Starting Thursday, thousands of Muscovites will be ordered to stay home as a part of a national “non-working” decree aimed at halting soaring coronavirus cases and record deaths. From Oct. 28-Nov. 7, only essential workers in the Russian capital, a city of 12 million, will be permitted to go to work in-person. The Moscow Times…
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Nikolai Rish is furious that his Moscow chain of upmarket salons, Birdie Hairdressers, is being forced to close for at least 10 days in a partial citywide lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus, following a surge in cases, hospitalizations and fatalities over recent weeks. “It’s unfair that others aren’t getting vaccinated while we…
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Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was poised to win an election that monitors said Monday was “not truly competitive” despite reforms in the Central Asian state. The vote was held Sunday with no real opposition facing Mirziyoyev, who came to power in 2016 after the death of his mentor, dictator Islam Karimov, who ruled Uzbekistan for…
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On Saturday the film and television director Alexander Rogozhkin died after a long illness at the age of 72. The announcement was made by Lenfilm Studios, where he worked for many years. Rogozhkin was a trailblazer on both the big and small Russian screens. He was the screenwriter and director of “Peculiarities of the Russian…
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A Russian publishing house has removed a section on transgender people from the Russian-language edition of a health guide aimed at teenage girls to avoid running afoul of Russian law, media reported Sunday. The Belaya Vorona publishing house said it received legal counsel that it could be subject to criminal prosecution if “Welcome to Your Period!”…
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Alexei Navalny’s new home is around 100 kilometres from Moscow, at the end of a muddy path, on the outskirts of the small town of Pokrov. A year after his poisoning, the main opponent to Vladimir Putin lives in a high-security prison. His anti-corruption foundation is banned. Many of his allies are in exile, independent…
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Russians hoping to apply for an immigrant visa to the United States are now required to travel to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, the State Department confirmed Sunday, while blaming restrictions imposed by Moscow. That development came amid unresolved U.S.-Russian tensions, and tit-for-tat expulsions that earlier led Moscow to limit the number of U.S. diplomatic…
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“The late Stalinism period,” writes Evgeny Dobrenko, touching off his new history of the final years of Josef Stalin’s reign over the Soviet Union, “was essentially the endpoint of the half-century long process called the Russian Revolution.” It’s a revealing line about a book that seems at first to be a lavishly detailed and compellingly written…
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Moscow’s Gazprom could cut Moldova’s gas supply if the country does not settle its bill and sign a new contract, the energy giant’s top official was quoted by Russia’s Interfax news agency as saying. Moldova declared a 30-day state of emergency on Friday in an effort to secure the ex-Soviet country cheaper natural gas from…
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Namibia has discontinued the use of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine following concerns raised by neighboring South Africa, the health ministry said on Saturday. Neighboring South Africa earlier this week said it would not approve Sputnik V due to concerns it could increase the risk of HIV infection among men, a claim the vaccine’s developer…
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Namibia has discontinued the use of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine following concerns raised by neighboring South Africa, the health ministry said on Saturday. Neighboring South Africa earlier this week said it would not approve Sputnik V due to concerns it could increase the risk of HIV infection among men, a claim the vaccine’s developer…
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Moscow on Saturday put a former prison inmate seeking asylum in France on a wanted list after he leaked harrowing videos of alleged rape and torture inside a Russian prison. According to a notice published on the Russian Interior Ministry’s website, Sergei Savelyev — a Belarus national — is wanted in connection with an unspecified…
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Russia on Saturday reported a record 1,075 Covid deaths in 24 hours as Europe’s hardest hit country with dramatically low vaccination rates braces for nationwide curbs from next week. Despite multiple pleas from President Vladimir Putin and the availability of the home-grown Sputnik V vaccine, only 36% of Russians are fully vaccinated. According to fresh…
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I am very fortunate to live with a very patient and supportive husband, a man who claims not to mind living in a Test Kitchen most weekdays. He’s a really good sport about epic messes in the kitchen, cheerfully submits to having the same dish — albeit with slight tweaks — on multiple consecutive nights,…
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Montenegro has granted asylum to a Russian billionaire wanted by Moscow for his alleged role in two murders on the ground that he is being persecuted, his lawyer said on Saturday. Azerbaijan-born Telman Ismailov, who has in the past sparked the ire of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was arrested in Podgorica early this month on…
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October 22, 2021, 20:45 A meeting of the joint working group of Gazprom and the Government of Mongolia on the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding regarding the project for pipeline gas supplies from Russia to China across Mongolia took place today in Ulan-Bator, Mongolia. The meeting was headed by Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Sainbuyan Amarsaikhan, Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia. The…
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October 22, 2021, 20:30 The Gazprom Management Committee took note of the information about the functioning and development of the operating facilities for gas, condensate and oil processing. It was highlighted that the Company’s gas processing plants (GPPs) based in Russia are integrated into the single process chain of gas supplies, from hydrocarbon feedstock production to consumer deliveries. Components extracted from gas are used…
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October 22, 2021, 20:25 Daily deliverability of Russian UGS facilities is reaching an unprecedented level of 847.9 million cubic meters. All sets of planned preventive maintenance and repair operations are completed. The Gazprom Management Committee took note of the information about the operational readiness of the Unified Gas Supply System (UGSS) facilities for peak loads expected in late 2021 – early 2022, as well as the measures necessary to ensure uninterrupted…
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Moldova declared a 30-day state of emergency Friday in an effort to secure the ex-Soviet country cheaper natural gas from Europe after traditional supplier Moscow hiked prices. The country of 2.6 million people wedged between Romania and Ukraine gets gas from Russia via its pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria and Ukraine. Gazprom has hiked prices…
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Russia’s Central Bank hiked interest rates to 7.5% on Friday as economists warned the country faces a triple threat of rising coronavirus cases, new lockdown measures and surging inflation. The Russian economy recovered to its pre-coronavirus size earlier this year — a quicker recovery than first expected and faster than most other large economies —…
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Go healthy, go vegan For all you vegetarians, vegans, people with restricted diets and anyone who wants to eat more healthy food — this is an expo for you. At the Veg-Life Expo you can sample and buy thousands of products from more than 100 companies, ranging from every kind of non-dairy milk to superfoods…
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October 22, 2021, 15:25 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Claudio Descalzi, Chief Executive Officer of Eni, took place today in St. Petersburg. The parties discussed the prospects of low-carbon development of Europe’s energy sector and stressed the important role of natural gas in ensuring its stable functioning. It was noted that Gazprom has increased the supplies of Russian…
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The European Commissioner for Climate Action Frans Timmermans will not travel to Moscow to discuss climate action ahead of the crucial COP summit in Glasgow next month, an EU Commission spokesperson told The Moscow Times. The visit was supposed to take place on Oct. 25 but was cancelled after it “became impossible to schedule the…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a tirade against Western values in his speech at the annual Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi late into Thursday evening. Putin outlined his view of Russia’s ideology as a counterbalance to what he derided as cancel culture, reverse racism and the “monstrous” forcing of transgenderism onto children. Here are some…
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Russia registered its highest number of daily coronavirus deaths and new cases since the start of the pandemic Friday as authorities across the country scramble to impose partial lockdowns and other restrictions to thwart the spread of the virus in the coming weeks. The government’s coronavirus information center reported a double record of 1,064 new…
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Golos, an independent vote-monitoring movement, was named a “foreign agent” by Russia’s Justice Ministry in August after receiving a $3 contribution from an Armenian citizen, the movement’s co-chairman Grigory Melkonyants said on Facebook. A Russian court denied Golos’ challenge against being designated a “foreign agent,” explaining that the grounds for the vote-monitoring organization being added…
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Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett arrived in Russia on Friday to meet with President Vladimir Putin for the first time for talks expected to focus on Iran. Russian state television showed images of Bennett’s plane landing in the Black Sea resort town Sochi, where the pair will meet. Naftali took office in June, taking…
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Fifteen people died and one person was missing after a fire broke out at a Russian explosives factory southeast of Moscow on Friday, authorities said. The government of the Ryazan region, where the factory is based, said they had died in the factory blaze in the village of Lesnoye, 300 kilometers (180 miles) from the…
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Russia plans to lobby for sanctions relief on state-run energy giants that invest in green projects at next month’s landmark UN climate summit, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Ruslan Edelgeriyev, President Vladimir Putin’s climate envoy, accused Western states of double standards for urging Russia “to reduce methane leakages and yet we have Gazprom under sanctions” for the…
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Jailed Kremlin critic and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny said Thursday that his Sakharov prize — the EU’s top human rights award — is an “honor.” “This is not only an honor, but also a great responsibility,” Navalny, whose social media accounts are run by his team, said on Twitter. news Navalny Wins EU’s Sakharov Human…
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A Russian comedic actress has been jailed in the Far East after appearing in a video where she satirized the country’s Interior Ministry spokeswoman, local media reported Thursday. Larisa Krivonosova was fined and jailed for 10 days in September for illegally wearing an official uniform after she portrayed Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk on a…
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For three weeks now, Russia has been setting records for daily deaths from the coronavirus. But even with more than 1,000 Russians dying daily and the Moscow mayor announcing a week-long lockdown in the city, on the capital’s streets panic is hard to detect. “I just got the vaccination, but if it wasn’t for my…
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Russia said Thursday it had taken offline a reactor at a nuclear plant in the south of the country after detecting a steam leak, but said radiation levels were normal. The state nuclear agency operates 38 reactors — mostly built during the Soviet period at 11 nuclear power stations across the country. The second of…
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The Kremlin said Thursday it had no respect for a European Parliament decision to give the EU’s top human rights award to jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny. “We respect this body, but no one can make us respect such decisions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, referring to the European Parliament. On Wednesday, the…
DetailsElemash Machine-building plant, a fabrication facility of ROSATOM’s TVEL Fuel Company in Moscow region, has manufactured an experimental nuclear fuel assembly for the RITM-200N reactor, which will be installed at the world’s first land-based small modular reactor nuclear power plant (SMR NPP) in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Construction of the nuclear power plant will…
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Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has announced a non-working week from Oct. 28 until Nov. 7 to “break the maximum number of disease transmission chains in a short time,” according to the decree published Thursday. Russia registered its highest number of one-day coronavirus deaths and infections since the start of the pandemic Thursday as scientists warn…
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For nearly 20 straight months, Yevgeny Ryabov has watched coronavirus patients come through the doors of his hospital in central Moscow. Lately, most are unvaccinated. The Covid-ward coordinator observes how the virus ravages their bodies and, time after time, he hears the dying say they regret not getting the jab. “They usually give some excuse — that…
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Russia registered its highest number of one-day coronavirus deaths and infections since the start of the pandemic Thursday as scientists warn of a potentially more infectious variant of the deadly Delta strain further overwhelming hospitals. The government’s coronavirus information center reported 1,036 fatalities and 36,339 cases over the past 24 hours. Russia has repeatedly broken…
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Lyubov Sobol, a key aide to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, has been placed on a wanted list in Russia, as authorities press ahead with a crackdown on dissent. Sobol, a 34-year-old lawyer, appeared on a list of wanted persons on the website of Russia’s interior ministry on Wednesday night. She is believed to have…
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Four Russians, one Ukrainian and one Uzbek citizen were detained in Turkey on suspicion of preparing armed attacks against Chechen dissidents, Reuters reported, citing Turkish broadcaster TRT Haber on Thursday. The Istanbul Prosecutor General’s Office detained six suspects on Oct. 8 while they were allegedly preparing a joint operation against Chechen dissidents in Turkey. They had…
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Four Russians, one Ukrainian and one Uzbek citizen were allegedly detained in Turkey on suspicion of preparing armed attacks against Chechen dissidents, Reuters reported, citing Turkish broadcaster TRT Haber on Thursday. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgich told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency that he has no information regarding the arrest of four Russian citizens allegedly…
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The European Union’s drug regulator will not approve Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine until at least the first months of 2022, Reuters reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources. Russia has been eager for international authorization of Sputnik V, which Moscow touts as the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine. EU and World Health Organization (WHO) approval of Sputnik…
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Russia has detected a new sub-variant of the Delta strain of the coronavirus, which risks compounding the country’s spiraling infections and deaths, a senior Russian government scientist warned Thursday. The AY.4.2 sub-variant is more contagious than its predecessor, according to Kamil Khafizov, who heads the state consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor’s scientific group for new methods…
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October 21, 2021 PAO Severstal, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and steel-related mining companies, has become the first company in Russia to join ResponsibleSteel, the first global multi-stakeholder standard and certification initiative with a mission to maximise steel’s contributions to a sustainable society. As a member of ResponsibleSteel, Severstal will collaborate with…
DetailsRosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin took part in an online meeting of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the heads of world oil and gas companies
October 19, 2021, Antalya, Turkey. – On October 13-15, the 14th Energy is Future (EIF 2021) International Energy Congress and Expo was held in Antalya with support from the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Turkey. AKKUYU NUCLEAR JSC acted as the main partner of the event, which this year brought…
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The European Parliament on Wednesday awarded jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny its Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The award, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, recognizes individuals who have made an “outstanding contribution to protecting freedom of thought,” and is “the highest tribute paid by the EU to human rights work.” Navalny is currently…
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Moscow will go into a strict lockdown if coronavirus infections continue to rise, according to a Moscow government order that was sent to businesses in the city Wednesday. The order, seen by The Moscow Times, would close all non-essential stores, including restaurants, stores, museums and parks as well as suspend planned medical procedures from Oct.…
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President Vladimir Putin approved a non-working week from Oct. 30 to Nov. 7 on Wednesday as Russia’s coronavirus task force reported another daily record of 1,028 Covid-19 deaths over the last 24 hours. Putin has signed a decree allowing regional authorities to extend non-working days beyond Nov. 7 with salary retention. The decree also gives federal…
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Russia on Wednesday recognized Taliban efforts to try and stabilize the situation in Afghanistan but expressed concern that “terrorist” groups threatened the stability of the entire region. Russia is hosting the Taliban for talks as the Kremlin seeks to assert its influence on Central Asia and push for action against Islamic State fighters which it…
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Almost six in 10 Russians say they do not feel protected by the law, a new survey published Wednesday by the independent Levada Center has shown. Some 58% of Russians said they do not feel the law protects them — up from 54% who said the same in 2018. Just 36% said they felt the…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend next month’s landmark UN climate summit, the Kremlin said on Wednesday but stressed that addressing climate change was one of Russia’s top policy priorities. “Unfortunately, Putin will not fly to Glasgow,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding however that climate change was “one of our foreign policy’s most…
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The Mariinsky Theater is truly home for celebrated opera singer Anna Netrebko. It is the stage where she has performed dozens of roles in hundreds of productions since she was invited by Valery Gergiev to join the company in 1993. Her alma mater – the St. Petersburg Conservatory – is just across the street, flanked…
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Russia set a new record number of daily coronavirus fatalities Wednesday as federal authorities contemplate a nationwide non-working week to fight surging hospitalizations and deaths during an unrelenting fourth wave of the pandemic. The government’s coronavirus task force reported an all-time high of 1,028 Covid-19 deaths over the last 24 hours. Russia has repeatedly broken…
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Russia hosts the Taliban for talks in Moscow on Wednesday, seeking to assert its influence on Central Asia and push for action against Islamic State fighters which it says have massed in perennially volatile Afghanistan. The talks, which draw officials from 10 countries including China and Pakistan, are one of the Taliban’s most significant international…
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Russia on Tuesday demanded Ukraine grant access to a Russian citizen who was captured last week on the front line of the conflict between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Moscow separatists. Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused Ukrainian forces of detaining ceasefire observer Andrei Kosyak last Wednesday and failing to inform Moscow via diplomatic channels within an allotted three-day period. …
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Their movie props floated around and they used Velcro to keep objects in place but Russia’s first film crew in space said they were delighted with the result and had “shot everything we planned.” Yulia Peresild, one of Russia’s most glamorous actresses, and film director Klim Shipenko returned to Earth on Sunday after spending 12…
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U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents conducted raids on Tuesday at luxury properties in Washington and New York linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. An FBI spokesman said agents had carried out “court-authorized law enforcement activity” at a home connected to Deripaska in an upscale neighborhood of…
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October 19, 2021, 19:35 Gazprom’s overall amount of investments for 2021: RUB 1.185 trillion. Gazprom’s borrowings for 2021: RUB 508.866 billion. The Gazprom Board of Directors endorsed the revised investment program and budget (financial plan) for 2021. As per the revised investment program for 2021, the overall amount of investments will stand at RUB 1,185.258 billion, which is RUB 282.845 billion more than was envisaged…
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Background In 2020, Gazprom and 67 Russian regions signed gas supply and gas infrastructure expansion programs for a new five-year period, i.e. for 2021–2025. The amount of financing channeled by Gazprom is 2.9 times higher than that in 2016–2020. Over two-thirds of the investments will be provided to rural areas. As per the list of instructions of Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, dated May 31, 2020, gas…
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