Year: 2020

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.…

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…

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…

Russia’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that fighters from Syria and Libya were being deployed to the Nagorny Karabakh conflict and that it was “deeply concerned” by the development. “Fighters of illegal armed groups including from Syria and Libya are being deployed to the Nagorny Karabakh conflict zone in order to directly take part in fighting,”…

When Anastasia Protopopova finished her Sept. 19 shift in the intensive care ward of one of Moscow’s key coronavirus clinics, Hospital no. 52, the workflow was more or less under control.  But by the time the 25-year-old nurse returned to work last Friday, just six days later, she found herself working in the same conditions…

The Kremlin has imposed a mandatory two-week quarantine for anyone scheduled to meet President Vladimir Putin in person, the Proekt investigative website reported Wednesday. Putin, 67, has held most of his meetings via videoconference since the start of the pandemic, which has affected several high-ranking government officials including his spokesman and prime minister. As restrictions…

Armenia and Azerbaijan rejected international calls for negotiations and a halt to fighting as fierce clashes over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh spilled over into a fourth day on Wednesday. Armenian and Azerbaijani forces are engaged in the heaviest fighting in years over Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian province that broke away from Azerbaijan in the…

A Russian national has been sentenced to seven years and four months in U.S. prison on charges of hacking LinkedIn and Dropbox, the Courthouse News Service website reported Tuesday. Yevgeny Nikulin, 32, is accused of stealing some 117 million LinkedIn and Dropbox login codes in one of the country’s largest data breaches in 2012. He…

A military-patriotic children’s playground in northern Russia has rekindled debate over the militarization of young Russians amid President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to cement patriotism as a unifying national idea.  Social media users were divided after images of the “Silovichok” playground, which opened this summer in the city of Arkhangelsk, circulated online this week. They depicted tank-shaped…

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…

Fierce fighting raged between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces on Monday, sparking bellicose rhetoric from regional power Turkey despite international pleas for a halt in fighting between the longtime enemies. Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a territorial dispute over the ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh for decades, with deadly fighting flaring up earlier this…

French President Emmanuel Macron is ready to meet with Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya on a visit to Lithuania, a government spokesman said Monday, in what would be a major show of support for the activist. Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Vilnius after claiming victory in a disputed election, told AFP on Monday she had requested…

Around 5,000 volunteers including those who are at higher risk of severe infection have received Russia’s coronavirus vaccine as part of final clinical trials for safety and effectiveness, its developer said Monday. Moscow’s state-run Gamaleya research center, which developed the Sputnik V vaccine, has said post-registration clinical trials that began earlier this month would involve more…

Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich has left the country for treatment in Germany, her friend told AFP Monday, after the Nobel Literature Prize winner faced official pressure for supporting the opposition. The 72-year-old author, who has been summoned for questioning by investigators after joining the opposition’s Coordination Council, has gone to Germany for planned treatment, her…

When wide-scale fighting broke out over the weekend between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces, it did not come as a surprise. For the last three months, tensions between the two sides have been rising steadily. All signs appeared to be pointing to the conclusion that Azerbaijan was preparing the ground for the most serious attempt yet to right…

Yury Orlov, a Soviet physicist, dissident and founder of Russia’s oldest human rights organization the Moscow Helsinki Group, died at age 96 on Sunday, the rights group said Monday. Orlov co-founded the Soviet branch of Amnesty International before founding the Moscow Helsinki Group with other dissidents in 1976. The organization got its name from its…

At least 39 troops and civilians have been killed over the past two days in the worst clashes between foes Armenia and Azerbaijan since 2016. Fighting between the ex-Soviet republics over a decades-long territorial dispute threatens to embroil regional players Russia and Turkey. The United States, Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the UN secretary…