Iran tried to seize two oil tankers in international waters near the strategic Strait of Hormuz early on July 5, firing shots at one of them, the U.S. Navy said. In both cases, officials said, Iranian naval vessels backed off after the U.S. Navy responded to distress signals, and that …

The U.S. and Russia are discussing a new prisoner swap that could involve jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in a Moscow prison on espionage charges that he denies, and a Russian detained in the U.S. on cybercrime charges, the Kremlin said Tuesday. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov …

Has the Wagner Group found support in Bosnia? In the wake of Yevgeny Prigozhin‘s recent aborted run on Moscow, Soldier of Fortune went into Eastern Europe to check out the scene. Our correspondent Heath Hansen, who normally roams the U.S. southern border, on Saturday crossed from Montenegro into southern Bosnia …

VARADERO, CUBA July 2 – Russia’s first scheduled flight to Cuba since 2022 landed on Sunday in Cuba, TASS reports. The flight took place a few days after Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu hosted a visit from Cuba’s Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Alvaro Lopez Miera. The Kremlin says …

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – The United States flew nuclear-capable bombers to the Korean Peninsula on Friday in its latest show of force against North Korea, days after the North staged massive anti-U.S. rallies in its capital. The long-range B-52 bombers took part in joint aerial drills with other U.S. and …

Russian authorities appear to have detained General Sergei Surovikin over his suspected connection to the Wagner Group’s mutiny last week, according to media reports. The specific details surrounding Surovikin’s status remain blurry, but top Russian and U.S. officials have said the senior general has been detained, the Financial Times and The New York …

From RFEL/RL Russian Service ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia – The first inkling that something unusual was happening came when uniformed men with weapons at the ready blocked traffic at the intersection of Budyonnovsky Prospekt and Bolshaya Sadovaya Ulitsa. Although cars were turned back, pedestrians were allowed to enter the underpass and proceed …

In early 1991, an article by then-correspondent Susan Katz Keating appeared in Soldier of Fortune, describing how the KGB likely would try to overthrow Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The article, “How to Stage a Soviet Coup,” was published shortly before the KGB targeted Gorbachev in a failed coup attempt. In …

Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who turned his fighters against the military leadership in Moscow, has moved to Belarus, and the criminal charges against him for mounting an armed rebellion will be dropped, the Kremlin said Saturday.  Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko negotiated the deal with the Wagner Group chief, his …

by Mike Eckel Yevgeny Prigozhin, a convict who parlayed a St. Petersburg restaurant business into lucrative Kremlin contracts, founded the private military company Wagner, and became a relentless critic of the Russian military command, made and then stopped a run on Moscow as part of a truncated rebellion. Who is …