Month: February 2020

China, Russia, France, Germany and Britain will meet with Iran in Vienna on Feb. 26 to discuss how to uphold the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, the European Commission said in a statement on Tuesday. Britain, France and Germany formally accused Iran on Jan. 14 of violating the terms of the 2015 arms control agreement…

The square in Prague where Russia‘s embassy is located is to be renamed after Boris Nemtsov, the Czech capital said on Monday, joining cities like Washington and Kiev in commemorating the murdered opposition leader. Nemtsov, one of Russia President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics, was shot dead in February 2015 as he walked across a bridge near Moscow’s…

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders warned Russia on Friday to stay out of 2020 White House elections after U.S. officials had told him Moscow was trying to aid his campaign. “The intelligence community is telling us they are interfering in this campaign, right now, in 2020. And what I say to Mr. Putin, if elected…

Two Russian sailors have been sentenced to a combined 395 years in prison in Greece for trafficking migrants, the RBC news website reported Friday. The sailors claim that they were initially hired to tow yachts and then received threats when they objected to trafficking people, human rights activist Ivan Melnikov told RBC. Interfax identified them…

The Kremlin on Friday denied it was interfering in the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign to boost Republican President Donald Trump’s re-election chances following reports that American intelligence officials warned Congress about the election threat last week. U.S. intelligence officials told members of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee in a classified briefing last week that…

An American cancer-medicine inventor has been arrested in Russia on suspicion of bribery, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday. Gene Miron Spektor is accused of giving 4 million rubles ($64,000) in the form of two holiday packages to Thailand and the Dominican Republic to a former cabinet official’s assistant in 2015 and 2016. The alleged…

Norway has rejected Russian accusations of violating the terms of an international treaty regulating activities on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, as a diplomatic spat over Russian operations there escalated. Russia complained earlier in February that Oslo-imposed rules were restricting activities of Russian organizations there, calling for bilateral consultations, and on Thursday accused Norway of…

Deadly fighting has led Russia and Turkey to the brink of conflict in Syria as the battle over the war-torn country’s final rebel bastions intensified this week.  Turkish forces and Syrian rebels fought government troops Thursday and Russian warplanes struck back in a sharp escalation in northwest Syria’s Idlib, Russian and Turkish officials said. Moscow…

“If you ask me, I would say ‘kill borders’ — they don’t need to exist at all,” says Alexander Galitsky, pushing his closed notebook to the side as he warms to his topic.  “All these borders and all these rules exist only for politicians. We don’t have borders with each other. We have only political…

Around 2,500 people arriving in Moscow from China have been ordered to be placed under quarantine for the coronavirus and are being monitored by the Russian capital’s facial-recognition technology, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Friday. All arriving passengers from China are required to undergo a physical examination and coronavirus test at the airport, Sobyanin wrote on…

U.S. intelligence agencies have said that Russia is interfering in the country’s 2020 election in an effort to help re-elect President Donald Trump, The New York Times reported Thursday. One source said Trump complained that his Democratic Party opponents would “weaponize” the intelligence about his support from Russian operatives eight months ahead of the vote.…

As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 2,000 people continues to spread around the world, Russia has stepped up measures to tackle the health risk, including closing most entry points along its 4,200-kilometer border with China and temporarily banning Chinese citizens from entering the country.  Russia reported its first two cases of coronavirus…

Britain and the United States joined Georgia on Thursday in blaming Russia for a large-scale cyber attack last year that knocked thousands of Georgian websites offline and disrupted national television broadcasts. Up to 15,000 state, private and media websites were taken out by unknown hackers on Oct. 28, including those belonging to the Georgian president’s…

Turkey said two of its soldiers were killed and five others wounded in Syrian government air strikes in northwest Syria on Thursday, bringing Turkish military fatalities to 15 so far this month in the Idlib region. Turkey’s defense ministry said more than 50 Syrian forces members had been killed in retaliation in Idlib, where nearly…

As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 2,000 people continues to spread around the world, Russia has stepped up measures to tackle the health risk, including closing most entry points along its 4,200-kilometer border with China and temporarily banning Chinese citizens from entering the country.  Russia reported its first two cases of coronavirus…

Russia’s far northern territories, border areas and closed military towns could be directly governed by the federal government in Moscow, a leading member of the parliamentary group that is drafting a package of amendments to Russia’s Constitution has said. Senator Andrei Klishas suggested subjecting parts of the country’s Arctic territories and other areas directly to…

A road rage incident between Russian and U.S. combat vehicles was caught on video in Syria at a time of heightened tensions between the two forces in the war-torn country. A bystander caught the moment when a U.S. Oshkosh M-ATV ran what appears to be a Russian Tigr armored car off the busy road as…

As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…

As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…

TikTok is best known as the app that launched a thousand memes and viral challenges.  But health officials in southern Russia now plan to spread awareness about the country’s HIV crisis using the popular video-sharing platform, the Open Media news website reported Wednesday, citing public procurement files. The initiative follows the release of popular journalist…

Turkey and Russia are discussing the possibility of joint patrols as one means of reaching a deal that will halt fighting and counter the exodus of civilians in Syria’s Idlib region, a Turkish official said on Thursday. This statement came a day after Ankara threatened military action to push back Syrian government forces. Although two…

Russian lawmakers from the Communist Party have prepared a new amnesty bill to release prisoners jailed after last summer’s mass opposition rallies in Moscow, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday. Twenty people have been convicted on charges of “mass unrest” and assault of law enforcement officers after tens of thousands took to the streets in…

For the first time in more than a decade, businesswoman Yelena Baturina is no longer Russia’s wealthiest woman, Forbes Russia reported Thursday. That honor now goes to Tatyana Bakalchuk, 44, the founder and head of the private online clothing retailer Wildberries. Both Baturina and Bakalchuk cemented their status as Russia’s only women billionaires last year.…

President Vladimir Putin has dished on Russia’s cabinet reshuffle for the first time since his sweeping shake-up of the government which led to the resignation of his longtime ally, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, last month. Putin replaced Medvedev with little-known former tax chief Mikhail Mishustin as part of a wider push to jump-start Russia’s economy,…

U.S. President Donald Trump offered to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange if he said that Russia had nothing to do with WikiLeaks’ publication of Democratic Party emails in 2016, a London court heard on Wednesday. Assange appeared by videolink from prison as lawyers discussed the management of his hearing next week to decide whether he should be…

Two Russian citizens from a quarantined cruise ship have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, bringing the total number of infected Russian nationals to three, Russia’s Embassy in Japan said Thursday. One Russian passenger of the Diamond Princess liner has been hospitalized on suspicion of contracting the virus, the embassy said Tuesday. More than 620 passengers…

President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday he believes “it’s tough” to live on a minimum wage in Russia. In a video shared on social media, a member of the public can be seen confronting Putin at a memorial marking the 20th anniversary of the death of his former boss and St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. “I…

Cossacks have begun patrolling a predominantly Chinese neighborhood in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg in search of signs of the coronavirus, the Znak.com news website reported Wednesday. Russia temporarily banned entry to Chinese nationals starting Thursday in an attempt to prevent the spread of the disease, which has killed more than 2,000 people in mainland…

Russia’s exports to China dropped by almost a third in the first six weeks of the year as the spread of coronavirus sapped demand in the world’s second-biggest economy. Exports dropped 21% to 620,000 tons year-on-year in January and halved to 118,000 tons in the first 10 days of February, the Izvestia newspaper reported Wednesday,…

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday a military operation by his forces to push back a Syrian government offensive against rebels in northwest Syria was now “a matter of time” after talks with Russia failed to halt the assault. Turkish troops have already massed inside the Idlib region and more were heading to the border area,…

Chinese diplomats were at a loss after Russia barred entry to Chinese citizens as a coronavirus prevention measure, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday.  Russia announced the temporary entry ban for Chinese tourists, workers, students and private travelers starting Thursday. The suspension does not affect non-Chinese nationals traveling from China, and Chinese transit passengers will…

State media in Russia is reveling in the scandal of an exiled Russian activist in France who shared a sexually explicit video that punctured the political career of one of Emmanuel Macron’s top allies. Petr Pavlensky and his partner, the woman who reportedly received the explicit messages from Benjamin Griveaux that were released last week,…

On a chilly April morning in 2019, four North Korean men arrived unannounced at the Verona stud farm in Moscow’s elite suburb of Rublyovka in search of a perfect white Welsh pony for the son of their Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un.  They settled on Sansa, an exceptional three-year-old that had won awards across Russia. “One…

As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…

U.S. authorities in Miami arrested a Mexican citizen who had been recruited by a Russian government official to locate and obtain the license plate number of the car of a “U.S. government source,” the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday. Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, a resident of Singapore, was arrested on Sunday after he arrived…

Ukraine’s film authority has banned the distribution of several movies over national security concerns, including a Russian-Ukrainian romantic comedy featuring Ukraine’s current president, it said Tuesday. The Ukrainian state film agency said it banned a total of five movies in 2019, three of which were banned to comply with a request by Ukraine’s security service. …

Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky was put under formal investigation on Tuesday after the publication of an online sexual chat that caused one of French President Emmanuel Macron’s closest lieutenants to pull out of the race to become mayor of Paris. The Paris prosecutor’s office said Pavlensky had been released from a police station on Tuesday…

As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday dismissed a veteran, once close adviser who until recently managed Moscow’s relations with war-torn Ukraine. Putin fired Vladislav Surkov, seen as a hardliner by many in Kiev, in a terse two-line statement on the Kremlin website. His sacking, which coincided with a flare-up in fighting in eastern Ukraine, had…

Russia will suspend entry of Chinese citizens to its territory starting from Feb. 20, Russian authorities in charge of coronavirus prevention said on Tuesday. Travel restrictions of some form to prevent the spread of the disease, which has now killed more than 1,800 people, have been imposed by many countries to ease the risks of…

The United States on Tuesday tightened financial restrictions on Venezuela, blacklisting a subsidiary of Russian oil firm Rosneft that President Donald Trump’s administration has said provides a lifeline to President Nicolas Maduro’s government. The sanctions announced by the U.S. Treasury Department increase the pressure on Russia, which the United States sees as the main backer of Maduro’s…

Suicides and fatal road accidents make up a high share of deaths in Russia’s military despite declining overall figures, according to Defense Ministry data cited by lawmakers Tuesday. Overall deaths in the Russian Armed Forces have decreased by 29% between 2015-2019, State Duma deputy Valery Rashkin told Interfax without providing figures for each cause of…

A second Russian citizen from the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess has been hospitalized with suspected coronavirus infection, Russia’s Embassy in Japan said Tuesday. The embassy said that a Russian woman earlier said to have been diagnosed with coronavirus on the cruise ship docked in Japan does not have the virus, but that her husband, who…