Year: 2020

Unrest broke out in ex-Soviet nation Kyrgyzstan on Sunday after a highly contested parliamentary election sparked protests in the capital city of Bishkek. Opposition supporters stormed the government headquarters and presidential offices and freed former president Almazbek Atambayev from jail. Prime Minister Kubatbek Boronov then resigned on Tuesday, after which formerly imprisoned nationalist politician Sadyr…

Armenia accused Azerbaijan on Thursday of shelling a historic cathedral in Nagorno-Karabakh ahead of the first meeting of international mediators seeking to halt escalating fighting over the disputed region. Expectations for any major breakthrough from the talks in Geneva were low and no statements were expected from the negotiations being held behind closed doors and…

Kyrgyzstan’s president on Thursday held his first talks with parliament to find a way out of the chaos that has engulfed the Central Asian country since disputed elections, as key ally Russia pushed security forces to restore order. President Sooronbay Jeenbekov even discussed the possibility of his own impeachment with parliament speaker Myktybek Abdyldayev, his…

A court in central Russia has handed suspended sentences to six Jehovah’s Witnesses on Thursday, its latest crackdown on the religious organization that it banned three years ago. A district court in the city of Ulyanovsk 800 kilometers southeast of Moscow found four men and a married couple guilty of organizing or participating in “extremist…

Around the same time as an unexplained event wiped out 95% of sea-dwelling life off the coast of Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka peninsula earlier this month, a yellow foam covered an area of water so large it could be seen from space.  That’s the clue prompting some of Russia’s leading marine biologists to blame the…

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has said he will sue a German magazine for defamation over poisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s comments that he is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “errand boy” who receives “covert payments” from the Kremlin. Putin’s close friend Schroeder, 76, last week cast doubt on the Kremlin’s role in Navalny’s near-fatal poisoning…

Russia has confirmed 1,260,112 cases of coronavirus and 22,056 deaths. Oct. 8: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 11,493 new Covid-19 cases Thursday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,260,112. Russia’s number of new daily cases has been higher than 11,000 for three consecutive days. Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, is self-isolating…

An elderly man wearing a “Happy Birthday Mr. President” sign set himself on fire on a crowded street in central St. Petersburg on President Vladimir Putin’s 68th birthday Wednesday, media reported. The unnamed 71-year-old businessman was hospitalized in serious condition after his self-immolation witnessed by dozens of passersby outside a shopping mall. The Sobaka.ru outlet…

Russia on Wednesday evacuated more than 2,000 people from nearby villages after a wildfire set off explosions at a munitions depot in the Ryazan region southeast of Moscow, officials said. More than 400 firefighters were battling into the evening to extinguish a blaze that broke out at the depot on Wednesday afternoon, with the authorities saying…

Germany and France on Wednesday directly accused Russia of “involvement and responsibility” in the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, announcing that they will seek EU sanctions over the case. The European powers have repeatedly asked Moscow to shed light on the poisoning which took place on Russian soil, but “no credible explanation has been provided by Russia so…

Russia has added Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya to its interstate wanted list on a criminal charge, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Wednesday.  Tikhanovskaya claimed victory against strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus’ Aug. 9 presidential election but fled to neighboring Lithuania soon after, citing pressure from the authorities.  The Russian police database…

A large group of men gathered in front of the Armenian Embassy in central Moscow on Tuesday morning — some dressed in expensive suits, others in track pants — waiting to meet the ambassador. They were members of the Armenian diaspora in Moscow eager to find out how they could help their country in the…

Russia’s commitments to Armenia as part of a Moscow-led regional security bloc do not include the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region where fighting is raging between Armenia and Azerbaijan, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday. In his first public comments on the deadly conflict since it broke out on Sept. 27, Putin called the 10-day eruption of fighting…

A German court on Wednesday put a Russian man on trial over the assassination of a former Chechen commander in a Berlin park, allegedly on Moscow’s orders, a case that risks worsening acrimonious ties between Germany and Russia. The 55-year-old named by prosecutors as Vadim Krasikov, alias Vadim Sokolov, stands accused of gunning down 40-year-old Georgian…

Russia has successfully test-fired its highly touted hypersonic cruise missile called Tsirkon in the waters of northwestern Russia, the military said Wednesday. Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov reported to President Vladimir Putin on his 68th birthday that the Tsirkon’s launch from a guided missile frigate “directly hit” its intended target.…

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Wednesday urged the European Union to impose tough targeted sanctions including entry bans against key figures in or backing Vladimir Putin’s government over his poisoning. In an interview with Bild daily, the Kremlin critic took aim directly at Valery Gergiev, chief conductor at the Munich Philharmonic, citing the musician…

Russian anti-government activists marked President Vladimir Putin’s 68th birthday Wednesday by hanging LGBT flags from key government buildings in Moscow. Pussy Riot said it hung the rainbow flags on the facades of “the most important symbols of Russian statehood.” The anti-Kremlin punk rock group shared photos of its members installing the LGBT flags on the…

Russia rejects the global chemical weapons watchdog’s findings of a Novichok-type nerve agent in Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s samples, Moscow’s envoy in the Hague-based organization said Tuesday. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said earlier Tuesday that Navalny’s blood and urine samples taken by its experts in Germany contained traces of a…

Kyrgyzstan’s prime minister Kubatbek Boronov resigned Tuesday after widespread unrest pushed the country’s electoral body to cancel the results of Sunday’s parliament elections.  Boronov, an ally of pro-Russian President Sooronbay Jeenbekov, was replaced by a nationalist politician that protesters released from jail the day before. Unrest over the vote left almost 700 hurt and one…

Turkey’s “full support” motivated its ally Azerbaijan to reignite fighting in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Tuesday in an interview with AFP, calling the escalating conflict a “war against terrorism”. “While it is true that the leadership of Azerbaijan has been actively promoting bellicose rhetoric for the last 15 years,…

Nearly all seafloor-dwelling life in pollution-hit waters off Russia’s Pacific coast in the Kamchatka region has been wiped out in an unexplained mass death of marine animals, scientists told the region’s governor Tuesday.  Images showing hundreds of dead octopuses, large fish, sea urchins and crabs washed up on the shore of Khalaktyrsky beach went viral…

BISHKEK — Store owners in Kyrgyzstan’s capital spent Monday emptying their premises of stock and boarding up the facades. The day after disputed parliamentary elections triggered widespread protests, they wanted to avoid the looting they’d seen in previous revolutions in 2005 and 2010.      By Tuesday the Central Asian nation’s Central Electoral Commission had canceled the…

The global chemical weapons watchdog said on Tuesday that samples taken from Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who claims he was poisoned by the Kremlin, contained a Novichok-type nerve agent. The findings by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirm similar results by a military laboratory in Germany, where Navalny was treated…

Opposition politician Alexei Navalny said Tuesday he hoped to return to Russia within months as he recovers in Berlin from poisoning that he says was ordered by the Kremlin. In his first interview for a Russian audience, Navalny spoke Tuesday to a popular YouTube blogger, Yury Dud, in a video that has been already viewed…

Hundreds of Russians on Tuesday held a memorial procession for a journalist who died after setting herself on fire while rights groups demanded an end to the police intimidation that is believed to have triggered her self-immolation. Irina Slavina, the editor-in-chief of the independent KozaPress news outlet, died Friday after setting herself on fire in…

Kyrgyzstan’s electoral body said Tuesday it was canceling the results of a disputed parliamentary vote that plunged the Central Asian nation into violence and political chaos. The ex-Soviet nation’s Central Electoral Commission said in a statement that it had “invalidated the election results” which saw parties close to pro-Russian President Sooronbay Jeenbekov score big wins…

Russian investigators have opened a criminal case into the alleged torture of children living at a monastery in central Russia that has been under the control of an excommunicated, coronavirus-denying priest since June.  Dozens of children live in the Sredneuralsk women’s monastery near Yekaterinburg, which was captured by its spiritual leader Father Sergei Romanov after…

Russia has confirmed 1,237,504 cases of coronavirus and 21,663 deaths. Oct. 6: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 11,615 new Covid-19 cases Tuesday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,237,504. Tuesday’s increase is just 41 fewer than the country’s highest daily total of 11,656 which was recorded on May 11. The Russian capital re-opened two temporary…

Russia’s second candidate vaccine against the coronavirus will be tested on six times the original number of volunteers as part of final clinical trials for safety and effectiveness, health authorities said Monday. The government is expected to approve the peptide-based EpiVacCorona vaccine developed by a Siberian-based biotechnology company on or around Oct. 15. It completed…

Protesters seized Kyrgyzstan’s seat of government and freed a jailed former president on Tuesday after demonstrations against an election marred by vote-buying accusations spiralled into violent clashes with police. Opposition supporters hit the streets of the capital Bishkek the previous evening to demand the resignation of pro-Russian President Sooronbay Jeenbekov and a re-run of Sunday’s…

Riot police in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek used water cannon, stun grenades and tear gas to disperse protesters at a rally against the results of a parliamentary vote late Monday.  Dozens of demonstrators scaled gates guarding the house of government after thousands gathered to protest the results of Sunday’s vote that was marked by allegations of…

Russia experienced the warmest September in its 130-year recorded history last month, the state weather service said Monday as climate change continues to reshape the country’s weather patterns.  Nearly every geographical region except southeast Russia experienced temperatures several degrees above their September averages, according to the Russian Hydrometeorology Center’s chief specialist Marina Makarova. “The largest…

Striking dockers in Russia’s Far East capital of Vladivostok tossed their helmets at upper management in protest during an attempted negotiation Monday, the local VL.ru news website reported.   Video shows the Far East Shipping Company (FESCO) President Arkady Korostelev and Roman Kukharuk, the newly appointed manager of its subsidiary the Commercial Port of Vladivostok, attempting…

Russian scientists have not shared the data behind controversial clinical trial results into a coronavirus vaccine published in leading medical journal The Lancet a month ago, researchers who requested the information told The Moscow Times. A group of 37 scientists from 12 countries have now signed an open letter questioning the published results into Russia’s…

Official government statistics suggest that more than 45,000 Russians with coronavirus have died since the start of the pandemic, double the number of deaths estimated by Russia’s coronavirus task force. According to state statistics agency Rosstat, 45,663 people diagnosed with Covid-19 have died between April and August in Russia. The national task force, which collates…

Russia on Monday recorded a rise in coronavirus cases close to the maximum level in May but it has stopped short of reimposing strict lockdown measures. With the fourth-highest number of cases in the global pandemic, Russia introduced harsh measures during the first outbreak of the virus including the closure of borders from March while…

Authorities in Far East Russia believe the recent mass deaths of marine animals along the Pacific coast could be the result of manmade pollution, natural phenomena or a volcano-related earthquake.  Kamchatka region governor Vladimir Solodov put forward the three theories after images showing hundreds of dead marine animals washed up on the shore of Khalaktyrsky…

Belarusian police on Sunday used water cannon to disperse a rally in Minsk as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in the latest weekend protest against strongman Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed re-election. Demonstrators dedicated their march — which came after Brussels and Washington introduced sanctions against a number of Belarusian officials — to the plight of…

Fears are mounting over an environmental disaster in Russia’s Far East after locals reported finding dozens of dead sea animals washed onto a beach from the Pacific Ocean. Greenpeace said tests conducted on water samples taken from around Khalaktyrsky beach in Russia’s Kamchatka region showed petroleum levels four times higher than usual, and phenol levels…

Russia has confirmed 1,215,001 cases of coronavirus and 21,358 deaths. Oct. 4: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 10,499 new Covid-19 cases Sunday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,215,001 as the number of new infections across the country continues to rise.  Moscow could receive bulk shipments of Russia’s coronavirus vaccine by the end of…

A Russian man goes on trial Wednesday accused of assassinating a former Chechen commander in a Berlin park on Moscow’s orders, a case that has cast a pall over ties between Russia and Germany. Vadim K., also known as Vadim S., stands accused of gunning down a Georgian national identified by German authorities as 40-year-old…

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces were engaged in fierce clashes Saturday as fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region intensified, with Armenia reporting heavy losses and its leader saying it was facing a historic threat. Armenia’s defense ministry said separatist forces had repelled a massive attack by Azerbaijan, seven days after new fighting erupted in the decades-old…

Russia has confirmed 1,204,502 cases of coronavirus and 21,251 deaths. Oct. 3: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 9,859 new Covid-19 cases Saturday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,204,502 as the number of new infections across the country continues to rise.  Ukraine’s former President Petro Poroshenko has been hospitalized with double pneumonia, his wife said…

The United States and the EU hit Belarus officials with long-awaited sanctions over the country’s political crisis on Friday, drawing an angry response from Minsk and its ally Moscow. After more than six weeks of diplomatic efforts, EU leaders finally persuaded Cyprus to drop its block on sanctions at a summit in Brussels, opening the…

The marriage of convenience between Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confounded sceptics by withstanding Russian and Turkish rivalries in Syria and Libya. Now, with the deadliest fighting in decades returning to Azerbaijan’s Armenian separatist region of Nagorno Karabakh, the bond between the two strong-willed leaders is being tested in Russia’s own backyard, analysts said.…

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said he should be blamed instead of President Vladimir Putin for the Novichok poisoning that incapacitated Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny for over a month.  The loyal Putin ally’s remarks join a series of rebukes from Russian officials after Navalny blamed Putin for the incident that threatens to deteriorate Moscow’s already…

A Russian journalist has died after setting herself on fire outside police headquarters in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, Russian media reported Friday. Irina Slavina, the editor-in-chief of the KozaPress news outlet died at the scene, the Baza and 112 Telegram channels reported. “I ask you to blame the Russian Federation for my death,” Slavina,…

Armenia accused Azerbaijani forces of striking the main city in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region on Friday as fighting raged for a sixth day. Yerevan said it was ready to work with mediators for a ceasefire but Azerbaijan fired back that Armenia must first withdraw its troops. Baku and Yerevan have for decades been locked in…