Year: 2021

Russian law enforcement officers have searched Alexei Navalny’s Moscow apartment, his team’s headquarters and the apartments of his allies, the jailed opposition leader’s aides said Wednesday. The searches come ahead of a second round of nationwide unauthorized rallies calling for Navalny’s release planned for Jan. 31. Last Saturday, tens of thousands of Russians in over 120 towns…

Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos for the first time in more than a decade Wednesday. Speaking amid outcry in the West over the jailing of poisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Putin addressed geopolitical tensions, sanctions and economic inequality, the growing power of tech giants and more. Here are the…

Twitter and Facebook have blocked the accounts of powerful Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, his Concord catering company said Wednesday. The accounts belonging to Prigozhin, who is known as “Putin’s chef” because of his close ties to the Russian president, were blocked “without explanation,” Concord’s press service wrote on VKontakte. The company said it believed Prigozhin’s…

Siberian peat fires have continued to burn after a year of record-setting wildfires in and around the Arctic Circle despite temperatures below minus 50 degrees Celsius, The Siberian Times reported Wednesday. Footage showing smoke rising from the snow in January and November offers physical evidence of the “zombie fire” phenomenon, which describes summertime blazes that…

A protester kicked by police during a weekend rally in support of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg was hospitalized for a second time after her condition worsened, her lawyer said Wednesday. Margarita Yudina, a 54-year-old mother of three, was initially hospitalized Saturday evening after the rally before being released the next day. Her…

An activist in northern Russia has been detained for organizing a “mass rally” against President Vladimir Putin using snowmen she built, a fellow activist said Wednesday. A photo shared by Arkhangelsk activist Andrei Borovikov shows four snowmen holding up anti-Putin placards. One of them references the billion-dollar palace that jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny claimed belongs…

Hours after Russia had completed its annexation of Crimea in 2014, while he was sitting under house arrest facing a criminal trial on charges European courts would later brand politically motivated, Alexei Navalny wrote an article for the New York Times titled “How to Punish Putin.” It was the anti-Kremlin campaigner’s manifesto for the West…

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday the extension of a key nuclear pact was a positive development in reducing global tensions, as lawmakers unanimously voted to ratify the agreement to prolong New START in a rare moment of cooperation between Moscow and Washington. “No doubt it is a step in the right direction,” Putin said…

The Russian parliament’s lower house on Wednesday unanimously voted to ratify an agreement to extend by five years a key nuclear pact with the United States that was set to expire next week. A total of 399 lawmakers voted in favor of extending the agreement, with no votes against or abstentions. The upper house is…

Russia’s security forces only established a no-fly zone around President Vladimir Putin’s alleged palace due to increased intelligence collection activity by NATO members, the security services told the RBC news website Wednesday. Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s recent viral investigative video alleges that the high-security Black Sea estate enjoys presidential-level protection from the Federal Security Service…

A popular TikToker and his friends have been detained for allegedly vandalizing a Russian security services car during mass rallies in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow, media reported Wednesday. Konstantin Lakeyev, 18, is suspected of attacking the car appearing to belong to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in a widely shared…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday submitted a bill to parliament that would extend by five years a key nuclear pact with the United States that was set to expire next week. The New START treaty, signed in 2010, caps to 1,550 the number of nuclear warheads that can be deployed by Moscow and Washington,…

Moscow has lifted work-from-home measures and restaurant curfews as coronavirus cases continued to recede over the past week, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Wednesday. Since the fall, the Russian capital had required that employers transfer 30% of their staff to remote work and bars, restaurants, clubs and other nighttime establishments to close between 11 p.m. and…

A guest speaker at a St. Petersburg teachers’ webinar has been filmed giving a lecture on what he called the “Zionist lie” of the Holocaust, the Ekho Moskvy radio station reported Tuesday. Professor Vladimir Matveyev put forward debunked theories that no gas chambers had been found in Germany after World War II and that it…

President Joe Biden signaled a tougher U.S. stance on Russia on Tuesday in his first phone call with President Vladimir Putin, raising concerns over human rights and “aggression” against Ukraine, but welcoming cooperation on a new nuclear weapons accord. The call was initiated by the White House to discuss progress on extending the New START…

The G7 group of nations Tuesday condemned the arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, calling his detention “politically motivated” in a statement. The foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the U.S. said Navalny’s detention was “deplorable” and called for his “immediate and unconditional release.”  “Russia is bound by its…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday backed a Palestinian proposal for a Middle East peace conference, saying at the UN that it could be held at ministerial level in spring or summer. Recalling that Moscow had backed Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas’ idea for international talks in early 2021 when he first proposed it in…

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s aides called Tuesday for new anti-government rallies this weekend outside the Moscow headquarters of the FSB security agency and the offices of Vladimir Putin’s presidential administration. The 44-year-old opposition figure’s team posted an event on Facebook calling for his supporters in Moscow to gather at noon on Sunday at Lubyanka…

Iran has approved Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday, in a win for Moscow as it aims to bolster its geopolitical clout. Iran, which is fighting the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak, has said it will only rely on vaccines made by Russia, India or China, while also working to produce…

Moscow and Tehran called for the rescue of the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday, as their top diplomats held their first talks since Joe Biden’s election raised hopes of Washington returning to the agreement. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said ahead of the talks in Moscow that “one of the most pressing topics is the task…

Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister and First Deputy Chief of Staff Sergei Prikhodko has died aged 64 after a long illness, Russian media reported and the government confirmed Tuesday. Prikhodko had been a trusted foreign policy adviser to Russia’s leaders for more than two decades before he became embroiled in a scandal seen as evidence…

The United States has sentenced a West Virginia woman to 11 years in federal prison for trying to sell classified information to Russia while attempting to kidnap her daughter from the girl’s custodial father to Mexico.   Elizabeth Jo Shirley, 47, was accused “of breaching trust of the American people” by attempting to sell classified information…

Russia has confirmed 3,756,931 cases of coronavirus and 70,482 deaths. Jan. 26: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 18,241 new coronavirus cases and 564 deaths. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) will supply Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to Malaysia, the state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday citing Russian ambassador to Malaysia Nail Latypov.  Mexico agreed…

President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia’s lower-house speaker to draft a legal ban on comparisons between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, according to a Kremlin statement published Saturday. Putin instructed State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin to draft by July 1 amendments to Russia’s law cementing Soviet victory over Nazi Germany that would “prohibit publicly…

President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia’s lower-house speaker to draft a legal ban on comparisons between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, according to a Kremlin statement published Saturday. Putin instructed State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin to draft by July 1 amendments to Russia’s law cementing Soviet victory over Nazi Germany that would “prohibit publicly…

A St. Petersburg woman who was kicked in the stomach by police during protests demanding opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s release from jail will press charges against the officer, she told the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper. A viral video from Saturday’s nationwide rallies showed Margarita Yudina, 54, collapsing on the pavement after being kicked by a…

President Joe Biden said Monday he is “very concerned” by Moscow’s crackdown on opposition leader Alexei Navalny and other actions, but said the United States and Russia need to cooperate on nuclear arms control. Speaking after mass arrests of people demonstrating across Russia this weekend against President Vladimir Putin and the jailing of Navalny, Biden said he was “very…

Japan has offered to cooperate on Arctic shipments and agricultural imports from the sparsely populated Russian Far East, the state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported Monday. The “new concept of cooperation” comes amid Tokyo’s years-long efforts to return a disputed Pacific island chain that Moscow has held since the end of World War II. According…

Brussels foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday he will press for the release of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny during a visit to Moscow next month — but EU members steered clear of seeking fresh sanctions. “This will be a good opportunity to discuss with my Russian counterpart all relevant issues, to pass clear messages…

The managing partner of U.S consultancy McKinsey & Company’s Moscow office has messaged his staff “clarifying” an earlier email banning them from attending an unsanctioned protest for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.  “Some of you have raised concerns about my email to the office yesterday. I admit that the Firm’s policy was incorrectly reflected in…

A Russian social media star with millions of followers has been kicked out of Bali for holding a party on the Indonesian holiday island that broke virus rules, authorities said Monday. Sergey Kosenko’s deportation comes days after Bali officials sent a gay American couple home after the women called the island “queer friendly” in tweets…

Nationwide protests in support of Alexei Navalny will continue next Sunday, the jailed opposition leader’s top aide Leonid Volkov said Monday. “On Jan. 31 at 12:00 p.m. All Russian cities. For Navalny’s freedom. For freedom for all. For justice. More details to come,” Volkov tweeted. Protests swept across more than 100 Russian cities on Saturday,…

President Vladimir Putin denied ownership of a $1.3 billion seaside palace in his first public reaction to jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s viral video investigation that helped spark nationwide protests. Navalny’s feature-length video, which alleges that Putin’s inner circle had funded the lavish property through an elaborate corruption scheme, has racked up 86 million views…

Western powers were quick to condemn Russia’s use of force during Saturday’s nationwide rallies in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, with European leaders calling for tighter sanctions on Moscow. While some leaders criticized what they called harsh tactics by Russian police, others backed economic measures to target Russian corporations and officials. Russian officials,…

The Kremlin on Sunday accused the United States of interfering in Russia’s domestic affairs and downplayed the scale of the weekend’s protests, when tens of thousands rallied in support of jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny. More than 3,500 demonstrators were detained in protests across the country on Saturday, with several injured in clashes with police in…

More than 3,300 protesters were arrested at demonstrations in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, a monitor reported Sunday, as prosecutors probed possible violence “on the part of law enforcement.” Police clashed with demonstrators in Moscow as tens of thousands took to the streets across the country on Saturday following Navalny’s call to protest…

Russia has confirmed 3,719,400 cases of coronavirus and 69,462 deaths. Jan. 24: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 21,127 new coronavirus cases and 491 deaths. Hungary said on Friday it had reached a deal to buy large quantities of Russia’s Sputnik V virus vaccine, even though it has not been approved by the European Union. The…

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in over 100 towns and cities across Russia on Saturday to demand the release of jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny in one of the broadest waves of nationwide protest the country has seen in recent years. The anti-corruption campaigner, 44, called for demonstrations after being jailed…

Russians nationwide are taking to the streets of at least 85 cities in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was jailed this week upon his defiant return to Russia. Navalny, who had been recovering in Germany from what Western scientists determined to be poisoning by the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, asked his supporters to…

The Moscow office of leading U.S. consultancy McKinsey & Company banned its staff from attending an unauthorized protest in the capital in support of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Saturday and warned them against voicing online support, according to an email sent to McKinsey personnel seen by The Moscow Times. Russians nationwide took to the…

Russians nationwide are set to take to the streets in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was jailed this week upon his defiant return to Russia. Navalny, who had been recovering in Germany from what Western scientists determined to be poisoning by the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, asked his supporters to protest against his…

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has said he does not plan to commit suicide and thanked his supporters in his first statement since being jailed in one of Moscow’s most notorious prisons upon his return to Russia. Navalny was sentenced to a month in jail this week after returning from Germany, where he had been recovering…

Russia and the United States drew closer Friday to extending a nuclear pact ahead of the fast approaching expiry date of the last arms control accord between the former Cold War rivals. The New START treaty, which is due to expire on Feb. 5, is seen as a rare opportunity for compromise between Moscow and…

A Far East Russian court has dismissed a criminal case against children’s hospital staff blamed for a mass hepatitis C outbreak, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday. Investigators alleged that 169 children had been infected through unsterile gloves and catheters at the pediatric hospital in the Amur region city of Blagoveshchensk between 2009-2018. Three doctors…

Russians are among the most skeptical in the world toward coronavirus vaccines, according to Gallup International poll results cited by the Kommersant business daily Friday. Just 30% of Russian respondents said they believe that most of their compatriots would receive the Covid-19 vaccine if it was widely available and proven to be safe and effective.…

Social media platforms are taking down Russians’ calls to protest in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny over the government’s claims that they illegally incite minors to attend unauthorized rallies. Navalny was detained and jailed for a month shortly after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been hospitalized with what Western scientists…

Russia’s top opposition leader Alexei Navalny has dominated the headlines this week following his defiant return to Russia from Germany. The anti-corruption campaigner arrived in Moscow on Sunday from Germany, where he had spent the last six months recovering from a Novichok poisoning. Upon his arrival, Navalny was swiftly detained and taken to a police…