Year: 2020

President Vladimir Putin has taken steps toward banning Russian government officials with access to state secrets from holding foreign passports as part of his recent changes to the Constitution. Putin on Monday submitted a bill to Russia’s lower house of parliament that would amend the Labor Code to ban military and civil servants with access to…

Fall 2020 in Moscow will be declared the warmest on record for the capital, according to Russia’s state weather service. The average temperature in Moscow for September, October and November was 3.2 degrees Celsius, which is 4.4 C above normal. “This autumn in Moscow will be the warmest ever,” the state-run TASS news agency quoted…

Former Russian journalist Ivan Safronov has been ordered to stay in jail through March pending trial on charges of high treason, his previous employer the Kommersant business daily reported Monday. Safronov, who was arrested in July weeks after starting a new career at state space agency Roscosmos, faces up to 20 years in prison on…

Russia’s highly touted Sputnik V vaccine is “reasonably effective” at preventing the coronavirus based on preliminary results from its mass trials but questions over its data still remain, British vaccine experts told Canada’s CBC News broadcaster Saturday. Sputnik V’s developers announced the vaccine’s 95% efficacy last week, citing data obtained 21 days after volunteers received the second…

Russia should withdraw its peacekeeping force from the self-proclaimed Transnistria republic, Moldova’s pro-European president-elect said Monday. Maia Sandu, who defeated Moldova’s pro-Russian incumbent earlier in November on a platform of balancing the ex-Soviet country’s ties between Moscow and the West, said the Russian troops should be replaced by civilian observers from Europe. Russia deploys around…

Russia has confirmed 2,295,654 cases of coronavirus and 39,895 deaths. Nov. 30: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 26,338 new coronavirus cases and 368 deaths. Universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg will switch students to remote learning until early February to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Science and Higher Education Minister Valery Falkov said Monday. Nov. 27…

Syria and Russia faced renewed pressure over allegations of chemical weapons use as member countries of the global toxic arms watchdog met on Monday. Moscow was urged by Western nations to “transparently” reveal the circumstances of the Novichok nerve agent poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Damascus meanwhile faced calls for sanctions at the Organization for the…

A Russian Federal Protection Service (FSO) officer responsible for guarding President Vladimir Putin has allegedly died by suicide inside the Kremlin walls, media reported Monday. The Baza Telegram channel, which is thought to have links to Russia’s security services, said Mikhail Zakharov shot himself during his service. The state-run TASS news agency, which did not…

Universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg will switch students to remote learning for two months to prevent the spread of coronavirus during the pandemic’s record-setting second wave, Science and Higher Education Minister Valery Falkov said Monday. “I signed an order yesterday switching the universities under the ministry’s jurisdiction in Moscow and St. Petersburg to the…

The stepson of a St. Petersburg construction mogul was run over and killed by an armored vehicle at a military re-enactment celebrating his stepbrother’s birthday, media reported Sunday. The armored personnel carrier allegedly started moving with Andrei Kozhevin, 38, lying in its path after the driver “thought” he received a takeoff signal, according to the Life Shot tabloid. Kozhevin…

Ever since the U.S. presidential election was called for Joe Biden, Tatiana Abdullina has been watching the twists and turns of outgoing President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results from her home in Volchansk, a town of 10,000 in Russia’s Ural Mountains. The mother of four is convinced the legal manoeuvres will be successful,…

A Russian late-night television sketch featuring a racist impersonation of former U.S. President Barack Obama by an actress in blackface has sparked controversy after airing on a Kremlin-funded network over the weekend. After lampooning Obama’s recently published memoir during his Saturday evening political satire show Mezhdunarodnaya Pilorama (“International Saw-Panorama”), host Tigran Keosayan segues to an…

Pomegranate harvest is in full swing on a field Zhorik Grigoryan nearly lost in the recent fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed  Nagorno-Karabakh region.  Azerbaijani forces were just 50 meters (less than a mile) away from the farmer’s land in the eastern Martuni district when a Moscow-brokered peace deal halted weeks of clashes…

Russia has confirmed 2,215,533 cases of coronavirus and 38,558 deaths. Nov. 28: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 27,100 coronavirus cases and 510 deaths on Saturday Indian pharmaceutical company Hetero will produce 100 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine as part of the agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), its developers announced Friday.…

Medical students on the front lines of Russia’s coronavirus response will receive $260 in payouts before the end of the year, news agencies quoted a senior cabinet official overseeing Russia’s virus response as saying Friday. Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said 60,296 students “not in full-time positions but in practical training at medical organizations” will…

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny urged the EU on Friday to put targeted economic sanctions on the oligarchs surrounding President Vladimir Putin. “There is no sense in sanctioning colonels or generals or some people who are definitely not traveling a lot,” Navalny told MEPs by videolink. Addressing the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Navalny, who…

Tens of thousands of tons of sulfur dioxide and other hazardous gases have annually been emitted from the chimneys of Nornickel’s factory in the town named after the metal produced there. Damage to human health, the environment and cross-border relations with Norway have made the town of Nikel in the Murmansk region infamous much further…

Russia’s military has launched a coronavirus vaccine campaign among nearly half a million of its active-duty personnel, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Friday. More than 2,500 Russian soldiers have been vaccinated so far, Shoigu said, projecting that number to go up to 80,000 by the end of the year. Shoigu himself received the Sputnik V…

Russia’s Pobeda low-cost airline was behind a phallic flight path made in support of the national football team captain after he was embroiled in a sex video scandal, the RBC news website reported Thursday, citing a federal aviation report. Russia’s Federal Air Transportation Agency (Rosaviatsia) said the Nov. 11 Moscow-Yekaterinburg flight with 102 passengers onboard…

One of the developers of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine announced Friday that India-based drugmaker Hetero will produce over 100 million doses of the jab. “Hetero, one of India’s leading generic pharmaceutical companies, have agreed to produce in India over 100 million doses per year of the world’s first registered vaccine against the novel coronavirus…

Russia has confirmed more than 27,000 coronavirus infections in a single day for the first time since the start of the pandemic, the latest record amid the country’s record-setting second wave that is straining regional healthcare systems. Health officials reported 27,543 new infections across all Russian regions Friday, bringing the total caseload to 2,215,533 —…

Moscow reported a 300% month-on-month increase in coronavirus deaths for October, the Russian capital’s health department said late Thursday. In September, the city’s health department said Covid-19 was the direct cause of death among 543 Muscovites. As the second wave of the virus escalated in October, Moscow’s health department said coronavirus was the main cause…

Azerbaijani lawmakers on Thursday called for France to be expelled from a group mediating in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute after the French Senate backed the breakaway region’s independence claim. The French upper house on Wednesday adopted a non-binding resolution calling on France to recognize the ethnic Armenian enclave of Azerbaijan as an independent state. The move…

Russia’s foreign minister on Thursday accused the West of interfering in Belarus as he met strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko who has faced months of protests over his disputed re-election. Sergei Lavrov held talks with Lukashenko and other top officials in the capital Minsk, in the latest show of Russia’s support for authorities in its ex-Soviet…

The Russian military has test-launched its vaunted Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile for at least the third time this year, the Defense Ministry announced Thursday. Like the previous test launch held on President Vladimir Putin’s birthday on Oct. 7, a Russian Navy frigate fired the Tsirkon that hit its target in the waters of northwestern Russia,…

Russia has confirmed 2,187,990 cases of coronavirus and 38,062 deaths. Nov. 26: What you need to know today Russia confirmed record-breaking numbers of 25,487 coronavirus cases and 524 deaths. Moscow has further extended measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus until Jan. 15, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday. The measures include a self-isolation order for residents aged…

A cocktail of design flaws, management failures and rising temperatures made the worst oil spill in Russia’s modern history — and the most damaging ever inside the Arctic circle — “inevitable,” a report commissioned by Russian metals giant Nornickel has said. The report is the work of consulting group Environmental Resources Management (ERM), which Nornickel…

Coronavirus patients in southwestern Siberia have been placed in a dilapidated, out-of-use hospital ward with flaking paint and cracking walls due to severe bed shortages, regional health officials said Wednesday. The Altai region’s health authorities said City Hospital No. 3 in Barnaul was forced to reopen a previously shuttered ward “due to an urgent need”…

Russia on Thursday registered record numbers for daily infections and deaths from the coronavirus for the second time in less than a week. Health officials reported 25,487 new infections, bringing the national total to 2,187,990 cases since the beginning of the pandemic — the fifth-highest caseload in the world. Health authorities also reported 524 deaths, raising Russia’s…

Facebook has paid Russian authorities a 4 million ruble ($53,000) fine over its refusal to comply with controversial data localization laws. Under laws which came into force in 2016, Russia requires all foreign technology companies to store data related to their Russian customers and users on servers located inside Russia. Campaigners saw the law as…

A Russian airline has canceled a China-bound flight from Moscow after nearly 200 passengers provided identical negative coronavirus test results, the Chinese Embassy in Moscow said Thursday. Pegas Fly grounded the Moscow-Zhengzhou flight Wednesday when the embassy uncovered more than 190 “completely identical” serology tests, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted the embassy as…

Russia plans dramatic upgrades of its TOS-1 heavy flamethrower systems with longer-range “scorching” rockets and real-time targeting capabilities, the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper reported Wednesday. Up to 100 TOS-1 “Buratino” and TOS-1A “Solntsepyok” models of the Russian Armed Forces’ Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops will reportedly receive the upgrades “due to the growing range and…

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has become the latest victim of a pair of notorious Russian pranksters who called him while posing as Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. In the phone call published on the Vovan and Lexus comic duo’s YouTube page this week, the fake Greta grills Trudeau about NATO, other world leaders and…

Russian President Vladimir Putin may be the father of a secretive St. Petersburg millionaire’s 17-year-old daughter, the Proekt investigative website reported Wednesday. Yelizaveta Vladimirovna Krivonogikh “bears a phenomenal resemblance to the Russian president,” Proekt reported, citing photographs it said it had obtained.  Her mother Svetlana Krivonogikh is the beneficiary of a company that owns a…

Moscow plans to track its residents’ “loyalty” with detailed digital profiles akin to China’s social credit system, the Open Media news website reported Tuesday, citing public documents. Moscow City Hall has since 2017 been collecting the gender, age, income level and relationship to other people signed up to its mos.ru website as part of the…

Feminist Russian lawmaker Oksana Pushkina and prosecuted LGBT activist Yulia Tsvetkova have been named among the world’s 100 most inspirational and influential women in 2020 by the BBC. This year’s edition of the BBC’s annual 100 Women list aims to highlight women who act as leaders of change. The BBC left one of the 100 spots…

Russia reported a record high of 507 new coronavirus-related deaths Wednesday as the Kremlin acknowledges the heavy strain placed on the country’s healthcare system but continues to rule out a new nationwide lockdown. The country’s total number of fatalities now stands at 37,538, a figure widely believed to be undercounted due to tallying methods. An analysis…

A Russian hospital has been fined for concealing more than 1,000 coronavirus patients earlier this fall, with the regional health officials blaming the national authorities for a misunderstanding. A court in the city of Ufa handed a 200,000 ruble ($2,600) fine to the Kuvatov Republic Clinical Hospital on Monday after finding them guilty of withholding…

Belarus authorities said Tuesday that opposition politician Viktor Babaryko — who until his arrest had intended to run against President Alexander Lukashenko in the August election — was charged with corruption and money laundering. For over three months Belarus has been gripped by historic protests against the re-election of strongman leader Lukashenko, 66, who secured a sixth term…

Shares in Russian online retail giant Ozon surged by more than 40% in the first minutes of trading after the most eagerly anticipated Russian initial public offering (IPO) in years. Ozon is the country’s second-largest e-commerce player and is placing itself to become Russia’s answer to Amazon with a plan to consolidate and dominate the…

A drunk father took six children hostage in his St. Petersburg apartment during a suspected dispute with his wife, Russian news outlets reported Tuesday. According to Interfax, police responded to a call by the hostage-taker’s wife, who said she was unable to get inside the apartment where she heard the children crying.  Special forces ended…