Russian Stock Market Plunges, Oil Shares Hit Hard

The Russian stock market plunged 10% on opening Tuesday morning, following the rout on global financial markets Monday. Russia’s oil companies were hit hardest, with giants Rosneft and Lukoil leading the loserboard with falls of more than 10%. The fall appeared softer than traders had been anticipating, however, as the MOEX Index of leading Russian…

Russia Hires Britons for ‘Intelligence Operations’ – Guardian

The Russian government has allegedly hired British politicians, former intelligence officers and PR firms to advance its interests in Britain’s politics and form a “western buffer network,” The Guardian reported Monday. The claims are based on U.S.-born financier Bill Browder’s Sept. 2018 testimony submitted to the British parliament for its report on alleged Russian interference…

MH17 Trial Begins With Emotion and Legal Technicalities

SCHIPHOL, The Netherlands — In a crowded and heavily guarded court near Schiphol, the airport MH17 took off from six years ago, a murder trial opened against four men charged with the killing of 298 victims on the ill-fated flight. The first day of proceedings saw the head judge, the prosecutors and defense team present their…

Coronavirus in Russia: The Latest News | March 9

As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 3,000 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, ordering people returning from high-risk areas to self-quarantine and temporarily banning Chinese citizens from entering the country. …

MH17 Trial Live Updates: March 9

SCHIPHOL, The Netherlands — A court in the Netherlands is conducting a landmark hearing to try to determine criminal responsibility for the downing of Flight MH17 six years ago. The Moscow Times is covering the MH17 trial live from the courtroom in The Netherlands. Follow along here: March 9 14.45: Oleg Pulatov’s defense team gives…

Russian Share Prices Collapse, Ruble and Oil Tumble

Leading Russian firms saw their share prices collapse Monday, as the fallout from Moscow rejecting an oil production pact with Saudi Arabia rocks global financial markets. Among the biggest losers were state-backed lenders Sberbank and VTB, which both plunged by more than 20% when European markets opened.  Oil major Rosneft, also state-owned, recorded a 20%…

Russian Ruble Plummets Amid Oil Market Chaos

The Russian ruble plummeted almost 10% Monday, falling to its lowest level in more than four years, as oil prices crashed following the breakdown of the Russia-Saudi Arabia pact to limit production. The ruble was trading at 75 to $1 on Monday evening in Moscow — a 9.5% drop — after another wild start to…

Everything You Need to Know About the MH17 Trial

Tomorrow, a court in the Netherlands will start a landmark hearing to try to determine criminal responsibility for the downing of Flight MH17 six years ago, although it’s unlikely the suspects will appear in the dock. The war in eastern Ukraine between Kiev’s forces and pro-Russian separatists has claimed more than 13,000 casualties according to…

Coronavirus in Russia: The Latest News | March 8

As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 3,000 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.  There have been 15 cases of coronavirus infections…

Coronavirus in Russia: The Latest News | March 7

As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 3,000 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 has a total of 17 confirmed coronavirus…

Russia Confirms Four New Coronavirus Cases

Four new cases of coronavirus have been identified in Russia, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported Saturday. The new cases take the total number of people who have been infected with coronavirus in Russia to 17, three of whom have since recovered. Three of the four live in Lipetsk, a city 250 miles south of…

Russia Confirms 4 New Coronavirus Cases

Four new cases of coronavirus have been identified in Russia, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Saturday. The new cases take the total number of people who have been infected with coronavirus in Russia to 17, three of whom have since recovered. Three of the four live in Lipetsk, a city 460 kilometers south…

‘The Shadow in the East’

Restive Russian-speaking minorities, contentious memory politics, and turbulent Europeanization.  No, we are not talking about Ukraine, but the Baltic states: Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, and these are just some of the themes that Aliide Naylor covers in “The Shadow in the East: Vladimir Putin and the New Baltic Front.”  In this riveting debut, Naylor combines…

Putin Says Will Not Bend Law to Extend Grip on Power

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he would not bend the law to extend his term in power and is seeking to amend the constitution to secure the country’s future for decades to come. Speculation has swirled over the 67-year-old president’s future after he unleashed a political storm in January by proposing major constitutional changes.…

Putin Critic Navalny Takes Russia to European Court Over Money Laundering Case

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny lodged a complaint against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights on Friday to contest a money-laundering investigation he says authorities have opened to thwart his political activities. Russian investigators opened the case against Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation last August after he called on people to attend rallies that grew…

Coronavirus in Russia: The Latest News | March 6

As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 3,000 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 has a total of seven confirmed coronavirus…

Gazprom and OMV introducing amendments to asset sale deal

Background OMV AG is Gazprom’s main partner in Austria. The companies cooperate in gas production, transportation and supplies. On October 3, 2018, Gazprom and OMV signed the Basic Agreement on Asset Sale. In accordance with the document, OMV will obtain a 24.98 per cent stake in the project for developing Blocks 4A and 5A in the Achimov formations of the Urengoyskoye field. As a result, the Gazprom Group’s stake in the project will…

Alcohol Deaths Plummet as ‘Warmest Winter’ Hits Russia

Experts are attributing a sharp drop in the number of deaths from alcohol poisoning in Russia to the unseasonably warm winter. Some 619 people died from alcohol poisoning in January 2020, down 37.3% from January 2019, Russia’s National Center for Alcohol Policy Development said Thursday. The past winter was the warmest since records began in…

Russian Women Are Ready to Reclaim Once-Forbidden Jobs

Yevgenia Markova dreamed of being a truck driver all her life. There was just one problem — working as one would have been against the law. “I’ve loved everything that can be driven since childhood — cars, river boats, trains. But these were all forbidden,” she told The Moscow Times. For decades, women in Russia…

Russian Game Designer Launches Political Party

Before Vyacheslav Makarov announced in January he was leaving gaming, few could have expected the man who helped create the mega-hit World of Tanks wanted a career in Russian politics. Yet on the sidelines of a digital technologies conference in Moscow on Thursday, the 40-year-old online gaming legend launched his latest creation: the Direct Democracy…

Russia Unveils Arctic Ambitions With 2035 Strategy

Russia is hoping to lure more people to live in the Arctic with promises of payouts and infrastructure development in the environmentally vulnerable territory, according to its 15-year strategy published Thursday. The Kremlin document on the “foundations of state policy in the Arctic to 2035”, signed by President Vladimir Putin, set out its policy plans for…

Coronavirus in Russia: The Latest News | March 5

As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 3,000 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 has a total of seven confirmed coronavirus…

Turkey, Russia Agree Ceasefire in Syria’s Idlib

Turkey and Russia announced a ceasefire in northern Syria on Thursday, agreeing to end weeks of heavy fighting that sparked a humanitarian disaster and raised fears of their armies clashing. After more than six hours of talks in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on the ceasefire to take…

Coronavirus Hits Russian Tourism for $400M Loss

Russia’s tourism sector has already taken a 27 billion ruble  ($406 million) hit from the impact of coronavirus, the head of the Russian Association of Tour Operators said on Thursday in a plea for government support. The coronavirus outbreak has caused havoc across the global travel industry as companies restrict employee trips, airlines axe flights,…

Arnold Schwarzenegger Sues Russian Robot Maker Over Lookalike

Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger is suing Russia’s robot maker Promobot for using his likeness without permission, the TMZ tabloid reported Wednesday. Schwarzenegger’s company is demanding $10 million in damages, as well as profits made off the lookalike robot and other expenses, according to TMZ. It also reportedly wants an injunction blocking Promobot from using the…

Russian Planes Targeted in Wave of Bomb Threats

Three Russian passenger planes flying domestic routes on Thursday were targeted with anonymous bomb threats while airborne, local media said. Anonymous messages were passed to emergency services and a Moscow airport warning that the planes had a bomb on board, Russian news agencies said. One plane was flying from Saint Petersburg to the Crimean city…

‘Extremist’ Jehovah’s Witness Jailed in Crimea

A court in annexed Crimea sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness to six years in prison on charges of extremism Thursday in the ongoing crackdown on the religious group in Russia. Sergei Filatov, the local branch leader, was among several worshippers swept up in raids in the Crimean town of Dzhankoy in 2018. Russia, which seized the…

Atelier E.B. Passerby at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art

Passerby, a new exhibition at Garage museum, presents a visual and social history of the humble shop mannequin. This mass-produced everyday object is revealed to be a surprisingly rich social phenomenon; the clothes mannequin is, on one hand, a disposable life-sized coat hanger, but in Passerby it is reimagined as an art object, a human…

Moscow to ‘Shut Down’ in Case of Coronavirus Outbreak

Moscow authorities have drafted an emergency plan that envisions a shutdown of the Russian capital in case of a coronavirus outbreak, BBC Russia and the Vedomosti business daily reported Wednesday. Russia has confirmed seven coronavirus cases, two of whom have recovered last month, with the latest case reported Thursday. Temperature checks in arrivals for international…

Warm Winter Wakes Moscow’s Bears Early

This unseasonably mild winter has caused the in Moscow Zoo bears to wake up earlier than usual, the city’s mayor’s office said Wednesday. Last year, the two Himalayan bears and one Kamchatka brown bear began coming out of hibernation in April. “Our zoologists were preparing for the bears to wake up earlier due to the…

Rosneft Joins Russia’s Gene-Editing Tech Program

Russia’s oil giant Rosneft and the Russian government will join forces to develop gene-editing technology, according to a government decree published Wednesday. The deal, which President Vladimir Putin ordered in December, aims to accelerate Russia’s $1.6 billion program to create 30 new varieties of genetically modified crops and animals by 2027.  Rosneft is tasked with…

Putin Says Fake Coronavirus Rumors ‘Organized From Abroad’

False rumors about the new coronavirus circulating in Russia are being directed from abroad, President Vladimir Putin claimed Wednesday at a government meeting. He told ministers the country’s FSB security service had reported to him that false information was being planted to create panic, while in reality the situation is not critical. “As for these provocative fake…

Celebrating Women: 5 Soviet and Russian Stars on the Ice

Although competitive figure skating is a relatively young sport, Russia is already well-established as a powerhouse of the icy stage. In the lead-up to International Women’s Day and as skater Adelina Sotnikova has just announced her retirement, we look back on some of the women who have defined Russian and Soviet skating in the past…

Coronavirus in Russia: The Latest News | March 4

As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 3,000 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…

Is Russia Finally Waking Up to Climate Change?

Even skeptics can no longer ignore the effects of climate change in Russia. First, there’s the weather. Last year was the hottest on record; the ice in the Arctic is melting at a dramatic pace, as is the permafrost; while forest fires and flash floods have ravaged swathes of Siberia, and methane is spewing from…

Deadly Russian Plane Crash ‘Not Terrorism,’ Egypt Says

A Russian passenger plane crash in Egypt was not an act of terrorism and the identities of its victims are unknown, an Egyptian appeals court ruled recently, according to the Kommersant business daily. Metrojet Flight 9268 crashed minutes after takeoff from the Egyptian resort Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg on Oct. 31, 2015, killing all…

Russia Bans Export of Masks, Hazmat Suits to Fight Coronavirus

Russia has banned the export of masks, respirators and hazmat suits to ensure access to the items for medics treating coronavirus patients and the public, under a decree published Wednesday. The ban covers 17 types of equipment including face masks, plastic shoe covers, gloves, surgical scrubs, gas masks, hazmat suits and “reusable anti-plague” suits. The ban…

Severstal discloses 2020 IT ad digital ivestmet

March 4, 2020 PAO Severstal, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and steel-related mining companies, announces plans to invest 6.7 bn roubles in IT and digital projects, a 7% increase on 2019 investment levels. In 2020, the Company will work on developing new solutions for managing material flows and optimising the quality of…