Latest news with #NovayaGazeta
Miami Herald
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Putin's Henchman Addresses Rumors He's Dying
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has addressed swirling rumors about his declining health with a cryptic message on mortality. Kadyrov, dubbed President Vladimir Putin's henchman, posted a video to his Telegram channel, weeks after he asked the Russian leader "to be relieved of my post" amid rumors of deteriorating health that will soon force him to step down. Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment by email. The message comes amid mounting speculation over the health of the Chechen leader, who governs the predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia. It marks the first time Kadyrov has publicly addressed the rumors, which intensified after Latvia-based Novaya Gazeta reported in April 2024 that he was diagnosed in 2019 with necrotizing pancreatitis—a severe condition that can lead to organ failure and death. In a video published Tuesday, Kadyrov said in a voiceover that he "increasingly hears gossip about my illness," but didn't confirm or deny whether his health was deteriorating. "They say that I am dying, I have little time left," the Chechen leader said. "Firstly, illness and death are the path of every person. No one living has passed this road. Secondly, it is not illness or threat that shortens life. Its length is determined only by the one who gave breath." Kadyrov, who is 48, added: "If I am destined to live 50, 60 or 70 years, I will live them as prescribed, and no one will take away a single day." In a caption, he also said, "Every day is a priceless gift, measured out by the Almighty" and said, "We must live it consciously, without spreading empty rumors and sowing discord." Earlier this month, Novaya Gazeta reported that Kadyrov asked Putin to dismiss him, and that he was preparing his teenage son Adam Kadyrov to replace him as Chechen leader. He was appointed to the post by the Russian president in 2007 following the assassination of his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, three years earlier. Kadyrov later walked back his resignation comments in a post on his Telegram channel. "Many did not understand the meaning of my words about resignation. I do not decide whether I will remain in the position of the Head of the Chechen Republic or not," Kadyrov wrote. "Yes, I can ask or suggest. But no matter how much I say, no matter how much I ask, such a decision is made by only one person—our Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President of Russia Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. "I am an infantryman! I am a team person. If there is an order, I carry it out." Speculation about the Chechen leader's health intensified in September 2023 when Ukrainian military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov said Kadyrov had been unwell for a long time with systemic health problems. There were also rumors on social media that Kadyrov was dead or in a coma. Ramzan Kadyrov's relatives told Novaya Gazeta in 2024: "There won't be the same leader as before, the [new complications] will seriously affect [him]. Even if he recovers now, he will be neither alive nor dead." Kadyrov's Chechen units will continue to support Putin's military in the Ukraine war. Related Articles Putin Ally Shares Map Of 'Buffer Zone' Covering All Of UkraineRussia Sees $1 Billion Wiped off Stock Market After Trump's Putin CommentsUkrainian MiG-29 Fighter Jets Bomb Russian Special Services BaseChina Denies Ukraine's Russia Weapons Claim 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Newsweek
27-05-2025
- Health
- Newsweek
Putin's Henchman Addresses Rumors He's Dying
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has addressed swirling rumors about his declining health with a cryptic message on mortality. Kadyrov, dubbed President Vladimir Putin's henchman, posted a video to his Telegram channel, weeks after he asked the Russian leader "to be relieved of my post" amid rumors of deteriorating health that will soon force him to step down. Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment by email. Why It Matters The message comes amid mounting speculation over the health of the Chechen leader, who governs the predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia. It marks the first time Kadyrov has publicly addressed the rumors, which intensified after Latvia-based Novaya Gazeta reported in April 2024 that he was diagnosed in 2019 with necrotizing pancreatitis—a severe condition that can lead to organ failure and death. Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, talks to the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, at the Kremlin in Moscow on October 21, 2024. Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, talks to the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, at the Kremlin in Moscow on October 21, 2024. ARTEM GEODAKYAN/POOL/AFP/Getty Images What To Know In a video published Tuesday, Kadyrov said in a voiceover that he "increasingly hears gossip about my illness," but didn't confirm or deny whether his health was deteriorating. "They say that I am dying, I have little time left," the Chechen leader said. "Firstly, illness and death are the path of every person. No one living has passed this road. Secondly, it is not illness or threat that shortens life. Its length is determined only by the one who gave breath." Kadyrov, who is 48, added: "If I am destined to live 50, 60 or 70 years, I will live them as prescribed, and no one will take away a single day." In a caption, he also said, "Every day is a priceless gift, measured out by the Almighty" and said, "We must live it consciously, without spreading empty rumors and sowing discord." Earlier this month, Novaya Gazeta reported that Kadyrov asked Putin to dismiss him, and that he was preparing his teenage son Adam Kadyrov to replace him as Chechen leader. He was appointed to the post by the Russian president in 2007 following the assassination of his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, three years earlier. Kadyrov later walked back his resignation comments in a post on his Telegram channel. "Many did not understand the meaning of my words about resignation. I do not decide whether I will remain in the position of the Head of the Chechen Republic or not," Kadyrov wrote. "Yes, I can ask or suggest. But no matter how much I say, no matter how much I ask, such a decision is made by only one person—our Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President of Russia Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. "I am an infantryman! I am a team person. If there is an order, I carry it out." Speculation about the Chechen leader's health intensified in September 2023 when Ukrainian military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov said Kadyrov had been unwell for a long time with systemic health problems. There were also rumors on social media that Kadyrov was dead or in a coma. What People Are Saying Ramzan Kadyrov's relatives told Novaya Gazeta in 2024: "There won't be the same leader as before, the [new complications] will seriously affect [him]. Even if he recovers now, he will be neither alive nor dead." What Happens Next Kadyrov's Chechen units will continue to support Putin's military in the Ukraine war.
Washington Post
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
‘Words of War' commemorates the courage of a Russian journalist
The fact that an infinitesimal fraction of people who line up for the latest Marvel superhero movie will bother to see a drama about an actual hero is enough to make a person sick to their soul, but I guess it's understandable. There's no dazzling CGI in 'Words of War' — no stalwart, spandexed action figures flying through the air to land nuclear uppercuts on the villain of the hour. There's just one woman: Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist who went up against the villain of our age and paid the ultimate price for it. That's a warning and, in the movie's moral long view, a dare. Would you do what she did? Would you wait until there was no other choice? Would that be too late? The film's a British production directed by a veteran of British TV, James Strong, and it's meat-and-potatoes stuff as moviemaking goes, doughty and dutiful in following the career of Politkovskaya from the onset of her reporting on the Second Chechen War to her assassination on Oct. 7, 2006 — Vladimir Putin's 54th birthday. British stage and TV actress Maxine Peake plays Politkovskaya with an intense focus that earns the trust of Chechen fighters and their families while alienating her own husband (Jason Isaacs) and grown children (Harry Lawtey and Naomi Battrick). A movie about a crusading journalist needs a larger-than-life editor to support her, to shield her from the higher-ups and to deliver a big, shouty monologue about the pressures he faces, and that's Ciarán Hinds as Dmitry Muratov, head of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. When 'Words of War' opens in 1999 — after a teaser flash-forward to the 2004 poisoning that nearly killed Politkovskaya — the paper's early 1990s founding with financial help from Mikhail Gorbachev is receding into the past. Putin, a former KGB boss, has just become prime minister. As rebels in the Chechen Republic make their second bid for independence and the Russian response grows more punishing, Muratov sends Anna to the capital city of Grozny to write about what she finds, telling her: 'We don't need a war correspondent in Chechnya. We need a people correspondent.' The relationships the reporter subsequently builds with a wary Chechen rebel named Anzor (Fady Elsayed), a young woman named Fatima (Lujza Richter) and others allow her to journey further into the country and document the Russian armed forces' torture and massacres of Chechen civilians. 'This war is not being fought to rein in a rogue republic,' Politkovskaya reports back to her readers in Russia. 'This war is being waged to advance the interest of one person, a president intent on becoming the type of leader Russia thought it had left in the past: a vain, brutal, power-hungry authoritarian.' This is not the kind of journalism to please a dictator, and the warning signs come quickly enough to label Anna a bear-poker with a death wish. That she becomes a voice to be trusted and listened to not only in Chechnya but increasingly to the public in Moscow and beyond only ramps up the threat she represents. 'Words of War' — terrible title, that, and an earlier one, 'Anna,' isn't much better — doesn't cut corners to comfort an audience. Eric Poppen's screenplay is frank about the costs that come with being a reporter's source and frank, too, about the ways in which Politkovskaya's status as 'the one Russian the entire Chechen population trusts' allowed her to be used as a pawn for the government's own ends. The hostage dramas at Moscow's Dubrovka Theater in 2002 and the Beslan school in 2004 testify to the rebels' desperation, Putin's disregard for human life, and Anna's growing distress, fury and stubbornness. Peake is perhaps best known to U.S. audiences for being chased by robot dogs in a 2017 'Black Mirror' episode, and 'Words of War' is only slightly less dystopian in its portrait of a society increasingly gripped by a macho paranoia that can find one determined woman journalist anathema to its very being. The film's a necessary downer that nonetheless inspires in a viewer an echo of its heroine's compassion and resolve — qualities to carry forward as the evil that Politkovskaya documented continues to spill past the borders of her country. 'Your children will not judge you on whether you made the world a better place,' Anna responds to her son's entirely understandable pleas that she back down from holding the powerful to account. 'They will judge you on how hard you tried.' R. At AMC Hoffman Center 22. Contains violence and language. 117 minutes. Ty Burr is the author of the movie recommendation newsletter Ty Burr's Watch List at
Daily Mail
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Ellie Bamber cuts a typically chic figure in a light grey skirt co-ord at the New York premiere of Words Of War
She never puts a foot wrong when it comes to fashion. And Ellie Bamber cut a typically chic figure at the New York premiere of Words Of War held at the Village East Cinema on Wednesday night. The actress, 28, opted for a light grey skirt co-ord which highlighted her toned physique. She boosted her height with pointed black heels and completed the outfit with an oversized matching jacket. The beauty wore her blonde tresses in loose waves over her shoulders and sported a glowing make-up look. Words of War is an upcoming biographical drama film about the late Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Directed by James Strong, it is set to star Maxine Peake as Politkovskaya, Jason Isaacs as her husband Alexander Politkovsky, and Ciarán Hinds as her Nobel Peace Prize-winning editor at the Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov. Variety reported that Words of War is scheduled to be released in U.S. theaters starting on May 2, 2025. Anna Politkovskaya was one of Russia's most acclaimed journalists and a vocal critic of the Kremlin. She was murdered in 2006. Ellie will also soon star in an upcoming Kate Moss biopic focusing on her now iconic collaboration with celebrated figurative painter Lucian Freud. Kate was 28-years old and well established as one of Britain's most successful fashion models when Freud painted her in the nude, an arduous nine-month project carried out at the artist's Holland Park home in 2002. The painting would be sold privately for £3.5million some three years later, but its waif-like subject and her relationship with Freud will be reenacted for a wider audience in a forthcoming film. Directed by James Lucas, the appropriately titled Moss & Freud will feature rising star Bamber as the supermodel in what could arguably be her most challenging role to date. The task at hand is all the more daunting given she was handpicked by Kate, but those charting her career - including the supermodel, a self-confessed fan - will know the role is in safe hands. Born in Surrey to investment banker father David and mother Zoe - who now works as her manager - Ellie developed a keen interest in acting from the age of 12 after being inspired by her drama teacher at Hawley Place School, now Hurst Lodge School, in Berkshire. Mainstream success would soon follow, with the then 15-year-old starring alongside Cold Feet star Hermione Norris and Martin Clunes in 2012 miniseries A Mother's Son. It would be the first of many carefully chosen TV roles, with Ellie taking another small part in The Musketeers before emerging as a star in her own right with the lead in a 2018 adaptation of Les Misérables. The actress would play Cosette in an ensemble cast featuring Dominic West, David Oyelowo, Lily Collins and Derek Jacobi - who reunites with Ellie by playing the enigmatic Freud in her latest film. By then her personal life was winning as many headlines as her professional endeavors, with Ellie embarking on a relationship with Scottish actor Richard Madden in 2017. Richard had already established himself as a household name thanks to a prominent role as the ultimately doomed Robb Stark in HBO drama Game Of Thrones. It was inevitable that the spotlight would intensify as Ellie made sporadic public appearances with the actor during an 18-month romance, during which he enjoyed further success in BBC drama Bodyguard. By January 2019 her relationship with Richard was over after the couple experienced a rocky patch during which they 'argued every day'. A source told The Sun: 'They were arguing almost daily towards the end and, despite considering couples' therapy, it became evident there were far too many issues that could not be fixed. 'Richard is the toast of Hollywood at the moment, and understandably wants to let his hair down. 'Ellie is a bit quieter, and wants to focus purely on her work. It felt like their day-to-day lives were increasingly becoming worlds apart.'
Saudi Gazette
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Four journalists accused of working for Kremlin foe Navalny convicted of extremism
MOSCOW — A Russian court has convicted four journalists of extremism for working for an anti-corruption group founded by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny and sentenced them each to 5 1/2 years in prison. Antonina Favorskaya, Kostantin Gabov, Sergey Karelin and Artyom Kriger were found guilty of involvement with a group that had been labelled as extremist. All four had maintained their innocence, arguing they were being prosecuted for doing their jobs as journalists. Favorskaya and Kriger worked with SotaVision, an independent Russian news outlet that covers protests and political trials. Gabov is a freelance producer who has worked for multiple organizations, including Reuters. Karelin, a freelance video journalist, has done work for Western media outlets, including The Associated four journalists were accused of working with Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which was designated as extremist and outlawed in 2021 in a move widely seen as politically was President Vladimir Putin's fiercest and most prominent foe and relentlessly campaigned against official corruption in died in February 2024 in an Arctic penal colony while serving a 19-year sentence on a number of charges, including running an extremist group, which he had rejected as politically said at an earlier court appearance open to the public that she was being prosecuted for a story she did on abuse Navalny faced behind to reporters from the defendants' cage before the verdict, she also said she was punished for helping organize Navalny's in a closing statement prepared for court that was published by the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, said the accusations against him were groundless and the prosecution failed to prove them."I understand perfectly kind of country I live in. Throughout history, Russia has never been different, there is nothing new in the current situation," Gabov said in the statement. "Independent journalism is equated to extremism."In a statement Karelin prepared for his closing arguments that also was published by Novaya Gazeta, he said he had agreed to do street interviews for Popular Politics, a YouTube channel founded by Navalny's associates, while trying to provide for his wife and a young stressed that the channel wasn't outlawed as extremist and had done nothing illegal."Remorse is considered to be a mitigating circumstance. It's the criminals who need to have remorse for what they did. But I am in prison for my work, for the honest and impartial attitude to journalism, FOR THE LOVE for my family and country," he wrote in a separate speech for court that also was published by the in a closing statement published by SotaVision, said he was imprisoned and added to the Russian financial intelligence's registry of extremists and terrorists "only because I have conscientiously carried out my professional duties as an honest, incorruptible and independent journalist for 4 1/2 years.""Don't despair guys, sooner or later it will end and those who delivered the sentence will go behind bars," Kriger said after the who gathered in the court building chanted and applauded as the four journalists were led out of the courtroom after the journalists' lawyers said they would appeal the verdict, which Kriger's attorney, Yelena Sheremetyeva, described as "illegal, unfair.'"The profession of a journalist in itself is not extremism," said Irina Biryukova. "And based on the case materials that are available, I will say that in our opinion, there is no evidence that the guys committed any crimes, or even minor offenses."She said the four "are holding up" and "were happy that so many people came."The closed-door trial was part of a crackdown on dissent that reached an unprecedented scale after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February have targeted opposition figures, independent journalists, rights activists and ordinary Russians critical of the Kremlin with prosecution, jailing hundreds and prompting thousands to flee the Russian human rights group Memorial designated all four as political prisoners, among more than 900 others held in the country. — Euronews
