Russia

$20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 is the number a Moscow court wants the YouTube parent company to pay for blocking Russian media outlets. It is a sum “filled with symbolism,” the Kremlin told NBC News on Thursday.

A Russian court ordered Google to pay 20 decillion for removing Russian TV channels from YouTube after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Former Marine Paul Whelan said he was devastated when he learned Brittney Griner would be released from Russian detention and he would not be, NBC News reports.

The FBI said that the websites were part of a spear phishing campaign.

U.S. officials on Friday accused RT of carrying out covert information warfare operations around the world as an arm of Russia’s spy agencies.

The administration announced a series of actions Wednesday in response to alleged efforts by Russian actors to influence U.S. public opinion.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has announced 92 additions to its list of Americans banned from entering the country.

Ksenia Karelina was visiting family in Russia when investigators searched her phone and found she had donated to a Ukrainian charity.

Amina Abakarova faces a possible lifetime ban and potential criminal proceedings, Russian authorities said, after the incident during a tournament last week.

Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva arrived in San Antonio, Texas, early Friday morning after being freed from Russian prisons in a mass prisoner swap.

The U.S. and Russia completed on Thursday their largest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history, a deal involving 24 people.

Thursday’s swap of 24 prisoners surpassed a deal involving 14 people that was struck in 2010.

Part of the overwhelming joy at the White House Thursday afternoon as President Joe Biden discussed the release of several Americans in the largest prisoner swap with Russia in post-Soviet history was Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Whelan. Her brother, former Marine Paul Whelan, was one of four Americans falsely accused of spying on Russia who returned home in a multinational deal involving…

The United States and Russia have completed their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history, with Moscow releasing journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan in a multinational deal that set some two dozen people free.

WNBA star Brittney Griner was freed from Russian custody as part of a prisoner swap, but many, including Griner’s family, were quick to point out another American name was not listed as part of the deal.

A prisoner swap is underway between the United States, Russia, and other countries on Thursday, according to a senior Biden administration official.

While high-profile prisoner exchanges have occurred in the past, the prospects of further swaps are unclear, and so is the overall number of those in Russian custody.

Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security prison by a Russian court after he was found guilty of espionage in a case the U.S. government has denounced as a sham.

Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist, was found guilty of espionage Friday in a Russian court and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

A Russian court has sentenced American journalist Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison on espionage charges after a brief trial his employer, The Wall Street Journal, has rejected as a sham.