if only because they can’t do otherwise. And illegitimate President Putin will go up for re-election.’

Navalny’s team, who have vowed to continue their namesake’s work in challenging state corruption, maintain that Putin was personally responsible for his death following, they believe, a deliberate attempt to poison him in 2020.

The Kremlin denies any involvement and say Navalny died from sudden death syndrome after collapsing following a walk at the prison in Kharp last month.

A Telegram post on the Navalny team’s profile promoting the video said Putin was ‘a brutal killer’ and promised to explore the stories of people ‘killed… on his orders’ for opposing him or being ‘simply disliked by the president’.

‘On February 16, 2024, he killed his main enemy, Alexei Navalny,’ the post reads.

‘In 2015 he killed Boris Nemtsov, in 2009 – Sergei Magnitsky, in 2006 – Anna Politkovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko. 

‘And there are dozens of such murders, and it will hardly ever be possible to list all of his victims.’

In the documentary, the presenter claims ‘the most notorious murder Putin committed was on February 16, 2024, when he massacred Alexei Navalny in a special regime penal colony.

‘So far, the authorities are either not commenting on what happened, passing off the death as an accident. Or yes, they are again hinting at Western involvement.’

The clip shows an article from Russian business newspaper Vedomosti asserting ‘Moscow announced self-exposure of the West after Navalny’s death’.

The article dated February 16, the day Navalny was reported to have died, cites Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova in claiming NATO’s ‘immediate reaction’ to the death exposed them.

It also quoted the editor of state-controlled outlet RT in saying there was no incentive for the state to kill Navalny, and that the death was ‘only beneficial to completely opposite forces’.

The documentary blaming Putin for Navalny’s death continues: ‘As you realise, this tactic is built up over years, over decades. 

‘[They mean] ‘We killed and yes, we are mocking you.’ There’s no doubt they’ll kill again and again if only because they can’t do otherwise.

‘And illegitimate President Putin will go up for re-election.’

The documentary goes on to accuse Putin of sanctioning the deaths of 17 opponents, critics, journalists and politicians, including: Artyom Borovik; Yuri Shchekochikhin; Paul Klebnikov; Alexander Litvinenko; Anna Politkovskaya; Natalya Estemirova; Anastasia Baburova; Stanislav Markelov; Sergei Magnitsky; Mikhail Beketov; Boris Nemtsov; Kirill Radchenko; Aleksandr Rastorguev; Orhcan Dzhemal; Timur Kuashev; and Nikita Isaev.

Artyom Borovik

Borovik was a Russian investigative journalist and media magnate who died aged 34 in an aircraft crash at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow on 9 March 2000. 

Borovik, who ran Top Secret TV, a programme focusing on high-profile corruption cases, died three days before the scheduled publication of materials about Putin’s childhood.

His last investigation also probed 1999 Moscow apartment bombings, believed to be linked to the FSB which Putin had headed.

In one of his last reports, Borovik quoted Putin – then lining up to become president – in saying: ‘There are three ways to influence people: blackmail, vodka, and the threat to kill.’ 

Yuri Shchekochikhin

A Soviet and later Russian investigative journalist, writer, and liberal lawmaker in the Russian parliament, Yuri Shchekochikhin wrote and campaigned against the influence of organised crime and corruption, and may have been Putin’s first radioactive poisoning victim.

Shchekochikhin died suddenly on 3 July 2003 from a mysterious illness a few days before his scheduled departure to the United States, where he planned to meet with FBI investigators.

Like Borovik, Shchekochikhin was investigating corrupt business deals and the possible role of Russian security services in the 1999 apartment house bombings blamed on Chechen insurgents.

Paul Klebnikov

Paul Klebnikov, the U.S.-born editor of Forbes magazine’s Russian edition, was gunned down outside his Moscow office in July 2004.

Colleagues and Russian media at the time that the motive may have been his work investigating Russia’s criminal underworld and business elite.

The murder was seen as a decisive blow against investigative journalism in Russia.

Ukraine’s security agency said in 2017 it has detained a Russian man wanted for Klebnikov’s slaying.

The Russian Interior Ministry identified the suspect Monday as Magomed Dukuzov, according to the Interfax news agency. 

Alexander Litvinenko

In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former agent for the KGB and the FSB, became violently ill in London after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210.

Litvinenko, who had become a journalist and consultant for the British intelligence services in London, was a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin and coined the term ‘mafia state’ in relation to Russia.

Among his allegations about the Russian state, he said the KGB and FSB for whom he had worked were supporters of international terrorism.

He also accused Russia’s special services of involvement in the 2005 London bombings. 

Litvinenko died three weeks after meeting two former agents in the Millennium Hotel’s Pine Bar, where high polonium contamination was found.

Both Dimitry Kovtun and Andrey Lugovoy denied wrongdoing, but polonium was found in the house and car Kovtun had used in Hamburg. 

Litvinenko had been investigating the shooting death of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya as well as the Russian intelligence service´s alleged links to organised crime.

Anna Politkovskaya

Anna Politkovskaya was a Russian-US journalist and human rights activist who reported on political and social events in Russia, in particular, the Second Chechen War.

She had won international acclaim for her reporting on human rights abuses in Chechnya. 

The 48-year-old was shot and killed in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building on October 7, 2006 – Putin’s birthday. 

A gunman, from Chechnya, was convicted of the killing and sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

Four other Chechens were given shorter prison terms for their involvement in the murder.

Natalya Estemirova

A Russian human rights activist and board member of the Russian human rights organisation Memorial.

Estemirova, 51, was abducted by unknown persons on 15 July 2009 from her home in Grozny, Chechnya, where she was working on ‘extremely sensitive’ cases of human rights abuses in Chechnya. 

Her body was found with bullet wounds in the head and chest area near the village of Gazi-Yurt, in neighbouring Ingushetia.

On her person, investigators found a passport and an ID of the Chechnya expert for the Human Rights Commissioner of Russia.

Estemirova was a contributor to Novaya Gazeta and recipient of the first Anna Politkovskaya Award, honouring brave female human rights defenders from war and conflict.

Then-Russian president Dimitri Medvedev said it was ‘obvious’ she had been murdered for her work and ordered a top-level investigation.

But Memorial claimed ‘state terror’ was culpable, claiming Estemirova was killed by government-backed death squads. 

Anastasia Baburova

A journalist for the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, Baburova investigated the activities of neo-Nazi groups.

Baburova was also involved in the anarchist environmentalist movement. Like Mikhail Beketov, also later found dead, she campaigned against the felling of the Khimki Forest for the construction of a motorway between Moscow and St Petersburg.

Aged 25, she was shot and killed along with human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, in a murder seen as having the fingerprints of the Russian state security services.

Military analyst Pavel Eugenievich Felgenhauer at the time said the details of the murder implicated Russia’s elusive security services. 

Stanislav Markelov

He was a Russian human rights lawyer, 34, who took up high profile cases, including representing left-wing activists persecuted since the fall of the USSR – and victims of police violence.

Like Baburova he was killed by members of the neo-Nazi organisation BORN on 19 January 2009 in Moscow, yet the killing was seen as linked to the state.

Markelov was shot to death while leaving a news conference alongside Baburova, who came to his aid.

Russian authorities pinned the murder on Nikita Tikhonov and his girlfriend, Yevgenia Khasis, a radical nationalist couple. 

Sergei Magnitsky

Magnitsky, a Russian tax advisor representing client Hermitage Capital Management, was arrested in 2008 after alleging officials had carried out a large-scale heist of funds from the Russian state.

He died in Moscow’s Butyrka prison seven days before the end of the one-year term by which he could legally be detained without trial.

A human rights council set up by the Kremlin found he had been physically assaulted before his death.

Posthumously he gave his name to laws in the West aimed at sanctioning human rights abusers.

Mikhail Beketov

Beketov was a Russian journalist, 55, beaten by unknown assailants in 2008 after covering environmental stories.

The journalist covered the construction of the Moscow-Saint Petersburg motorway, which included the planned destruction of the Khimki Forest and related activism.

He claimed local officials told him to stop before his car was set on fire and his dog was killed.

Beketov was assaulted on November 13, 2008 by unknown assailants and sustained brain damage. 

He died five years later, in 2013, from a heart attack. 

The Committee to Protect Journalists said his death was directly related to injuries he sustained during the 2008 attack.

Boris Nemtsov

The assassination of Boris Nemtsov, a liberal politician and outspoken critic of Putin, was the most high-profile killing alleged to have been orchestrated by the Russian state.

On a cold night in February 2015, around 23:30, Nemtsov was struck four times with bullets from a Makarov pistol as he walked with his girlfriend over the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge. 

His Ukrainian partner was the sole witness.

Five men from the Russian region of Chechnya were convicted for his killing, with the gunman receiving up to 20 years. But Nemtsov’s allies said that was an attempt to shift blame from the government. 

Putin was never personally implicated in the murder.

Kirill Radchenko

A Russian war correspondent and cameramen, Radchenko was among a group of filmmakers working on a documentary about the pro-Kremlin Wagner group in Africa when he was murdered in 2018.

With colleagues Alexander Rastorguev and Orkhan Jemal, he was shot in the Central African Republic on the night of 31 July 2018. 

Radchenko died on the spot from injuries sustained in the brutal take-down.

Aleksandr Rastorguev

Rastorguev was a prominent Russian documentary film director, 41, and Putin critic, gunned down in a car ambush in the Central African Republic on 31 July 2018.

He was reportedly making a film with Organ Dzhemal and Kirill Radchenko about Russian mercenaries operating in the country.

Orhcan Dzhemal

A veteran war correspondent, 51, and founder of the Muslim Union of Russian Journalists, Orhcan Dzhemal was killed on 31 July 2018 in the Central African Republic.

Dzhemal was probing the activities of Wagner almost four years before the paramilitary group became notorious in Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Timur Kuashev

A human rights activist and government critic, 26, Timur Kuashev died after going on a jog in Nalchik, the capital of the autonomous Kabardino-Balkar republic in the Russian Caucasus.

Kuashev worked for Dosh magazine as its correspondent in the region, but was known for 

His body was found on August 1 2014 in the woods near Khasania after going missing the night before.

An article in his magazine said: ‘We believe that Timur was kidnapped from his home.’

His mobile phone was found in his apartment, the magazine reported.

Kuashev was a notable critic of Russia’s policy in Ukraine. 

Nikita Isaev

Nikita Isaev was a Russian politician, journalist, and anti-corruption and environmental activist, aged 41.

In 2019, he died on a train from Tambov to Moscow, after being appointed as an advisor for regional development by Sergei Mironov.

A joint investigation by Der Spiegel, Bellingcat and The Insider linked an FSB poisoning unit to Isaev’s death.

The official cause of death was given as a heart attack.

Investigators believed Isaev was possibly planning to defect as he had purchased tickets for him and his family to fly to Miami, scheduled just weeks after his death. 

Alexei Navalny

Alexei Navalny was an unofficial Russian opposition leader, lawyer, anti-corruption activist, and political prisoner. 

He organised anti-government demonstrations and ran for office to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia and against President Vladimir Putin and his government.

On 16 February 2024, the Russian prison service reported that Navalny had died. 

His family, loyal team, and multiple Western leaders say he was murdered by Putin – allegations Russia denies.

Hungary’s strongman leader Viktor Orban revealed intimate details surrounding his controversial visit with Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, including how the ex-president plans to ‘end the war’ in Ukraine.

In an interview with Pravda.ru, Orban claimed that Trump had a specific plan to end the bloodshed that involves putting a stop to all US funding for the Ukrainian war effort. 

‘Donald Trump has a very clear vision that is hard to disagree with. He says the following: ‘First, he will not give a single penny for the Russo/Ukrainian war,’ Orban, a long time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

‘That’s why the war will end. If the Americans don’t give money and weapons along with the Europeans, the war will end. And if the Americans don’t give money, then the Europeans won’t be able to fund this war alone,’ he went on. 

‘And then the war will end. Donald Trump may not be the president of the United States yet, but his party is stopping Democrats from spending money on the war. Trump says when he comes back, he won’t give a penny to Ukraine,’ Orban, who has been embraced by American conservatives despite his anti-democratic policies, continued.

‘That’s when the war will be over. And he says he doesn’t want to fund Europe’s security instead of Europeans. And the Europeans are afraid of the Russians,’ Orban warned. 

Orbán has become an icon to some conservative populists for championing what he calls ‘illiberal democracy,’ replete with restrictions on immigration and LGBTQ+ rights. 

But he’s also cracked down on the press and judiciary in his country and rejiggered the country’s political system to keep his party in power while maintaining the closest relationship with Russia among all European Union countries.

In the U.S., Trump’s allies have embraced Orbán’s approach. 

On Thursday, as foreign dignitaries milled through Washington, D.C., ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, Orbán skipped the White House and instead spoke at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank overseeing the 2025 Project, the effort to create a governing blueprint for Trump’s next term.

‘Supporting families, fighting illegal migration and standing up for the sovereignty of our nations. This is the common ground for cooperation between the conservative forces of Europe and the U.S.,’ Orbán wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after his Heritage appearance.   

He then flew to Florida, where met Trump late Friday afternoon at the former president’s beachfront compound, Mar-a-Lago. 

Orbán posted on his Instagram account footage of him and his staff meeting with Trump and the former president’s staff, then of the prime minister walking through the compound and handing Melania Trump a giant bouquet of flowers.

In the video, Trump praised Orbán to a laughing crowd. ‘He’s a non-controversial figure because he says, ‘This is the way it’s going to be,’ and that’s the end of it. Right?’ Trump said of the Hungarian prime minister. ‘He’s the boss.’ 

 The Trump campaign said late Friday that the two men discussed ‘a wide range of issues affecting Hungary and the United States, including the paramount importance of strong and secure borders to protect the sovereignty of each nation.’

Campaigning Friday in Pennsylvania, Biden said of Trump: ‘You know who he’s meeting with today down in Mar-a-Lago? Orbán of Hungary, who’s stated flatly that he doesn’t thinks democracy works, he’s looking for dictatorship.’

‘I see a future where we defend democracy, not diminish it,’ Biden added.

Orbán’s approach appeals to Trump’s brand of conservatives, who have abandoned their embrace of limited government and free markets for a system that sides with their own ideology, said Dalibor Rohac, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

‘They want to use the tools of government to reward their friends and punish their opponents, which is what Orbán has done,’ Rohac said.

The meeting also comes as Trump has continued to embrace authoritarians of all ideological stripes. He’s praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Orbán’s government has reciprocated, repeatedly praising the former president.

On Friday, Hungary’s Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó, posted from Palm Beach, hailing Trump’s ‘strength’ and implying that the world would be more peaceful were he still president.

‘If Donald Trump had been elected President of the United States in 2020, the war in Ukraine, now in its third year, would not have broken out and the conflict in the Middle East would have been resolved much faster,’ he wrote.

 Orbán has served as Hungary’s prime minister since 2010. The next year, his party, Fidesz, used its two-thirds majority in the legislature to rewrite the nation’s constitution. 

It changed the retirement age for judges, forcing hundreds into early retirement, and vested responsibility for appointing new judges with a single political appointee who was widely accused of acting on behalf of Fidesz.

Fidesz later authored a new media law and set up a nine-member council to serve as the country’s media regulator. All nine members are Fidesz appointees, which media watchdogs say has facilitated a major decline in press freedom and plurality.

The country’s legislative lines have been redrawn to protect Fidesz members and no major news outlets remain that are critical of Orbán’s government, making it almost impossible for his party to lose elections, analysts say.

Orbán backed Trump’s reelection effort and has had frosty relations with the Biden administration, which pointedly did not invite Hungary to a summit on democracy it organized after the president took office. 

Hungarian officials have accused Biden’s ambassador to the country, former human rights lawyer David Pressman, of interfering in internal governmental affairs.

Earlier this week, Hungary objected to Biden’s choice of a former Dutch prime minister to serve as NATO’s new commander, potentially stalling the appointment.

The Hungarian leader also has enthusiastically boosted Trump’s latest presidential campaign, posting a message encouraging Trump to ‘keep fighting’ after he was hit with the first of what would be four criminal cases against him last year. 

Last week, Orbán declared that a win by the former president would be ‘the only serious chance’ for ending the war in Ukraine.

A video from the Heritage appearance posted by Orbán’s political director showed the prime minister speaking with Vivek Ramaswamy, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination before dropping out and endorsing Trump. 

The Hungarian leader also met with Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser who remains a vocal ally of the ex-president and is active in global populist circles.

Orbán’s visit this week comes after he signed a new National Sovereignty Law that penalizes any foreign support of political actors in Hungary, part of the prime minister’s longstanding battle against the European Union and international nonprofits criticizing his erosion of Hungary’s democracy.

‘Orbán is setting up this huge barrier to anyone interfering in Hungarian elections, but Orbán’s interfering in all sorts of other countries’ elections,’ said Kim Scheppele, a Princeton sociologist and Hungary expert.

Orbán is one of a small group of conservative populists who have publicly aligned themselves with U.S. conservatives trying to oust Biden in November. 

Last month, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and Argentine President Javier Milei spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside Washington. Orbán was a featured speaker at the 2022 event, after which he met Trump at the former president’s New Jersey golf course.

Several conservative populists have won European elections in recent years, including in Italy and Sweden. 

But leaders in those countries have remained staunch opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, not battled with the European Union government or taken steps that alarm democracy advocates as Orbán has.

Scheppele said the parallels between Trump and Orbán go beyond ideology. She noted that Orbán is not very religious but has become a hero to Christian conservatives for his hardline stances, much like Trump.

The two men face a similar electoral quandary as well, she added.

‘They’ve got the same problem,’ Scheppele said. ‘How do you leverage a really solid base, which is not an actual majority, at election time?’

Russia and China had been working together on a lunar program, and Moscow was able to contribute with its expertise in nuclear space energy.

Moscow: Russia and China are considering putting a nuclear power plant on the moon between 2033 and 2035, Yuri Borisov, head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, said on Tuesday, something he said could one day allow the construction of lunar settlements.

Borisov, a former deputy defense minister, said Russia and China had worked jointly on a moon program and that Moscow could contribute with its expertise in “nuclear space energy.”

“Today we are seriously considering a project – sometime around the turn of the year 2033-2035 – to supply and install a power source on the lunar surface together with our Chinese colleagues,” Borisov said.

Solar panels wouldn’t be able to provide enough electricity to power future lunar settlements, he said, while nuclear power could.

“This is a very serious challenge… it should be done in automatic mode, without the presence of people,” he said of the possible plan.

Borisov also spoke about Russian plans to build a nuclear-powered cargo spaceship. He said all technical questions related to the project had been resolved, apart from finding a solution for cooling the nuclear reactor.

“We are indeed working on a space tug. This huge, cyclopean structure that, thanks to a nuclear reactor and powerful turbines, could transport large payloads from one orbit to another, collect space debris and engage in many other applications,” Borisov said.

Russian officials have previously discussed ambitious plans to one day mine the moon, but Russia’s space program has suffered a series of setbacks in recent years.

The first moon mission in 47 years failed last year after the Russian spacecraft Luna-25 went out of control and crashed.

Moscow has said it will launch further lunar missions and then explore the possibility of a joint Russian-Chinese manned mission and even a moon base.

China said last month it aims to put the first Chinese astronaut on the moon before 2030.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last month dismissed as false a warning from the United States that Moscow was planning to place nuclear weapons in space, saying it was a ploy to draw Russia into arms negotiations on the West’s terms.

Garry Kasparov was the undisputed world number 1 for a record 255 months, from 1984 until his professional retirement in 2005.

New Delhi: Former chess grandmaster and political activist, Russian Garry Kasparov, was added to the list of ‘terrorists and extremists’, according to reports on Wednesday. The 60-year-old, a long-time opponent of President Vladimir Putin, was added to the list by Rosfinmonitoring, a Russian watchdog responsible for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

Kasparov has repeatedly spoken out publicly against Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine. AFP reported that Rosfinmonitoring did not give any reason for adding the Soviet-born Kasparov to its database. It is also understood that people labeled as ‘terrorists and extremists’ by the watchdog could have their bank accounts seized.

Kasparov, a former world champion, is widely regarded as one of the greatest chess players of all time and has lived in the United States for more than a decade. He fled Russia in 2014 for fear of persecution. Earlier in 2022, Russia’s Justice Ministry added Kasparov to its list of “foreign agents,” subjecting him to burdensome bureaucracy, including financial reporting.

During his playing days, Kasparov was the undisputed world number 1 for a record 255 months, from 1984 to 2005 (the year he retired from professional chess). He also holds the record for most career wins: victories in professional tournaments (15) and chess Oscars (11).

At the age of 22, Kasparov became the youngest ever world champion in 1985 by defeating then champion Anatoly Karpov. The next three times Kasparov defended his world title in 1986, 1987 and 1990. In 1997 he also became the first world champion to lose a match to a computer under standard time control. Kasparov was defeated by the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue.

He also mentored current world number 1 Magnus Carlsen in 2009-2010. It was during this time that Carlsen rose to number 1 in the FIDE rankings. He also ran in the elections for FIDE president in 2013-2014, but did not win.

An honor that says more about Putin’s fascist regime than about me. As Goldwater said, extremism in the defense of freedom is not a vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is not a virtue! But all opposition, or common decency, must be called extremist by the dictatorship. https://t.co/OuN27A9InN

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 6, 2024

Meanwhile, Kasparov reacted to the news on social media. He stated: “An honor that says more about Putin’s fascist regime than about me. As Goldwater said, extremism in the defense of freedom is not a vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is not a virtue! But all opposition, or simple decency, must be called extremist by the dictatorship.”