Month: September 2020

Russia recorded more than 30,000 excess deaths in July as the coronavirus pandemic continued to sweep across the country, new data from the country’s statistics service Rosstat has shown. A total of 181,479 deaths were registered in July 2020, according to data compiled by regional registry offices — compared to an average of around 150,000…

Belarus opposition challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya on Friday appealed for help from the United Nations and called for sanctions against those responsible for alleged electoral fraud and rights violations in her ex-Soviet country. Addressing a meeting of the UN Security Council by video link, Tikhanovskaya said the global body should urgently send a mission to Minsk.…

German medics have found traces of the toxic substance used to poison prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in his blood, skin, urine and a water bottle he drank from, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Friday. The German government said Wednesday it had unequivocal proof that Navalny was poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent…

Russia defied threats of new Western sanctions Friday in a staring match over the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, as NATO demanded Moscow uncover its Novichok nerve agent programme. A new crisis in ties between Russia and the West broke out after Germany said this week there was “unequivocal evidence” that President Vladimir Putin’s top foe…

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is poised to escape personal sanctions the European Union is drafting in response to his post-election crackdown, the German daily Die Welt reported Friday. EU foreign ministers agreed in mid-August to draw up a list of targets in Belarus for a fresh round of asset freezes and travel bans expected in…

Patients involved in early tests of a Russian coronavirus vaccine developed antibodies with “no serious adverse events”, according to research published in The Lancet Friday, but experts said the trials were too small to prove safety and effectiveness. Russia announced last month that its vaccine, named “Sputnik V” after the Soviet-era satellite that was the…

Russia and Belarus are preparing to reopen borders that were closed because of the coronavirus pandemic and are discussing rerouting Belarusian oil exports through Russia, news outlets reported after high-level talks Thursday. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and his delegation met Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his government in Minsk amid continuing protests against his…

At least three people died and dozens were injured when Typhoon Maysak hit Russia’s Far East on Thursday. The storm unmoored a floating dry dock, causing it to slam into some of the vessels making up Russia’s Pacific Fleet. Regional prosecutors said two of nine crew members were killed when a floating crane beached onto…

A Russian toxicologist said Friday that opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s health could have deteriorated due to dieting, stress or fatigue, insisting no poison had been found in his samples in Siberia. Russia faces the threat of new sanctions after Germany said this week that President Vladimir Putin’s top foe had been targeted with Novichok, a…

Lawmakers across Europe and the U.S. are scrambling to respond to the revelation that Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok — a lethal Soviet-era military nerve agent — with the possibility of fresh sanctions against Russia on the cards. In Germany — where Navalny remains in a medically induced coma in intensive care…

At least three people died and dozens were injured as Typhoon Maysak battered Russia’s Far East on Thursday, local authorities said. Video footage also showed the storm unmooring a floating dry dock, causing it to slam into the Russian Navy’s warships and submarines in Russia’s Primorye region 6,500 kilometers east of Moscow. Regional prosecutors said…

Russia has confirmed 1,020,310 cases of coronavirus and 17,759 deaths. Sept. 5: What you need to know today Russia recorded more than 30,000 excess deaths in July as the coronavirus pandemic continued to sweep across the country, new data from the country’s statistics service Rosstat has shown. Russia’s coronavirus cases continue to rise as the country confirmed 5,205 new coronavirus infections Saturday,…

The poisoning of Alexei Navalny will be discussed at an urgent NATO meeting on Friday after European leaders threatened fresh sanctions against Moscow, which has furiously denied targeting the Russian opposition leader. The 44-year-old lawyer, one of President Vladimir Putin’s chief critics, fell ill on a flight last month and was evacuated to Germany for…

Alexei Navalny’s top ally said Thursday that the Russian opposition leader’s poisoning opened a “new chapter” in a crackdown on dissent and accused the Kremlin of seeking to avoid responsibility for the attack. Allies like Ivan Zhdanov put the blame for the 44-year-old Navalny’s poisoning with a Novichok nerve agent squarely on President Vladimir Putin’s…

Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday replaced his security chiefs and said progress was being made on plans to bring Moscow and Minsk closer. Lukashenko, who is under huge pressure from protesters to step down after last month’s disputed election, replaced the heads of the KGB security service, the security council and the state control…

There is no reason to accuse Russia of poisoning prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin said Thursday, as the fallout from the case raises the threat of new Western sanctions against Moscow. Germany said Wednesday that Berlin has “unequivocal” proof that Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent from the Novichok family. Britain in…

The head of the world chemical arms watchdog expressed “grave concern” on Thursday after Germany said Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had been poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Director-General Fernando Arias added that the Hague-based body was ready to help any member country that asked for…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced mounting pressure Thursday to toughen her ambivalent stance toward Russia following her announcement that Berlin has “unequivocal” proof that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a deadly nerve agent. The Navalny case is only the latest in what Berlin has seen as a series of bitter provocations by…

Germany “falsified” its statement that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned, Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko told Russia’s visiting prime minister Thursday, citing an intercepted conversation. The German government said Wednesday that Navalny, 44, who remains in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator two weeks after falling ill on a flight, was poisoned…

When Irma Veller, a 44-year-old transgender woman, found out about a new Russian law that would bar transgender people from changing their gender on their birth certificates, she decided it was finally time to leave the country.  “I understood that my life is of no value here anymore,” Veller told The Moscow Times last week…

Europeans avoid Russia because of low awareness of the country as a tourist destination and high costs of travel, according to a survey by the Moscow-based NAFI research center. Two-thirds of those polled told NAFI they had not encountered media information about tourist attractions in Russia. “The lack of information contributes to the spread of…

This year’s Arctic Circle wildfires, still ablaze, have already surpassed the record set in 2019 for CO2 emissions, adding to the carbon pollution humanity needs to curtail, the European Union’s Earth observation program said Thursday. Uncontrolled forest fires across one of the planet’s coldest regions has sent a quarter of a billion tonnes of CO2 spiraling…

Russia has added Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the Maldives to the list of countries it plans to restart flights with five months after closing its borders due to the coronavirus pandemic, a government decree said Thursday. Russia grounded most international flights in late March to slow the spread of Covid-19. Russia gradually lifted…

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a substance from the deadly Novichok family, the German government said Wednesday, demanding explanations from Moscow. “The Russian government is urged to explain the incident … the substance in Navalny’s organism is undoubtedly from the Novichok family,” said government spokesman Steffen Seibert in a statement. Prominent Kremlin…

On Wednesday, Germany said that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a substance from the deadly Novichok family. Novichok is a military-grade poison that was developed by the Soviet government toward the end of the Cold War. The news sent shockwaves around the West. Here’s an overview of how the world’s leading officials have so far…

The Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok that Germany says poisoned Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny is a military-grade toxin banned as a chemical weapon after it was used in a previous attack in Britain.  The newest class of nerve agent, the Novichok family of toxins was developed by the Soviet government towards the end of the…

Germany’s finding that Alexey Navalny was poisoned with nerve agent Novichok shows that only the Russian state could be responsible, the head of the opposition leader’s organization said on Wednesday. “Only the state (FSB, GRU) can use Novichok. This is beyond any reasonable doubt,” Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said on Twitter,…

Eight years ago, Anton, a Russian programmer then in his mid-twenties, was lured to Minsk with an unbeatable offer from one of Belarus’ booming online games companies. He knew the country’s strongman president Alexander Lukashenko was no liberal, but having protested at the Bolotnaya Square demonstrations in Moscow in 2011-12 against Vladimir Putin’s return to…

Russia’s controversial constitutional reforms will make discussions with Japan on the dispute over a set of Pacific islands easier for Moscow, former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday. Russia and Japan are attempting to strike a formal peace treaty, which Tokyo insists on for the return of the Russian-held Kuril Islands. A set of constitutional…

Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko has thanked Russian television channel RT for providing “support” after some staff and presenters at Belarus’s state broadcaster quit in protest over his disputed re-election. “I am grateful to you for this support,” Lukashenko told an RT journalist in a video released by the channel. “This is worth a lot,” he…

Russia’s population could see its biggest decline in 14 years in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic has raised the country’s death rate amid falling birth rates, according to government forecasts reported by the RBC news website Tuesday. The Covid-19 outbreak will also push Russia’s poverty rate up from 12.3% in 2019 to 13.3% this year,…

Russia has confirmed 1,005,000 cases of coronavirus and 17,414 deaths. Sept. 2: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 4,952 new coronavirus infections Wednesday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,005,000 Elderly scientists who helped develop Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine have not reported adverse effects after being injected, the head of the research institute behind the…

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will visit Belarus on Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday, after weeks of protests in Minsk against a disputed presidential election. Lavrov also confirmed that President Vladimir Putin would host Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow “in the next couple of weeks.” He made the announcements at the start of…

Elderly scientists who helped develop Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine have not reported adverse effects after being injected, the head of the research institute behind the inoculation told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency Wednesday. Sputnik V’s registration last month as the world’s first coronavirus vaccine before large-scale clinical trials has sparked questions over its…

Greece and Poland have updated their coronavirus travel restrictions to allow Russian citizens to cross their borders for two-week periods as Russia’s virus caseload topped the one million milestone. Poland’s government has removed Russia from its latest list of countries subject to a travel ban, meaning flights will be able to resume from Wednesday. According…

Facebook on Tuesday said that it caught a budding Russia-linked campaign to fuel political chaos in the US, working off a tip from the FBI in its latest take-down of coordinated inauthentic behavior at the leading social network. The network of 13 Facebook accounts and two pages posing as journalists and targeting left-wing progressives was removed…

Police in Belarus detained several dozen university students on Tuesday as they marked the first day of school with protests against strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko. Hundreds of students took to the streets of the capital Minsk for the latest in three weeks of rallies rejecting the strongman’s claim to have won a sixth term in…

Denmark said Tuesday it had summoned the Russian ambassador for talks after a Russian jet fighter violated the Scandinavian country’s airspace during a NATO exercise last week. “I take very seriously Russia’s unacceptable violation of Danish airspace. It is absolutely essential that everybody — including Russia — respects the ground rules and international principles,” Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod…

The UN’s special rapporteur on torture told Belarus on Tuesday that it must “stop torturing protesters” and bring to justice any police officers who have  beaten them with impunity. Nils Melzer and 14 other UN human rights experts said in a statement they had received reports of 450 documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of…

Russia has been involved in several diplomatic rows over the past several months. Here’s a roundup of events: Slovakia The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday it had expelled three Slovakian diplomats from Moscow after Bratislava ordered the removal of the same number of Russian foreign service staff over a “serious crime.” Moscow dubbed Bratislava’s…

Russia on Tuesday denounced sanctions against ally Belarus as “unacceptable” and voiced support for strongman Alexander Lukashenko’s proposal of constitutional reforms. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Western countries were “delivering verdicts” on events in Belarus, following weeks of protests against Lukashenko’s claim to have won a sixth presidential term in an August 9 election. Moscow…

A database of several million American voters’ personal information has appeared on the Russian dark web two months ahead of presidential elections clouded by claims of Russian meddling, Russia’s Kommersant business newspaper reported Tuesday. A user nicknamed Gorka9 advertised free access to the personal information of 7.6 million voters in Michigan in an unnamed discussion…

Journalists and technical personnel from Russia’s Kremlin-funded RT broadcaster have been standing in for staff on strike at Belarus state television and radio, Russia’s RBC news website reported Monday. Workers at the Belteleradio broadcasting service walked off the job on Aug. 17 in protest against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s violent crackdown on peaceful opposition rallies. Lukashenko,…

Montenegro’s opposition coalition, which claimed a tiny majority in Sunday’s election on a platform of seeking closer links with Serbia and Russia, has called Western sanctions against Moscow a mistake. Zdravko Krivokapić, leader of the For the Future of Montenegro coalition, told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency Tuesday that the Montenegrin economy has suffered major…

Interpol has removed catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin from its international alert list after U.S. prosecutors dropped a criminal case into election meddling against his company. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed in March the case against Concord Management and Consulting LLC, less than a month before the company was due to…

Russia surpassed 1 million cases of Covid-19 nationwide on Tuesday, making it the fourth country after the United States, Brazil and India to reach the milestone.  On Monday, Russia’s Health Minister announced plans to begin the first mass deliveries of its coronavirus vaccine this month, as the country is racing to produce a vaccine against…

Students across Russia are heading back to school Tuesday for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s an uneasy Den Znanii, or Day of Knowledge as Sept. 1 is known in Russia, as the country continues to register nearly 5,000 new coronavirus cases per day, and doctors have sounded the alarm…