Year: 2021

The decision to divert the Pobeda Airlines flight with Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny onboard from Vnukovo to Sheremetyevo airport created “a dangerous and reckless situation in the Moscow airspace,” a pilot who was forced to delay their descent on Sunday evening told The Moscow Times. The pilot — who asked to remain anonymous for fear…

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is facing a court hearing in the police station where he was taken immediately following his Sunday evening return to Russia. The 44-year-old opposition leader flew back to Moscow after spending several months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack that he said was carried out on the orders of President…

A U.S. NGO has sued Apple in federal court in a bid to remove secure messaging app Telegram from its App Store, claiming the app fails to filter out far-right extremist activity.  Telegram’s downloads soared last week after Twitter and Facebook banned U.S. President Donald Trump’s accounts and Google and Apple removed conservative social network…

Russia has confirmed 3,591,066 cases of coronavirus and 66,037 deaths. Jan. 18: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 22,857 new coronavirus cases and 471 deaths. Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan is set to become the first region to introduce immunity passports for residents with Covid-19 antibodies starting February, Bashkortostan Governor Radiy Khabirov announced Monday.   Russia’s Sputnik V…

World leaders have called on Russia to release prominent opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who was detained minutes after he landed in Moscow following five months of recovery from nerve agent poisoning in Germany. Below is a selection of international reactions to Navalny’s detention at Sheremetyevo International Airport passport control late Sunday. — U.S. Secretary of…

Russian police detained prominent opposition leader Alexey Navalny Sunday on his arrival in Moscow from Germany, where he had been recovering from an attempted poisoning by the nerve agent Novichok. Navalny — who became a thorn in the Kremlin’s side through his campaigns against corruption and rigged elections in Russia — had been added to…

Chief Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny returned to Russia from Germany today and was immediately detained. The 44-year-old opposition leader flew back to Moscow after spending several months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack that he said was carried out on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.  Follow the latest developments on the Navalny return…

A charismatic anti-corruption campaigner, Alexei Navalny has been Russia’s leading opposition politician for around a decade, determined to challenge Vladimir Putin’s grip on power despite frequent prison stays and harm to his health. The Yale-educated 44-year-old lawyer — who has said he will return to Russia from Germany on Sunday after treatment there for a…

Arch Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny returns to Russia from Germany on Sunday, facing imminent arrest after authorities warned they would detain him for violating a sentence over alleged fraud. The 44-year-old opposition leader is flying back to Moscow after spending several months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack that he said was carried out…

Germany has transmitted to Russia transcripts of interviews with Alexei Navalny as part of its response to Moscow’s request for assistance in its investigation into the poisoning of the Kremlin critic, Berlin said Saturday.  Navalny was evacuated to Berlin in late August for treatment after he fell violently ill on a flight from Siberia to…

Russia has confirmed 3,544,623 cases of coronavirus and 65,058 deaths. Jan. 16: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 24,092 new coronavirus cases and 590 deaths. Russia’s Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona coronavirus vaccines are not available or in short supply in 42 of the country’s regions, a report from the Peterburgskaya Politica think tank suggests. Health care…

When President Vladimir Putin named little-known former tax chief Mikhail Mishustin as his prime minister a year ago, he stunned the country. In replacing Dmitry Medvedev — a political heavyweight and former president, but one tarnished by allegations of serious corruption — Putin had chosen a man few in Russia or abroad had even heard…

Russia told the United Nations this week it plans to withdraw the 300 “military instructors” it sent to the Central African Republic at the end of 2020 for the presidential election, diplomats told AFP Friday. “The Russians have informed the UN that they will withdraw the troops and helicopters” which had been deployed to the…

The Open Skies Treaty, which Russia says it is leaving after the U.S. quit last year, was agreed just after the Cold War to allow signatories to avoid nasty surprises by monitoring rival militaries. Moscow and Washington had long accused each other of breaching its terms, and President Donald Trump formally pulled the U.S. out last November.…

The U.S. is willing to lift sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline if Europe suspends its construction, adviser to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and incoming C.I.A. chief Nicholas Burns told the German newspaper Handelsblatt.  “The Europeans must stop the construction of Nord Stream 2, and the Americans must suspend the sanctions. This will…

Russia’s top lawmaker said Thursday he is considering sending election advice to the United States following the storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump who dispute his loss. Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of parliament, was among numerous Russian politicians who called the U.S. electoral system “archaic” and…

Russia’s foreign ministry said Friday it is leaving the Open Skies treaty, a post-Cold War defense accord that allows its signatories to carry out unarmed surveillance flights over each other’s territories.  Citing “lack of progress” on maintaining the functioning of the treaty after the United States withdrew from it last year, the ministry said in…

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s defiant pledge to return to Moscow from Germany after surviving a poisoning attack puts the Kremlin in a major bind. President Vladimir Putin, observers say, is caught between a rock and a hard place: allow his most outspoken critic to freely return to Russia and risk looking weak, or hand Navalny a…

Russian tycoon Yevgeny Prigozhin has offered to erect a tombstone for three Russian journalists who were killed in the Central African Republic while investigating a secretive mercenary group linked to him. Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguyev and Orkhan Dzhemal were shot and killed on July 30, 2018, while investigating the activities of the Wagner private military…

Russia’s Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona vaccinations for the coronavirus are not available or in short supply in 42 of the country’s regions, according to a report from the Peterburgskaya Politica think tank.  The main barriers to the start of the mass vaccination in the regions are shortage of supplies, lack of coordination between regional authorities…

Russians are still overwhelmingly unwilling to take the coronavirus vaccine as the national vaccination drive gains steam, the RBC news website reported Friday, citing poll results. The Superjob.ru job board’s survey taken this month showed 60% of Russian respondents opposing the vaccine compared with 40% favoring it, according to RBC. Opponents cited mistrust of the…

Russia and the United States have until Feb. 5 to prolong a key agreement to curb their nuclear arsenals, the last remaining arms reduction pact between the former Cold War rivals. Here are key details of the New START treaty, which expires a little over two weeks into U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s first term. A legacy…

Public figures and ordinary Russians have appealed to President Vladimir Putin to expedite  housing promised to 1,500 elderly people whose parents were deported to the gulags under Stalin’s repressions. “They still can’t come back,” 107 prominent artists, academics and executives said in an open letter published in the Kommersant newspaper.  Nearly 83,000 people signed a…

Life in the Russian capital could return to normal by May, as long as people get vaccinated, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Thursday. Sobyanin said “about 140,000 people” had been vaccinated in Moscow so far, in the first update since the end of last year on the vaccination drive in the capital. But the figures…

Russia’s largest online retailer — Wildberries — has launched in Germany in the latest stage of its international expansion, the company said Thursday. Germany is Wildberries’ tenth country of operations and its first in western Europe. The firm will offer more than four million products to German shoppers and said it has a network of…

Russia on Thursday compared the decision of social media giants to suspend U.S. President Donald Trump’s accounts to a “nuclear blast in cyber space” with the consequences hard to predict. “The decision of U.S. internet platforms to block the head of state can be compared to a nuclear blast in cyber space,” Russian Foreign Ministry…

Russia’s prison service said on Thursday it was “obliged” to detain Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny who has said he plans to return to Moscow from Germany on Sunday. Navalny has been in Germany since late August after he collapsed on a flight from Siberia to Moscow and was flown to Berlin by medical aircraft.  Western…

Russia is building a coastal base for its unmanned underwater “doomsday nuke” to extend its lifespan, the Izvestia newspaper reported Thursday, citing specifications it said it had obtained. The Defense Ministry had indicated in 2020 that testing of the torpedo-shaped Poseidon drone was nearing completion but its launch was postponed to 2021. Russia was due…

Russians vaccinated against the coronavirus in the Sakhalin region of the Far East will be exempted from wearing face masks, its governor announced Thursday in contradiction to expert recommendations. Health officials urge vaccine recipients to continue wearing masks, maintaining social distance and steering clear of crowds until the shot builds up their immunity. “Everyone who gets…

A complaint brought by Ukraine against Russia alleging human rights violations in the Crimean peninsula in 2014 is “partly admissible,” the European Court of Human Rights said on Thursday. Ukraine alleges a pattern of violations of the European Convention on Human Rights by Russia in Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in a move never…

The official Twitter account for Russia’s coronavirus vaccine announced on Jan.11 that “over 1.5 million people have already been vaccinated with Sputnik V as part of the mass scale vaccination in Russia.” As the country seeks to vaccinate more people and claim one of the top spots in the global vaccine race, the tally, which…

Amnesty International said Thursday Azerbaijan and Armenia must immediately probe the use of “inaccurate and indiscriminate weapons” in heavily populated civilian areas during the recent fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory. Azerbaijan and Armenia in November signed a Moscow-brokered peace deal ending six weeks of brutal war over the breakaway Karabakh region after Baku’s forces…

Russia has confirmed 3,495,816 cases of coronavirus and 63,940 deaths. Jan. 14: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 24,763 new coronavirus cases and 570 deaths. Moscow has extended restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus until Jan. 21, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday. All Moscow schoolchildren will be able to return to in-person classes next Monday. …

Russia placed Alexei Navalny on its federal wanted list late last year, according to an official decree published on the Mash Telegram channel and confirmed by one of Navalny’s lawyers Wednesday. The news comes as the opposition leader prepares to return to Russia, despite numerous legal threats, after recovering in Germany from what Western scientists…

All Moscow schoolchildren will return to in-person classes next Monday after coronavirus cases stabilized over the New Year holidays, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday. He said all other restrictions that were due to expire Friday — including self-isolation for those 65 and older and remote work for 30% of employees — have been extended for…

President Vladimir Putin has on Wednesday ordered the mass vaccination of Russians against coronavirus amid reports of a slower-than-expected initial rollout. Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova, who is in charge of Russia’s Covid-19 response efforts, said the mass vaccination will begin on Monday. “We need to move from large-scale to mass vaccination,” Putin said at…

Russian prosecutors have opened a probe into a state-run circus that featured a monkey in a Nazi uniform and two goats displaying swastikas during a Christmas performance. The prosecutor’s office for the Udmurtia region said in a statement it was checking after images emerged on social media of “animals dressed in blankets with Nazi symbols”…

The Russian ruble is the world’s most undervalued currency, according to the Big Mac Index, compiled by British newspaper The Economist. Based on market exchange rates, the Russian currency should be worth three times more against the U.S. dollar — 24 rubles per $1, rather than the 73.8 the currency was trading at Wednesday. The…

A libertarian U.S. think tank is investigating a former aide-turned-critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin for a blog post containing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and last week’s assault on the U.S. Capitol, Politico reported Tuesday. Cato Institute fellow Andrei Illarionov claimed in a Russian-language LiveJournal entry Friday that rioters who stormed the legislative…

Opposition figure Alexei Navalny will fly back to Russia on Sunday despite the threat of imprisonment upon his return, the Kremlin critic announced on Wednesday.  Navalny, 44, has been recovering in Germany following what western scientists determined to be poisoning by the Novichok nerve agent in August. He vowed to return to Russia after making…

A private Moscow clinic is in “direct negotiations” to bring the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to Russia before it receives official registration, a clinic representative told The Moscow Times on Tuesday, with first deliveries arriving as early as February. The Moscow branch of Israel’s Hadassah Clinic belongs to the Skolkovo medical network, which operates under a…

Russia’s cosmonaut training center said Tuesday it has begun vaccinating employees against the coronavirus ahead of future space missions. The press service of the Yuri Gagarin Training Centre told AFP that around 40 of its nearly 1,500 employees had received the first dose of Russia’s homemade coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V.  Named after famous Soviet cosmonaut…

Russia has sentenced three Crimean Tatars to lengthy prison terms for plotting to seize power by force and for their membership in a banned Islamic group.   Crimean Tatars, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority, have largely opposed Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Russia has prosecuted hundreds of Crimean Tatars on terrorism charges, drawing criticism…

A Moscow court has reduced by three months the prison sentences of two activists jailed last year for plotting to overthrow President Vladimir Putin, news outlets reported Tuesday. Three young activists received real jail terms and four others were handed suspended sentences in August 2020 on accusations of plotting an uprising as part of an…

Russia’s prison authority has asked to replace Alexei Navalny’s suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case with a real prison term, the Kremlin critic said Tuesday, a signal that he could be imprisoned if he returns to Russia following his poisoning. Navalny, 44, is currently in rehabilitation in Germany following what European scientists called poisoning…

A Siberian shaman whose attempts to trek to Moscow and expel President Vladimir Putin from power ended in his arrest has announced his latest cross-country crusade, this time on horseback. Authorities in Russia’s Far East republic of Sakha declared Alexander Gabyshev mentally ill and placed him in involuntary confinement for attempting to journey to Moscow…

Russian artist and LGBT activist Yulia Tsvetkova has been hit with pornography charges a fourth time over artwork aimed at ending stigmas around the female anatomy, the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported Tuesday.  Tsvetkova, 27, was first charged with distributing pornography online in June 2020 after sharing artwork of vulvas on the “Vagina Monologues” social…