Russia’s lower house of parliament will gather for an “extraordinary” meeting Friday amid speculation that deputies could sign off on a major policy announcement or government reshuffle. The meeting comes as Russia faces mounting domestic and foreign policy problems, from the dragging war in Ukraine to the economic fallout of sanctions. But the suddenness of…
The European Union on Wednesday said Lithuania had an obligation to allow the passage of sanctioned goods, with the exception of weapons, between Russia and its exclave of Kaliningrad. While transit by road was not allowed, legal guidance released by the EU executive said that “no such prohibition exists for rail transport” from Russia to…
A court in Moscow arrested opposition activist and former municipal deputy Ilya Yashin on Wednesday after he was charged with spreading false information about the Russian Armed Forces. Yashin, 39, will stay in prison until at least Sept. 12. “This case is politically motivated from first to last,” Yashin, who denies the charges, said in…
Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday held their first direct negotiations since March in a bid to break an impasse over grain exports that has seen food prices soar and millions face hunger. The high-stakes meeting involving UN and Turkish officials in Istanbul broke up after slightly more than three hours without any immediate signs of…
The Memorandum of Understanding between Rosenergoatom JSC, Rosatom Technical Academy Independent Non-Profit Organization for Continuing Professional Education (INO CPE) and the Agency for Nuclear Power Engineering Development at the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Uzbekistan (Uzatom Agency) was signed on July 13. Zhurabek Mirzamakhmudov, Chief Executive Officer of Uzatom Agency, signed the Memorandum…
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia Wednesday of forcibly deporting up to 1.6 million Ukrainians to Russia, accusing Moscow of a deliberate criminal operation to depopulate parts of Ukraine. In a statement a day before the Ukraine Accountability Conference in the Hague on alleged war crimes in Ukraine, Blinken said Moscow is conducting…
The number of financial fraud schemes in Russia tripled in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period last year, the Russian Central Bank said Wednesday. Many of the illegal projects included pyramid schemes, according to the regulator. “Worried about the possibility of economic difficulties, people have been searching for new methods of…
Belarus on Wednesday sentenced a young journalist who covered protests against President Alexander Lukashenko to an additional eight years in prison for “state treason,” the channel she worked for said. Katerina Bakhvalova — who uses the pen name Katerina Andreyeva — was already serving a two-year sentence for “violating public order” and was due to…
The first Russian female soldier has died in Ukraine four and a half months into Russia’s war against its pro-Western neighbor, local media reported Tuesday. Anastasia Savitskaya was a corporal from the southwestern Russian city of Volgograd, according to the v1.ru news website. It was not clear where in Ukraine, or under what circumstances, she had…
Several towns and villages are in deep water and dozens of locals have been forced to evacuate after heavy rains broke a dam in Siberia’s republic of Sakha earlier this week. Russia’s largest and coldest region located in remote northeastern Siberia, the republic of Sakha is also witnessing the creeping advance of climate change firsthand.…
Samotlorneftegaz, an enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company, is implementing a unique project for the artificial reproduction of high value fish species for northern rivers.
The European Space Agency (ESA) pulled the plug Tuesday on a joint Russian-European rover mission to Mars in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ESA chief Josef Aschbacher tweeted that the agency’s council of ministers had determined the circumstances surrounding the March suspension of cooperation with Russia over ExoMars “continue to prevail” and that the official partnership…
President Vladimir Putin’s youngest daughter Katerina Tikhonova has been appointed to oversee Russia’s struggling import substitution program at a leading business lobby group, the RBC news website reported Wednesday. Western sanctions and the exit of Western companies following the invasion of Ukraine mean Russia has seen a collapse in imports and is facing shortages of key…
The Russian company that took over McDonald’s restaurants has banned visitors from charging phones and taking photographs inside some of its locations, Russian media reported Tuesday. The brand known as “Vkusno i Tochka” (“Delicious. Full Stop”) has posted written instructions about the restrictions, visitors at one location in central Moscow told the Podyom news website.…