Moscow, Russia:

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was reappointed as head of the country’s government on Friday, following weeks of speculation over a possible political reshuffle in Moscow.

President Vladimir Putin is constitutionally required to name — or reappoint — his government ministers following victory in a March election devoid of opposition.

“A lot has been done under difficult conditions, and it seems to me, that it would be right for us to continue working together…,” Putin told Mishustin earlier Friday.

“I think we are on the right track,” he added.

Mishustin, who previously headed the country’s tax service, was first appointed in 2020.

He is seen as a technocrat tasked with executing policies dictated by the Kremlin.

“We will do everything we can to develop our economy, to justify the trust of our people, and I am confident that under your leadership we will accomplish all the tasks that have been set,” Mishustin said to Putin after securing his endorsement.

Other government ministers are expected to be put forward for nomination in the coming weeks.

Russian political analysts have for weeks been talking about the possibility Putin might shake-up the government’s ranks, more than two years into a Ukraine offensive that has reshaped the country’s economy.

During his quarter-century in power, Putin has typically relied on a coterie of loyalists and allies, while ensuring that no individual can gain enough power or popularity to be seen as a possible rival or successor.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Russia to practice tactical nuclear weapon scenario – defence ministry. File Picture
| Photo Credit: AP

Russia on May 6 said it would hold a military exercise that will include practice for the use of tactical nuclear weapons after what the defence ministry said were provocative threats from Western officials.

The defence ministry said the exercise was ordered by President Vladimir Putin and would test the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to perform combat missions.

The military drills will include practice for the preparation and deployment for use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, the defence ministry said. Missile formations in the Southern Military District and naval forces will take part.

“During the exercise, a set of measures will be carried out to practice the issues of preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons,” the defence ministry said.

Russia has the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons.

The exercise is aimed at ensuring Russia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty “in response to provocative statements and threats by certain Western officials against the Russian Federation”, the ministry said.

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine touched off the worst breakdown in relations between it and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, according to Russian and U.S. diplomats.

Russia casts the war as a battle with the West, which Putin says ignored Moscow’s attempt at friendship after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union and sought to grab control of Ukraine while enlarging the NATO military alliance eastwards.

The West and Ukraine say they will not rest until Russian forces are defeated, and cast the war as an imperial-style land grab aimed at forcing the country back into Moscow’s orbit.

Moscow:

Russia has opened a criminal case against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and put him on a wanted list, the state news agency TASS reported on Saturday, citing the Interior Ministry’s database.

The entry it cited gave no further details.

Russia has issued arrest warrants for a number of Ukrainian and other European politicians since the start of the conflict with Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian police in February put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuania’s culture minister and members of the previous Latvian parliament on a wanted list for destroying Soviet-era monuments.

Russia also issued an arrest warrant for the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor who last year prepared a warrant for President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Two Finnish towns near the Russian border plan to close schools offering Russian language and culture classes, upsetting parents and students who say cross-cultural understanding is needed more than ever.

Also Read: Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Finland’s relations with its powerful eastern neighbour have soured since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

The war prompted Helsinki to reverse its decades-long policy of military non-alignment and join North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in April 2023, a decision that angered Moscow.

Also Read: In Frames | Tough lessons from a war

When the towns of Lappeenranta and Joensuu announced this year they would close their two schools focusing on Russian language and culture due to a lack of resources, school representatives saw it as fallout from the rise of anti-Russian sentiment in Finland since the war in Ukraine.

The headmaster of the School of Eastern Finland, Katri Anttila, said town officials were no longer keen to maintain Russian language studies after the invasion.

Also read: Russia’s war in Ukraine has inflicted ‘horrific human cost’: UN

“This is part of the same trend, which is very sad. I am happy we have parents and students who do not link the Russian language to Russian President [Vladimir] Putin and the Russian government, because language should never be linked to politics or a certain country,” Ms. Anttila said.

The School of Eastern Finland has three branches in the towns of Lappeenranta, Imatra and Joensuu, the only schools outside the capital Helsinki that offer Russian culture and language studies in addition to the Finnish curriculum.

The state-funded schools founded in 1997 have 700 students aged six to 18.

Declining Interest

During a recent visit to the Lappeenranta school, classrooms were bustling with students chatting in Finnish and Russian, colourful posters hanging on the walls with writing in the two languages.

Located some 30 kilometres from Finland’s 1,340 kilometre (832-mile) border with Russia, the first spring flowers were beginning to bloom in the schoolyard under a gloomy April sky.

Both students and teachers were upset about Lappeenranta’s recent decision.

“I was shocked when I heard the school will close,” Eetu Varis, an 18-year-old at the upper secondary school, told AFP.

A city official in charge of Lappeenranta educational services, Juhani Junnilainen, told AFP the closure was due to a school network reform.

“We do not have enough resources to maintain all the schools we have,” he said.

In addition, “interest for the Russian language has decreased for more than a decade” while “Spanish has become more and more popular” in Lappeenranta schools.

The city of Turku also decided this year it would end a Finnish-Russian language programme offered at one public school, citing declining student enrolment.

A separate school in Helsinki offering classes in Russian told AFP it had no plans to close.

‘Next to us’

Before the Covid pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine, almost two million Russian tourists crossed Finland’s border to visit the Lappeenranta region annually, bringing in more than 300 million euros ($322 million).

Now, Russian licence plates are a rare sight on the streets of Lappeenranta.

In late 2022, Finland imposed entry restrictions on Russian tourists, allowing only essential travel.

“Before the ongoing situation in Ukraine you heard Russian everywhere,” said student Mr. Varis, adding: “It is important in this area.”

Like the majority of his classmates, Mr. Varis is a native Finnish speaker interested in learning about other languages and cultures.

Finland closed its entire eastern border with Russia in December, five months after Moscow began pushing undocumented migrants over the border in what Finnish officials labelled a “hybrid attack”. Russia has denied the charge.

Tuomas Laitinen, a parent of two children at the Lappeenranta school, accused the towns of miscalculating the need for an understanding of the Russian culture and language in Finland.

“Finland has been known for decades for our knowledge of Russia, and it benefits the European Union(EU) and NATO,” he said.

“Geographically we are not moving anywhere. Russia is next to us, and we have to know about their culture.”

Ms. Anttila meanwhile underlined that Finland must be able to “understand the language of the Russian opposition”, emphasising that the school would continue to fight to keep its doors open.