The opposition journalist captured by Belarus after the flight he was on was diverted to Minsk was paraded before the media Monday, in a scene the opposition denounced as Kafkaesque. Roman Protasevich has already appeared in two controversial videos in which he confessed to alleged crimes — confessions dismissed by the opposition and his family…
President Vladimir Putin has renewed an offer to swap prisoners ahead of his first summit Wednesday with Joe Biden, who has come under growing pressure to free Americans in Russian jails. Biden, who has vowed a clear-eyed, tougher approach with Putin than his predecessors at the start of their terms, has already made clear that…
A Chechen woman who said she fled abuse in her home region for her sexual orientation has reneged on her initial statements in a Chechen state television interview. Chechens who lose favor with the Russian republic’s authorities regularly appear on television to give what human rights activists say are “forced” apologies. Khalimat Taramova, 22, had previously…
A fuel tank explosion at a gas station in Russia’s third-largest city Novosibirsk has injured 21 people, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday. Four people have been hospitalized in a burn unit, RIA Novosti reported. Eyewitnesses posted video to social media showing the moment of the explosion, with a huge plume of flames…
Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed off allegations of hacking and involvement in jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s poisoning in his first interview with U.S. media in three years. During the NBC News interview, which aired ahead of his bilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, Putin spoke with interviewer Keir Simmons for 90 minutes on…
Russia’s population decline more than doubled in 2020, the latest sign of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the country, according to updated figures from Russia’s federal statistics agency seen by The Moscow Times. Russia’s population totaled 146.05 million as of Jan. 1, 2021, down from 146.75 million at the start of 2020 — a decrease…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia is open to handing over cyber criminals to the U.S. if Washington agrees to do the same, Reuters reported Monday. “If we agree to extradite criminals, then of course Russia will do that, we will do that, but only if the other side, in this case the United…
The Kremlin has barred the independent Dozhd broadcaster from the presidential press pool over its coverage of protests in support of jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the independent Meduza news website. Dozhd’s Kremlin pool reporter has been unable to attend Peskov’s press briefings since May 13, Meduza reported, and will…
Russia and the United States grew their nuclear arsenals in 2020, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think tank said in a new report Monday. The world’s two largest nuclear powers boosted their stockpiles even as the overall number of nuclear warheads decreased globally last year, (the Swedish based) SIPRI said. Both are estimated…
Authorities in St. Petersburg, which is hosting a series of Euro 2020 matches, said Monday they were tightening anti-coronavirus restrictions in an effort to curb a new spike in infections. Russia’s second city is the country’s worst hotspot after Moscow and is expected to host thousands of football fans from Europe. The new restrictions will…
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Sunday that residents of the Russian capital who get their first coronavirus jab will now take part in a lottery to win a car. The move comes as authorities seek to speed up Russia’s vaccination drive that has stagnated while new infections in Moscow and across the country are on…
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Saturday announced a “non-working” week in the Russian capital, with non-essential workers told to stay home, as Covid-19 cases hit a six-month high. The decision marks a change of tone for Russian authorities, with President Vladimir Putin repeatedly insisting that Russia has handled the pandemic better than most countries. …
Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced hope Friday that U.S. President Joe Biden will be less impulsive than his predecessor Donald Trump, ahead of his first summit with the new U.S. leader. In an interview with NBC News, Putin described Biden as a “career man” who has spent his life in politics. Though he described relations…
When Americans finally grasped that COVID-19 was actually a thing, a particular subset of the population emerged from the bowels of the internet, crowing the equivalent of “Toldja So!” on YouTube. These were the Preppers, who believe that the destruction of life as we know it is just around the corner. Be it from a…
Russians across the country were treated to the rare “ring of fire” solar eclipse that swept across the earth’s northern skies Thursday. Called an annular solar eclipse, the “ring of fire” was most visible in Canada and parts of the Arctic. This type of eclipse happens when the moon partially blocks out the sun, leaving…
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has issued a note of protest to the Russian Foreign Ministry over its lack of access to jailed ex-Marine Trevor Reed and “grave concern” for his health, it said in a statement Friday. The Embassy said Reed, who was diagnosed with coronavirus on May 25 and hospitalized after his condition worsened,…
An exiled top associate of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Friday that Russian authorities have put him on a wanted list on suspicion of committing an unspecified crime. Ivan Zhdanov, the former director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) which a Russian court declared “extremist” earlier this week, has been living in Lithuania to avoid…
Russia Day A holiday since 1992, Russia Day marks the day in 1990 that Russia ratified the Declaration of State Sovereignty, which provided certain freedoms to Russia within the Soviet Union. In recent years it is usually celebrated most vibrantly at the city’s historical museums, where key moments in the country’s past are acted out…
June 11, 2021, 14:45 Today, the work on the creation of a unique art installation that will be digitized and transformed into an NFT trophy started in the UEFA EURO 2020 Football Village in St. Petersburg. The idea to create a completely new award for the best goal of the UEFA EURO 2020 Championship was put forward by Gazprom, an official sponsor of the tournament. Russian futuristic calligraphy…
Every day at 6 a.m., former Russian army officer Yevgeny sits bolt upright in bed, remembering security officers in black balaclavas storming his apartment during an early morning raid. His was one of 16 Moscow households targeted by the authorities earlier this year for being Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Christian denomination outlawed in Russia since 2017,…
A Chechen domestic violence victim’s life is at risk after police returned her to her home region after raiding the women’s shelter in neighboring Dagestan where she had fled, media reported Friday. Khalimat Taramova said divulging her whereabouts would “endanger” her life after she escaped “regular beatings and threats” by her family, according to a video…
The mayor of Lisbon has apologized for sharing contact details of residents who staged rallies in support of poisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after he was arrested upon his return to Russia. The Portuguese capital was among the 95 cities outside Russia where rallies calling for Navalny’s release took place in January. Several hundred thousand…
Accreditation of journalists for the Press Conferences in the lead-up to the Shareholders Meeting For Gazprom’s Press Conferences audio broadcast please dial: +7 495 719-35-77 (Russian) +7 495 719-30-00 (English) June 11, 10:00 am (Moscow time) Participant: Sergey Gustov, Director General of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz
Russia is set to deliver an advanced satellite system to Iran that will vastly improve its spying capabilities, according to a U.S. media report. Moscow is preparing to give Iran a Kanopus-V satellite with a high-resolution camera, the Washington Post reported Thursday. It will allow the Islamic republic to monitor facilities of its adversaries across the…
June 11, 2021 Vorkutaugol, one of Russia’s largest coal mining companies and part of the PJSC Severstal Group, will stop producing energy coal (coal of the GZhO brand), starting from the first quarter of 2022. This decision was made in connection with the transfer of Vorkutinskaya CHPP-2 to gas and the withdrawal of CHPP-1 to…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption group vowed Thursday to fight on after a court branded it an “extremist” organization and ordered its closure. Western countries and the European Union were quick to condemn Wednesday’s late-night ruling, but Russian officials doubled down, describing Navalny as an agent collaborating with Washington. The court decision, which came…
Russia’s prison service on Thursday said that convicts would be sent to construct a new section of the Baikal-Amur Mainline track (BAM) in Siberia, a railway partially built by Gulag prisoners. Amid labour shortages Russian government officials have discussed plans to use prison labour for major construction projects but they insist there are no plans…
The committee of ministers of pan-European rights body the Council of Europe on Thursday said it strongly urged Russia to “immediately” release jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in line with a previous ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. The committee, which oversees the implementation of ECHR rulings, expressed “its grave concern” that Navalny…
Siberian doctors falsified Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s medical records that contained evidence of his nerve agent poisoning last summer, the jailed opposition figure’s allies said in an investigation published Thursday. Omsk region doctors who first treated Navalny after he fell severely ill on Aug. 20, 2020, said their tests did not find any toxic substances despite…
Russian authorities are ramping up pressure on researchers and activists who oppose Moscow’s historical narrative, especially concerning Stalin-era purges and collaboration with Nazi Germany, an international rights group charged Thursday. The report published by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) “comprehensively catalogues repressive acts related to historical memory” targeting historians, activists and journalists for…
A Siberian journalist investigating a U.S.-sanctioned Chechen fight club said Wednesday that he had been severely beaten by unknown men. Andrei Afanasyev said at least three people had hit him “with either a pipe or piece of rebar” outside his apartment in the Far East city of Blagoveshchensk 7,500 kilometers east of Moscow. Afanasyev, appearing…
A lawsuit filed with a Moscow court accuses popular YouTuber and journalist Yury Dud of “online drug propaganda,” the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday. The government-affiliated Safe Internet League — a nonprofit that acts as an online morality watchdog — filed a police appeal against Dud in April, accusing him of promoting drugs in…
UEFA on Thursday demanded that Ukraine make changes to their jersey for Euro 2020 to remove a “political” slogan that sparked protests from Russia. European football’s governing body said the message “Glory to the Heroes,” a rallying cry during the 2014 anti-Russia protests in Ukraine that is featured inside the shirt, was “clearly political in…
On June 10, 2021, the acceptance certificate of Belarus NPP power unit No.1 start-up complex was signed (the general designer and the general contractor —Engineering Division of ROSATOM). Handover of the power unit was held in accordance with contractual obligations for BelNPP construction and the legislation of the Republic of Belarus. Pursuant to the Contract,…
Around 500 super rich Russians control more wealth than the poorest 99.8% of Russians, according to a new report into Russia’s inequality problem. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that Russia’s financial elite — the approximately 500 individuals with a net worth of more than $100 million — controlled 40% of the country’s entire household…
A majority of Europeans do not trust Russian coronavirus vaccines, according to a study by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) cited by the RBC news website Thursday. The results come as President Vladimir Putin orders officials to develop a “vaccine tourism” plan and as the European Union’s medicines regulator continues its ongoing review of…
Three years ago, scenes of euphoria erupted in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium and all over Russia after Igor Akinfeev saved two penalty spot kicks to beat Spain 4-3 and take World Cup hosts Russia through to the quarter-finals for the first time since the Soviet era. Russia would eventually lose to Croatia in the quarter-finals, but…
A Chechen asylum seeker fleeing torture who was deported from France has been jailed in his native Russian republic of Chechnya, Russian media reported Wednesday. Magomed Gadayev was sent back in April, despite a French court overturning his deportation order, amid a wave of expulsions following the gruesome beheading of a French teacher by an…
A Moscow court has outlawed the political and activist networks of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny as “extremist” in a closed-door hearing Wednesday. Here’s what it means for Russia’s most potent opposition force moving forward: Why did the court declare Navalny’s groups “extremist”? The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office, the plaintiff, had argued that Navalny’s organizations “aim…
An improvised explosive device killed one Russian soldier and wounded three more on patrol in northern Syria, Russian news agencies reported Wednesday, citing the Defense Ministry. “On June 9, during a patrol by the Russian military police in the province of Hassakeh in the Syrian Arab Republic, an armored car was hit in the explosion…
A Russian court has outlawed the political and activist networks of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny as “extremist” in a closed-door hearing Wednesday, effectively dismantling one of Russia’s most potent opposition forces amid a wider crackdown in the lead-up to parliamentary elections. The designation bars opposition groups affiliated with Navalny from crowdfunded operations and puts…
A Dutch court heard Wednesday how two defendants discussed the procurement of a surface-to-air missile which prosecutors say was eventually used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014. Judges this week began hearing evidence in the trial of four people — three Russians and a Ukrainian — charged in connection with an attack on the…
Moscow authorities announced Wednesday plans to reopen field hospitals and step up mask and glove enforcement as the epicenter of Russia’s outbreak reported its highest number of new cases since the start of 2021. Russia’s Covid-19 response center confirmed 4,124 new Moscow infections Wednesday, the first time since Jan. 16 when the capital was nearing…
Creative industries, culture and the arts found themselves in the spotlight of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) this year. For the first time in the history of the forum, the event incorporated a special Creative Business Forum, featuring more than 200 speakers representing leading museums, galleries, arts fairs, cultural foundations from Russia and…
A Russian journalist has been banned from covering football’s European Championship by Azerbaijan’s organizing committee over his visits to the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, sparking outrage in Moscow on Wednesday. Nobel Arustamyan, a journalist with Armenian ancestry working for the Russian Match TV station, said Tuesday that Azerbaijan’s organizing committee has denied him accreditation for…
Russia’s new “green” Arctic oil infrastructure projects are vital to the global economy, Igor Sechin, the head of Russian state-controlled energy giant Rosneft, has said. Rosneft recently launched construction of its Vostok Oil facility, which is set to become the Arctic’s largest oil terminal with 30 million tons of oil per year produced by 2024…
The percentage of Russians who say they want to move out of the country has climbed to its highest level in nearly a decade, according to an independent poll published Wednesday. One out of five respondents told the Levada Center pollster that they would “absolutely” or “most likely” want to emigrate. “This indicator has reached…
Russian security agents linked to the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny previously poisoned prominent writer and journalist Dmitry Bykov, The Insider news website and Bellingcat investigative outlet reported Wednesday. The latest report follows investigations by The Insider, Bellingcat and CNN claiming that alleged members of an elite Federal Security Service (FSB) chemical-weapons unit trailed…
Background The construction of the Amur GPP began in October 2015. Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk (part of the Gazprom Group) is the investor, customer, and operator for the Amur GPP. Construction management is carried out by NIPIGAZ (part of the SIBUR Group). The core process equipment for cryogenic gas separation is provided by Germany’s Linde. Products of Russian machine-building enterprises are also used at the GPP. In St. Petersburg, the production of spiral…
Three people have died in a fire at a hospital in the Russian city of Ryazan, investigators said Wednesday, with local authorities suggesting the blaze was caused by a faulty ventilator. The fire broke out in the intensive care unit of a state hospital in Ryazan, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of Moscow, at…
A popular Russian YouTuber has been charged with justifying terrorism over an alleged performance mocking the deadly 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, investigators announced Wednesday. Yury Khovasnky, 31, who boasts 4.4 million YouTube subscribers, was apprehended at his St. Petersburg apartment Tuesday evening. “Is it because of that song?” Khovansky Khovansky can be heard asking in the…
Isotope JSC (a part of Rusatom Healthcare JSC, Rosatom’s radiation technologies integrator) has signed a five-year contract with Brazil’s Nuclear and Energy Research Institute (IPEN; linked to the National Nuclear Energy Commission or CNEN) to supply lutetium-177 and actinium-225, the most promising medical isotopes in radiopharma. A long-term contract for monthly supplies of 177Lu-trichloride carrier-added…
Thousands of fans are set to descend on Russia’s former imperial capital St. Petersburg for Europe’s biggest football extravaganza, Euro 2020, even as coronavirus cases are surging in the city. Russia’s second city has been selected to host seven matches — including a quarter-final — in June and July after the tournament was postponed for…
Russia will probe the recent national music awards for “gay propaganda” after it featured attendees in gender-flipped clothing and what viewers said resembled a gay marriage ceremony. Last Friday’s Muz-TV music awards broadcast sparked controversy when beauty blogger Igor Sinyak walked the red carpet in a gown and one of Russia’s highest-paid TikTokers Danya Milokhin…
Russia on Tuesday sent a letter of complaint to UEFA over Ukraine’s “political” Euro 2020 kit that features the outline of Moscow-annexed Crimea and is emblazoned with popular patriotic chants. In the letter from the Russian football federation to UEFA just three days before the Euro starts, it said: “We draw attention to the use…
An elderly Russian man who had been declared dead was found alive days after his funeral, his relatives have said. “This is a story about human stupidity, medical negligence, incompetence and the complete collapse of the healthcare system,” his granddaughter wrote on Facebook. Grigory Vasilyev, 79, was placed in a Moscow region hospital with limb…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has dedicated a prestigious rights award to all political prisoners in Russia and in Belarus, his daughter told a summit of rights defenders on Tuesday. “My dad asked me today to give this award to every single political prisoner in Russia and Belarus,” Daria Navalnaya said in a video statement to the Geneva Summit…
Belarusian strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday signed legislation toughening protest laws, raising the stakes of a crackdown following his disputed re-election last year. The measures come into force amid an unprecedented legal sweep of government critics and civil society in the ex-Soviet country following the presidential vote last year that sparked huge demonstrations. The…
Novokuibyshevsk and Saratov refineries, Rosneft Oil Company’s oil refining enterprises, have won awards in nominations Best Video and Green Line of a creative contest held as part of the Green Spring 2021 national environmental campaign.
The Russian government is seeking to allocate money toward President Vladimir Putin’s national genetic database program, according to recent instructions from Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. Putin, who has sought to transform Russia into a world leader in genetic technologies, ordered in 2020 the creation of a “National Genetic Information Database.” Mishustin signed a series of orders…