Month: May 2019

Out with the old, in with the new. Airports in dozens of Russian cities will now bear the names of their famous residents after President Vladimir Putin issued a decree on the name change Friday. Here’s a look at some of the newly minted names of some of Russia’s most popular airports. Hopefully, this will help…

Four out of 10 Russians believe their country is going in the wrong direction, a poll by the independent Levada Center polling agency said. Approval for Russia’s direction peaked at 61 percent in 2008 – the tail end of the economic boom – and at 60 percent shortly after the Crimean annexation in 2014. It…

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday he hopes that European Union sanctions on Russia will remain in place until Ukrainian territories are returned, according to a statement released on the presidential website. The West imposed sanctions on Russia following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and support for separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine. “Thank…

The Kremlin said on Friday it was Turkey’s responsibility to stop rebels in Syria’s Idlib province from firing on civilian and Russian targets, signaling it would continue to back a Syrian government offensive there despite Ankara’s protests. The month-long offensive, the biggest escalation of the war between President Bashar al-Assad and his enemies since last summer,…

The Kosovo government said on Friday that a Russian national working for the UN mission would not be allowed back into the country after his expulsion. It said the UN staffer, Mikhail Krasnoshchenkov, had been declared persona non grata. The UN mission, UNMIK, said on Thursday the Russian had sustained injuries when he was arrested during a…

Public trust in President Vladimir Putin has more than doubled hours after the Kremlin asked sociologists to explain why his trust and approval ratings differ. A state-funded survey published May 24 said that trust in Putin slipped to a 13-year low of 31.7 percent. The Kremlin on Thursday asked the VTsIOM pollster to explain how…

Russia has launched a powerful European-made communications satellite for the state energy giant Gazprom from Kazakhstan. Gazprom’s space subsidiary, Gazprom Space Systems, runs Yamal satellites to broadcast to customers in Russia, western and central Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. France’s Thales Alenia Space company manufactures the satellites for Gazprom. The Yamal-601 satellite launched…

The U.S. Department of Defense will ban space launch and satellite cooperation with Russia in 2023, the Pentagon said, drawing ire from Russia’s space agency. The U.S. has been trying to cut reliance on Russian-made rocket engines, eyeing 2022 as the latest deadline, amid strained relations. Last year, Russia’s top defense and space industry official…

Russia has deleted gay sex and drug scenes from the Russian-language version of a newly released Elton John biopic, the Dozhd TV news channel reported Friday. “Rocketman” premiers throughout Russia on June 6, but viewers in Moscow were treated to a prescreening on Thursday. A racy 40-second scene featuring two nude actors playing John and…

Russia has rejected an Iranian request to buy S-400 missile defense systems, concerned that the sale would stoke more tension in the Middle East, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, including a senior Russian official. The request was rebuffed by President Vladimir Putin, the people said on condition of anonymity because they’re…

The Yandex.Taxi ride-hailing service is in talks to add helicopters to its fleet of vehicles in Moscow, Russia’s Kommersant business daily reported Thursday. Several companies offer air taxi services in the Russian capital, one of which offers hour-long helicopter rides for the ruble equivalent of $708. Yandex.Taxi is in four-way discussions with Moscow City Hall,…

Russian border guards have detained two individuals who allegedly tried to make it illegally across the border to Norway. The two people, both of them citizens of Iraq, were detained as they were making an attempt to cross into the neighboring country. Neither of the detainees had needed travel documents and both were caught in…

Russian sociologists should explain President Vladimir Putin’s record-low trust levels amid his growing approval ratings, the Kremlin said on Thursday. A recent state-funded survey said that public trust in Putin has dropped to its lowest level since 2006. The same survey showed Putin’s approval rating grow from 61 percent in January to 65 percent this…

Protesters rallying against plans to build a landfill in northern Russia for Moscow’s waste have said they expect the authorities to tear down their camp amid the latest escalations this week, Russian media reported. Residents of Arkhangelsk region have for months demonstrated against the controversial $162 million landfill designed to take in Moscow’s garbage. Moscow…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Russia was only operating on its own territory after Japan accused Moscow of a military buildup on a chain of islands in the Pacific, the state-run RIA news agency reported. Russia has held the islands — known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils…

More Russians drank alcohol so far this year than they did in 2018, a survey by the state-funded VTsIOM agency has said. Sixty-seven percent of respondents said they had consumed alcohol between several times a week and less than once a month in 2019, the pollster said Thursday. Last year’s results said 57 percent of…

Russia’s ambassador to the United States on Thursday said a U.S. allegation that Moscow may be conducting banned nuclear tests was a calculated attempt to undermine nuclear arms control, Russian state television reported. The head of the U.S.’s Defense Intelligence Agency said on Wednesday that Russia may be conducting low-level nuclear testing that flouts the…

Riot police responded “appropriately” when its officers were filmed using force against young fans at a Moscow hip-hop festival earlier this month, the Russian National Guard said. At least 20 people were detained and charged during the Hip-Hop Mayday festival at Luzhniki Stadium on May 1. Authorities had reportedly said the violence erupted due to…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill that allows Russians living with HIV and other diseases to legally adopt children in their care. The changes were anticipated as part of Russia’s broader state strategy to combat the epidemic that has led to the deaths of 318,000 Russians in three decades. Russia’s 2016 strategy to…

Rising tensions between the Balkan countries of Serbia and Kosovo are the result of the European Union and NATO “appeasing” Kosovo, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday. The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday accused Kosovo of provocation after its police detained more than two dozen people, including one Russian national, during an armed raid…

Now that the final episode of HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones” has aired, a spectre may be haunting Westeros: The spectre of communism. Unsatisfied with the fate of the show’s heroes and villains, a branch of the Communists of Russia Party has penned an open letter to HBO and the show’s producers demanding a…

The United States believes Russia may be conducting low-level nuclear tests, a U.S. intelligence official on Wednesday, while the head of a body monitoring a global nuclear treaty said there was no sign of such violations by Moscow. Negotiated in the 1990s, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) enjoys wide global support but must be ratified…

The United States believes Russia may be conducting low-level nuclear testing in violation of a moratorium on such tests, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency said on Wednesday. “The United States believes that Russia probably is not adhering to its nuclear testing moratorium in a manner consistent with the ‘zero-yield’ standard,” Lieutenant General Robert P. Ashley said at…

Russians’ incomes will fall for a sixth consecutive year in 2019, experts from Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (HSE) and Russia’s Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) said. Russia’s Economic Development Ministry has projected real incomes to reverse the five-year slump and grow by 1 percent in 2019, based on a methodology…

Less than half of Russians would vote for President Vladimir Putin in a new presidential election, according to a closed state-run survey obtained by the RBC news website. Putin won reelection with nearly 77 percent of the vote in March 2018, extending his presidency for another six-year term. If the elections were held this Sunday,…

A news website in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg has been ordered to remove videos of protests against plans to build a church due to “extremist” comments. Mass protests against a controversial plan to build a new cathedral in a popular riverside park gained national attention this month as protesters clashed with vigilantes and riot…

Russia summoned Spain’s ambassador to Moscow on Tuesday after acting Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell referred to the country as an “old enemy,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. Borrell told Spanish newspaper El Periodico last week: “Russia, our old enemy, is once again saying, ‘here I am,’ and has returned as a threat,…

Major automakers are accusing courts in southern Russia of using consumer protection claims to scam them out of 200 million rubles ($3 million) in 2016-2018, the RBC news website reported Tuesday. Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes and Jaguar Land Rover filed a complaint with Russian authorities alleging that Krasnodar judges abuse the consumer protection system to seek…

Think of road bike racing and your mind turns to French Alps and Italian lakes rather than onion domes and birch forests. But the Gran Fondo Russia event, now in its fourth year, is establishing cycling in the country as a sport for both elite athletes and enthusiastic amateurs. The format was born in 1970…

Russians said they spent less on food, travel, clothes and other goods and services in 2019 than last year, a survey by Russia’s Romir researcher said Tuesday. Among those who said they had to cut spending, 24 percent said they saved on food, 29 percent on travel and 23 percent on clothes. Another 13 percent…

A controversial high school celebration in which students dressed in revealing outfits has divided Russian society over questions of morality and freedom of expression. Police issued fines and a headmistress submitted her resignation in the Far East city of Vladivostok after video of the would-be graduates celebrating the last days of school in leather shorts,…

Kosovo released a Russian national working for the United Nations on Tuesday, the United Nations mission in Kosovo said, after Moscow demanded that Pristina release him. The Russian was detained in a Serb-populated municipality in Kosovo’s north during a police operation there. The UN mission said the Russian and another UN staff member who was…

Russia has requested an official explanation from China over a reported new policy in which Russian citizens’ phones are randomly seized and searched by Chinese border guards. The Russian Consulate General in Guangzhou issued an advisory last week, warning that border guards at China’s Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport had begun to randomly select Russian travellers to…

A seventh-grade student attacked a classmate with an axe in central Russia on Tuesday in what appeared to be an act inspired by past school shootings. Authorities detained the 15-year-old in the Saratov region town of Volsk after he hit a 12-year-old girl in the head with an axe at school, Interfax reported. The teenager…

Russia‘s embassy in Serbia on Tuesday demanded that Kosovo immediately release a detained Russian national working at a United Nations mission in Kosovo, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported. The Russian national was detained in a Serb-populated municipality in Kosovo’s north during a police operation there, RIA said. “We demand the immediate release of the Russian and…

U.S. private equity manager Michael Calvey, whose February arrest on fraud charges shook Russia’s foreign-investment community, still wants to go to the Kremlin’s premier economic showcase in St. Petersburg next week. But he needs the permission of the country’s Investigative Committee to leave his Moscow apartment, where he’s being held under house arrest in a…

An associate of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a blogger from western Russia have become the latest individuals to be charged for online posts insulting President Vladimir Putin under a new law that bans “disrespect” toward authorities. People who show “blatant disrespect” online for the state, the authorities, the public, the Russian flag or the…

Recent mass protests against plans to replace a city park in central Russia with an Orthodox cathedral are akin to the execution of the country’s last royal family, the head of Yekaterinburg’s diocese said. Protests erupted in Russia’s fourth-largest city this month after fencing went up around a riverside park ahead of the church’s construction,…

The United States’ new foreign policy approach in Latin America goes against international law, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said after talks with his Cuban counterpart. U.S. national security advisor John Bolton has invoked the 1823 policy established by then-President James Monroe to warn other countries, including Russia and Cuba, against interfering in Venezuela.…

Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill has claimed that Russia constructs three new churches per day less than two weeks after mass protests erupted over the construction of a new cathedral in Yekaterinburg. The Orthodox Church’s influence has grown in recent years as it has received increased support from the Kremlin. Last year, Patriarch Kirill announced…

At least four journalists in the southern Russian city of Stavropol have been stabbed and wounded, regional authorities and media reports said on Monday.  The attack took place in the editorial office of the Russian Communist Party’s Rodina newspaper, the governor of Stavropol region said. The unnamed assailant was taken into custody, he added. The…