2023 in Russia

Vladimir Putin during the speech

Meeting between China and Russia's leaders

Ongoing: Russian invasion of Ukraine (timeline)

• 21 February – during the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, Vladimir Putin announced Russia's suspension of participation in the New START treaty, stating that Russia would not allow the US and NATO to inspect its nuclear facilities. He claimed the United States was continuing to develop new nuclear weapons, and if the U.S. conducted any nuclear weapons tests, then Russia would develop and test its own.[1][2][3]
• 20–22 March - 2023 visit by Xi Jinping to Russia
• 25 March – Russian President Vladimir Putin announces that Russia will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by July. The nuclear missiles will be operated by Russian forces. It will be the first time that Russian nuclear weapons have been deployed abroad since 1996.[4][5]
• 2 April – Assassination of Vladlen Tatarsky, a bombing occurred in the Street Food Bar №1 café on Universitetskaya Embankment in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, real name Maxim Fomin, died as a result of the explosion[6][7][8] and 42 people were injured, 24 of whom were hospitalized, including six in critical condition.[9][10][11]
• 3 April –
  • A magnitude 6.5 earthquake strikes Kamchatka Krai, with damage reported in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The Mutnovskaya Power Station is also temporarily shut down.[12]
  • Russia announces a ban on Armenian dairy imports amid a continued worsening of relations between the two countries.
• 27 April – the Moscow City Court ordered the SOVA Center which monitored nationalist and racist movements in Russia to close over claims that it carried out its activities throughout Russia despite only being registered in Moscow. The order occurred during a crackdown on human rights and independent organizations in Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.[13]
• 6 May – Russian writer and pro-war nationalist Zakhar Prilepin is injured and his driver is killed when their vehicle is hit by a car bomb in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia.[14][15]
• 13 June- Russia hints at possibly leaving the Black Sea grain deal. President Vladimir Putin announces that Russia is contemplating withdrawing from Black Sea grain deal. Putin said Russia entered the Black Sea grain deal to help “friendly” countries in Africa and Latin America and maintain good relationships but they were deceived by the west.[16]
• 14 June- The State Duma gives preliminary approval to a bill Banning Gender reassignment and outlaws changing birth gender on documents.[17][18][19]
• 23 June – The Wagner Group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, launched an armed rebellion after accusing the Russian military of killing Wagner forces. Wagner units withdrew from Ukraine and seized the city of Rostov-on-Don in Russia.[20]
• 24 June – The Wagner Group rebellion was abruptly halted by a deal brokered by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.
• 27 June – Russia drops all charges against Wagner Group. The defence ministry also announced that the group will be disarmed.[21]
• 14 July – The State Duma approves bill banning nearly all medical help for transgender people including gender reassignment surgeries.[22]
• 17 July – Russia officially pulls out of the Black Sea grain deal.[23]
• 24 July – President Putin signs into law the law banning nearly all medical help for transgender people including gender reassignment surgeries.[24][25][26]
• 14 August – At least 25 people are killed and 66 others are injured in an explosion at a gas station in Makhachkala, Dagestan.[27]
• 23 August – 2023 Tver Oblast plane crash.
• 2 September – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Russia will provide free grain to six African countries with plans supply up to 50 thousand tonnes.[28]
• 8 September –
  • Russia begins shipping crude oil to Brazil through Lukoil from Murmansk to Madre de Deus port, operated by Transpetro, a subsidiary of Petrobras.[29]
  • The Russian government summons the ambassador of Armenia to protest recent actions and statements undertaken by the Armenian government, amid a continuing of deterioration of relations between the two nations.[30]
  • 2023 Russian elections: Russians head to the polls to elect the bodies of local government in the country.[31]
    • Russia says that its air defense systems shot down two Ukrainian drones that were attempting to attack a polling station in Skadovsk, Kherson Oblast, while voting was occurring.[32]
  • Russia's security services detain a man for plotting to blow up a railway in Crimea and collecting information on the deployment of Russian defense ministry facilities and units.[33]
• 10 September – 2023 Russian regional elections and By-elections to the 8th Russian State Duma[34][35]
• 12 September – 2023 North Korea-Russia summit: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrives in Russia for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.[36]
• 13 September – The North Korea–Russia summit is held at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur Oblast, Russia, lasting for four hours, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowing that North Korea will support Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• 17 September – The 2023 North Korea–Russia summit concludes with Kim Jong Un returning to North Korea.[37]
• 12 October – The United Nations Human Rights Council extends a special rapporteur's mandate to investigate human rights violations in Russia for an additional year, despite Russia's previous refusal to recognize the rapporteur's mandate or permit her entry into the country.[38]
• 13 October – Russian police detain one of the lawyers of Alexei Navalny and raid the houses of the other two, accusing them of belonging to an extremist organization.[39]
• 17 October –
  • The State Duma votes unanimously to revoke Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.[40]
  • Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold talks at the Belt and Road Initiative forum in Beijing, China. It is the first meeting between Putin and an EU leader since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.[41]
• 23 October – A Russian district court extends RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva's detention until December 5 as a "preventive measure" after Kurmasheva allegedly failed to register as a "foreign agent".[42]
• 24 October – Lukoil's second chairman in just over a year, Vladimir Nekrasov, dies due to acute heart failure.[43]