Tag Archives: Russia

At the same time as U.S. and Russian diplomats are discussing a potential prisoner exchange involving Brittney Griner, the American basketball star’s attorneys are exhausting all available options to try to reduce her nine-year prison sentence. Griner’s defense team on Monday filed an appeal against the verdict handed down earlier this month by a Russian court, attorney Maria Blagovolina confirmed via email to Yahoo Sports. Blagovolina did not respond to a question seeking an explanation… Source link

Just hours after she was sentenced to nine years in prison on the other side of the world, the Phoenix Mercury and Connecticut Sun came together for a touching, emotional tribute to Brittney Griner ahead of their game on Thursday night. Both the Mercury and the Sun joined arms together at halfcourt at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut for 42 seconds, honoring Griner’s jersey number, while fans in attendance started chanting, “bring her home.” “It’s not anything we’re politicizing,”… Source link

Russia’s Supreme Court declared Ukraine’s Azov Regiment a “terrorist” organization Tuesday, paving the way for the unit’s captured fighters to be tried in Russian courts and potentially face lenghty prison terms.  Moscow has regularly decried the Azov battalion for its past extremist right-wing links, using it to justify its invasion of Ukraine that the Kremlin calls its “denazification” of Kyiv this year. The battalion formed in 2014 as a… Source link

The Biden administration has “put a substantial proposal on the table” aimed at bringing WNBA star Brittney Griner and fellow jailed American Paul Whelan home from Russia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday. Blinken declined to offer details on the proposed deal with Russia, but convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout has for years been atop the Kremlin’s prisoner exchange wish list. Russian state media outlets have previously floated the possibility of an exchange involving… Source link

Shortly before 3 p.m. on Wednesday, a cadre of Russian police officers escorted Brittney Griner into a cramped courtroom outside Moscow and led her to her customary spot inside a metal defendant’s cage. Griner, clad in a long-sleeved black Phoenix Mercury T-shirt, held out her hands so that one of her guards could remove her shackles. Then, as cameras flashed, the WNBA star shook hands with her attorneys through the bars of the cage, flashed a thumbs-up sign and held up a sheet of paper… Source link

LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) – Russia’s competition watchdog fined Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) 2 billion roubles ($34.2 million) on Tuesday for abusing its dominant position in the video hosting market, the regulator said in a statement. The decision is the latest multi-million dollar fine as part of Moscow’s increasingly assertive campaign against foreign tech companies. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) said the company had “abused its dominant position in the YouTube video hosting… Source link

Russia is speaking out against the United States in the Brittney Griner case, just one day after the Phoenix Mercury star was front and center at the ESPYs. Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the United States classifying Griner as “wrongfully detained” shows blatant disrespect for Russian law. Even though marijuana is legal in various states, Zakharova said, it doesn’t matter one bit in Russia. “If a U.S. citizen was taken in connection with… Source link

Topline Russian authorities fined Apple and Alphabet’s Google this week, the latest crackdown from the Kremlin on American technology giants in wake of its Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian authorities have cracked down on Apple recently. NurPhoto via Getty Images Key Facts Russia’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said Tuesday it plans to fine Apple an undetermined amount for alleged antitrust violations, saying in a statement Apple “abused its dominant… Source link

Russia fined Google 21.1 billion rubles ($374 million) on Monday for repeatedly failing to “remove prohibited information” — content related to the country’s invasion and subsequent war in Ukraine. The country’s telecommunication watchdog Roskomnadzor cited a court order and said Google (particularly YouTube) didn’t take down content that discredited “the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.” The watchdog’s press release also accused Google of… Source link

Russia imposed a nearly $365 million fine (21.1 billion rubles) on Google for failing to delete YouTube videos that go against the country’s laws, as reported earlier by Reuters. In a translated press release, Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor states that YouTube didn’t follow orders to remove “prohibited content,” which includes videos “promoting extremism and terrorism,” as well as supposedly false information about the war in Ukraine. In March, the Roskomnadzor… Source link