The Russian government requires banks to share client biometric data with the state, the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday. Russia’s Unified Biometric System (UBS), which is accessible to the police and intelligence services, was created in 2018 to allow the use of facial recognition for online banking. Kommersant reported that authorities sent a directive to…
The leader of Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia on Monday scrapped plans to hold a referendum on joining Russia which his predecessor had scheduled for July 17. South Ossetia was at the center of the Russian-Georgian war in 2008 after which the Kremlin recognized the territory as an independent state and stationed military bases…
EU leaders on Monday backed a ban on most Russian oil imports, after a compromise deal with Hungary to punish Moscow for the war in Ukraine. The 27-nation bloc has spent weeks haggling over a proposed total embargo on Russian oil but came up against stubborn resistance from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. EU leaders…
Officials in the Russian city of Kirov have ordered residents to clear out the basements of their apartment blocks so that they can be used as potential bomb shelters. Notices pictured on social media gave residents ten days to remove their belongings and warned that the basements would be used in the event of “possible…
Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered to Russian forces at the Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol may face the death penalty, a pro-Moscow separatist official said Monday. “The court will make a decision about them,” Yuri Sirovatko, the justice minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, was quoted as saying by…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday visited the city of Kharkiv, marking his first trip to eastern Ukraine since Russia invaded his country on Feb. 24. Kharkiv, once the site of some of the war’s fiercest fighting, now lays relatively quiet as Russia pushes for control of the Donbas region to the southeast. But Russian…
Russia is set to boost wages and welfare payments for millions in a bid to ease the economic fallout of the country’s invasion of Ukraine. A bill signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin Monday will raise pensions, as well as Russia’s minimum wage and living wage, by around 10%, according to business daily Vedomosti. …
Muscovites are voting to name a square outside the city’s U.S. embassy in honor of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Residents will choose from three potential names for the currently untitled square at the intersection of Bolshoy Devyatinsky Lane and Konyushkovskaya Ulitsa, where the U.S. embassy is located. They are “Defenders of Donbas Square,” “Donetsk People’s…
Russian forces edged toward the center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk Monday, while President Volodymyr Zelensky prepared to appeal to EU leaders at an emergency summit where a ban on Russian oil imports is on the agenda. Zelensky is expected to press EU officials at the summit “to kill Russian exports” as he…
Russia’s population in 2021 hit147.2 million, the state-owned Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily reported Monday, citing census data. The Rosstat statistics agency said Russia’s population increased 1.4% since the previous census conducted in 2010. The growth came as a result of migration – without migrants moving to Russia, the population would have recorded a significant decline. Former…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday denied speculation that President Vladimir Putin was ill, saying there were no signs pointing to any ailment. Putin’s health and private life are taboo subjects in Russia, and are almost never discussed in public. Answering a question from France’s broadcaster TF1, Russia’s top diplomat said: “I don’t think…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made his first trip Sunday to the war-torn east since Moscow’s invasion started, as Russian forces tightened their grip around key cities in the Donbas region. After visiting Kharkiv, Zelensky announced that he had fired the northeastern city’s security chief in a rare public rebuke. Zelensky said the man was dismissed…
Patriarch Kirill said Sunday that the Russian Orthodox Church “understands” a decision by its branch in Ukraine to cut ties amid Moscow’s offensive in the pro-Western country. “We fully understand how the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is suffering today,” the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in central…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday told the leaders of France and Germany Moscow is ready to look for ways to ship grain stuck in Ukrainian ports but demanded the West lift sanctions. The Kremlin chief also warned French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz against ramping up arms supplies to Ukraine, saying they…
Ukraine has said it is doing “everything” to defend Donbas, where an intensifying Russian offensive is prompting Kyiv’s forces to consider a strategic retreat from some key areas to avoid being surrounded. Russia is waging all-out war for the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions that make up Donbas – Ukraine’s industrial heartland where President Volodymyr…
Kyrgyzstan’s climbing federation said Friday that it has removed a Ukrainian flag from a mountain named after Russian President Vladimir Putin, following a police investigation of the stunt. Earlier this week, a Twitter user identifying as a climber posted a video of a Ukrainian flag flying next to a plaque marking the mountain as Peak Putin, 4,446…
Moscow-backed separatists announced the capture Friday of the strategic Ukrainian town of Lyman as the gathering pace of a Russian advance in eastern Ukraine was cheered on by pro-Kremlin online groups. The claim followed days of intense fighting in Lyman, which lies on a road leading to the major eastern Ukrainian cities of Sloviansk and…
Специальная военная операция: special military operation This should be a happy moment for me, The Moscow Times, and the Word’s Worth. May 2022 marks my 20th anniversary writing the column. If at any time in those past 20 years you told me that I’d meet this date in a rental apartment in a country I’d…
Of all the forms of art in Russia, documentary film is having the most difficult time. The trials of the profession were made very clear at the end of March when the 15th edition of Russia’s largest documentary festival Artdocfest was canceled after the organizer, filmmaker Vitaly Mansky, was splashed with red paint by protesters…
A local deputy in Russia’s Far East called on President Vladimir Putin to stop the military campaign in Ukraine in a rare show of opposition to the war among local politicians. “We demand the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. We demand an end to military action,” Primorye region legislative assembly member Leonid Vasyukevich said…
On May 26, 2022, Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority (HAEA) issued the license for groundwater cut-off construction for the Paks II NPP project. Groundwater cut-off will protect the construction site as well as operating Paks NPP from groundwater penetration. Following the construction of the groundwater cut-off, excavation works on the Paks II site will commence. Currently,…
Russian parliamentary deputy Leonid Slutsky was unanimously elected Friday the head of Russia’s nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR). “I could never have guessed that I would be elected the chairman of my native party,” Slutsky told party delegates after the vote, Vedomosti newspaper reported. Slutsky also promised to “modify” the party’s political strategy ahead of…
Two southeast Ukrainian regions seized by Russian troops have switched to Russian area codes, state-owned media reported Friday, citing officials. “New telecom operators are already working [in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions],” Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to the head of the annexed region of Crime told RIA Novosti news agency. A RIA Novosti correspondent based in…
On May 25, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia Rogelio Mayta Mayta and Deputy Foreign Minister Benjamin Blanco, accompanied by representatives of the Russian Federation Embassy in Bolivia, ROSATOM and the Bolivian Agency for Nuclear Energy (ABEN), visited the site of the Center for Nuclear Technology Research and Development (CNTRD) under…
May 27, 2022, Buyukeceli, Turkey. – Construction workers started pouring concrete into the foundation slab of the turbine hall building at Akkuyu NPP Unit 4 construction area. To ensure maximum strength, 17,500 cubic meters of concrete and 3,500 tons of reinforcement will be placed in the foundation slab. Concrete foundation height will be 7 meters.…
A resident of a village near the border with Ukraine has died after a “full day” of shelling, the governor of western Russia’s Belgorod region said Friday. The unidentified woman, who was wounded in attacks on the villages of Zhuravlevka and Nekhoteevka, is the third reported civilian casualty on Russian territory amid Russia’s invasion of…
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of carrying out a “genocide” in the eastern region of Donbas, where the city of Severodonetsk is suffering an onslaught of Russian shelling. In his daily televised address, Zelensky condemned Moscow’s brutal assault on the Donbas — where it has redirected its forces after having failed to capture Kyiv…
A Ukrainian official said Thursday that Russian troops occupying Ukraine’s Mariupol had canceled school summer holidays in the south-eastern port city to prepare pupils for switching to a Russian curriculum. The strategic city fell to Moscow’s forces following a devastating siege that culminated when Ukrainian forces laid down arms last week at the Azovstal steelworks…
Moscow is ready to make a “significant contribution” to averting a looming food crisis if the West lifts sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said in a telephone call with Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi. “Vladimir Putin emphasizes that the Russian Federation is ready to make a significant contribution to overcoming the food crisis through the…
A Russian court confirmed the dismissal of 115 national guardsmen who challenged their sacking after refusing to take part in Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. The case appears to be the first official confirmation of soldiers refusing to join Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine that was launched on February 24. A military court in Russia’s southern republic…
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday dismissed a plan for peace in Ukraine proposed by Italy. Lavrov said he was familiar with its contents only through the media as a copy had not been received by Moscow. However, his deputy Andrei Rudenko said Monday that the ministry received Italy’s proposal and was studying it. …
Police in Kyrgyzstan said Thursday they were investigating reports that a Ukrainian flag was planted atop a mountain named in honor of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. A Twitter user identifying as a climber posted on Tuesday a video of a Ukrainian flag flying next to a plaque marking the mountain as Peak Putin, 4,446 meters…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday threatened to expel a U.S. journalist or U.S. media outlet if YouTube again blocks broadcasts of its weekly press briefings. “A few of my briefings were blocked. What we did is we went ahead and said: ‘if you block a briefing one more time, one journalist or one U.S. outlet…
Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine have sent home at least 58 metric tons of looted goods since the start of the invasion in late February, according to an investigation published by independent news site Mediazona. The outlet analyzed packages sent from 46 branches of delivery firm SDEK located close to the Ukrainian border in Russia…
Red Nail Polish Every day I look at photographs of the war. I look and look. Destroyed cities, burned cars, dead people. Red nail polish on a dead hand. Every day, no matter where I am, I think that planes are flying over me, that I’m the one who has to run to the bomb…
Google has disconnected its services from Russian servers designed to boost internet speeds, the RBC news website reported Thursday. Google Global Cache (GGC) allows local providers to offer Google content, including YouTube videos, from their own networks, lowering waiting times for customers. Without GGC, Russian users would experience slower access to Google content directly from…
Russia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate for the third consecutive time at an emergency meeting Thursday as authorities seek to rein in the surging ruble. The Bank of Russia will lower interest rates from 14% to 11% from Friday. Officials increased interest from 9.5% to 20% as an emergency measure after Russia invaded…
A separatist official in eastern Ukraine has claimed there are 8,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war in the parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are under the control of Russian forces. Rodion Miroshnik, the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic’s ambassador to Russia, told pro-Kremlin television host Vladimir Solovyov on Thursday that “literally hundreds” of prisoners…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has issued a bitter rebuke to the West for not doing enough to help Kyiv win the war, as fierce battles rage in the country’s east and Russian troops draw ever closer to encircling a key industrial city. Calling for help “without limits”, specifically shipments of heavy weaponry, Zelensky also blasted…
Residents of a Russian village near the border with Ukraine have launched a petition calling on President Vladimir Putin to provide better protection against an increased number of cross-border attacks. About 2 kilometers from Ukraine, the Kursk region village of Tyotkino has been repeatedly targeted by shelling, according to the petition published earlier this week…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday met soldiers wounded in Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine and hailed them as heroes, in the first such visit since he sent troops into the pro-Western country. Wearing a white medical coat, Putin chatted to soldiers at Moscow’s Mandryka military hospital, Rossiya-24 television channel showed. After meeting the wounded…
Moscow will stop enforcing fines for Covid-19 violations in a bid to prop up falling incomes amid rising inflation and the economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Wednesday. “We’ve taken many steps to mitigate the pressure from sanctions in recent weeks,” Sobyanin wrote on his website. “There are other challenges…
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Wednesday simplifying the process of obtaining Russian citizenship for Ukrainians living in territories seized by Russian troops in southern and eastern Ukraine. The fast-track citizenship option comes amid speculation that Moscow could establish permanent control over areas it has captured in its three-month invasion of Ukraine. Russia first…
Russia said Wednesday that it will start paying its foreign debt in rubles after the United States ended an exemption allowing Moscow to make the payments in dollars held in Russia. The U.S. Treasury announced Tuesday it was closing the escape clause to the drastic financial sanctions imposed on Moscow after it sent troops to…
At one of Moscow’s newest museum exhibitions, visitors are greeted with posters describing how “NATO is fraught with war” and images of people injured in U.S. bombings as the sound of approaching war planes wails from loudspeakers. “NATO: A chronicle of cruelty” opened its doors in Moscow’s Museum of Contemporary Russian History last month, a…
Russia is set to drop out of the agreement standardizing higher education across Europe, potentially cutting off Russian students from advancing their careers in Europe. Russia’s Science and Higher Education Minister Valery Falkov announced Tuesday that the country would replace the internationally recognized framework known as the Bologna Process with a new system designed to…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blasted the West for lacking unity on Wednesday, as the Russian invasion entered its fourth month and Moscow’s troops advanced in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces relentlessly bombarded the industrial city of Severodonetsk while attempting to encircle it, a key goal of recent fighting in Ukraine’s Donbas region. However, Moscow told the…
George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” has been catapulted into the spotlight in Russia since the country invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Many have drawn parallels between the book — written in 1949 to describe a world under totalitarian surveillance — and modern Russia, where ordinary people are punished for calling Moscow’s attack on Ukraine a…
Russian lawmakers have adopted a bill scrapping upper age limits for those wishing to enter military service, prompting speculation that the country could be scrambling to bolster its depleted manpower amid its invasion of Ukraine. Russian law currently allows any citizen aged 18 to 40 to join the Armed Forces by signing a contract. The…
U.S. sports giant Nike is set to leave Russia after declining to renew the brand’s agreements with authorized resellers within the country. Contracts between Nike and two of its largest authorized Russian retailers expire this Thursday, May 26, the Vedomosti business newspaper reported Wednesday. The sportswear label decided not to extend the contracts or sign…
Moscow warned Wednesday it would “closely” monitor the treatment of a pro-Russian ex-president in Moldova who had been detained on suspicion of treason and corruption. On Tuesday, prosecutors in the Western-backed country announced the arrest of former president Igor Dodon, as the conflict in neighboring Ukraine has heightened tensions between Moscow and Chisinau. Russian Deputy…
International sanctions imposed on Moscow over its military campaign in Ukraine need to be lifted to avoid a global food crisis, a Russian deputy foreign minister said on Wednesday. “Solving the food problem requires a comprehensive approach, including the removal of sanctions that have been imposed on Russian exports and financial transactions,” Andrei Rudenko said…
Western sanctions and the exit of international businesses over the war in Ukraine have caused a fall in Russia’s imports to levels not seen since the early 2000s. Russia imported between $5 billion and $10 billion worth of goods last month, according to Bank Otkritie’s research data cited Wednesday by The Moscow Times’ Russian service. Russia’s…
Before the war, it was called “Moscow Avenue.” But now this wide boulevard which runs through Ukraine’s second city has been renamed “Heroes of Kharkiv” in honour of those fighting against invading Russian forces. “Here in Kharkiv, there is no place for an avenue named after the capital of the occupier that is killing our…
Major General Kanamat Botashev has become the highest-ranking Russian pilot to be killed in the skies over Ukraine, the BBC’s Russian service reported Tuesday. The 63-year-old retired general had been flying a Su-25 fighter jet over the Luhansk region on Sunday when the aircraft was targeted by a Stinger shoulder-fired missile system, the BBC reported,…
Top allies of President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Moscow was ready for a prolonged conflict in Ukraine in order to achieve the Kremlin’s goals in the pro-Western country. The hostilities, which entered their fourth month Tuesday, have killed thousands of people, displaced more than eight million, and forced more than six million refugees to…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday announced that it was imposing an entry ban on 154 members of the U.K. parliament’s House of Lords in retaliation for sanctions against Russian senators over Ukraine. Those listed included William Hague, a former foreign minister and leader of the Conservative Party in opposition. The blacklist does not include Russian-born…
A Danish Jehovah’s Witness has been released from Russian prison five years after he became the first member of the religious group to be jailed on extremism charges in Russia, the organization said Tuesday. Dennis Christensen, 49, was arrested at a prayer meeting in the city of Oryol south of Moscow in May 2017, a month…
Russian forces on Tuesday stepped up their offensive on the last pocket of resistance around Lugansk in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, as the conflict entered its fourth month. Since Moscow’s invasion in late February, Western support has helped Ukraine hold off its neighbor’s advances in many areas, including the capital Kyiv. Russia is now focused…
He said his arrest was “part of the massive pressure on journalists and analysts who objectively describe the course of the current war.” “The goal of the Kremlin and (President Vladimir) Putin personally is to silence everyone,” he said. He said he would continue with his reports. “There’s nothing more important right now,” he said. Nacke…