50 Let Pobedy, a nuclear-powered icebreaker operated by FSUE Atomflot had completed the ice escort of Christophe de Margerie, an LNG carrier (Sovcomflot PJSC) in the port of Sabetta, Gulf of Ob, Kara Sea, on Feb 19. For the first time in the history of Arctic navigation in this period, a nuclear icebreaker escorted a…
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…
Power unit No. 4 of the Beloyarsk NPP with the BN-800 reactor has been connected to the grid and resumed operations upon completion of the scheduled maintenance. For the first time the refueling has been carried out with uranium-plutonium fuel only. The first batch of 18 MOX fuel assemblies was loaded into the reactor core…
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…
Sand master Yelena Kadyrova touches sand on the table, and on a big screen, spectators see waves, a ship, and the Little Mermaid swimming on the waves. Each scene stays on the screen for no more than a couple of seconds. Actors, musicians, and a storyteller help to give life to the story unfolding and…
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,…
Background Alexey Miller has been Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee since 2001. On February 16, 2016, the Board of Directors reelected Alexey Miller as Chairman of the Management Committee for a 5-year term starting from May 31, 2016.
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…