Authorities in Belarus on Tuesday suspended independent news provider Tut.by for three months, a move decried by the opposition to beleaguered President Alexander Lukashenko. Tut.by has been covering widespread protests against Lukashenko since his recent disputed election win over rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who denounced the halting of the site as an attack on the “right…
Russia said Tuesday that astronauts had found an air leak in its section of the International Space Station, with a senior space official calling the air loss beyond expected levels. The crew on the ISS — Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy — have been searching for the air leak…
Armenia said Tuesday that a Turkish fighter jet had shot down one of its warplanes during heavy fighting with Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan, but Ankara fiercely denied the claim. Direct Turkish military action against Armenia would mark a major escalation after three days of heavy fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the breakaway region of…
A Russian court has lengthened the term prominent Gulag historian Yury Dmitriyev must serve in prison to 13 years, the Mediazona news website reported Tuesday, a surprise increase of a lenient sentence for charges his allies say were trumped up to silence him. Dmitriyev was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison in July after a…
U.S. and European oil majors’ commitment to moving away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy threatens oil supplies and prices, Russia’s state-run oil giant Rosneft has said, according to the Financial Times. BP, Chevron, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Repsol, Shell and Total have to varying degrees laid out strategies they say are compatible with the Paris…
Turkey is “fully ready” to help Azerbaijan take back its separatist region of Nagorny Karabakh, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s top press aide said Tuesday ahead of a UN Security Council debate on the crisis. The comments followed a call from Russia for Turkey, which views Azerbaijan as its close ally and Armenia as its historic…
Russia’s economy should be able to weather the ravages of a second wave of the coronavirus better than the first, economists say, but uncertainty and volatility will remain for the foreseeable future. As Russia records a sharp spike in new infections and Moscow starts to roll out new restrictions — advising businesses to close their…
Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, will partially return to remote work to limit the spread of the coronavirus, its speaker Vyacheslav Volodin announced Tuesday. The decision was made after eight deputies were hospitalized with coronavirus in the past week, bringing the total number of hospitalized deputies to 18, Interfax quoted Volodin as…
No more than 7% of Russia’s waste is recycled while the rest largely ends up in toxic landfills harmful to the environment and human health, Russian state auditors have said Tuesday. Under President Vladimir Putin’s $360 billion National Projects domestic agenda, Russia aims to recycle 60% of its trash by 2030 with the help of 200…
Russia on Tuesday urged Turkey to work to bring an end to deadly clashes in the Nagorno-Karabakh separatist region as Ankara has strongly backed Azerbaijan. Moscow’s appeal came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday demanded Armenia put an end to its “occupation” of Nagorno-Karabakh and called for Armenia to leave the territory, which…
Russia has confirmed 1,167,805 cases of coronavirus and 20,545 deaths. Sept. 29: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 8,232 new Covid-19 cases Tuesday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,167,805 as the number of new infections across the country continues to rise. Moscow’s schools will take a two-week vacation from Oct.5-18 in order to slow the…
The Russian ruble has hit an almost five-year low against the euro Tuesday as coronavirus cases surged and geopolitical risks weighed down on Russian assets. The ruble shed more than 1% against the euro to fall as low as 93.3, its weakest since January 2016. The ruble also fell by 1% to 79.8 against the…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that neighboring Belarus was under unprecedented external pressure, as the Kremlin’s ex-Soviet ally faces a deep political crisis over a disputed election. Belarus is in a “difficult situation” and facing “unprecedented external pressure,” Putin said in televised remarks, after a presidential vote last month sparked ongoing protests against authoritarian…
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday promised to help mediate in the Belarusian political crisis during a meeting with opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. “We will do our best as Europeans to help mediate,” Macron told reporters after the talks during his visit to Lithuania. Tikhanovskaya said: “He promised us to do everything just to help…
Moscow schoolchildren will stay home for an extra week this fall break in order to slow the renewed spread of the coronavirus, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Tuesday. The measures come as the Russian capital’s daily Covid-19 caseload has risen from 625 to 2,300 since the beginning of September, stoking fears of a second wave. Officials…