Month: November 2020

Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine is 95% effective, its developers said Tuesday as Russia seeks a leading role in the high-stakes global race for a safe, effective vaccine that can end to the deadly pandemic.  The calculations were based on preliminary data obtained 42 days after volunteers received the first dose, the Health Ministry, the…

Russian authorities have arrested Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow and across 20 other regions as part of their latest investigation into the religious group that is officially banned as “extremist,” investigators said Tuesday. Video released by the Moscow branch of the federal Investigative Committee, which investigates major crimes, showed masked men prying open an apartment door…

A Russian warship caught a U.S. Navy destroyer operating in Russia’s Pacific waters on Tuesday and chased it off, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said. The USS John S. McCain, a guided-missile destroyer, violated Russia’s territorial waters by moving two kilometers beyond the maritime border at 03:17 GMT into Peter the Great Gulf, the ministry said in…

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not congratulate U.S. President-elect Joe Biden despite news that the Trump administration has approved the formal presidential transition process, the Kremlin said Tuesday. Trump eased some lingering post-election uncertainty by tweeting late Monday that the agency that works with incoming administrations would begin work to assist Biden’s team. While the…

Queen Elizabeth II has granted Russian-British media mogul Yevgeny Lebedev the title of “Baron of Hampton and Siberia,” according to the British government’s official journal of record The Gazette. The British monarch conferred a lifetime peerage to Lebedev, 40, after his longtime friend Prime Minister Boris Johnson nominated him in July. Reports suggested that Lebedev’s…

President Vladimir Putin has awarded a Russian World War II veteran for raising funds to support the families of doctors who died from coronavirus, according to a government decree published Monday. Zinaida Korneva, 98, received the Decoration “For Beneficence” for her “great contribution to charitable and public activities,” the decree said. The medal recognizes charity…

A Russian peacekeeper has been wounded and an Azerbaijani soldier killed in a mine explosion in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday. Four emergency workers from the unrecognized ethnic Armenian republic of Nagorno-Karabakh were also wounded in the region’s Tartar district, the Defense Ministry was cited as saying by Interfax.…

A freak snowstorm that has battered parts of the Russian Far East and left 100,000 residents without electricity for several days is linked to climate change, analysts and activists say. The storm that hit the Primorye region and its capital of Vladivostok last Thursday brought down trees and power lines and covered outdoor surfaces in…

Russian courts on Monday fined two Pussy Riot activists for hanging rainbow flags on several government buildings last month to mark President Vladimir Putin’s birthday. On Oct. 7 — Putin’s 68th birthday — members of the anti-Kremlin punk group draped the flags associated with LGBT pride on buildings in Moscow including Russia’s Supreme Court and the…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a law on increasing income tax for high earners in the first move away from a flat tax system in place since 2001. Starting next year, the tax rate will rise from 13% to 15% on incomes over 5 million rubles (about $65,800/55,370 euros at the current exchange…

Three Siberian schoolchildren have been charged with terrorism over an alleged plot to blow up a virtual security building in the popular block-building game Minecraft, according to reports. Investigators in the Krasnoyarsk region announced the arrest of three 14-year-old “anarchists” over the summer on suspicion of training at abandoned sites to commit acts of terrorism.…

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has slammed The New York Times’ job posting for a Russia correspondent, criticizing it for “political bias” and “Russophobia.” In its description for the job posted early last week, The New York Times lists its requirements for an ideal candidate along with a description of the job’s location, “Vladimir Putin’s Russia.” …

At least seven people in the Far East Russian republic of Sakha have died from drinking hand sanitizer at a party, authorities and news reports have said. Nine people consumed the hand rub from a five-liter container that they purchased from a local store, the regional branch of consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said in a…

Russia plans to create a national biometric database to identify both citizens and foreign nationals via face recognition and fingerprints, state media reported Sunday. Russia’s Interior Ministry told the state-run TASS news agency it plans to develop the centralized biometric database in 2021-23. The database will allow the authorities to identify individuals or bodies through…

Russia has confirmed more than 25,000 new coronavirus infections in a single day for the first time since the pandemic hit earlier this year. Health officials reported 25,173 new infections across Russia’s 85 regions Monday, bringing the national total to 2,114,502 cases. The country surpassed 2 million cases three days ago. Over 23% of those…

Tens of thousands of Belarus opposition protesters took to the streets on Sunday, the latest large-scale rally against President Alexander Lukashenko’s contested re-election. For more than three months Belarus has been gripped by historic weekly opposition rallies following Lukashenko’s reelection to a sixth term in August, which Western governments have refused to recognise. Tens of…

Russia has confirmed 2,089,329 of coronavirus and 36,179 deaths. Nov. 22: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 24,581 coronavirus cases and 401 deaths. First samples of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine arrived in Hungary, its developers reported Friday. In a move that has drawn criticism from the European Commission, Hungary is set to become the first EU member…

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called Saturday for greater military cooperation with Russia, a day after Azerbaijani troops began moving into disputed territory previously held by Armenian separatist forces. “We hope we can reinforce cooperation with Russia not only in the security sector but also military and technical cooperation,” he said, according to his press service. “Of course,…

Russia on Saturday imposed sanctions on 25 British officials, responding to penalties Britain imposed in July against the same number of Russians over human rights violations. “In response to unfriendly actions by the British authorities and on the basis of reciprocity, the Russian side made a decision to impose personal sanctions on 25 representatives of Great…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday extended an embargo on Western food imports introduced in 2014 until the end of 2021, an economic measure that mainly affects EU imports. The Russian embargo was in response to EU sanctions introduced after Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, sanctions that Brussels renewed for another six months at the…

Russia on Saturday registered record numbers for daily infections and deaths from the coronavirus, two days after having passed 2 million cases. Health officials reported 24,822 new infections and 476 deaths, bringing the national total to 2,064,748 million cases and 35,778 fatalities since the beginning of the year. While those figures suggest a lower death rate…

Swiss prosecutors plan to close a nearly decade-old money laundering investigation into allegations made by the late lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Swiss prosecutors opened the money-laundering probe in 2011 after Hermitage Capital, once the largest foreign investor in Russia, claimed that a former Russian tax official moved fraudulent tax refunds through Swiss bank…

While Moscow and St. Petersburg are the epicenters of Russia’s coronavirus outbreak, a new analysis claims that its residents are among those with the lowest risk of getting coronavirus within the country. Residents of Perm and Voronezh, on the other hand, are among those most likely to contract the virus, with the risk of getting…

President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia and Turkey of seeking to promote anti-French sentiment in Africa by funding people who whip up resentment against France in the media, in an interview published Friday. “We must not be naive on this subject: many of those who speak, who make videos, who are present in the French-speaking media are funded…

Freak ice storms following an abnormal weather phenomenon have left 150,000 people without water and electricity in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok and prompted a state of emergency. The exceptional weather brought down cables and trees with the government of the Primorye region declaring a state of emergency. “The situation with the electricity…

IVANOVO — In this hardscrabble city in central Russia, the morgues are full and well-paid jobs are scarce. Though many of Russia’s outlying regions are struggling with the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Ivanovo — a working-class city of 400,000 located 300 kilometers northeast of Moscow — is coping worse than most.  “It’s impossible…

A Russian citizen who worked on naval ships has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for attempting to pass military secrets to the CIA, the state-run TASS news agency reported Friday. Yury Yeshchenko is accused of trying to share confidential information about advanced weaponry of the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet. According to the report,…

Russia is planning to introduce a golden visa scheme, offering foreigners a permanent residency permit in exchange for investing in the Russian economy, the Izvestia news site reported Friday. Draft legislation drawn up by the country’s Economy Ministry would seek to woo foreign investors by offering residency rights for investments in the Russian economy starting…

Russia has confirmed more than 24,000 new infections for the first time since the pandemic hit the country eight months ago. Russia’s coronavirus information center confirmed a new record of 24,318 infections across all 85 regions Friday. Moscow, the epicenter of Russia’s outbreak, recorded a new daily high of 6,902 cases as did St. Petersburg…

Russia has confirmed 2,039,926 cases of coronavirus and 35,311 deaths. Nov. 20: What you need to know today Russia confirmed the record-breaking number of 24,318 coronavirus cases and 461 deaths. First samples of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine arrived in Hungary, its developers reported Friday. In a move that has drawn criticism from the European Commission, Hungary is set to become…

Russia is fighting exiled parishioners for ownership of an Orthodox cathedral in France as the Kremlin is accused of an “aggressive” campaign to reclaim pre-revolutionary churches overseas, The Guardian has reported. The St. Nicholas and St. Alexandra Church in the city of Nice, run by the descendants of emigres who fled the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution,…

Belarusian authorities on Wednesday added the creators of the Nexta Live opposition Telegram channel, which mobilized protesters during the country’s ongoing post-election rallies, to a list of terrorists. Protests in the ex-Soviet country broke out in early August after strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko won a disputed reelection for a sixth term.  The opposition believe political…

Russia could block YouTube and other major U.S. social media platforms for “censoring” content from Russian state media, according to draft legislation submitted to parliament Thursday. The draft bill explains that the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Foreign Ministry would be able to identify foreign platforms they view as violating Russians’ rights by restricting content.…

St. Petersburg police have questioned an opposition official after he tore up a portrait of President Vladimir Putin that replaced one of poet Alexander Pushkin, Russian media reported Thursday. Five officers arrived at the Smolninskoye municipal district session Wednesday to investigate reports that deputy Nikita Yuferev ripped Putin’s portrait, according to the St. Petersburg-based Fontanka.ru…

Russia has started building high-speed internet infrastructure in the Arctic to be used by large ports and oil and gas companies, the Federal Sea and River Transportation Agency announced Wednesday. The trans-Arctic underwater fiber optic cable will stretch across 10,000 kilometers from the northwestern port of Murmansk to the Pacific port of Vladivostok. The Sea…

Russia’s coronavirus cases crossed the 2 million mark Thursday, according to an official tally of single-day infections and deaths, as officials acknowledge the deteriorating crisis but resist reinstating lockdown measures. The national coronavirus caseload reached 2,015,608 after Russia confirmed more than 23,000 coronavirus infections in a single day for the first time since the start…

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was beaming Wednesday after his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin praised his “masculinity” in a speech, triggering a flood of jokes online about a budding “bromance.” Putin lavished praise on Bolsonaro Tuesday in an address to a virtual summit of the BRICS group of emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South…

A man dressed in a Santa suit was detained on Red Square late Wednesday for staging a single-person picket against the scrapping of Moscow’s New Year celebrations due to the coronavirus, the Apologia Protesta legal aid group said. Two “elves” accompanying the protester were also reportedly detained. A photo posted by Apologia Protesta showed the…

An oxygen line has exploded at Kommunarka, Moscow’s main coronavirus treatment center, on Wednesday, city authorities said. Video posted to social media showed clouds of white steam rising from the hospital, which is currently treating 733 coronavirus patients. The RBC news website quoted eyewitnesses as saying that they saw the smoke following a loud bang. In…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday voiced concern over the country’s rising coronavirus fatality rate but said the outbreak was under control. Russia has recently registered a sharp rise in new infections but has stopped short of introducing strict measures like some European countries. Health officials reported a total of 1.99 million infections Wednesday, which…

Arslan Gibadullin was eager to try on an expensive pair of The North Face slippers he’d treated himself to in an online shopping spree after collecting them from a pick-up point in St. Petersburg last Thursday.   “I got home and started putting the shoes on. As soon as I shoved my hand in one of…

Russia has confirmed 1,991,998 cases of coronavirus and 34,387 deaths. Nov. 18: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 20,985 new coronavirus cases and 456 deaths. A total of 221,000 patients with confirmed coronavirus infections are currently undergoing treatment across Russia’s hospitals and approximately 5,000 of them require mechanical ventilation, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Wednesday. Coronavirus patients currently occupy…

As Russia continues to grapple with the second wave of the coronavirus that has seen record-setting surges in new infections and deaths in recent weeks, Moscow, the pandemic’s epicenter within Russia, is on the front lines. On Wednesday, Russia reported 20,985 new coronavirus infections — the first time in five days that cases fell below…

A humpback whale with a mangled tail first spotted in Russia five years ago has re-appeared more than 6,000 kilometers west in Southern California, the Orange County Register reported Tuesday. Whale watchers in the U.S. first documented the distinctive humpback off the Palos Verdes Peninsula in 2019, then earlier this November off Catalina Island, the…

The governor of a coronavirus-hit Russian region is seeking treatment in a private Moscow clinic out of concern for his own residents, he explained on social media following news of his evacuation. Vladimir Sipyagin of the Vladimir region 180 kilometers east of Moscow is at least the 22nd regional leader to contract the coronavirus since…