Russia claimed Friday it had thwarted Ukrainian sea and air drone attacks on a naval base in the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula. “Tonight, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the use of two unmanned sea boats, attempted an attack on the Novorossiysk naval base of the Russian Armed Forces,” the Defense Ministry said…
Russia said Friday it had thwarted Ukrainian sea and air drone attacks on a naval base in the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula. The number of attacks in the sea has increased from both sides since Moscow exited a deal last month that had allowed Ukrainian grain exports via the shipping hub during the…
Collage artist GM_collage combines photos of symbolic people, places and things in surreal arrangements to lay bare the contradictions, nuances and hypocrisies of modern Russia. When contacted by The Moscow Times, the artist declined to share details about their identity, only saying that they are from Belarus and now live in Georgia. The Moscow Times…
At least 79 civilians have been killed on Russian soil since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine last year, the independent news website 7×7 reported Tuesday. The Belgorod region which borders Ukraine, which has regularly been targeted by drone attacks and shelling, saw the highest share of civilian losses, with 48 people killed. Other casualties were…
Russia has enlisted over 230,000 additional personnel into the army since the start of the year, Moscow’s Deputy Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday. Moscow has conducted an aggressive military recruitment campaign this year as it seeks to stave off an ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive and hold territories it has captured during the conflict. “According…
A controversial new bill seeking to ease logging restrictions along the shores of Lake Baikal could deal irreversible damage to the Siberian lake’s unique ecosystem, experts and activists have told The Moscow Times. Baikal was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996 and recognized as the planet’s most outstanding example of a freshwater ecosystem.…
The reactor vessel for Unit 7 of Tianwan NPP, which is being constructed in China with the participation of Rosatom State Corporation Engineering Division, arrived at the construction site after covering the sea route from Russia in less than two months. One day earlier, four steam generators, three reactor coolant pump bodies and a bubbler…
In the opening scene of “Grace,” a new film independently funded and produced in Russia by director Ilya Povolotsky, a teenage girl has just gotten her first period. But it isn’t her mother who helps her as she enters womanhood. Instead, a woman she doesn’t know steps out of her father’s minivan and hands her…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Thursday he expects a Russian court to deliver a “Stalinist” verdict on extremism charges on Friday as he urged supporters to continue “cold-blooded” opposition activities. Prosecutors have requested a jail term of 20 years for Navalny on charges that include financing extremist activities, publicly inciting extremist activities and “rehabilitating…
Russian authorities have approved a draft agreement with China to establish an international protected area for rare tigers and leopards, the Russian Natural Resources Ministry said Tuesday. The proposed Russian-Chinese nature reserve — called Land of Big Cats — will encompass habitats in the southwest of Russia’s Primorye region and the mountainous region of northeastern…
A Russian grocery store owner who has openly opposed the war in Ukraine was sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison on Thursday, independent media reported. Dmitry Skurikhin, 48, gained notoriety for featuring pro-Ukrainian slogans and posters on the facade of his store outside of St. Petersburg following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Skurikhin has…
At least 8,500 members of the Russian Airborne Forces have been wounded in the year and a half since Russia invaded Ukraine, the elite troops’ commander said Wednesday. Airborne Forces commander Mikhail Teplinsky disclosed the figures in a video message congratulating comrades on Paratroopers’ Day, which marked 93 years since the founding of the corps. “More…
Russia’s republic of Mordovia has become the country’s first region to ban so-called abortion “propaganda” and the act of “influencing” women to undergo the procedure, independent media reported. The regional-level law passed Thursday potentially sets the stage for similar laws across the country. According to the law’s explanatory note cited by the Mediazona news website,…
Updated to reflect that the final version of the legislation does not introduce fines for abortion “propaganda,” as was previously reported. Russia’s republic of Mordovia has become the country’s first region to outlaw the act of “coercing” women into undergoing abortion, independent media reported. The regional-level law passed Thursday potentially sets the stage for similar…
Moscow on Thursday added Norway to its list of “unfriendly” countries that restricts the number of local staff its diplomatic mission in Russia can hire. “The government has included the Kingdom of Norway in the list of foreign states that commit unfriendly acts against Russian diplomatic and consular missions abroad,” Russia’s cabinet of ministers said…
An expert commission of representatives of the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic and ROSATOM completed the key stage of the roadmap for the project to create a new department of radionuclide diagnostics for the treatment of patients with oncological and other socially significant diseases at the National Center for Oncology and Hematology (NCОН)…
ROSATOM together with the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic completed the key stage of the project to establish a new radionuclide diagnostics department at the National Center for Oncology and Hematology (NCHO) in Bishkek. The parties are developing interaction within the framework of the IAEA technical cooperation program, which aims to develop advanced…
Russia’s industrial worker shortage reached a new high last month, the RBC news website reported Thursday, citing a survey by the Yegor Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy. The survey found that 42% of Russian industrial enterprises faced a shortage of workers in July, surpassing April’s record-setting shortage of 35%, according to the same survey of around…
Russian air defense systems shot down six Ukrainian drones outside Moscow, Russia’s military and regional authorities said Thursday. The drones were intercepted while attempting to “fly through” western Russia’s Kaluga region overnight, Kaluga Governor Vladislav Shapsha wrote on the messaging app Telegram. The Kaluga region lies southwest of Moscow and northeast of the Bryansk region,…
Updated with new downed drone count. Russian air defense systems shot down seven Ukrainian drones outside Moscow, Russia’s military and regional authorities said Thursday. The drones were intercepted while attempting to “fly through” western Russia’s Kaluga region overnight, Kaluga Governor Vladislav Shapsha wrote on the messaging app Telegram. The Kaluga region lies southwest of Moscow…
Drones targeted the Moscow City business and finance district, a cluster of modern skyscrapers towering over the Russian capital, for the second time in three days Tuesday. But while Kyiv said the back-to-back incidents were a sign of how the war has come home to Russia a year and a half into its offensive on…
Director Ivanka Polchenko described “Vanya is Alive,” her latest play, as “the most important play written in Russian since the start of the war” in an interview with The Moscow Times before its U.K. premiere. “It was written as the invasion was unfolding, so it’s very immediate.” The play follows Alya, the loving yet delusional…
On November 21, ATOMEXPO-2022 International Forum in Sochi hosted a roundtable discussion on Nuclear NGOs Pushing Atomic Technologies Forward. Members of pro-nuclear civil society organizations and independent activists from Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa discussed the contribution of grassroots initiatives to debunking myths about nuclear energy and promoting the benefits of peaceful atomic…
Bashneft (part of Rosneft) invested over 3.6 billion roubles in environmental projects in the first half of 2023, 33% more than in the same period last year.
Russian drones on Wednesday damaged infrastructure at a Ukrainian port on the Danube, as Moscow targeted facilities vital for grain shipments from Ukraine following the collapse of a key export arrangement. Turkey, which along with the United Nations-brokered the deal to allow Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, urged Russia after the port strike not to take…
A Russian volunteer soldier who threatened to detonate a grenade in public unless charges of desertion against him were dropped has turned himself in to the authorities after speaking with the governor of Bashkortostan, local media reported Wednesday. Security forces cordoned off a section of a highway in the southern Urals city of Ufa in…
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a call on Wednesday not to further escalate tensions, after Moscow struck facilities vital for grain shipments from Ukraine. Erdogan was a key player in the now-collapsed deal that allowed for safe passage of Ukraine grain shipments on the Black Sea, and has…
Russia announced Wednesday that it had begun naval exercises in the Baltic Sea, amid rising tensions with its European neighbors over the conflict in Ukraine. Russia regularly holds naval drills in the Baltic Sea, often in response to NATO exercises in the area. The Russian Navy has played a key role in Moscow’s assault on Ukraine by…
Russia’s Supreme Court has upheld journalist Ivan Safronov’s 22-year prison sentence for treason, a group of his supporters said Wednesday. Safronov, 33, was found guilty in September 2022 of collecting secret information about the Russian military and handing it to Czech spies as a defense reporter for the Russian newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti. Safronov lost his final…
President Vladimir Putin is working to silence his most vocal pro-war nationalist critics on the eve of this fall’s regional elections and the 2024 presidential election in which he is expected to seek six more years in power. Following the Wagner mutiny, which posed the biggest threat yet to Putin’s 23-year rule, the Kremlin now…
The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom on 27 July 2023 providing for cooperation in the field of nuclear fuel production and related components. Both companies aim to share existing expertise in this field and further collaborate to develop the necessary capabilities.…
Russia’s far northwestern regions witnessed a surge in warm weather in July, with air temperatures soaring 3-4 degrees Celsius above average, according to Tatyana Pozdnyakova, the chief meteorologist at the Meteonovosti news agency. Naryan-Mar, the administrative center of the Nenets autonomous district in the Arctic, saw temperatures rise to 31.6 C on July 31, breaking…
Turkmenistan’s flagship carrier Turkmenistan Airlines announced it was suspending direct flights to Moscow starting Tuesday, just days after consecutive drone attacks on the Russian capital. Turkmenistan Airlines will instead perform flights to and from the city of Kazan, located some 800 kilometers east of Moscow, the company said in a statement. The announcement comes after…
As part of its ongoing efforts to prepare for the first concrete pouring of Unit 4, the Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA) hosted an inspection visit comprising of representatives from the Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority (ENRRA) and its Technical Support Organisation VO Safety which took place at the El-Dabaa site on 30 and…
Demand for abortion drugs in Russia reached an all-time high in 2022, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday, citing data by the RNC Pharma consultancy. A total of 1.4 million drugs that induce abortions and 2.2 million emergency contraception drugs were sold in Russia last year, marking a 60% and 53% increase from 2021 respectively. “The launch…
Russian drones damaged port infrastructure in Odesa and targeted the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, authorities said Wednesday. The Ukrainian army said it repelled Iraninan-made Shahed-136 drones launched from the Sea of Azov. “The enemy’s obvious target was the port and industrial infrastructure of the region. Air defense forces worked non-stop for almost three hours,” the…
Workers lowered a hammer and sickle from a towering sculpture overlooking Kyiv on Tuesday in a campaign to remove Soviet icons that ramped up after Russia invaded last year. The 62-meter-high steel figure of a woman holding a sword and shield bearing the U.S.S.R.-linked symbols was unveiled in 1981 as a memorial to Soviet victory in World…
MOSCOW — Tatiana moved to Russia from Sloviansk, a town located in a Kyiv-held part of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, in March 2022 as shelling attacks intensified near her home. After arriving, she was able to receive Russian citizenship fairly quickly, she told The Moscow Times, under a simplified process for Ukrainians. Although Tatiana, who declined…
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, one of Russia’s most renowned literary and cultural figures, announced in a Telegram post that she could no longer write. “That’s it,” she wrote. “I’ve always written about my people. About the people who live in Russia. I felt sorry for them, the drunks and wretches… But now I don’t feel sorry for…
Russia’s plans to launch a crypto-based “Digital Ruble” are not going to help it avoid Western sanctions in the foreseeable future, experts say, despite Russian officials’ claims that the new currency could deal a fatal blow to the U.S.-led global financial system. A new law paving the way for the roll-out of the Digital Ruble…
A court in southern Russia has sentenced a former regional administration official to 12 years in prison on charges of providing Ukraine with state secrets, local media reported Tuesday. The Krasnodar Region Court found the unidentified former official guilty of treason and handed him a 12-year sentence in a maximum-security prison. He was accused of…
Authorities in Kazakhstan have approved Moscow’s request to extradite a Russian cybersecurity expert wanted by the FBI, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Tuesday, citing Artyom Oganov, an official at the Russian consulate in Almaty. Nikita Kislitsin, a department head at Russian cybersecurity firm F.A.C.C.T., was detained by Kazakh law enforcement on June 22…
At least nine Russian military enlistment offices have been targeted in arson attacks linked to phone scams in recent days, media outlets reported Tuesday. The first such incidents occurred in annexed Crimea and the central city of Kazan on Saturday, when two middle-aged women were detained trying to set local enlistment offices on fire, according…
Russia said Tuesday it had downed another wave of Ukrainian drones aimed at vessels in the Black Sea and Moscow, as an office block in the capital’s main business district was struck for the second time in a few days. “Two Ukrainian (unmanned aerial vehicles) were destroyed by air defense systems over the territory of the…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that three Ukrainian sea drones targeted two Black Sea Fleet patrol boats in a second unsuccessful attack near annexed Crimea in two weeks. The patrol boats, Sergei Kotov and Vasily Bykov, perform control-of-navigation tasks 340 kilometers southwest of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol. “All three unmanned…
An office tower in Moscow was struck by a downed drone on Tuesday, Russian officials said, in the second such instance in just three days. “Several drones were shot down by air defense systems while trying to fly to Moscow. One [drone] flew into the same tower in [Moscow] City as last time. The facade…