Alexei Navalny

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged Russians to vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections after a lacklustre campaign season.

Polls opened on Friday morning for the three-day election and the first day of the vote was marred by controversy with allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny accusing Google and Apple of removing their "smart voting" app from their platforms.

"Peter the Great (1675-1725) did not fight in the Seven Years' War, but in the Great Northern War, which lasted 21 years," the boy told Putin.

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has given his first interview from prison, comparing it to a Chinese labor camp and saying he is forced to watch eight hours of state television a day.

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This time, the Russian president, who does not normally express emotions during state meetings, gave Merkel a bouquet of pink flowers.
Although the topics of conversation are difficult, especially due to the crisis in Afghanistan, which affects the whole world, during the meeting, photos of a rather cordial conversation between the two statesmen were taken.

Angela Merkel on Her Last Official Visit to Moscow in Her Capacity as German Chancellor

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is heading to Moscow on Friday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Afghanistan, Belarus and Ukraine will be the focus of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to Moscow on Friday, August 20, Germany's Government Spokesperson Steffen Seibert said on Wednesday.

"It will definitely be about major international issues: the conflict in eastern Ukraine, for which Russia can do more than it is doing, and Belarus," he said.

According to German authorities, the British national at least once handed over documents obtained in the course of his professional duties to "a representative of a Russian intelligence service"

The European Union must expect a further deterioration in relations with Russia even though ties have already sunk to their "lowest level", EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Wednesday.

Putin and Biden met yesterday in Geneva. Before the beginning of the summit, the Russian president stated that there are many issues in the relations between the two countries. However, journalists also had many questions after the meeting. Neither Vladimir Putin nor Joe Biden seemed to be thrilled with such a situation.

There was no talk of gazing into Vladimir Putin's "soul" and the Russian president didn't try to gaslight a rookie U.S. leader.

Instead, Putin's first summit with the fifth U.S. president of his tenure, Joe Biden, was about mutual respect - and the meeting in Geneva could, both of them said, lead to a more predictable, if still tense, relationship.