Moscow has said that a U.S. plane threatened civilian aircraft but “catastrophe” was avoided when a Russian passenger plane dived to avoid the NATO reconnaissance aircraft that crossed its path above the Black Sea. On Friday morning a NATO CL600 reconnaissance aircraft descended rapidly across the planned route for a Tel Aviv to Moscow Aeroflot…
On Saturday Moscow celebrated the grand opening of the GES-2 House of Culture. Headed by curator Teresa Iarocci Mavica and funded by Novatek gas company head Leonid Mikhelson, GES-2 is designed to create a revolution in the Russian art scene. GES-2 is the new home of the V-A-C Foundation, founded by Mavica and Mikhelson in…
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden are scheduled to hold talks by video conference on Tuesday, the Kremlin said, as tensions rise over Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the conversation will take place in the evening Russia time and the two leaders will determine the duration, according to Russian news…
It’s always a good idea to be wary of street food in the Former Soviet Union, but sometimes the intoxicating smells of yeasty pancakes, frying onions, or the pungent odor of grilled meat present almost irresistible temptation. I find this particularly challenging when it is cold and damp outside and those brightly colored trucks and…
U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday he would make it “very, very difficult” for Russia to launch any invasion of Ukraine, which warned that a large-scale attack may be planned for next month. Washington and Kiev say Moscow has massed troops near Ukraine’s borders and accuse Russia of planning an invasion. Biden and Russian President…
Russia recorded its deadliest month in decades in October, with the total number of excess deaths since the start of the coronavirus pandemic surpassing 810,000. Russia’s Rosstat statistics agency said on Friday it registered 247,000 deaths from all causes during October — 90,000, or 57%, more than during the same month of 2019. It is…
The Kremlin said Friday that a video call would take place next week between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. counterpart Joe Biden, amid tensions over the conflict in Ukraine. Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters a date had been agreed but would not be announced until final details of the talks have…
Buy books at the Non-Fiction Book Fair The Non-Fiction Book Fair, aka the International Fair of Intellectual Literature, is always a big event in Moscow. Held at Gostiny Dvor Dec. 2-6, it offers fiction, non-fiction, and pop science literature from 18 countries (including Israel, China, U.K., U.S, Ukraine, France and Japan); from 300 major publishing…
December 3, 2021, 15:50 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Milorad Dodik, member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, took place today in St. Petersburg. The meeting reviewed relevant issues of cooperation, focusing in particular on the supplies of Russian gas. Background On January 1, 2021, Gazprom began supplying gas to Bosnia and Herzegovina via a new route. Gas from Russia is transmitted…
Russia has dismantled a notorious facility dubbed the “whale jail” that kept dozens of the mammals in cramped conditions, causing an international outcry. Almost 100 whales were kept in the secretive facility in Srednyaya Bay near the far eastern town of Nakhodka in 2018, before being released after an intense campaign by animal rights and…
Background The International Business Congress (IBC) is a non-governmental and non-profit organization. The Congress deals with the practical aspects of economic cooperation and brings forward proposals for debottlenecking and building a favorable environment for safe and efficient entrepreneurial activities. The IBC operates through eight Working Committees: Energy; Industry, Innovations and Prospective Development; Law, Banking and Finance; Information and Communication;…
During the World Nuclear Exhibition in Paris, TVEL, ROSATOM’s nuclear fuel manufacturer and the integrator for nuclear decommissioning business, signed two memorandums of understanding with the French companies, ROBATEL Industries and D&S Groupe. Both partnerships are aimed at joint business development in the field of nuclear decommissioning business, such as dismantling of nuclear facilities, radwaste…
Russia briefly banned online handmade crafts and unique goods marketplace Etsy for knockoff designer products sold by some of its vendors, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday. State internet watchdog Roskomnadzor reportedly blocked the website in order to enforce a 2019 court order in Tambov some 500 kilometers south of Moscow against an Etsy vendor…
Russia’s Gazprom has gained control of the country’s largest social media network, VKontakte, following a string of deals to buy out Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov from the platform’s holding company. The transactions give the Russian state significant involvement in a key part of Russia’s online space at a time when critics say the Kremlin is…
Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine faces “purely bureaucratic” obstacles in the World Health Organization (WHO) approval process, its global backer said Thursday. While Russia touted Sputnik V as the world’s first registered Covid vaccine in August 2020, it has not yet been authorized for use by the WHO or the European Union. Its fast-track approval ahead…
On December 1, 2021 ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev, ROSATOM Deputy Director General for HR Tatyana Terentyeva, and other representatives of the state corporation and its organizations took part in the Global Impact Conference 2021. The event was held with the support of ROSATOM, Euronews, Europe’s leading news channel, UN Global Compact, and VK as…
President Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings have declined amid weeks of record Covid-19 infections and deaths capped by a partial lockdown, according to a new independent survey published Thursday. Russian respondents’ approval of the president’s job performance dropped to 63% in November from 67% in October, according to the Levada Center pollster. Putin ordered a nationwide partial…
Russia said Thursday it hopes for “contact” between Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden in the coming days, as tensions over the Ukraine conflict skyrocket. The comments come after the U.S. and Russian foreign ministers met in Sweden to discuss allegations raised by Kiev and its Western allies that Russia could invade…
Momentum was building Thursday for direct talks between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin as both sides sought to avoid a “nightmare” confrontation over Ukraine. The Russian and U.S. foreign ministers came face to face in Sweden to discuss recent allegations raised by Kiev and its Western allies that Russia could invade…
The Russian military said Thursday it has deployed its third Bastion coastal defense missile system on the Kuril Islands, a Pacific territory that Japan claims as its own. The Russian Navy previously deployed Bastion systems with their counterparts called Bal on the Kuril’s Iturup and Kunashir islands in 2016. The Navy’s Pacific Fleet delivered the…
Top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken on Thursday warned Russia against invading Ukraine, as Moscow told Kiev that any attempt to retake the Crimean peninsula amounted to a “direct threat” to Russia. Western powers have been sounding the alarm in recent weeks about Russia massing troops along the border with Ukraine, further stoking tensions in an…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s intention to restore Kiev’s control over Crimea constitutes a “direct threat” to Russia, the Kremlin said Thursday as tensions run high between the two countries. Speaking in his annual address to the Ukrainian parliament on Wednesday, Zelenskiy said the return of Crimea to Ukraine following Moscow’s 2014 annexation of the peninsula…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday it has detained three alleged Ukrainian spies gathering secrets and plotting terrorist attacks as tensions between the countries escalate over Kiev’s accusations of Russian military buildup and planned invasions. All three Ukrainian nationals had confessed to being recruited by Ukraine’s military and security services, Interfax quoted the FSB…
December 1, 2021 – ROSATOM and Framatome recently signed a new Strategic Cooperation Agreement further expanding the companies’ efforts to develop fuel fabrication and instrumentation and control (I&C) technologies. ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev, and Bernard Fontana, CEO of Framatome signed the agreement during the World Nuclear Exposition held in Paris. “Together with Framatome, we…
BUDEL, The Netherlands– At the Budel refugee center, a former military camp in southern Holland, groups of asylum seekers cycle up and down the paved paths between prefabricated dormitories. Looking tired and lost, six Syrian men in their twenties are queuing at the cafeteria for their dinner of sausage and mashed potato. Just three weeks…
A Moscow court has fined opposition activists for staging a photo op with Russian and U.S. flags near the Kremlin in solidarity with a U.S. congressional proposal not to recognize Vladimir Putin’s presidency past 2024, independent media reported Wednesday. The Parnas opposition party said police had detained three of its activists on Nov. 21 for the Red…
December 2, 2021 PAO Severstal (“Severstal”, “The Group”), one of the world’s largest vertically integrated steel and mining companies, announces that it has signed a binding agreement with OOO Russkaya Energiya to sell its coking coal assets, AO Vorkutaugol (“Vorkutaugol”). The transaction value is 15 billion roubles. The deal is expected to be closed in…
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Washington had seen “evidence” Russia could be planning an invasion of Ukraine, threatening Moscow with painful economic sanctions if it attacks. Blinken accused Moscow of massing “tens of thousands of additional combat forces” near Ukraine’s border as he geared up for talks with Russian counterpart Sergei…
December 1, 2021, 18:00 A working meeting of Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, with Viktor Karankevich, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Belarus, and Vladimir Semashko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Russian Federation, took place today in St. Petersburg. Alexey Miller and Viktor Karankevich signed the Protocol between Gazprom and the Government of the Republic of Belarus.…
Russia and Southeast Asian states have kicked off military exercises in Indonesia as part of a “new page” in the countries’ strategic partnership, Moscow said Wednesday. The Dec. 1-3 drills along the Strait of Malacca on the northeastern coast of Sumatra involve all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Russia dispatched…
At the Rooppur NPP, the Teplotech 4.0 project been launched ahead of schedule to ensure the technical upgrading of heat installation works, including the commercial use of two types of automatic orbital welding machines. The use of new automatic welding machines has been promptly agreed with the design organization and supervisory authorities owing to the…
The Arctic region could see a faster-than-predicted shift from snow to rain as its main form of precipitation if global carbon emissions are not drastically cut, an international group of scientists have claimed in research published Tuesday in the Nature Communications journal. Previous computer models had predicted that autumns in Siberia, the Arctic Ocean and…
On 1 December 2021, ROSATOM, French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), and EDF (France) signed a joint declaration of intent to develop their long-term R&D collaboration in the field of civil nuclear power. The declaration states an experimentation at laboratory scale, involving all the steps required to recycle second-generation plutonium from spent MOX…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday called for direct talks with Moscow as tensions mounted over claims that Russia is laying the groundwork for an invasion. Zelenskiy’s call came as NATO looks to counter what it says is a build-up of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken…
December 1, 2021, 13:40 According to preliminary data, Gazprom produced 467.6 billion cubic meters of gas in January-November of 2021, which is 14.7 per cent (or 60 billion cubic meters) more than in the same period of last year. Gazprom ramped up its domestic supplies from the gas transmission system by 15.8 per cent (or by 30.4 billion cubic meters) over said period of 2021. The Company increased its gas exports…
The Medvezhenskaya Wind Farm (Stavropol Krai) began supplying electricity to the wholesale electricity and capacity market on December 1, 2021. The wind farm with an installed capacity of 60 MW consists of 24 wind turbine generators. Local content of facility equipment, as confirmed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, amounts…
Russia is “absolutely” behind an alleged coup plot in Ukraine that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy disclosed last week, the Ukrainian prime minister said Tuesday. Zelenskiy said Friday that Kiev is “entirely prepared” for a potential Russian invasion and added that Ukrainian security services had obtained audio recordings of discussions of a Dec. 1-2 coup. He did…
Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday said Moscow-annexed Crimea was legally part of Russia, adding that he planned to visit the peninsula with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Russia’s annexation of Crimea from neighbouring Ukraine in 2014 and support for separatists in the east of that country caused alarm in ex-Soviet Belarus. Lukashenko has been under…
November 30, 2021, 17:40 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Anatoly Bibilov, President of the Republic of South Ossetia, took place today in St. Petersburg. The parties discussed the state and prospects of their cooperation, focusing in particular on gas supplies to the republic. Background In August 2009, Gazprom brought into operation the Dzuarikau – Tskhinval gas trunkline to provide direct…
A Covid-denying rogue Russian monk who barricaded himself in a monastery last year with dozens of followers was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on Tuesday. A Moscow court found Father Sergiy — whose secular name is Nikolai Romanov — guilty of inciting suicide, offending religious beliefs and vigilantism, Russian news agencies reported. He was…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that his recently attained constitutional right to get re-elected in 2024 gives the country automatic “stability.” Putin reiterated that he is still undecided about running for his fifth overall presidential term during Tuesday’s appearance at an investment forum by video link. Constitutional amendments passed last year granted him the…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that military exercises and other moves by the West and Ukraine threaten Russia’s security, warning against crossing the Kremlin’s “red lines.” Addressing an investor conference via video link, Putin declined to say whether Moscow planned to move troops across Ukraine’s border — as the West has been alleging for…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called for mutual recognition of vaccines against the coronavirus to help curtail the pandemic, as concern grows around the world about the fast-spreading Omicron variant. Speaking at a Russian investment forum by video link, Putin said that countries can “effectively battle” the coronavirus only by coordinating their actions. “I…
Russia is developing special AI-powered software that will be able to detect and prevent mass unrest as soon as next year, the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday, citing the Emergency Situations Ministry. The futuristic technology uses machine learning to carry out a “multi-factor, comprehensive analysis of the likelihood of riots and unauthorized public events,” according…
For Russia, November 2021 was a grim month. Prosecutors launched an effort to close down Memorial, Russia’s top human rights organization. In Siberia’s coal-mining Kemerovo region, 46 miners and five rescuers died after a methane gas explosion at the Listvyazhnaya coal. Meanwhile, as Russians started to stock up ahead of the New Year holidays, prices…
At noon in London on Nov. 29, the first non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for ballets went on sale at Bonhams auction house. Three ballets performed by Natalia Osipova, a principal dancer at The Royal Ballet, will be up for auction until Dec. 10. The performances on sale, called “Natalia Osipova: Triptych,” consist of two pieces from…
Russia’s leading media conglomerate has launched a domestic rival to the hugely popular video-sharing app TikTok as Russia’s campaign to reduce the influence of foreign websites and technology advances. Gazprom Media, a subsidiary of state-owned gas giant Gazprom, launched the service, named “Yappy,” on Monday. It is currently available to download from both the Apple…
As many as 1,500 Russian tourists have been left stranded in South Africa as countries scramble to ban flights from the region over fears of the heavily mutated Omicron coronavirus strain, media reported Monday. Russia last week banned flights from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Madagascar, Swaziland and Tanzania, as well as Hong…
On November 29, 2021 Deputy Director General of ROSATOM for International Activity Nikolai Spasskiy in Moscow had a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federative Republic of Brazil Carlos Alberto França. The parties discussed thoroughly prospects of broadening the cooperation between Brazil and Russia in peaceful uses of atomic energy. The role of…
November 30, 2021, 11:05 Alexey Oleynikov has been elected Director General of Gazprom Transgaz Tchaikovsky. Alexey Oleynikov was born in 1982. He graduated from Ural State Technical University, majoring in Gas Turbine & Steam Turbine Units and Engines. He has a PhD degree in Engineering. He has been employed with Gazprom for about 13 years. Between 2009 and 2017, he rose through the ranks from Electronics Engineer…
Russia has deported an American professor at a prestigious St. Petersburg university who was associated with a U.S. college that was blacklisted by the authorities earlier this year, media reported Monday. Michael Freese, a professor in St. Petersburg State University’s Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty, was banned from returning to Russia until 2026, according to the…
November 30, 2021 Severstal, one of the world’s largest vertically integrated steel and mining companies, has taken a strategic decision to increase the share of renewable energy in its energy portfolio, in part by increasing heat generation from biofuels at the operating boiler houses of Karelsky Okatysh, the leading iron ore mining and processing company…
November 30, 2021 Severstal, one of the world’s largest vertically integrated steel and mining companies, has engaged the services of EY to conduct an audit of compliance with ethical norms and standards. This is part of Severstal’s comprehensive programme to improve corporate processes in order to comply with global best ESG practices. Documentation and on-site…
The backers of the Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V said Monday that the jab is effective against the new Omicron coronavirus variant but they were also developing an adapted booster. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which supported the vaccine’s development by the state-run Gamaleya Center, said that the center “has already begun developing the…
ROSATOM, a global technological leader, will attend the World Nuclear Exhibition (WNE) being held in Paris, France, between 30 November and 2 December 2021. WNE, the world’s largest exhibition dedicated to the civil nuclear sector, will bring together global leaders from across the nuclear industry. Following on from the COP26 summit, the theme of this…
Installation of the circular (polar) crane bridge has been completed in the power unit 2 reactor building at the site of the Rooppur NPP under construction (in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh). The “Energospecmontazh” JSC specialists have performed works on lifting and installing the polar crane bridge beams on the rail tracks at +38.50m elevation…
On November 29th, Uranium One Holding N.V. (a ROSATOM company) entered into an agreement with Alpha Lithium Corporation to establish a joint venture to develop the Tolillar lithium deposit in Argentina. The 27,500 hectares deposit is located in the Argentine province of Salta within the world famous “lithium triangle”. This region is rich with hydromineral…
Russia’s rollout of a nationwide QR code system that would restrict access to public places and transport to encourage vaccination is running into widespread opposition from anti-lockdown activists, even as Russia’s pandemic death toll continues to soar. With vaccine skepticism rife and only around 35% of Russians having received their jabs, moves to make jabs…
Russia said Monday it had carried out another successful test of its Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile, as world powers race to develop advanced weaponry. Russia, the United States, France and China have all been experimenting with so-called hypersonic glide vehicles — defined as reaching speeds of at least Mach 5. As part of “the completion…
On November 23-25, 2021, the annual conference of the design and engineering complex of nuclear industry was held in Moscow. It was organized by Atomenergoproekt JSC (part of Engineering Division of ROSATOM), which is the largest design organization of industry. The event, held in a hybrid format, was attended by more than 2,500 people, and…