Mr. Tihonenko and Mr. Mamonov are two of the youthful faces of Current Time, America’s answer to Russia Today (RT), the Kremlin’s propaganda network. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has started a 24-hour Russian-language TV channel to counter the rise of RT and Sputnik, another pervasive Russian broadcaster. Viewers of Current Time in Russia proper cannot be many—it started quietly in October, and is available there only online or by satellite. No cable providers will carry it.

Besides putting his mark in the heart of Europe, Modi is understood to have also brought back momentum to India-Russia relationship amid growing concerns over Moscow's newfound closeness to China and Pakistan. In his typical style, he was able to connect with Germany's Merkel, Russia's Putin and France's Macron as well. Ahead of the restrictive meetings, he told Merkel that India and Germany are made for each other. 

Three years into the war in Ukraine, international attention and aid to displaced people has waned. In an area near the war zone, Natasha Bluth reports on volunteer groups trying to fill gaps in support for one of the world’s largest internally displaced populations.Many Ukrainian community organizations, inspired by the Euromaidan protests that called for improved human rights and better ties with Europe, have expanded since the conflict began, including local NGO Ulybka rebenka, or Smile of a Child, which was founded a year earlier to aid disadvantaged children.

Moldova's foreign ministry on Monday expelled five Russian diplomats, ordering Moscow to remove them in a move that outraged the country's pro-Russian president. The foreign ministry declared the diplomats "personae non grata," giving the relevant note to the Russian ambassador to Moldova Farit Mukhametshin on Monday, a foreign ministry aide, Artur Sarbu, told AFP, without explaining why they were being expelled.