German Chancellor Angela Merkel rebuffed U.S. pressure last month to conduct a naval maneuver in Russia’s backyard aimed at provoking President Vladimir Putin, according to three people familiar with the talks. At a Feb. 16 meeting at the Munich Security Conference, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence urged Merkel to send German ships through a narrow…
This week on From Russia With News, we discuss the explosive Troika Laundromat investigation with Paul Radu, the executive director of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which revealed the scheme. We’ll also talk to Guardian correspondent Andrew Roth on why the return of hundreds of women and children from Iraq and Syria has…
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has sold off his shares in Russia’s state-run Channel One television network due to his recently acquired Israeli citizenship, the shares’ buyer told Interfax on Thursday. Russian law prohibits foreign citizens from owning more than 20 percent of a media company, putting Abramovich in violation of the law when he acquired…
Background The construction of the Pancevo TPP is carried out jointly by the Gazprom Energoholding Group and NIS a.d. Novi Sad (part of the Gazprom Neft Group). In June 2015, the companies signed a shareholders agreement to form a joint venture, Serbskaya Generaciya d.o.o. Novi Sad. The share of the Gazprom Energoholding Group in this company is 51 per cent and that of NIS a.d. Novi Sad is 49 per…
Russian lawmakers pushed through a package of bills Thursday seeking to punish internet users and journalists for disrespecting the authorities and spreading fake news. Observers have argued that the highly contentious legislation introduced in December could lead to mass arrests due to its loose wording. Free speech and internet activists are scheduled to protest against…
Two U.S. Mormons detained in Russia for violating immigration law and reportedly charged with teaching English without a license are set to be deported from Russia, local media said on Thursday. The two men, identified as David Gaaga and Kole Brodowski, were detained in southern Russia region late last week, U.S. media reported Wednesday. Both…
Russia’s Defense Ministry released footage Wednesday of its fighter jet intercepting a U.S. reconnaissance plane over neutral waters near its western border. The video shows a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker approaching and shadowing a U.S. Air Force RC-135 plane over the Baltic Sea. With tensions on the rise, Russia and NATO countries have increasingly scrambled…
Russian counterintelligence exposed hundreds of foreign spies in 2018, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday. “[Counterintelligence agencies] conducted successful special operations to cut short the activities of 129 career officers and 465 agents of foreign intelligence service,” Putin said at a board meeting of the Federal Security Service (FSB). At the annual meeting, Putin urged FSB…
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said on Wednesday it has completed a painstaking process of uploading doping data mined from a tainted Moscow laboratory and will start assessing the information to ensure it is complete and authentic. Obtaining, uploading and authenticating the data has been a massive undertaking requiring WADA to construct a virtual Moscow…
Prosecutors in the Netherlands said on Wednesday they are evaluating signs of Dutch involvement in a money laundering network which is alleged by a report this week to have channelled billions of euros from Russia. Shares in Dutch banks ING and ABN Amro fell after a report by a collective of European news outlets called the Organised Crime and…
Alina Politika is one of 42 female cadets attending the naval academy in Russia‘s Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, but she knows she is unlikely to ever step onto the captain’s bridge of a battleship. Politka’s diploma and military rank after graduation won’t differ from those of male cadets, but the Russian navy does not accept women as commanding officers — a situation she…
Before Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatists in east Ukraine, Moscow had a Ukrainian president who did much of what it wanted. Now, as Ukraine readies to elect a new leader, none of the main candidates look that enticing to Russia. Viktor Yanukovich, the last Moscow-friendly Ukrainian president, was toppled by protests in 2014 and fled to Russia, and…
The ice cover in the Bering Sea is at its lowest on record for this time of year after losing an area about the size of Montana at the height of winter. It’s the second consecutive year that the ice extent in the area has retreated at record pace. It shrank from 566,000 square kilometers (219,000…
An outspoken communist lawmaker in Russia has said in an interview on state television that gay people are “sick” and need to be “cured” of their homosexuality. Russia banned displays of “homosexual propaganda” to minors in 2013, while courts regularly ban gay pride events and public polls show surging anti-LGBT sentiment. In a late Tuesday…
Blessing Obuson thought Russia’s football World Cup would be an opportunity to find a job and flew into Moscow from Nigeria last June on a fan ID. Instead, she found herself forced to work as a prostitute. Fan IDs allowed visa-free entry to World Cup supporters with match tickets, but did not confer the right…
Fewer than 100 Russian billionaires now have a combined wealth that is greater than the entire population’s savings, according to figures published by Forbes. Russia is regularly named in international ratings as one of the most unequal of the world’s major economies, with an estimated 89 percent of the country’s wealth owned by its richest 10…
Russia’s central bank will not need to raise interest rates further if it considers the impact of its two rate increases last year to be enough, its monetary policy chief said. The central bank raised rates twice in the second half of 2018 to limit inflation, which was being fed by a weaker rouble, rising…
A British destroyer is shadowing a Russian naval task group as it passes the English coast, the Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday. HMS Defender was called upon to sail over the weekend and keep watch on the frigate Admiral Gorshkov and three auxiliary ships as they neared U.K. territorial waters off Scotland. It will…
Background OMV AG is Gazprom’s main partner in Austria. The companies cooperate, among other things, on gas production, transportation and supplies. Since 2017, OMV has been partnering with Gazprom in the development of the Yuzhno-Russkoye oil, gas and condensate field. In June 2018, an Agreement was signed to extend until 2040 the existing contract between Gazprom Export and OMV Gas Marketing & Trading GmbH for Russian gas supplies to Austria.…
On a brisk, sunny Saturday in early March, a group of women dressed in full hockey gear and carrying industrial size brooms descend upon the frozen tennis courts of the German embassy. The tennis courts—which have been flooded to make a thick layer of ice—have become dusted overnight with a light layer of snow, which…
Russia is ready to take part in Bulgaria’s Belene nuclear power plant project if such a possibility arises, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday. “We have the opportunity to implement this project, no less than other countries,” Medvedev says.
Russian lawmakers have passed a bill banning hostels in residential buildings, a measure that risks severely limiting affordable accommodation options for travelers. Hoteliers warn that the ban could shutter up to 40 percent of hostels in Moscow and 80 percent in St. Petersburg and result in 16 billion rubles ($243 million) of losses in yearly…
An investigation into a Russian money laundering network that funneled billions of dollars abroad sent shockwaves through Europe this week but was largely ignored by Russian officials and state media. The report released by the Organized Crime and Corruption Project (OCCRP) Monday said that a network of over 70 offshore companies had funnelled $4.6 billion…
The Russian accounts of Venezuelan companies, including state oil firm PDVSA, will move to the Russian Financial Corporation Bank (Rusfincorp), which is sanctioned by the United States, the RIA news agency reported on Wednesday. Reuters reported last month that Russian lender Gazprombank had decided to freeze the accounts of PDVSA and halted transactions with the…
The parents of kindergarteners in Moscow have sued the firm of a catering magnate with ties to the Russian president and military over a dysentery outbreak among dozens of children. Officials confirmed some 130 cases of food poisoning among kindergarteners in southeastern Moscow in December, leading parents to file a class-action lawsuit against a catering…
Release March 5, 2019, 18:10 Photos The closing ceremony of the Gazprom Winter Spartakiada Games was held at the Uralochka competitive sports center in Yekaterinburg. The winners received congratulations from Sergey Khomyakov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Alexey Kryukov, Director General of Gazprom Transgaz Yekaterinburg, and Vladimir Tortyshev, chief referee of the Spartakiada Games. First, second and third places in the…
Belarus will seek better ties with the West even though this provokes “hysterics” from its traditional ally Russia, long-serving President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday, a day after lifting a cap of five U.S. diplomats in his country. Belarus is trying to improve ties with the West after a number of disputes with Moscow, which…
Eight Russian billionaires have been named among the 100 richest people in the world, according to new rankings published by Forbes on Tuesday. The richest Russian on the list was Leonid Mikhelson, the CEO of the Novatek gas giant, who came in 32nd place overall with an estimated net worth of $24 billion. Other Russians…
Release March 5, 2019, 17:05 Sergey Menshikov has been appointed Head of Department 307 at Gazprom, effective April 2, 2019. Sergey Menshikov was born in 1968 in Grozny. He graduated from Grozny Petroleum Institute, majoring in Machinery and Equipment at Oil & Gas Production Facilities, and received an additional degree in Oil and Gas Enterprise Management from the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and…
Moscow will deploy new missiles with a strike range over the entirety of Europe if the United States puts missiles on the continent, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. warned Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday suspending Russia‘s participation in the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with the United States, citing U.S.…
In February 2019 Anastasia Zoteeva was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of AKKUYU NUCLEAR JSC. Anastasia Zoteeva has been involved in the development of the first NPP project in Turkey for over two years. In December 2016 A. Zoteeva was appointed CEO of REIN JSC, the managing company of AKKUYU NUCLEAR JSC; since May 2017…
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday extended sanctions against Russia by another year, prolonging punitive measures that were first imposed over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. The U.S. imposed travel bans and asset freezes against individuals involved in the seizure of the Ukrainian peninsula under President Barack Obama in March 2014. The sanctions have…
Two activists were detained for throwing flowers and shouting abuse near Stalin’s statue on Moscow’s Red Square on Tuesday during an event commemorating the Soviet dictator’s death. Hundreds of Communists mark the anniversary of Stalin’s death every year on March 5, laying flowers and wreaths alongside his grave in central Moscow. Contemporary attitudes in Russia…
Three U.S. House of Representatives committees asked the White House and State Department on Monday for details on President Donald Trump’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, seeking to interview translators and other staff involved in their conversations. The House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Government Oversight committees said in a statement they wrote to acting…
Around 30 percent of the Russian population will practice Islam within the next 15 years, Russia’s grand mufti has predicted, citing demographic trends. Russia’s Muslim-majority regions, including republics in the North Caucasus and the republic of Tatarstan, are known to have the highest birth rates in the country, reflecting similar trends worldwide. Various estimates place…
When anti-government protests erupted on Russia’s side of the Caucasus Mountains in October, authorities did something they’d never done before: cut mobile internet service to an entire geographical area. For almost two weeks, tens of thousands of mainly Muslim Russians were prevented from accessing social media sites and sharing videos through their smartphones. Unlike China,…
The head of a research unit at Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, Stanislav Zharkov, has been fired after comparing the residents of lower-income housing to “livestock” on Facebook. “What category of Khrushevka [Soviet-era buildings] livestock do you belong to: Do you drink, take drugs, throw trash in the courtyard, yell at night – or all of…
Russia’s believers reflect while its vegetarians rejoice as we get ready for special Lenten menus in meat-loving Moscow in the six weeks of Lent that precede Orthodox Easter. The week that announces the transition to Lent is Maslenitsa — seven days full of pancake (or in Russian, blini) eating and merriment. Running from March 4…
President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree suspending Russia‘s participation in the Cold War-era Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty with the United States, the Kremlin said on Monday. Russia announced last month it was suspending the treaty after the United States said it would withdraw because of violations by Moscow. Russia denies flouting the accord and has accused Washington of…
On March 4, 2018, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a park bench in southern England. After an investigation, British authorities said the two had been exposed to a military-grade nerve agent in an attempted murder carried out by agents of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency — a…
Russia’s top telecom operators are selling the location data of their clients for millions of dollars to Moscow’s City Hall, the Vedomosti business daily has reported. The Russian capital already fields one of the world’s largest facial-recognition systems, with 174,000 surveillance cameras expected to enter into operation this year. Meanwhile, new anti-terror legislation that entered…
Russia will do all possible to prevent a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, the state-run TASS news agency quoted the speaker of Russia‘s upper house of parliament as saying on Sunday. “We are very much concerned that the U.S. could carry out any provocations to shed blood, to find a cause and reasons for an intervention in…
Zhores Alferov, the 2000 Nobel Prize winner in physics and a member of Russia‘s parliament, has died aged 88 in St. Petersburg, the Russian Communist party said on Saturday. Alferov shared the nearly $1 million award, which recognized his research work in the 1970s in information technology which paved the way for computers, CD players and mobile…
There is no need for an excuse to listen to chamber music, but with spring still around the corner, March can call for a cozy indoor evening to lift your mood. And by now you might be ready for a change from the mulled wine and electric radiator that kept you going for the past…
A Russian court has sentenced five alleged Islamic State members this week over a plot to attack the French Embassy in Moscow, state media have reported. The fighters were detained in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia two years ago on suspicion of plotting a New Year’s Day attack on the embassy in 2017. A…
Moscow is gearing up to celebrate Maslenitsa — the week before Lent begins — in grand style with food, concerts and burning effigies. In recent years, Russia’s Mardi Gras or “pancake week” has seen a glamorous and all-frills revival in the large cities as municipal and regional administrations organize a week of public celebration. From…
Russia has lost an estimated 50 billion rubles ($760 million) in potential gun and ammo sales since international sanctions sealed off the U.S. market in 2014, the state-owned Rostec corporation has said. Russia’s estimated 4.5 million gun owners with 7.3 million registered small arms pale in comparison with the nearly 400 million civilian-owned firearms in…
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered state oil company PDVSA’s office in Lisbon to be relocated to Moscow, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said on Friday, a move she said was designed to help safeguard her country’s assets. Moscow has backed Maduro in the face of a political challenge from opposition leader Juan Guaido, who declared…
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Russia was helping Venezuela with supplies of wheat, but did not elaborate. He made the comment at a joint news conference with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who was visiting Moscow. Russia has supplied 64,100 tons of wheat to Venezuela so far in the 2018/19 marketing…
Pakistan’s foreign minister has said his country is willing to accept Russia’s offer to mediate between Pakistan and India, days after a military conflict erupted between the South Asian nuclear powers. India and Pakistan shot down each other’s fighter jets on Wednesday, a day after Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan for the first time since…
A one-time Russian opposition activist has taken a job at the Kremlin-run RT television channel, stirring heated debate among former colleagues and observers. Once described as the face of Russia’s opposition, Maria Baronova had recently headed the Moscow branch of the Open Russia pro-democracy movement. In 2012, she was detained and charged over her role…
On 28 February 2019, in Kigali, Rwanda, The State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom and the Ministry of Infrastructure of the Republic of Rwanda signed two memoranda of cooperation; on education and personnel training in the field of nuclear energy in Rwanda and on the formation of the positive public opinion on nuclear energy in the…
Russian authorities have ordered the release of nearly 100 whales held captive in cages in Russia’s Far East in a case that has drawn the ire of President Vladimir Putin, the public and international film stars, TASS news agency said on Thursday. Images of the whales, kept in cramped enclosures in a bay near the Sea of Japan…
Russia failed on Thursday in a bid for the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution that expressed support for a political solution in Venezuela and backed the Maduro government as the primary coordinator of international help. The Russian text only received four votes in favor. Four countries abstained and the rest of the 15-member council…