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Samantha Berkhead

@samberkhead.bsky.social

Editor-in-chief @themoscowtimes.com 🪆

939 Followers  |  248 Following  |  59 Posts  |  Joined: 10.10.2023
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Posts by Samantha Berkhead (@samberkhead.bsky.social)

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As Manpower Shortages Deepen, Russia Recruits Foreign Women for War - The Moscow Times Opinion | Women are now among the thousands of migrants from Central Asia serving in Russia’s military, including on the front lines in Ukraine.

#OpEd Unlike Ukraine, Russia has not drawn attention to women in combat roles as it would undermine Moscow's masculine supremacy, writes Jennifer Mathers.

02.03.2026 16:23 — 👍 18    🔁 9    💬 0    📌 3
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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told The Moscow Times that each European country must decide for itself whether to resume dialogue with the Kremlin.

Read more: www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/02/11/u...

11.02.2026 15:49 — 👍 8    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 3
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Ukraine Advances in Zaporizhzhia After Russian Troops Lose Starlink Access – NATO Official - The Moscow Times BRUSSELS — Russian units’ loss of access to Starlink has allowed Kyiv to push back on Moscow’s advances and make gains in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, a senior NATO official said.

Russian units’ loss of access to Starlink has allowed Kyiv to push back on Moscow’s advances and make gains in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, a senior NATO official said.

11.02.2026 13:39 — 👍 28    🔁 14    💬 1    📌 2
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Yury Ushakov: The Quiet Power Broker in Russia’s Talks With Team Trump - The Moscow Times Yury Ushakov wanted Spanish ham and porridge made with low-fat milk.

Yury Ushakov has emerged as one of the Kremlin’s key intermediaries with the Trump administration in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

While the extent of his power is opaque, one thing is clear: few people have more direct access to Putin.

29.01.2026 15:31 — 👍 8    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 0
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‘Heated Rivalry’ Catches Fire in Russia Despite Kremlin’s Anti-LGBTQ+ Repressions - The Moscow Times A Canadian television series about a romance between two rival professional hockey players has become a surprise hit with Russian viewers despite Moscow’s sweeping repression of LGBTQ+ people and a ba...

For many Russian viewers, the series provides a rare portrayal of queer lives and relationships at a time when LGBTQ+ visibility inside Russia has largely vanished.

15.01.2026 16:25 — 👍 6    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 1
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Chechnya’s Kadyrov Is Reportedly Gravely Ill. Here’s What We Know. - The Moscow Times Russian and Ukrainian media recently reported that Ramzan Kadyrov, who has ruled the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya for nearly two decades, may be suffering from kidney failure and has been explo...

Russian and Ukrainian media recently reported that Kadyrov may be suffering from kidney failure and has been exploring potential successors.

Here's what we know.

14.01.2026 11:06 — 👍 15    🔁 7    💬 2    📌 1
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Moscow Risks Losing a Key Ally in Latin America as Trump Ramps Up Pressure on Venezuela’s Maduro - The Moscow Times As the United States deployed warships and submarines to the Caribbean and escalated strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug-smuggling boats in recent months, President Nicolás Maduro appealed to a power...

In November, The Moscow Times spoke to former U.S. officials and analysts about how Russia might respond to a direct confrontation between Venezuela and the United States.

04.01.2026 13:43 — 👍 16    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 1

Article by me for @themoscowtimes.com. "Nothing in living memory compares with the scale and speed of the change to U.S.-Russia relations [under Trump]. His administration seems to be abandoning not just leadership of the West but membership of it, in favor of [...] alignment with the Kremlin."

31.12.2025 16:27 — 👍 99    🔁 47    💬 7    📌 0

Some very poignant and revealing quotes here

31.12.2025 15:55 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Valdai Residents Report No Signs of Claimed Ukrainian Drone Attack on Putin Residence - The Moscow Times Residents of the town of Valdai in Russia’s Novgorod region said they neither heard nor saw signs of a large-scale drone attack overnight on Monday despite official claims that nearly 100 Ukrainian dr...

“If something like that had happened, the whole town would have been talking about it,” one resident told the Mozhem Obyasnit outlet.

30.12.2025 10:34 — 👍 274    🔁 149    💬 13    📌 43
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Regions Calling: 2025 Wrapped - The Moscow Times Merry Christmas and welcome to Regions Calling, a newsletter by The Moscow Times shedding light on life beyond the Russian capital.  For this final newsletter of the year, we asked our special corresp...

In our final Regions Calling newsletter of 2025, we look back at our coverage of Russia's regions and choose one policy, person and place that left the most pronounced impact this year.

25.12.2025 12:30 — 👍 11    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
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Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to hold his annual Direct Line call-in show and press conference with Russian citizens and journalists Friday.

To help you watch it as it unfolds, The Moscow Times has created our own version of “Putin Bingo,” with some of the tropes and phrases we expect.

19.12.2025 09:07 — 👍 384    🔁 157    💬 21    📌 14
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Arkady Volozh’s Second Act - The Moscow Times It looked like Arkady Volozh’s days at the top of the Russian tech world were over.

Former Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh has done what many business elites could not after the invasion of Ukraine: successfully leave the Russian market and parlay his old venture into a new one abroad.

How did he pull it off?

10.12.2025 20:00 — 👍 12    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 2

WSJ published a great report about how Russia is pushing for the U.S. to tack business and investment deals onto the Ukraine peace plan. @themoscowtimes.com has been reporting this since February.

www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/02/18/k...

www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/04/21/t...

29.11.2025 16:53 — 👍 19    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 0

@themoscowtimes.com’s excellent Regions Calling newsletter brings you stories from Russia’s regions that you won’t find in other English-language media. And it’s free.

You can subscribe here: mailchi.mp/moscowtimes/...

27.11.2025 14:48 — 👍 2    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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St. Petersburg woman Lena Patyayeva, who has repeatedly called for answers about the fate of her friend Seda Suleimanova after she was forcibly returned to Chechnya, was arrested while staging a solo picket on Tuesday.

Photo: Slovo Zashchitye

25.11.2025 16:04 — 👍 26    🔁 8    💬 2    📌 0
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Trump’s Peace Plan Favors Russia. Putin Still Won’t Accept It. - The Moscow Times Opinion | The Ukraine war peace plan proposed by the Trump administration has, unsurprisingly, triggered a storm of reactions across the press, social media and among experts.

Opinion: To Putin, the Trump peace proposal proves that he has won. But there is much in its pages that he won’t agree to, argues former Russian diplomat Boris Bondarev.

21.11.2025 17:44 — 👍 19    🔁 8    💬 3    📌 2
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Regions Calling: Kremlin’s New Holidays Offer a Hollow Embrace of Indigenous Peoples, Activists Say - The Moscow Times Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Regions Calling, your guide to developments beyond the Russian capital from The Moscow Times.

Activists and experts say the Kremlin's two new holidays are more for propaganda than a genuine expression of care for Indigenous communities.

13.11.2025 11:59 — 👍 15    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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Singing These Songs in Russia Could Land You in Jail - The Moscow Times A group of young street musicians from St.

The band Stoptime rose to viral fame for performing anti-Putin and anti-war anthems in St. Petersburg — and were jailed for nearly two weeks as a result.

Here is a closer look at some of the songs they performed:

21.10.2025 16:02 — 👍 27    🔁 11    💬 1    📌 2
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St. Petersburg Street Musician Arrested After Viral Anti-Putin Performance - The Moscow Times Police in St.

Diana Loginova was filmed earlier this week leading a crowd in central St. Petersburg in singing the lyrics to the exiled rapper Noize MC’s hit song “Swan Lake Cooperative.”

15.10.2025 15:16 — 👍 43    🔁 13    💬 1    📌 3
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When Normal Life Becomes Impossible: Stories from St. Petersburg Nearly 4 Years Into War - The Moscow Times Nearly four years after Russia launched a full-scale war on Ukraine, St.

The Moscow Times spoke to five residents of Russia’s second-largest city about how the war has transformed their everyday lives.

14.10.2025 15:19 — 👍 15    🔁 7    💬 0    📌 0
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Russians Were Asked to Vote on the New 500-Ruble Bill Design. It Became a Political Lightning Rod. - The Moscow Times It started with an innocuous call by the Central Bank to choose the design of Russia’s new 500-ruble (about $5) note dedicated to the North Caucasus Federal District.  It ended in a spat between Chech...

The Central Bank asked Russians to choose the design of the new 500-ruble note.

It set off a spat between Chechen officials and pro-war bloggers, accusations of rupturing national unity and even claims of foreign meddling — not to mention all the memes.

14.10.2025 08:16 — 👍 12    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
24.09.2025 13:09 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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For Russians Like Me, Silencing Jimmy Kimmel Looks Dangerously Familiar - The Moscow Times Opinion | The removal from the air of a second American comedian since President Donald Trump was elected in the United States should send chills down the spine of every journalist who worked in Mosco...

#OpEd Jimmy Kimmel's removal from late night television resembles when the Kremlin attacked a television channel that satirized Putin — and even the liberal media rationalized what happened as if it was acceptable, warns Andrei Soldatov.

19.09.2025 10:40 — 👍 75    🔁 41    💬 1    📌 3

That’s how long it takes to watch a Marvel these days!

18.09.2025 17:39 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
Алла Пугачёва: большое интервью «Скажи Гордеевой»
YouTube video by Скажи Гордеевой Алла Пугачёва: большое интервью «Скажи Гордеевой»

Russian pop icon Alla Pugacheva’s first interview since the invasion of Ukraine has been viewed 20m times since it premiered last week. It’s worth the watch (and has English subtitles)

18.09.2025 17:12 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0
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Regions Calling: How Russians Are Adapting to WhatsApp and Telegram Throttling - The Moscow Times Hello and welcome to Regions Calling, The Moscow Times’ weekly newsletter on developments beyond the Russian capital.

Russia has blocked voice and video calls on WhatsApp and Telegram.

Yet Russians who spoke to MT reported that the restrictions are far from foolproof — at least for now — and can vary based on one's mobile carrier and geographic location.

21.08.2025 12:15 — 👍 13    🔁 5    💬 1    📌 1
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From Rakhimov to Khabirov: How Bashkortostan Became the Seedbed of Russia’s Indigenous-Led Protests - The Moscow Times This August marks five years since protests in defense of the Kushtau mountain in the republic of Bashkortostan, one of the few successful grassroots protests in Russia’s modern history.  The Moscow T...

In this new two-part series, MT explores the political context that set the stage for the Kushtau protests — one of the few successful grassroots protests in Russia’s modern history — and how they unfolded.

13.08.2025 11:36 — 👍 8    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0

Powerful reporting from Donetsk, where Ukrainian soldiers struggled to protect a strategic road from Russia’s advance

“Contacted after our departure, Vitalii said the team had been ordered to abandon the road and fall back to Kharkiv. ‘It has become too dangerous. We are pulling back’.”

12.08.2025 19:55 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Inform and Inspire. In memory of Derk Sauer. - The Moscow Times Opinion | Yesterday, Derk Sauer, founder of The Moscow Times, passed away.

#OpEd "The flame of independent journalism Derk lit 30 years ago has not been extinguished. And we will bring it back to Russia," writes Moscow Times publisher Alexander Gubsky.

01.08.2025 14:07 — 👍 33    🔁 11    💬 1    📌 1