Russia exported a record 8.42 million tons of discounted crude oil to China in May amid Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported Monday. That amounts to 1.98 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 1.59 million bpd in April, according to Chinese customs data cited by the news agency. Russia displaced…
For Russian users, watching a television series on U.S. streaming service Netflix or downloading a new online video game from Steam used to be a matter of a few clicks. But an exodus of Western companies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made accessing hundreds of popular entertainment platforms much harder, spawning a network of…
Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the West’s “economic blitzkrieg” and vowed that Russia would withstand sanctions levied over its invasion of Ukraine in his address at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) Friday. After starting nearly two hours late due to alleged cyberattacks, the Russian president delivered an impassioned speech that scorned the U.S.-led…
A Russian blogger and activist has been trapped in the border zone between Russia and Georgia for nearly a week after Tbilisi authorities denied her entry to the country. Russian authorities accuse Insa Lander of recruiting others to a terrorist organization, a claim she rejects as politically motivated. She fled house arrest and attempted to…
Оплошность: misstep, misdeed, goof, gaffe Last week after taking a look at my column on various ways to fail in Russian, a reader suggested another word and form of failure: the noun оплошность and verb pair плошать/оплошать. These aren’t the words you’d use to describe a complete flop or disaster. Оплошность is a mistake, an…
Russia held the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), its annual showcase event for investment and business, this week in the shadow of its military campaign in Ukraine. This year’s event lacked the Western presence of years past due to the far-reaching sanctions and business exits seen after Russia sent troops into Ukraine on Feb.…
Europe sent a powerful symbol of solidarity with Ukraine on Friday, when Brussels backed Kyiv’s bid for EU candidate status, even as Russia shelled frontline Ukrainian cities and cut back gas supplies to the West. With the European Commission’s backing, Ukraine could now be added to the list of countries vying for EU membership as…
Ukraine’s navy said it struck a Russian ship in the Black Sea on Friday. Russian tugboat Vasily Bekh was allegedly transporting supplies to Snake Island, a remote island off the coast of Ukraine occupied by Russia since the first day of its invasion that has become a focal point of the conflict. The vessel was…
Russia on Friday said that close to 2,000 foreign mercenaries have been killed in Ukraine since the start of Moscow’s military intervention in the pro-Western country. Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that 6,956 “mercenaries and weapons specialists” from 64 countries had arrived in Ukraine since the start of the conflict and that “1,956…
The Russian economy will return to 2021 levels in a decade unless the country takes reform measures amid unprecedented Western sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine, the head of the country’s largest lender Sberbank said Friday. “If nothing is done in the current situation, then… the return of Russia’s economy to the level of 2021 could…
Russian tourism authorities have developed a new tourist route that will take travelers to some of President Vladimir Putin’s holiday destinations as the country’s invasion of Ukraine has limited Russians’ international travel options. The Russian president is known for taking well-publicized vacations in the Siberian taiga, where he is photographed performing various outdoor exploits in…
Hundreds of Ukrainian citizens are stuck in limbo at detention centers in and around Moscow awaiting deportations that were halted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday. Members of Russia’s presidential human rights council and its prison watchdog say at least 358 Ukrainians have been held at Moscow detention centers as…
This story has been recast to add the denial from Moscow. A Russian senator has denied that children born in Moscow-occupied Ukraine will automatically receive Russian passports. Officials in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions’ pro-Moscow military-civilian administrations had claimed earlier Thursday that babies born there after Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine would automatically be given Russian citizenship. “There…
A Russian court has jailed a former U.S. teacher and diplomat for 14 years on charges of “large-scale” drug smuggling and possession, media reported Thursday. Marc Fogel was detained passing through customs at a Moscow airport in August 2021, when 11 grams of marijuana and eight grams of hash oil was reportedly found in his…
Baths in blood extracted from the antlers of Siberian deer. Excrements scooped up by loyal officials to evade analysis. Mysterious absences for emergency medical treatment. The claims made about the health of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will be 70 in October, are lurid and macabre, as well as impossible to verify. But they illustrate…
The Netherlands said Thursday it had stopped a Russian spy posing as a Brazilian intern from infiltrating the International Criminal Court, which is investigating war crimes in Ukraine. The Russian, identified as Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, 36, flew to the Netherlands in April using an elaborate deep cover story that he had built up over the…
The head of Russian state-owned energy firm Gazprom has been linked with assets worth $3 billion, a new investigation revealed Thursday. The joint investigation, carried out by media outlet Proekt and a team working with Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, found that Gazprom chief Alexei Miller had been in residence at a number of luxurious…
On June 16, on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, ROSATOM and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) signed an agreement on intentions and a procedure for organizing cooperation for promoting projects involving a small nuclear power plant based on the SHELF-M reactor. The document was signed by ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev and…
On June 16, on the sidelines of the XXV St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Rosatom signed a cooperation agreement. The agreement was signed by the Russian Minister for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic Alexey Chekunkov and ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev. The parties agreed…
Networks of anti-war volunteers are among those helping more than a million Ukrainian refugees inside Russia despite difficulties with gaining access to temporary accommodation centers and a risk of criminal prosecution. After leaving war-torn eastern Ukraine, many refugees are not only traumatized, but find themselves trapped in Russia without money, documents or even clothes. “It’s…
The head of Russian energy giant Gazprom said Thursday that Moscow will play by its own rules after cutting daily gas supplies to Germany. “Our product, our rules. We don’t play by rules we didn’t create,” Alexei Miller said during a panel discussion at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. Earlier this week, Gazprom slashed…
The Dutch intelligence service said Thursday it had stopped a Russian spy posing as an intern from accessing the International Criminal Court, which is investigating war crimes in Ukraine. The man used a Brazilian cover identity but was unmasked as a member of Russia’s GRU military intelligence and refused entry in April as a “threat…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry placed sanctions on 121 Australian citizens Thursday, accusing them of promoting a “Russophobic agenda.” The list of sanctioned individuals include politicians and journalists, such as Defense Force Chief General Angus Campbell, Chief of Air Force Mel Hupfeld, and Chief of Navy Michael Noonan, as well as journalists from Australia’s ABC News and…
The leaders of major EU powers France, Germany and Italy vowed Thursday to help Ukraine defeat Russia and to rebuild its shattered cities, in a visit to a war-torn Kyiv suburb. French President Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian premier Mario Draghi arrived in Ukraine by train and headed to Irpin, scene of…
The United Kingdom Thursday has unveiled sanctions against the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, for his support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Today we are targeting the enablers and perpetrators of Putin’s war who have brought untold suffering to Ukraine,” the British government said in a statement. The measures, which include a…
The former captain of Russia’s national football team has publicly denounced Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “To me, this war is a catastrophe, a complete horror,” Ivan Denisov, 38, told Russian sports reporter Nobel Arustamyan in an interview on the journalist’s YouTube channel Wednesday, more than 100 days since the start of the conflict. Denisov also…
Since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, tens of thousands of Russians have fled to the Caucasus. Among them are members of one unexpected community: hundreds of Russian Jews who have relocated to Yerevan. Nathaniel Trubkin, a 40-year-old Muscovite, moved to Yerevan on March 8, about two weeks after Russia launched its war in…
The U.S. oil industry company Baker Hughes has stopped servicing all of Russia’s liquefied natural gas projects, putting the launch of new plants and the further operation of existing projects at risk, the Kommersant daily reported Thursday. Baker Hughes has reportedly recalled service engineers from Gazprom’s Sakhalin-2 and Novatek’s Yamal LNG projects, as well as…
Two Americans who volunteered to support Ukraine have gone missing and are feared to have been taken prisoner by Russia, officials and family members said Wednesday. Captive Americans would add another layer of complexity to efforts by the United States, which is pumping billions of dollars into Ukraine but trying to steer clear of direct…
President Xi Jinping on Wednesday assured Vladimir Putin of China’s support on Russian “sovereignty and security” — leading Washington to warn Beijing it risked ending up “on the wrong side of history.” China has refused to condemn Moscow’s massive military assault on Ukraine and has been accused of providing diplomatic cover for Russia by blasting…
U.S. President Joe Biden announced $1 billion worth of new arms for Ukraine Wednesday as Pentagon officials defended the pace and quality of supplies as meeting Kyiv’s battlefield needs. Ukrainian troops shelled Russian targets on the frontlines in the eastern Donbas region with newly arrived French Caesar howitzers, as Ukraine officials met in Brussels with…
Russia on Wednesday stepped up the energy pressure on Europe, slashing gas supplies to the continent for the second day in a row in a move blasted as “political” by Germany. A day after Gazprom said it was cutting deliveries via the Nord Stream pipeline by around 40%, the Russian state-owned energy giant said it…
Authorities in the Russian republic of Chechnya are forcing local men to join “volunteer” battalions for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, investigative news outlet The Insider reported Wednesday. Soldiers have reported the use of intimidation, blackmail, or threats of torture and kidnapping against their loved ones, according to The Insider’s sources. While the exact number of…
ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev, First Deputy Director General for Development and International Business Kirill Komarov, Deputy Director General for Human Resources Tatyana Terentyeva, and other ROSATOM executives take part in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2022) on June 15-18. On June 16, Alexey Likhachev will take part in the plenary session Northern Sea…
Russian gas giant Gazprom said Wednesday it was cutting daily gas deliveries via the Nord Stream pipeline by a further 33%, after Germany slammed an earlier cut as political. “From 01:30 a.m. Moscow time on June 16 the daily output of the Portovaya compression station will be up to 67 million cubic metrers per day,”…
On June 14, 2022, the rating agency Expert RA confirmed that JSC Atomenergoprom’s (a part of ROSATOM) bonds comply with the “green” bonds issue principles and “green” financial instrument criteria. The agency’s release says: “Following the methodology of the second party opinion on compliance of bonds with the green bond principles, Expert RA confirms that…
Swedish furniture retailer IKEA will scale down its business operations in Russia and sell all four country-based factories, the RBC business daily reported Wednesday, citing the company’s press service. IKEA, which employed some 15,000 people in Russia, temporarily closed its stores and suspended operations of its factories there in March amid the international fallout from…
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia’s annual showcase event for foreign investors, opened Wednesday amid a reduced participant list, increased secrecy and boycotts by some Western governments. As the war in Ukraine has sent the Russian economy spinning toward recession and deepened Moscow’s international isolation, SPIEF – once dubbed “Russia’s Davos” – looked…
On June 15, 2022, NovaWind (ROSATOM’s wind power division) and the Chukotka Government signed a cooperation agreement for the construction of wind farms in the region within the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The document was signed by NovaWind CEO Grigoriy Nazarov and Chukotka Governor Roman Kopin. The agreement is intended to study the possibility…
Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a call Wednesday that Beijing would keep backing Moscow on “sovereignty and security,” according to state media. China is “willing to continue to offer mutual support (to Russia) on issues concerning core interests and major concerns such as sovereignty and security,” Chinese state broadcaster…
A Russian man went on trial in Munich on Wednesday, charged with plotting to kill a Chechen dissident living in Germany on the orders of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. The suspect, named as Valid D., is accused of planning the murder commissioned by the state, carrying out shooting exercises with the intended hitman and spying…
The VVER-TOI reactor pressure vessel (RPV) has been installed at unit 1 of the Kursk-II NPP under construction in Russia, three weeks ahead of schedule, said Andrey Osharin, First Deputy Director for the Construction of New Units at Kursk NPP. The RPV was delivered to the site in September 2021. “Since that time, a lot…
A senior executive in charge of aircraft purchases for Russia’s flagship airline Aeroflot has been arrested on suspicion of fraud, Russia’s state-run Interfax news agency reported Wednesday. Mikhail Minayev, director of Aeroflot’s fleet planning and aircraft procurement, was placed in pre-trial detention by Moscow’s Khoroshevsky court until Aug. 8. If found guilty, Minayev faces up…
Ukraine pleaded with Western governments Wednesday to decide quickly on sending heavy weapons to shore up its faltering defenses, as Russia said it would evacuate civilians from a frontline chemical plant. The industrial city of Severodonetsk is under intense bombardment as Russia focuses its offensive on the Donbas region in an effort to secure a…
Russia is experiencing a shortage of commercial drones amid increased demand from the military and China’s exit from the Russian market, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday. Prices have risen by an average of 30% since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February, Kommersant reported, citing industry sources. Prices for drones used in the oil and…
Russia is reconstructing a long-dormant military airport on its far northern Kola Peninsula as part of a major upgrade of Northern Fleet airstrips in the European Arctic. The Severomorsk-2 airfield which lies 11 kilometers northeast of Murmansk was shut down in 1998. Northern Fleet commander Admiral Alexander Moiseyev said it is among the Russian Arctic…
Russia said Wednesday its forces destroyed a depot containing NATO-supplied arms in western Ukraine as President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western allies to speed up arms deliveries to his country. “Near the town of Zolochiv in Lviv region, high-precision long-range Kalibr missiles destroyed an ammunition depot of foreign weapons transferred to Ukraine by NATO countries, including 155-mm…
A spokesman for Russia’s National Guard has been killed in battle in Ukraine, a veterans’ organization announced Tuesday. Col. Sergei Postnov served as a war correspondent in the National Guard’s so-called “information response group,” the Russian Interior Ministry’s veterans’ council said on its website. The group said that Postnov died “performing his military duty,” but…
Russia’s top lawmaker said Thursday that fighters sentenced to death in eastern Ukraine’s pro-Moscow separatist territories “deserve” to die. “The death penalty is the punishment these fascists deserve,” Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower-house State Duma, said, using terminology that President Vladimir Putin has invoked to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Volodin spoke a week…
A Russian court has extended the pre-trial detention of U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner on drug smuggling charges, state media reported Tuesday. Griner was detained at a Moscow airport on Feb. 17, en route to play for UNMC Yekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason, on charges of carrying vape cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage. …
Russia on Tuesday said it was blacklisting 49 UK citizens, including defense officials and prominent journalists and editors from the BBC, The Financial Times and The Guardian. London has been one of the most vocal supporters of Kyiv after President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on Feb. 24. “The British journalists on the list…
Patients in Moscow are being inoculated with expired Russian coronavirus vaccines, The Moscow Times’ Russian service reported, citing sources and eyewitnesses. Epidemiologists say that the expired vaccines aren’t dangerous, but are ineffective against Covid-19. Russia has about 30 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines that are currently past their use-by date and worth more than 23…
Jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny has been transferred to a maximum-security prison after his prison term was extended to nine years, his lawyer said Tuesday. The Kremlin’s most vocal domestic foe, Navalny had been at a penal colony in the Vladimir region city of Pokrov east of Moscow since February 2021. His transfer comes in…
Russia’s energy giant Gazprom said Tuesday it would be reducing the daily gas deliveries via the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany due to the “repair” of compressor units by German company Siemens. “Gas supplies via the Nord Stream gas pipeline can currently be provided in the amount of up to 100 million cubic meters per…
The Georgian government will become a co-owner of Borjomi, the country’s iconic mineral water brand, by taking over shares from its sanctioned Russian owners, the country’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said at a government meeting Monday. Borjomi, one of Georgia’s most recognizable brands, had been majority owned by Russia’s Alfa Group since 2013. Alfa was…
On 10 June 2022, the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority (OAH) issued a licence for the Paks-2 project to start the soil stabilisation of the nuclear power plant construction site. The purpose of this work is to ensure the required bearing capacity of the soils at the base of the future buildings and structures of the…
Russian forces on Tuesday stepped up efforts to cut off Ukrainian troops in the key industrial city of Severodonetsk in the east of the country despite Ukrainians insisting they were holding on. Moscow has laid siege for weeks to the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which are separated by a river, as the last areas…
Russia has earned a likely record $97 billion in revenue from fossil fuel exports in the first 100 days of its war in Ukraine despite heavy sanctions and Europe’s attempts to wean itself off of Russian energy, researchers said this week. “Russia’s export revenues have been falling since March, but remain record-high” due to soaring energy…
Russia is expected to lose 15% of its millionaires this year as its wealthiest citizens move abroad following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine and ensuing Western sanctions, according to a new analysis from a London-based firm cited by The Guardian on Tuesday. Around 15,000 wealthy Russians who have $1 million in readily available assets will…
A Russian town near the Ukraine border has reported three straight days of shelling, with Tuesday’s attack allegedly targeting a military base. Residents of the Bryansk region town of Klintsy less than 50 kilometers from Ukraine reported witnessing a helicopter hovering over the base before firing off two shots and fleeing. “A shell hit part…