Boris Bondarev, a Russian diplomat in Geneva, today became the most prominent Russian official to resign and publicly speak out against the war.

Putin, he told the @nytimes, has turned Russia “into some kind of total horror.”nytimes.com/2022/05/23/wor… What helped spur the invasion, he says, is officials telling superiors what they want to hear. “Instead of presenting your own analysis as objectively as possible … we often presented information that was certain to be liked. That was the main criterion.” nytimes.com/2022/05/23/wor…

Russia has scaled back its diplomatic demands, prompting some officials to to believe Putin may be seeking a negotiated way out. Kuleba and Lavrov meet in Antalya shortly, the highest-level talks since the war began. With @PatrickKingsley & @michaelcrowley nytimes.com/2022/03/09/wor… @PatrickKingsley @michaelcrowley Zelensky to @ronzheimer: "I'm also ready to take certain steps. Compromises can be made, but they must not be a betrayal of my country. … We can't talk about the details yet. … Only after direct talks between the two presidents can we end this war.” bild.de/politik/auslan…

On the radio this morning: “So, has Russia become Venezuela or is it still Iran?”
“We’ll go through the Iran phase, but what happens after that is hard to say.” nytimes.com/2022/02/27/wor… Russia's Central Bank has already doubled the key rate, banned foreigners from selling Russian securities, and halted stock trading for the day. Putin has called an emergency meeting; Nabiullina, the widely respected Central Bank head, speaks in 2 hours nytimes.com/2022/02/27/wor…

Watching Scholz's Bundestag speech now; a lengthy standing ovation when he speaks of the Russians who protested the war despite the threat of arrest. Scholz: “We are on the side of those who courageously confront Putin’s power apparatus and reject his war in Ukraine. We know they are many. I say to all of them: Do not give up. I am very sure that freedom, tolerance and human rights will win out in Russia, too.”

Zelensky addresses the people of Belarus in his address this morning, speaking Russian; Belarus is holding a referendum today that's expected to tighten Lukashenko's grip on power.

“From your territory, forces of the Russian Federation are firing rockets at Ukraine… "From your territory they are killing our children, destroying our houses, trying to blow up everything that was built over the decades, not just by us but by our fathers and our grandfathers…

New video from Zelensky this morning, in front of presidential residence in central Kyiv: "There's a lot of fake news that I'm calling on the army to put down its arms and evacuate. Here's how it is: we are not putting down any arms. …

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1497450853380280320

"We will protect our country, because our weapons are our truth. The truth is that this is our land, our country, our children, and we will protect them all. That is it. That's what I wanted to tell you. Glory to Ukraine." Translation via @tvrain

Zelensky just called on Putin for talks "to stop the dying," but Russia signaled today it's not interested. "We are ready for talks at any moment," Lavrov said, "as soon as the Ukrainian Armed Forces…stop their resistance and put down their arms." nytimes.com/live/2022/02/2… Now Kremlin seems to vaguely reverse course; Peskov says Putin is prepared to send representatives to Minsk, Belarus, for talks with Ukraine, after Zelensky earlier said he was ready to discuss Ukraine’s “neutral status.”

Another extraordinary televised Kremlin meeting, this one with oligarchs. The head of the industrialists' lobby group tells Putin to avoid wrecking the Russian economy further in responding to Western sanctions; Putin responds describing today's invasion as a "necessary measure." Shokhin, the chief lobbyist: “Everything should be done to demonstrate as much as possible that Russia remains part of the global economy and will not provoke, including through some kind of response measures, global negative phenomena on world markets.”

Putin: “I have taken the decision to carry out a special military operation. Its goal will be to defend people who for eight years are suffering persecution and genocide by the Kyiv regime. For this we will aim for demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine… "… as well as taking to court those who carried out multiple bloody crimes against civilians including citizens of the Russian Federation. Our plans do not include occupying Ukrainian territory.”

Zelensky addressing the Russian people in Russian now:
“Today I initiated a phone call with the president of the Russian Federation. The result was silence, though the silence should be in the Donbas. As a result I want to address all citizens of Russia… "We are separated by more than 2000 km of mutual borders, along which 200,000 of your soldiers and 1,000 armored vehicles are standing. Your leadership has approved their step forward onto the territory of another country. This step could become the beginning of a big war…

Russia says some troops deployed from military districts bordering Ukraine will head back to garrison; but troops deployed from farther away are, apparently, remaining for now. nytimes.com/live/2022/02/1… As discussed last week — this is going to be a long crisis. nytimes.com/2022/02/08/wor…

Greetings from the Geneva lakefront, where Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov just arrived for dinner with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman in this nondescript, apparently residential building called the Splendid Rivage. (A group of friends who just emerged from an extended brunch confirmed that this is in fact a residential building.)

On the eve of elections, Putin’s Russia is at a new apogee of authoritarianism, coated in a patina of comfortable stability.

With @SergeyPonomarev, a story about traveling from the Arctic to Chechnya, 3,000 miles from north to south: nytimes.com/2021/09/16/wor… In Murmansk, a Navalny ally is under relentless surveillance, the opposition leader’s movement inside the country crushed. “We are all in a trap — trapped by one tyrant.” nytimes.com/2021/09/16/wor…

Yulia Navalnaya arrives at Moscow court, where her husband Aleksei could be sentenced to several years in prison today. Yulia Navalnaya arriving at court

Russia's protests today begin on the Pacific ice, where riot police here give chase to protesters on the frozen Amur Bay at Vladivostok

https://twitter.com/mediazzzona/status/1355757373818855424

An extraordinary show of police force in Moscow and across Russia as the Kremlin tries to defuse a second weekend of Navalny protests. Follow our live coverage here: nytimes.com/2021/01/31/wor…

Navalny, in a makeshift courtroom just now at a police station near the airport, with one of his Putin epithets: “It seems that the grandpa in the bunker is so afraid of everything that they demonstratively ripped apart the code of criminal procedure and threw it in the trash.”

https://twitter.com/Kira_Yarmysh/status/1351106564011208705

Minutes earlier, Navalny's lawyer received this letter notifying him that his client's hearing was about to take place at the police station — not in a courtroom. Only pro-Kremlin media have been allowed inside.

https://twitter.com/advokatkobzev/status/1351100579356045313

An extraordinary day in Moscow: Even his allies say there is a strong chance Navalny will be arrested after he lands at Vnukovo Airport tonight. "Leaving Navalny free would mean showing weakness in the eyes of his inner circle." nytimes.com/2021/01/17/wor… Yesterday, Navalny thanked his German hosts. “Do you hear ‘the kindest, helpful, friendly people’ and not immediately think of Germans?” he wrote. “Then you are wrong. That’s exactly who they are.” nytimes.com/2021/01/17/wor…

In Minsk today, a column that looked to be more than 100,000 marched up to Lukashenko’s Independence Palace and demanded he resign. Here’s what we saw: The day began with columns of people — there’s safety in numbers in Minsk these days — converging on the city center, cars honking as they went by

Many thousands are in the streets of Khabarovsk, 4,000 miles east of Moscow, for the 3rd Saturday straight in the biggest protests Russia’s regions have seen in many years. It took 14 minutes for the march to pass by me here: This was sparked by the arrest of a popular governor, Sergei Furgal. Khabarovites widely saw it as Putin’s move to get rid of an insufficiently loyal official.

Trump and Putin spoke for an hour and a half today, per Kremlin spokesman Peskov. ria.ru/20190503/15532… Kremlin: “A mutual commitment was confirmed to activating dialogue in various spheres, including on questions of strategic stability…The heads of state expressed satisfaction with the conversation, which was of a businesslike and constructive character.” kremlin.ru/events/preside…

Putin-Bolton meeting has started in Kremlin. Bolton said he looks forward to hearing “how you handled the World Cup so successfully.” Putin flashed a big smile. Putin to Bolton: “Your visit here to Moscow inspires hope that we will be able to take first steps to restore full-fledged relations between Russia and the United States.”