Day: September 8, 2020

Germany will keep all options open on possible sanctions against Russia over the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the country’s minister for Europe told AFP. “We have made it very clear that we will look at the entire set of instruments,” Michael Roth said in an interview, responding to a question on what action…

Assailants have spilled a foul-smelling liquid at the office of Siberian opposition candidates backed by Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny ahead of upcoming regional elections, the candidates said Tuesday. The attack is the latest attempt to disrupt the work of a coalition of opposition candidates planning to challenge pro-Kremlin incumbents in the Novosibirsk city council elections…

A group of prominent scientists and doctors has questioned the results of Russia’s research into a Covid-19 vaccine. The group said there are a number of unexplained apparent duplications in Russia’s data — published in scientific journal The Lancet on Friday — concerning the antibody response of volunteers who took part in early stage trials…

Moscow is prepared to help ease tensions in the eastern Mediterranean where Cyprus and Greece are embroiled in a standoff with Turkey over maritime and energy rights, visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. “Russia considers that any further escalation would be unacceptable and calls on all parties to settle all conflicts exclusively through dialogue…

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday that his 26 years in office may have been excessive, but vowed to maintain his grip on power despite widespread protests against his rule. Lukashenko’s rare admission has been a rallying cry for hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who flooded the streets of Belarusian cities for the past month…

Belarus said Tuesday that a leading opposition figure, Maria Kolesnikova, had been detained while trying to cross the Ukrainian border, but Kiev said she was being held after resisting a forced deportation. Kolesnikova played a major role in the campaign of opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who claimed victory over President Alexander Lukashenko in a disputed…

Dozens of men in Cossack military uniforms have been filmed patrolling the streets of Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg during its Pride Week, local media reported Monday. The group briefly detained at least one “absolutely heterosexual” student because he had dyed hair and wore an earring, according to the e1.ru news website. “Why’d you dress…

Mikhail Yefremov, a well-known Russian actor who cultivated an image of a jolly drunk throughout his 30-year career, was sentenced to eight years in jail Tuesday for driving drunk and killing a van driver in a head-on crash this summer. Yefremov’s jailing follows a whirlwind trial over the June 8 crash in central Moscow that…

Russia has begun releasing its coronavirus vaccine to the general public, the Health Ministry announced Tuesday as developers prepare to conduct large-scale clinical trials while administering the shot to civilians. Its developer has said that a yearlong mass vaccination campaign would begin as soon as the Sputnik V vaccine entered civil circulation. “The first batch…