Armenia accused Azerbaijani forces of striking the main city in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region on Friday as fighting raged for a sixth day. Yerevan said it was ready to work with mediators for a ceasefire but Azerbaijan fired back that Armenia must first withdraw its troops. Baku and Yerevan have for decades been locked in…
Lebanon has issued arrest warrants in absentia for two Russian nationals as part of an investigation into the explosion that devastated Beirut two months ago, the state-owned National News Agency (NNA) reported Thursday. Businessman Igor Grechushkin was reported to have owned the ship that had brought fertilizer that caused the Aug. 4 blast at the…
Chinese authorities have restricted seafood imports from Russia after finding traces of the coronavirus on the seafood’s outer packaging, the Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday. China, the destination for 60% of Russia’s seafood exports, has so far placed restrictions on four Russian companies, Russian Fishery Industries Association president German Zverev told Vedomosti. China previously sent…
Russian President Vladimir Putin wished Donald Trump a speedy recovery in a telegram on Friday, saying he was sure the U.S. leader’s qualities would help him fight off the coronavirus. “I am convinced that your vitality, good spirits and optimism will help you cope with this dangerous virus,” the Kremlin quoted Putin as saying in…
Two out of five Russians don’t believe that Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was poisoned, according to the results of an independent Levada Center poll published Friday. The findings come as Navalny’s approval ratings have more than doubled in the past year, the survey said. Navalny fell violently ill on a domestic flight on Aug. 20…
Yandex and Sberbank’s fight to gain control of Russia’s finance and technology industries is being billed as the corporate showdown of the decade. “Sberbank versus Yandex: The battle of the super platforms has begun,” declared Russian business daily Vedomosti last week. Novaya Gazeta went further, dubbing it a “war of the ecosystems.” The clash —…
Russia confirmed 9,412 new coronavirus cases Friday, crossing the 9,000 mark for the first time in four months as the rising number of new infections across the country stokes fears of a new lockdown. Russia, which has the world’s fourth-highest number of infections at 1,194,643, has seen its daily caseload rise sharply from less than…
Moscow could receive bulk shipments of Russia’s coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020 while the vaccine continues to undergo final clinical trials, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Thursday. Phase 3 trials of Sputnik V, an adenovirus-based vector vaccine that the Russian government approved in August, are expected to wrap up in May 2021. A second…
Five European members of the UN Security Council have demanded an explanation from Russia on the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, which they called “a threat to international peace and security.” The letter from Germany, Britain, Belgium, Estonia and France — released Thursday — was submitted to the Council on the eve of Moscow’s taking over…
Russia said on Thursday its foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu had confirmed in a phone call they were ready for “close coordination” to stabilize the situation in Nagorny Karabakh. Fighting over the breakaway region between majority-Muslim Azerbaijan and Christian Armenia has raised fears of a wider conflict involving regional powers Turkey and Russia.…
October 1, 2020, 21:00 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Vagit Alekperov, President of LUKOIL, took place today in St. Petersburg. The parties discussed current issues related to cooperation, including further steps in the preparations for the development of the Vaneyvisskoye and Layavozhskoye fields. Background Gazprom and LUKOIL are bound by the 2014–2024 General Agreement on Strategic Partnership, pursuant to which,…
Four steam generators for Power Unit 1 weighing 365 tons each (net weight without packaging is 355 tons) unshipped at the Eastern Cargo terminal. The shipment of equipment started on August 22, 2020 in Volgodonsk at the Atommash plant (branch of AEM-Technologies JSC, part of the machine-building division of ROSATOM – Atomenergomash). The steam generators…
At least nine people have died and 14 others have been injured in forest fires in eastern Ukraine near the front line of Kiev’s conflict with Moscow-backed separatists, the emergency services said Thursday. Ukraine has sent 1,200 firefighters to battle the blaze which officials in one village near the frontline said was detonating unexploded shells…
Staggered seating, social distancing, masks and gloves – so begins the 42nd Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF). The organizers couldn’t invite Hollywood and international celebrities to the opening ceremony, but this didn’t stop MIFF from coming up with a new and extremely rich movie program. Many of the films presented at the festival, unfortunately, will…
The Kremlin on Thursday accused opposition leader Alexei Navalny of working with the CIA and making “groundless and unacceptable statements” after he claimed President Vladimir Putin had orchestrated his poisoning with Novichok. “I assert that Putin is behind this act, I don’t see any other explanation,” the anti-corruption campaigner told Der Spiegel in his first…
Russia’s most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny suddenly felt unwell on a flight over Siberia — a frightening queasiness with cold sweat pouring down his brow. At first, the crew thought it was food poisoning. Navalny, in his first media interview since his hospitalization with what Western experts identified as exposure to the Soviet-era nerve…
A reporter and photographer working for the French daily Le Monde have been wounded in fighting in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the newspaper told AFP Thursday. News editor Luc Bronner confirmed that two of its journalists had been hurt after the Armenian foreign ministry said that they had been hit in a bombardment by…
Once a political novice, Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is joining Europe’s diplomatic big leagues but risks undermining her own cause in the process, experts said. After meeting French President Emmanuel Macron this week, the self-proclaimed victor of Belarus’s presidential election in August is set to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The high-profile meetings are…
Moscow employers will be required to transfer up to one-third of their workforces to remote work starting next week due to the city’s “very dangerous” coronavirus situation, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday. Sobyanin’s order for companies to send at least 30% of staff to work from home between Oct. 5-28 comes as the Russian capital’s…
A cleaner from a small Russian village has put away her brooms and become its reluctant leader after unexpectedly winning last month’s regional vote and overthrowing the pro-Kremlin incumbent. “I didn’t put myself forward,” Marina Udgodskaya, 35, told the Podyom news website in one of her early interviews before going silent due to overwhelming national…
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny accused President Vladimir Putin of being behind his poisoning on Thursday, as he vowed to return to Russia to press on with his opposition campaign. In the first media interview since his poisoning, Navalny gave harrowing details of his collapse on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow after he was poisoned by what…
Russia has confirmed 1,185,231 cases of coronavirus and 20,891 deaths. Oct. 1: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 8,945 new Covid-19 cases Thursday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,185,231 as the number of new infections across the country continues to rise. Moscow employers will be required to transfer 30% of their employees to remote work…
Russian authorities have discovered pre-installed wiretap devices inside imported clothing irons, the Industry and Trade Ministry’s top radioelectronics industry official said Wednesday. Vasily Shpak warned that bugged appliances and electronic devices are a commonplace reality but did not specify the countries in which the irons were allegedly manufactured nor the potential motives for wiretapping. “They…
Russia’s easternmost territory of Kamchatka will establish a so-called “ministry of happiness” to improve its residents’ well-being, the region’s recently elected governor Vladimir Solodov announced Thursday. The Kremlin-backed governor said the new agency, officially called the “ministry of social welfare and family policy,” is part of ongoing administrative reforms. “In short, it’s about happiness,” Solodov…
A Russian scientist has been arrested in southern Siberia on suspicion of passing tech secrets to China, the MBKh Media news website reported Thursday. Federal Security Service (FSB) officers from Moscow reportedly searched the apartment of Alexander Lukanin, 64, in the city of Tomsk 3,500 kilometers east of the Russian capital. Lukanin is currently in…
Russian President Vladimir Putin and French leader Emmanuel Macron called for a “complete” halt to fighting in Karabakh and said they were ready to intensify diplomatic efforts to help solve the conflict. “Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron called on the warring sides to halt fire completely and as soon as possible, de-escalate tensions and show…