Author Archives: admin

Venezuela Turns to Russia, Cuba and China in Health Crisis

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government is increasingly turning to allies Cuba, China and Russia to offset a health crisis caused by U.S. sanctions, a minister said on Wednesday. Venezuelans have been suffering dire shortages of medicines and health equipment for several years as it has spiralled into economic chaos and political conflict. The opposition blames…

Russian Soldiers Say They’re Willing to Shoot Protesters, Serviceman Claims

Russian soldiers in Siberia have told their supervisors that they are willing to open fire on protesters if ordered, a special forces serviceman has claimed in an interview. The soldier made the statement in a video interview published Tuesday by opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s office in the Siberian city of Tyumen. In the video, the…

74% of Locals Oppose Controversial Church in Russia’s Yekaterinburg – Poll

A majority of residents in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg oppose the construction of an Orthodox cathedral in a popular riverside park, according to a state-run poll released on Wednesday. Thousands of residents took to the streets last week to protest plans to replace the park with a replica of a cathedral demolished in the…

Russians Most Opposed to Having LGBT Neighbors – Poll

Russians are more likely to oppose having an LGBT neighbor than a neighbor from another social group, according to a new survey released by the independent Levada Center pollster. Recent public polling has shown surging anti-LGBT sentiment in the years since Russia banned “homosexual propaganda” among minors in 2013. Respondents to the survey released Wednesday…

Russia Says Syrian Troops Repelled Three Big Militant Attacks in Syria’s Idlib

Syrian government troops on Wednesday morning repelled three big attacks by militants in Syria’s Idlib province, the Russian Defense Ministry said. It said in a statement that 500 Nusra front militants, seven tanks and about 30 pickups mounted with heavy machine guns had taken part in the attacks. The ministry said that Syrian militants based in…

Russian Government Rejects Proposal to Fine Officials for Insulting Citizens

The Russian government has rejected a bill that would have introduced fines for officials who exhibit disrespect toward citizens, weeks after lawmakers passed a bill that introduced fines for disrespecting the authorities. Communist lawmakers introduced the legislation in February, seeking to fine and suspend civil servants for humiliating voters. Around the same time, another bill that…

U.S. Fighter Jets Again Intercept Russian Bombers Off Alaska

U.S. fighter jets intercepted several Russian bombers in international airspace off the coast of Alaska on Tuesday, in the fourth and fifth such incursions this year, U.S. military officials said on Wednesday. “The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and at no time entered U.S. or Canadian sovereign airspace,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command…

Russian Senator Stripped of Mandate Amid Murder Investigations

Russian senators have unanimously voted to unseat their colleague who faces life in prison on aggravated murder charges months after his dramatic arrest in the Federation Council’s chambers. Rauf Arashukov, 32, was arrested during a session of the upper house of parliament after attempting to flee the chamber on Jan. 30. Arashukov, who represented the…

U.S. Sanctions Russian Arms Makers Over Alleged Iran, N. Korea and Syria Dealings

The United States has sanctioned two Russian arms manufacturers and a missile training center for allegedly violating international arms control restrictions on exports to Iran, North Korea and Syria. The move was a response to the Russian entities’ transfer of restricted goods, services and technologies to the countries in violation of a U.S. law, a State…

Russian Radio-Electronic Shield Now Covers the Arctic, Officials Say

New systems for radio-electronic warfare installed along Russia’s Arctic coast are capable of jamming foreign ships and aircraft from thousands of kilometers away, Russian military officials have been cited as saying by the Izvestia tabloid. The Northern Fleet has completed its new Center for Radio-Electronic Warfare, military representatives told Izvestia. The center includes two Murmansk-BN systems, as…

Ukraine Considers Referendum on Possible Russian Peace Deal

Ukraine may submit any preliminary peace deal agreed with Russia to the Ukrainian people for a referendum, the new head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration told Ukrainian television Tuesday. Ukrainian troops are fighting Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass region in a conflict that has killed 13,000 people since 2014. Ukraine also wants Russia to return…

2 Killed in Counter-Terror Operation in Western Russia

Security forces have killed two militants in western Russia suspected of planning a terrorist act, authorities said Wednesday. The suspects in Vladimir region refused to lay down arms and opened fire on FSB officers, Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee (NAC) said in a statement. “They were neutralized by return fire in the ensuing shootout,” the statement…

Russian Duma Rules to Allow HIV Patients to Adopt Children in Their Care

Russians living with HIV will be able to legally adopt children living with them under new legislation passed on Tuesday. Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled last year that preventing HIV-positive families from adopting children who already live with them was unconstitutional. The changes were anticipated as part of Russia’s broader state strategy to combat the epidemic…

Poland Urges Russia to Compensate for Oil Mistakes — Polish Prime Minister

Russian suppliers will have to provide financial compensation for their mistakes over contaminated oil, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Tuesday. Flows through the Druzhba pipeline were suspended last month due to contamination, sending shockwaves through global oil markets. “Russian suppliers made major business and operational mistakes… Russia and Russian firms have to respond…

Renault Hands Control of the Dashboard to Yandex

Russia’s transition to connected vehicles is looking increasingly homegrown after the country’s biggest car-making alliance handed control of its dashboards to local search engine Yandex. The Renault-Nissan-AvtoVAZ partnership, which has about a third of the Russian market, will use Yandex in locally made cars for services like real-time navigation, voice assistance and music. The pact…

Russian Millennials Worry Most About Corruption and Inequality, Study Says

Russian millennials are more concerned about corruption and income inequality than their global peers, the U.S auditing company Deloitte said in a survey published Monday. Millennials around the world named climate change (29 percent) and income inequality (22 percent) as their top personal concerns, the survey said. Russian millennials named political and business corruption (38…

Kremlin Criticizes New U.S. Pledge to Sanction Nord Stream 2 Pipeline

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that U.S. sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany would be an act of unfair competition that would be seen as unacceptable in Moscow and some European capitals. U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said earlier on Tuesday in Kiev that a sanctions bill putting onerous restrictions on companies…

Kremlin Is Spending $43M to Renovate Imperial Mansion for Orthodox Patriarch, Media Reports

The Kremlin’s property management department is financing luxury renovations for the residence of Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill near St. Petersburg, The Bell business outlet reported Tuesday. The former residence of Russia’s imperial family, which is being converted for use by the patriarch, occupies almost 2.5 hectares (6.1 acres) of land south of St.…

Russia’s FSB Wants Alleged U.S. Spy Whelan to Be Held for 3 More Months – Interfax

Russia’s FSB security service has asked a court to keep a former U.S. marine accused of espionage in pre-trial detention for another three months, Interfax reported on Tuesday. Paul Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained in a Moscow hotel room on December 28 and accused of espionage, a charge he…

200 Russian Journalists Protest ‘Clampdown on Free Speech’ After Kommersant Firings

The firing of two veteran reporters from Russia’s Kommersant business daily is “an obvious clampdown on freedom of speech in Russia,” more than 200 employees of the company have said in an online statement. On Monday, 11 Kommersant journalists said they were resigning from the publication after two of their colleagues were reportedly fired for…

Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Asks U.S. for Stronger Anti-Russia Sanctions on First Day in Office

Newly inaugurated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has asked U.S. officials to step up sanctions against neighboring Russia in one his first foreign policy actions. Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine’s most pressing issue is conflict with its neighbor Russia, which annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and backed separatists in a war in the east that…

Russian Police Detain Navalny Aide Over Nationwide Pension Protests

Police in Moscow have detained a senior aide to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Tuesday for mass rallies against unpopular pension reforms last fall. More than 150 protesters, including 50 Navalny supporters, were detained during nationwide protests on Sept. 9, 2018, against President Vladimir Putin’s plan to increase the pension age. Putin signed the…

A Glimpse Behind the Iron Curtain

As a young ballerina with the Moscow City Ballet, from 2008-2012 Varvara Bortsova lived, traveled and worked alongside dancers from across the post-Soviet sphere. Artists in the company came from nearly every corner of the former U.S.S.R., from the steppes of Central Asia to the mountains of the Caucasus to the shores of the Baltic…

Russian GRU Officer Charged With Running Apple ‘Ponzi Scheme’ – RBC

A Russian military intelligence officer whose unit was accused of hacking the U.S. presidential election has been charged in Russia for running a Ponzi scheme involving Apple products, the RBC news website reported. The U.S. Justice Department indicted 12 GRU officers in mid-2018 on charges of hacking the computer networks of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate…

Russia Has Most Protected Natural Areas in the World, WWF Says

Russia now ranks first in the world for its amount of protected natural areas, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Russia data. Official statistics state that Russia has 63.3 million hectares of specially protected natural areas, WWF had previously reported. These figures do not take into account natural territories including cultural heritage sites and territories of traditional use,…

Record $185M in Cash Seized From Russian Official in Sting Operation

Russian authorities have seized 12 billion rubles ($185.5 million) from former FSB official Colonel Kirill Cherkalin, making him the country’s richest ex-law enforcement official under investigation for corruption. Cherkalin, former head of the FSB economic security department’s financial counterintelligence support unit, was charged with bribery of $850,000 last week. Videos posted online show bags stuffed…

318K HIV-Positive Russians Have Died Since 1987 – Watchdog

The HIV epidemic has led to the deaths of an estimated 318,000 Russians since the first case was registered in 1987, or 10,000 every year, the country’s national consumer watchdog has said. The World Health Organization warned last year that Russia risked developing an out-of-control HIV epidemic after data showed a record number of new…

Russian Journalists Quit En Masse as Censorship Scandal Hits Kommersant

The entire political department of Russia’s Kommersant business publication resigned Monday in solidarity with two veteran journalists at the newspaper who said they had been forced to step down. In April, Kommersant reported that Federation Council leader Valentina Matviyenko would be replaced “in the coming months,” citing several government sources. The Kremlin said it was…

Putin Has No Plans to Congratulate Zelenskiy on Inauguration — Kremlin

Russia Says It Repelled an Attack on Its Main Syrian Air Base – Reports

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that it had repelled a drone and missile attack on its main air base in Syria over the weekend and accused former Nusra Front militants of being behind the assault, the state-run RIA news agency reported. RIA cited the ministry as saying it had shot down six missiles fired…

Russia’s CSKA Wins Eighth Euroleague Basketball Title

CSKA Moscow clinched their eighth Euroleague title with a 91-83 win over Anadolu Efes Istanbul after 20 points each from American forwards Will Clyburn and Cory Higgins in a rip-roaring title showdown on Sunday. Anadolu, who trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half, nosed ahead 45-44 shortly after the break but…

Russian Church Leader Calls to End Abortions to Boost Population

The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church has proposed a national ban on abortion to boost the country’s lagging population numbers. Russia legalized abortion in 1955 and has the second-highest abortion rate in the world after China. While Russia’s anti-abortion movement has largely failed to change the law, it has gained momentum in recent years, spurred…

New Ukrainian President Zelenskiy Takes Office, Calls to End War in East

Ukraine’s new President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was inaugurated on Monday morning, saying that his first task in office will be to achieve a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, where a five-year-old conflict with Russian-backed separatists has killed 13,000 people. “Our first task is to end the conflict in the Donbass,” Zelenskiy said in translated comments as he took…

How One Village on the Volga Sowed Chaos in Europe’s Oil Market

Residents of Nikolayevka haven’t had much to gossip about since the owner of the vodka museum over on People’s Friendship Street died, forcing the closure of the only tourist attraction in town. But now that this hardscrabble village in central Russia has emerged as the epicenter of an international oil scandal, they say they knew…

Russian Plan to Free Whales Risks Their Survival, Say Scientists

International scientists criticised on Friday a Russian plan to release 10 captive killer whales into the Sea of Japan rather than return them to their original habitat, saying it could endanger the mammals’ lives. The plight of the orcas, which are being held with 87 beluga whales in cramped conditions in a bay near the port…

Pompeo Names 3 National Interests U.S. Shares With Russia

The United States shares counterterrorism, North Korean denuclearization and Afghan reconciliation interests with Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said after his visit to Russia. Pompeo’s trip marked the first high-profile U.S. visit to Russia since allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and an investigation rankled bilateral relations. Though the…

Russia to Award $3M to Greenpeace in Settlement

Greenpeace will receive 2.7 million euros ($3 million) from Russia under a settlement reached between the Dutch state and Moscow, the environmental group said on Friday. The agreement should end years of legal battles following the seizure by Russian authorities of a Dutch-flagged Greenpeace vessel, the Arctic Sunrise, in 2013 and the arrest of 30…

Yekaterinburg Protesters Will Hold Out for Proof Church Project Is Canceled

YEKATERINBURG — Thousands of residents of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains who have been protesting the construction of a new church in the city’s central park have vowed to keep up their vigil until they hear an official announcement the project has been canceled. The Mayor of Yekaterinburg, Alexander Vysokinsky and local governor Yevgeny Kuivashev…