If all goes to plan for St. Petersburg’s new governor, Russia’s second-largest city may soon have the landscaped public parks, brand-new buses and budget surpluses of its big brother Moscow. The man behind the promises, Kremlin protégé Alexander Beglov, was inaugurated Wednesday in the gold and marble halls of the Mariinsky Palace in the city…
Specialists of the Nenets Nature Reserve have launched an extensive field survey of a population of the Atlantic subspecies of walrus as a part of the biological indicator species monitoring programme implemented by Rosneft Oil Company.
The enterprise responsible for Russian seaport and maritime infrastructure development today operates a total of 36 icebreaking vessels. This is the largest fleet of its kind in the world, the state-run Rosmorport company says. And more is to come. According to company deputy general director Vasily Strugov, another nine vessels will be added to the fleet by 2024. Among them, there…
A Moscow court has ruled to release novice actor Pavel Ustinov from custody days ahead of his appeal following widespread public outcry over his conviction. Ustinov, 23, was found guilty Monday of dislocating a riot police officer’s shoulder during mass anti-government protests in Moscow last month. A court sentenced Ustinov to three and a half years…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday that one North Korean poacher, captured by Russian border guards in the Sea of Japan, has died, the Interfax news agency reported. A Russian border patrol discovered two North Korean schooners and 11 motorboats fishing illegally off its far eastern coast on Tuesday and detained the first…
When Ponnuchamy Jeevanantham first came to Moscow from Tamil Nadu in southern India in 1987 to study agriculture at the Peoples’ Friendship University he was dismayed by how mild Russian food was compared to Indian cuisine. “You couldn’t find any spices,” he said. “There were bay leaves, black pepper and maybe some chilli powder —…
Officials have sent a Siberian shaman to a psychiatric hospital after he was apprehended on his way from Far East Russia to Moscow to exorcise President Vladimir Putin, authorities said Friday. Alexander Gabyshev embarked on his odyssey in March, promising to walk more than 8,000 kilometers from his native republic of Sakha to Moscow to…
The United States military has a secret blueprint targeting the air defense system protecting Russia’s westernmost territory of Kaliningrad, according to the U.S. Air Force’s top commander in Europe. NATO members perceive Russia’s missile deployments in Kaliningrad as a threat at a time when tensions between Russia and its Western neighbors are running high over…
Russia cast its 13th veto on Thursday of UN Security Council action on the Syrian conflict, blocking a demand for a truce in northwest Syria because it does not include an exemption for military offensives against UN blacklisted militant groups. China backed Russia by also blocking the text, drafted by Kuwait, Belgium and Germany. It…
A court in southern Russia has found six Jehovah’s Witnesses guilty of “extremism” and sentenced them to prison terms between two and three and a half years Thursday. Russia outlawed Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2017, making it a criminal offense for the group’s estimated 175,000 worshippers to meet or distribute literature. Human rights groups have condemned…
A Russian university is said to have threatened a student with expulsion after his pink phone case and membership in pro-LGBT social media groups fueled suspicions about his alleged sexual orientation. The reported threats made by Ural State University of Economics (USUE) administrators in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg come six years after the Russian…
Moscow is full of Soviet-era institutions built on once-sacred ground. While passers-by might have little reason to notice these buildings, the Russian Orthodox Church is, in many cases, fighting legal battles to evict long-time tenants and claim valuable, centrally located real estate that was once appropriated by Soviet authorities. Just this year, the Church has…
Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service said Thursday it had fined Google 100,000 rubles ($1,560) for circulating adverts for financial services by Ali Trade, a company it said did not have the required license for such activity. Russia has fined Google on several occasions in recent years, although those fines typically amount only to small sums. It…
Thousands of Russians from different walks of life have added their names to the growing chorus of voices against a crackdown following the biggest anti-Kremlin protests in the capital in years. Over a dozen protesters and bystanders are being held in custody on accusations of mass unrest, using violence against police, attending multiple unauthorized rallies…
Wearing a traditional black cassock and long Orthodox beard, Father Oleg Batov heaves a pensive sigh. “I really feel for the boys. A great evil is being done to them,” he told The Moscow Times in an interview in his office on the second floor of Moscow’s 16th-century Church of the Dormition of Theotokos, located…
A Russian volcano’s eruption this summer has turned sunrises and sunsets in the Northern Hemisphere more purple, according to research by the University of Colorado Boulder. Raikoke erupted on June 22 on an uninhabited island south of the Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East after lying dormant for 95 years. NASA said the eruption…
A Moscow court said on Thursday that it would review the jailing of an actor over an opposition protest after state prosecutors formally requested that he be released on bail following a public outcry over his conviction. Pavel Ustinov, 23, was sentenced on Monday to three and a half years in jail for dislocating a…
Uganda said on Wednesday it had signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with Russia to help the East African country build capacity to exploit nuclear technology for energy, medical and other peaceful purposes. The government of President Yoweri Museveni has previously said it is eager to use the country’s uranium deposits to boost energy production capacity.…
An anti-Putin shaman from Siberia has been kidnapped by armed and masked men thought to be security officials, Russian media have reported. Alexander Gabyshev has been walking on foot from the Far East republic of Sakha to Moscow since March to “expel” President Vladimir Putin. Last week, the detention of his supporters in the city…
Russia has uncovered Islamic State terrorist group cells in nearly 20 of the country’s regions stretching as far as Siberia, a top anti-extremism official at the Interior Ministry has said. Extremism accounts for 1% of all crimes in Russia, Oleg Ilyinykh wrote in a piece for the ministry’s “Russian Police” magazine published Tuesday. “But even…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Israel is a Russian-speaking state and that the two countries share a common history and extensive family ties. Israel is home to the world’s largest population of Russian Jews, a large portion of whom emigrated there from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s. About 17% of Israel’s…
The start of fall turning Moscow’s trees into colorful pieces of art also marks the start of the cultural season, with the city’s theaters, museums and conservatories inviting people to enjoy the artworks inside. This is Russia’s Year of Theater, and events will be held across the country, including a Theatrical Olympiad, an All-Russian Theater…
A Moscow court has ordered the release of one of several activists charged with “mass civil unrest” during the Russian capital’s biggest wave of anti-government protests in nearly a decade. More than a dozen men, including Sberbank software engineer Aidar Gubaidulin, were placed in pre-trial detention on accusations of organizing mass unrest during election-related protests…
Russia may drop its embezzlement case against embattled U.S. investor Michael Calvey and other executives at the Baring Vostok private equity group, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday. Calvey and three other Baring Vostok executives were detained in February on embezzlement charges, which they denied. They said the case was being used to pressure them…
A pair of nationalists from Moscow is suspected of a hate crime after allegedly stabbing a Central Asian migrant in St. Petersburg, the Fontanka.ru news website has reported. Unofficial data estimates that at least 245 acts of violence against Central Asians were committed in Russia out of a total of 772 hate crimes in 2010-2018.…
Russia is holding 161 suspected North Korean poachers who were detained in the Sea of Japan on Tuesday after one of the boats they were on attacked a Russian patrol, the state-run RIA news agency said on Wednesday. A Russian border patrol discovered two North Korean schooners and 11 motorboats fishing illegally off its far eastern coast on…
Hundreds of people have lined up for single pickets outside President Vladimir Putin’s administration building in central Moscow to support an actor who was jailed for using violence against a policeman during one of this summer’s unauthorized election protests. Pavel Ustinov’s sentencing to 3.5 years behind bars Monday for allegedly dislocating an officer’s shoulder while…
The Directorate for the Russian Federation State Border Arrangement plans to build a major radar at Cape Chelyuskin, the Krasnoyarsk news agency NGS24 has reported. The facility is to be built in 33 months. Its development tender was recently announced by Rosgranstroy, the federal border development authority. The project is officially called “Radiotechnical point Chelyuskin” and includes a cost frame…
Scores of Russian priests have joined the chorus of voices calling on the authorities to stop the criminal prosecutions of protesters and bystanders following this summer’s mass election protests in Moscow. Around a dozen men, some as young as 21 years old, are being held on various charges after the largest sustained protest movement in…
Scores of Russian priests have joined the chorus of voices calling on the authorities to stop the criminal prosecutions of protesters and bystanders following this summer’s mass election protests in Moscow. Around a dozen men, some as young as 21 years old, are being held on various charges after the largest sustained protest movement in…
September 17, 2019, on the sidelines of the 63rd IAEA General conference in Vienna the Governments of the Russian Federation and of the Republic of Uganda signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. On behalf of Russia, the document was signed by Nikolay Spassky, Deputy Director General – Director…
Anti-migrant attitudes have risen for a second consecutive year in Russia, according to a new independent survey’s results that experts link to the country’s economic woes. The Levada Center’s findings come as research has shown a decade-high surge in migration to Russia in the early months of 2019. At the same time, real incomes continue…
Russia may drop its embezzlement case against U.S. investor Michael Calvey and other executives at the Baring Vostok private equity group, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Wednesday. The Baring Vostok executives were detained in February on embezzlement charges, which they denied. They said the case was being used to pressure them in a business dispute…
September 18, 2019 PAO Severstal, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and mining companies, has launched a pilot project under the World Steel Association’s (“Worldsteel”) “Step up” programme, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the global steel industry through the introduction of a new methodology. Launched at Severstal’s flagship steel…
On September 16, 2019 Unit 2 of Novovoronezh Phase II completed 15-day comprehensive trials of the equipment or so-called commissioning tests. The new innovative power unit ran fault-free at 100% capacity during the entire testing period. “We completed commissioning tests of the new power unit strictly on schedule. Results of the comprehensive trials speak about…
Russians no longer see a deficit of women on their country’s political stage, according to a state-run survey that has tracked attitudes toward female politicians for over 20 years. Researchers estimate that up to 17% of legislative seats in Russia are currently held by women, about half the global average. In the late 1990s, women…
A 10-year-old legless skateboarder from Russia has gone viral after getting shoutouts from legendary skater Tony Hawk and a popular Russian YouTuber. Doctors in Far East Russia amputated six-month-old Maxim Abramov’s legs in 2011 after he was injured in a fire. A St. Petersburg family adopted him less than a year later. As he grew…
On 17 September, on the sidelines of the 63rd IAEA General Conference in Vienna, ROSATOM and the Ministry of Energy and Mines of the Dominican Republic signed a Memorandum of cooperation in the field of peaceful use of nuclear energy. ROSATOM Deputy Director General Nikolay Spassky signed the document from the Russian side and from…
The International Public Dialogue Forum and Exhibition AtomEco 2019 will be held in Hungary, Pécs, on November 6-7. The Forum is held by ROSATOM in cooperation with the Government of Hungary. The Forum participants will discuss capabilities of nuclear power to achieve goals of sustainable development in the field of ensuring affordable and environment-free energy,…
Russian border guards detained two North Korean racketeering vessels in Russian territorial waters in the Sea of Japan after one of them attacked a Russian patrol ship, the state-run TASS news agency cited the FSB security service as saying on Tuesday. “The crew of a North Korean schooner (more than 45 people) carried out an armed attack…
Belarus has uncovered an illegal cross-border weapons smuggling network from Ukraine to Russia, the close Moscow ally’s top customs official has said. Kiev’s forces have been battling pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine since 2014 in a conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives. Sporadic fighting continues despite a ceasefire agreement.…
Now that summer is over, Moscow’s concert halls are opening their doors to the new season. Zaryadye Concert Hall, Moscow’s shiny newcomer to a crowded field, opened its doors last year to much fanfare, with performers gushing over its state-of-the-art acoustics and edgy design. To keep up the momentum, this year the Zaryadye directors said…
A working group set up by exiled Kremlin critic and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has written an open letter signed by 77 public figures condemning “the political repression and lawlessness taking place today in Russia.” Signatories include the creators of the hit television series “Game of Thrones” David Benioff and Dan Weiss, British actor…
Russian film and theater actors have staged an in-person and online campaign in support of a fellow actor who was jailed for using violence against a policeman during one of this summer’s unauthorized election protests in Moscow. A court sentenced Pavel Ustinov to 3.5 years behind bars Monday for allegedly dislocating an officer’s shoulder while…
Moscow wants the United States to explain a media report on alleged Russian spying that it says has endangered its diplomats, the Russian Embassy in Washington has said. Russian operatives allegedly decrypted secure FBI communications starting in 2010, forcing the U.S. agency to cut off contacts with some of its Russian informants, Yahoo News reported…
Two Russian football stars have been released after serving six months in jail over their involvement in a pair of violent attacks that sparked public outcry last year. Alexander Kokorin and Pavel Mamayev, who both played in Russia’s top league and used to play for their country, apologized after being caught on surveillance last year…
Russia is set to be a major winner after an attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities slashed production and ramped up tensions in the Middle East, analysts predict. In a frantic day for the world’s markets, oil prices climbed by almost 15% Monday following the drone attacks on Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery, which…
Update: A court in St. Petersburg has fined Lorber 15,000 rubles ($230) after finding her guilty of illegal drug possession, the city court system’s press service wrote on its Telegram channel. A New York-based film student has been charged with drug possession in St. Petersburg for allegedly bringing medical marijuana into the country. Russia bans…
An explosion has hit a disease research center in Siberia that houses strains of Ebola and smallpox, causing a fire and injuring one worker. The Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology announced Monday that a gas tank erupted during repairs in a sanitary inspection room at its lab in Koltsovo, Novosibirsk region. One…
Russia is ready to help Saudi Arabia following attacks on the Saudi oil industry if needed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with leaders of Turkey and Iran in Ankara on Monday, and proposed Russian weapons for purchase. “We are ready to provide respective assistance to Saudi Arabia, and it would be enough for…
The leaders of Turkey, Russia and Iran meeting in Ankara on Monday agreed to try to ease tensions in northwest Syria’s Idlib region, but disagreements between the countries appeared to linger, especially over the threat from Islamic State. The summit of the three countries — all of whom have allies fighting in Syria’s ruinous eight-year-old war —…
September 17, 2019 PAO Severstal (MICEX-RTS: CHMF; LSE: SVST), one of the world’s largest vertically integrated steel and mining companies, announces that it has invested in Arcanum Alloys, Inc., a Michigan-headquartered company that develops innovative steel-based alloys. Severstal is the lead investor of the round, investing approximately six million dollars in this funding round. Among…
A member of Russia’s National Guard has urged colleagues to disobey orders to detain protesters rallying against the results of a local election in Far East Russia. Hundreds rallied in the center of the city of Ulan-Ude and several were detained after a pro-Kremlin candidate for mayor was declared the winner of the Sept. 8…
Residents of three Far East Russian regions are accusing the authorities of failing to improve flood control systems in the six years since the area was hit with biggest floods in more than a century, the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper has reported. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated and more than 100,000 were affected…
The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and TENEX, Joint-Stock Company have renewed their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on exploring potential opportunities for collaboration in the field of nuclear fuel cycle management. The new MoU was signed on September 20, 2019, during the 24th World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi by Mohamed Al Hammadi, Chief Executive…
Russia on Monday urged countries in the Middle East and outside the region not to draw “hasty conclusions” on who staged the attacks on Saudi oil facilities. A senior U.S. official said earlier that evidence from the attack, which hit the world’s biggest oil-processing facility, indicated Iran was behind it, instead of the Yemeni Houthi…
Abu Dhabi, September 12 – ROSATOM participated at the 24th World Energy Congress, which was held from September 9 to 12 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Under the theme “Energy for Prosperity”, the Congress this year became a global leadership forum that defined the strategy for a collaborative, sustainable and innovative energy future that enables societal,…
Russia and its close ally Belarus plan to form an economic confederacy by 2022, according to an undisclosed plan of action for integration seen by the Kommersant business daily. Belarus’ integration with Russia became a widely discussed possibility as one of the ways in which President Vladimir Putin could sidestep constitutional term limits that bar…
It’s a warm Moscow evening under the floodlights of a baseball stadium. The hitter sends the ball flying off the bat into a cloudless sky. A fielder 80 yards downfield sprints to get under it, glove raised. He’s made it in time, but can he take the catch? No! He fumbled. The hitter makes second…
Former U.S spy agency contractor Edward Snowden said he would love French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him political asylum after one of Macron’s ministers said if it was up to her she would offer him asylum. French Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said at the weekend she supported granting asylum to him, though she made…