Year: 2019

President Vladimir Putin’s former wife owns shares in one of Russia’s top 10 microfinance providers, according to an investigation published by the Sobesednik news website Wednesday. Lyudmila Putina was said to have changed her name twice since divorcing Putin in 2014. A woman named Lyudmila Shkrebneva (Putina’s maiden name) allegedly bought a 7% stake in…

A Russian conscript who gunned down eight fellow soldiers in the country’s Far East last month acted in retaliation to hazing and a rape threat, according to his reported testimony and his father’s remarks published Wednesday. Private Ramil Shamsutdinov, 20, was detained Oct. 25 at the military base where he served and charged with murder.…

The Russian military has allegedly obtained Israel’s new interceptor missile that Syria captured on its soil last year, Israeli news outlets reported Wednesday. Israel launched two of its intermediate ballistic missile interceptors called David’s Sling into Syria on July 23, 2018, one of which landed intact, the Middle East intelligence website DEBKAfile wrote at the…

One of the suspects arrested in Vietnam as part of an investigation into migrant deaths in Britain is believed to have smuggled people into Europe via Russia, USA Today has reported. British police charged two men with manslaughter last week in connection with the discovery of 39 bodies believed to be Vietnamese in a refrigerated truck…

The share of Russians who say the country needs sweeping changes has grown to 59% this year, according to new research from the Carnegie Moscow Center and the independent Levada Center pollster cited by the Vedomosti newspaper Wednesday. “There’s increasing dissatisfaction with the work of the state,” Vedomosti quoted Levada sociologist and co-author Denis Volkov…

Under a soft winter sun in northern Norway, U.S. Marines train in the ice and snow as they learn how to fight in the freezing cold. “Which country is to the northeast?” Staff Sergeant Daniel Croak bellows at a group of 20 soldiers in camouflaged combat jackets and white trousers in a pine forest near…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday he did not support banning foreign media outlets including Germany’s Deutsche Welle from working in Russia, something that had been proposed by parliament, Interfax news agency reported. Russia‘s parliament accused Deutsche Welle in September of breaking election legislation and asked the foreign ministry to consider revoking the German…

President Vladimir Putin convened a meeting of Russia’s language council Tuesday, where he warned that there is a war against the Russian language, recommended replacing Wikipedia and called for the introduction of uniform language norms.  Chaired by presidential adviser Vladimir Tolstoy, the 48-member council is charged with developing state policy on protecting and promoting the…

Turkish and Russian troops on Tuesday began their second joint patrol in northern Syria near Kobani, under a deal that has forced a Kurdish militia away from Turkey’s border, while local media released footage of angry crowds pelting a convoy with stones. Nearly a month ago, Turkey and Syrian rebel allies launched a cross-border incursion…

Nine of 10 malnourished and neglected tigers shipped from Italy and bound for Russia are recovering in Poland after Belarus stopped them from crossing the border for lack of proper paperwork. A Polish zoo and wildlife sanctuary took in the “exhausted, starving, covered in their own feces” tigers Wednesday, days after Belarussian officials held up…

Turkish and Russian troops in armored vehicles on Tuesday began their second joint ground patrol in northern Syria near the town of Kobani, under a deal that has forced a Kurdish militia away from Turkey’s border. Nearly a month ago, Turkey and Syrian rebel allies launched a cross-border incursion against Kurdish YPG fighters, seizing control…

Russia has imprisoned a Jehovah’s Witness from Siberia to six years in prison on charges of “extremism,” the independent Tayga.info news website reported Tuesday. Sergei Klimov was detained in the city of Tomsk in June 2018 on suspicion of being an “de facto leader” of a local branch of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Russia outlawed the Jehovah’s…

Russia continues to sit near the bottom of the global internet freedom rating index, according to a new report released Tuesday. The Freedom House democracy watchdog’s 2019 World Internet Freedom Index said online freedom worldwide has deteriorated for nine straight years. It ranked China as the world’s worst abuser of the internet freedoms for the…

The British government was accused by opponents of sitting on a parliamentary report examining alleged Russian meddling in British politics because it might contain embarrassing revelations about Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his party. The report by parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has been cleared by the security services but it has not yet been…

The Russian Arctic archipelagos of Franz Josef Land and Severnaya Zemlya experienced the warmest October on record, with average temperatures on the islands 8 degrees Celsius higher than normal, according to Russia’s meteorological service Roshydromet. Temperature maps from meteorologists show a belt of warm air stretching across large parts of the Arctic. The biggest abnormalities…

Almost one-third of Russians support police raids and criminal cases against prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s allies, according to a survey from the independent Levada Center pollster published Tuesday. Police have carried out mass nationwide raids against Navalny’s associates and frozen a number of bank accounts in recent months as part of a criminal investigation…

An official in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya has apologized for using a taser on women detained under suspicion of fraud, Chechen media reported Monday. Video showing Islam Kadyrov, the former mayor of Chechnya’s capital Grozny, using a stun gun against detainees to obtain evidence from them aired on the Grozny television channel late…

Most Russians have a day off Monday as the country marks National Unity Day, a national holiday aimed to promote patriotism and tolerance between ethnic and religious groups in Russia. National Unity Day commemorates Russia’s defeat of Polish invaders in 1612, and is one of the country’s youngest national holidays as it was established in…

Delivery of a second batch of Russian S-400 missile defense systems to Turkey may be delayed beyond a planned 2020 timeline by talks on technology sharing and joint production, the head of Turkey’s Defence Industry Directorate said on Monday. NATO allies Turkey and the United States have been at loggerheads over the purchase of the S-400…

Russian prosecutors on Saturday opened a criminal investigation into “sexual violence” after a YouTube video series published online showed children talking with members of the LGBT community. The move comes six years after the Russian government banned “homosexual propaganda” aimed at minors. Authorities in Russia have used the law to block pride parades and rights…

More than a year after African swine fever began ravaging hogs in China, the virus may be escaping along the same route it’s believed to have entered — via Russia. While the swine contagion has been present in Russia for 12 years, it’s only been spreading actively in the country’s Far East for the past…

In his first interview since being released in a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine, key MH17 witness Vladimir Tsemakh said Dutch and Australian officials offered him Dutch citizenship and a house in the Netherlands during interrogations. Tsemakh, a Ukrainian citizen, was kidnapped in the Donbass by Ukranian security services on June 27. He had…

Four Russians have been rescued after being stranded in below-freezing temperatures in a remote Arctic region, The Siberian Times newspaper reported Friday. Three men and one woman had been traveling a 270-kilometer distance from the village of Berezovka to the town of Srednekolymsk in the republic of Sakha when their two snowmobiles broke down in…

A Russian plane was forced to make an emergency landing when its engine failed shortly after takeoff from the Siberian city of Tyumen, the state-run TASS news agency reported Friday. There were 80 passengers and six crew members on board the flight, Interfax reported. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 operated by Yamal Airlines was flying from…

Russia’s Supreme Court has disbanded veteran activist Lev Ponomaryov’s civil rights group months after authorities labeled it a “foreign agent,” Interfax reported Friday. Russia’s Justice Ministry blacklisted For Human Rights as a foreign agent alongside two of Ponomaryov’s other NGOs in February after an inspection into its political activity while receiving funding from abroad. Ponomaryov,…

A Moscow court has ordered catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin’s company to compensate the parents of schoolchildren who suffered food poisoning last year, Interfax reported Friday. The parents sued Prigozhin’s business alongside other companies, schools and officials this spring for the December 2018 dysentery outbreak in several state-run daycare centers and kindergartens. Officials confirmed 127 overall…

Hundreds of millions of dollars in cash has been shipped from Russia to Venezuela, providing a lifeline to the South American country as U.S. sanctions limit its access to the global financial system. A total of $315 million of U.S. dollar and euro notes were sent in six separate shipments from Moscow to Caracas from…

A fresh roster of forecasts and data on the Russian economy suggests slow growth and low inflation coupled with robust corporate performance will mark the final two months of the year. Meanwhile, economy-watchers remain fixed on a crucial Central Bank meeting in December and are divided over whether Bank of Russia governor Elvira Nabiullina will…

Israel has suspended the extradition to the U.S. of a Russian hacker after Russia proposed to swap him for an Israeli woman jailed in Russia over airport marijuana possession, The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday.  In mid-October, Russia asked Israel to swap Alexei Burkov, who is wanted in the U.S. on charges of credit card fraud,…

Russian investigators have opened a genocide case on the murder of more than 200 disabled children in southern Russia by Nazi Germany during World War II based on newly declassified documents. German death squads on Oct. 9-10, 1942, killed 214 disabled foster children who had fled Crimea for the coastal town of Yeysk, according to…

The first business owner who returned to Russia after appearing on the so-called ‘Titov list’ has been sentenced to three years in a penal colony for fraud, Russian media reported Friday. Andrey Kokovin, who returned to Russia from the U.K. last year, was found guilty of stealing 10 million rubles from his Rostov-based company in…

The U.S. State Department warned on Thursday that it had seen indications of Russian “influence” on recent unrest in Chile, where two weeks of protests and riots have rocked the administration of President Sebastian Pinera. A senior State Department official said there were “clear indications” people were taking advantage of the unrest in Chile —…

Turkey has handed over 18 men believed to be Syrian government soldiers who were seized in northeast Syria near the Turkish border earlier this week, the Turkish Defense Ministry said late on Thursday. The ministry did not say who they were handed over to, but said it came about “as a result of the coordination…

When the chairman of Russia’s Committee on Informational Policy, Leonid Levin, stepped on stage in Moscow’s Lomonosov building on Oct. 28  to give a speech during the second All-Russian Digital Forum he couldn’t have chosen a better place. The venue is not just the home of Russia’s fastest supercomputer, it’s also overshadowed by the iconic…

Starting this month, a slew of new laws and rules has entered into effect in Russia that will change different aspects of life in the country, including regulations of the internet, the ability to top up e-wallets and make religious pilgrimages. Here’s a look at three major laws that came into effect Nov. 1: Sovereign…

Russia and Serbia have carried out successive joint military exercises in the past week, including Russia’s first use of its advanced S-400 missile defense system abroad. Analysts argue that Serbia pursues close ties with fellow Orthodox Christian and majority-Slavic Russia to gain leverage for maneuvering with the West. Serbia is negotiating entry into the European…

Russian activists from the Consortium of Women’s Non-Governmental Organizations launched a Halloween social media flashmob — #LawOrDeath — to push for a 2017 law that largely decriminalized domestic violence to be overturned. “This day has become an occasion for those who like to rattle other people’s nerves,” said Tatiana Belova, the originator of the idea…

Seven Russian Wagner Group mercenaries have been killed in two separate shooting incidents involving Islamic State-linked insurgents in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province this month, two Mozambique army sources told The Moscow Times. In a previously unreported attack that took place on Oct. 10 in Cabo Delgado’s Macomia district, two Russian Wagner soldiers were shot…

Estonia is more than 2,000 miles from the Levant, yet ripples from President Donald Trump’s recent actions in Syria are reaching all the way to the Baltic Sea. Trump’s Oct. 6 decision to withdraw troops from parts of Northern Syria was made in a phone call with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that caught other…

Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a one-day visit to Hungary, where he mourned the plight of Christians in the Middle East and analyzed his Ukrainian counterpart’s ideologies. The Moscow Times picked out three remarks Putin made alongside his right-wing conservative counterpart Viktor Orban and other officials Wednesday: On Christianity: “Although the Middle East is the…

Turkey is in talks with Russia to hand over 18 people believed to be members of the Syrian government forces, who were captured near the northern Syrian town of Ras Al Ain, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Thursday. Turkey’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that 18 people, had been captured near Ras al Ain,…

A Russian conscript killed eight fellow soldiers in the country’s Far East last Friday in a mass shooting the Defense Ministry quickly attributed to the shooter’s nervous breakdown. The conscript has been detained at military unit 54160 in Russia’s Zabaikalsky region, where he and the victims served, and charged with murder. The Defense Ministry did…

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine — On a gray, overcast fall morning, a hound mix with copper-and-white fur sidles up to a group of foreign tourists taking photographs in front of the old Soviet sign welcoming visitors to Chernobyl. “Dude, don’t touch it, you’ll start throwing up,” a brash college-age American says to his friend, laughing. “We just…

Russia’s mammoth infrastructure spending spree over the next few years will do little to boost the slow pace of growth in the Russian economy, economists have warned. A new study from consultants at Oxford Economics has found that the country’s $400 billion six-year National Projects program will result in an increase in annual GDP growth…