Russia’s law enforcement authorities will look into whether arson was a factor behind the raging wildfires across Siberia, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday as emergency officials decried insufficient firefighting efforts. The vast wildfires that have engulfed forest areas the size of Belgium were initially thought to be triggered by a combination of dry lightning and…
U.S. President Donald Trump offered his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin help in putting out vast wildfires that are raging in Siberia, the Kremlin said late on Wednesday, a move it said Putin took as a sign that battered ties can be restored. The Kremlin said the two leaders had spoken by phone at Washington’s initiative, hours…
A Russian state hospital said on Wednesday that opposition leader Alexei Navalny had tested negative for poison after falling ill in custody, but his personal doctor warned the findings were inconclusive and could be wrong. Navalny, who was jailed for 30 days last week for urging people to take part in an unauthorized protest, was rushed…
Update: The embassy’s account has been re-activated as of late Wednesday night. Twitter has suspended the account of Russia’s Embassy in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry has confirmed, with fellow Russian embassy accounts saying it was suspended for its “factual” criticism of Syrian rescue workers. Syrian rebel commanders and rights groups said Monday that Russia…
More people have died from HIV-related causes in Russia last year than in 2017 as the country grapples with a rise in infections, according to Health Ministry data cited by the Kommersant business daily on Wednesday. More than 1.2 million people live with HIV in Russia, a figure experts say is likely underreported and that…
Opponents of a controversial landfill in northwestern Russia have asked Sweden, Norway and Finland for help in averting an environmental crisis, the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported Tuesday. Activists have staged protests near the small train station of Shiyes for the past year against Moscow’s plans to ship 2.3 million tons of garbage there annually.…
Rosneft boosted its supply of motor fuel (Euro-5 gasoline and diesel) to the Russian market by 6% year-on-year in H1 2019, to 14.1 million tonnes. Gasoline and diesel deliveries increased by 4.2% and 7.8%, respectively. From January to June, the Company sold 2.6 million tonnes of motor fuel within the major trading session on the…
Russian police said they had arrested a man suspected of murdering a popular lifestyle blogger and model whose body was found in a suitcase in her apartment in Moscow. Ekaterina Karaglanova’s landlord found the 24-year-old’s body at a rented apartment Saturday after her parents had been unable to reach her by phone, the Investigative Committee…
As 3 million hectares of remote forest burn across six regions in Russia’s Siberia and Far East – the approximate size of annexed Crimea — residents of affected areas are using social media to demand that the authorities take tougher action. Authorities have been slow to respond to the blazes and said any efforts to extinguish…
Devastating floods hit Russia’s Irkutsk region again as the water level in local rivers has risen by over a meter on Tuesday, the local authorities said on their website. The administration of Tulun, the town in Irkutsk region almost destroyed by the first wave of floods this June, said the water in the local Iya…
Moscow authorities have conducted raids on opposition activists and issued warnings to Muscovites in the run-up to this weekend’s planned protest to demand that opposition candidates be allowed to run in the city’s local elections. Activists have rallied for three weekends in a row after authorities barred independent candidates from running because they failed to…
Russia could make domestic violence a crime two years after lawmakers decriminalized some forms of domestic abuse, a top senator has said after a ruling by Europe’s top human rights court put a spotlight on the issue. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) this month ruled for the first time that Russia failed to…
On July 31, 1930, Oleg Popov was born in Moscow, where he would start work early as an apprentice typographer for Pravda newspaper at age 12. This led him to join Pravda’s athletics club, a move that would provide a useful foundation for his later career. When Popov was 15, he applied to Moscow’s State…
Almost a quarter of Russians say they have felt their finances dwindle in recent months, according to a survey by the state-run Foundation of Public Opinion (FOM) pollster. Real incomes have declined in the past five years in Russia against the backdrop of Western sanctions and falling oil prices. As he took office last year,…
In a YouTube video posted on the evening of July 13 that has been viewed more than half a million times, Lyubov Sobol made two announcements. The first was that Moscow’s election commission would be preventing her from running in upcoming city council elections. The second was that she would be going on a hunger…
The popular ride-sharing service BlaBlaCar risks being banned in Russia as a passenger association seeks legislative help in cracking down on illegal buses, the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper reported Tuesday. About one-third of 900,000 bus carriers in Russia are uninsured and operate without undergoing checkups, obtaining the required permits or paying taxes, according to the All-Russian…
On Saturday, Russia’s Navy Day was celebrated across the country, with the main events taking place in St. Petersburg. The first Navy Day was held in 1939. By 1980, Navy Day was traditionally celebrated on the last Sunday of July. In 2006, the day received status as an official Russian holiday, and the annual commemoration…
Smog from wildfires currently raging in Siberia could reach as far as Moscow, Greenpeace Russia told The Moscow Times on Tuesday. An unprecedented number of wildfires has spread across the region since June, exceeding an area the size of annexed Crimea. Authorities have been slow to declare emergencies and firefighting efforts have been scaled back…
Moscow – PhosAgro (MOEX/LSE ticker: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, announces its operating results for 2Q and 1H 2019. Overall output of phosphate-based and nitrogen-based fertilizers in 2Q increased by 6.4% and 3.9% year-on-year respectively, while sales declined by 3.9% year-on-year to 2.2 million tonnes. PhosAgro’s production and sales…
All of the opposition candidates running in Moscow’s local elections have been placed under arrest or sentenced to jail over a mass protest that rocked Moscow on Saturday in an unprecedented act. Nearly 1,400 demonstrators were detained, some violently, during Saturday’s rally to demand that opposition-minded candidates be allowed onto the ballot in Moscow’s city…
A court in Moscow rejected jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s appeal for early release on health grounds on Tuesday, after he was suddenly taken ill in custody at the weekend and rushed to hospital to be treated. Navalny was jailed for 30 days last week for urging people to take part in an unauthorized opposition…
The United States may be planning to quit an international treaty that bans nuclear explosions, using accusations of Russian non-compliance as a pretext, a Russian diplomat told the world’s main arms talks forum on Tuesday. The United States has signed but not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), although it has observed a unilateral…
Moscow authorities will not authorize a new protest over the city’s local elections planned for this weekend after organizers argued for a more central location. Opposition candidates have called for supporters to take to the streets for a third consecutive weekend to demand that the candidates be allowed to participate in local elections. Authorities had…
Almost two out of five Russians would not like to see President Vladimir Putin stay in office after his current term ends in 2024, according to a new poll published by the independent Levada Center pollster. The question of who will succeed Putin, the country’s longest-serving leader since Josef Stalin, has grown more pressing as…
The number of Russians living below the poverty line has grown by half a million since early 2018, according to official data. Western sanctions and falling oil prices over the past five years have led to a decline in real incomes and a rise in consumer prices. President Vladimir Putin is pursuing a national program…
Ukraine plans to launch a worldwide Russian-language TV channel, as part of an effort to win the hearts and minds of people living in the eastern Donbass region and Russia, a senior presidential official was quoted as saying on Monday. Ukraine’s new President Volodymyr Zelenskiy won a landslide election victory this year promising to end…
On Sunday morning July 28, the journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza (senior) passed away after a long illness. His son, Vladimir, who is also a prominent journalist and an opposition politician, announced that his father had died at “8 o’clock in the morning on his name-day.” He was 59 years old. Kara-Murza was a historian who became…
Massive wildfires sweeping through Russia have spread to an area the size of annexed Crimea as regional authorities have been slow to declare emergencies and firefighting efforts have been scaled back. Scientists have observed an “unprecedented” number of wildfires in Siberia and the Russian Arctic since June. Russian authorities have said a combination of lightning…
Moscow’s Red Square roared to life with vintage chic on Sunday as an extensive collection of unique Soviet cars cruised past the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral. The annual GUM AutoRally began in 2014 and is the most prestigious event of its kind in Russia. During the rally, 120 cars raced each other along a…
A mass protest that rocked Moscow on Saturday was marked by one of the biggest crackdowns in recent years against an increasingly defiant opposition decrying President Vladimir Putin’s tight grip on power. The protest, which demanded that the authorities allow opposition-minded candidates onto the ballot in Moscow’s city council elections, has drawn international attention to…
TVEL JSC and Czech national power company ČEZ a.s. have signed a contractual document for introduction of the new VVER-440 fuel modification RK 3+ at Dukovany NPP. Within accomplishment of this engineering project, the new fuel will undergo a number of pre-irradiation tests, and their results would make a validation for the following licensing of…
The core catcher, one of the most important safety components of the power plant, is delivered to the construction site. 29 July 2019, Büyükeceli, Mersin Province, Turkey – The first large-sized cargo for the Unit 1 – the core catcher – has been delivered at the Akkuyu NPP construction site. This equipment, which shall be…
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was discharged from a Moscow hospital on Monday and returned to prison under guard after being treated for what his lawyer and doctor have described as suspected poisoning from a chemical agent. Navalny, 43, was rushed to hospital from jail on Sunday with what his spokeswoman said were signs of…
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Russia plans to educate youngsters in military-patriotic themes in a new $63 million facility at its sprawling military-themed park outside Moscow, the RBC news website reported Monday. The militarization of young Russians has been a controversial topic in the past several years, with President Vladimir Putin’s establishment of the Youth Army in late 2015 drawing…
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was hospitalized on Sunday after suffering an acute allergic reaction which one doctor said may have been the result of him being poisoned with an unknown chemical substance. Navalny, 43, was rushed to hospital on Sunday morning from jail where he is serving a 30-day sentence for violating tough protest…
July 29, 2019 Severstal Digital LLC (a division of PJSC Severstal) has developed a neural network to detect surface defects in Metal Processing Shop No. 2 (TsOM-2), which produces flat rolled products at the Cherepovets steel mill (CherMK). The Company has already launched a pilot project to confirm the model’s accuracy as one of the…
North Korea has released a Russian fishing boat held after being accused of violating entry regulations, the Russian embassy in North Korea said on Sunday, in an incident that prompted a Russian warning of a freezing of talks on fisheries cooperation. North Korea detained the 15 Russian and two South Korean crew members of the fishing boat on July…
For two weeks, the authorities had allowed Russia’s political opposition to vent frustration in the capital’s streets over the decision of election officials to bar anti-establishment candidates from running in upcoming local elections. But after some 22,500 people turned out for a protest in central Moscow last weekend that was approved by city officials —…
Mikhail Lermontov was born on Oct. 15, 1814 in Moscow to a noble military family. When he was three years old, his mother died of tuberculosis and Mikhail’s father sent him to live with his grandmother in Tarkhany in southwest Russia where he would spend most of his childhood. His grandmother provided a lavish lifestyle…
Russian police have detained prominent members of the opposition in Moscow ahead of a planned protest later on Saturday which the authorities have declared illegal and warned could become violent. The demonstration, due to be held outside the Moscow mayor’s office from 2 p.m. local time, is designed to protest against what the opposition says…
Alisa Ganieva first came to literary prominence in 2009 when her novella, “Salam, Dalgat!,” which she wrote under a male pseudonym, won the prestigious Debut Prize. The novella portrays a day on the streets of the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala, and the writer astonished audience members and jurors alike when she revealed her female identity…
Russian beauty pageants are dominated by skinny girls, but now some models are calling for a chance to show their curves on stage. Meet Eva Ross, a proud new model, who is part of the body positivity movement and who aims to conquer the global fashion scene from Russia.
To keep our newsroom in Moscow running, we need your support. With your help, we can continue with our mission to keep you informed with breaking news, business analysis, thought-provoking opinions, the best of culture and insights into everyday life.
Arctic winters are long and the next one is just around the corner. Stockpiles across Russia’s vast northern coastline and in its remote Arctic archipelagos are already running low and will soon be in need of fresh supplies. The only way to deliver supplies to the region is by boat and the delivery window is…
One of Moscow’s few English-language movie theaters has asked the Russian Constitutional Court to settle a dispute over censorship stemming from its release of director Armando Iannucci’s “The Death of Stalin” last year. Pioner Cinema was raided and fined in early 2018 for screening the satirical film on the power struggle that took place following…
Russia‘s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday warned British media operating in Russia that they should be ready to face the consequences after a British regulator fined Russia‘s RT state-financed TV channel. Moscow was responding after Ofcom, Britain’s media regulator, earlier on Friday fined RT £200,000 ($248,740) for breaching broadcasting impartiality rules in its coverage of the poisoning…
Russia has called on the United States to end its “discriminatory” visa policy toward Russian athletes after it denied a visa to tennis star Svetlana Kuznetsova, effectively forcing her to skip a tournament to defend her title. Kuznetsova, 34, will not be able to defend her title at the July 27-Aug. 4 Citi Open in…
Moscow – Russia’s largest mineral fertilizer distribution network PhosAgro-Region (a PhosAgro subsidiary) increased the total volume of mineral fertilizer sales to Russian agricultural producers by 14.3% year-on-year to 1.65 million tonnes in 1H 2019. Sales of PhosAgro mineral fertilizers to the domestic market increased by 17.4% year-on-year to 1.4 million tonnes in 1H 2019, while…
Huge swathes of Russia have been engulfed in wildfires over the past month, prompting hundreds of social media users to issue a plea to the authorities to step up measures to put out the flames. European scientists have rung the alarm about the 100 and counting “unprecedented” wildfires that have hit Russia’s Arctic and Siberia since…
Britain’s media regulator fined Russia‘s RT £200,000 ($248,740) for breaching broadcasting impartiality rules in its coverage of the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal, the policies of Ukraine and the conflict in Syria. Relations between London and Moscow sank to a post-Cold War low over the 2018 poisoning of Skripal, a mole who betrayed hundreds of Russian…
On July 25, hundreds of retirees joined a 10-hour dance marathon in Moscow’s Sokolniki Park. Part of the Moscow Longevity project, where Moscow’s senior citizens are invited to continue to develop their skills in IT, sport and dance, 220 couples in their golden years twisted and tangoed for the contest’s main prize. Here’s a look…
As footage pans over honey bees lying dead on the ground, a beekeeper breaks into tears. “How can we go on?” he says. From the Moscow suburbs to the Altai republic more than 4,000 kilometers to the east in Siberia, millions of bees were reported to have died off this summer. Mass bee deaths were…
Russia said Thursday it was preparing to ban the Atlantic Council, a think-tank formerly run by the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, which Russia‘s prosecutor general described as a security threat. “It has been established that the activities of this organization present a threat to the fundamentals of the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation,” the prosecutor…
Russian police dragged opposition candidate Lyubov Sobol out of the Moscow election office on a couch as she staged a sit-in protest on Thursday night against the exclusion of several opposition candidates from upcoming local elections. Sobol, a longtime aide to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, had declared a hunger strike nearly two weeks ago over…
Rich Russians should not be discriminated against, the country’s senate speaker has said days after Forbes published a ranking of the 100 wealthiest civil servants. Regional deputies, governors and federal executive and legislative officials collectively earned 71 billion rubles ($1.1 billion) in 2018, Forbes Russia said earlier this month. The business magazine used the incomes…
Two people have been detained for allegedly placing a fake bomb in front of President Vladimir Putin’s motorcade in central Russia, the Znak.com news website reported. The device made to resemble an explosive was reportedly found lying on a road 15 minutes before Putin’s motorcade was scheduled to pass in the city of Yekaterinburg earlier…
Russia has completed delivery of the first shipment of its S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems to Turkey and a second shipment is now being planned, Turkish military officials said Thursday. Turkey began taking delivery of the advanced Russian air defence system earlier this month, prompting the United States to remove NATO ally Turkey from the F-35…
A former Russian serviceman who had claimed that his unit expressed a willingness to shoot protesters was forced to retract his explosive allegations by a senior officer, the Znak.com news website has reported. Unit members in Siberia allegedly gave affirmative answers when asked by superiors whether they would be willing to fire at demonstrators if…
Ukraine has seized a Russian oil tanker in the Ukrainian port of Izmail over a November 2018 incident between the two countries in a strategic strait near Crimea. The Ukrainian security services (SBU) said that the tanker had been involved in the Kerch Strait incident in which Russia captured a Ukrainian ship and detained 24…