Russian energy giant Gazprom said Friday it has made the first delivery of liquefied natural gas to China via the Arctic Northern Sea Route as receding ice sheets render the route more viable. Moscow hopes the route will help increase oil and gas deliveries to Asia at a time when its traditional European clients are…
Мудрый: wise In the pantheon of “hard things to get right in Russian” if you are not a native speaker — and sometimes if you are — right up there are “words that are almost, but not quite, alike.” Sometimes one has an extra syllable, or they have different suffixes. You think you have them…
A shopping mall in the Russian city of Izhevsk is set to be converted into a drone production facility, the third such repurposing in the city over the past year, local activists said Friday. The Russian drone manufacturer Aeroscan recently purchased Izhevsk’s Stolitsa shopping mall and notified its tenants that their leases would be terminated…
Finland will ban entry to passenger vehicles registered in Russia starting Saturday, the Nordic country’s top diplomat announced Friday afternoon. “Our decision is for the ban to come into force after midnight,” Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen was quoted as saying by the state broadcaster Yle. “We estimate the new rules will significantly reduce traffic on the…
The Kremlin on Friday denied a Russian investigation into a mysterious plane crash that killed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has been too slow, despite no update on what may have caused the crash in more than three weeks. Western countries suspected foul play and pointed to the Kremlin when Prigozhin’s plane crashed between Moscow and…
Russia’s Central Bank raised interest rates from 12% to 13% on Friday as it said it remains concerned about an inflationary spiral taking hold across the Russian economy. The move is the second rate hike in two months following an emergency meeting in August held after the Russian ruble fell below 100 against the U.S.…
Russia on Friday sentenced a soldier to 13 years in a “maximum security” penal colony for deserting his unit to avoid fighting in Ukraine. Moscow has handed severe punishments for desertion during mobilization — which triggered a wave of emigration last year — and to soldiers who refused to go into battle. A military tribunal…
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has dismissed the head of state civil aviation agency Rosaviatsia, the government’s press service announced Friday. Alexander Neradko will leave his post as director of Rosaviatsia and will be replaced by his deputy, Dmitry Yadorov. No official reason has been given for Neradko’s departure. In May 2022, he was reprimanded…
A Russian court has sentenced a Russian man to 12.5 years in prison on treason charges related to arms smuggling to the United States, state-run news agencies reported Friday, citing the Federal Security Service (FSB). Sergei Kabanov was arrested in 2021, though the exact date of his detention remains unknown. Details of Kabanov’s case were kept under tight wraps…
Updated with Kremlin’s “no agreements” remarks. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected Russia’s fighter jets Friday as part of his wide-ranging visit to Russia’s Far East amid Western concerns about military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang. Two days after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and touring the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Kim traveled to the industrial…
Turkey’s energy minister has publicly questioned for the first time the need for a new natural gas hub that Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed last year. Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told a group of reporters on Thursday that Turkey already had a well-functioning gas trading platform. Putin first raised the idea of creating “a gas…
Cuba’s Foreign Minister and Ambassador to Russia have issued conflicting statements about Havana’s stance on its citizens taking part in Moscow’s war in Ukraine. The clashing remarks follow Cuba’s arrest last week of 17 people suspected of having links to an illicit Russian trafficking and recruitment network for what the Kremlin calls its “special military…