Moscow is celebrating this year’s Night in the Museum with a record 356 events at 200 venues — and keeping the doors open until 6 a.m. The theme is “Live in the Museum” with events designed to let you study, listen, experience, see, create and stroll in some of the city’s best, biggest, smallest and…
International scientists criticised on Friday a Russian plan to release 10 captive killer whales into the Sea of Japan rather than return them to their original habitat, saying it could endanger the mammals’ lives. The plight of the orcas, which are being held with 87 beluga whales in cramped conditions in a bay near the port…
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
The United States shares counterterrorism, North Korean denuclearization and Afghan reconciliation interests with Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said after his visit to Russia. Pompeo’s trip marked the first high-profile U.S. visit to Russia since allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and an investigation rankled bilateral relations. Though the…
Background Vasily Dinkov (1924–2001) was an eminent figure in the history of the Russian fuel and energy complex. He served as Minister of the USSR Gas Industry in 1981–1985 and as Minister of the USSR Oil Industry in 1985–1989. Gazprom secured the subsurface use licenses for the Rusanovsky and Nyarmeysky licensed blocks in 2013. Since then, 3D seismic surveys covering 5,790 square kilometers have been carried out within…
Greenpeace will receive 2.7 million euros ($3 million) from Russia under a settlement reached between the Dutch state and Moscow, the environmental group said on Friday. The agreement should end years of legal battles following the seizure by Russian authorities of a Dutch-flagged Greenpeace vessel, the Arctic Sunrise, in 2013 and the arrest of 30…
YEKATERINBURG — Thousands of residents of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains who have been protesting the construction of a new church in the city’s central park have vowed to keep up their vigil until they hear an official announcement the project has been canceled. The Mayor of Yekaterinburg, Alexander Vysokinsky and local governor Yevgeny Kuivashev…
On May 18, International Museum Day, most museums, art galleries, and churches in St. Petersburg will be open to the public from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and can be visited with a single ticket. Tickets — at the very reasonable price of 400 rubles — can be purchased all street theater kiosks. Events are…
Ukrainian ports have lost $400 million in potential revenue from Russia’s seizure of Crimea and its chokehold on a key shipping passage with a bridge that connects the peninsula to mainland Russia, The Financial Times reported. President Vladimir Putin inaugurated the $4 billion bridge on May 15, 2018, with a ceremonial truck ride across its…
Foreign ministers from the Council of Europe, the continent’s chief human rights watchdog, reached an agreement on Friday that opens the way for Russia to return to the organization, resolving a dispute that began after Moscow’s seizure of Crimea. The agreement follows efforts by France and Germany to find a compromise among the 47-nation group…
It’s Eurovision Song Contest time again, and Russia’s Sergei Lazarev has made it to Saturday’s final with a horror-themed ballad. The annual celebration of kitsch — which is more famous for its over-the-top staging and shameless political voting than the quality of the music — takes place in Israel this year, and the guest…
The Kremlin said on Friday it would respond in kind to a new round of U.S. sanctions on Russian nationals, saying its retaliation would be consistent with Russia’s national interest. The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Chechen group and five people, including at least three Russians, over allegations of human rights abuses,…
Russia’s state-run television has canceled the results of a popular children’s singing competition after cyber experts uncovered online vote-rigging that favored the 11-year-old daughter of a celebrity and a banker. Channel One hired the Group-IB international cybersecurity firm to investigate claims that “The Voice Kids”’ vote-by-phone system was tampered with in April. Group-IB’s initial investigation…
On 17 May, a contract for engineering survey to be undertaken at the NPP construction site was signed in Tashkent with a view of further NPP detail design development. The documents were signed by Otabek Amanov, NPP Construction Director, Uzatom, and Dmitry Ashanin, Deputy Director for Prospective Projects, Atomstroyexport (a company of ROSATOM engineering…
Billions of rubles have been funneled out of Russia’s federal Roscosmos space agency over the past five years in corruption schemes, the country’s top investigator has revealed this week. Prosecutors uncovered 1.6 billion rubles ($24.6 million) worth of fraud in the Roscosmos and the Rostec state-run defense corporation last year. Overall, fraud involving Russian state-run…
Venezuela would like Moscow to help it restructure its external debt to other countries, Russia’s RIA news agency cited Venezuela’s ambassador in Geneva as saying on Friday. Asked whether sanctions-hit Venezuela would like to receive debt-restructuring assistance from Russia, the ambassador was quoted as saying: “Yes.”
The head of a highly secretive branch of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has been charged for $850,000 bribery three weeks after his detention, the RBC news website reported Thursday. Colonel Kirill Cherkalin headed the FSB economic security department’s financial counterintelligence support unit. The department played key roles in investigations surrounding former economy minister Alexei…