Categories
Russia News

Trump, TikTok, Truth Social, and their ties to a billionaire GOP megadonor [Video]

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order stating that America must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security. However, he recently announced that hes changed his stance about the social media company shortly after meeting with Jeffrey Yass, a billionaire GOP megadonor who has a $33 billion stake in TikTok. As Trumps media company prepares to go public following a merger, journalists have uncovered that Yass is tangled up in that too. Turns out the billionaire megadonors firm, as of December 2023, was the largest institutional shareholder of the company with which Truth Social just merged.

Categories
Russia News

Russia arrests 11 Moscow massacre suspects as they reveal names and pictures of those they believe behind ISIS concert hall slaughter as death toll rises to 115 and pictures reveal bloody aftermath [Video]

Some 121 victims – including children – were in hospital, as Muscovites queued to donate blood. In all 183 were wounded, including eight children.

Categories
Russia News

Russia detains suspects after Moscow concert hall attack killed 133 people [Video]

The death toll in the Moscow concert hall attack has risen to 133, Russias top state investigative agency said Saturday.Related video above: Russia presidential election explainerThe update from the Investigative Committee comes as authorities are combing the charred wreckage of the Crocus City Hall on Moscows western edge for more victims. Officials previously put the death toll from Fridays raid at 115.The attack also left many wounded.The Islamic State groups Afghanistan branch claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on affiliated channels on social media. A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. agencies had confirmed that the group was responsible for the attack.In an address to the nation on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said authorities had detained 11 people, including four who took part in the attack. He also suggested they had been trying to cross the border into Ukraine which, he said, tried to create a window to help them escape.Ukraine has strongly denied any involvement and accused Moscow of using the attack to try to stoke fervor in its war effort. Russian agencies appeared to suggest the attack was linked to Ukraine even though the Islamic State group claimed responsibility in a statement. A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. agencies had confirmed that that group was responsible for the attack.The four suspects were stopped in the Bryansk region of western Russia, not far from the border with Ukraine, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. They planned to cross the border into Ukraine and had contacts there, state news agency Tass said, citing Russia’s FSB. The head of the FSB briefed President Vladimir Putin on the arrests on Saturday, according to Tass.Images shared by Russian state media Saturday showed a fleet of emergency vehicles still gathered outside the ruins of Crocus City Hall, a shopping mall and music venue with a capacity of more than 6,000 people in Krasnogorsk, on Moscow’s western edge.Friday’s attack came just days after President Vladimir Putin cemented his grip on power in a highly orchestrated electoral landslide. The attack was the deadliest in Russia in years and came as the country’s fight in Ukraine dragged into a third year.Videos posted online showed gunmen in the venue shooting civilians at point-blank range. The roof of the theatre, where crowds had gathered Friday for a performance by the Russian rock band Picnic, collapsed in the early hours of Saturday morning as firefighters spent hours fighting a fire that erupted during the attack.Four of those detained were directly involved in the attack, Tass said.The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on affiliated social media channels, although neither the Kremlin nor Russian security services have officially assigned blame for the attack.In a statement posted by its Aamaq news agency, the Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan said it had attacked a large gathering of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk. It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the claim.However, a U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. intelligence agencies had confirmed that IS was responsible for the attack.The official said U.S. intelligence agencies had gathered information in recent weeks that the IS branch was planning an attack in Moscow, and that U.S. officials had privately shared the intelligence earlier this month with Russian officials.The official was briefed on the matter but was not authorized to publicly discuss the intelligence information and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.Messages of outrage, shock and support for those affected have since streamed in from around the world.On Friday, the U.N. Security Council condemned “the heinous and cowardly terrorist attack” and underlined the need for the perpetrators to be held accountable. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the terrorist attack “in the strongest possible terms,” his spokesman said.Meanwhile, in Moscow itself, hundreds of people stood in line Saturday morning to donate blood and plasma, Russia’s health ministry said.Putin, who extended his grip on Russia for another six years in this week’s presidential vote after a sweeping crackdown on dissent, had publicly denounced the Western warnings of a potential terrorist attack as an attempt to intimidate Russians. “All that resembles open blackmail and an attempt to frighten and destabilize our society,” he said earlier this week.In October 2015, a bomb planted by the Islamic State downed a Russian passenger plane over Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, most of them Russian vacation-goers returning from Egypt. The group, which operates mainly in Syria and Iraq but also in Afghanistan and Africa, also has claimed several attacks in Russia’s volatile Caucasus and other regions in the past years. It recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.___Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.

Categories
Russia News

Crowd flee as Moscow attackers enter concert hall lobby | News [Video]

The suspects of the Moscow concert attack have been spotted parading the lobby of Crocus City Hall, as they launched their massacre that has killed at least 143. Carrying large weapons and dressed in camouflage with backpacks on their backs, they shot at anyone in their sight. The building later went up in flames after petrol bombs were thrown. Much of the building is now rubble. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, and 11 people have been detained in connection.

Categories
Russia News

Emergency services wade through rubble at site of Moscow attack | News [Video]

Aftermath from the Moscow massacre that left at least 143 people dead has seen emergency services wading through rubble to make what remains of the building as safe as possible. 11 people have been detained after ISIS claim responsibility for the attack, which took place at Crocus City Hall on Friday (22 March). At least four men began shooting at patrons as they waited for a rock band to start, before allegedly letting off petrol bombs, causing the building to go up in smoke.

Categories
Russia News

Slovakia votes for a successor to the nations first female president. An April 6 runoff is expected | KLRT [Video]

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) Voters in Slovakia headed to the polls on Saturday to elect a successor to Zuzana aputov, the countrys first female president and a staunch backer of neighboring Ukraine in its fight against Russias full-scale invasion. aputov isnt seeking a second term. Peter Pellegrini, a close ally of populist Prime Minister Robert []