Opposition politicians are facing mounting challenges from officials in St. Petersburg in getting on the ballot ahead of local elections this fall, Russian media outlets have reported. Voters in over a dozen Russian regions and cities, including St. Petersburg, will head to the polls in September to elect their executive and legislative representatives. Observers have…
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a formal diplomatic protest to Japan after accusing Tokyo of circulating a map at its G20 summit showing a disputed island chain as Japanese territory, the ministry’s spokeswoman said on Thursday. The islands — known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kuriles in Russia — have been…
The construction and testing of Russia’s first power plant are declared completed. On Thursday morning the installation was officially handed over from Baltic Yard to Rosatom. At the ceremony, representatives of two Russian state companies signed a document saying that the Akademik Lomonosov passed all necessary tests and successfully met requirements. “It marks a significant…
Release July 4, 2019, 15:10 Sergey Kupriyanov has been appointed Head of Department 106 – Press Secretary to Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, effective July 9, 2019. Sergey Kupriyanov has been employed with Gazprom since 2003. In his previous post at the Company, he served as Press Secretary to Chairman of the Management Committee – Deputy Head of Department 106. Alexander Bespalov, former Head of Department 106, has…
The 15,469-ton installation earlier called “Nan Hai Ba Hao” has been discharged from a heavy-lift vessel Red Zed I and is now ready to start working in the Kola Bay. According to the Russian port management authority Rosmorport, the operation was conducted on June 30 and included complicated navigational exercises. The rig will be located…
Vladimir Putin is too busy to think about what happens after his presidency comes to an end. Questions of succession have surrounded the year 2024, when current law requires Putin to step down after two consecutive terms. Observers have speculated that he could keep a grip on power through possible integration with neighboring close ally…
HIV infections are on the rise and are increasingly affecting Russia’s older population, according to a consumer watchdog report cited by the RBC news website. More than 1.2 million people live with HIV in Russia, a figure experts say is likely underreported and that the World Health Organization warns is at risk of spinning out…
Rosneft published Sustainability Report following the results of 2018. The Report was prepared in accordance with the sustainable development reporting standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI standards) to be able to focus on the most significant areas of sustainable development as seen by the stakeholders. The report contains a number of topics related to…
Women in Russia will be allowed to work as truck drivers and serve in the navy under new rules taking effect in 2021, the RBC news website reported Thursday. The Russian government bans women from holding 456 jobs in 38 industries that entail physically strenuous tasks or harmful working conditions. The restrictions have been unchanged…
Russian President Vladimir Putin disclosed on Thursday for the first time that a secret military submarine hit by a fatal fire three days ago was nuclear-powered, prompting Russia‘s defense minister to assure him its reactor had been safely contained. Russian officials have faced accusations of trying to cover up the full details of the accident that…
Russian President Vladimir Putin met Pope Francis on Thursday, a day before Ukraine’s Catholic leaders were due at the Vatican to discuss their country’s crisis, and amid speculation that his visit could be a prelude to the first trip by a pope to Russia. “Thank you for the time you have dedicated to me,” Putin…
Russians are buying up property in neighboring Georgia and in Turkey despite political tensions, according to research cited by Russia’s Kommersant business daily. Demand for foreign real estate among Russians has surged by 70 percent between 2016 and 2018, with Bulgaria, Turkey and Spain grabbing top spots. Experts say tight Western sanctions at home combined…
Svetlana Semyonova, 32, returned to her devastated home after abandoning it last week as a flood was sweeping through the region to find furniture broken, her daughters’ Disney wallpaper sodden and debris everywhere. “It’s all destroyed,” said Semyonova on Tuesday standing in her children’s room, gesturing at a pile of furniture she will have to…
The 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition ended this year with the largest pool of competitors, unquestionably brilliant performances, and one organizational error that a young pianist will never forget. This year’s Grand Prix winner was Alexandre Kantorow from France, a pianist of mesmerizing talent. He won the first prize and the gold medal in the piano…
The Noah’s Ark of 21st-century Russia is a tank. Modern-day saviors in Siberia are roaming the aquatic streets aboard an armored vehicle in search of animal survivors of the floods that hit the Irkutsk region. Widely shared videos show rescuers navigating the waters on an amphibious armored scout car and catching animals perched atop destroyed…
Neocolonialism should never set foot on the African continent again, Russia’s leading legislator has said at a parliamentary forum ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s first Russia-Africa summit this fall. Russia has expanded its presence in Africa since 2014, with at least 20 military cooperation deals signed since Western nations sanctioned Russia for annexing Crimea. Yevgeny…
The Boiky and Stoiky, two of Russia’s newest naval vessels, jointly engaged in training exercises for the search, detection and destruction of conditional enemy submarines in the Norwegian Sea, the Russian Navy said. The ships applied their anti-submarine armament and tested air-defense systems as part of the training. It was part of a longer voyage,…
Fourteen submariners on board a Russian deep-sea research vessel were killed in a fire while surveying the sea floor off the country’s Arctic coast on Monday. The accident is far from the first deadly submarine accident to take place in Russia, where such tragedies have a long history. news What We Know About Russia’s Deadly…
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Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said that he addressed the downing of Flight MH17 with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit last week. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down by a missile in July 2014 over territory held by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine as it was flying from Amsterdam to…
Russian commentators have challenged officials for not releasing full details about an accident on board a military submarine that killed 14 sailors. The incident took place on Monday, according to the Defense Ministry, but was not officially disclosed until late on Tuesday. Nearly two days on, there was still no word on whether the submarine…
Marking the UK-Russia Year of Music in 2019, Rosneft and BP have agreed to support the creation of a unique musical joint venture, the Russo-British Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra (BSFO).
Fourteen sailors were killed in a fire on board a Russian Defense Ministry research vessel while carrying out a survey of the sea floor off Russia’s Arctic coast. President Vladimir Putin has dispatched Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to Severomorsk, the Russian naval base on the Barents Sea where the submarine is now located, to find…
When Vladimir Putin announced at the weekend that OPEC would extend oil production cuts, broadcasting a deal before the group had even met to approve it, the move angered some member nations. They were dismayed at the leading role non-OPEC Russia, once seen as an enemy in oil markets, was playing in shaping the group’s…
Russia’s population numbers are declining “catastrophically” with several regions vastly underestimating their death rates, a top government official has said. Russia has struggled with a demographic crisis in recent years, with population numbers falling for the first time in a decade to 146.8 million last year. Official data for 2019 places Russia’s population at 146.7…
July 3, 2019 PAO Severstal announces that it has signed an agreement to purchase a share in a joint venture (JV) with Germany’s Linde AG. The JV produces coil-wound heat exchangers for use at medium-scale and large-scale LNG plants. Upon completion of the transaction Severstal will control a 26% stake, and Linde a 74% stake…
Europe’s human rights court has awarded $100,000 to activists who had been arrested or whose protests had been dispersed by the authorities in 2006, 2007 and 2010. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) heard nine cases alleging that the Russian government had violated the activists’ freedom of assembly and expression in Moscow and three…
Russians are less likely to believe in the power of magic or the supernatural today than at any point in the past three decades, according to a state-funded survey published Tuesday. Largely suppressed during Soviet times, pseudoscientific beliefs saw a resurgence in Russian society with the popularity of reality TV shows like “Battle of the…
Fourteen submariners on board a Russian Defense Ministry research vessel were killed in a fire while carrying out a survey of the sea floor off Russia’s Arctic coast, the ministry was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. The incident took place on the AS-12 deep-sea nuclear submarine nicknamed Losharik, an unnamed source in the…
Russia successfully launched a new anti-aircraft missile, its Defense Ministry said on Tuesday. The test launch took place at Sary Shagan range in Kazakhstan, the ministry said. Video published by the Defense Ministry shows the missile soaring into the sky, leaving a pillar of fire and smoke in its wake. Russian military representatives did not…
Russia has successfully launched a new air defense missile, its Defense Ministry said on Tuesday. The test launch took place at Sary Shagan range in Kazakhstan, the ministry said. Video published by the Defense Ministry shows the missile soaring into the sky, leaving a pillar of fire and smoke in its wake. Russian military representatives…
Russia has fallen four spots in three months in a ranking of countries whose citizens enjoy the most freedom of travel abroad, according to a quarterly rating of passport “strength.” The country had tied for 47th place in the January-March index compiled by the Henley & Partners residence and citizenship planning firm, with 118 destinations available…
The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the second armed attack on law enforcement in a week in Russia’s republic of Chechnya, the SITE Intelligence Group monitoring website reported Monday. IS has claimed a series of attacks over the past year in Chechnya, a predominately Muslim republic in Russia’s North Caucasus, including…
Larisa Shepito was an actress, screenwriter and film director who was an integral part of the “new wave” of cinema in the Soviet “Thaw” period in the 1960s. A peer of Andrei Tarkovsky, her films were renowned for their strong naturalism, associative imagery, and their depth of meaning and emotion. She was a woman in…
Two Japanese energy companies have acquired a 10 percent share in Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 liquefied natural gas project. The deal gives Mitsui&Co and the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) a 10 percent stake in the major LNG project being developed on Russia’s Arctic coast. It also provides for the long-term annual…
The head of a Siberian region hit by major floods has sparked online backlash for comments addressed toward victims that were deemed insulting. Authorities in the Krasnoyarsk region town of Kansk declared a state of emergency and evacuated dozens of residents amid severe flooding last weekend. The neighboring Irkutsk region bore the brunt of the…
At least three Russian airlines have canceled most of their Tuesday flights to the Czech Republic over what they said was the country’s decision to revoke flight permissions to and from Prague. The flagship carrier Aeroflot and Ural Airlines are the only Russian airlines that perform direct flights to and from Prague. Czech Airlines performs…
A Moscow court jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny for 10 days on Monday after finding him guilty of breaking the law when he took part in a street demonstration last month. The Kremlin critic was among more than 500 protesters detained by police while rallying in Moscow to call for the punishment of police…
Fines for violating Russia’s protest laws have increased fivefold in the past six years, an analysis of judicial data said. Almost 6,500 people had cases brought against them for violating the law on organizing public meetings in 2012 and almost 4,500 in 2018, Russia’s police-monitoring OVD-Info website said in research published Monday. Both 2012 and…
Hundreds of people flocked to southern Siberia in late June to celebrate the ancient rituals and traditions of shamanism in one of Russia’s first shaman festivals. Some researchers consider Siberia to be the heartland of shamanism. Today, this ancient religious practice is still performed in Russia, with spiritual healing techniques and ceremonial rites passed on…
Protests erupted in Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi last month after a Russian deputy gave a speech in the country’s parliament. Many Georgians said they were offended by the act, citing the 2008 war fought between the countries. We spoke with four young Georgians living in Moscow to hear their views about the protests. Click above…
Release July 1, 2019, 19:05 Rustem Usmanov has been appointed Director General of Gazprom Transgaz Kazan. Rustem Usmanov was born in 1969 in Ufa. He graduated from Ufa Petroleum Institute, majoring in Design, Construction and Operation of Gas & Oil Pipelines and Gas & Oil Storage Facilities, and earned a management degree from the All-Russian Distance-Learning Institute of Finance and Economics. He has a PhD…
A senior Russian lawmaker has backed an Orthodox Church proposal to teach the Bible in schools, suggesting it be included in curriculums instead of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s seminal “Gulag Archipelago.” A Church spokesman, spurred by President Vladimir Putin’s endorsement of the texts, had offered over the weekend to include the Bible, the Torah and the Quran…
An errant missile of possible Russian origin struck Cyprus early on Monday in what authorities described as a spillover from strikes between Israel and Syria. The explosion on the ethnically split island occurred some 20 kilometers northeast of the Cypriot capital of Nicosia and did not result in casualties. An Israeli airstrike was underway against…
Russia called on the United States on Monday to free Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko and proposed a prisoner swap with Washington to win the release of any American national held in Russia, Interfax news agency reported. The comments may fuel speculation that Moscow is seeking a prisoner exchange involving Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine…
On June 28, 2019, loading of additional cobalt absorbers into Unit 3 reactor started at Smolensk NPP. This is the final stage of primary loading in Rosenergoatom’s large-scale project envisaging commercial production of cobalt-60 (Co-60) that is highly demanded on the international market. Co-60 isotope manufacturing project at Smolensk NPP was launched in September 2017,…
Russia’s leading independent media have coordinated to publish journalist Ivan Golunov’s investigation into Moscow’s funeral mafia that his colleagues say was tied to his shock arrest last month. Golunov had reported receiving threats after beginning the investigation into the funeral business in February 2018. He reportedly filed a draft of the piece to Alexey Kovalev,…
Russia has labeled a U.S.-based NGO an “undesirable” organization a month after it published a report on life in Russia after President Vladimir Putin. A Russian law passed in 2015 allows prosecutors to limit or halt the work of foreign organizations deemed “undesirable,” punishing those breaking these limits with fines or prison terms up to…
On June 24-28, a delegation comprising representatives of TENEX participated in the international conference “Management of Spent Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors – 2019” (Vienna, Austria), held under the slogan “Learning from the past, enabling the future” organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Company’s specialists presented reports on various aspects of the back-end…
Russians are significantly more likely to spend their free time watching television than reading books, according to a survey by the independent Levada Center pollster. The number of Russians who name television as a source of their happiness has increased in recent years. While television remains the biggest news source for Russians, it has become…
Sweden’s military said on Monday it would deploy an updated ground-to-air missile defense system on the Baltic Sea island of Gotland in another sign of tension in the region with Russia. The new system, developed and built by defense firm Saab, replaces the mobile anti-aircraft guns the military on Gotland have previously been equipped with.…
TVEL Fuel Company of ROSATOM and Czech research center Řež (Centrum výzkumu Řež s.r.o.; CVŘ) have signed an agreement on cooperation in materials science studies and research. On the grounds of the agreement, Czech scientists will provide experiments on irradiation of nuclear construction materials in the CVŘ research reactor and also accomplish pre-irradiation and…
Russia’s state-controlled gas giant Gazprom has said it will pay out record dividends to its shareholders on its 2018 results next month. Russia’s Finance Ministry has been pushing for state-owned enterprises to pay out at least 50 percent of their profits as dividends, meeting stiff resistance from businesses for more than two years. Gazprom is…
On Tuesday, NATO kicks off its annual anti-submarine exercise Dynamic Mongoose in the Norwegian Sea west of Andøya, northern Norway. Six frigates, 10 aircraft and several submarines from Canada, the United States, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom, as well as host nation Norway, will participate in the drill that will last…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Elton John was “mistaken” about LGBT rights in Russia, while praising the British singer as a musical genius. Elton John said on Friday he was deeply upset by Putin’s comment that liberal values were “obsolete” and had been rejected by the majority of people in Western nations. He…
Each summer, Muscovites head to the city’s many parks to bask in the sun and enjoy the good weather with friends. The highlight of many of these outings is the cooking of shashlik, or meat kebab. Shashlik can be made with any kind of meat — or even tofu — either by itself or with…
Animal rights groups have raised the alarm over the release of the first group of whales from the so-called “whale prison” in Russia’s Far East, calling it “extremely unprofessional and dangerous.” Russia released two orcas and six beluga whales back into the wild on Thursday, the first group of almost 100 whales whose detention since…
Russia has tested a new radar system that can evade detection by enemy drones or aircraft, its developer told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency on Friday. Passive radars operate without a transmitter, instead receiving signals from other objects to track targets. Russia’s new passive radar, called Tropa (Russian for “path”), uses communication towers to…
Olha Kyselova wasn’t born when the Chernobyl power plant exploded in 1986, yet the disaster has always been in her life. Her parents were “liquidators,” sent in to brave the radiation and help clear the area of deadly materials. Then they charted hotspots for more than a decade. But it wasn’t until she sat with…
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