Day: August 31, 2022
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EU Ministers Agree to Suspend Russian Visa Facilitation Deal
EU foreign ministers on Wednesday agreed to suspend a 2007 visa facilitation deal with Russia but stopped short of a wider visa ban as requested by some member states. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ministers had agreed that relations with Moscow “cannot be business as usual” and the agreement should be “fully…
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Manana Aslamazyan, Key Figure in Russian Television, Dies at 70
On Aug. 30, Manana Aslamazyan, the former head of the organization Internews in Russia and one of the key figures in the development of television news in Russia and the CIS, died after being struck by a car in Yerevan, Armenia. She was 70 years old. Aslamazyan came to Internews in 1991 after a career…
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Armenian Trade With Russia Raises Re-Export Questions
As international sanctions bite Russia and many Western companies have stopped doing business in the country, Moscow has tried to fill the gaps with a program it calls “parallel imports.” Armenia has reported a nearly 50 percent increase in trade with Russia, raising questions about what part Armenia is playing in supplying Russia with the foreign goods…
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Praise and Blame: How Russia Reacted to the Death of Gorbachev
The death of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev prompted differing reactions from Russians on Wednesday, with criticism expressed alongside tributes, reflecting the Nobel Prize-winning leader’s polarizing legacy in the country that he called home. Many supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin — who famously described the collapse of the Soviet Union overseen by Gorbachev…
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Gorbachev’s Love-Hate Relationship With Putin
Mikhail Gorbachev struggled to make up his mind about Vladimir Putin. Over the more than 20 years after Putin came to power, the ex-Soviet leader embraced, then rejected, then embraced again the man who, much like Gorbachev in the 1980s, came to embody Russia in the eyes of the West. A grudging respect seemed to…
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Gazprom Shares Soar 30% on Record Profit, Dividend Promise
Russian gas giant Gazprom’s shares skyrocketed more than 30% on Wednesday after its board recommended paying dividends on record net profits in the first half of this year. State-owned Gazprom said the day before that it made a record 2.5 trillion rubles ($41.36 billion) in net profit in the first six months of this year…
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Gazprom Halts Pipeline Gas Flow in New Jitters for Europe
Russian energy giant Gazprom on Wednesday cuts off its gas supplies to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for maintenance work, further raising tensions on an already taut electricity market. The three-day works at a compressor station are “necessary,” Gazprom has said, adding that they had to be carried out after “every 1,000 hours…