Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

Russia's airspace ban is reminiscent of the Cold War-era when most airlines couldn't fly over the country &mdash; see the history of the Siberian Corridor

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Paramilitary groups made up of anti-Putin dissidents have launched incursions into southern Russia.</li><li>The fighters say they intend to disrupt Russia's election and demonstrate opposition to Putin.</li></ul><p>Several pro-Ukrainian paramilitary groups made up of Russian rebel fighters have launched incursions into southern Russia this week, ahead of the election that is widely seen as a sham to reelect Vladimir Putin.</p><p>The Freedom for Russia Legion, which consists of Russian dissidents, said it was carrying out operations into Russia's Kursk and Belgorod regions — the largest cross-border attacks since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.</p><p>Two other groups — the Siberian Battalion and the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) — also said they were involved in the assaults.</p><p>Aleksey Baranovsky, who is part of the Freedom for Russia Legion, said the group's goal was to disrupt the election and show opposition to Putin.</p><p>"We are sending a message to those inside Russia, who are demoralized and lost since [Alexey] Navalny's murder, that we are still here, willing to fight the regime,"<a target="_blank" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/15/ukraine-putin-election-russia-kursk-belgorod-raids/"> he said</a>, per The Telegraph.</p><p>He said that they also wanted to show Western governments that "the election is not legal and that, of course Putin will win, but he is not a legitimate leader."</p><p>Putin acknowledged the attacks in a speech to the <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/TabZLIVE/status/1768660268056199632">Security Council of Russia </a>on Friday and said they aimed to "disrupt the voting process and intimidate people."</p><p>He blamed Ukraine for the assaults, and vowed: "These enemy strikes will not remain unpunished."</p><p class="p1">He said that the attackers consisted of 2,500 troops, 35 tanks, and about 40 armored vehicles.</p><p>Jade McGlynn, a research fellow in the War Studies Department at King's College London, told Business Insider that the rebels play an important role in maintaining a visible face of Russia's opposition, which the Kremlin has largely oppressed.</p><p>The main opposition voice, Alexey Navalny, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alexey-navalny-putin-main-political-foe-died-prison-russian-officials-2024-2?r=US&amp;IR=T">died in a Russian penal colony</a> this month, which many Western leaders have blamed on Putin.</p><p>Voting is taking place in Russia over three days until Sunday. The election result is not in doubt as there is<a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240315-russia-presidential-election-three-candidates-putin-slutsky-kharitonov-davankov-little-suspense"> no viable opponent to Putin, and it is widely regarded as a rubber stamp exercise.</a></p><p>It will be Putin's fifth term as president. He has been in the role for 24 years, apart from 2008-12, when he was prime minister.</p><p>He generated controversy in 2021 when he signed into law a change to the country's constitution that would allow him to run for two more six-year terms.</p><h2>'We are coming to liberate you'</h2><div type="image" title="A journalist wearing a flak jacket works at a polling station during Russia's presidential election in Belgorod on March 15, 2024." height="3495" width="5243" msid="108564387" hostid="261" sizebytes="365916"></div><p>The rebel groups seeking to disrupt the electoral coronation of Putin operate in close cooperation with Ukraine's military.</p><p>Ukrainian drone strikes and shelling accompanied the skirmishes, CNN reported, with local officials saying that <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/14/europe/ukraine-russia-belgorod-drone-strikes-shelling-intl/index.html">at least two people have been killed</a> and more injured.</p><p>Videos circulating on social media appear to show a road in the city of Belgorod, a regional capital with a population of over 300,000, strewn with <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1768525710422081726">burning</a> and<a target="_blank" href="https://t.me/operatyvnii/19889"> overturned cars</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1768648152448471409">explosions ringing out.</a> A polling station in Belgorod also appeared to be <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/World_At_War_6/status/1768601430976278532">rocked by explosions</a>, with locals ducking for cover while casting their votes.</p><p>BI could not independently verify the videos.</p><p>The three resistance groups released a <a target="_blank" href="https://t.me/legionoffreedom/1142">joint statement</a> on March 15 calling on residents of Belgorod and Kursk to remain in shelters and said there would be a humanitarian corridor facilitated overnight to allow residents to leave.</p><p>"We are not coming to kill, erase, destroy, or to punish. We are coming to liberate you from poverty, misery, and fear. To liberate you from the dictatorship of a terrorist organization that seized power," one fighter from the Freedom for Russia Legion said in a <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1767459871916728732">video</a>.</p><p>Russian authorities have also acknowledged the attacks.</p><p>On Thursday, the Russian National Guard said it was involved in repelling an attack on the village of Tyotkino in Kursk.</p><p>Russia's defense ministry also told state-owned media outlet Tass on Tuesday that they had repelled attacks in Belgorod, in which the attackers were <a target="_blank" href="https://tass.com/defense/1758611">equipped with tanks</a> and armored vehicles.</p><p>McGlynn, who met with leaders of Russia's Freedom Legion in Kyiv in December, said that the group comprises a wide range of Russian citizens.</p><p>"In terms of political views, there are liberals, nationalists, guys who went to rallies for Navalny, and also some who are just absolutely apolitical," she said.</p><p>"They see their fight as not against Russia but against the dictatorship of Putin and his entourage who are wrecking Russia's future."</p><div type="image" title="A view of the site after Ukrainian shelling that damaged buildings and vehicles in Belgorod, Russia on March 14, 2024." height="1333" width="2000" msid="108564389" hostid="261" sizebytes="214016"></div><p>It is unlikely that these attacks will have a major impact on the election or the war in Ukraine, but they could serve to embarrass Putin.</p><p>Their actions also serve to remind Russians of the impact of the ongoing war in Ukraine.</p><p>"We know that Russians are less likely to support the war when they feel the effects coming home," McGlynn said.</p><p>McGlynn said it was also likely demoralizing if Russian soldiers who are already in their third year into the war in Ukraine were transferred to southern Russia to repel the attacks.</p>

Russian rebels aim to embarrass Putin with cross-border attacks during presidential election

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The London Natural History Museum announced the 2022 winners of its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-wildlife-photos-of-the-year-2020-11">Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest</a>.</li><li>The 20 winners were selected from more than 38,000 entries. </li></ul><p>As a ball of swarming cactus bees rolled across the hot Texas sand, Karine Aigner trained her camera on the spectacle.</p><p>The cactus bees, like most other bees, are endangered by habitat loss, pesticides, and the changing climate. But that didn't stop this cluster of buzzing insects from trying to multiply. All but one of the bees in that ball were male, swarming around a single female. As they clamored for an opportunity to mate, Aigner's camera lens clicked.</p><p>The resulting photo, above, won the Grand Title in this year's <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/wpy/">Wildlife Photographer of the Year</a> competition, which the Natural History Museum in London develops and produces each year.</p><p>From more than 38,000 entries, Aigner's photo and 19 other category winners stood out.</p><p>"Wings whirring, incoming males home in on the ball of buzzing bees that is rolling straight into the picture. The sense of movement and intensity is shown at bee-level magnification and transforms what are little cactus bees into big competitors for a single female," Roz Kidman Cox, who chaired the panel of judges, said in a statement.</p><p>Other winning photos reveal animals, birds, and sea creatures in the throes of life: hunting, being hunted, wandering, dying, dancing for potential mates, and struggling to survive as their world gets smaller.</p><h2>The Grand Title winner for young photographers captured the contrast inside a whale's mouth</h2><div type="image" title="whale mouth" height="1707" width="2560" msid="94797369" hostid="261"></div><p>Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn, a 16-year-old from Thailand, was on a whale-watching tour when a Bryde's whale surfaced near the boat. Struck by the whale's dark skin, pale pink gums, and brushy mass of baleen teeth, he snapped a picture. It snagged Wuttichaitanakorn's first award in the competition.</p><p>Cox called the photo a "dazzling creation."</p><p>"The pin-sharp detail of the tiny anchovies is set against an abstraction of color, with the weave of brown baleen hair rimmed by a cascade of water drops," Cox said.</p><h2>In another winning photo, a snake captured a spooky snack</h2><div type="image" title="snake with bat in mouth poking out of rocks" height="1708" width="2560" msid="94797370" hostid="261"></div><p>In the Cave of the Hanging Snakes, in Quintana Roo, Mexico, Fernando Constantino Martínez Belmar waited in the dark as a Yucatán rat snake poked its head from the rock ceiling. Just like every night, as thousands of bats swarmed out of the cave, the resident snakes waited for just the right opportunity to lunge from their hiding places and snatch a meal.</p><p>Using a red light that would be less disruptive in the dark, Martínez Belmar captured the hunt in the split moment before this snake retreated with its prize.</p><h2>A snow leopard pursued its own, much bigger, prey</h2><div type="image" title="snow leopard pursues ibexes in the snow" height="1440" width="2560" msid="94797371" hostid="261"></div><p>Across a ravine in the Himalayas, Anand Nambiar watched this leopard maneuver uphill from a herd of ibex, then charge them toward a steep cliff.</p><p>Snow leopards are at risk of extinction due to hunting, climate change, and mining that destroys their habitat.</p><h2>A vulnerable spectacled bear surveyed its disappearing territory</h2><div type="image" title="black bear stands on hill above town" height="1707" width="2560" msid="94797372" hostid="261"></div><p>Spectacled bears are the only bear species native to South America, and their numbers are dwindling. The disappearance and fragmentation of their habitat has culled them to just a few thousand.</p><p>Photographer Daniel Mideros captured one of those bears with a camera he set up on a wildlife corridor, which bridges fragments of habitat between human settlements in Quito, Ecuador.</p><h2>A beloved mountain gorilla died in her caretaker's arms</h2><div type="image" title="old mountain gorilla lies against man on concrete floor" height="1708" width="2560" msid="94797373" hostid="261"></div><p>Ndakasi was rescued at two months old after her troop of gorillas was massacred. Photographer Brent Stirton was there to capture her rescue, and returned 13 years later to capture her death, as she laid in the arms of her lifelong caretaker, Andre Bauma, at Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.</p><p>"I loved her like a child," Bauma told the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58826986">BBC</a> after her death in 2021. "Her cheerful personality brought a smile to my face every time I interacted with her."</p><h2>Polar bears raided a long-abandoned town</h2><div type="image" title="two polar bears in a run down house" height="1500" width="2251" msid="94797374" hostid="261"></div><p>The island of Kolyuchin, in the Siberian Chukchi Sea, lost its human inhabitants long ago. The abandoned settlements there have a new population now: wandering polar bears.</p><p>Dmitry Kokh was aboard a yacht, sheltering from a storm, when he spotted the bears moving in and out of buildings on the distant island. He flew a drone out to photograph them.</p><h2>One small bird listened to the earth...</h2><div type="image" title="small brown bird with black and white head listens to ground in leaf pile" height="1707" width="2560" msid="94797375" hostid="261"></div><p>This young grey-breasted wood wren was foraging when photographer Nick Kanakis happened by. The ground-dwelling bird hopped through the leaf litter in Colombia's Tatamá National Park, listening to the ground for the faint squirms of small insects — lunch for the wren.</p><h2>...while a showy bird puffed out its chest feathers</h2><div type="image" title="bird fluffing white chest feathers" height="1707" width="2560" msid="94797376" hostid="261"></div><p>The Canary Islands houbara does a frantic courting dance. From a spot he dug out, José Juan Hernández Martinez watched the whole thing. The houbara raises the plumes on the front of its neck, throws its head back, sprints forward, circles back, and pauses a moment before starting over again. This photo shows its full puffy glory during that brief pause.</p><h2>A sea star performed its own eerie mating dance</h2><div type="image" title="starfish lifts up in cloudy water" height="1707" width="2560" msid="94797377" hostid="261"></div><p>Birds may have to impress their mates, but sea stars only have to spawn. Still, to set up their spawns for success, they must dance. Rising, swaying, pulsing, and undulating may help release the eggs and sperm, or send them into currents of water so they mix and fertilize. As clouds of sea-star sperm and eggs filled the water, photographer Tony Wu captured this otherwordly invertebrate in the throes of its dance.</p><p><em>Editor's note: This story was first published on October 11, 2022.</em></p>

The best wildlife photos of 2022 include a ball of bees, a snake eating a bat, and polar bears raiding an abandoned town

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>We could be seeing a high-speed transport route that runs from China to Europe through Kazakhstan soon - and that says something about global economic trends.</p><p>"<span>I propose creating a new, high-speed combined transport route - the Eurasian transcontinental corridor,</span>" Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev stated on Friday at an economic forum in Astana, according to the <a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/522106.html">Moscow Times</a>.</p><p>The expected volume of cargo in the Kazakh section of the road will make up to 30 million tons per year, according to the Kazakh president. </p><p>"The route will connect not only China and Kazakhstan, but also Russia and Europe, and it will have access to the Central Asian countries," he said, according to <a href="http://www.vedomosti.ru/economics/articles/2015/05/22/nazarbaev-predlozhil-prolozhit-cherez-kazahstan-transportnii-koridor-iz-azii-v-evropu">Vedomosti</a>.</p><p>The volume of trade between China and the EU amounts to nearly $600 billion and is projected to increase to $800 billion by 2020, according to Nazarbayev's <a href="http://www.vedomosti.ru/economics/articles/2015/05/22/nazarbaev-predlozhil-prolozhit-cherez-kazahstan-transportnii-koridor-iz-azii-v-evropu">figures</a>. </p><p>"So there's great value in a land route to Europe for a growing Asia. Furthermore, this path is much shorter than the sea route by nearly three times," Nazarbayev reportedly said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span>The larger significance of the new link between Europe and China via Kazakhstan is that it fits into two larger trends: First, that the economic center of the world is quickly shifting towards China, and second, that Central Asia's economy is heating up.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">One of the biggest long-term trends of the 21st century is likely to be the growth of emerging economies.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span>As Business Insider reporter </span><span></span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-economic-center-of-mass-map-2014-12/#.VV-CJdNdXU4">Andy Kiersz wrote</a><span>, "With the rise of emerging markets in Asia and elsewhere, the [economic] center [of the world] has begun to shift back to the east and south."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span>And if McKinsey Global Institute's "projections about demographics and growth in the next few years are correct, that shift will only continue and accelerate, as emerging and developing markets continue to grow rapidly while developed markets grow at a much slower pace."</span></span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Within the larger trend of the economic center moving towards Asia, we find increased economic cooperation between Russia and China - whose relationship was without a doubt strengthened after the Ukraine conflict. </span></p><p><span><span class="s1">Russia pulling toward China wil</span><span>l lead to "expanded" political cooperation in three areas: "cooperation in Central Asia; alternatives to the Bretton Woods institutions; and increased cooperation on domestic political issues," although the two countries will "likely stop short of a formal military alliance," </span><a href="http://www.ecfr.eu/page/-/ECFR126_-_A_Soft_Alliance_Russia-China_Relations_After_the_Ukraine_Crisis.pdf">according to Alexander Gabuev</a><span>, a </span><a href="https://twitter.com/alexgabuev">senior associate</a><span> and chair of the Russia in Asia-Pacific Program at <a href="http://carnegie.ru/experts/?fa=1017">Carnegie Moscow Center</a>.</span><span><br /></span></span></p><p><span>"It is Inner Asia - Afghanistan, Mongolia, and the five post-Soviet states of Central Asia - that is likely to see the most impact from the deepening of Sino-Russia integration," writes </span><a href="https://twitter.com/dmitritrenin">Dmitri Trenin</a><span>, </span><span>the director of Carnegie Moscow Center,</span><span> in </span><a href="http://carnegie.ru/publications/?fa=59728#">a paper on the Sino-Russo entente</a><span>.</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p><p><span>"What is likely to emerge is a trade and investment zone covering all of central, northern, and eastern Eurasia. With China as its powerhouse, this area can be called Greater Asia - from Shanghai, its business center, to St. Petersburg, its outpost at Europe's doorstep."<br><br /></br></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><br><br /></br></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Already we've seen several Beijing-led and Moscow-endorsed notable initiatives such as the </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-planning-to-rebuild-the-silk-road-and-transform-global-trade-routes-2015-4">Silk Road Economic Belt</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">, the development of the </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-has-a-crucial-advantage-over-the-us-in-the-arctic-2015-4">Northern Sea Route</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">, a </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-builds-moscow-to-beijing-high-speed-train-2014-12">high-speed rail link</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> that will connect Moscow to Beijing, and the </span><a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/int/sco.htm">Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"Putin's vision of a 'greater Europe' from Lisbon to Vladivostok, made up of the European Union and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union, is being replaced by a 'greater Asia' from Shanghai to St. Petersburg," according to Trenin.</span><span><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span>The bottom line: Kazakhstan's new proposal fits the larger trend that the economic center of the world is shifting east, and Central Asia heating up while it does.</span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bethenny-frankel-huge-business-mistake-lost-millions-real-housewives-2015-5">How one simple mistake cost 'Real Housewives' superstar Bethenny Frankel millions</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="treGpzdDrlNasuxsLTPw1AeeqbEP3zlz" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "siberian corridor" and got 4 results

Russia's airspace ban is reminiscent of the Cold War-era when most airlines couldn't fly over the country see the history of the Siberian Corridor

Taylor Rains

Russian rebels aim to embarrass Putin with cross-border attacks during presidential election

Alia Shoaib

The best wildlife photos of 2022 include a ball of bees, a snake eating a bat, and polar bears raiding an abandoned town

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

We just got another sign that the world's economic center is moving east

Elena Holodny

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides