Facebook on Wednesday said it derailed a deceptive campaign to use hundreds of bogus Instagram accounts to mislead people in Russia protesting the arrest of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The network of Instagram accounts used hashtag and location “poisoning” typically associated with spam or financial scams to drown out posts by protesters, according to Facebook…
Austria’s former foreign minister who danced with President Vladimir Putin at her wedding has been nominated for a seat on oil giant Rosneft’s board of directors, a government decree said Wednesday. In 2018, Karin Kneissl, then Austria’s foreign minister, made headlines when she invited Putin to her wedding and danced with him. The 56-year-old left…
March 4, 2021 PAO Severstal, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and steel-related mining companies, announces that it will be hosting its Capital Markets Day in a live, interactive on-line format on Thursday 11 March 2021. The event will start at 12:00 pm GMT / 15:00 MSK. Sakari Tamminen (Senior Independent Director), Alexander…
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny quipped that “everything is fine” and made jokes about prison life Wednesday as he sent his first message from a detention center outside Moscow. In the message posted on Instagram, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic said he was being held in the Kolchugino detention center in the Vladimir region northeast…
Gulag History Museum The Gulag History Museum has been awarded the 2021 Council of Europe Museum Prize. The prize, which has been awarded since 1977, is given yearly to a museum that has made a significant contribution to understanding the European cultural heritage and has promoted respect for human rights and democracy. Speaking on behalf…
Prominent U.S. investor Michael Calvey, who is facing embezzlement charges in Russia, said on Wednesday he wanted to continue working in the country pending the outcome of his trial. In a case that has rattled Russia’s business community, the founder of Baring Vostok private equity group and several other executives, including French banker Philippe Delpal,…
Residents of Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region were fortunate to have a rare glimpse at the aurora borealis, the natural phenomenon also known as the northern lights. The aurora could be seen in the parts of Lake Ladoga both on Monday and Tuesday night and was visible enough to be captured by local Instagrammers. Resulting from…
Russia has fined the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty media outlet more than half a million dollars so far for violating the country’s controversial “foreign agent” law, Interfax reported Wednesday. RFE/RL has accused the Russian authorities of trying to squeeze it out of the country with “disastrous” foreign agent labeling requirements and fines of up…
Russia has confirmed 4,278,750 cases of coronavirus and 87,348 deaths. March 3: What you need to know today Russia on Wednesday confirmed 10,535 new coronavirus cases and 452 deaths. Health authorities in Angola, Congo and Djibouti have authorized Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, its developers confirmed Wednesday. Around 4 million Russians have been vaccinated against the coronavirus so…
Russia has declared an independent doctors’ union linked to opposition leader Alexei Navalny a “foreign agent,” Interfax reported Wednesday. The Doctors’ Alliance headed by Navalny’s ophthalmologist Anastasia Vasilyeva rose to prominence last year for criticizing the government’s coronavirus response and distributing aid to underfunded regional doctors. Vasilyeva is currently under house arrest for calling on supporters to…
Today celebrates World Wildlife Day, established by the UN General Assembly in 2013.
Moscow hotels have the highest occupancy rates in Europe, the Vedomosti business daily reported Wednesday, citing data from consulting company Cushman & Wakefield. Unlike other European cities, the Russian capital has remained relatively open with only limited restrictions imposed when new coronavirus infections began to soar in the fall. Since late January, most restrictions have…
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has named another relative to a high-level government post in the southern Russian republic that enjoys federal subsidies while maintaining relative autonomy from Moscow, state media reported Tuesday. Kadyrov’s third cousin Khas-Magomed Kadyrov, 30, follows in the footsteps of two Kadyrov daughters in their early 20s as well as two nephews…
Elemash Machine-building plant (an enterprise of ROSATOM’s TVEL Fuel Company in Elektrostal, Moscow region) has launched a production site for fuel fabrication for the CFR-600 reactor, China’s flagship project in the field of fast neutron reactors. The enterprise has modernized the whole shop-floor for fast reactors, which involved development and installation of unique equipment. The…
The Moscow metro plans to implement contactless fare payment using facial recognition technology at all metro stations by the end of the year, Interfax reported Tuesday, citing metro security service head Andrei Kichigin. To use the FacePay system, passengers must have a Russian bank account that has their biometric data on file, according to Kichigin.…
A top aide of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny called for sanctions on top Russian oligarchs in an interview with AFP, as the United States followed the EU in imposing sanctions on some officials. Leonid Volkov also said Navalny’s anti-corruption movement was hoping to unseat “at least 60 to 70” deputies from President Vladimir Putin’s United…
Russia has warned the United States not to “play with fire” after it imposed sanctions Tuesday in response to the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The U.S. froze assets and criminalized transactions with seven senior Russian officials, including the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), and blacklisted 14 companies and entities for export…