Day: May 19, 2020

A Russian military helicopter crashed Tuesday evening, killing its three crew members, news agency RIA Novosti reported. The MI-8 helicopter belonging to the Russian Air Force crashed near the town of Klin, 50 miles outside Moscow, during training exercises. “On May 19, around 20:00, while performing a training flight 20 kilometers from the village of Klin,…

Britain and the United States on Tuesday urged Russia to stop sending mercenaries to the conflict in Libya, after a recent UN report confirmed the presence of Russian and Syrian fighters in the country.  Russia dismissed the demands at a Security Council video conference, however, denying again that Moscow has any role in the presence…

Russians have significantly increased their charitable donations in the weeks since most of the country entered coronavirus lockdown, the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday, citing an analysis of charitable giving data. The latest statistics follow warnings from NGOs that only 5% of the country’s foundations and charities have enough resources to cover a lengthy disruption…

The Saratov region in southern Russia has reinstated its ban on outdoor walks and activities, a top regional official said Monday after a nearly weeklong spike in new coronavirus cases. Local authorities had eased the restrictions last Tuesday, the day Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted a nationwide “non-working” period that was intended to slow the…

Russian medics are 16 times more likely to die from the coronavirus than healthcare professionals in countries with similarly high Covid-19 numbers, the Mediazona news website reported Tuesday. Russia does not officially publish a separate count of medical professionals who have died from the virus. Since last month, the country’s doctors have been reporting their…

Russia has granted citizenship to more than twice as many foreigners in early 2020 than it did in the same period last year as the country moves to ease citizenship laws and boost its flagging population numbers. Authorities issued 161,170 Russian passports to foreigners between January and March compared with 63,249 in January-March 2019, the…

Hundreds of people have gathered to watch a live performance online on a Saturday night in Moscow. That’s become normal under the city’s strict coronavirus lockdown rules, but this is no Swan Lake.  Four women have tied a man to a plastic-covered mattress in a sparsely decorated room. He wears nothing but a black face…

Russian Mixed Martial Arts fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov has appealed to residents of his native Dagestan to follow containment rules as his father was put on a ventilator after catching the novel coronavirus. The undefeated UFC lightweight champion took to Instagram late Monday to urge people in the southern Russian region to be “disciplined” and to…

Residents of central Moscow are more likely than other Muscovites to violate the city’s self-isolation orders, according to an analysis of population clusters inside apartment buildings cited by Interfax on Monday. Its authors attribute the violations to the residents’ relative affluence and their ability to go out of town or visit the many small squares…

Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin returned to his duties on Tuesday after recovering from the coronavirus, as total infections approached 300,000 and officials said new cases were dropping off. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree reinstating Mishustin as the head of government, nearly three weeks after the prime minister announced on television he had tested…

As the deadly coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, Russia has gradually become the world’s second most-infected country. There have been 299,941 cases of coronavirus infections reported in Russia so far and 2,873 deaths. May 19: 3 things you need to know today 1. Russia confirmed 9,263 new coronavirus infections Tuesday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 299,941. Russia now has…

Russia began easing nation-wide lockdown restrictions last week and announced the national football league would restart in late June. Critics have cast doubt on Russia’s low official mortality rate, accusing authorities of under-reporting in order to play down the scale of the crisis. Russian health officials say one of the reasons the count is lower is…

Russia opposes investigations into the World Health Organization (WHO) and China in connection with their response to the deadly coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s senate speaker Valentina Matviyenko told Interfax on Monday. Her remarks come amid the United States’ increasingly bitter spat with China and accusations that the WHO failed to contain the outbreak that has infected…