Day: February 27, 2019

Moscow’s facial-recognition surveillance cameras are now being deployed by collectors to track down debtors, the city’s chief bailiff told state media on Wednesday. The Russian capital claims one of the world’s largest facial-recognition systems, with 174,000 closed-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras expected to be in operation this year. In 2018, personal loans in Russia grew by…

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez will hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Friday, the state-run RIA news agency reported, the latest in a flurry of visits by Venezuelan politicians to staunch ally Russia. Moscow has backed socialist President Nicolas Maduro in the face of a challenge from opposition leader Juan Guaido who…

Russia’s aviation authority has told airlines to avoid flying over India and Pakistan after at least two military planes were shot down in the area, Russian media have reported. India and Pakistan shot down each other’s fighter jets on Wednesday, a day after Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan for the first time since a war…

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and other U.S. prosecutors have been investigating whether President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign conspired with Russia. Trump and Moscow have denied any collusion. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Russia interfered in the presidential election with a campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the United States and damage the…

Russia will reinforce its western, eastern and southern flanks this year in response to increased Western military exercises near its border, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on Wednesday. Moscow has bolstered its military capabilities since its relations with the United States and the NATO military alliance deteriorated over Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Speaking at…

A business class jet cascaded off a runway at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Tuesday. Surveillance footage posted online shows the plane skidding off the runway’s asphalt and onto the surrounding airfield after landing. The three passengers and three members of crew on board the flight traveling from Baku were…

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that an email it had received from an adviser to then U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump in January 2016 about a Moscow real estate project had made no mention of Trump’s personal interest in the project. The Kremlin was speaking before Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, testifies before a House…

The Kremlin on Wednesday said that U.S. territory was constantly being used to launch cyber attacks against Russia, but said it was unable to confirm a U.S. media report that the U.S. military had disrupted the internet access of a Russian troll farm. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the U.S. military had disrupted the internet…

Renowned Russian media executive and political consultant Igor Malashenko is believed to have committed suicide in Spain, Russian state media cited a Spanish court as saying. Malashenko’s former colleagues and family said he had taken his own life at age 64 on Monday, but no official sources have yet confirmed the reports. “Everything shows” that…

Leonardo DiCaprio has joined Pamela Anderson this week in calling on Russia to release dozens of orcas and belugas held in a so-called “whale jail” in the country’s Far East. Novaya Gazeta reported in late 2018 that about 100 Orcas and Belugas are being held in small temporary enclosures in a bay near the city of…

A suspected Russian spy has been arrested in Stockholm, the Swedish Security Police said on Wednesday. The suspect, who was arrested late Tuesday, is believed to have been engaged in criminal activity since at least 2017, the Security Police said. They declined to provide either a name or a gender for the suspect. “It is a…

Russia and Syria issued a joint statement on Wednesday calling on U.S. forces to leave Syria and to allow people inside a refugee camp in the southeast of the country to be evacuated by Russian and Syrian forces. The statement, released by Russia’s Defense Ministry, said Russian and Syrian forces had prepared buses to relocate…

Russia saw a 10 percent surge in international tourist arrivals last year, dominated by visitors from China, Germany and South Korea, state media cited the authorities as saying. Russia has introduced visa-free travel for Chinese tour groups and hired Chinese-speaking staff at airports and train stations to accommodate growing tourist numbers from the country of…

At least eight people, including three children, have been killed in a house fire in the Siberian region of Kemerovo, one year after a deadly fire there claimed scores of lives and sparked mass safety inspections. Sixty people, many of them children, died in the Siberian city of Kemerovo in March 2018 after the Winter…

The U.S. military disrupted the internet access of a Russian troll farm accused of trying to influence American voters on Nov. 6, 2018, the day of the congressional elections, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. The U.S. Cyber Command strike targeted the Internet Research Agency in the Russian port city of St. Petersburg, the Post…

The U.S. Army estimates the Russian army’s military capabilities will peak in 2028, closely followed by the Chinese around 2030, giving the United States almost a decade to prepare for those threats, a senior Pentagon official said in an interview on Monday. The top civilian at the U.S. Army, Secretary Mark Esper, said the Army…

A federal judge on Tuesday agreed to delay the sentencing of Maria Butina, who has admitted to working as a Russian agent to infiltrate a gun rights group and make inroads with U.S. conservative activists and Republicans, at the request of a prosecutor who cited her ongoing cooperation. Butina, 30, has been in custody since…