Author: admin
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Full-scale Assault on Syria’s Idlib ‘Not Expedient,’ Says Russia’s Putin
A full-scale assault against militants in Syria’s Idlib province “is not expedient now” and civilians’ security needs to be taken into account, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday. Speaking in Beijing, Putin said Russia would work with the Syrian opposition to finalise the make-up of a constitutional committee, part of efforts to secure a…
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Trump Proposals on Nuclear Arms Disarmament ‘Not Serious’ — Kremlin
U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposals on nuclear arms disarmament is “not serious,” a Kremlin spokesman said on Saturday. Trump has ordered his administration to prepare a push for a new arms-control agreements with Russia and China citing the cost of the 21st-century nuclear arms race, The Washington Post reported on Thursday citing administration officials. “It…
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Vladimir Kozlov: Breaking With Tradition
Vladimir Kozlov was born in Mogilev, in what was once the Belorussian S.S.R. and is now Belarus. After his childhood and adolescence in industrial Mogilev experiencing all the chaos, upheaval, crime and freedom of the perestroika years, he moved to Minsk and then Moscow. He has written more than a dozen works of fiction, including…
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Meet Moscow’s Lone #ClimateStrike Protester
Every Friday, 24-year-old student Arshak Makichyan stands alone in Moscow’s Pushkin Square with a poster warning locals about the dangers of climate change. He started his protest in mid-March, inspired by the #Climatestrike movement led by young activists around the world. Back then, Makichyan and around two dozen other Muscovites gathered in Sokolniki Park in…
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Admitted Russian Agent Butina Sentenced to 18 Months, Deportation
A federal judge on Friday sentenced Russian agent Maria Butina to 18 months in prison after Butina pleaded guilty in December to conspiring with a Russian official to infiltrate a gun rights group and influence U.S. conservative activists and Republicans. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan said the 18 months will include the approximately nine months Butina…
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ASE EC JSC has been assigned “Acknowledged Excellence” level of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)
ASE EC JSC (Engineering Division of ROSATOM) has been assigned the “Acknowledged Excellence” level by the accessors of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). The certificate confirming the highest (5 star) level according to the criteria of Excellence Model of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) was awarded today by Nikolay Akatov, the leading assessor…
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Syria Constitution Body Could Be Agreed on Soon — Russian Official
The Syrian government and armed opposition groups, together with both sides’ backers, could agree on the makeup of a constitutional committee in coming months, Russian negotiator Alexander Lavrentyev said on Friday. Forming a constitutional committee is key to political reforms and new elections meant to unify Syria and end an eight-year war which has killed…
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Russian-Born Socialite Convicted of New York Fraud – AP
A Russian-born socialite has been found guilty of theft of services and grand larceny in New York, facing up to 15 years in prison and deportation to Germany, the Associated Press reported Friday. Anna Sorokin, 28, assumed the name of Anna Delvey when she tricked her friends and banks into financing her lavish $275,000 lifestyle…
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‘Putin’s Chef’ Compensates Victims of Caterer’s Mass Poisoning in Moscow
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a catering magnate with ties to Vladimir Putin, has paid out compensation to the parents of dozens of children who were reportedly poisoned after eating food provided by his catering company. Officials confirmed some 130 cases of food poisoning among kindergarteners in southeastern Moscow in December, leading parents to file a class-action lawsuit…
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Half of Russians Say They Don’t Know Why Easter Is Celebrated – Poll
Half of Russia’s Orthodox Christians do not know the origins of Easter, according to a state-run poll published on Friday. Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Day after his death on the cross. Orthodox Easter falls on Sunday, April 28, ending seven weeks of fasting and kickstarting the traditions of spring cleaning…
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Admitted Russian Agent Butina to Be Sentenced in U.S., Faces Deportation
Admitted Russian agent Maria Butina will be sentenced on Friday by a federal judge after pleading guilty in December to conspiring with a Russian official to infiltrate a gun rights group and influence U.S. conservative activists and Republicans. Butina, a former graduate student at American University in Washington who publicly advocated for gun rights, faces…
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Michele Berdy Kicks Off New ‘Moscow Time’s Offline’ Series
Veteran columnist Michele Berdy kicked off The Moscow Times’ new monthly Theater series on Wednesday with a talk about her experiences of living in Russia since 1978. The lecture is part of a new series aimed at bringing the local expat community fun, fascinating and occasionally controversial talks and debates with Moscow’s most interesting people. Stay…
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PhosAgro 1Q 2019 Fertilizer Sales Rise by 5.2% y-o-y to 2.5 mln t
Moscow – PhosAgro (MOEX/LSE ticker: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, increased fertilizer production volumes by 1.2% year-on-year to 2.3 million tonnes in 1Q 2019. Sales volumes for the same period grew by 5.2% year-on-year to 2.5 million tonnes. PhosAgro’s production and sales volumes are summarised in the tables below.…
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Putin Rides to Xi’s Rescue on Battered Silk Road as the West Stews
At the first Belt and Road summit in Beijing two years ago, Vladimir Putin offered little more than platitudes for Xi Jinping’s global infrastructure initiative, essentially calling China’s “project of the century” a welcome new plank in Russia’s own strategy for ending American hegemony. Since then, deep-pocketed Chinese companies have intensified their march across Asia, Africa…
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Russia to Hold Talks on Fixing Its Tainted Oil Supplies to Europe
Russia will hold talks with Poland, Belarus and Ukraine on Friday about how to solve a problem of polluted Russian oil being pumped through a major pipeline serving Europe and which supplies refineries as far west as Germany. Poland, Germany, Ukraine and Slovakia have suspended imports of Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline over quality…
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Rosneft Aero increases overwing fueling by 9.5% in 1Q
In 1Q2019 Rosneft Aero, a subsidiary of PJSC NK Rosneft, increased its overwing fueling at Russian airports by 9.5% q-o-q to 458,000 tons. Overwing fueling operations grew by 13% and amounted to 50,700 in the reporting period. Rosneft Aero sold over 797 tons of aviation kerosene in the first three months of 2019, having increased…
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Defense Chief Says Time Might Have Come for Reviving Stalin’s Arctic Death Road
Thousands died of hunger and cold as they laid rails across the desolate areas of North Siberia. Now Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu hints he is ready to give the Transpolar Mainline project a new shot. It was one of the many monstrous projects started by Josef Stalin. The railway line was to be built…
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Head of FSB’s Secretive Unit Detained for Bribery – Reports
The head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) highly secretive branch has been detained on suspicion of large-scale bribery, the Kommersant business daily reported on Friday. Colonel Kirill Cherkalin headed the FSB economic security department’s financial counterintelligence support unit. The department played key roles in investigations surrounding former economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev, deputy prime minister…
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Rosatom supplied a large batch of germanium-76 isotope to Germany for the LEGEND international research project
A large consignment of germanium-76 isotope has been shipped to Germany under the contract between Isotope JSC and the Technical University of Munich. The batch was produced by PA Electrochemical Plant JSC (ECP, Zelenogorsk, Krasnoyarsk region; an enterprise of TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom). Germanium-76 has been supplied for the joint international research collaboration LEGEND…
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Remembering the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, 33 Years Later
April 26 marks the anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear disaster to date at the Chernobyl power plant in northern Ukraine. Following the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl’s reactor number four, radioactive material spread across much of the Northern Hemisphere. Thirty-three years on, the power plant is surrounded by both a hushed desolation and a buzz…
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Two Dead in Moscow Metro Shooting — Reports
Two people are reportedly dead following a shooting at a Moscow metro station, the state-run TASS news agency reported on Thursday. A man opened fire and killed one person at the entrance of Noviye Cheryomushki station before committing suicide, TASS cited a law enforcement source as saying. Russian media, citing the Baza Telegram channel, have…
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Siberia Wildfires Claim First Casualty as Losses Mount
The wildfires tearing through southeastern Siberia claimed their first human victim on Thursday as damages almost doubled to nearly 1 billion rubles ($15.4 million), authorities said. At least 36 people were injured and nearly 650 left homeless in Zabaikalsky region, while almost 12,000 pets and livestock animals were killed in the flames. The Emergency Situations…
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Ukraine Passes Language Restriction, Worsening Dispute With Neighbors
Lawmakers in Kiev approved a bill boosting the use of Ukrainian across state administration and media, in a move that risks complicating relations with Russia and the West at the same time. While Ukrainian has been the sole official language since 2014 when Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych was toppled from the presidency in deadly street protests,…
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Pushkin House Book Prize Short List
In Moscow on Thursday, the short list for the 2019 Pushkin House Book Prize was announced by Alexander Drozdov, executive director of the Yeltsin Presidential Center and a member of this year’s jury. The Prize has been awarded annually since 2013 to the best book of non-fiction about Russia or the Russian-speaking world written for…
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Rosneft Aero sells its jubilee 20th ton of aviation fuel
Rosneft Aero, a subsidiary of PJSC NK Rosneft, sold 20 mn tons of aviation fuel since the launch of its operating activities in 2008. The Moscow-London “Aeroflot” flight at Sheremetyevo airport marked the jubilee fueling. The total number of Rosneft Aero regular customers amounts to more than 100 airlines. The company provides overwing fueling at…
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Gazprom and CNPC discuss pipeline gas supplies to China
Release April 25, 2019, 15:35 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Wang Yilin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CNPC, took place today in Beijing, China. The meeting participants reviewed the development prospects of the Chinese gas market and the strategic aspects of cooperation between Gazprom and CNPC, paying particular attention to gas supplies. It was noted that…
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Ukraine Vote Shows ‘Total’ Policy Failure of Departing Leader – Putin
Outgoing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s policy has suffered a “total failure” which manifested in his election loss, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in first remarks on the Ukrainian vote. Poroshenko garnered 24 percent of the vote in the Sunday runoffs, behind television comedian and political novice Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s 73 percent. His defeat was seen as…
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Putin: Nothing Wrong With Us Giving Passports to East Ukraine Residents
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday a decision to give residents of Ukrainian rebel regions fast-track access to Russian passports was no different from what some European Union states were already doing. Speaking to reporters at the end of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Putin said that Poland, Romania and Hungary…
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Russian Ministry Moves to Ban Personal Imports of Parmesan and Jamon – Reports
Russia is considering banning certain meat and dairy products, including parmesan and jamon, over health concerns tied to infectious diseases, the Vedomosti business daily reported. Wholesale imports of fresh EU food products were banned in 2014 in retaliation to Western states imposing sanctions over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.…
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Delegation from Japan visited Novovoronezh NPP
Takuya Hattori, senior advisor of Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, and also member of the International Expert Council of Rosatom visited Novovoronezh NPP. He was accompanied by representatives of Japanese companies related to nuclear power. Guests visited the Education and Training Center (ETC), the Main Control Room (MCR), the Turbine Hall of Unit №6. According to…
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Germany, Poland Halt Oil Imports From Russia Over Quality Concerns
Poland and Germany have suspended imports of Russian oil via a major pipeline, citing poor quality and triggering a rare crisis over supply from the world’s second-largest crude exporter. Halting imports from the Druzhba pipeline could trigger legal claims by Western buyers against Russian suppliers, who would in turn seek compensation from Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft, three traders…
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Russia’s Passport Offer to East Ukrainians Slammed in Kiev, Washington
President Vladimir Putin’s order simplifying the procedure for residents of separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine to obtain a Russian passport prompted condemnations from Kiev and the United States. Putin’s decree on Wednesday eases the path to Russian citizenship for an estimated 3.7 million people living in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics after five years of war…
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Russia Says U.S. Able to Carry Out ‘Space Strikes’
The United States is capable of attacking Russia from space, a senior Russian general said Wednesday. U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a plan in January calling for the development of space-based sensors to shoot down missiles before they can threaten U.S. soil, among other capabilities. Moscow warned the new U.S. missile defense strategy would unleash…
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Putin Says U.S. Security Guarantees Unlikely to Prompt North Korea to De-Nuclearize
Russian President Vladimir Putin said after holding talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday that he thought U.S. security guarantees would probably not be enough to persuade Pyongyang to shut its nuclear program. Putin and Kim held a day of talks on an island off the Russian Pacific city of Vladivostok two months…
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Aide to Libyan Commander Visits Moscow as a Sign of Haftar’s Closeness to Russia
A high-ranking aide to Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar was in Moscow on Wednesday, a sign of Haftar’s closeness to Russia at a time when forces loyal to him are fighting the internationally recognized government for control of Tripoli. Kheiri Al Tamimi, the head of Haftar’s office, showed up at the high-profile Moscow Conference on International…
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Gazprom to start building inter-settlement gas pipeline to Vostochny Cosmodrome in near future
Release April 24, 2019, 16:25 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Vasily Orlov, Governor of the Amur Region, took place today in Moscow. It was noted that the Amur Region is an area of strategic interest for Gazprom, as the Power of Siberia gas pipeline passes through its territory. The pipeline will start delivering gas supplies from Russia to China on December 1,…
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Gazprom and VNG discuss development of Katharina UGS facility and sci-tech cooperation
Release April 24, 2019, 16:20 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Ulf Heitmueller, Chairman of the Executive Board of Verbundnetz Gas (VNG), took place today in Moscow. The parties discussed their ongoing and future cooperation, in particular the interaction in the field of underground gas storage (UGS) in Germany. It was noted that the joint project for the development of the…
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Alexey Miller and German Ambassador Ruediger von Fritsch review progress of Nord Stream 2 project
Release April 24, 2019, 15:30 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Ruediger von Fritsch, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Russian Federation, took place today in Moscow. The parties discussed issues related to cooperation in the gas sector. It was noted that Germany is the largest importer of Russian gas in the world. In 2018, Gazprom’s…
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Putin Simplifies Russian Citizenship Process for Eastern Ukrainians
President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree making it easier for residents of separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine to obtain Russian passports and citizenship, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. In 2017, Putin signed an executive order recognizing the passports from the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics as valid in Russia. The move was widely regarded as the…
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Joint Russia IAEA-NEM School for Managers in Nuclear Organizations concluded in Sochi
The joint Russia-IAEA Nuclear Energy Management School for Managers in Nuclear Organizations concluded in Sochi on April 19. The objective of the NEM School was to support middle-level managers and decision-makers in the nuclear sector in enhancing managerial and technical competencies that are essential for establishing or expanding national nuclear energy programmes. This year hit…
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Siberia Rushes to Extinguish Fast-Spreading Wildfires
Wildfires tore through nearly 20 towns in the grasslands of southeastern Siberia between April 19-22. The fires injured at least 34 people, four of them critically, and left at least 645 people homeless in Zabaikalsky region. Some 11,800 pets and livestock animals were also killed, The Siberian Times reported. Regional authorities estimate the blaze, which…
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Reuters Corrects Story Saying Venezuela Is Avoiding U.S. Sanctions by Funneling Oil Sales Through Russia
Reuters has corrected a story it published on April 18 saying Venezuela is funneling cash flow from oil sales through Russian state energy giant Rosneft to evade U.S. sanctions after Rosneft threatened to ban the international news agency from operating in Russia. The story, datelined Mexico City, said Reuters had uncovered a scheme whereby Venezuelan…
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U.S. Envoy Warns Russia With ‘Warship Diplomacy’
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman has boarded one of two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers that arrived in the Mediterranean on Tuesday to caution Moscow against its activities in Syria and around the world. The U.S. and other Western countries have accused Russia of a range of bad behavior, including aggression in Ukraine, involvement in…
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Kim Jong Un Looks to Putin for Help Dealing With Trump Whiplash
Kim Jong Un, like Vladimir Putin, has enjoyed flourishes of bonhomie with Donald Trump only to see the relationship fray over sanctions. Now, the North Korean leader is turning to the Russian president for help. Kim left North Korea by train and crossed into Russia on Wednesday, the Interfax newswire reported, citing an unidentified official.…
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The Last Address of Alexander Drevin
On Sunday, April 21, a small memorial plaque was installed in Moscow on the wall of an apartment house on Ultisa Myasnitskaya, where in 1938 the artist Aleksander Drevin was arrested and taken away to be eventually shot by the N.K.V.D. – the Soviet secret police. Drevin was the most prominent artist killed in Stalin’s…
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Putin’s Closest Ally Fears Takeover as Kremlin Plots Succession
President Vladimir Putin may look beyond Russia for a mechanism to keep power after his current term ends. That’s making Moscow’s closest ally nervous amid spiraling tensions over Kremlin threats to slash economic subsidies. After years of spending billions of dollars to support Belarus’s state-dominated economy, Russia is intensifying pressure on President Alexander Lukashenko to…
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Along Russia’s Border to Norway, a Big Show of Military Force
Sounds of explosion rocked through the borderlands as 1,000 forces and more than 340 military vehicles, tanks and aircraft engaged in military training. There was no silent Easter in the border areas between Russia and Norway. As locals on the Norwegian side relaxed in their cabins on Easter Monday, the nearby military units based in…
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First Russian Found Guilty Under ‘Disrespect’ of Authorities Law – Reports
Russian authorities have issued the first guilty verdict under a new law criminalizing “blatant disrespect” toward the authorities for online posts calling President Vladimir Putin an expletive. A Novgorod region court 570 kilometers northwest of Moscow found a local resident guilty and fined him 30,000 rubles ($470) Monday for posts calling Putin “a fantastic f——”…
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World’s only floating nuclear power unit to begin commercial operations in Russia
Murmansk, Russia – After a series of successful and comprehensive tests, including on its twin KLT-40 reactor system, the unique floating nuclear power unit (FPU) “Akademik Lomonosov” is ready to start commercial operations. The FPU’s reactors, No.1 and No.2, were successfully brought up to 100% capacity on the March 31. These tests confirmed the operational…
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World’s only floating nuclear power unit to begin commercial operations in Russia
Murmansk, Russia – After a series of successful and comprehensive tests, including on its twin KLT-40 reactor system, the unique floating nuclear power unit (FPU) “Akademik Lomonosov” is ready to start commercial operations. The FPU’s reactors, No.1 and No.2, were successfully brought up to 100% capacity on the March 31. These tests confirmed the operational…
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North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Arrives in Russia for Summit With Putin
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un crossed the border into Russia on Wednesday by train, Russian media reported, for his first trip there aimed at galvanizing support from President Vladimir Putin while nuclear talks with Washington are in limbo. Kim is expected to project himself as a serious world player with his first meeting with the Russian leader and…
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Kremlin Offers Oil Giants $8Bln Payout as Russians Struggle
Vladimir Putin’s poll ratings are down after a tax hike squeezed cash-strapped consumers. But the Kremlin has opened the coffers to give as much as $8 billion this year to another key constituency: oil companies awash in record profits. The handouts are part of a complex arrangement under which oil companies agree to freeze fuel…
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Putin Unveils World’s Longest Nuclear Submarine at Shipyard Ceremony
President Vladimir Putin has unveiled a submarine capable of carrying six thermonuclear warheads on Tuesday ahead of its deployment in 2020-2021. Russia’s naval submarine called “Belgorod” will be the world’s longest submarine ever built, measuring 184 meters, The Barents Observer has estimated. The Belgorod will be able to carry six underwater “Poseidon” drones, the state-run…
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As Ford Exits the Russian Car Market, Its Sacked Workers Fight for a Fair Pay-Off
VSEVOLOZHSK, Leningrad region — When Ivan first learned he would be losing his job at the Ford factory he was floored. For more than a decade, the 50-year-old welder has been producing the frames of Focus and Mondeo cars at the U.S. automaker’s plant in Vsevolozhsk, an industrial town 30 kilometers east of St. Petersburg.…
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FSB Raids Jehovah’s Witnesses Meeting Spots in Siberia
Russian authorities raided the meeting spaces of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Siberia and the country’s Far East late last week, detaining five worshippers and holding two in pre-trial detention. Russia added the group to its registry of extremist organizations in 2017, exposing Russia’s estimated 175,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses to mass raids and forcing at least 5,000 to…
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Russian Auditor Finds $12Bln in Government Spending Violations
Russia’s public finance watchdog has uncovered 772.7 billion rubles ($12.12 billion) in government spending violations last year. The volume of total violations has decreased substantially from 1.87 trillion rubles in 2017 as detections increased by 43 percent, the RBC news website reported Tuesday. Procurement accounted for the highest share of budget violations at 294.6 billion…
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Belarus Halts Exports Due to Low-Quality Russian Oil
Belarus has suspended exports of light oil products, gasoline and diesel fuel to Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic countries due to the low quality of Russian oil, the country’s exporter announced Tuesday. Russia’s pipeline monopoly Transneft and its Energy Ministry said last week there were problems with the quality of Russian oil going through the…
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First Putin-Kim Summit to Take Place on April 25, Kremlin Confirms
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will visit Russia’s Far East capital of Vladivostok for his first summit with President Vladimir Putin on April 25, the Kremlin confirmed on Tuesday. The leaders will discuss political and diplomatic efforts to settle the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, and Kim’s visit is key in this process, Kremlin…
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Russian Lawmaker Says Bans Are Freeing and Civil Rights Are Restrictive
An outspoken Russian lawmaker has turned heads for arguing that civil rights are restrictive, while bans are a form of freedom. Yelena Mizulina, who successfully lobbied for Russia’s 2012 “gay propaganda” law and spearheaded efforts to decriminalize domestic violence, made the statement in defense of recent internet restriction laws. On Monday, Russian senators backed tighter…
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Lost Polar Bear Airlifted North From Russian Village
A young male polar bear who washed up on an ice floe in Russia’s Far East has been helicoptered closer to its natural habitat, the Kamchatka region administration announced. Residents of Kamchatka region villages spotted the bear — who was nicknamed Umka after a cartoon polar bear character from a popular Soviet-era animation film —…