Estonia

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Police in Estonia arrested a Russian professor teaching at the Baltic country’s most prestigious university on suspicions of spying for Moscow, officials said Tuesday.

Estonian Internal Security Service, or security police, said it launched an investigation into Vyacheslav Morozov, a Russian national and professor of international politics at the University of Tartu, for his alleged involvement in intelligence activity meant to undermine the country’s national security.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Moscow court extended on Thursday pre-trial detentions for three lawyers who once represented imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The three were arrested in October on charges of participating in an extremist group, a case widely seen as a means to ramp up pressure on the politician.

The Basmanny District Court ruled that Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser will remain behind bars at least until March 13.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — When Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the outside world viewed those Russians known as “oligarchs” as men who whose vast wealth, ruthlessly amassed, made them almost shadow rulers. A “government of the few,” in the word’s etymology.

The term has persisted well into Putin’s rule, broadening in popular usage to refer to almost any Russian with a substantial fortune.

How much political power any of Russia’s uber-rich now wield, however, is doubtful.

Nov 3 (Reuters) - Several U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones have been orbiting over Gaza amid Israeli strikes and military activity there, U.S. officials and a source have told Reuters, and the flights are part of an effort to help locate hostages, 10 of whom are said to be from the United States.

Below is a description of the MQ-9 drone based on information from the Air Force and its maker, General Atomics.

WHAT IT DOES AND WHO OWNS IT:

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Vladimir Putin isn’t quite the man he used to be — more than a decade has passed since the Russian president engaged in public stunts to boast of his vigor by hugging a polar bear or riding a horse barechested in the mountains. The war in Ukraine has further dented that strongman image.

Putin is still expected to seek another term when Russia holds presidential elections next March. In fact, he has pushed through changes in the constitution to allow him to run for two more six-year terms.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Israel’s ambassador to Moscow gave new details Wednesday of the weekend riot at an airport in southern Russia when a flight from Tel Aviv landed there, saying some of the passengers had to hide in the terminal before being flown by helicopter to safety.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Andrei, a 29-year-old computer programmer who fled to Germany from Belarus two years ago amid a harsh crackdown on political dissent, is facing a serious dilemma.

His Belarusian passport has expired, along with his German residence permit. But Belarus has stopped renewing passports at its embassies abroad under a new decree by authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian authorities on Friday detained three lawyers representing imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny after searching their homes, his allies said, a step that comes amid increasing pressure on the Kremlin’s critics.

The move was an attempt to “completely isolate Navalny,” his ally Ivan Zhdanov said on social media. Navalny, 47, has been behind bars since January 2021, serving a 19-year prison sentence but has been able to get messages out regularly and keep up with the news.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The announcement of a cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh, just a day after Azerbaijan launched heavy artillery fire against Armenian forces, toned down fears of a third full-scale war over the region in the southern Caucasus Mountains.

But it still leaves significant unresolved questions about the conflict.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a brief armed rebellion against the Russian military earlier this year, was presumed dead Wednesday after a plane crash north of Moscow that killed all 10 people on board.

Prigozhin was on the plane, according to Russia’s civil aviation agency, which cited the airline. The crash immediately raised suspicions since the fate of the founder of the Wagner private military company has been the subject of intense speculation ever since he mounted the mutiny.