Year: 2020

At least 10 members of Russia’s lower house of parliament are currently hospitalized with coronavirus and more than 50 have developed antibodies, its speaker said Tuesday. State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin admonished elderly deputies for attending in-person sessions after the legislative body came back from summer recess last week.  “To date the number of those…

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich used offshore companies to secretly invest in football players who were rivals to his Chelsea football club, a BBC Panorama investigation published Monday said.  The information was obtained during the FinCEN Files investigation, which is led by 108 media outlets worldwide and based on thousands of leaked suspicious activity reports (SARs)…

President Vladimir Putin has created a new post in Russia’s National Guard to ensure ideological education and political unity amid questions over the country’s return to once-abolished Soviet practices. The Russian military has gained political influence in both domestic and foreign policy since the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and renewed geopolitical tensions with…

A Siberian messianic cult leader and his deputies have been detained at one of their communes on accusations of using followers’ money and psychological violence to inflict harm, Russia’s Investigative Committee said Tuesday. Armed agents were filmed storming the Church of the Last Testament’s compound in a southern district of the Krasnoyarsk region. The agents can…

Belarus’ opposition is not anti-Russian despite its objections to recent Russian-Belarusian deals made amid mass post-election protests, exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said in an interview published Sunday. Tikhanovskaya had on the eve of last week’s meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus’ Alexander Lukashenko vowed to “reconsider” any newly reached agreements if she…

Recruits in Moscow have reported no side effects after taking China’s candidate coronavirus vaccine as part of large-scale clinical trials, the Russian pharmaceutical company working with the vaccine’s Chinese developers announced Monday. Russia approved Phase 3 trials of the Chinese vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics and the Chinese military’s research arm last month. Russia’s Petrovax pharmaceutical…

Russia has resumed flights to neighboring Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and will resume flights to South Korea from Sept. 27, a government decree said Saturday.  Citizens and permanent residents of these countries will be permitted to enter Russia through air checkpoints, and Russians will be able to enter these countries without restrictions as well. The…

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that Western laboratories had found traces of a Novichok nerve agent in and on his body and demanded that Moscow return his clothes. Navalny, who is recovering in Berlin’s Charite clinic, fell violently ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20. He spent two days…

Russian lawmakers may have been the ultimate recipients of some of the nearly 400 kilograms of cocaine that were seized from the Russian Embassy in Argentina in 2018, an investigative report said Sunday.  Four suspects are facing a closed trial in Russia after a yearlong investigation into the discovery of 350 kilograms of cocaine worth…

Russia has confirmed 1,109,595 cases of coronavirus and 19,489 deaths. Sept 21: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 6,196 new Covid-19 cases Monday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,109,595 as the number of new infections across the country continues to rise. Authorities in China’s eastern Jilin province have discovered traces of coronavirus on packages of frozen…

Authorities in China’s eastern Jilin province have discovered traces of coronavirus on packages of frozen squid imported from Russia, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported Sunday.  The regional capital Changchun’s Covid-19 prevention office detected the virus particles during a routine screening, Xinhua reported.  All individuals who came into contact with the packages in Changchun were…

Russian tycoons close to President Vladimir Putin have used some of the world’s largest banks to move massive sums of allegedly dirty money, according to an international journalism investigation published Sunday. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and BuzzFeed News said that big banks flagged $2 trillion worth of suspicious transactions between 1999-2017. The…

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters marched in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Sunday despite authorities deploying a heavy police presence. The protest came a day after officers detained hundreds of demonstrators at a women’s march in the capital. The opposition movement has kept up a wave of large-scale demonstrations every Sunday since President…

A scientist involved in the secret Soviet program to create the Novichok nerve agent has apologized to the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who is recovering from poisoning in Berlin. Vil Mirzayanov, a chemist who was the first to reveal Novichok’s development, in an interview with Russia’s TV Rain on Saturday evening said he wanted…

Riot police on Saturday detained hundreds of women, dragging many into vans, as opposition protesters marched through the Belarusian capital Minsk demanding an end to President Alexander Lukashenko’s rule. The women were seized by riot police in black uniforms and balaclavas as well as officers in unmarked khaki uniforms and plain-clothed officers in face masks.…

Alexei Navalny has said he has difficulty performing everyday functions and that he faces a “long road” of recovery after his Novichok poisoning which left him in a coma. The opposition leader posted an update to his Instagram page Saturday from the Charite clinic in Berlin where he is being treated, outlining more details about…

Russia has confirmed 1,097,251 cases of coronavirus and 19,339 deaths. Sept 19: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 6,065 new Covid-19 cases Saturday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,097,251. It is another daily increase in cases and the first time Russia has reported more than 6,000 new infections since July 19. Russia said it…

A vehicle driven by a Russian national crashed through the perimeter of Spaso House, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia’s central Moscow residence, the U.S. Embassy’s spokeswoman said Friday. The unnamed Russian driving the vehicle was intercepted by Embassy staff and handed over to local authorities, spokeswoman Rebecca Ross said on Twitter. Ambassador John Sullivan was…

A court in Far East Russia has jailed a second North Korean poacher for attacking Russian border guards at sea last year, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty news outlet reported Friday.  The court in the city of Nakhodka 6,500 kilometers east of Moscow found the North Korean citizen guilty and sentenced him to seven years…

The Kremlin on Friday said Russia’s ability to probe opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s suspected poisoning was “limited” and accused his aides of taking potential evidence out of the country. Members of Navalny’s team said Thursday that German experts found Novichok, a Soviet-designed nerve agent, on a water bottle taken from the Siberian hotel room where…

The Moscow Metro is expected to roll out what City Hall says will be the world’s first fare payment system based on facial recognition starting next spring. Moscow’s Deputy Mayor in charge of transportation Maxim Liksutov said in a weekly column Friday that Muscovites are “no longer impressed” by the ever-expanding contactless options for paying…

Russian pop stars have teamed up with their fellow artists from Belarus to record a patriotic music video in support of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has faced unprecedented protests since his disputed re-election last month. The music video, titled “Artists for Peace – Don’t Give Away Your Loved One,” was uploaded to Belarusian singer…

Two Russian-made coronavirus treatment drugs have been cleared for pharmacy sale, allowing for widespread at-home treatment of the infection, the Health Ministry announced in a statement to the state-run RIA-Novosti news agency Thursday.  Both drugs are Russia-manufactured variants of favipiravir, the generic version of an anti-flu medication developed by Japan’s Fujifilm. Clinical trials of the…

A pair of Russian soldiers have been detained on charges of offending religious believers after they washed their shoes in holy water, Interfax reported Thursday.  In a video that went viral this weekend, two young men can be seen laughing as they wash their shoes at a chapel next to the Cathedral of Christ the…

Update: Belarus’ borders remained open Friday after President Alexander Lukashenko announced they would be closed. The country’s border guard service said on its Telegram channel that “checks have been stepped up” and “tactical reinforcements have been deployed,” but that “checkpoints are permitting people to enter and leave.” Belarus will close its borders with Poland and Lithuania…

Russian opera star Anna Netrebko said on Thursday she had contracted coronavirus and was in hospital with pneumonia after performing at the Bolshoi Theater’s post-lockdown opening show. The singer’s illness comes as two top Russian theatres have suffered outbreaks of the virus shortly after reopening, raising fears over the safety of performers. The 48-year-old soprano…

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has transferred his youngest son to an elite boarding school in Moscow amid ongoing protests against his disputed re-election, Russian tabloids reported Thursday.  Nikolai “Kolya” Lukashenko, 16, has become a social media sensation as he has grown from a pudgy kid to an apparent “successor” to the presidency who is frequently…

An American performance artist has announced his intent to buy Vladimir Lenin’s embalmed corpse from Russia and move it to the United States. Georgian-born David Datuna shocked the art world after he ate Maruizio Cattelan’s $120,000 work titled “Comedian” — which consisted of a banana taped to a wall — at Art Basel in Miami…

Belarus’s opposition leader on Thursday said she was putting together a list of law enforcement personnel responsible for beatings and arbitrary arrests for possible future prosecution. “I urge the security forces to stop the violence and join the Belarusian people. If you do not, you will not escape a fair trial and punishment,” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya…

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was likely poisoned before he headed to an airport in Siberia and fell violently ill on a flight last month, not at the airport itself, independent news outlets and his team reported Thursday. Germany, where the Russian opposition leader is now being treated, said it has solid evidence that Navalny, 44,…

The global chemical weapons watchdog confirmed Thursday that it had sent experts to Germany to collect samples from Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and that results of tests for Novichok poisoning were “forthcoming.” Berlin had formally requested its “technical assistance” over Navalny’s alleged poisoning, the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said.…

Russia has confirmed 1,085,281 cases of coronavirus and 19,061 deaths. Sept 17: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 5,762 new coronavirus infections Thursday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,085,281. Russian health officials have proposed depriving medics of promised coronavirus payouts if they refuse to vaccinate against the infection, the Medvestnik medical news website has reported. …

Poland has taken the first steps to arrest three Russian air traffic controllers whom it accuses of provoking a fatal plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski in 2010, Polish media reported late Wednesday.  Polish prosecutors in 2017 accused the air traffic controllers of “deliberately provoking” the crash where 96 Polish officials including Kaczynski…

Berlin’s Charité hospital has returned a 1 million ruble ($13,300) donation for the treatment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to Kremlin-linked catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin, his Concord company said in a statement Wednesday.  Navalny was flown to Germany two days after falling ill on a flight in Siberia due to what the German government…

Russia’s foreign intelligence chief on Wednesday accused the United States of protecting Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and allocating $20 million to promote anti-government protests that erupted after disputed presidential elections. Sergei Naryshkin, who heads the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), said Washington had taken the former presidential candidate Tikhanovskaya and other activists “firmly under…

Relatives of Russian citizens will now be able to obtain simplified Russian visas valid for up to 12 months, the Russian government announced Wednesday. Currently, the spouses and children of Russian citizens can obtain visas that are valid for up to three months. The newly announced rules will allow the relatives to stay in Russia…

A convicted Russian neo-Nazi has been found dead in what appears to be a suicide inside his jail cell in the Urals region of western Siberia, prison authorities confirmed Wednesday. Maxim Martsinkevich, who went by the nickname Tesak (Russian for machete), was serving a 10-year sentence for a violent attack on synthetic cannabinoids dealers. Martsinkevich,…

Russia will sell 100 million doses of its highly touted coronavirus vaccine to India once final trials and regulatory steps are completed, Russia’s sovereign fund that is bankrolling the project announced Wednesday. India is one of at least 32 countries that have expressed interest in testing and obtaining Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. Brazil, Mexico and…

Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains a higher level of global trust than U.S. President Donald Trump, according to the latest Pew Research Center poll published Tuesday. Respondents in 13 mainly European countries voiced the highest confidence in German Chancellor Angela Merkel (76%), French President Emmanuel Macron (64%) and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (48%). Putin…

Reindeer herders in Russia’s Arctic have discovered what scientists say is the first-ever cave bear carcass with soft tissues intact in the region’s rapidly thawing permafrost.  The Ice Age-era animal is believed to have lived between 22,000 and 39,500 years ago, Russia’s North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) said in a statement Monday. Previously, the university said…

Moscow law enforcement authorities shut down a Tuesday night “Vulva 3.0” documentary screening in support of Yulia Tsvetkova, an LGBT activist who is being prosecuted for her drawings of female genitals. Tsvetkova, 27, faces up to six years in jail on charges of distributing pornography for posting drawings of vaginas on her social media page…

Venus is a “Russian planet,” the head of Russia’s state space agency said Tuesday following new research that suggests there could be life on the second planet from the sun.  The research, published in the journal Nature Astronomy on Monday, details British and American scientists’ discovery of phosphine gas in Venus’ clouds and puts forward…

Roman Shirokov, the former captain of Russia’s national football team, has been charged for violently attacking an amateur referee during a game.   Cameras last month captured Shirokov, 39, punching the referee in the face and kicking him after he fell to the ground curled over for not being awarded a penalty and getting a red…

A campaign fundraising ad for U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at rallying support for the country’s troops actually displays Russian-made military equipment, Politico reported Monday.  The digital “Support Our Troops” campaign that ran between Sept. 8-12 shows the silhouettes of three soldiers as fighter jets fly overhead.  “That’s definitely a [Russian] MiG-29,” defense analyst Pierre…

The head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service said Tuesday opposition leader Alexei Navalny showed no signs of poisoning before he was flown to Berlin for treatment and that Moscow had “questions” for Germany.  The 44-year-old lawyer and outspoken Kremlin critic last month fell severely ill on a flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk to…

One in seven volunteers have complained of side effects including weakness and muscle pain after taking Russia’s highly touted coronavirus vaccine, Russia’s health minister said Tuesday. Final clinical trials of the Sputnik V vaccine began in Moscow earlier this month amid questions over its long-term safety and effectiveness.  Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said more than…