Day: November 1, 2019

In his first interview since being released in a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine, key MH17 witness Vladimir Tsemakh said Dutch and Australian officials offered him Dutch citizenship and a house in the Netherlands during interrogations. Tsemakh, a Ukrainian citizen, was kidnapped in the Donbass by Ukranian security services on June 27. He had…

Four Russians have been rescued after being stranded in below-freezing temperatures in a remote Arctic region, The Siberian Times newspaper reported Friday. Three men and one woman had been traveling a 270-kilometer distance from the village of Berezovka to the town of Srednekolymsk in the republic of Sakha when their two snowmobiles broke down in…

A Russian plane was forced to make an emergency landing when its engine failed shortly after takeoff from the Siberian city of Tyumen, the state-run TASS news agency reported Friday. There were 80 passengers and six crew members on board the flight, Interfax reported. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 operated by Yamal Airlines was flying from…

Russia’s Supreme Court has disbanded veteran activist Lev Ponomaryov’s civil rights group months after authorities labeled it a “foreign agent,” Interfax reported Friday. Russia’s Justice Ministry blacklisted For Human Rights as a foreign agent alongside two of Ponomaryov’s other NGOs in February after an inspection into its political activity while receiving funding from abroad. Ponomaryov,…

A Moscow court has ordered catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin’s company to compensate the parents of schoolchildren who suffered food poisoning last year, Interfax reported Friday. The parents sued Prigozhin’s business alongside other companies, schools and officials this spring for the December 2018 dysentery outbreak in several state-run daycare centers and kindergartens. Officials confirmed 127 overall…

Hundreds of millions of dollars in cash has been shipped from Russia to Venezuela, providing a lifeline to the South American country as U.S. sanctions limit its access to the global financial system. A total of $315 million of U.S. dollar and euro notes were sent in six separate shipments from Moscow to Caracas from…

A fresh roster of forecasts and data on the Russian economy suggests slow growth and low inflation coupled with robust corporate performance will mark the final two months of the year. Meanwhile, economy-watchers remain fixed on a crucial Central Bank meeting in December and are divided over whether Bank of Russia governor Elvira Nabiullina will…

Israel has suspended the extradition to the U.S. of a Russian hacker after Russia proposed to swap him for an Israeli woman jailed in Russia over airport marijuana possession, The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday.  In mid-October, Russia asked Israel to swap Alexei Burkov, who is wanted in the U.S. on charges of credit card fraud,…

Russian investigators have opened a genocide case on the murder of more than 200 disabled children in southern Russia by Nazi Germany during World War II based on newly declassified documents. German death squads on Oct. 9-10, 1942, killed 214 disabled foster children who had fled Crimea for the coastal town of Yeysk, according to…

The first business owner who returned to Russia after appearing on the so-called ‘Titov list’ has been sentenced to three years in a penal colony for fraud, Russian media reported Friday. Andrey Kokovin, who returned to Russia from the U.K. last year, was found guilty of stealing 10 million rubles from his Rostov-based company in…

The U.S. State Department warned on Thursday that it had seen indications of Russian “influence” on recent unrest in Chile, where two weeks of protests and riots have rocked the administration of President Sebastian Pinera. A senior State Department official said there were “clear indications” people were taking advantage of the unrest in Chile —…

Turkey has handed over 18 men believed to be Syrian government soldiers who were seized in northeast Syria near the Turkish border earlier this week, the Turkish Defense Ministry said late on Thursday. The ministry did not say who they were handed over to, but said it came about “as a result of the coordination…

When the chairman of Russia’s Committee on Informational Policy, Leonid Levin, stepped on stage in Moscow’s Lomonosov building on Oct. 28  to give a speech during the second All-Russian Digital Forum he couldn’t have chosen a better place. The venue is not just the home of Russia’s fastest supercomputer, it’s also overshadowed by the iconic…

Starting this month, a slew of new laws and rules has entered into effect in Russia that will change different aspects of life in the country, including regulations of the internet, the ability to top up e-wallets and make religious pilgrimages. Here’s a look at three major laws that came into effect Nov. 1: Sovereign…

Russia and Serbia have carried out successive joint military exercises in the past week, including Russia’s first use of its advanced S-400 missile defense system abroad. Analysts argue that Serbia pursues close ties with fellow Orthodox Christian and majority-Slavic Russia to gain leverage for maneuvering with the West. Serbia is negotiating entry into the European…