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Moscow Buddhists Commemorate Year of the Pig With Fire, in Photos

A group of Buddhists held a ceremony in honor of the new lunar year at a temple in northeastern Moscow on Sunday, Feb. 10.

They celebrated the beginning of the Year of the Earth Pig at the Drepung Gomang Buddhist monastery, lighting fire offerings in a traditional ceremony.

Here’s a look at the ritual.

FSB Officer Beaten in Moscow, Reports Say

A Federal Security Service (FSB) officer on duty was reportedly assaulted in central Moscow over the weekend after an attack on his service vehicle. FSB lieutenant general Oleg Budagotsky was inside his squad car on Sunday when unknown assailants threw a bottle at the window, the RBC news website reported Monday. Budagotsky was then beaten…

Putin’s Ambitious Plan to Overhaul Russia’s Economy Will Cost $390 Bln, Government Estimates

Russia will spend 25.7 trillion rubles ($391 billion) on carrying out President Vladimir Putin’s expansive promises to overhaul Russia’s economy by the end of his last term in office, according to a new government estimate. After his inauguration last May, Putin outlined plans to spend at least 8 trillion rubles on infrastructure and social issues…

Mourinho Rejoins Kremlin-Run RT for Champions League

Ex-Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho will return to the Kremlin-run RT news network to cover the UEFA Champions League, the network has said. The Portuguese manager was reportedly paid at least 1 million British pounds ($1.3 million) for five days’ work during the 2018 FIFA World Cup that Russia hosted in the summer. RT has…

‘The Theater’ in 2019

A conversation with Vladimir Urin, general director of the Bolshoi Theater. Damir Yusupov / Bolshoi Theater In Russia, the Bolshoi Theater is “the theater” — the most prestigious venue for opera and ballet in the country. The Moscow Times talked to Vladimir Urin, the Bolshoi’s general director, about the theater’s plans for 2019.  Which blockbuster…

Russian Farmer Eaten Alive by Pigs

A farmer in central Russia has reportedly been eaten alive by her pigs after suffering a seizure earlier this month. The 56-year-old lost consciousness inside the pig pen where she met a tragic end on Feb. 1, local media cited investigators in Russia’s republic of Udmurtia as saying last week. “The hungry animals chewed through…

Russian Town Chases Out Rowdy Polar Bear Invaders

Authorities in Russia’s remote Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya have taken measures to chase away a band of polar bears that had established a reign of terror over locals in recent days. Photos and videos on social media showed polar bears entering apartment blocks and other living quarters and rummaging through garbage in the settlement of 3,000.…

Majority of Russians Believe Top Politicians Are Lying to Them – Poll

A majority of Russians say that top officials are lying to them about the true state of affairs in the country, according to a new survey released by the independent pollster Levada Center. Russians’ trust in institutions including the presidency, the government, the State Duma and political parties has reached record lows since the government passed…

Russian Opposition Rallies Calling For Release of Political Prisoners

On Sunday Feb.10, Russian protesters rallied in Moscow and St. Petersburg to demand freedom for political prisoners after a daughter of activist Anastasia Shevchenko died in hospital while her mother was under house arrest. Shevchenko is a member of Open Russia movement, founded by Kremlin critic and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and was arrested in January, accused…

Russia’s Investigative Committee Seeks Donations for Archangel Statue, Reports Say

The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee is reportedly seeking donations for the construction of a bronze Archangel Michael statue at the entrance of his agency’s new headquarters in Moscow as religious symbols gain an increasingly prominent place in Russian state institutions. The Russian Orthodox Church has become a powerful political force since the anointment of Patriarch Kirill as its…

Russia Says Ready for Talks With Netherlands on MH17

Russia is ready to engage in talks with the Netherlands about the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, Interfax news agency cited Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko as saying on Friday. Read More MH17: In Search of Justice (Op-ed) The Dutch government said earlier this week it was “increasingly confident” that Russian officials would…

After Jailing of Jehovah’s Witness, Human Rights Activists Warn of ‘Wave’ of Arrests

Two days after a Russian court sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness to six years in jail, human rights activists have warned the case will trigger a crackdown on other religious minorities. On Wednesday, Dennis Christensen became the first Jehovah’s Witness convicted for extremism after Russia’s Supreme Court blacklisted the religious group in April 2017. Read More…

Reebok Admits Cunnilingus Is No Joke in Russia

Reebok has pulled a racy ad in Russia after online users and the apparel company’s management derided it as being done in bad taste. Styled after the global #BeMoreHuman campaign that features celebrities like Gal Gadot and Ariana Grande, Reebok launched a Russian version on Thursday with a hashtag that roughly translates as #OutOfLine. Russia’s…

Russian Journalist Charged With ‘Justifying Terrorism’ After Critical Comments

A Russian reporter faces possible jail time over comments about a 2018 suicide bombing that was critical of the authorities, in a case that rights activists have called an attack on free speech. Security officers raided journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva’s home in the northwestern city of Pskov on Wednesday in connection with her on-air criticism of…

Paralympic Committee Lifts Russia Ban, With Conditions

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said on Friday it would lift the ban on Russia’s Paralympic Committee by March 15, under certain conditions. Russia has been barred from international Paralympic competitions since August 2016 over allegations of state-sponsored doping similar to the ones that led to the suspension of its athletics federation and anti-doping agency. The IPC…

Russia Pledges Response to Norwegian Military Activity

Russia on Thursday accused Norway of pushing ahead with a military build-up which it said increased the risks of military action and required some kind of Russian response. Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Moscow had watched as NATO member Norway had become more and more active in helping the Western military alliance build up its presence in the Arctic…

Bus Falls Off Cliff in Russia, Killing 6 Miners

A bus carrying 22 miners plunged off a cliff in Russia on Friday, killing six workers of a company that owns the country’s largest coal mine, authorities have said. Videos from the scene of the incident in the Kemerovo region showed an upside-down orange Kamaz truck in a gray pit. “The Kamaz fell off an…

Kremlin Says Don’t Look for Common Sense From Russia’s Rulers

Don’t rely on common sense if you want to understand how modern Russia is run. That’s the advice from President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. “In governing, we can’t operate on the basis of common sense,” Peskov told reporters Thursday on a conference call. “First of all, we operate in terms of what is legal…

Russia Welcomes Trump Offer of New Nuclear Pact, Awaits Details

Russia welcomed an offer by U.S. President Donald Trump to renegotiate a landmark nuclear missile pact after he quit the agreement, while cautioning that it’s received no specific proposals yet. “We saw President Trump’s statement about the possibility of a new treaty, which should include other countries,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters…

Two More Russian Cities Abolish Mayoral Elections

Igor Ivanko / Moskva News Agency The residents of two more Siberian cities have now lost the right to elect their mayor in the latest restriction of direct elections in the country. Regional lawmakers voted in April 2018 to abolish direct mayoral elections in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg, leading its popular mayor Yevgeny Roizman…

Russian Race Walker Kirdyapkina Gets Doping Ban

Russian race walker Anisya Kirdyapkina has been suspended for doping and is set to be stripped of two World Championship medals, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Thursday. “All results of Ms Kirdyapkina since 25 February 2011 were disqualified through to 11 October 2013, including forfeiture of any titles, awards, medals, points…

Kremlin Denies About-Face on Maduro, Brushes Off Evacuation Plans

The Kremlin has denied that it is wavering in its support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro following media reports that Russia is beginning to doubt the leader’s ability to survive an opposition challenge. While Moscow has publicly backed Maduro as he faces calls to step down, Bloomberg on Wednesday cited unnamed sources close to the…

U.S. Shuts Down Only Immigration Office in Russia, Citing Falling Demand

The United States has announced that it will close its only immigration office in Russia next month over what it called a “significant decrease in workload.” The move follows two years of mutual diplomatic staff cuts and consulate closures after the U.S. said that Russia interfered in its presidential election in 2016. Late last year, the…

Russia Would Be Open to U.S. Proposals for New Nuclear Pact, Minister Says

Russia would be prepared to consider new proposals from the United States to replace a suspended Cold War-era nuclear pact with a broader treaty that includes more countries, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday. Russia suspended the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty at the weekend after Washington announced it would withdraw in six months unless Russia ends…

Google Began Censoring Search Results in Russia, Reports Say

Google has started to remove certain entries from its search results in Russia in compliance with long-standing demands from the authorities, the Vedomosti business daily reported Wednesday. Russia fined Google $7,500 in November 2018 for failing to take down certain search results. New regulations that went into effect in November 2017 require search engines to delete results to…

Republican Activist Linked to Russian Agent Charged With Money Laundering, Fraud

A conservative U.S. political activist romantically linked to admitted Russian agent Maria Butina has been indicted by a federal grand jury on wire fraud and money laundering charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Dakota said on Wednesday. Paul Erickson, 56, was indicted on 11 counts of wire fraud and money laundering on Tuesday and…

Russia Approves 43M Dollar Loan to Cuba’s Military

Russia has approved a 38 million euro ($43.27 million) loan for Cuba’s defense sector, a senior Russian defense official was quoted as saying on Wednesday. The deal was first announced in November after Russian President Vladimir Putin met Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in Moscow. It has now been finalized by Russia, Dmitry Shugayev, head of…

On Visit to Russia, Taliban Says It Wants U.S. Pullout in Months

The Taliban is seeking the pullout of all foreign troops from Afghanistan within months, a senior official said, as the fundamentalist Islamic movement reached out to opponents of U.S.-backed President Ashraf Ghani at talks in Moscow. “This is the first step,’’ Sher Mohammed Abbas Stanikzai told reporters in the Russian capital after meeting with other…

Russia to Parade Syrian War Trophies in Cross Country Tour

Russia’s military has announced plans to showcase the weapons and equipment it seized in Syria on a tour across the country. Moscow has fought on the side of the Syrian government in its civil war since 2015. In December, the Russian military displayed 40 pieces of what it claimed to be U.S., French, Israeli and…

Russian Court Orders Navalny to Take Down Corruption Investigation Into National Guard

A court in Moscow has ordered opposition leader Alexei Navalny to take down his second video investigation in two years. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation alleged in August that at least $29 million had been stolen from the Russian National Guard’s food supply contracts. The video led the head of the National Guard, Viktor Zolotov, to challenge…

Russia Starts to Worry Maduro’s Grip Is Slipping in Venezuela

Nicolas Maduro (Rayner Pena / DPA / TASS) After pledging full support for the embattled regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Russia is starting to show signs of doubt about his ability to survive an opposition challenge. While Moscow hasn’t given up its public backing of Maduro, it increasingly recognizes that the disastrous state of…

Russian Court Convicts Danish Jehovah’s Witness to 6 Years for ‘Extremism’

A Russian court for the first time convicted a Jehovah’s Witness, Danish national Dennis Christensen, on extremism charges, BBC Russia reported on Wedneday. Christensen, 46, was detained by armed security forces in the midst of a Bible reading in Oryol almost 400 kilometers south of Moscow. His detention in May 2017 came a month after…

Russia Will Exit INF Nuclear Pact in 6 Months

Russia will exit the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in six months as part of a symmetrical response to the United States’ pullout, Interfax cited Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Wednesday. Read More A Forced Decision: Why the U.S. Withdrew From the INF Treaty (Op-ed) President Vladimir Putin said at the weekend that Russia had suspended…

Russia Massively Contributes to Decline in Democratic Norms, Freedom House Says

Freedom House has named Russia among a string of “heavyweight” countries that undermine democratic norms abroad, contributing to a 13th consecutive “decline in global freedom.” Russia has featured regularly in the U.S.-funded monitoring group’s annual “Freedom in the World” report documenting attacks on civil and democratic freedoms around the world. Read More How Russia’s Place…

Online Censorship Cases in Russia Skyrocketed in 2018, NGO Says

Internet freedom continued to decline over the past year in Russia, with bans and limits on information skyrocketing, according to a new report released by the Agora human rights group. More than 115,500 cases of censorship were recorded in 2017, Agora, which tracks internet and media freedom in Russia, said last year. Since then, Russia enacted…

Trump Held Talks With Moscow Leadership to Build Mall, Ex-Mayor Reveals

Moscow’s ex-mayor has revealed his administration’s contacts with current U.S. President Donald Trump over a sprawling underground mall near the State Duma in the late 1990s. A U.S. special counsel is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Both Trump and Moscow deny any…

Earth’s Magnetic Pole is Quickly Moving Toward Russia, Models Say

The natural movement of the magnetic North Pole has accelerated in recent years toward Siberia, threatening to throw the world’s smartphones and Global Positioning System (GPS) off-kilter. The magnetic North Pole’s unprecedented movement began in the mid-1990s and it is now headed from the Canadian Arctic toward Siberia at roughly 55 kilometers per year, the…

After Deadly Syrian Battle, Evidence of Russian Losses Was Obscured

syria.mil.ru The last contact Grigoriy Gancherov and his wife had with their son, a Russian private military contractor fighting in Syria, was on Feb. 4 last year. The father subsequently learned from a friend and fellow fighter of Sergei’s that the 25-year-old had died several days later in a major battle against U.S.-led forces in…

Moscow Salaries See Double-Digit Growth in 2018, Official Figures Say

Average monthly salaries in Russia’s capital jumped by 11.7 percent to nearly 81,000 rubles ($1,234) last year, according to official figures from the federal statistics service. Early last month, Russia’s chief auditor Alexei Kudrin said that citizens’ real incomes virtually saw no change in 2018 as prices outpaced growth estimates. Meanwhile, inflation is expected to grow…

1 in 4 Russian Children Are Bullied at School, Study Says

One in four Russian schoolchildren are victims of bullying, according to a new report by Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (HSE). School bullying has come under the spotlight after a wave of armed attacks rocked Russia over the past year, while an online game was blamed for more than 130 teen suicides in 2016. Read…

Russia Must Develop New Missiles to Counter U.S. Before 2021, Minister Says

Russia must develop a new land-based cruise missile and a new land-based hypersonic missile before 2021 to respond to Washington’s planned exit from a nuclear arms control pact, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited the defense minister as saying on Tuesday. President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Russia had suspended the Cold War-era Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces…

Russia Backs Talks Between Venezuela’s Maduro and Opposition

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that the crisis in Venezuela could only be solved by getting the authorities and the opposition to talk to each other, the RIA news agency reported. Major European nations on Monday joined the United States in recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president of Moscow ally…

Russian Blogger Dives Under Ice in Frozen Lake, Reports Feeling ‘Refreshed’

As freezing weather enveloped parts of the nation, one Russian fitness blogger took matters into his own hands and turned the winter into his friend. The blogger, Yegor Lesnoy, channeled his inner Iceman as he filmed himself diving under the frozen ice of Lake Baikal in Siberia, where temperatures dipped to minus 30 degrees Celsius.…

Mourinho Takes a Tumble at Russian Ice Hockey Game (Video)

Former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho took a nasty tumble at an ice hockey game outside Moscow on Monday, drawing gasps and laughs after performing a ceremonial puck drop. Mourinho, who was sacked by United in December, made the first puck drop of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) game between Avangard Omsk and SKA Petersburg,…

Apple Stores Russian Users’ Personal Data Locally, Filing Shows

Apple Inc. detailed the user data it’s storing in Russia to comply with a local law that took effect in 2015, according to a recent filing with the Russian government. Apple users in the region have data including their name, delivery address, email address and phone number stored on servers in Russia. The company said…

Russia Grows at Fastest Pace in 6 Years on Construction Surge

Russia’s economy grew at the fastest pace in six years in 2018, outstripping economist estimates, as construction got a boost from the World Cup and the start of natural gas project in Siberia. Growth accelerated to 2.3 percent, the most since 2012, after construction surged, the Federal Statistics Service reported in its first estimate Monday.…

Russia Approves $4.7 Bln Investment for Crimean Infrastructure and Tourism

The Russian government on Monday approved an additional $4.7 billion in investments on infrastructure and tourism in the annexed Crimean peninsula over the next three years. Crimea has received large cash injections from Moscow since 2014, when Russia annexed the Black Sea region from Ukraine. In total, an estimated 878 billion rubles ($13.3 billion) is expected…

Kabul Sees Taliban-Afghan Opposition Talks In Moscow As Betrayal

Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters Senior Afghan officials warned on Monday that talks this week between Taliban militants and opposition politicians, including former President Hamid Karzai, betrayed the principles of democracy and Afghanistan’s best interests. The talks, starting on Tuesday in Moscow, come 10 days after peace negotiations between the United States and the Taliban in…