Serbia has dropped out of planned military drills in Belarus with Russia after pressure from the EU, the Balkan state’s defense minister said Wednesday. Serbia — an EU candidate country that also maintains close ties with Moscow — was due to participate in the ‘Slavic Brotherhood 2020’ exercise with Russian and Belarusian troops this month. “We are…
Belarus investigators said Wednesday prominent opposition figures Maria Kolesnikova and Maxim Znak had been detained in a national security probe as Minsk ramped up a crackdown on a protest movement. The country’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crime, said in a statement the two were being held as an investigation continued into “calls urging action…
A Russian deputy energy minister has been arrested on suspicion of embezzling more than 600 million rubles worth of public money, investigators announced Wednesday. Anatoly Tikhonov, one of eight deputies to Energy Minister Alexander Novak, is accused of misusing public funds worth around $7.9 million which had been intended for a new IT system, announced…
The Zvezda Shipbuilding complex successfully carried out the first launch of the main engine of Vladimir Mohomakh Aframax tanker.
Russia has confirmed 1,041,007 cases of coronavirus and 18,135 deaths. Sept. 9: What you need to know today Russia has launched Phase 3 trials of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to determine the jab’s long-term safety and effectiveness, authorities said Wednesday. A group of prominent scientists and doctors has questioned the published results of the vaccine’s initial trials. Russia’s…
Russia has launched Phase 3 trials of its highly touted coronavirus vaccine to determine the jab’s long-term safety and effectiveness, authorities said Wednesday as questions surrounded the results of its Phase 1 and 2 trials. Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said 31,000 out of the announced 40,000 volunteers have been recruited for the study, the state-run…
Belarusian Nobel Literature Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich said unknown people tried to enter her apartment on Wednesday amid an intensifying crackdown by President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime over a disputed election. Alexievich, 72, is now the last free leading member of the Belarusian opposition’s Coordination Council still in the country after masked men detained lawyer Maxim…
In 1989 a group of artists led by Nikolai Polissky began to move to this beautiful land not far from Kaluga to the southeast of Moscow. The idea was to build an land art park: art objects made of various materials that would be set in the natural surroundings to show off art and nature…
Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya urged Russians on Wednesday to resist what she called state media efforts to smear her country’s post-election protests as anti-Russian. Tikhanovskaya, 37, made the comments a day after President Alexander Lukashenko’s interview with Russian state media, where he warned that “if Belarus collapses today, Russia will be next.” Moscow has been…
One of the last remaining members of the Belarusian opposition’s Coordination Council at large, lawyer Maxim Znak, was detained by masked men on Wednesday, his colleagues said. Znak, who had worked as a lawyer for jailed presidential hopeful Viktor Babaryko, had been due to participate in a video call but did not show up, instead…
President Vladimir Putin has canceled his annual call-in session with the public due to the coronavirus pandemic, his spokesman announced Wednesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin “has already been conducting the Direct Line the past few months,” referring to his several video addresses announcing support measures for Russians during the Covid-19 outbreak. “It would…