Month: February 2021

Russian officials said Sunday that Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is in a prison colony in Vladimir region, three hours outside Moscow, where he will spend the next two and a half years.  Four former inmates of penal colony IK-2 — which Russian state media have identified as the institution where the opposition leader will do…

The hard-hit Czech Republic has requested a delivery of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine in response to the delayed arrival of EU-procured jabs and will also consider Chinese inoculations, the president said Sunday. The EU member tops the world in new infections per 100,000 people over the last 14 days and is second only to neighboring…

A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sunday carrying Russia’s first satellite for monitoring the Arctic’s climate, the Roscosmos space agency said.  Video published by the Russian space agency showed the Soyuz blaster launching against grey skies at 06:55 GMT, carrying an Arktika-M satellite.  Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin wrote…

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Saturday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin and new U.S. President Joe Biden to push for deeper restrictions on nuclear weapons. Tensions soared between the two nations under previous U.S. leader Donald Trump, fuelled by allegations of sweeping cyberattacks and a litany of other disagreements. But soon after Biden took…

Several thousand Russians and Western diplomats paid tribute at a Moscow bridge on Saturday where opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was shot dead six years ago, as the United States said it was “deeply troubled” by the Kremlin’s growing intolerance of free speech. Nemtsov was one of President Vladimir Putin’s loudest critics until he was killed…

Russia has confirmed 4,234,720 cases of coronavirus and 85,743 deaths. Feb. 27: What you need to know today Russia on Saturday confirmed 11,534 new coronavirus cases and 439 deaths. Around 4 million Russians have been vaccinated against the coronavirus so far, state-run TASS news agency reported Friday citing Russia’s Health Ministery representative.  Guatemala became the latest country to…

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin halted a vote Friday on whether to restore a statue of Soviet secret police founder Felix Dzerzhinsky outside the domestic intelligence headquarters in the Russian capital.  The vote, which kicked off Thursday and was set to last a week, offered Muscovites a choice between a statue of Dzerzhinsky, who is seen…

The FBI on Friday has added Kremlin-linked catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin to its wanted list with a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading to his arrest, a move that he called “a witch hunt.” The FBI accuses Prigozhin of “conspiracy to defraud the United States” by sponsoring the Internet Research Agency, the St.…

President Joe Biden said Friday that the United States will “never” accept Russia’s annexation of part of Ukraine seven years ago. “The United States does not and will never recognize Russia’s purported annexation of the peninsula, and we will stand with Ukraine against Russia’s aggressive acts,” Biden said in a statement marking the anniversary of the Russian invasion…

Polar bears are being forced to adapt to a land-based diet as their hunting grounds in the rapidly melting Arctic shrink, Russian scientists said Friday on the eve of International Polar Bear Day. Polar bears have been forced south by rising temperatures and melting ice cover, limiting their ability to hunt seals and walruses and…

As the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s discovery of the world’s first cases of transmission of bird flu from animals to humans is prompting experts to warn that the country’s increasing large-scale industrial meat production could create conditions for future viruses to thrive. While the H5N8 strain of avian flu has been ravaging…

More Russians are opposed to President Vladimir Putin’s re-election today than at any other point since the 2014 annexation of Crimea, an independent survey said Friday. According to the Levada Center polling agency, 41% of Russian respondents said they would not like Putin, 68, to remain president beyond 2024, while 48% said they would. It…

Leading Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been transferred to a penal colony where he will serve out his jail sentence, the head of Russia’s prison service said on Friday. President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent was this month sentenced to two years and six months in a penal colony for breaching parole terms while he…

The founder of a new party vying for a spot in Russia’s parliament has acquired a sports website lauded as an independent media outlet unafraid of open political discussions, the site announced Friday. Alexei Nechaev, the founder of a leading cosmetics company, is seeking to gain seats in the State Duma this fall as the…

Russian officials have condemned the United States’ airstrikes in Syria, accusing Washington of an “outrageous” violation of international law on Friday. U.S. President Joe Biden directed airstrikes overnight against infrastructure facilities in eastern Syria belonging to what the Pentagon said were Iran-backed militant groups, killing at least 22 people. In its statement, the Pentagon added…

Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine will cost up to three times as much as western counterparts for African nations, The Financial Times reported Thursday, citing individuals familiar with the procurement process. The African Union said last week it has secured 300 million Sputnik V doses over one-year period starting this May as Russia promotes it…

Russian activists have placed the blame for a young domestic violence victim’s death in Siberia on the police, alleging that they failed to respond as she was being beaten to death in a case that has sparked national attention this week. Women’s rights activist Alyona Popova claimed that police in the city of Kemerovo ignored repeated…

A Boeing 777 airliner on Friday made an emergency landing in Moscow with engine problems, the operating airline said, days after another model rained down engine debris over the United States. State-owned Rossiya airline said the crew had registered the “incorrect operation of the engine control sensor” on a cargo flight from Hong Kong to…

Russian diplomats and their family members returning from North Korea were forced to push a handcar with their belongings over the border as the reclusive country remained closed due to the coronavirus, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday. North Korea has not reported any Covid-19 cases more than a year into the global pandemic that…

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan defied calls to resign and accused the military of an attempted coup on Thursday, as divisions over his handling of last year’s war with Azerbaijan brought thousands to the streets. Hours after the general staff of Armenia’s military made a shock call for the government to step down, Pashinyan rallied…

A pair of notorious Russian pranksters duped top Amnesty International directors into saying their widely panned move to revoke jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s “prisoner of conscience” status caused damage. Amnesty was hit with widespread backlash for the decision Wednesday, with critics saying the group had caved in to a “targeted campaign” to discredit Navalny…

Moscow authorities have developed an internal messaging app intended as a “full replacement” for workplace communication platforms like Slack, Skype and Telegram, the RBC news website reported Thursday.  The app’s appearance comes as Russia slams what it calls censorship and discrimination of government-affiliated accounts by western social media platforms. Earlier this week, President Vladimir Putin…

A Siberian shaman who was re-committed to a mental hospital ahead of his planned journey to expel President Vladimir Putin from power has been charged over a sword attack on a police officer, authorities announced Thursday.  Investigators in the Far East republic of Sakha said a 51-year-old resident resisted detention on Jan. 27 after the…

German prosecutors said Thursday they have filed spying charges against a German man suspected of passing on data from parliament to Russian secret services. The suspect, named only as Jens F., worked for a company that was contracted by the Bundestag to carry out regular checks on electric equipment in parliament. “Against this background, the…

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused the military of an attempted coup and brought supporters to the streets on Thursday, as months of tensions over its defeat in last year’s war with Azerbaijan came to a head. Thousands marched through the streets of the capital Yerevan in support of Pashinyan, with the opposition urging him…

Moscow authorities have allocated more than $10 million to purchase and install across the city’s sprawling metro system high-definition cameras that can recognize faces and track fast movements, Russian media reported Thursday. Russia’s capital Moscow in recent years has developed a vast network of some 100,000 facial recognition cameras, sparking concerns from activists over state…

On the night of Aug. 23 1991, as a coup attempt by communist hardliners bent on preserving the dissolving Soviet Union collapsed, Sergei Stankevich rushed to the KGB headquarters on Moscow’s Lubyanka Square. With victorious anti-coup Muscovites preparing to pull down the statue of Soviet secret police founder Felix Dzherzinsky outside the building, Stankevich —…

A Russian national has been sentenced to 8 years in prison for treason by handing state secrets to China, a court in Siberia announced Thursday. Vladimir Vasilyev, 52, had pleaded guilty to passing state secrets to China’s intelligence services, the state-run TASS news agency quoted an unnamed law enforcement source as saying. He is at…

Several spotted deer at Moscow’s Losiny Ostrov (Elk Island) forest preserve have been mauled to death by a pack of stray dogs, park management told Russian media Thursday. Environmental activists reported 10 killings over the long holiday weekend, blaming the park’s new administration for making cuts to the ranger service that left approximately 150 spotted…

Russia’s top online retailer, Wildberries, launched in three major European countries Wednesday. The company has started selling in France, Italy and Spain, it said in a statement sent to The Moscow Times. The move follows other recent expansions, including into Germany, and means Wildberries is now active in all four of the EU’s largest consumer…

Two gay men who were forcibly returned to Chechnya this month have been charged with terror-related offenses without proof and face up to 15 years in prison, a rights group said Wednesday. Authorities in Russia’s restive region of Chechnya have come under fire in recent years from rights groups, which accuse officials of jailing and torturing…

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged his domestic intelligence agency Wednesday to be on guard against Western attempts to “shackle” the country, after the EU agreed on new sanctions on Moscow. The comments came as relations between Russia and the West approach their lowest point since the Cold War, with new EU and U.S. penalties looming…

A court in southern Siberia has sentenced a woman Jehovah’s Witness to a real prison term for the first time as part of Russia’s ongoing campaign against members of the Christian denomination, the religious group said. The court in the republic of Khakassia’s regional capital of Abakan ruled that Valentina Baranovskaya, 69, and her son…

Russia has confirmed 4,200,902 cases of coronavirus and 84,430 deaths. Feb. 24: What you need to know today Russia on Wednesday confirmed 11,749 new coronavirus cases and 383 deaths. The Egyptian Drug Authority gave emergency authorization to Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the jab’s developers confirmed Wednesday.  Georgia will be open to Russian tourists from March 1, Russia’s…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lambasted the West for failing to unite globally in the fight against the pandemic and its economic fallout, in an address to the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday. In his speech to the United Nations’ human rights body, Lavrov criticized the West for refusing to suspend sanctions in the…

Russia is helping Armenia reform its military following the country’s deadly war with Azerbaijan last year over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian defense minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. The reforms are aimed at optimizing the Armenian military’s numerical strength as well as implementing new weapons systems and military equipment,…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a handful of new laws Wednesday that impose heavy fines on protesters and “foreign agents,” as well as on social media giants accused of “discriminating” against Russian media. Observers have described legislators’ recent activity as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to tighten restrictions on dissent ahead of this fall’s…

Moscow police have blocked supporters of slain opposition politician Boris Nemtsov from laying flowers at the site of his death on a bridge steps away from the Kremlin. Nemtsov’s supporters have maintained and guarded a makeshift memorial at the site where he was shot dead on Feb. 27, 2015, day and night for nearly six…

A Russian fugitive whose dramatic sprint out of an Indonesian immigration office was captured on CCTV has been caught again after two weeks on the run, authorities said Wednesday. Andrey Kovalenko fled the office on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali to avoid deportation, with the surveillance footage showing him keeping pace on foot with a…

The voyage of the Christophe de Margerie from Jiangsu in China to the remote Arctic terminal of Sabetta was made in the Arctic winter dark and through thick sea-ice, marking the first time that a commercial vessel has sailed the Northern Sea Route in February. Glimpses of the voyage have now been put on display by shipping company Sovcomflot and…

A Russian Orthodox priest has blessed a police van on a recent visit to the Siberian republic of Buryatia, the regional Interior Ministry announced. Russian priests have previously been seen sprinkling holy water on military hardware including ballistic missiles, submarines and space rockets as part of blessing rituals. The practice has become so widespread that…

Amnesty International has withdrawn its “prisoner of conscience” designation from jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny due to past nationalist and anti-immigrant rhetoric, the human rights organization said Tuesday.  Amnesty declared Navalny a prisoner of conscience after he was detained upon his Jan. 17 return from Germany, where he had spent months recovering from nerve…

Thousands of anti-government protesters rallied in Georgia on Tuesday after the arrest of an opposition leader, deepening a political crisis that erupted after disputed elections last year.  Hundreds of riot police used tear gas against Nika Melia’s supporters who were camped out at his United National Movement party’s headquarters in the capital Tbilisi before he was arrested…

New video footage claiming to show the brutal torture of Russian inmates, one of whom died shortly after the footage was filmed, has surfaced, the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported on Tuesday. Novaya Gazeta says the two videos came from the same prison colony where gruesome leaked footage of guards torturing inmates sparked a national…

A growing number of Russians get their news from social media and the internet, according to a survey published by the independent Levada Center pollster on Tuesday.  Forty-two percent of Levada’s Russian respondents use social media to get their daily news, while 39% get it from the internet. While television remains the primary news source…

Ukraine has accused Russia of targeted assassinations of “perceived opponents” in a case lodged at the European Court of Human Rights, the latest salvo by Kiev in a barrage of legal complaints against Moscow. The case, which was filed last week, accuses Russia of carrying out “state-authorized” assassinations “in Russia and on the territory of…

Georgian police on Tuesday arrested a top opposition leader and used tear gas in a violent raid on his party headquarters, further deepening a political crisis sparked by last year’s disputed parliamentary elections. Live television footage showed Nika Melia, the leader of the United National Movement, the country’s main opposition party, being dragged from his…

NHL star Artemi Panarin will take a leave of absence from the New York Rangers after a Russian tabloid published assault allegations that his team links to his criticism of the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin.  Panarin, 29, was accused of attacking an 18-year-old woman in Latvia in 2011 by his former KHL coach…

EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed to impose sanctions on Russian officials for the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and to target Myanmar’s military over its seizure of power, the bloc’s top envoy said.   Diplomats told AFP the sanctions against Moscow would target four senior officials deemed responsible for persecuting Navalny, using the…