A Russian court on Wednesday released three men who were taken into custody last year in an embezzlement case against the Baring Vostok private equity group, placing them under house arrest instead, the RIA news agency reported. The men, including two Baring Vostok executives, were detained a year ago along with their colleagues, U.S. investor…
A swimming pool in southern Russia that banned women has been ordered to reverse its decision, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday. The prosecutor’s office in the majority Muslim republic of Dagestan ruled that the Anzhi Arena’s actions were illegal and a violation of human rights, although it stopped short of calling the ban discrimination.…
An elite apartment registered under Queen Elizabeth II’s name is up for sale in central Moscow, the online tabloid 7days.ru reported Tuesday. “Her Majesty the Queen, who rules over Canada” is listed as the owner of at least four low-rise block apartments overlooking Christ the Savior Cathedral, Russian media reported last year. The properties belong…
Police in the central Russian city of Penza detained and allegedly pressured a group of activists who had come to support jailed members of an anti-fascist group, Russian media reported Tuesday. Seven members of the group Set — Russian for “Network” — were sentenced to up to 18 years on terrorism charges in Penza on…
A Dubai appeal court has dismissed a freezing order on a $436 million superyacht belonging to a Russian billionaire at the center of one of the world’s costliest divorce battles, according to a copy of the final ruling reviewed by Reuters. But it is still not clear whether superyacht M.V. Luna, impounded in 2018, will…
February 12, 2020 marks what would be the 139th birthday of prima ballerina Anna Pavlova. The originator of several iconic roles and styles, Pavlova’s name remains synonymous with brilliance in the world of ballet. Despite her legacy as a pioneer of dance, Pavlova was far from a natural talent. Born prematurely in St. Petersburg of…
Vladimir Putin’s surprise firing of Russia’s government and unveiling of constitutional changes that would weaken the presidency may only be Plan B for retaining power after his final term ends in 2024. In the month before Putin’s Jan. 15 announcement, he’d pushed hard to convince his longer-serving counterpart in Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, to revive a…
Facebook on Wednesday said it had suspended a network of accounts used by Russian military intelligence to seed false narratives online targeting Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe. “Although the people behind this network attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation found links to Russian military intelligence services,” Facebook said in a…
A former department head of Russia’s prison service has died by suicide in court, media outlets reported Wednesday. Viktor Sviridov, who was attending his sentencing on extortion charges during his time as head of the Federal Prison Service’s transport department, did not survive the attempt to take his own life. The court had reportedly sentenced…
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The Kremlin on Wednesday accused Turkey of flouting agreements it had made with Russia to neutralize militants in the Syrian province of Idlib and said militant attacks on Syrian and Russian forces in the region were continuing. The Kremlin made its comments after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his country’s military would strike Russian-backed Syrian…
Update: The chief sanitary doctor at the Botkinskaya clinic has filed a lawsuit against Ilyina, the state-run TASS news agency reported Thursday. After two days of solitary confinement, freedom tasted sweet to Alla Ilyina. The 32-year old housewife had been quarantined in St. Petersburg’s Botkinskaya clinic since she went for a check-up after returning from…
A Russian submarine officer in Syria has been discharged for drinking and cursing at President Vladimir Putin’s portrait, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday. Captain lieutenant Oleg Lavrenchuk was said to have consumed alcohol with five other service members in June 2019 after finding out that their tour in Syria would be extended. Lavrenchuk initially…
Portugal has frozen the bank accounts of Africa’s richest woman Isabel dos Santos, who claims Russian citizenship by birth and is suspected of fraud in her native Angola. Dos Santos, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $2 billion, was born in Azerbaijan 46 years ago when it was still part of the Soviet Union. The…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has ordered some of the country’s major internet companies to give it continuous access to their systems, The Bell investigative website reported late on Tuesday, citing three sources at the firms. It said the measure would affect a string of Russian internet services that have been added to a list…
Russia has reported its first two cases of coronavirus and said the infected people were Chinese citizens who had been isolated. As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 1,000 people continues to spread around the world, Russia has stepped up measures to tackle the health risk, including closing most entry points along its…
Public trust in President Vladimir Putin has nearly halved in two years, according to the independent Levada Center’s survey published Wednesday. Only 35% of Russian respondents said they trust Putin in January 2020, Levada said. Putin’s trust rating stood at 59% in November 2017. “The decline began long ago,” Levada chief Lev Gudkov told the…
Russia will tap its National Wealth Fund (NWF) to buy the central bank’s stake in Sberbank, ending years of debate about potential conflicts of interest arising from the central bank controlling the country’s top lender. The sale at market price, discussed at Russia’s top-level since late last year, will also help fund social pledges made…
Russia discharged a Chinese national from hospital in the Siberian city of Chita on Wednesday after he recovered from a coronavirus infection, local authorities said. He was the second of Russia‘s two confirmed cases of coronavirus to recover. The other patient, also a Chinese national, was said by authorities on Tuesday to have recovered and been released…
Four aspiring astronauts from India have embarked on a 12-month training program in Russia, Russia’s space launch service provider announced Monday. They are expected to go into orbit on board the three-person Gaganyaan spacecraft sometime in late 2021 or mid-2022. The mission — which is set to be India’s first manned space flight — was estimated…
It was late November in St. Petersburg, and, like many residents of the frigid northern city as winter set in, Taisiya Sheremet caught a cold. But for the 17-year-old cystic fibrosis patient, common colds don’t get better in a few days. Because the disease primarily affects the respiratory system, a sniffle can lead to a…