Day: April 8, 2021
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Russia Accuses Slovak Watchdog of Sputnik V ‘Sabotage,’ Demands Return of Vaccines
Sputnik V’s official Twitter account on Thursday accused the Slovak Drug agency SUKL of a “disinformation campaign” against the Russian vaccine after the watchdog said the batch of 200,000 vaccines the country received differed from those reviewed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the medical journal The Lancet. On Wednesday, media reported that SUKL…
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Donbass Escalation Would Be ‘Beginning of the End’ for Ukraine – Putin Aide
The outbreak of major hostilities in eastern Ukraine would mark “the beginning of the end” for Kiev, a top Kremlin official warned Thursday as alarm continues to grow over troop buildup in the region. “I support the assessments that also exist inside Ukraine that the beginning of hostilities is the beginning of the end of…
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Ukraine’s Zelenskiy on Frontline as Merkel Urges Putin to Pull Back Troops
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy traveled to the country’s eastern frontline on Thursday, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Vladimir Putin to reduce Russia’s troop buildup near Ukraine. Zelenskiy’s frontline visit came as fighting between the Ukrainian army and separatists has intensified in recent weeks and Russia has built up troops along the border, raising fears…
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Virus-Driven Migrant Shortage Keeps Russia From ‘Ambitious Plans’ – Kremlin
Russia’s acute migrant shortage linked to the coronavirus exodus is keeping the country from achieving its “ambitious” goals, the Kremlin said Thursday. “We’re very, very short of these migrants to implement our ambitious plans,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “We have to build more than we’re building now, but we need working hands to…
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Putin, Merkel ‘Concerned’ Over East Ukraine Tensions – Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel “expressed concern” over a spike in tensions in east Ukraine and discussed jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny in a phone call on Thursday, the Kremlin said. The call came as clashes between pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian forces have increased in recent weeks and a Russian military…
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Navalny Supporters Jailed For Penal Colony Protest
A Russian court has handed week-long sentences to several supporters of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after they traveled to his penal colony to demand he receives proper medical treatment. Police on Tuesday detained nine Navalny supporters outside his prison in the town of Pokrov around 100 kilometers east of Moscow for violating public order. …
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‘Uncultured’ Muscovites’ Parkour Statue Stunts Spark Outrage in St. Petersburg
The centuries-old rivalry between Russia’s two largest cities took a new turn when St. Petersburg residents found photos of Muscovites climbing on top of their city’s many statues. St. Petersburg tour guide Violetta Vitovskaya on Tuesday shared a photo that shows Moscow parkour athlete Akmal Shakurov standing atop a 100-year-old statue on the historic Rosenstein…
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Explainer: What You Need to Know About Navalny’s Health
Wednesday marked one week since Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny declared a hunger strike in prison to demand medical treatment for severe back pain and numbness in his legs. Since then, the Kremlin critic’s lawyers say his health has deteriorated even further, prompting Western leaders to urge Russia to take action. Navalny was jailed in January…
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Management Committee proposes to hold annual General Shareholders Meeting of Gazprom via absentee voting
April 8, 2021, 13:45 The Gazprom Management Committee addressed issues associated with arranging and holding the Company’s annual General Shareholders Meeting. Endorsements were given to the proposals to hold the annual General Shareholders Meeting of Gazprom in the form of absentee voting and to set the deadline for ballot submission as June 25, 2021. In addition, the Management Committee approved the proposals on: the format and…
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Far-Right Activists Disrupt Artdocfest Film Festival
Ultranationalist supporters of separatists in eastern Ukraine disrupted a movie screening at the Artdocfest film festival in Moscow on Wednesday night, the organizers said on Instagram. This was the second major attack this year on Artdocfest, a popular Russian documentary film festival which has been the target of conservative and nationalist-oriented groups in recent years.…
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Germany to Talk to Russia About Buying Sputnik Jabs
Germany said Thursday it would talk to Russia about purchasing doses of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine pending approval from European regulators, without waiting for coordinated EU action. Amid divisions in the bloc over Sputnik, Health Minister Jens Spahn said Germany was prepared to go it alone without the other 26 members if it meant…
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Putin’s Syria Stance Left ‘Strong Impression,’ Former Japanese PM Abe Says
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has recalled the “strong impression” that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stance on the Syrian civil war at the G8 summits left on him in a new interview. Russia was one of the G8 group of leading economic powers until 2014, when its membership was suspended indefinitely over its annexation of Crimea…
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Zoom to Directly Sell to Russian Gov’t Agencies After Controversy
Zoom will sell directly to Russian government agencies, the Kommersant business daily quoted the company as saying after controversy over reports that the video-conferencing platform had restricted premium access to state-affiliated entities. The Kremlin urged Russian companies Wednesday to switch to alternative virtual meeting platforms after Kommersant reported that Zoom had banned its distributors from…