Month: February 2020

In what has become an annual Russian tradition, thousands rallied across the country on Saturday to march for Boris Nemtsov, a key opposition figure shot and killed five years ago this month on a Moscow bridge just steps from the Kremlin. While the killer has been found guilty and sentenced to prison, Nemtsov’s family and…

Three people have died at a Moscow birthday party after around 30 kilograms of dry ice meant to create special effects was tipped into a pool, investigators and reports said Saturday. The party at the Moscow pool complex late Friday was to mark the birthday of Ekaterina Didenko, a popular Instagram influencer focusing on pharmaceutical…

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin of Russia were quick to hold telephone talks and plan a summit as soon as next week in Moscow, with Russian officials striking a conciliatory tone. The two men — both leading post-imperial societies they took over in the wake of economic crises — have since 2016 forged…

As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…

Russia has sold nearly all its gold for 2019 to Britain, according to customs data reviewed by the RBC news website Friday. The data says that Britain bought $5.33 billion worth of Russian gold last year, or 93% of Russia’s total gold exports. Russia sold $5.74 billion worth of gold overall in 2019, according to…

As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…

The volume of goods being delivered to and from ports on the Northern Sea Route has never come close to the current level. According to Nikolay Monko, the acting director of the Northern Sea Route Administration, 31.5 million tons of goods were shipped on the route in 2019. That is an increase of 56.7% over…

President Vladimir Putin’s alleged daughter will head a prestigious Moscow university’s artificial intelligence institute slated to open later in 2020, the Vedomosti business daily reported Friday. Katerina Tikhonova, 33, who is widely believed to be Putin’s younger daughter, runs the Innopraktika foundation near Moscow State University (MSU). Founded in 2012, Innopraktika is a conglomerate of…

As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 2,800 people continues to spread around the world, Russia has stepped up measures to tackle the health risk, including closing most entry points along its 4,200-kilometer border with China and temporarily banning Chinese citizens from entering the country.  Russia reported its first two cases of coronavirus…

The Russian Academy of Sciences said it plans to file a complaint with the United Nations over tech billionaire Elon Musk’s high-speed internet satellites, which it says will interfere with astronomers’ work. SpaceX’s so-called Starlink constellation is a planned network of up to 30,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit that is intended to beam broadband internet…

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone Friday after an attack on Turkish troops in Syria killed at least 33 soldiers and wounded dozens of others. Russia denied involvement, but Turkey’s top defense official said Moscow, which backs the Syrian regime, knew the whereabouts of Turkish troops and that attacks on…

Russian distributors appear to have censored Disney and Pixar’s first LGBT character from their animated film “Onward,” the Kinopoisk.ru movie website reported Wednesday. “Onward,” a fantasy-adventure that hits the big screens in Russia on March 5, introduces a cyclops police officer named Specter as the studios’ first-self identified lesbian character. Officer Specter appears in one…

As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…

Fewer Russians have heard of the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov five years after his death, the independent Levada Center polling agency said Friday. Nemtsov was gunned down on Feb. 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin’s walls. A gunman and four accomplices were jailed for up to 20 years in 2017, but…

Amazon Prime Video has for the first time bought the rights to a Russian reality show, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday. “Instagrammers,” which premiered on the Gazprom Media-owned entertainment channel Pyatnitsa in 2017, follows the lives of influencers forced to do menial jobs in rural Russia. The reality show will air in March across…

President Vladimir Putin inspected Russia’s answer to Disneyland on Thursday, the country’s first large-scale indoor theme park which Moscow says will be the biggest of its kind in Europe when it opens on Saturday. The theme park, called “Ostrov Mechty” — or Dream Island — is built in the shape of a toy castle that…

Russia is sending two warships equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles to the Mediterranean Sea toward the Syrian coast amid mounting tensions between Russia, Turkey and Syria over the Syrian province of Idlib, the Russian Navy said Friday. Turkey said Syrian government airstrikes killed 33 Turkish soldiers Thursday, bringing the death toll in Idlib to 54…

A young man in Siberia has died after police used a taser to wake him up, a local lawmaker and the victim’s mother said nearly two weeks after the tragedy Thursday. Dmitry Kharchenko fell asleep in the back of a taxi on his way home from a nightclub on Feb. 15. The driver reportedly asked…

As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…

The United States Embassy in Moscow urged Russia on Thursday to find the people who organized the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov who was gunned down near the Kremlin five years ago. Nemtsov, one of President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics, was killed in 2015 as he walked home across a bridge near the Kremlin’s walls.…

The United States and Britain have more than doubled their crude oil purchases from Russia due to Iran and Venezuela sanctions, the RBC news website reported Friday, citing customs data. Russia exported more than 267 million metric tons of crude oil worth $121 billion in 2019, RBC cited Federal Customs Service data as saying. China,…

A popular Chechen opposition blogger has been hospitalized after an assassination attempt in Europe, the Chechen human rights group Vayfond and multiple news outlets reported Thursday. Tumso Abdurakhmanov fled Russia in 2015 and has attempted, so far unsuccessfully, to gain political asylum in Poland. His YouTube channel where he regularly criticizes Chechen officials, including the…

The European Union may target a Russian and a Chinese entity, as well as several individuals, with sanctions over cyber attacks, adding to signs of increasing alarm in the bloc over network security. Five diplomats familiar with the matter said talks on the proposed measures will begin as soon as this week, declining to name…

Nearly one-third of Russia’s medical facilities lack a water supply network and more than 40% lack central heating, the Russian government’s public spending watchdog has said in its latest report on children’s health. Out of the almost 117,000 buildings inspected as of January 2019, Russia’s Audit Chamber said 41.1% had no central heating and 30.5%…

Russia has conducted the first ship-launched firing of its new hypersonic missile called Tsirkon and plans further tests from nuclear submarines, two unnamed military sources told the state-run TASS news agency Thursday. President Vladimir Putin, who confirmed the Tsirkon’s development last year, has warned that Russia would be forced to place hypersonic nuclear missiles on…

President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign said on Wednesday it was filing a libel suit accusing the New York Times of intentionally publishing a false opinion article that suggested Russia and the campaign had an overarching deal in the 2016 U.S. election. In an escalation of the Republican president’s long-running battle with the news media, campaign…

As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…

Belarus has for the first time arrested a Jehovah’s Witness at Russia’s request, the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia organization said Tuesday amid an ongoing crackdown on the religious group across Russia. More than 300 believers have been charged or convicted since Russia banned the religious group as an “extremist” organization in 2017. Russian authorities have…

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said on Wednesday Moscow would suspend flights between Russia and South Korea from March 1 over coronavirus fears, except those operated by Aeroflot and Aurora. Golikova said Russia would also stop issuing visas to some Iranian citizens from Feb. 28 and was advising Russians against travelling to Italy. Flights…

President Vladimir Putin’s longtime aide Vladislav Surkov has spoken out for the first time since his dismissal last week. Putin formally sacked Surkov seven years after he began supervising the Kremlin’s policy on Ukraine, a period that included the annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in the country’s east. Surkov’s former aide Alexei…

Maria Sharapova, the Russian five-time Grand Slam champion who became one of the highest-paid sportswomen in the world, announced her retirement at the age of 32 on Wednesday. Florida-based Sharapova, whose Wimbledon victory in 2004, aged 17, propelled her to superstardom, broke the news in an article for magazine Vanity Fair. “I’m new to this, so please…

Polar bears in Russia’s Arctic are increasingly turning to cannibalism as growing human activity and development in the region shrinks their hunting grounds, scientists at the Russian Academy of Sciences said Wednesday. While cannibalism is a recognized part of polar bears’ natural behavior, its frequency has climbed sharply in recent years, Ilya Mordvintsev, a senior…

China’s Embassy in Russia has demanded authorities in Moscow end what it said are discriminatory anti-coronavirus measures against Chinese nationals, saying they are damaging relations and alarming Chinese residents of the Russian capital. The complaint, detailed in an embassy letter to the city’s authorities and published by the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper late on Tuesday, deplored what it called “ubiquitous monitoring”…

The United States announced Tuesday it was imposing sanctions on 13 foreign entities and individuals in Russia and other countries for supporting Iran’s missile program as President Donald Trump also extended Crimea-related sanctions. The State Department said the action placed new sanctions on three Chinese firms, a Chinese individual and a Turkish company. It did…

A former U.S. Marine faces up to 10 years in Russian prison for allegedly assaulting police officers during a drunken night out last year, charges that his defense denies, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Trevor Reed, 28, who was honorably discharged from the Marines in 2016, traveled to Moscow last May to visit his…

The Russian Orthodox Church has begun installing video surveillance cameras at its Moscow churches to comply with government anti-terrorism orders, Interfax reported Tuesday.  The Moscow Patriarchate’s move follows a September 2019 decree signed by then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev requiring all religious organizations to install security and surveillance systems as part of the government’s anti-terrorism campaign.…

One of three Russian men charged with poisoning a Bulgarian arms dealer was an accredited diplomat, according to a joint investigation by Russia’s The Insider news website, the investigative outlet Bellingcat and Swiss media. Bulgarian prosecutors charged three Russians including Georgy Gorshkov last month with the attempted murder of arms factory owner Emilian Gebrev and…

A Russian state-run television channel is airing the names of the nearly 13 million Soviet soldiers killed in World War II in the weeks leading up to the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. The project is a collaboration between Russia’s Defense Ministry and Memory of the People, an internet database that…

Siberian law enforcement officers have been charged with abuse of power two months after a musician they had detained on drug charges was found decapitated, a city councilman said Monday. Dmitry Fyodorov’s body was found on a railway in the city of Omsk on Dec. 26 in what police called either a suicide or a…

Dmitry Yazov, the last appointed Marshal of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday in Moscow after a long illness. With a career extending from the Siege of Leningrad to the 1991 August Coup, Yazov was one of the most decorated and controversial Russian military figures of the twentieth century.  Born in 1924 in the Omsk…

Dutch prosecutors have at least one eyewitness in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, lead prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said two weeks ahead of the first court hearing into the tragedy. A Dutch court will on March 9 hear the case against three Russian suspects and one Ukrainian over the downing of…

Russia’s police force is developing technology that would allow them to identify criminal suspects by tattoo, iris and voice, the RBC news website reported Monday. Moscow rolled out its facial recognition system, one of the world’s largest, on Jan. 1. Opponents have filed lawsuits against the Russian capital’s use of facial recognition over privacy concerns,…

The wind was whipping up snow, which meant that there was no place in the world Alexei Koltsov would rather be than the banya — the Russian bathhouse. “You come in here from the freezing cold and the heat presses up to you,” Koltsov told me, wrapping his arms around himself as he spoke. “It’s…

The United States has staged a mock limited nuclear strike on Russia, an unnamed senior Pentagon official said in an unprecedented disclosure that angered Russian lawmakers. During the simulation the official described as a “mini-exercise,” “Russia decides to use a low-yield limited nuclear weapon against a [U.S.] site on NATO territory.” “In the course of…

As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 2,600 people continues to spread around the world, Russia has stepped up measures to tackle the health risk, including closing most entry points along its 4,200-kilometer border with China and temporarily banning Chinese citizens from entering the country.  Russia reported its first two cases of coronavirus…