Day: June 27, 2019

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a published interview he believed his meeting with Britain’s Theresa May at the G20 summit this week could help repair relations after the poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil. He said that the incident was an issue between intelligence agencies and should not be allowed to damage…

Hackers working for Western intelligence agencies broke into Russian internet search company Yandex in late 2018 deploying a rare type of malware in an attempt to spy on user accounts, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The malware, called Regin, is known to be used by the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance of…

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published on Thursday that liberal values were obsolete because they had been rejected by the majority of the people in Western nations. Putin told the Financial Times newspaper that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had made a cardinal mistake by adopting a liberal policy towards immigration from the Middle East. “The…

Two pro-Russian separatist republics in eastern Ukraine have agreed to release four Ukrainian prisoners as a “goodwill gesture” later this week, news agencies reported Thursday. Rebels in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics have for the past five years been at war with government forces in eastern Ukraine. Prisoner exchanges are stipulated in an…

In a dingy parking lot hidden behind three of Moscow’s biggest train stations a crowd gathers around a fold-out table laden with vats of boiled buckwheat, fish soup, baked potatoes and hot tea, with cookies and bananas for dessert. For many of the city’s homeless, this is the only chance they have to eat a…

Approximately 550 people living in an outpost on Russia’s Kara Sea coast could soon face big changes after the federal government earlier this month decided to give the local seaport international status. Behind the decision lies a plan to boost shipments on the Northern Sea Route, the government said. Foreign vessels will now be allowed to…

Facial recognition cameras have helped police catch scores of suspects on the streets of Moscow and up to 10 criminals a month on the metro in the past two years, Russia’s Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday. Moscow claims the world’s largest network of 160,000 surveillance cameras, some equipped with facial recognition technology. Supporters of the technology say…

A Russian blogger has been fined for dancing to reggaeton music in front of a World War II monument under a new law banning “disrespect” of the authorities. The blogger, identified as “A. Chervyakova,” posted an Instagram video showing her dance at the Burial Mound of Immortality in April, court documents in the western Russian city…

Russia released two killer whales and six beluga whales back into the wild on Thursday, the first group of almost 100 whales whose detention in the Far East since last year caused an international outcry. The whales, caught last summer in order to be sold to marine parks or aquariums in China, were released in the…

Half of Russians are unable to tell the difference between real news and fake news, the head of a state-funded polling agency said on Wednesday. Almost one-third of Russians said they have encountered fake news online and one-fifths on television in recent years, the VTsIOM pollster said in April. MIT research has shown that fake…

The Russian Orthodox Church has developed plans to construct its own Vatican to the tune of $2 billion in the Moscow region, the Vedomosti business daily reported on Thursday. Church officials have been in talks with officials in the city of Sergiyev Posad to transform it into the capital of Orthodoxy since 2017. Sergiyev Posad…

UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen is working on fostering “a deeper understanding” between Russia and the United States to move the Syrian peace process forward, he said in an interview published on Thursday. In an interview published by the Geneva-based Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, Pedersen also said he wanted to convene a group of influential…

The former head of a contracting firm charged with embezzling almost $6.5 million during construction of a Russian spaceport and spending money on luxury goods has received a suspended sentence and escaped jail time. The Vostochny Cosmodrome, a $3 billion project seen in Moscow as vital to secure Russia’s independent access to space, has been…

A Russian police officer has been detained for firing his handgun at a child who accidentally kicked a ball into his car while playing with friends, Russian authorities have said. The intoxicated 36-year-old had been parked near a courtyard in the western city of Kursk when he became “infuriated” by the ball that hit his…

Two people were killed and at least seven injured when an Antonov An-24 passenger plane made an emergency landing at a regional airport in Russia’s republic of Buryatia, in Siberia, on Thursday, the area’s emergency situations ministry said. There were 46 people, including four crew, on board the plane, which was en route from the…