Authorities in northern Russia have opened a criminal case against a 78-year-old woman for being a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the religious organization has said. Russia labeled the Jehovah’s Witnesses an “extremist” group in 2017, exposing Russia’s estimated 175,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses to mass raids and forcing at least 5,000 to flee the country. The…
Russia’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the authorities cannot refuse authorization for rallies over their inability to provide security, the state-run TASS news agency has reported. Authorities in the Siberian city of Irkutsk rejected activist Valery Teterin’s request to hold a rally last fall, citing Teterin’s inability to define how organizers would ensure public order…
On June 18, 1812 Russian writer Ivan Goncharov was born in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk). Born into a wealthy merchant family, Goncharov went to boarding school and university in Moscow before relocating to St. Petersburg where he worked as a government translator and private tutor. He served for nearly 30 years as an official: first in…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) searched a Moscow art gallery owned by prominent businessman David Yakobashvili on Tuesday as part of a criminal investigation, the state-run TASS news agency cited an unnamed security source as saying. Yakobashvili is a former juice magnate who has oil trade and real estate holdings. The search was carried out…
The share of Russians who believe that real men must serve in the military has reached a 22-year high, according to a recent survey published by the independent Levada Center pollster. Russia’s military and intelligence services are among the country’s most-trusted institutions, despite recent polls saying Russians have grown weary with their country’s military campaigns…
Release June 18, 2019, 16:00 Gazprom’s Coordinating Committee for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency held a meeting today. The meeting was moderated by Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Head of the Coordinating Committee. Taking part in the meeting were Gennady Sukhov, Member of the Company’s Management Committee, Head of Department, and heads of the structural units and subsidiaries of Gazprom. The meeting participants reviewed the…
A Moscow region official facing corruption charges has attempted suicide during a court hearing for a case he claims is politically motivated. Alexander Shestun, the former head of the Serpukhov district, was arrested last summer on abuse-of-office charges. According to investigators, in 2008-2014 Shestun illegally transferred four plots of public land to a private company,…
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that Western sanctions against Russia would not be lifted unless Ukraine’s sovereignty was restored. Merkel said she and visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had discussed the Minsk peace agreement, adding: “As long as there is no progress on this front, the sanctions cannot be lifted and the sanctions…
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President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on Monday that introduces fines for the unauthorized production or distribution of foreign print media. Russia has clamped down on the presence of foreign media in recent years. Since 2016, foreigners have been barred from owning more than 20 percent of media organizations, resulting in an exodus of…
Russia told the United States on Tuesday that it should drop what it called provocative plans to deploy more troops to the Middle East or risk war with Iran. The comments, from Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov to Russian news agencies, followed an announcement from Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan who said on Monday…
The government of the Brazilian state of Amazonas assigned the priority status to Rosneft’s project in the Solimões Basin.
A community of about 900 Roma in Russia’s Penza region have been forcibly relocated to the Volgograd region following a mass brawl with local residents, the investigative Novaya Gazeta newspaper has reported. A mass fight reportedly broke out between residents of the village of Chemodanovka and the local Roma community on June 13, resulting in…
Leonid Volkov, an aide to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has been released after serving a total of 28 days in jail for his role in organizing nationwide protests last year against an unpopular government decision to raise the pension age. Volkov had been sentenced in mid-May to 20 days in jail for the September 2018…
Russia’s population could decrease by half by the end of this century, a new United Nations demographic report has said. Russia has grappled with stagnating population growth in recent years despite the government’s efforts to reverse the trend as the country’s population ages and fewer people have children. In 2018, Russia’s population declined for the…