Month: June 2019

Russians are increasingly likely to rally over social than political issues, according to a newly released study of protests in the first three months of 2019. Freedom of assembly has been gradually restricted in Russia since a wave of mass protests in 2011-2012 against President Vladimir Putin. Observers say that nonpolitical demonstrations have become more frequent…

Baptized Russian soldiers won World War II while most of the country’s atheist soldiers died in battle, according to an Orthodox Church bishop. Metropolitan Ioann of Belgorod and Stary Oskol’s remarks were caught on video during a service honoring the anniversary of the beginning of the war. Although ultimately victorious, the Soviet Union lost over 27…

Russian police have detained a man suspected of being behind a string of druggings and robberies at popular hangout spots in central Moscow, media reported Tuesday. Russia’s The Village news website said Monday that at least 24 victims, including its photo editor, had been drugged and robbed by a single suspect in the past month. The…

Two Russian biathletes have been suspended for four years for doping violations detected in data from Russia‘s former anti-doping agency laboratory, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) said on Tuesday. Alexander Pechenkin and Alexander Chernyshov were among the four Russian biathletes who were charged with doping violations by the IBU and provisionally suspended last November. In addition to a…

NATO urged Russia on Tuesday to destroy a new missile before an August deadline and save a treaty that keeps land-based nuclear warheads out of Europe or face a more determined alliance response in the region. NATO defense ministers will discuss on Wednesday their next steps if Moscow keeps the missile system that the United States says…

A court in Moscow has sentenced a Polish national to 14 years behind bars on charges of espionage, Russian media have reported. Marian Radzajewski, 42, has reportedly been held in custody in Russia since April 2018. Security officials said they had caught him “in the attempt of making a deal” to allegedly smuggle secret parts…

Russia has military intelligence that shows that a U.S. drone was in Iranian air space when it was shot down by Iran last week, Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said on Tuesday. Speaking at a briefing for journalists in Jerusalem, Patrushev said evidence presented by the United States alleging Iran was behind attacks…

Foreign students who graduate from Russian universities may find it easier to get a Russian passport as soon as this year as the country grapples with a shrinking population, a cabinet official has said. The Russian government has enacted a number of financial programs in recent years to reverse its declining population and record-low migration…

Europe’s top human rights body has voted to allow Russia to return as a member of its parliamentary assembly, dividing the 70-year-old watchdog tasked with monitoring civil liberties among its 47 member states. Russia was suspended from the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) in 2014 over Moscow’s behavior toward Ukraine, including the annexation of…

A Russian Air Force plane that landed in Venezuela is there to service Russian military equipment already in the country, Russia‘s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Tuesday, according to Interfax. The plane landed on Monday in Venezuela’s main airport, according to a Reuters witness and a website that tracks plane movements, three months after a similar arrival…

Russia’s middle class has fallen by nearly one-fifth since the start of the country’s economic crisis in 2014, an analysis by the Moscow-based Alfa Bank has said. Low oil prices and Western sanctions have reduced Russians’ real incomes for five years in a row. Economists forecast that the population’s purchasing power will keep falling in…

The head of Russia’s smallest region has resigned following months of controversy over a land-swap deal with the neighboring republic of Chechnya, Russian media have reported. Residents of the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia first took to the streets against the border-swap agreement signed with Chechnya in fall 2018. Violent protests reignited in March as…

Georgia’s economy could lose up to $300 million annually from the absence of Russian tourists amid tensions between the ex-Soviet neighbors, Georgian analysts estimate. Angry protests erupted in Tbilisi after a Russian lawmaker’s visit last week, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to suspend flights to Georgia, a popular vacation destination for Russians, as of July…

Nearly half of Russians say they wouldn’t support a switch to a four-day work week over fears that it would reduce their earnings, a new poll has said. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that a shift to a four-day work week is “very likely” to happen as a way to help workers…

Prominent businessman David Yakobashvili told Interfax news agency on Monday he did not plan to return to Russia after security services searched his art gallery, though he later denied this was the reason for his staying away. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) searched a Moscow art gallery owned by Yakobashvili earlier this month as part…

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday extending a Russian ban on food imports from the European Union until the end of 2020, according to a government database. Russia imposed an embargo on a wide range of imports from the EU and other countries in 2014 in retaliation for international sanctions over Moscow’s role…

The Islamic State (IS) terror group has claimed responsibility for a gun attack on security officials in Russia’s republic of Chechnya, the online monitor Site Intelligence Group reported on Sunday. IS has claimed a series of attacks over the past year in Chechnya, a predominately Muslim republic in Russia’s North Caucasus. An estimated 3,400 Russians fought…

The U.S. deployment of land-based missile systems near Russia’s borders could lead to a stand-off comparable to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying on Monday. Russia has been fiercely critical of U.S. plans to deploy missile systems in eastern Europe, and of Washington’s withdrawal from the…

A majority of Russians believe that the Soviet system took care of the common man and woman, according to a recent poll by the independent Levada Center pollster. Russia has seen an upward trend in positive opinions about the Soviet Union in recent years, with nostalgia toward it hitting a 14-year high in December. Public…

Ex-Soviet Georgia is in the grip of a wave of Russophobic hysteria which is being artificially whipped up and is getting worse, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. He said Russia was not imposing sanctions on Tbilisi, but had been forced to halt Russian airline flights to Georgia to protect its citizens after violent…

Russia and its partners will take steps to counter new sanctions that Washington has said it will impose on Iran, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on Monday. In the comments reported by the state-run TASS and RIA news agencies, Ryabkov did not specify what those steps would…

The film crew of a Russian state-run television channel was attacked in Georgia’s capital on Saturday amid a flare-up in tensions between the two countries, Russian media have reported. Tensions between Russia and Georgia were ignited after a Russian lawmaker’s speech in the Georgian parliament set off mass protests in Tbilisi on Thursday. Demonstrators violently…

President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to suspend passenger flights carrying Russian citizens from Russia to Georgia. The move comes amid a brewing political crisis between the two countries after mass anti-Russian protests sparked by a Russian lawmaker’s visit rocked Georgia’s capital on Thursday. In a decree signed Friday, Putin also instructed the Russian…

Russia is ready to help Iran with oil exports and its banking sector if the Instex European payment system is not launched, Interfax cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Friday. The Instex mechanism was created by European countries in an attempt to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with six global…

Less than half of Russians pay attention to foreign policy issues, according to a new poll by the state-run Foundation of Public Opinion (FOM) pollster. Polling in recent years has suggested Russians are becoming less focused on endeavors abroad as the economy stagnates and living standards fall. In the FOM poll published Friday, 49 percent…

Viktor, 62, turned his back on society 16 years ago and moved to the remote forest wilderness of Russian Siberia where he lives in seclusion in a wooden hut, studying the Bible and foraging for food. Gray-bearded, enigmatic and with a huge tattoo of Christ across his back, the former barge operator refuses to disclose…

The head of Georgia’s parliament has resigned after mass anti-Russian protests rocked the capital this week. Thousands of protesters on Thursday tried to storm the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi after Russian lawmaker Sergei Gavrilov addressed an event for Orthodox Christian leaders in his native Russian from the parliamentary speaker’s seat. Demonstrators violently clashed with police,…

Russia accused the United States on Friday of deliberately stoking dangerous tensions around Iran and pushing the situation to the brink of war, the state-run RIA news agency reported. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called on Washington to weigh the possible consequences of conflict with Iran and said a report in the New York Times…

Oyub Titiyev, a prominent human rights leader in Russia’s republic of Chechnya, was released from Russian prison on Friday morning, more than 18 months after first being detained on drug charges his supporters say were fabricated. Titiyev, who runs the office of the Memorial Human Rights Center in the southern Russian region, was detained in…

Officials in Russia and Georgia have spoken out following Thursday night’s mass protest in Tbilisi which broke out over anti-Russian sentiment and led to dozens of injuries. Crowds angry over the visit of a Russian lawmaker tried to storm Georgia’s parliament building on Thursday evening, pushing against lines of riot police, throwing bottles and grabbing…

European Union leaders agreed on Thursday to prolong until the end of January 2020 economic sanctions against Russia over the turmoil in Ukraine, a spokesman for the bloc said. The EU first slapped sanctions on Russia after Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and supported rebels fighting Kiev troops in the east of…

Crowds angry over the visit of a Russian lawmaker tried to storm Georgia’s parliament building on Thursday evening, pushing against lines of riot police, throwing bottles and grabbing riot shields from some officers and tearing off their helmets. The scenes in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, flared up suddenly after public anger over the visit and speech…

Dmitry, his wife, their five children and his elderly mother spent last weekend hiding in the woods just outside Penza, a city 650 kilometers southeast of Moscow. Whenever they needed food or water, Dmitry drove to the nearest store, bought rations and, after briefly charging his phone, hurried back to his family. “I didn’t sleep…

Tens of thousands of Georgians gathered outside the parliament building in the capital Tbilisi on Thursday to protest against a speech made in the country’s parliament by a Russian lawmaker in his own language. Protesters chanted slogans against Russian President Vladimir Putin and dozens broke through police lines to try to storm the parliament building. Sergei Gavrilov…

Hundreds of protesters opposing a controversial landfill in Russia’s north have set up camp near its construction site in a rare tent-based demonstration for the country. Protests against the $162-million landfill in Shiyes, Arkhangelsk region, have become a symbol of Russia’s growing trend toward issues-based local activism. Almost a year of demonstrations in the abandoned…

Russia has started releasing a group of captive whales whose detention in Russia’s Far East has caused an international outcry, state media said on Thursday. Nearly 100 whales reportedly bound for export to China have been held for months in cramped pens near the Sea of Japan port of Nakhodka, triggering a wave of international…

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s is holding his annual question and answer session broadcast live on Thursday on state television.  The marathon Q&A session has become a yearly tradition during Putin’s nearly two decades in power, giving the Russian president a chance to shape narratives around pressing issues.  Here are the highlights: On whether he has…

As many as 350 people gathered in central Moscow on Wednesday evening to protest murder charges brought last week against three teenage sisters who stabbed their father to death after he had abused them for years. Krestina, Angelina and Maria Khachaturyan had been under house arrest waiting to hear what the charges against them would…

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the fate of 24 Ukrainian sailors held in Russia since last year must be linked to the release of Russian citizens held in Ukraine whom Moscow wants to see freed. Putin’s comments marked a departure from the Kremlin’s insistence that the sailors must be put on trial and…

Russia has lost $50 billion due to Western sanctions in the past five years, compared to $240 billion that the European Union has lost from Russian sanctions, President Vladimir Putin has claimed. Russia has been hit with several rounds of Western sanctions since 2014 after its annexation of Crimea and aggression in Ukraine, as well…

Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft said on Thursday that more contaminated oil had been found at a section of the Druzhba pipeline from Belarus to Poland, the RBC media portal said. Pumping was suspended on Wednesday evening but resumed on Thursday, the report cited Transneft as saying. Russia suspended west-bound flows through the pipeline in April…

President Vladimir Putin told Russians on Thursday there were signs that years of falling real wages, which have dented his popularity, were drawing to an end and that a government programme would deliver higher living standards. Putin, 66, in power as president or prime minister since 1999, was re-elected by a landslide last year but…

Russians will see a boost in their living standards if they raise their labor productivity, President Vladimir Putin has said during his annual phone-in with the public. The productivity of the Russian workforce is among the lowest of the world’s major economies, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Living standards have declined as…