Vladimir Putin - The African Mirror

Dec

2023

Putin says Russia has no plan to attack NATO, dismisses Biden remark as ‘nonsense’

KREMLIN chief Vladimir Putin dismissed as complete nonsense remarks by U.S. President Joe Biden that Russia would attack a NATO country if it won the war in Ukraine, adding that Russia had no interest in fighting the NATO military alliance. The war in Ukraine has triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and Biden warned last year that a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia would trigger World War Three. In a plea to Republicans not to block further military aid earlier this month, Biden warned that if Putin was victorious over Ukraine…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

‘Russia is waking up’: a tango-dancing soldier’s wife finds purpose on Russian home front

WORLD

NATALIA Yermakova's husband, Alexander, has been fighting in Ukraine for over a year after responding to President Vladimir Putin's mobilisation call. Wounded on the battlefield, he was operated on and then sent back to the front after recovering. Now his wife, who shares his love of tango dancing, is doing her own bit for the war effort: toiling as a volunteer in a "Family Battalion". One of a group of around 40 mostly female relatives of mobilised men in Moscow who give up their free time to help out, she threads camouflage netting, makes signs to mark minefields, gathers candles…

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…

Oct

2023

By The African Mirror

Putin filmed in China accompanied by officers with Russian nuclear briefcase

WORLD

RARE footage was shown of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing accompanied by officers carrying the so-called nuclear briefcase which can be used to order a nuclear strike. Putin, after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, was filmed walking to another meeting surrounded by security and followed by two Russian naval officers in uniform each carrying a briefcase. The camera zooms in on one of the briefcases. Russia's nuclear briefcase is traditionally carried by a naval officer. Known as the "Cheget" (named after Mount Cheget in the Caucasus Mountains), the briefcase is with the president at all times but…

Oct

2023

By The African Mirror

Burkina Faso and Russia’s Rosatom sign agreement for nuclear power plant

NEWS

BURKINA Faso and Russian state nuclear company Rosatom signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the landlocked Sahel West African state, Burkina Faso's energy ministry said in a statement. The nuclear power plant will enable the country to meet its energy needs, adding that the agreement was signed by energy and mines minister Simon-Pierre Boussim, and Nikolay Spasskiy, Rosatom's deputy director general. The deal follows a request made by Burkina Faso junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore to Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg in July. Traore, who seized power…

Oct

2023

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and LAURIE CHEN

Putin to visit China to deepen ‘no limits’ partnership with Xi

WORLD

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin will meet Xi Jinping in China this week in a bid to deepen a partnership forged between the United States' two biggest strategic competitors. Putin will attend the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17-18, his first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the Hague-based International Criminal Court issued a warrant for him in March over the deportation of children from Ukraine. China and Russia declared a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in…

Oct

2023

By The African Mirror

Putin talks security with Malian leader in third phone call in two months

NEWS

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin discussed trade and security with Mali's leader in their third phone conversation in less than two months, the Kremlin said. The frequency of Putin's contacts with Mali's interim president Assimi Goita underlines Moscow's strong interest in building its influence in the coup-prone Sahel region of West Africa where it is cultivating strong security ties at the expense of France and the United States. The two leaders discussed their "mutual commitment to further strengthening trade and economic ties, security cooperation and the fight against terrorism", the Kremlin said in a statement. Goita echoed this in a post on social media and…

Jul

2023

By MARK TREVELYAN

Putin discusses grain deal, awkward BRICS summit with Ramaphosa

NEWS

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in which they discussed the Black Sea grain deal, due to expire on Monday, and a summit in South Africa next month, the Kremlin said. Ramaphosa finds himself in an awkward position as host of the BRICS summit because of an arrest warrant issued against Putin in March by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accused him of the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia. The warrant means member states of the ICC - of which South Africa is one - are obliged to arrest him if…

Jul

2023

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE

Russia’s Putin snubs Prigozhin, Biden jokes about poison

WORLD

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin offered Wagner mercenaries the opportunity to keep fighting at a meeting just days after their failed mutiny but suggested Yevgeny Prigozhin be moved aside in favour of a different commander, the Kommersant newspaper said. Putin initially said he would crush the June 23-24 mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolutions of 1917, but hours later a deal was clinched to allow Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus. Mystery surrounds the fate of that deal as well as the future of Wagner, one of the world's most battle-hardened mercenary…