A Moscow court has ordered the arrest, in absentia, of Denis Butsayev, a former deputy minister of natural resources, on charges of large-scale fraud.
Italy’s embassy in Russia has not changed its procedures for Russians submitting visa applications through intermediaries, the Italian diplomatic mission told the Russian business news outlet RBC.
Decorated Russian actress Olga Vasilieva has dismissed as a fake a claim that she had petitioned the State Duma to allow her and her husband, Dmitry Nazarov, to return to Russia.
Anatoly Chubais, the former head of the Russian state nanotechnology corporation Rosnano, has denounced the criminal prosecution of the company’s former top managers as “repressions” and “a mockery of the law.”
Russia’s State Duma has appointed Yana Lantratova as the country’s human rights commissioner.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the military to prepare a “response” to the large-scale Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities that followed the end of a three-day ceasefire.
Russia’s prison population has fallen to 282,000 over the past four and a half years, the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Arkady Gostev, said. The state-run Russian news agency TASS cited his remarks.
Alexei Venediktov, former editor-in-chief of the shuttered independent Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy, has been fined for cooperating with an “undesirable” organization, the Slovo Zashchite project reported.
Russia’s Central Election Commission voted at a May 14 session to give a vacant State Duma seat to former Bryansk Region Governor Alexander Bogomaz, registering him as a deputy, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Vyacheslav Gladkov posted a video address to his Telegram channel on the morning of May 14, following his resignation as governor of the Belgorod region.
The Kremlin announced that Vyacheslav Gladkov has resigned as governor of the Belgorod region. Gladkov submitted his resignation voluntarily, and President Vladimir Putin accepted it. Putin appointed Alexander Shuvaev — a 45-year-old deputy governor of the Irkutsk region, a veteran of Russia’s war against Ukraine, and a graduate of the Vremya Geroev program — as acting head of the region.
Italy’s visa centers in Russia, VMS and AlmavivA, stopped accepting applications submitted through third parties as of May 12, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) reported.
Kyiv’s High Anti-Corruption Court has ordered the arrest of Andriy Yermak, the former head of the Ukrainian presidential office, but offered him the option of posting bail of 140 million hryvnias ($3.2 million).
Russian forces struck Kyiv overnight on May 14 with a combined drone and missile attack.
In Russia’s Kemerovo region, cattle are being culled, and checkpoints are being set up around farms and agricultural facilities. According to the official version, the cows are being euthanized due to a skin disease. Unofficially, however, sources say it may be foot-and-mouth disease, an acute viral infection that has also been detected in cattle in the Novosibirsk region. Preliminary reports suggest that between 2,000 and 4,000 cows were killed in one village in Kuzbass over the past week. Here’s what we know.
Russia’s State Duma passed a bill on the “extraterritorial” use of Russian armed forces to protect Russian citizens abroad, the state-run Russian news agency TASS reported. The legislation cleared both its second and third readings.
Moscow has banned the publication of photos and videos showing the aftermath of terrorist attacks and drone strikes, according to a press release from the city government.
Vyacheslav Gladkov has resigned as governor of the Belgorod region for personal reasons, the Russian news agency Interfax reported, citing the Kremlin’s press service.
Two Estonian citizens who crossed into Russia last winter seeking asylum have undergone inpatient psychiatric evaluations, one of them — 25-year-old Danil — said in a letter to the independent Russian news outlet Mediazona.
Latvia is moving to ban all bus service to Russia and Belarus.
A commuter train on the Razumnoye–Tomarovka route derailed in the Yakovlevsky district of Russia’s Belgorod region, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Russia’s central bank recorded its highest-ever demand for cash during the May holidays in 2026, the Russian business news outlet RBC reported on May 13.
Ukrainian drones struck the port of Taman in Krasnodar Krai overnight on May 13, the regional operational headquarters reported. Debris from a downed drone, it said, “fell on the grounds of one of the facilities in the village of Volna in the Temryuk district” — where the port is located — starting a fire at the facility, which the headquarters did not name. One person was injured.
Denis Butsaev, Russia’s former deputy natural resources minister, faces charges of large-scale fraud, the Russian state news agency TASS reported on May 13, citing law enforcement.
Vladimir Ashurkov, a financier and ally of Alexei Navalny, gave a three-hour interview to journalist Yury Dud. In the 2000s, Ashurkov served as chief financial officer of the Port of St. Petersburg and as a top manager at Alfa Group. From 2010 onward he took part in Alexei Navalny’s investigations and later became executive director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), a position he held until 2023. In the interview with Dud, Ashurkov addressed questions about recent scandals surrounding FBK, including whether Navalny’s allies took money from oligarchs, why they worked with former Probusin
Russia’s happiness index, as measured by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), fell to 52 points in April 2026 — its lowest reading in 15 years.
On Sunday, May 10, Latvia’s Defense Minister Andris Spruds announced his resignation — three days after Ukrainian drones that had crossed into Latvian airspace from Russia crashed near the Latvian city of Rezekne. The drones damaged empty fuel storage tanks at an oil depot. No one was injured, but the political damage has proved more serious. The incident occurred five months before scheduled parliamentary elections and almost immediately shifted from a military security question to a question of public trust in the government. Why did this drone incident lead to a minister’s resignation? And
Andriy Yermak, the former chief of staff to Ukraine’s president, denied the charges against him in a money laundering case.
Russian forces struck Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, the regional military administration reported.
Valery Fadeev, head of the Human Rights Council under Russia’s president, said banning or “switching off” VPN services is impossible. He told the Russian business news outlet RBC that any additional legislative regulation of such services would be futile.
