Russia

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on at least four Turkey-based entities it said violated US export controls and helped Russia's war effort, in the biggest US enforcement action in Turkey since the invasion of Ukraine last year.

"American technology should not be a bulwark of Russia's authoritarian surveillance machinery. The U.S. administration should thoroughly investigate claims that the Russian regime is using American chips in its electronic facial recognition system and do whatever is necessary to deny Putin and his cronies access American technology," Wyden told Reuters.

"If we differ on the most existential of issues, it will be hard to cooperate on other fronts," summarises Andrzej Sadecki, head of the Central Europe team and a Hungary specialist at OSW, the Warsaw-based Center for Eastern Studies.

The Russian president's administration has demanded regional vice governors install vending machines, offer free parking in cities and preferential bank loans, as well as provide health insurance for civil servants, according to independent Russian media Verstka.

Finland officially became NATO's 31st member after the country's foreign minister signed the accession document and handed it over to United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The signature was the last step of the procedure and was signed in Brussels.

According to Sergey Naryshkin, the West is doing this in order to open a second front because the war in Ukraine "is not developing in favor of Kyiv".
"We see constant attempts by Washington, Brussels and London to convince the Georgian leadership of the need to open a so-called second front," Naryshkin said during his visit to Belarus, according to CNN.

Day 405 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

Finland joined the NATO military alliance Tuesday, dealing a major blow to Russia with a historic realignment of the continent triggered by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

With the handing over of documents, the Nordic nation officially entered the world's biggest security alliance, doubling its border with Russia.

An explosion tore through a cafe in Russia's second-largest city Sunday, killing a well-known military blogger and strident supporter of the war in Ukraine. Some reports said a bomb was embedded in a bust of the blogger that was given to him as a gift.

Their soldiers battling and dying across muddy trenches, ruined towns and sprawling minefields, Russia and Ukraine have stepped up recruitment drives to bolster their badly depleted militaries, in another sign that both sides are steeling themselves for a long war.