A former official in northwestern Russia’s republic of Komi has sought asylum in the United States after fleeing Russia to avoid being drafted into the war in Ukraine,according to the Russian-language broadcaster RTVI.

Denis Sharonov, 48, served as the republic of Komi’s agriculture minister between 2020 and January 2022, a month before Russia i

Russian authorities on Wednesdaydesignated the Polish-based anti-war group For a Free Russia an “undesirable organization,” making any work for or with the collective a criminal offense.

“From abroad, they involve Russians in volunteer battalions within the Ukrainian armed forces and train so-called ‘resistance groups’,” the Russian Prosecutor Gener

Siberia’s boreal forests, long considered to be a carbon “sink,” may soon become a net source of carbon emissions, as wildfires causing forest loss and degradation have grown increasingly more intense in recent decades, researchers at the Russian Academy of Sciencessaid Thursday.

Citing a recentstudy, the researchers said carbon emissions from