Year: 2020

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov on Monday rejected a claim that the country had sent troops to the Central African Republic after an alleged attempted coup. “We are not sending troops, we are complying with all UN resolutions,” the Interfax news agency cited Bogdanov as saying. The CAR government said earlier Monday that Russia,…

A Russian scientist who was said to have worked on a coronavirus vaccine was found dead with a stab wound outside a St. Petersburg high-rise, authorities and local media said over the weekend. The body of geneticist and molecular and cellular biologist Alexander Kagansky, 45, was found in the courtyard of a 16-story apartment block…

On Jan. 1, the Russian government is set to significantly reel back important environmental regulations protecting Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake that is home to creatures found nowhere else on earth. It’s a move that could lead to the biggest environmental crisis in Baikal’s history, environmental experts and activists say. With the clock…

Leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny said Monday that he tricked one of the several security officers linked to his poisoning into outlining the details of the operation in a phone call. A media investigation said last week that Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) chemical weapons experts shadowed Navalny on dozens of his trips since…

As the year of the coronavirus draws to a close and Russia’s total number of cases approaches 3 million, it’s time to look back at how the world’s largest country handled the pandemic.  From the step-by-step closure of its borders at the beginning of the year to the mass roll-out of its domestically developed Sputnik…

Russia will halt all flights with Britain from midnight Tuesday, joining the growing list of countries to suspend air travel with the country amid concerns of a more-infectious coronavirus strain found there. Nearly 30 other countries have banned travel to and from Britain due to the mutation. Russia’s travel ban will last for one week,…

The Kremlin on Monday denied any role in recent cyber attacks on the United States, saying American accusations that Russia was behind a major security breach lacked evidence. U.S. lawmakers over the weekend urged a tough response to a huge cyber attack on government agencies and criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to point the…

At just 6 years old, Anastasia Radzinskaya has made the Forbes list of high-earning YouTubers once again.  Hailing from southern Russia, Radzinskaya broke the internet with her videos of unboxing toys, visiting amusement parks and having playdates.  She ranks in 7th place on this year’s Forbes ranking with estimated earnings of $18.5 million, a four-spot…

Public schools across Moscow have received a survey that measures their teachers’ political activity and loyalty to the authorities, the independent Dozhd broadcaster reported Sunday. The survey asks teachers whether they participated in pro-Kremlin or opposition rallies in recent years, as well as whether they backed coups to achieve political change, Dozhd reported. The teachers…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday hailed the country’s “courageous” spies as he visited the headquarters of the Foreign Intelligence Service to mark its 100th birthday. Putin, who has spent most of the coronavirus epidemic at his residences outside the Russian capital and on the Black Sea, visited the SVR headquarters in southern Moscow amid…

Russia has confirmed 2,848,377 cases of coronavirus and 50,858 deaths. Dec. 20: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 28 948 new coronavirus cases and 511 deaths Sunday. The conditional mortality rates increased to 1.79%, according to the data from the operational headquarters for the fight against coronavirus. Dec.18 — St. Petersburg-based Greenpeace energy campaigner Rashid Alimov, 40,…

Donald Trump’s outgoing administration is planning to close the two remaining US consulates in Russia, the State Department confirmed Saturday, as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office amid high tensions with Moscow. The US will close its consulate in the far eastern city of Vladivostok and suspend operations at its post in Yekaterinburg, a department…

The aim was to transfer this information to Russian military intelligence, prosecutors said, adding that the diplomat also paid a Bulgarian official with access to classified information to provide him with the sensitive data. The spying row has soured relations between the two former allies, which have maintained their close cultural, historical and economic ties…

Russia was “pretty clearly” behind a devastating cyberattack on several U.S. government agencies that also hit targets worldwide, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. Microsoft said late Thursday that it had notified more than 40 customers hit by the malware, which security experts say could allow attackers unfettered network access to key government systems and electric…

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…

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…

A Moscow court fined Google on Thursday for not taking down online content banned by the Russian authorities, the latest in a series of escalating penalties against the U.S. tech giant. Google was found guilty of repeatedly failing to delete search results “containing information prohibited in Russia” and was fined 3 million rubles (around $41,000),…

Sport’s highest court on Thursday banned Russia from the international stage for two years including the rearranged Tokyo Olympics and Beijing Winter Games but the halving of the initial punishment was described by a leading U.S. official as “a catastrophic blow to clean athletes and the integrity of sport.” The Court of Arbitration for Sport’s…

President Vladimir Putin’s annual press conference on Thursday focused heavily on the coronavirus pandemic that has hit Russia hard. The event follows a tumultuous 12 months for the Kremlin that also included unrest across the post-Soviet world, ongoing protests in the Far East and the poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Speaking to journalists via…

Russia’s domestic security agency tails Alexei Navalny because he is backed by U.S. intelligence, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday in his first public comments on a high-profile media investigation into the opposition figure’s poisoning. A media investigation claimed this week that Federal Security Service (FSB) chemical weapons experts had shadowed Navalny on more than 30…

Russia has carried out 10% fewer coronavirus tests so far in December than it had by the same time last month despite the country’s ongoing surge in new infections, Reuters reported Wednesday. Coronavirus tests fell by 825,000 (11%) in the first two weeks of December compared to the first two weeks of November, Reuters said,…

President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he will receive the Russian-developed Sputnik V coronavirus jab once it is approved for people his age, praising the vaccine as safe and effective.  The 68-year-old Russian president said at his annual end-of-year press conference that he had not been vaccinated yet, but “will definitely do so as soon as it becomes possible” according to expert…

Russian authorities are investigating the deaths of 14 coronavirus hospital patients after an oxygen equipment breakdown last month, authorities and state media said Wednesday. Some 40 intensive care patients were moved in early November from a maternity ward converted into a Covid-19 hospital in the city of Kursk south of Moscow after an oxygen supply malfunction…

As a teacher at a large school in Moscow’s southern suburbs, Nina Zhukova should have been one of the first to receive the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine being offered to priority workers across the Russian capital. Instead, having already contracted and recovered from the virus in the autumn, Zhukova is determined not to be vaccinated. …

A court in Siberia has sentenced an elderly Jehovah’s Witness leader to six years in prison for organizing an extremist group, authorities and the religious organization said Wednesday. The Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia said Yury Savelyev, 66, has spent almost half his sentence in pre-trial detention and is expected to be released in 2023. Authorities…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov received a 300-year-old gilded icon from eastern Ukraine on his trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina, European media reported Wednesday. Bosnia’s Serb President Milorad Dodik gifted the Ukrainian Orthodox icon thought to be from the war-torn pro-Russian region of Luhansk, according to Ukraine’s Euromaidan Press news website. The Ukrainian Embassy in Sarajevo requested…

Facebook has exposed a curious battle for influence in Africa, with former colonial power France and former superpower Russia using fake accounts to engage, criticize and even befriend each other online. The U.S. tech firm said on Tuesday it had closed down two Russian-linked networks of accounts and a third with “links to individuals associated…

A Russian nuclear-powered cargo ship bound for Antarctica has been forced to turn back after sustaining damage, and will bypass Europe before undergoing repairs, state nuclear agency Rosatom said Wednesday. Green activists have expressed concern that the vessel will be sailing past several European countries on its way home during the winter storm season. The Sevmorput vessel…

Senior Russian diplomats and state television pundits have dismissed media investigations into leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s poisoning and accused their authors of illegal invasion of privacy. A joint investigation published by several media outlets this week claimed Federal Security Service (FSB) chemical weapons experts had tailed Navalny for years, including on the day he was…

Thailand has restored visa-free access to Russian tourists months after it first imposed coronavirus border restrictions, Interfax cited the royal kingdom’s tourism ministry as saying Wednesday. Thailand, a popular tourist destination that has escaped relatively unscathed from the Covid-19 pandemic, began reopening its borders in October to kick-start its battered tourism industry. All new arrivals…

Russia has confirmed 2,734,454 cases of coronavirus and 48,564 deaths. Dec. 17: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 26,509 coronavirus cases and 596 deaths Wednesday. Aeroflot will allocate special seating for passengers who refuse to wear face masks on flights, a spokeswoman for Russia’s flagship carrier said Tuesday. Moscow-based foreign nationals including doctors and educators with valid passports, certificates of…

United States investigators probed Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr.’s suspected poisonings as “intentional” acts, the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty news outlet reported Tuesday, citing newly obtained records.  Kara-Murza, 39, says he was deliberately poisoned in Moscow in 2015 and 2017 as retaliation for his lobbying efforts to impose U.S. and EU sanctions against…

Almost half of all migrants living in Russia before the coronavirus pandemic have likely left the country this year, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday. In a statement cited by the RBC news website, authorities said there are currently 6.3 million foreign citizens in Russia. That number has been steadily declining since the start of the…

President Vladimir Putin’s cousin has formed a new political party called “Russia Without Corruption,” the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.  Roman Putin is an entrepreneur, politician, former FSB officer and Putin’s first cousin, once removed. He previously headed the “People Against Corruption” party, which was dissolved last month by the Russian Supreme Court for…

American action star and Russian citizen Steven Seagal’s Russian bank account has been blocked by the country’s Federal Tax Service, the Moskva news agency reported Wednesday.  The Sberbank account was blocked in order to ensure the collection of a tax, penalty or fine, Moskva cited documents in the Bankinform database as saying. A spokesperson for…

Aeroflot will allocate special seating for passengers who refuse to wear face masks on flights, a spokeswoman for Russia’s flagship carrier said Tuesday. The changes came after the airline warned that it would deny boarding to maskless passengers as part of its tighter coronavirus control measures. “Dedicated seats are provided for passengers who refuse to…

Russian activist Konstantin Kotov was released from prison Wednesday after serving 18 months for “multiple breaches” of Russia’s protest law. Kotov, who was arrested during the summer 2019 Moscow election protests, was the second person ever to be prosecuted under the controversial law criminalizing “repeated” participation in unauthorized rallies. A Moscow court cut the 35-year-old…

Residents of Russia’s heavily polluted industrial city of Chelyabinsk are calling on U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to help them avoid “ecological genocide.” In a video appeal, residents said Russian authorities routinely ignore their complaints that industrial emissions are getting worse every year, causing rising cases of cancer and suffocating the city in smoke. “They’re taking…

America’s top diplomat Mike Pompeo on Tuesday accused Russia of continuing to “threaten Mediterranean stability” and sowing “chaos, conflict and division” in countries around the region. In a statement on “Russian Influence in the Mediterranean,” the outgoing Secretary of State responded to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, who he said “accused the United States of…