Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra Gives Its First Concert in Moscow
The Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra has had its first concert in Moscow within the tour through Russian and British cities.
Navalny Ally ‘Evacuates’ Electronics by Drone as Russian Police Stage Mass Raids
A supporter of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has filmed himself “evacuating” his hard drives on a drone as police closed in on his high-rise apartment building during nationwide mass raids. Navalny and his allies said police carried out more than 200 searches in 41 towns and cities, including Russia’s third-largest city of Novosibirsk, as part…
Yamal-Arctic 2019 Expedition Completes Polar Bear Survey
Supported by Rosneft Oil Company, the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Arctic Exploration Centre have conducted a scientific survey of polar bears on Bely Island and Vilkitsky Island, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.
Rosatom, WorldSkills Russia and BCG report: Human-centric skills development can boost GDP growth by up to 2%
A report published by global management consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG), WorldSkills Russia and Rosatom has identified new ways for governments and employers to address the growing skills crisis and boost economies. The research, Mission Talent– Mass Uniqueness: A Global Challenge for One Billion Workers, has been presented at the WorldSkills Conference 2019 in…
Russia Ready for Ukraine Peace Talks but Sets Preconditions
Russia is ready to take part in a four-way summit in Paris to try to breathe life into the stalled Ukrainian peace process but has strict preconditions for such a meeting, a senior Kremlin aide said on Friday. Kiev’s forces have been battling pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine since 2014 in a…
Domestic Violence Affects 1 in 3 Russians, Poll Says
Nearly one-third of Russia’s population has come face-to-face with domestic violence in their own families or among acquaintances, according to an independent survey published Friday. Russia decriminalized certain forms of domestic violence in 2017, a decision that top lawmakers have said was a mistake two years later. Activists say the absence of a domestic violence…
Ella Pamfilova, Villain of the Moscow Vote Protest Movement, Belongs to a Dying Breed
It was one of the defining moments of the summer: the budding leader of Moscow’s protest movement for fair elections and the official responsible for protecting Russians’ voting rights coming to verbal blows at a public hearing. “You are the talking head of the presidential administration. Shame on you,” Lyubov Sobol lobbed at Ella Pamfilova,…
Russian Priests Hit the Streets in St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg’s main thoroughfares were shut down Thursday for a grand Russian Orthodox procession. The occasion: celebrating the day in 1724 when Peter the Great transferred St. Alexander Nevsky’s saintly relics to St. Petersburg. Priests donned their finest golden robes for their walk down Nevsky Prospekt, the city’s main boulevard, and were reportedly joined by…
Russian Military Plants Flag at Northernmost Point of Eurasia
Russia has planted its flag on the northernmost tip of Eurasia to symbolize Russia’s desire to peacefully explore and develop the Arctic, the Northern Fleet said. The steel construction was erected on Cape Fligely, located at 81.5 degrees north on Rudolf Island in the remote archipelago of Franz Josef Land. Nothing but desolate Arctic waters lies to…
St. Petersburg Police Filmed Dragging Local Election Monitor as Critics Decry ‘Dirty’ Vote
Police in St. Petersburg have been filmed dragging a local election monitor out of a building as observers accuse officials in Russia’s second-largest city of staging the “dirtiest” campaign in the country. No official results have been declared in the five days since St. Petersburg held the municipal vote, leading some election commission members to…
Newfound Comet Likely an ‘Interstellar Visitor,’ Russian Scientists Say
A newly discovered comet hurtling toward the orbit of Mars has scientists scurrying to confirm whether it came from outside the solar system, a likely prospect that would make it the second such interstellar object observed in our planetary neighborhood. The trajectory of the comet, first detected by Crimean astronomer Gennady Borisov, follows a highly…
On This Day Alexander Rosenbaum Was Born
Alexander Rosenbaum was born into a medical family in Leningrad on Sept. 13, 1951. He qualified as a doctor, but became one of Russia’s most famous bards, or singing poets, best known for his so-called blatnaya pesnya songs about criminal subculture. His most popular songs are “Gop-Stop,” about two gangsters executing an unfaithful lover, and…
Russia Plans Excise Taxes on E-Cigarettes
Russia’s Healthcare Ministry has drafted a bill to introduce excise taxes on electronic cigarettes, Russian news agencies reported on Friday, citing minister Veronika Skvortsova. Russia has in the past decade tightened tobacco sales regulations as part of a wider campaign to reduce smoking. “The manufacturers of these products are actually pulling (people) into a new…
Officials ‘Punished’ for Letting Alleged CIA Spy Flee Russia – Interfax
Russian officials who had allowed a rumored CIA informant to violate a travel ban and subsequently flee to the United States have been “punished,” Interfax reported, citing an unnamed official familiar with the situation. U.S. media reports said a CIA informant in the Russian government had been extracted and brought to the U.S. in 2017.…
One of Russia’s Richest Men Has Become a Trip-Hop Music Artist
Igor Rybakov co-founded a roofing-supply company in Russia in the 1990s, becoming one of the country’s youngest billionaires. He stepped back four years ago to focus on managing his fortune and philanthropy. His latest endeavor is music. Rybakov, 47, released his debut album this month devoted to his wife Ekaterina. The five-track work mixes elements of trip-hop and pop,…
Putin Drinks Vodka to Russian Soldiers in North Caucasus
Russian President Vladimir Putin raised a shot of vodka to Russian soldiers on Thursday, while visiting the town of Botlikh in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan. Putin promised to visit Dagestan in June during annual phone-in conference. Botlikh resident said that Putin, then-Prime Minister visited the region during the days of armed conflict in…
Israel Must Be Allowed to Act Against Iran, Netanyahu Says in Russia
Israel must be allowed to act freely against Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday during a visit to Sochi, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss security coordination in Syria. The two leaders have met more than a dozen times in recent years and the countries’ militaries have been working…
Russian Military Discovers New Island in Remote Arctic Archipelago
The Russian military said it has discovered a new island in the Arctic where maps had previously shown a peninsula as climate change accelerates the disappearance of sea ice. The Defense Ministry last month confirmed the discovery of five new Arctic islands off the coast of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Russia has been increasing its…
Prague Will Remove Statue of Soviet Marshal Who Led Red Army Forces
A district assembly in Prague voted on Thursday to remove a statue of a Soviet World War Two marshal and replace it with a more general memorial following a row that has drawn in the Czech president and Russian authorities. The statue of Marshal Ivan Konev, who led the Red Army forces that liberated most…