Day: July 3, 2020

Defense lawyers for a Russian suspect on trial over the downing of flight MH17 will be allowed to inspect the partially recovered wreck of the passenger jet, Dutch judges ruled Friday. The judges granted the request after lawyers for Oleg Pulatov, the only suspect out of four with legal representation, said they wanted to probe…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday mocked a rainbow LGBT pride flag hung from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, suggesting it reflected on the orientation of the diplomats. During a televised video conference, a lawmaker told Putin that the U.S. Embassy had hung a rainbow flag on its facade for the first time to celebrate…

A Russian court has sentenced to four years in prison one of several North Korean poachers detained on charges of attacking Russian border guards last year, authorities said Friday. In one of several flare-ups between the allies, 18 North Korean poachers were alleged to have attacked 11 Russian border guards with “improvised items” in the…

Russia’s advanced S-500 air defense system is capable of destroying hypersonic weapons and satellites in near space, the head of Russia’s air and space forces has said. The S-500 Prometheus, which Russian defense officials say could enter service as soon as 2020, is touted as being capable of intercepting stealth warplanes. President Vladimir Putin has…

A Moscow election official infected with the coronavirus administered votes during Russia’s weeklong plebiscite on constitutional changes, the Dozhd television channel reported Thursday. The nationwide vote was postponed from its original date of April 22 and was spread out over a week due to the coronavirus pandemic. Health officials had warned that it might still…

Russia has confirmed 667,883 cases of coronavirus and 6,718 deaths. July 3: 3 things you need to know today Federal transport authorities have found more than 500 violations of anti-coronavirus measures at Russian airports in June, the Kommersant business daily reported. Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia, has extended Russia’s ban on international flights until Aug. 1 due to…

Russian Mixed Martial Arts fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov’s father has died at 57 after contracting the coronavirus, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov announced Friday. Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov was flown to Moscow from Chechnya after catching Covid-19 in mid-May, at one point being placed in a medically induced coma. Nurmagomedov said last week that his father remained in intensive…

The only Russian region to have voted against President Vladimir Putin’s constitutional reforms this week will not merge with its larger neighbor, its pro-Kremlin leader has said. The Nenets autonomous district in the Arctic, Russia’s least populous subject with 44,000 residents, voted 55% to 44% against the reforms that allow President Vladimir Putin to extend…

Russian prosecutors on Friday demanded that a journalist be sentenced to six years in prison for allegedly justifying terrorism in a case that has drawn outrage from supporters and rights groups. Svetlana Prokopyeva, who is based in the northwestern city of Pskov and works for RFE/RL’s Russian Service as a freelance contributor, was charged with…

An ultraconservative, coronavirus-denying priest who captured a women’s monastery in central Russia last month has been defrocked by an ecclesiastical court, Interfax reported Friday. Father Sergei seized the Sredneuralsk women’s monastery near Yekaterinburg after religious authorities barred him from preaching in April for refusing to follow health guidelines due to the Covid-19 outbreak, calling the…

An unprecedented amount of fraud may have occurred during Russia’s weeklong vote to change the Constitution and give President Vladimir Putin the option to extend his rule until 2036, researchers and election observers say. About 78% of voters cast ballots in favor of the package of amendments with a 68% turnout, a result the Kremlin…

On June 26, the day after the start of a week-long vote on constitutional reforms that have since passed and will allow President Vladimir Putin to rule until 2036, Russia’s fourth largest city of Yekaterinburg lifted most of its coronavirus lockdown restrictions. Over the previous week, the Sverdlovsk region, of which the city is the…

When police moved in to arrest Vladimir Vorontsov in May, they didn’t bother to knock. Instead, two commando teams stormed the former policeman’s top-floor apartment in southeast Moscow at around 7:00 a.m., one abseiling down the high-rise while the other broke down the door. “Our daughter thinks that bandits came and took daddy away,” Aleksandra…

Russia and India could sign contracts for the sale of 33 fighter jets soon as New Delhi deals with heightened tensions with China and Pakistan, Interfax reported Thursday. India’s defense ministry said it has approved procurement of 21 Mig-29 for nearly $1 billion and 12 Su-30MKI for $1.4 billion. It has also approved an upgrade…