Day: December 3, 2020

Pussy Riot member Margarita Konovalova, also known as Rita Flores, has been sentenced to 20 days in jail for staging an anti-police brutality protest near the Kremlin, the Apologia Telegram channel reported Thursday.  During the Nov. 28 protest, Pussy Riot members in traditional Russian folk costumes tied artist Farhad Israfilli-Gelman, who was wearing an OMON…

Russia is pushing ahead with its domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine as the global race for a safe and effective vaccine that can put an end to the coronavirus pandemic heats up. Hours after Pfizer-BioNTech made headlines Wednesday by winning the first official general-use vaccine approval in the western world, President Vladimir Putin ordered large-scale…

Russian rights activists on Thursday condemned draft legislation including a significant expansion of who can be labelled a “foreign agent” as a new clampdown on dissent. Lawmakers in Russia’s lower-house State Duma last month proposed a series of bills that would give authorities sweeping powers to designate individuals as foreign agents and further limit public…

Russia has confirmed 2,375,546 cases of coronavirus and 41,607 deaths. Dec. 3: What you need to know today Russia confirmed a new record of 28,145 coronavirus cases and 554 deaths. Moscow will start vaccinating at-risk groups against the coronavirus this weekend, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday. Online booking for health workers, teachers and social service workers deemed at higher risk of…

Moscow will start vaccinating at-risk groups against the coronavirus this weekend, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday after President Vladimir Putin ordered large-scale immunization across the country. Online booking for health workers, teachers and social service workers deemed at higher risk of severe infection will open Friday, Sobyanin wrote on his website. “The vaccination centers will…

A U.S. human rights activist who has defended the interests of Russian citizens in Europe’s human rights court faces expulsion from Russia, she has said. Authorities informed Vanessa Kogan that she “poses a national security threat” when they rejected her fast-track citizenship application and revoked her permanent residence earlier this week, Kogan told the Ekho Moskvy…

Housewives in Russia should earn a wage for their domestic labor, State Duma deputy Oksana Pushkina has said. Pushkina’s statement in a Wednesday interview on the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station comes amid growing calls for governments to level the financial inequities traditionally faced by women. Last month, Scotland became the first country to guarantee free…

Turkey is willing to support the Russia-annexed Crimean peninsula’s return to Ukraine, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday.  The statement comes amid an already uneasy relationship between Moscow and Ankara, which are traditionally partners but have recently been at odds over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Syrian conflict and Libya’s civil war. In October, Turkish…

More than 100,000 Russians at higher risk of severe coronavirus cases have been vaccinated with the domestically made Sputnik V vaccine, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Wednesday. His announcement at a special session of the UN General Assembly presenting Sputnik V came as President Vladimir Putin ordered the large-scale vaccination of priority groups such as…

President Vladimir Putin named a replacement for Anatoly Chubais, the head of state nanotechnology firm Rusnano, on Wednesday, exposing a rift between the president and the former deputy prime minister whose popularity has waned in recent years. During his 12 years as Rusnano’s head Chubais, who had been an architect of Russia’s 1990s privatizations as…

Russia reported more than 28,000 coronavirus cases in a single day for the first time since the start of the pandemic, the latest record amid the second wave plaguing the country’s major cities and far-flung regions. Health officials reported 28,145 new infections across every Russian region Thursday, bringing the total caseload to 2,375,546. Russia has…

Russia’s Pobeda low-cost airline has canceled 110 flights to seven cities over a disruptive airspace overhaul that resulted in outdated flight charts and databases for western Russia, media reported Wednesday. European regulators last month warned of major changes to departure and arrival procedures after the restructure covering 49 airports across European Russia which takes effect…