Day: June 23, 2020

Russia will hike taxes for the country’s top earners from next year, President Vladimir Putin announced in a speech to the nation Tuesday afternoon. In a lengthy address in which Putin discussed Russia’s fight with the coronavirus and hailed the success of the country’s health system in mobilizing for the epidemic, Putin announced the surprise…

President Vladimir Putin hailed Russia’s progress on fighting the coronavirus pandemic and announced new economic and social support measures ahead of a vote on constitutional reforms that would allow him to extend his rule until 2036. Starting Thursday, Russians will begin to go to the polls to approve or reject the package of constitutional amendments…

There have been 599,075 cases of coronavirus infection reported in Russia so far and 8,359 deaths. June 23: 3 things you need to know today Starting Tuesday, Moscow’s indoor dining, fitness clubs, swimming pools and public sports and recreation facilities will reopen after being closed for months due to the coronavirus. More than one-quarter of Russians know at least…

A court in Moscow on Tuesday upheld U.S. investor Michael Calvey’s house arrest on fraud charges despite the revelation that he has a malignant tumor. Calvey faces embezzlement charges that he says are being used to pressure him in a business dispute. A Moscow court had ruled last month to extend the house arrest of…

Criminal investigators in St. Petersburg have attempted to question an activist who used children’s toys to protest against a vote on constitutional amendments that would allow President Vladimir Putin to extend his rule into 2036. Sonya Ulyasheva, a spokeswoman for the Vesna democratic movement, had posted photographs of the toy protests as on offshoot of the #MiniProtest…

Russian health workers treating coronavirus patients across the country say they are being pressured by their superiors to vote on constitutional amendments that would allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power through 2036. “We simply don’t have a choice,” a doctor at the Syktivkar Republic Infectious Diseases hospital in Russia’s remote northern republic of…

Russia’s state statistics agency published higher coronavirus death figures for April than previously reported because it receives more complete data than the national coronavirus crisis center, its chief has said. The Federal Statistics Service, or Rosstat, more than doubled April’s death toll to 2,712 earlier this month after including cases where Covid-19 may not have directly…

A former U.S. marine convicted of espionage in Russia this month will not appeal, his lawyer told news agencies Tuesday, and hopes instead to be exchanged in a prisoner swap. “(Paul) Whelan will not appeal. He does not believe in Russian justice,” his lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov told Interfax.  “He hopes that in the near future…

Russia appears to have recognized a gay marriage by sending a tax return to a prominent LGBT rights activist who had married his husband in the United States, the activist said Monday. This is at least the second time Russian officials have unintentionally recognized a gay marriage due to a legal loophole in the country’s…

Moscow lifted restrictions including compulsory travel passes on June 8, a move welcomed by residents who rushed out to enjoy the streets and parks. Many other regions are lifting lockdown restrictions as Russia is preparing to hold a July 1 national vote despite the pandemic.    President Vladimir Putin is seeking public backing for constitutional amendments that…

Russian companies are racing to send drones into the Arctic as the country expands its foothold in the forbidding region and climate change gradually opens shipping lanes, experts told Forbes magazine. Manned crews in the Arctic face aircraft icing, volatile sea ice and extreme temperatures without support or communications infrastructure, the U.S. defense think tank…