Kremlin - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

Russians lay flowers at Navalny’s grave, hail him as symbol of hope

RUSSIANS queued to place flowers on the grave of late opposition politician Alexei Navalny, with mourners hailing him as a symbol of hope and perseverance the day after he was laid to rest in Moscow. Navalny's mother Lyudmila was among the mourners, visiting her son's grave for the second day, accompanied by the mother of Alexei's widow Yulia. Both women, dressed in black, stood quietly at the grave, before leaving. Navalny, who was President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critic inside Russia, died at the age of 47 in an Arctic penal colony on February 16. Supporters said he had been murdered.…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

Navalny ally urges Russians to join election day protest in his memory, drawing Kremlin ire

WORLD

A close ally of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny urged Russians on Tuesday to turn out in big numbers for an election day protest against President Vladimir Putin next month that Navalny had called for shortly before he died. The Kremlin warned there would be legal consequences for anyone who heeded what it called a provocative call from people it has labelled as dangerous U.S.-backed extremists. In a post on social media on February 1, Navalny had urged Russians to register their protest by all turning out to vote at the same time, at noon on March 17. Navalny died…

Feb

2024

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE

Kremlin says Biden calling Putin a ‘crazy SOB’ debases the US

WORLD

THE Kremlin said that Joe Biden had debased the United States by calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a "crazy SOB", casting the U.S. president's remark as part of a failed "Hollywood cowboy" act. The U.S. president made the "crazy SOB" remark as part of a sentence about threats to the world - including "that guy Putin and others", the risk of nuclear conflict and the existential threat to humanity from climate change. "The use of such language against the head of another state by the president of the United States is unlikely to infringe on our president, President Putin," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry…

Jan

2024

By The African Mirror

Putin meets Chad junta leader as Russia competes with France in Africa

NEWS

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin met Chadian leader Mahamat Idriss Deby in the Kremlin, courting a country that had previously maintained a pro-Western policy and spurned Russia's recent outreach in Africa's Sahel region. Russia has been moving to edge out the influence of France, the former colonial power in West Africa and the Sahel, and build ties with countries that have been roiled by a wave of coups since 2020. Deby has led Chad since 2021, when he took power in a coup shortly after his father, long-serving president Idriss Deby, was killed in battle fighting anti-government rebels. The junta initially…

Dec

2023

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE

In Russia, some women demand return of their men from Ukraine front

WORLD

Maria Andreeva, whose husband has been fighting in Ukraine for more than a year, is also waging a battle in Moscow: to get him home. She is not alone. A growing movement of Russian women is demanding the return from the front of their husbands, sons and brothers who were mobilised after a decree by President Vladimir Putin in September last year. Initially, the movement pledged loyalty to what the Kremlin calls its "special military operation" (SVO) but what they regard as the perfunctory response they have received is hardening some of their opinions. Since Andreeva's husband was mobilised last year and…

Oct

2023

By The African Mirror

Kremlin says Putin is healthy, laughs off body double rumours

WORLD

THE Kremlin denied a report that President Vladimir Putin was ill and laughed off persistent rumours that he used body doubles to cover for him in public appearances. "Everything is fine with him, this is absolutely another fake," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about an unsourced report by a Russian Telegram channel, picked up by some Western media, that the president had suffered a serious health episode on Sunday evening. The spokesman laughed in response to a further question about body doubles and denied that Putin had any. "This belongs to the category of absurd information hoaxes that…

Jul

2023

By ANDREW OSBORN

Russia’s Medvedev says standoff with West to last decades, Ukraine conflict ‘permanent’

WORLD

DMITRY Medvedev, Russia's former president, has warned that Moscow's confrontation with the West will last decades and that its conflict with Ukraine could become permanent. Medvedev, once seen in the West as a liberal moderniser, has emerged as one of Russia's most outspoken hawks since Moscow launched what it called a "special military operation" in Ukraine last year. Now deputy head of the Security Council, his views reflect some of the thinking at the Kremlin's top level, according to Russian officials. In an article for the government's Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper, he said tensions between Russia and the West were "much…

Jun

2023

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and LIDIA KELLY

Putin wanted to ‘wipe out’ Wagner chief Prigozhin during mutiny attempt, says Lukashenko

WORLD

BELARUSIAN President Alexander Lukashenko said he persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin not to "wipe out" mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, in response to what the Kremlin cast as a mutiny that pushed Russia towards civil war. Putin initially vowed to crush the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolution of 1917 and then a civil war, but hours later a deal was clinched to allow Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus. Prigozhin flew to Belarus from Russia on Tuesday. While describing his Saturday conversation with Putin, Lukashenko used the Russian criminal slang…

Jun

2023

By The African Mirror

Russia to stay in touch with African peace mission, some ideas workable – Kremlin

NEWS

THE Kremlin said that Russia would continue to talk to a group of African countries seeking to mediate in the conflict with Ukraine, notably at a Russia-Africa summit next month, and that some of their ideas were workable. President Vladimir Putin on Saturday gave the seven-country African delegation that had come to see him in St Petersburg a list of reasons why he believed many of their proposals were misguided, pouring cold water on a plan already largely dismissed by Kyiv. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that talks with the delegation would continue nonetheless as some of its suggestions…

Jun

2023

By The African Mirror

Russia’s Putin discusses Ukraine in call with South Africa’s Ramaphosa

NEWS

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has held a phone call with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, the Kremlin said. The two leaders discussed "issues related to the well-known African initiative to find a solution to the Ukrainian conflict," it added. According to the statement, Putin will receive a delegation of several African heads of state in the near future. "Preparations for the second Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg at the end of July and the upcoming BRICS summit in Johannesburg in August were also discussed," the Kremlin said. Thomson Reuters Foundation