Year: 2019

Russian state experts confirmed that the slain father of three teenage daughters facing up to 20 years in jail for killing him had abused them, the sisters’ lawyers have announced Tuesday. The high-profile case has divided Russian society into those who say that Krestina, Angelina and Maria Khachaturyan acted in self-defense and those who view them…

The Labor Ministry has sent the Russian government a report outlining the pros and cons of introducing a four-day work week as discussions around shortening the work week have become increasingly widespread. The report, a response to the idea first proposed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev over the summer, was put together after consultations with…

In Russia, the first of the month is often marked with a slew of new laws and rules coming into effect. This October is no exception. Life will change for Russians in ways both big and small starting today. Here’s a look at some of the new rules and laws taking effect: Fire safety Starting…

A Russian football fan has been sentenced to one year in prison for punching a riot police officer in a brawl involving ultras at St. Petersburg’s Gazprom Arena earlier this year. Riot police charged a crowd of football fans outside the stadium during halftime of an Aug. 3 Russian Premier League match between FC Zenit…

Gennady Laguteev remembers the day a shell landed in his garden and destroyed his veranda. It was Aug. 5, 2014, just after the war between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces had erupted in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbass.  “I kept the chair I used to sit in out there, even though it was…

Russia remains a nation of heavy drinkers, but alcohol consumption has fallen 43% from 2003 to 2016, a key factor in the country’s rapid rise in life expectancy, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday.  Alcohol consumption fell in the mid-1980s due to a campaign by the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, but rates exploded…

Russia’s Investigative Committee said Tuesday that one of its employees, senior investigator Vladislav Kapustin, was stabbed to death at the entrance to its central office in Moscow. “The attacker was arrested,” spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement.  A disheveled eyewitness told the Znak.com news website she was in the middle of a conversation with…

Russian border guards have detained 87 North Korean poachers and 11 small vessels in waters in the Sea of Japan which Moscow considers its own exclusive economic zone, the Interfax news agency said on Tuesday. It is the third such round-up of North Korean fishermen in recent weeks amid what the Kremlin has said is…

The United States has imposed sanctions on two Russians over their alleged involvement in the Internet Research Agency, a Russian organization accused of interfering in U.S. elections. The Internet Research Agency is believed to be financed by billionaire restaurateur Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as President Vladimir Putin’s “chef.” A U.S. special counsel indicted Prigozhin and 12…

A veterans’ hospital in Russia’s fourth-largest city has banned a transgender hairstylist from volunteering to give free haircuts to its elderly patients. A local charity in Yekaterinburg had put out a call for stylists, makeup artists and hairdressers to provide beauty services to the hospital’s patients at no cost. Marta Katasrofa, a transgender hairdresser, was…

Russia plans to build its own reusable Argo rocket to compete with Elon Musk and supply the International Space Station (ISS) by 2024, the RBC news website reported Monday. Russia has previously accused Musk’s SpaceX of squeezing it out of the carrier rockets market with the company’s relatively low-cost Falcon 9 rockets. Last year, Russia’s…

The Kremlin said on Monday that Washington would need Russian consent to publish transcripts of phone calls between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Congress is determined to get access to Trump’s calls with Putin and other world leaders, the U.S. House Intelligence Committee’s chairman said on Sunday, citing concerns that the Republican…

A majority of Russians charged under a law banning “blatant disrespect” toward the authorities have been disrespectful toward President Vladimir Putin, according to research by the Agora human rights group. Sept. 29 marked six months since Russia imposed up to 300,000 rubles in fines and 15 days in jail for repeated “blatant disrespect” toward government…

At least 600 people gathered to protest police brutality in the Far East Russian republic of Buryatia on Sunday following the detention of an anti-Putin shaman’s supporters and a disputed local vote. Demonstrations erupted in the city of Ulan-Ude this month to demand the release of the shaman’s detained supporters as well as a rerun…

In the two weeks since attacks blamed on missiles or drones shut down half of Saudi Arabia’s oil output, the country that has arguably moved most deftly to position itself for any upside is Russia. Within hours of the attacks, Moscow’s state arms exporter said it would hold talks with countries in the Middle East…

The head of Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA has called for a full overhaul in the country’s sports management that would include the dismissal of state officials involved in an ongoing doping scandal.  RUSADA finds itself on the brink of suspension for the second time over alleged manipulation of anti-doping laboratory data which has sparked concern…

Russian authorities have extinguished the remaining forest fires in Siberia that covered an area the size of Belgium and caused at least $100 million worth of damage at their peak. Huge swathes of Siberia and Russia’s Arctic have been engulfed in wildfires this summer, with smog reaching major cities in the area. Major social media…

A Russian court on Monday quashed the jail sentence of an aspiring actor whose conviction for injuring a police officer on the sidelines of an opposition protest triggered a public outcry over alleged police brutality and judicial injustice. Footage of Pavel Ustinov’s arrest on Aug. 3 showed four national guardsmen in riot gear suddenly grabbing him…

Thousands of Russians rallied in Moscow on Sunday to demand the release of protesters jailed in what Kremlin opponents say is a campaign to stifle dissent. The protesters were arrested during demonstrations that began in July against the exclusion of many opposition candidates from a local election, and allegations of police brutality and what many…

This summer, after a Russian biochemist announced plans to follow in the footsteps of a rogue Chinese researcher and produce genetically modified children, a 150-year-old academic journal that reflects the current scientific consensus called on the world to stop him. “Time is of the essence,” Nature said. The dangers of altering human DNA that will be…

Russia has delivered its second batch of weapons to the Central African Republic (CAR) in two years, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said. Russia has stepped up its activities in Africa in recent years with military support, nuclear energy and other services in exchange for mining rights. Moscow donated hundreds of weapons and sent…

A paper trail linked to the suspect in the killing of a Georgian citizen in Berlin suggests Russia provided “active support” to the suspect, according to an international team of investigators.  Germany last month arrested a man who goes by the name Vadim Sokolov on suspicion of killing Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, who fought alongside anti-Moscow separatists…

State Duma deputy and notorious anti-gay crusader Vitaly Milonov wants to ban gender-inclusive Barbie dolls from Russia, referring to them as “freak dolls.” Toy manufacturer Mattel unveiled a gender-inclusive line of its iconic Barbie dolls Wednesday, to allow children “to express themselves freely.” The dolls, which are designed without stereotypically male or female features, come…

At 15 years old, Margarita Naumenko is one of the youngest participants in Russia‘s Fridays for Future climate protest movement. Each week, she stands in downtown Moscow with other young activists chanting, brandishing posters and demanding the government take action on worsening climate change threats. Her parents support her decision to protest, Naumenko said, but they…

People identified as Federal Security Service (FSB) officers have questioned an eco-activist in Russia’s Arctic city of Murmansk ahead of Friday’s authorized Climate Strike protest there, the activist has said. Russia was largely absent from the Global Climate Strike last week, where 4 million people in 200 countries took to the streets calling for global…

Russia‘s parliament will ask its Foreign Ministry to consider revoking broadcaster Deutsche Welle’s right to work in the country for allegedly breaking laws on political impartiality, a senior lawmaker said on Friday. Vasily Piskarev said a parliamentary investigation had found evidence that Germany’s publicly funded international broadcaster had urged Russians to attend an unauthorized protest this…

The Kremlin has said it hopes that discussions between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will remain secret following the scandal that erupted over Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s leader. Transcripts from Trump and Putin’s face-to-face meetings have not been made public, with reports saying Trump has gone to “extraordinary lengths” to conceal…

A Russian gay couple whose adoption of two children sparked criminal proceedings against social services officials have requested asylum in the United States, the LGBT group Coming Out has said. Authorities opened a criminal negligence case against Moscow’s social welfare officials in July for allowing the couple to “form distorted ideas about family values in…

A theater in Russia’s fourth-largest city has been fined for its lack of provisions in case of nuclear war. The Cold War-era practice of training civilians on procedures to take in the event of a nuclear attack has grown more commonplace in recent years amid strained relations between Russia and the West. The Emergency Situations Ministry…

NATO has rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calls to suspend deployment of missiles in Europe that were banned under a recently abandoned U.S.-Russian nuclear pact. The Kommersant business daily reported and the Kremlin confirmed Putin’s offer, which came amid concerns that Russia and the U.S. are headed toward an arms race after Washington exited the…

Russia detained three North Korean vessels and more than 200 crew on Friday in the second such incident in two weeks as part of a clampdown on poaching by the secretive nation’s fishermen. The detentions mark rare confrontation between North Korea and Russia, which sees itself as an important player in international talks on defusing nuclear tensions…

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a firm it said was participating in a scheme to avoid U.S. sanctions while helping provide jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria. The U.S. Treasury Department said the newly sanctioned firm, Maritime Assistance LLC, was operating as a front company for OJSC Sovfracht, a company the United…

Russia is expanding its Hmeimim airbase in Syria and rebuilding a second landing strip to allow the facility to serve more aircraft, Russian news agencies cited an unnamed Defense Ministry official as saying on Thursday. The ministry has also set up new buildings to house aircraft at the site that will defend against drone attacks, the official…

A celebrated Russian priest who adopted 70 children has been arrested on suspicion of pedophilia. Father Nikolai Stremsky, said to be the patriarch of Russia’s largest family and a recipient of a prize established by the Red Cross and Russian government, was reportedly detained Tuesday. Local media reported that authorities first opened a criminal investigation…

A whistleblower report released by a congressional panel on Thursday said President Donald Trump used his office to solicit Ukraine’s interference in the 2020 election to advance his personal political interests, risking U.S. national security. The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee released a declassified version of the report made by the whistleblower, which…

Russia said on Thursday that Belarus’s refusal to host a military airbase backed by President Vladimir Putin had been an “unpleasant episode,” a rare public display of disagreement between the close allies. Russia and Belarus are members of a largely symbolic union state and are in talks to deepen their integration, but the airbase spat illustrates the…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Moscow wants to end the five-year war in eastern Ukraine, Zelenskiy has said.  More than 13,000 people have been killed since the conflict between pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian government erupted in the region known as the Donbass in 2014. Sporadic fighting continues despite…

Today, tourists tend to choose to travel to Iceland or Norway to get a taste of the Arctic experience. The establishment of a new special customs zone in Russia has the possibility to change that, Alexander Kirilov, the director of the Russian Arctic National Park, said in a statement issued by the Natural Resources Ministry. …

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This story was updated on Sept. 26 at 11:42 a.m. A Russian trawler that caught fire in the northern Norwegian port of Tromsø capsized and sank Thursday morning after burning for nearly 24 hours, the Defense Ministry’s Zvezda television channel has reported. Negligence during welding work is suspected to have caused the fire, Russia’s consul…

Russia can overcome its gender-related issues by legalizing polygamy, the leader of Moscow’s Muslims has said.  Polygamy, the practice of taking more than one spouse, is frowned upon by an overwhelming majority of Russians. While polygamy is not permitted under Russian law, it remains commonplace in the country’s predominantly Muslim republics of the North Caucasus.…

For U.S. President Donald Trump, White House publication on Wednesday of a memo summarizing his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy fuelled a domestic political crisis. For Zelenskiy, it was a far-reaching diplomatic disaster. Zelenskiy’s comments to the Republican Trump, disclosed in the summary, will likely irk U.S. Democrats, risking the bipartisan U.S. support Kiev…

President Donald Trump pressed Ukraine’s leader to investigate Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden, in coordination with the U.S. attorney general and Trump’s personal lawyer, according to a summary of a telephone call released by the Trump administration on Wednesday. The official account of the half-hour July call with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy laid bare an astonishing…