Day: August 27, 2020

Russian prosecutors have asked their German colleagues to provide their evidence that allowed doctors in Berlin to diagnose prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with poisoning. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement Thursday that Russia had opened a preliminary inquiry on the day of Navalny’s sudden illness last week. The de facto Russian…

The detention of 33 Russians described as members of the Wagner mercenary group on the eve of a disputed presidential election in Belarus was a joint U.S.-Ukrainian operation, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. Belarus has accused the men of seeking to destabilize the country by colluding with opposition leaders to orchestrate mass disorder. Belarus returned…

While Russia’s most prominent opposition politician Alexei Navalny lies in a coma in a Berlin hospital after suffering an apparent poisoning last week, the pressure on his activities continues back home.  On Wednesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a catering magnate nicknamed “Putin’s chef,” bought the 88 million rubles ($1.2 million) in debt Navalny, his ally Lyubov Sobol…

President Vladimir Putin has formed a reserve of Russian law enforcement officers standing by to be sent to Belarus, he said in a new interview that aired Thursday. Putin said he created the reserve at the request of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who faces mass demonstrations in his country weeks after a disputed election he claims…

Police in Siberia said Thursday they have launched a preliminary inquiry into the suspected poisoning of prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week. The Siberian transport police said it inspected Navalny’s hotel room, inspected security footage and scouted out his entire itinerary while he was in the city of Tomsk. They also seized more than…

President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating has jumped to one of its highest levels since the start of the year as Russia continues its steady recovery from the coronavirus outbreak, the independent Levada Center polling agency said Wednesday. At 66% in August, Putin’s approval rating went up by six percentage points in a month and almost…

Alexei Navalny’s doctors in Germany have made contact with Bulgarian colleagues on suspicion that the prominent Kremlin critic may have been poisoned with a similar substance as a local arms dealer in 2015, the Der Spiegel news magazine reported. Doctors at Berlin’s Charité hospital said they believe Navalny was poisoned with an unknown substance belonging…

Russia on Thursday blamed the United States for a tense confrontation in Syria in which Russian military vehicles and helicopters surrounded U.S. armored vehicles, leaving U.S. troops injured. The White House National Security Council (NSC) said in a statement that a Russian vehicle struck a U.S. mine-resistant all-terrain vehicle, “causing injuries to the vehicle’s crew.”…

The highest number of new cases were in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Russia’s fatality rate has remained low compared to other badly-hit countries, raising speculation that Moscow could be underreporting figures. Russian authorities began easing anti-virus measures in June ahead of a massive World War II military parade in Moscow and a nationwide vote on…

A resident of Siberia has unearthed an ancient grave that could be part of a burial ground dating back 7,000 years, Russia’s Academy of Sciences (RAS) said Wednesday. The unnamed man stumbled on the finding in May while digging his garden on the outskirts of Ulan-Ude, the capital of Russia’s republic of Buryatia some 5,600…

Thirty babies born to surrogate mothers are stranded in St. Petersburg, an official said on Wednesday, with foreign parents unable to travel to Russia’s second city due to coronavirus restrictions. The children’s rights ombudswoman in the city Anna Mitianina said on her website that the authorities had received calls from several medical facilities caring for children…