Everything Sawti has published in connection with this country.
Health authorities in Siberia’s Irkutsk region have placed 197 people under observation or precautionary isolation after an employee at a plague-control institute died amid suspicions that she had contracted a highly dangerous infection. None of the contacts has symptoms and preliminary laboratory results were negative, making a wider outbreak unlikely for now.
Twenty-eight-year-old laboratory technician Daria Shipilova has died after contracting plague in Russia’s Irkutsk region. Local reports suggested she contracted pneumonic plague after a test tube broke, while up to 200 potential contacts were placed in quarantine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to resume negotiations on the war in Ukraine on terms acceptable to Russia, accusing Kyiv of complicating the process through attacks during Russia’s elections. Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the first combat mission using a domestically developed Ukrainian tactical ballistic missile.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would immediately consider using all weapons available to it in the event of a direct attack on Kaliningrad or other Russian territory, stressing that the type of response would be determined by the circumstances. His remarks came after a Russian message to NATO and mutual warnings over security in the Baltic Sea region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said any direct attack on Kaliningrad or other Russian territory would immediately raise the question of using all weapons available to Moscow. His remarks followed a Russian diplomatic warning to NATO against attempting to isolate the region, which referred to the possible use of nuclear weapons.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov said Moscow’s readiness to negotiate on Ukraine did not mean abandoning its positions or rushing to make concessions. He stressed that Russia was keeping the door open to dialogue with Western countries, and that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held more than 40 bilateral meetings during the week of high-level UN General Assembly meetings.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that more than 8,000 North Korean soldiers were in Russia and that preparations were under way to deploy another 10,000. The announcement came amid a dispute between Kyiv and Seoul over the disclosure that two North Korean prisoners had been transferred to South Korea.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree raising the authorised number of military personnel in the armed forces to 1,550,500, an increase of 15,500. The decree sets the total authorised strength of the armed forces, including military and civilian personnel, at 2,441,630.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 8,000 North Korean troops are on Russian territory and that Pyongyang is preparing to deploy 10,000 more. His remarks came amid Ukrainian and South Korean estimates of military support provided by North Korea to Moscow since 2024.
Satellite imagery showed changes and damage at the Ilsky Refinery in Krasnodar Krai and the Azov Optical-Mechanical Plant in Rostov Oblast after Ukrainian strikes on the night of 26 September 2026. Ukrainian authorities said the attack sparked two fires and damaged equipment inside five production buildings.
In a new book, Russian journalist Roman Badanin presents the findings of more than two decades of investigations into Vladimir Putin’s trajectory and the network around him, warning against underestimating the Russian president’s capabilities. Badanin believes that the continuation of the war in Ukraine has hardened Putin’s position and made it more difficult for him to reverse his course.
Russia’s Central Election Commission announced that Ramzan Kadyrov had won a fifth term at the head of the Chechen Republic after receiving 99.85% of the vote, with all ballots counted. Final turnout was 95.19%, with 831,946 voters taking part, while each of his rivals received 0.05%.
The Kremlin criticised sanctions signed by US President Donald Trump against Russia, saying they harm relations between Moscow and Washington and do not help resolve the war in Ukraine. It said Moscow had developed mechanisms to limit the impact of the restrictions in cooperation with its trading partners.
Preliminary Russian parliamentary election results show United Russia securing 57.5% of the vote after about 71% was counted, putting it on course to retain a two-thirds majority in the Duma. The vote took place amid cyberattacks and Ukrainian drone strikes that killed two people in the Moscow region.
Moscow plans to expand a carbon-fibre plant in Tatarstan, potentially enabling the production of airframes for around 28,000 additional attack drones annually. Documents and satellite imagery show preparations for the project, which is intended to support Russia’s defence industries and reduce reliance on Chinese imports.
Russian officials said an attack involving hundreds of drones targeted Moscow and its surrounding area on the final day of the legislative elections, killing two people, evacuating 400 others and damaging an oil refinery and residential areas. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin accused Ukraine of seeking to disrupt the vote, while authorities said more than 1,600 drones had been intercepted since Saturday.
Russia’s Central Election Commission said Moscow’s electronic voting system was subjected to a large-scale and severe cyberattack overnight, as a three-day parliamentary election was under way. Commission head Ella Pamfilova confirmed that efforts to fend off the attacks were continuing, saying remote voting was operating normally and without interruption.
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev called for a response involving “military deterrence” after US President Donald Trump signed a new sanctions law targeting Russia’s energy and defence sectors, President Vladimir Putin and other officials, as part of increased pressure on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow was unaware of any US plan to conclude trade agreements with it before the end of the Ukraine war, stressing that the messages Russia receives link moving to economic projects to first reaching an understanding on the war.
A Russian Foreign Ministry official said NATO countries had strengthened their military presence and intensified exercises in the Arctic recently, describing the moves as rapid and unjustified and a threat to Russia’s security, while the alliance says its activities in the region are defensive in nature.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to work with its European neighbours and resume relations with them, denying any aggressive intentions towards Europe. At the same time, he warned of growing external threats and NATO expansion, and unveiled plans to develop arms and defence industries, satellites, air defence and unmanned systems.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Britain’s chargé d’affaires in Moscow, Danai Dolakia, and delivered a formal protest over what it described as London’s increased supplies of drones and weapons to Ukraine, warning that countermeasures could be taken and calling on Britain to reverse its current policy.
The Kremlin said a package of sanctions approved by the US Congress against Russia would hinder efforts to reach a peaceful settlement to the war in Ukraine. The legislation targets the energy and defence sectors, Russian officials and oil tankers, and allows tariffs to be imposed on major buyers of Russian oil and gas.
Recent satellite imagery shows barriers made of shipping containers and protective nets being installed around tanks and sensitive facilities at two Russian refineries. The measures come amid an escalation in Ukraine’s long-range strikes, the latest being an attack on facilities in Taganrog that Kyiv said targeted military sites and an oil-products tank.
