Latest news with #Kremlin


The Sun
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Playboy model from iconic Pulp album cover has chilling link to Putin
A PLAYBOY model who featured on an iconic album cover has a surprising link to Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin. Ksenia Sobchak, 41, posed for the lads' mag in 2006 and was on the iconic cover of Pulp's 1998 album, This Is Hardcore. 4 4 But the glamorous socialite ditched her party-ways and remade herself into a journalist and liberal politician who has been accused of being a " Kremlin stooge" by opposition activists. She is Putin's goddaughter and the offspring of one of his first political mentors - the ex mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly A. Sobchak - who put him on the path to presidency. The unlikely pair have known each other since the 1990s when her dad launched Putin's political career. However, she has been vocal about being against the Ukraine war - and insists she helps residents of Russian border regions displaced by Ukrainian shelling. She and the President have reportedly have not spoken since the war began, nor seen each other. Sobchak now works as an influencer on YouTube, interviewing critics of the war. arrests of antiwar activists. In a conversation with her 9.5million Instagram fans about the conflict, she said: 'I believe that this is a horrific situation, but we're going to get through this time, we'll get through it together with our audience.' Navalny accused her of being a puppet opposition candidate to Putin - to give the illusion of democracy. She said at the time: "In a system created by Putin, it is only possible for Putin to win. "I am realistic about who will become the president." Sobchak was hit by further controversy in her media career in 2022 when she was hunted by Russianpolice over claims of extortion and tax fraud. At the time she claimed it was a "politically motivated move" when three of her former employees were accused of trying to extort money from the head of state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec. After fleeing cops in Moscow, she escaped to Lithuania via Belarus after police arrested her business partner. However, after returning to Russia, Sobchak visited the Rostec office to reconcile with boss Sergey Chemezov for the "actions of colleagues" accused of extortion and said "their fate will be decided by the court". When the three ex-employees were jailed for seven years, their former boss slammed the verdict as 'way more than injustice.' 'I've done everything we had agreed to get leniency [for Kirill Sukhanov, Arian Romanovsky and Tamerlan Bigayev],' she wrote in a statement. 'Why are you ruining people's lives? 'Why the disproportionality? Just as revenge?' Her despair over the Ukraine war sparked a popular YouTube show in which she deals with stories that Russia's state media usually turn a blind eye to. Her interests include the arrests of antiwar activists, violence committed by soldiers returning from the front and human rights abuses in the southern region of Chechnya. Russian equivalent of Paris Hilton in the Noughties.


Arab News
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Kremlin says Estonia's readiness to host nuclear-capable NATO jets threatens Russia
Pevkur said Estonia was ready to host nuclear-capable jets if necessaryPeskov said such a move would be an obvious threat to RussiaMOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Friday that Estonia's stated readiness to host NATO allies' U.S.-made F-35A stealth jets, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, posed a direct threat to Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur told the Postimees news outlet on Thursday that Estonia - which borders Russia and is a rotating base for NATO jets tasked with protecting Baltic airspace - was ready to host nuclear-capable jets if necessary."If some of them, regardless of their country of origin, have a dual-use capability to carry nuclear weapons it doesn't affect our position on hosting F-35s in any way," the outlet cited him as saying."Of course we are ready to host our allies."Pevkur was speaking after Britain, a NATO member, announced it would buy at least 12 F-35A jets capable of carrying nuclear warheads and that they would join NATO's airborne nuclear about Pevkur's comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such a move would be an obvious threat to Russia."Of course it would be an immediate danger," Peskov told a journalist from Russia's Life news outlet. He said the statement was one of many "absurd thoughts" voiced by politicians in the Baltic region, which comprises Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania."We have practically no relations with the Baltic republics because it is very difficult to make them worse," he said.


Reuters
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Kremlin says Estonia's readiness to host nuclear-capable NATO jets threatens Russia
MOSCOW, June 27 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Friday that Estonia's stated readiness to host NATO allies' U.S.-made F-35A stealth jets, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, posed a direct threat to Moscow. Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur told the Postimees news outlet on Thursday that Estonia - which borders Russia and is a rotating base for NATO jets tasked with protecting Baltic airspace - was ready to host nuclear-capable jets if necessary. "If some of them, regardless of their country of origin, have a dual-use capability to carry nuclear weapons it doesn't affect our position on hosting F-35s in any way," the outlet cited him as saying. "Of course we are ready to host our allies." Pevkur was speaking after Britain, a NATO member, announced it would buy at least 12 F-35A jets capable of carrying nuclear warheads and that they would join NATO's airborne nuclear mission. Asked about Pevkur's comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such a move would be an obvious threat to Russia. "Of course it would be an immediate danger," Peskov told a journalist from Russia's Life news outlet. He said the statement was one of many "absurd thoughts" voiced by politicians in the Baltic region, which comprises Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. "We have practically no relations with the Baltic republics because it is very difficult to make them worse," he said.


The Standard
21 hours ago
- Politics
- The Standard
Vietnamese suspect's violent past exposed in missing Vitenamese woman case
Putin will not go to BRICS summit in Brazil due to ICC arrest warrant, Kremlin aide says


The Standard
21 hours ago
- Politics
- The Standard
Airport to adjust autonomous bus algorithms after collision
Putin will not go to BRICS summit in Brazil due to ICC arrest warrant, Kremlin aide says