Day: May 16, 2019

  • U.S. Sanctions Chechen Group, Russians for Alleged Human Rights Abuses

    U.S. Sanctions Chechen Group, Russians for Alleged Human Rights Abuses

    The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Chechen group and five individuals, including at least three Russians, for alleged human rights abuses under the Global Magnitsky Act, including extrajudicial killings and the torture of LGBT individuals. The sanctions against the Terek Special Rapid Response Team in the republic of Chechnya and the five individuals…

  • Russian Mayor Halts Church Construction Amid Protests, Clashes

    Russian Mayor Halts Church Construction Amid Protests, Clashes

    The mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg has suspended construction of an Orthodox cathedral on park grounds as mass protests against the project continued for a fourth day. Thousands of residents have taken to the streets against the city authorities’ plans to replace a central park with a replica of a cathedral demolished in…

  • Winners of 8th corporate Fakel Festival awarded in Sochi

    Winners of 8th corporate Fakel Festival awarded in Sochi

    Release May 16, 2019, 22:00 The final round of the 8th corporate Fakel Festival run by Gazprom came to a close in Krasnaya Polyana, Sochi. Taking part in the Festival were delegations representing 39 subsidiaries of Gazprom from Russia, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan, together with performers from CNPC (China). The total number of participants exceeded 1,600. The event was attended by foreign colleagues from Gazprom’s partner…

  • Russia Evades Exclusion From Council of Europe

    Russia Evades Exclusion From Council of Europe

    Russia is to keep its membership in Europe’s top human rights body after Germany and France engineered a last-minute deal to avoid a Russian expulsion, a step that threatened to further incite tensions between the Kremlin and the West. Foreign ministers from the Council of Europe will endorse the agreement at a meeting Friday in…

  • Russia to Set Up ‘Fake News Database’

    Russia to Set Up ‘Fake News Database’

    Russia plans to launch a public database of news it flags as “fake,” the head of Russia’s powerful media regulator announced two months after President Vladimir Putin signed a law criminalizing the spread of “fake news.” Alexander Zharov’s regulatory agency, known by the acronym Roskomnadzor, has successfully blocked LinkedIn in Russia and is currently engaged…

  • Why Are Russians Clashing Over a New Cathedral in Yekaterinburg?

    Why Are Russians Clashing Over a New Cathedral in Yekaterinburg?

    Thousands of Russians in the country’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg have taken to the streets in recent days in growing protests against a controversial plan to build a new cathedral in a popular riverside park. Tensions came to a head on Monday when opponents of the new church toppled a fence surrounding the proposed construction…

  • Discover Nikolai Meshcherin

    Discover Nikolai Meshcherin

    The private Museum of Russian Impressionism was founded less than five years ago, but it has already become an important part of the Moscow art and museum scene. Its significance is not only thanks to its architecturally stunning venue — a reconstructed sugar silo at what was once a confectionary factory — and its central…

  • Britain Scrambled Fighters Twice to Intercept Russian Aircraft in Baltic

    Britain Scrambled Fighters Twice to Intercept Russian Aircraft in Baltic

    Britain has scrambled Typhoon fighters twice in two days in the Baltic to intercept Russian aircraft, the defense ministry said. British Typhoons were launched on Wednesday to intercept two SU-27 fighters and an IL-22 and escorted the formation toward Russia. On Tuesday, British Typhoon fighters scrambled out of Ämari Air Base in Estonia in response to two Russian…

  • PhosAgro 1Q 2019 EBITDA Grows 73% YoY to RUB 24.8 bln

    PhosAgro 1Q 2019 EBITDA Grows 73% YoY to RUB 24.8 bln

    Moscow – PhosAgro (“PhosAgro” or “the Company”) (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, today announces its consolidated IFRS financial results for the three months (1Q) ended 31 March 2019.  Revenue for 1Q 2019 rose by 32% year-on-year to RUB 72.3 billion (USD 1.1 billion). EBITDA increased by…

  • A Majority of Russian Families Have No Savings, Poll Says

    A Majority of Russian Families Have No Savings, Poll Says

    Two-thirds of Russian families have no financial savings to speak of, according to a new survey published by the independent Levada Center polling agency. The findings back up official data showing five consecutive years of declining real incomes as Western sanctions and dropping oil prices hit Russian consumers. Sixty-five percent of Russian households reported a…

  • Russian Bill Seeks to Criminalize News That Leads to International Sanctions

    Russian Bill Seeks to Criminalize News That Leads to International Sanctions

    Russian lawmakers are seeking to criminalize the publication of materials that leads to sanctions imposed against the country or individuals, the latest in a host of legislation to tighten control over the flow of information. Mikhail Emelyanov, a lawmaker for the pro-Kremlin Just Russia party, is proposing amendments to the criminal code to impose a…

  • Siberian Mayor Rejects Church Plans as Anti-Cathedral Protests Rock Yekaterinburg

    Siberian Mayor Rejects Church Plans as Anti-Cathedral Protests Rock Yekaterinburg

    The mayor of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk has canceled plans to build a pre-revolutionary cathedral in place of a public park as protests against similar plans rocked Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg. Clashes erupted in Yekaterinburg this week as residents tore down fencing enclosing its riverside park ahead of church construction. Dozens of arrests…

  • Dozens Arrested in Russian City Rocked by Protests Against Church Building

    Dozens Arrested in Russian City Rocked by Protests Against Church Building

    Authorities in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg have detained dozens of people as thousands of residents continued to defend a riverside park from plans to build a church on its grounds. Protests against placing the church in the city’s central park entered their third day Wednesday following clashes with defenders of the construction site, which…