HOLLYWOOD–Theaters in the U.S. are closed. Studios are on hiatus. The film industry is in freefall. But in Russia, movie fans will be the beneficiaries of Hollywood’s troubles. Theatrical blockbusters like the James Bond franchise, Disney-branded films and “Star Wars” remakes will skip the movie houses and will be available on streaming platforms in Russia…
Russia has confirmed 2,791,220 cases of coronavirus and 49,762 deaths. Dec. 19: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 28 209 new coronavirus cases and 585 deaths. The total number of infected people in Russia has reached 2 819 429. The conditional mortality increased to 1.79%, according to the data from the operational headquarters for the fight against coronavirus.…
Moscow political operatives plan to engage apolitical youth in Russia’s 2021 legislative elections through TikTok, the Meduza news website reported Friday, citing unnamed sources close to the Kremlin. The popular short-form video app will presumably help Kremlin-backed candidates fend off challengers promoted by opposition figure Alexei Navalny. In the lead-up to next year’s vote, Navalny…
Moscow prosecutors have requested a three-year jail sentence for opposition municipal deputy Yulia Galyamina for multiple violations of Russian protest law, Galyamina said Friday. Galyamina was arrested alongside 140 others this summer for rallying against a package of constitutional amendments which among other changes pave the way for President Vladimir Putin to stay in power…
The Russian National Guard has signed a cooperation agreement with Belarus’ police force to combat “terrorism and extremism,” Interfax reported Friday. The agreement comes amid months of opposition protests in Belarus against the country’s disputed presidential election. Belarus’ Moscow-backed President Alexander Lukashenko has accused the opposition of being backed by the West and has jailed…
On December 16, the keel for the fifth (fourth serial) Project 22220 nuclear icebreaker Chukotka was laid at the Baltic Shipyard in St Petersburg. Roman Kopin, the Governor of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Alexey Likhachev, Director General of ROSATOM, Evgeny Elin, Vice Governor of St. Petersburg, Vyacheslav Ruksha, Deputy Director General and Director of the…
Leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny said German prosecutors interrogated him and his wife at Moscow’s request Thursday despite Russian authorities refusing to launch a criminal investigation into his poisoning. Navalny is undergoing rehabilitation in Berlin after recovering from what European scientists established was poisoning with a Novichok nerve agent in Siberia this summer. Russia…
A group of children that went missing in the caves near the Moscow region city of Domodedovo were found alive by rescuers late Thursday, Interfax reported. On Thursday morning a group of 10 people, eight of whom were children ages 9 to 12, entered the Syanovskiye cave system. They were supposed to return around 7:00…
Finland’s Nordea Bank plans to permanently cease its activities in Russia, the bank’s Russian branch announced Thursday. Nordea Bank “will concentrate its activities in the Scandinavian region, therefore it was decided to partially close the international network, including the Russian branch,” its statement said. In the third quarter of 2020 Nordea ranked 95th in the…
European officials have tipped off the United States that sanctioned Russian aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska continued to pull the strings at companies he had divested from, Bloomberg said in a report that has since been denied by the firms. U.S. lawmakers raised concerns about Deripaska’s influence over aluminum giant Rusal and its parent company En+ early…
European home improvement stores continued to sell illegally logged wood from the Russian taiga after the alleged smuggler’s arrest back home, the British environmental nonprofit Earthsight said in a report Wednesday. More than 20 European companies were said to have bought 30 million euros ($36.7 million) worth of suspect wood from companies associated with timber…