Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Russia Says Exploring Settlement in Euros, Rubles for Energy Exports
Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said the country is considering alternatives to the U.S. dollar for energy transactions and is exploring currency settlements in euros and rubles for energy exports to minimize U.S. exposure. “We have a very good currency, it’s stable. Why not use it for global transactions?” Oreshkin said in an interview with…
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Israel Asks Putin to Pardon U.S.-Israeli Jailed for Moscow Airport Transit Drugs
Israel asked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday to pardon a U.S.-Israeli woman given a 7.5-year jail sentence for drugs found in her luggage as she transited through a Moscow airport. Naama Issachar’s case has opened up an unusually public rift between Israel and Russia. Her family says she is being punished disproportionately to pressure Israel into…
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Syria Must Be Freed From Foreign Military Presence — Putin
Syria must be freed from foreign military presence, Russian President Vladimir Putin according to Russian news agencies. “Everyone who is illegitimately on the territory of any state, in this case Syria, must leave this territory. This applies to all states,” Putin told RT, Arabik Sky News and Al Arabiya in an interview, excerpts from which were quoted by the…
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‘Godless Utopia: The Anti-Religious Campaign In Russia’
In October 1917, Lenin’s Bolshevik Party seized power and inaugurated the first communist workers’ state, founded on the principles of Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital.” Almost immediately, the race was on to turn antiquated, almost feudal imperial Russia into a communist utopia. It was a tall order in Russia: the vast majority of the population of…
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Russia’s Golden Fall Comes to Moscow’s Historic Kuskovo Estate
Autumn is one of the best times to visit Russia’s majestic and enchanting manors and palaces. The Kuskovo Estate in eastern Moscow is one of these places. Built in the mid-18th century by the wealthy Sheremetyev family, it is one of the oldest estates of its kind still standing in Russia’s capital. The family used…
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Power of Siberia being filled up with gas as scheduled
Release October 11, 2019, 18:40 The Gazprom Management Committee took note of the information about the progress of major investment projects. The Company is making preparations for the first pipeline supplies of Russian gas to China via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. Efforts for filling up the pipeline with gas from the Chayandinskoye field in Yakutia are going according to schedule, with start-up and commissioning operations undergoing at the field’s core…
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Yandex Shares Plummet as Russia Considers Limits on Foreign Ownership
Shares in Russian tech giant Yandex have plummeted after reports the Kremlin is backing plans to limit the stakes of foreign owners in Russian IT companies. Yandex shares fell by 17% in the first minutes of trading on the Nasdaq exchange in New York on Friday, wiping more than $1 billion from the company’s value.…
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Russia Sentences U.S.-Israeli Woman to 7.5 Years Over Airport Marijuana Possession
A Russian court has sentenced a U.S.-Israeli woman to seven and a half years in prison on charges of drug possession and smuggling, her lawyer told Russian media Friday. Police detained Naama Issachar, 25, in April while in transit in a Moscow airport and accused her of having 9 grams of cannabis in her bag,…
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Russian Women Accused of Killing Pakistani Prison Guard Over ‘Religious Dispute’
Three Russian women said to be followers of the Islamic State terrorist group are suspected of killing a prison guard in Pakistan, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said. The three women were charged with premeditated murder after the 23-year-old warden’s body was discovered by the gate of the women’s barrack near the city of Karachi, Pakistani…
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Russian Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, First Human to Perform Spacewalk, Dies
Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who made history by becoming the first man to walk in space, has died Friday at age 85. Leonov’s pioneering spacewalk marked a crucial step for the development of moon landing programs and the International Space Station. On March 18, 1965, Leonov became the first man to walk in space when…
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Breaking Wind the Russian Way
Старый пердун: old fart We’re all adults here. We understand that we all, from time to time, produce a variety of noises and smells. There’s nothing to ashamed of. We might eat too much of certain kinds of food and then you know what happens: Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart, the more you…
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Russians Onboard in DR Congo Plane Crash, Embassy Says
Russian crew members are believed to be onboard a plane that vanished off radar and crashed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Russian diplomats told state media Friday. A cargo plane carrying eight passengers and crew, including DRC presidential staff, crashed in a forest in the country’s east on Thursday. The Antonov An-72…
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U.S. Senator Told Russian Prank Callers He’s ‘Sympathetic’ to Turkey in Kurdish Row
A pair of notorious Russian pranksters duped U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham into telling them this summer that he supported Turkey’s stance against Kurdish separatists in marked contrast to his public statements, according to audio of their phone talks published Friday. Turkey launched a military operation Wednesday against Kurdish fighters in Syria as U.S. Republicans condemned President…
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What Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Said About Russia During His Marathon Press Conference
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday held a marathon 14-hour press conference with journalists in a Kiev food court. During the event, which reportedly set a record for the world’s longest press conference, Zelenskiy answered more than 500 questions about topics ranging from the Trump-Zelenskiy phone call to his relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.…
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Putin Says Turkey’s Syria Operation May Allow Militants to Escape
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Friday that Islamic State militants held in northeast Syria could escape as a result of a Turkish military operation there, Interfax reported. The Turkish offensive against U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in the northeast of Syria opens one of the biggest new fronts in years in an eight-year-old civil war that…
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Kremlin Critic Navalny Says Prosecutors Want to Seize His Home
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Friday that Russian prosecutors had asked a court to seize his Moscow apartment as collateral in a lawsuit over opposition protests he helped organize. Russia’s National Guard, which polices political rallies, wants Navalny and others to pay it 4 million rubles ($62,336) to compensate it for overtime paid to…
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Schoolgirl’s Murder Sparks Protests in Southern Russian City
Residents took to the streets of a southern Russian city to demand that police give up a suspect in the murder of a local schoolgirl for extrajudicial punishment, news outlets have reported. The 9-year-old’s body was found Thursday in the city of Saratov a day after she disappeared on her way to school. Police detained…
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St. Petersburg Officials Are Encouraging a Tourism Boom. Locals Fear an Invasion.
ST. PETERSBURG — Marina Pogolsha gestures toward two scantily clad women gyrating in the window of a new strip club across the road from her apartment building on Rubinstein Street in St. Petersburg’s historic center. “That’s what the view from my living room window is now, welcome to hell,” she says. Locals like Marina, 52,…
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Giuliani Associates Charged With Illegally Funneling Russian Money to Pro-Trump Group
Two foreign-born Florida businessmen who have helped President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani investigate political rival Joe Biden were arrested in a scheme to illegally funnel money to a pro-Trump election committee and other U.S. political candidates, prosecutors said on Thursday. The arrest of Ukraine-born Lev Parnas and Belarus-born Igor Fruman at an airport…
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Siberian Shaman Vows to Resume ‘Putin Exorcism’ Trek Following Extremism Arrest
A Siberian shaman has vowed to re-start his journey across Russia by foot to exorcise President Vladimir Putin after his arrest on extremism charges last month. Gabyshev was detained on Sept. 19 — then flown back to his home city and released — in Far East Russia six months into his 8,000-kilometer journey to Moscow…
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For Putin, Turkish Move Into Syria a Chance to Ramp up Middle East Role
Turkey’s incursion into Syria is an opportunity for Russia to dial up its influence in the region as Washington appears to be pulling back, but the risks to Moscow’s diplomacy will rise the longer the operation goes on, people close to the Kremlin say. In a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before…
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Severstal reports Q3 2019 operatioal results
October 11, 2019 PAO Severstal (MICEX-RTS: CHMF; LSE: SVST), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and steel-related mining companies, today announces its operational results for Q3 2019. Q3 2019 GROUP HIGHLIGHTS Hot metal output increased 7% q/q in Q3 2019 to 2.46 mln tonnes (Q2 2019: 2.30 mln tonnes) following short-term maintenance works…
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Kremlin Critic Navalny Debates Populism, Greta Thunberg and Russia’s Future at Nemtsov Forum
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny took part in a debate outside Russia for the first time at the annual Boris Nemtsov Forum in Poland on Wednesday. The forum, named after the Russian opposition politician who was murdered in 2015, aims to facilitate discussions between Russia and the West. Curated by Nemtsov’s daughter, journalist Zhanna Nemtsova,…
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Ukraine, Russia Resume Blame Game as Peace Process Hits Roadblock
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday accused Russia of delaying a summit aimed at resolving the conflict between Kiev and pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s east, but Moscow said Kiev needed to pull back its troops first. Ukraine, France and Germany had planned to hold the meeting of the group known as the Normandy Four, aimed at resolving…
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The second Nuclear Industry Suppliers Forum held in Cairo
The second Nuclear Industry Suppliers Forum organized by ROSATOM and Egyptian Nuclear Power Plant Authority (NPPA) was held in Cairo (Egypt) on October 8-9, 2019. The event were held at the venue of the Big Industrial Week Global Industrial and Technical Exhibition and Forum. Mohamed Shaker, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy of Egypt, Kirill…
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What Does Turkey’s Syria Offensive Mean For Russia?
Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies attacked Kurdish militia in northeast Syria on Wednesday, pounding them with air strikes and artillery before starting a cross-border ground operation that could transform an eight-year war. Turkey’s assault on the Kurds is potentially one of the biggest shifts in years in the Syrian war that has drawn…
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Russia Plans New Icebreakers, Ports and Satellites for Northern Sea Route
Russia has big plans for its Arctic and is now in the process of building capacities that will enable it to ship out major volumes of goods from the region. “Nuclear icebreakers, sea ports, support vessels and satellites are our main priority,” says Maxim Kulinko, a top representative of Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom.…
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The Many Lives of the Tsar’s Village
For over two hundred years, the epicenter of Imperial Russian power was more often found on the outskirts of St. Petersburg than in its heart. The Romanovs had many residences, but none symbolized the dynasty’s autocratic power more than the opulent Catherine Palace, the jewel in the crown of Tsarskoye Selo, “the Tsar’s village.” A…
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Kremlin Critic Navalny Accuses Putin of Foreign Funding ‘Setup’
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has accused President Vladimir Putin of framing his anti-corruption group as a “foreign agent” after Navalny urged people to strategically vote against pro-Putin candidates in elections last month. The Justice Ministry on Wednesday blacklisted Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) under a 2012 “foreign agent” law that imposes crippling auditing and reporting…
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Finance Heads Call for Stronger Cybercrime Punishments
Russia’s largest bank and its financial regulator on Thursday called for tougher penalties to be put in place against cybercrime. Governor of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina and Sberbank CEO German Gref highlighted how criminal responsibility in Russia for some cyber crimes is softer than in the United States, while for others it is completely…
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Putin Dismisses Kremlin Aide Glazyev, Critic of Central Bank’s Policy
Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed Sergei Glazyev, the Kremlin’s adviser known for openly criticizing the Central Bank, according to an official decree published on the state law database website on Wednesday. Glazyev came into the spotlight in economic newsflow amidst the crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West over its annexation of Crimea in…
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U.K. Firms Fight Russia’s Image Problem
“Perception” was the word of the day at the annual RussiaTalk British-Russian investment forum in central Moscow last week. The dozens of business leaders and investors who gathered in the Russian Chamber of Commerce — many of who have been based in Russia for years or have long-term investments and subsidiaries here — were keen…
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Russian Pensioner Jailed for Treason Over Ukrainian Intelligence-Sharing
A 72-year-old Russian man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for high treason after a court determined that he shared secrets with Ukrainian intelligence. Vladimir Morgunov’s little-known case did not appear in Moscow’s court database until his pre-trial detention was extended in December 2018. The Federal Security Service (FSB) alleged that Morgunov shared…
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Iran Frees Detained Russian Journalist, Russian Embassy Says
Iran has freed a Russian journalist, Yulia Yuzik, who had been detained last week, the Russian Embassy in Tehran said on social media Thursday. “As a result of joint efforts of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russian Embassy in Tehran, the Iranian side made a decision on the release of Russian citizen Yulia Yuzik,” it said. According to the…
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Severstal targets icreased eergy geeratio usig secodary sources
October 10, 2019 Cherepovets Steel Mill (CherMK), one of the largest integrated steel plants in the world (part of Severstal’s Russian Steel division), has announced plans to increase the amount of electricity it generates using by-product industrial gases. CherMK consumes 5.9 billion kWh of electricity per year, 78% of which the mill generates itself. As…
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Ukhta pupils receive prizes from Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta
Background Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom supplying natural gas to consumers in nine regions of northwestern Russia and ensuring gas transit within and beyond the former Soviet Union. The gas transmission system operated by the company stretches across Russia’s northwestern areas from the Yamal Peninsula-based Bovanenkovskoye field and Baidaratskaya, the world’s northernmost compressor station, to the country’s western borders. Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta’s area of operation covers…
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Gazprom Transgaz Tomsk supports Olympiad for children with special needs
News from projects and regions October 9, 2019, 18:10 On October 6, the 12th “We Are Just Like You!” Olympiad for children with special needs was held in Sakhalin with support from Gazprom Transgaz Tomsk. Taking part in the competition were 40 athletes aged 7 to 14 years old from Kirov Children’s Boarding School and the Preodoleniye social rehabilitation center. The sporting…
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Russia Plans Its Own Version of Wikipedia by 2023
Russia is aiming to roll out an online encyclopedia in three years with a readership five times the size of Wikipedia’s, the RBC news website reported Wednesday, citing procurement documents. Russia has been planning to create its own version of Wikipedia to ensure Russians have access to more “detailed and reliable” information about their country…
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Russia’s Gazprom Ranks 3rd Among World’s Top Carbon Emitters – Study
Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom is the world’s third-largest producer of carbon emissions, The Guardian reported Wednesday, citing a new scientific analysis. The analysis from the U.S.-based Climate Accountability Institute ranked the top 20 carbon-emitting companies worldwide to examine their role in the current climate crisis. Since 1965, these 20 companies have contributed to 35%…
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Russian Scientists Find Microplastics Along ‘Entire’ Arctic Sea Route
Russian scientists say they have discovered small plastic debris along the entirety of an Arctic shortcut connecting Asia and Europe that Russia calls the Northern Sea Route. Microplastics — plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters in length — are now present in every part of the environment, according to a 2019 scientific review by European Union researchers.…
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Putin Urges Turkey’s Erdogan Not to Harm Syria Peace Process – Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan by phone on Wednesday to avoid any steps in Syria that could damage its peace process, the Kremlin said, as Turkey prepared to launch an operation in northeastern Syria. The Kremlin said that both Putin and Erdogan agreed in the phone call that Syria’s sovereignty…
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Russian, North Korean State Media Team Up to Fight ‘Fake News’
State media outlets in Russia and North Korea have signed a new cooperation agreement that includes plans to counteract “fake news” together, the state-run TASS news agency reported Wednesday. TASS and North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) previously signed a cooperation agreement in 2005. TASS is currently the only Russian media outlet to…
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Radiation Spike Recorded on Berlin-Moscow Train
A radiation spike thought to be caused by a cancer patient has been recorded onboard a passenger train that arrived in Moscow from Berlin on Tuesday, Russian media outlets have reported. Russian news channels published footage of police, firemen and radioactive waste decontamination teams inspecting the train upon its arrival. No passengers were reportedly onboard…
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Russian Lawmakers Look to Ban Email Users Who Share Illegal Content
A group of pro-Kremlin lawmakers has drafted legislation that would allow authorities to block individual email or online messenger users who circulate banned content. The bill is likely to alarm advocates of internet freedoms, but the lawmakers say the legislation is needed to combat a wave of hoax bomb threats that have been sporadically called…
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Working meeting held with Germany’s Federal Government Commissioner for Gas Transit across Ukraine
Release October 9, 2019, 12:45 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Georg Graf Waldersee, Commissioner of the Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Germany for Gas Transit across Ukraine, took place today in Moscow. The parties discussed issues related to supplies of Russian natural gas to Europe in the period from January 1, 2020. Ukraine is currently taking steps…
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Russia Blacklists Opposition Leader Navalny’s Foundation as ‘Foreign Agent’
Russia’s Justice Ministry has on Wednesday blacklisted opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) as a “foreign agent.” Russia’s 2012 “foreign agent” law requires labeled organizations to report their activities and face financial audits. Activists have denounced the law, saying it seeks to silence groups critical of the Kremlin’s human rights record. The Justice Ministry…
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Secret Russian Military Intelligence Unit Linked to ‘Campaign to Destabilize Europe’ – NYT
A top-secret Russian military intelligence unit has been engaged in a campaign to destabilize Europe, The New York Times has reported, citing intelligence officials in four Western countries that only recently discovered the unit’s activities. GRU Unit 29155 reportedly oversaw a campaign to destabilize Moldova, an arms smuggler’s assassination attempt in Bulgaria, a thwarted coup…
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World Bank Cuts Russian Growth Forecast
The World Bank has become the latest organization to cut its outlook for the Russian economy, predicting growth of just 1% in 2019. A host of domestic and international factors are holding back the economy, the organization said in its new forecast published today. The bank had previously predicted growth of 1.2% in 2019. “The…
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Calvey Case: While Two Foreigners Are Under House Arrest, Their Three Russian Colleagues Remain in Jail
Ever since five employees of Baring Vostok were arrested on fraud charges in February, the world’s attention has been on the private equity fund’s American founder Michael Calvey and his French business partner Philippe Delpal. Outcries in support of the two men, widely seen as having been caught up in a business dispute, came from…
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Russia Uncovers Secret Islamic State ‘Charity’ in North Caucasus
Russian intelligence services have uncovered a secret “charity” that had more than 100 members and sent money to the Islamic State in Syria, authorities said Wednesday. Russian police and the Federal Security Service (FSB) uncovered Islamic State cells in 17 regions so far in 2019, a top anti-extremism official said last month. The FSB said…
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Almost 40% of Russians Call Moscow Protest Convictions ‘Politically Motivated’ – Poll
Nearly 40% of Russians believe that the recent criminal convictions of more than a dozen people over this summer’s Moscow protests were politically motivated, according to new independent polling. The Sept. 8 local and regional elections were among the most remembered events of the past month, according to the independent Levada Center pollster. Five of…
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‘If They Send Us Back to China We Will Die’: Uighur Brothers Fight Deportation From Russia
KAZAN — At first sight, Shahrizat and Shahdiyar Shavkat, 23-year-old twin brothers from China, look like regular students. They spend their days listening to music, playing sports and hanging out with friends in Kazan, Russia’s sixth-largest city and the capital of the majority-Muslim republic of Tatarstan. Only a “Free the Uighurs” screensaver on one of their…
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Attacks on Journalists in Russia More Than Double Since 2017 – NGO
The number of attacks and threats on Russian journalists by the authorities has more than doubled since 2017, according to a new report published by the international Justice for Journalists NGO on Monday. The report was published to mark the 13th anniversary of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskya’s murder. While five men were sentenced to…
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Youth Team Games held at Gazprom Transgaz Nizhny Novgorod
Background Gazprom Transgaz Nizhny Novgorod is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom that delivers natural gas to 15 regions in the Volga and Central Federal Districts of the Russian Federation. The company’s gas transmission system is composed of trunklines stretching for over 13,000 kilometers. Gazprom Transgaz Nizhny Novgorod operates 54 compressor workshops, 284 gas compressor units, 371 gas distribution stations, 2 mobile CNG refuelers and 4 refueling modules at the premises of gas…
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U.S. Toddler With Rare Skin Condition Gets First Treatment in Russia
Doctors in southern Russia have removed part of a birthmark on the head of an American baby who was born with a rare skin condition, the state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday. Seven-month-old Luna Fenner was diagnosed with giant congenital melanocytic nevus, with the shape of the mark covering her face resembling a Batman mask…
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Russian Theater Director Serebrennikov’s Fraud Case to Be Re-Tried, Court Says
A Moscow court has sent theater director Kirill Serebrennikov’s criminal fraud case back to its starting point a month after the case was returned to prosecutors, and more than two years after he was first arrested. Serebrennikov was detained in August 2017 on charges of embezzling 68 million rubles ($1 million) in government funds, a…
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On This Day Marina Tsvetayeva Was Born
Marina Tsvetayeva was born in Moscow in 1892 to a professor of art history – who founded what is today known as the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts – and a mother of German and Polish ancestry. Tsvetayeva’s family was one of wealth and influence, albeit not supportive of their daughter’s poetry. When Tsvetayeva was…
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Putin Gives Top State Honor to U.S. Astronaut Who Survived Russian Rocket Emergency
President Vladimir Putin has presented U.S. astronaut Nick Hague with one of Russia’s top state honors a year after the astronaut survived an emergency onboard a Russian spacecraft. Hague, along with Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin, made a dramatic emergency landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan in October 2018 when a booster rocket on their Soyuz…
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Russia and China to Sign Agreement on Combating Illegal Online Content
Russia and China will sign a cooperation treaty aimed at combating illegal content on the internet this month, Russia‘s state communications watchdog said on Tuesday, an example of deepening cooperation between the powers. Critics have accused Russia‘s authorities of trying to implement Chinese-style curbs on the internet. Cooperation in this area between the two regulators could alarm proponents…
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Russian Message in a Bottle Washes Up on Brazilian Beach
A group of friends frolicking on a beach in Brazil recently discovered a Russian message in a bottle thought to be written by Soviet sailors, Brazilian media have reported. The 15 friends were vacationing on the country’s southern tip on Sept. 20 when they came across a glass bottle containing a rolled sheet of paper…
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