Popular Russian video blogger Nastya Ivleyeva asked Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at his end-of-year press conference in early December if the new sovereign internet law will lead to YouTube being banned in the country. “I think you understand how I will answer that question,” said Medvedev, chuckling. “The purpose of the law is to keep…
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Russia’s crude oil and condensate output hit a post-Soviet high last year even as it curbed production under an agreement with OPEC. The 11th consecutive year of output growth underscores the reality of Russia’s cooperation with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Despite being one of the architects of the original 2016 deal, Moscow has…
DetailsIn 2019, the Russian nuclear power plants (affiliate companies of the Rosenergoatom Joint-Stock Company) set a new electric power output record – over 208.784 billion kilowatt-hours, which means they have grown their joint production and exceeded their previous record of 2018 (204.275 billion kWh) by over 4.5 billion kWh. The FAS assignment for 2019…
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Turkey‘s parliament on Thursday passed a bill that allows troop deployment to Libya, Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop said, paving the way for increased military cooperation despite criticism from opposition lawmakers. Sentop said the legislation passed with an 325-184 vote in the parliament, where President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party and its nationalist allies hold a…
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Quickfire agreements on energy and the Kremlin-backed war that erupted after Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea show Ukraine and Russia can increasingly look past their differences to strike deals. The natural-gas pact agreed late Monday, which ended fears of disruptions to European Union supplies, comes a day after the former allies’ second prisoner swap in four months.…
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Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved the country’s development plan for its Northern Sea Route. The document, which has been in the making for some time, was signed by Medvedev on Dec. 21 and published on the government website on Dec. 30. It was considered to be of great importance that it was approved…
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Clean Russian athletes should be allowed to compete in individual events at this year’s Tokyo Games under the banner of “Independent Olympic Participants,” historian Bill Mallon suggests. It is a designation used for athletes from Yugoslavia in 1992, and one that Mallon thinks offers a good road map of how to issue Russia a meaningful punishment without imposing…
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Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a police traffic post in the capital of Russia’s republic of Ingushetia in the North Caucasus on New Year’s Eve, the Site Intelligence Group reported. Two men reportedly drove into a policeman manning the post in Magas before attacking his colleagues with knives. One law…
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As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…
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The Russian state-controlled news agency Sputnik said Wednesday that it is closing its bureau in Tallinn after nearly three dozen of its employees resigned saying they were facing pressure from the Estonian local authorities. Sputnik published a statement on Jan. 1 saying 35 of its staff in Estonia had terminated their labor contracts and resigned,…
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Russian bankers ended 2019 as the most pessimistic executives in the Russian corporate world, a recent survey of Russia’s top firms, found. With inflation and interest rates coming down, Russia’s businesses in little need of corporate loans, and new regulations to tighten the consumer loan market coming into force — more than one in every…
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As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…
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The Russian Ministry of Culture has named 2020 as the year of Memory and Glory, and also dedicated it to the 150th anniversary of the birth of writer Ivan Bunin; the year of traditional crafts; the year of intellectual property and inventiveness, and the year of fathers. How these themes will be brought to life…
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Release December 31, 2019, 22:00 A working meeting of Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, with Vladimir Semashko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Russian Federation, and Viktor Karankevich, Belarusian Minister of Energy, took place today in Moscow. The parties discussed in detail the issues related to cooperation in the gas sector from 2020 onward. Alexey Miller and Vladimir…
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As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…
DetailsBackground Gazprom Armenia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom, is focused on natural gas supplies to the Armenian market. In addition, the company transports, stores, distributes and sells natural gas, as well as upgrades and expands the gas transmission system and underground gas storage facilities in the Republic of Armenia. The contract between Gazprom Export and Gazprom Armenia for the supplies of up to 2.5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per…
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A St. Petersburg court has ruled to keep two suspects in a thwarted New Year’s attack who were arrested on a U.S. tip in custody until trial, the court said Monday. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said that “information from American partners” helped it detain two Russians on Dec. 27 on suspicion of plotting attacks…
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Forget the past A law canceling more than 20,000 pieces of Soviet legislation becomes active, the Vedomosti business daily reported. On Sept. 11, 2019 Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an order saying that laws adopted in the U.S.S.R. should cease to be effective from the beginning of 2020. “We need to cancel the laws…
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A new dispute over oil could be brewing between Russia and Belarus as Russian suppliers divert large volumes of crude to domestic ports in lieu of a deal on 2020 deliveries between the two countries, according to six industry sources. Moscow and Minsk have had several oil and gas rows over the past decade in what has been…
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Authorities raided homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses in northern Russia as part of a criminal probe into extremism against the banned religious organization, investigators said in a statement Monday. Russia banned the Christian denomination known for door-to-door preaching, close Bible study and rejection of military service and blood transfusions in 2017. Rights groups have condemned the…
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It was Olga Bulayeva’s birthday and, as custom dictates, she was in for a surprise. “A little gift for the office manager on her birthday — overnight work screwing a door back into place,” she captioned a tweet on Thursday of a video depicting a shower of sparks. This door is not just any door.…
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Britain considered granting Russia partial membership in NATO 25 years ago, according to declassified National Archives documents cited by British media Tuesday. NATO, a U.S.-led Western military alliance created to provide collective security against the Soviet Union, suspended relations with Russia in response to Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Russia…
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Painted lacquer boxes are one of Russia’s most typical crafts, found in rows on vendors’ tables next to the matryoshka dolls and wooden toys. You might think of them as another mass-produced souvenir for the tourists — but you’d be wrong. These boxes with miniature paintings of landscapes, fairy tales and scenes from Russian literature…
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Russian and Ukrainian companies signed a final five-year agreement safeguarding Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine, Kremlin-controlled gas giant Gazprom and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday night. The deal, which came just 24 hours before the current agreement expires on Tuesday, averted a potential Russian gas-flow interruption to Europe and helped Moscow avoid…
DetailsDecember 30, 2019 “Following five days of continuous bilateral negotiations, final decisions and arrangements have been reached in Vienna. At the same time, a whole set of agreements and contracts has been signed, and one can fairly say that these arrangements represent a major package deal that has restored the balance between the interests of the parties. These documents are coming into…
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Release December 30, 2019, 23:55 Pursuant to the Protocol of December 20, 2019, Gazprom, Naftogaz of Ukraine, Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine signed a package of documents providing for Russian gas transit across Ukraine to continue beyond December 31, 2019. Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine concluded an irrevocable settlement agreement stipulating that all outstanding arbitration and judicial claims…
DetailsOn December 29, the Federal Environmental, Industrial and Nuclear Supervision Service (Rostechnadzor) issued a second additional service life extension license for Unit 4 of Novovoronezh NPP for 13 years. Thus, the unit will serve for 60 years instead of thirty years as designed. Over 40 events, including those to improve safety, were carried out to…
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As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…
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As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…
DetailsThe X session of the Joint Coordination Committee on the Project of Unit 2 modernization and life extension at Armenian NPP took place in Moscow on 26 December. The representatives of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of the Republic of Armenia, Haykakan Atomayin Electrakayan JSC (Armenian NPP), Armatom Scientific Research Institute JSC, Rosatom…
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A Russian court has declared the country’s richest woman a fugitive over her failure to appear in a criminal libel case, the RBC news website has reported. Yelena Baturina, former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov’s widow, was reportedly sued by her brother’s financial manager this fall. She is alleged to have defamed the manager in an…
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As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…
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As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…
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As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…
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If there’s one phrase that encapsulates the changes in St. Petersburg in 2019 it’s this: “St. Petersburg is back on Russia’s agenda.” The slogan is being promoted by the city’s new governor Alexander Beglov — a close Kremlin ally — and it implies that Russia’s second largest city will receive greater financial and political benefits…
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Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the east completed a large-scale prisoner swap on Sunday after bussing scores of detainees in the five-year conflict to an exchange point in the breakaway Donbass region. The swap should help build confidence between the two sides, who are wrangling over how to implement a peace deal after…
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As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…
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UN Security Council members are due to meet informally on Monday for a second round of negotiations on a Russian and Chinese proposal to lift a raft of sanctions on North Korea, a move that some diplomats say has little support. China and Russia are convening negotiations a day before North Korean leader Kim Jong…
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Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine completed a full prisoner swap on Sunday after bussing remaining detainees in the five-year conflict to an exchange point in the breakaway Donbass region. The exchange is likely to be hailed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as proof he is making good on a promise to…
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The United Nations said 235,000 civilians had fled their homes in rebel-held northwestern Syria during a Russian-backed campaign of air strikes and shelling this month. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the exodus had taken place between Dec. 12 and 25. Most people had fled the city of Maarat al-Numan,…
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Two people have been killed and one injured in a fire in an elevator at Russia‘s Novatek northern oil and gas field, news agencies reported on Saturday citing emergency ministry officials. The fire broke out at East-Tarkosalinskoye field, Novatek’s most mature oil and gas field, in Yamal Nenets region, the Interfax news agency said. The…
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Pity poor Russian Christmas! Russian Christmas is the poor relation in the winter holiday line-up. In the Orthodox world, Easter has always loomed liturgically larger than Christmas, particularly so in northern countries, where the return of spring is always welcomed with particular fervor. Thanks to the discrepancy between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, Orthodox Christmas…
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Release December 27, 2019, 19:40 Gazprom boosted Yamal gas production center’s resource base. Kruzenshternskoye field’s gas reserves were increased by 360 billion cubic meters. Hi-tech directional well was built. Subsurface use right was granted for Sopochny block in YaNAA’s Tazovsky District. The Federal Agency for Mineral Resources approved the expert opinion of the State Reserves Commission with regard to the calculation…
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Early Sunday evening, several hundred Jews gathered on Ploshchad Revolyutsii, a central square in Moscow, for the 30th straight year to celebrate the start of the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Behind the back of a large statue of Karl Marx — the godfather of the Soviet Union — revelers danced to traditional Jewish music…
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As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…
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Russia’s military has deployed its first Avangard hypersonic intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was cited as telling President Vladimir Putin on Friday. Putin, who said the nuclear-capable weapon would be deployed by late 2019, has touted the Avangard’s ability to evade U.S. missile defense systems. Russia said it showed the missile system…
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As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…
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Russia’s population could drop by more than 12 million by 2035, the national statistics office said in its annual forecast published Friday. Russia’s overall population dropped for the first time in a decade last year, totaling 146.8 million as migration inflows hit record lows. It totaled 146.7 million so far in 2019, the State Statistics…
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Iran, China and Russia began joint naval drills on Friday in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman, in what Moscow said was an unprecedented exercise in naval cooperation and training. Waters around Iran have become a focus for international tensions, with the United States exerting pressure for Iranian crude oil sales and other trade…
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Two former members of an elite Russian special forces unit have been charged with two contract killings, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday. Their affiliation to security services emerged after Russia’s Investigative Committee announced it had detained three men in connection with contract killings that were carried out in 2008 and 2012 in…
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Moscow starts celebrating New Year’s Eve early. The Moscow Times picked only the best parties, where you can dress up, listen to some great music or rave till the break of dawn. VEU 2020: December 28 VEU stands for “Evening of Esthetic Joys” as it’s organized by a promo group called Esthetic Joys, responsible for one…
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly expressed concern to Washington over U.S. visa delays for officials from Russia and other countries, a U.N. spokesman said on Thursday after Moscow accused Guterres of turning a blind eye. Moscow says Washington has deliberately delayed issuing visas to Russian officials traveling to the U.N. headquarters in New York,…
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Galina Volchek, the director of Sovremennik — one of Moscow’s most popular theaters — has died aged 86 on Thursday. Volchek made her stage debut in 1956, when she and other rebellious young actors co-founded the Sovremennik. She headed the theater since 1972 and was named its artistic director in 1989. Volchek’s cause of death…
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday warned Russia, Syria and Iran against killing civilians in Syria’s Idlib province and said Turkey was working hard to stop the “carnage.” “Russia, Syria, and Iran are killing, or on their way to killing, thousands if innocent civilians in Idlib Province. Don’t do it! Turkey is working hard to…
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Israel has refused entry to nearly 6,000 Russians this year as it attempts to contain the increase in asylum applications from Russian travelers, the Haaretz newspaper reported Thursday. Israeli officials have noted a surge in asylum requests from Russian citizens in recent years, leading officials to triple the number of times they denied entry to…
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A Russian court sentenced three high-ranking police officers on Thursday to six and seven years in prison for raping a young colleague last year. The three men were charged with attacking and raping their 23-year-old victim after drinking alcohol with her at a police office in October 2018. The Kirov District Court in Ufa found…
DetailsROSATOM has completed the first phase of wind turbines’ commissioning at its wind farm at Adygea. This marks an important milestone in further development of low-carbon programs at ROSATOM. Adygea Wind Farm with total capacity of 150 MW, which construction has been recently completed at Shovgenovsky and Giaginsky districts of the Republic of Adygea, proved…
DetailsThe first Russian-made nuclear fuel assemblies with experimental accident-tolerant fuel rods (ATF) for commercial reactor have been manufactured and passed acceptance inspection at Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant, a fabrication facility of ROSATOM’s TVEL Fuel Company. Already in the first quarter of 2020, they should be loaded into one of VVER-1000 reactors at Rostov NPP. Each…
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Five Russian gas, oil and metals magnates ended the year as the country’s biggest earners with a collective $26.9 billion haul, Forbes Russia reported Thursday. All five individuals are among Russia’s 6 richest people. Here is how much Russia’s biggest movers earned in the last 12 months, according to Forbes. 1. Vladimir Potanin,…
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China, Iran and Russia will hold joint naval drills starting on Friday in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman, China’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday, amid heightened tensions in the region between Tehran and Washington. China will send the Xining, a guided missile destroyer, to the drills, which will last from Dec. 27 to…
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