Year: 2019
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Ukrainian President’s Office Says No Prisoner Swap With Russia Yet
Update: The prisoner exchange will not happen Friday and a final date hasn’t yet been determined, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s security service (SBU) told Ukrainian media. She added that the process is going according to plan. The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday said no prisoner swap had taken place with Russia yet and the process was ongoing,…
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Russia Stages Large-Scale Military Exercises With Mongolia
The Russian military has unveiled footage of large-scale exercises in Mongolia with a slick production value of shooting helicopters and firing rocket launchers. The 11th annual Russian-Mongolian drills, the Selenga-2019, took place from Aug. 15-24 and involved 1,400 troops from both countries this year. Online viewers were treated to videos of GRAD truck-mounted multiple rocket…
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Rosneft Sells over 140,000 Tonnes of Jet Fuel in German Airports in H1 2019
Rosneft Deutschland, a subsidiary of Rosneft Oil Company, has supplied its customers in airports of Germany with 142,500 tonnes of jet fuel in the first half of 2019.
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Rosneft Aero Is Official Jet Fuel Supplier at MAKS 2019
For the first time, Rosneft Aero, Rosneft Oil Company’s fuel-filling business operator, has been awarded the status of the official jet fuel supplier at the 14th International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS 2019 taking place in Zhukovsky from August 27 to September 1.
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Russian Isolation Would Be Europe’s ‘Profound Error,’ France’s Macron Says
Pushing Russia further into isolation would be a “profound error” by Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron has said in his latest overture toward the country that has been under Western sanctions since annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Macron played up efforts to “tie Russia and Europe back together” when he hosted President Vladimir Putin…
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Jay Ross, Former Managing Editor of The Moscow Times, Dies at 85
The Moscow Times recently learned that one of the first managing editors of the newspaper, Jay Ross, passed away at the age of 85. Julian “Jay” Ross was born in San Mateo, California, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. Over his long career in journalism, he was the sports editor and deputy managing…
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Blue Corridor – Gas into Engines 2019 Rally launched
Release August 29, 2019, 16:05 The Blue Corridor – Gas into Engines 2019 Rally kicked off today in Istanbul. The large-scale international rally for vehicles powered by natural gas will traverse Europe and Russia. The event is organized by Gazprom and Germany’s Uniper. The race features more than 20 cars, trucks and passenger vehicles powered by compressed and liquefied natural gas. The rally will…
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Russia Spreads Influence in Africa Using Nuclear Power – Reports
Russia is working to win influence in at least 10 African states with high-cost nuclear technology that for the most part does not suit their needs, researchers and NGOs have told The Guardian newspaper. With booming exports, nuclear energy is one example of Russia’s increasing presence in Africa in recent years. Elsewhere, a businessman known…
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Pro-Kremlin Activists Disrupt ‘Coming Out of the Closet’ Play in Moscow
Pro-Kremlin activists have for the second time in a week stormed a private event in Moscow, this time wreaking havoc at an LGBT play in Moscow on Wednesday evening. Members of the fringe NOD and SERB nationalist groups, known for attacks on opposition activists and art exhibits, most recently disrupted a seminar on how to…
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ROSATOM won two gold medals for Russia’s national team at WorldSkills Kazan 2019
On August 27 two representatives of ROSATOM ascended the top tier at the closing ceremony of the 45th “Young Professionals” (WorldSkills Russia) National Competition in Kazan. Vladislav Rosov, an engineer at JSC NIIGraphit and a third-grade student of NRNU MEPhI, won the gold medal in the competence “Production of Items of Polymeric Materials”. Being guided…
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Opposition Figure Sobol Attacked Outside Moscow Apartment
Russian opposition activist Lyubov Sobol has been attacked with an unknown liquid outside her Moscow apartment, the activist said on Thursday. Sobol emerged as the de facto leader of this summer’s Moscow protest movement to demand fair local elections after several of her fellow opposition candidates were jailed on protest-related charges. Following a two-week lapse…
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Ice on Russia’s Northern Sea Route Has Disappeared, Opening Up Arctic Shipping Lanes
The Arctic shortcut that connects Asia and Europe is open and ice-free and shipping appears smooth, including for vessels without ice class standards. The last pieces of frozen water vanished in mid-August and data shows that the whole route is now free of ice. This includes the East Siberian Sea, a region that normally has…
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Russia’s ‘Shadow Economy’ Is Nearly 13% of GDP, Reports Say
More than $175 billion had circulated in Russia’s shadow economy in 2017, according to the latest available official data analyzed by the RBC news website on Thursday. Russia’s State Statistics Service (Rosstat) defines the shadow economy as off-the-books salaries, unofficial employment and informal sales, but not criminal activity. Financial authorities say the shadow economy’s share…
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Alexey Miller holds conference call marking Oil and Gas Industry Workers Day
August 29, 2019 Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, today held in St. Petersburg a conference call marking Oil and Gas Industry Workers Day. The heads of Gazprom Dobycha Noyabrsk, Gazprom Dobycha Urengoy, Gazprom Transgaz Saint Petersburg, and Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta made operational performance reports at the meeting. Shorthand record of message delivered by Alexey Miller at conference call marking Oil…
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Jailed Ukrainian Filmmaker Sentsov Moved to Moscow Ahead of Rumored Exchange, Media Reports
Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov has been moved from a jail in northern Russia to Moscow ahead of a rumored prisoner exchange with Kiev, Russian news agencies reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources. Sentsov, 43, is serving a 20-year sentence at a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle on charges of terrorism, which the filmmaker has…
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Rosneft Aero increases overwing fueling by 9.5% in 1H 2019
In 1H 2019 Rosneft Aero, a subsidiary of PJSC NK Rosneft, increased its overwing fueling at Russian airports by 9.5% y-to-y to 1.035 mln tons.
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Flash Floods Paralyze Far East Russia, Prompt State of Emergency
Over a dozen cities and districts on Russia’s Pacific coast have declared a state of emergency over torrential rains that have caused severe floods this week. Footage showed flooded roads and homes, as well as dangerous mudslides, in the major Far Eastern city of Vladivostok. Weather forecasters say a month’s worth of rainfall has descended…
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Russian Opposition Figure Yashin Detained for ‘Record’ 5th Time in a Row
Prominent Russian opposition figure and rejected Moscow city election candidate Ilya Yashin has been detained for a record fifth time Wednesday after serving four consecutive jail terms. Yashin, 36, is among a slew of opposition candidates who were barred from running for Moscow’s legislature on Sept. 8 and handed short jail terms on protest-related charges.…
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Russia’s Richest Families a Mix of Old Faces and Newcomers – Forbes
Three families have entered Forbes Russia’s 2019 list of the country’s 10 wealthiest dynasties, which is dominated by the Gutseriyev family and the Rotenberg brothers. The business magazine estimates that Russia’s 10 richest families held a combined $25 billion this year, slightly up from $24.98 billion in 2018. Gutseriyev, along with his son Said, brother…
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‘The Long Shadow of Chernobyl’
A little boy in a bright yellow jacket stares at a picture of an abandoned kindergarten in Pripyat, Ukraine, a series of rusted cribs covered by dust and chunks of plaster filling a room that has been left untouched since a few days after the nuclear plant explosion in 1986. “Why have they left all…
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PhosAgro 2Q 2019 FCF up 22% to RUB 10.2 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 interim condensed consolidated IFRS financial results for the three months (2Q) and six months (1H) ended 30 June 2019. Revenue for 2Q 2019 rose by 3% year-on-year to RUB 58.1 billion…
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Russia Plans Mass Relocation of Ministries to Moscow’s Skyscraper Citadel, Reports Say
Over a dozen Russian cabinet offices will relocate to a cluster of skyscrapers in the sprawling financial district of western Moscow, the Kommersant business daily has reported. More than two decades in the making, Moscow’s business hub has struggled to fill its office space following the 2008 global financial crisis and Western sanctions on Russia.…
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Moscow Mayor Raises Pensions on Eve of Contentious City Election
Moscow’s mayor has raised the city’s monthly retirement payout less than two weeks before a local election that has triggered the largest sustained protest movement in Russia in recent years. The protests broke out this summer after election authorities barred a slew of opposition candidates from running for the Moscow City Duma on Sept. 8.…
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Kremlin Says Russian State Had Nothing to Do With Chechen’s Murder in Germany
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the murder of an ethnic Chechen exile in Berlin last week had nothing to do with the Russian state or its official agencies. German prosecutors are considering whether there was a political motive behind the killing on Friday of 40-year-old Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, allegedly by a Russian citizen who shot…
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Russia Discovers 5 Arctic Islands as Glaciers Melt
The Russian military has officially confirmed the discovery of five new Arctic islands which have emerged as climate change accelerates glacial melting. The new islands were discovered by a student onboard a Russian Navy research vessel that conducted a voyage through Arctic waters in late 2016. Russia has been increasing its military and commercial presence…
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Ukraine Frees Jailed Russian Journalist Vyshinsky on Bail
A court in Ukraine ordered jailed Russian journalist Kirill Vyshinsky to be freed on bail and released from custody, as Moscow and Kiev hold behind-the-scenes talks on a possible prisoner swap. Vyshinsky, the head of Russia‘s state-backed RIA Novosti news agency in Ukraine, was arrested last year and accused of supporting pro-Russian separatists. Vyshinsky faces up to…
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Russia and Turkey Discuss Supply of Russian Warplanes
Russia and Turkey are discussing the possibility of deliveries of the Russian-made Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter jet and Su-35 aircraft to Turkey, the state-run RIA news agency cited a Russian official as saying on Wednesday. Russia began delivering S-400 missile systems to Turkey this year, in a step that strained ties with Ankara’s NATO allies…
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Russia Denies Visas to 2 U.S. Senators Amid G7 Tensions
Republican and Democratic U.S. senators said Russia refused to grant them visas for a visit to Moscow next week, amid disagreement within Washington and among U.S. allies over whether the country should be readmitted to the Group of Seven. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said on Tuesday that Russia denied him a visa. Senator Ron Johnson,…
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Russia Returns Over 4,000 Rare Tortoises to The Wild
More than 4,000 Red List tortoises, which were smuggled into Russia in a cabbage truck, were safely returned to their Arys region of Kazakhstan, the Russian Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. The tortoises were hidden amongst cabbage in 24 bags on the back of a truck which was stopped at the Russia-Kazakhstan border on June…
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5% of the Russian Economy Is Classified Spending, Reports Say
Russia spends almost $73 billion per year on secret weapons and intellectual property, expenditures that total over 5% of the economy, according to official data analyzed by the RBC news website. Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) totaled $1.5 trillion in 2017. A Swedish think tank reported this year that Russia officially spent $66.3 billion on defense…
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PhosAgro Board of Directors Recognises Effectiveness of Andrey Guryev’s Work as CEO and Recommends that Shareholders Approve Dividend Payment
Moscow – The Board of Directors of PhosAgro, one of the world’s leading producers of phosphate-based fertilizers, heard a report by Andrey Guryev on the results of his work as CEO of the Company over the past six years and about the Company’s medium-term plans. Members of the Board of Directors noted the Company’s significant…
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Russia, Turkey Agree Steps to Tackle Militants in Syria’s Idlib, Putin Says
President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia and Turkey had agreed steps to tackle militants in northwest Syria and “normalize” the situation there after a Syrian army offensive encircled rebel fighters and a Turkish military post. Putin was speaking after talks in Moscow with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has said the Syrian army attacks…
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Russia to Launch Nuclear-Powered Fish Shipping Around Scandinavia
Russia’s 30-year-old nuclear-powered Sevmorput container carrier will soon transport 5,000 tons of fish from the country’s Far East to St. Petersburg via the Northern Sea Route. “This test voyage with the container carrier gives hope that someday such deliveries will become regular,” the Kamchatka region governor Vladimir Kuzmitsky has said in an interview with the region’s official news portal.…
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Drought in Russian Arctic Threatens Fishermen Dependent on Lena River
Abnormally low water levels driven by drought are threatening the livelihoods of thousands of people in the Russian Arctic, The Siberian Times has reported. The Lena and other rivers in Russia’s northern republic of Sakha have reportedly experienced the worst shallowing in 30 years, hampering navigation in remote areas that are only reachable by boat.…
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Russian Bakery Fined for Sign Banning Gay Customers
A Russian bakery in Siberia has been fined $150 for hanging a sign at its entrance that banned LGBT people from entering. The Ipakov Brothers bakery in the city of Kemerovo placed a wooden sign near its entrance that said “F*****s are not allowed” when it opened in February. The bakery’s co-owner, Anton Ipatov, told…
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First Meeting of PhosAgro’s Sustainable Development Committee, Chaired by Irina Bokova, Reviews Company’s Contribution to Achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals
Moscow – The PhosAgro Board of Directors Committee on Sustainable Development has held its first meeting, which was chaired by Irina Bokova. Prior to joining PhosAgro, Ms Bokova was the first woman ever to serve as Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a post she held for eight years. The…
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On This Day Space Dogs Flew a Mission
On Aug. 27, 1958, the Soviet Union launched the dogs Pyostrya and Belyanka into space. The craft, a R-5A rocket, set a new record in terms of weight-to-height ratio, as it reached 453 kilometers above the earth’s surface at a weight of over 1,500 kilograms. The dogs safely returned to earth following the flight. Between…
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Ahead of Meeting, Erdogan Expects Russia to Help Rein in Syrian Forces
President Tayyip Erdogan will seek steps from Russia’s Vladimir Putin to safeguard Turkish troops in the face of an offensive by the Syrian army in the country’s northwest when the two leaders meet on Tuesday, a senior Turkish official said. Erdogan, who is making a one-day visit to Russia, told Putin last week that attacks…
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Russia’s Weird and Splendid Regional Flags and Сoats of Arms
Russia is the largest country on earth — and as a result, its regions and cities are incredibly diverse and unique. There’s no better place to see this diversity than on their flags. Many are beautiful, some are weird, and others just ridiculous. Over the weekend, Moscow marked its national Flag Day festivities by unfurling…
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Russia’s Aeroflot Denies Having Biggest Pilot Gender Gap
Russia’s national carrier Aeroflot has disputed a recent ranking of global airlines’ gender gaps among pilots, saying it has a higher ratio of women aviators than reported. Aeroflot was ranked the last of 45 major airlines worldwide in the FromAtoB.com travel platform’s study cited by Bloomberg last week, with 1.4% of its pilots being women.…
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Russia Hosts International Military Band March-Off
Every summer, Red Square plays host to the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival. The event features military orchestras and marching bands from across the world. This year, 30 orchestras from 12 countries will take part in the festival. The winner will be chosen not by a panel of judges, but by the audience’s vote.…
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On This Day Ivan the Terrible Was Born
Ivan Vasilevich, more commonly known as Ivan the Terrible or Ivan IV, was born on Aug. 25, 1530 in Kolomenskoye, Moscow. The grandson of Ivan the Great, he acquired huge amounts of land during his reign, transforming a Grand Duchy into a Tsardom. Through this, however, he imposed a reign of terror and exhibited uncontrollable…
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Olga Zilberbourg’s “Like Water and Other Stories”
Born in Leningrad, U.S.S.R. in 1979, Olga Zilberbourg moved to the United States when she was seventeen. Following three short story collections in Russian, her first English collection. “Like Water and Other Stories,” explores the lives of women who have different and often competing roles and cultures. She introduces the intriguing theory that “the past,…
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Russia Test Fires Missiles From Submarines in the Barents Sea
Russia test-fired Sineva and Bulava ballistic missiles from two submarines from the polar region of the Arctic Ocean and from the Barents Sea on Saturday as part of combat training, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The Sineva, a liquid-fueled intercontinental missile, was fired from the Tula submarine, while a Bulava, Russia’s newest solid-fueled…
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Russian Spacecraft Carrying Humanoid Robot Fails to Dock With Space Station
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a humanoid robot failed to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported, citing a live broadcast. The FEDOR (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research) robot is on its way to the ISS for a planned two-week mission to support the crew and test its skills. The docking…
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Russian Doctor Contaminated by Food, Not Nuclear Blast – Authorities
A Russian doctor found to have a radioactive isotope in his body after treating victims of an Aug. 8 rocket engine explosion had been contaminated by food and not radiation, authorities said Friday. Earlier, The Moscow Times reported that a group of doctors who treated the radiation victims had been flown to Moscow for medical…
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Russian Hockey Star Kuznetsov Gets 4-Year Ban for Cocaine
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) said on Friday it had suspended Russian national team player Evgeny Kuznetsov for four years for testing positive for cocaine. Kuznetsov, who plays for the Washington Capitals in North America’s National Hockey League (NHL), said he accepted his suspension. “Representing my country has always been so close to my heart…
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Chechnya Inaugurates ‘Europe’s Biggest Mosque’
Authorities in the Russian region of Chechnya on Friday inaugurated what they said was the largest mosque in Europe in a pomp-filled ceremony attended by local and foreign officials. Named after the Prophet Mohammed, the marble-decorated mosque has capacity for more than 30,000 people and has been described by the Chechen authorities as the “largest…
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30 Years Ago, the ‘Baltic Way’ Protested Soviet Rule
Aug. 23 marks 30 years since the Baltic Way protest, when 2 million people in Soviet Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands to create a 600-kilometer “human chain.” The peaceful protest was held on the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact to demand independence from the U.S.S.R.
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Russian Rocket Accident Likely Had Two Explosions, Norway Monitor Says
The explosion that killed five Russian scientists during a rocket engine test earlier this month was followed by a second blast two hours later, the likely source of a spike in radiation, Norway’s nuclear test-ban monitor said Friday. The second explosion, detected only by infrasonic air pressure sensors and not by the seismic monitors that…
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Russian Rocket Accident Likely Had 2 Explosions, Norway Monitor Says
An explosion that killed five Russian scientists during a rocket engine test this month was followed by a second blast two hours later, the likely source of a spike in radiation, Norway’s nuclear test-ban monitor said on Friday. The second explosion was likely from an airborne rocket powered by radioactive fuel, the Norsar agency said —…
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Kremlin Says Chernobyl-Style Explosion Cover-up ‘Impossible’
It would be impossible for modern-day Russia to cover up an accident the size of Chernobyl, the Kremlin said on Friday as mystery continues to surround this month’s rocket engine explosion in northern Russia. Government officials have given a muted, occasionally contradictory response in the weeks since the Aug. 8 accident that has killed seven…
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Russia Begins Sales of ‘Putin Limousine’, Eyes Chinese Market
Russia opened a showroom Friday selling its first post-Soviet luxury limousine under the Aurus brand, a type of car used by President Vladimir Putin at his inauguration last year. Russia has been trying to reduce its dependence on imported goods and technology, a drive that gathered speed after Moscow was hit by Western sanctions in…
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First-of-a-kind floating nuclear power unit Akademik Lomonosov leaves Murmansk for Pevek
August 23, 2019, Murmansk, Russia – The world’s only floating power unit (FPU) Akademik Lomonosov set sail for its final destination of Pevek, Chukotka, in Russia’s Far East, where it will provide a stable supply of clean energy. Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev gave the signal for the Akademik Lomonosov to set sail and said,…
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Russia’s First Floating Nuclear Power Plant Sets Sail in Arctic Amid Environmental Fears
Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant set sail Friday from the Arctic port of Murmansk to provide power to one of the country’s most remote regions, sparking environmental concerns. Developed by the Russian state nuclear company Rosatom, the plant, known as “Akademik Lomonosov,” set off on a 5,000 kilometer (3,100 mile) journey through Arctic waters…
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Russian Court Extends Detention of Ex-U.S. Marine Whelan
A former U.S. Marine held in Russia on suspicion of spying said on Friday that prison authorities in Moscow had injured him, as a court ruled to extend his detention by two months. Paul Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained in a Moscow hotel room on Dec. 28 and accused of espionage,…
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Putin Orders Reciprocal Russian Response to U.S. Missile Test
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered a like-for-like response to a recent U.S. missile test, which he said showed that Washington aimed to deploy previously banned missiles around the world. The Pentagon said on Monday it had tested a conventionally-configured cruise missile that hit its target after more than 500 kilometers of flight, its…
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Arkhangelsk Doctors Weren’t Warned About Radiation, Surgeon Confirms in First Public Account
In a previously unreported social media post, a Russian doctor has publicly confirmed that his colleagues were forced to treat radiation victims after a deadly nuclear explosion earlier this month without basic equipment or knowledge of the accident. A blast at a military base in northern Russia killed seven people and injured six on Aug. 8,…
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Ukraine, EU Oppose Trump’s Suggestion of Readmitting Russia to G7
Ukraine’s president backed leading European powers on Thursday in opposing the readmission of Russia to the Group of Seven advanced economies, saying Moscow still occupied Crimea and was frustrating peace in eastern Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday it would be “appropriate” to have Russia rejoin what used to be the G8. France…
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Academics Accuse Kremlin of Repressing Political Protesters
Over 550 Russian academics and scientists accused the Kremlin on Thursday of waging a campaign of repression against activists who have staged some of Russia’s biggest anti-government protests in years. In an open letter, they demanded that criminal cases be dropped against more than a dozen people who face up to eight years in jail…