VSEVOLOZHSK, Leningrad region — When Ivan first learned he would be losing his job at the Ford factory he was floored. For more than a decade, the 50-year-old welder has been producing the frames of Focus and Mondeo cars at the U.S. automaker’s plant in Vsevolozhsk, an industrial town 30 kilometers east of St. Petersburg.…
Russian authorities raided the meeting spaces of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Siberia and the country’s Far East late last week, detaining five worshippers and holding two in pre-trial detention. Russia added the group to its registry of extremist organizations in 2017, exposing Russia’s estimated 175,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses to mass raids and forcing at least 5,000 to…
Russia’s public finance watchdog has uncovered 772.7 billion rubles ($12.12 billion) in government spending violations last year. The volume of total violations has decreased substantially from 1.87 trillion rubles in 2017 as detections increased by 43 percent, the RBC news website reported Tuesday. Procurement accounted for the highest share of budget violations at 294.6 billion…
Belarus has suspended exports of light oil products, gasoline and diesel fuel to Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic countries due to the low quality of Russian oil, the country’s exporter announced Tuesday. Russia’s pipeline monopoly Transneft and its Energy Ministry said last week there were problems with the quality of Russian oil going through the…
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will visit Russia’s Far East capital of Vladivostok for his first summit with President Vladimir Putin on April 25, the Kremlin confirmed on Tuesday. The leaders will discuss political and diplomatic efforts to settle the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, and Kim’s visit is key in this process, Kremlin…
An outspoken Russian lawmaker has turned heads for arguing that civil rights are restrictive, while bans are a form of freedom. Yelena Mizulina, who successfully lobbied for Russia’s 2012 “gay propaganda” law and spearheaded efforts to decriminalize domestic violence, made the statement in defense of recent internet restriction laws. On Monday, Russian senators backed tighter…
A young male polar bear who washed up on an ice floe in Russia’s Far East has been helicoptered closer to its natural habitat, the Kamchatka region administration announced. Residents of Kamchatka region villages spotted the bear — who was nicknamed Umka after a cartoon polar bear character from a popular Soviet-era animation film —…
Specialists started to load dummy fuel assemblies (dummy FAs) into the reactor at Unit 1 of Belarus NPP (General Contractor and General Designer – ASE, Engineering Division of Rosatom State Corporation). This is one of the most important processes at the stage of the reactor plant preparation for the cold and hot run stage. Dummy…
Volodymyr Zelenskiy will be inaugurated as Ukraine’s new president in about a month with questions still swirling about his true policy positions toward neighboring Russia. A native Russian speaker with no political experience, Zelenskiy has been accused by critics of having adopted a soft stance toward Russian aggression — including the annexation of Crimea in…
On this day in 1899, the writer Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg. His father was a liberal politician; his mother a well-educated and cultured member of a prominent business family. He was the oldest of five children. He received his early education at home with governesses and tutors and then at a liberal…
You can rent it and set out on the journey of a lifetime to places others can’t reach, the billionaire’s promotion page reads. Why not take off with one of the two on-board helicopters as a mother polar bear and her two cubs sit on an ice-floe just in front of the luxury yacht. Or…
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not officially congratulate Ukrainian president-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy on his landslide victory, the Kremlin said on Monday. Ukraine has entered uncharted political waters after near final results show Zelenskiy, a comedian, winning Sunday’s presidential election by a landslide, dramatically upending the political status quo in the ex-Soviet republic. It’s “too early”…
Background Gazprom Dobycha Shelf Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom focused on developing fields within the Kirinsky block, including the Kirinskoye and Yuzhno-Kirinskoye fields, as part of the Eastern Gas Program. By developing these reserves, the company will make a substantial contribution to meeting the energy demand of Russia’s Far East and creating opportunities for natural gas exports to Asia-Pacific. A subsea production system is used for the…
Release April 22, 2019, 15:00 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Sergey Levchenko, Governor of the Irkutsk Region, took place today in St. Petersburg. The parties highlighted the strategic nature of the ongoing cooperation. Gazprom continues to make extensive efforts in the region to shape the Irkutsk gas production center on the basis of the Kovyktinskoye field. Work is proceeding on schedule…
A Yandex Food delivery man’s death while working in St. Petersburg has triggered outrage on social media over the Russian company’s treatment of its couriers. Artyk Orozaliev died at age 21 on Wednesday after what his colleagues said was a 10-hour-straight bicycle shift for Yandex Food. His relatives told local media that Orozaliev’s death was…
15th April 2019, Sochi, Russia – During the 11th Atomexpo International Forum, ROSATOM unveiled the new “Mission: Talent” initiative together with its partners, WorldSkills Russia and BCG, aimed at dealing with one of the most pressing issues of our time: the growing skills gap and talent deficit. As part of the ‘Mission: Talent’ initiative, the…
Vintage tram cars paraded down Moscow’s streets on Saturday to mark the 120-year anniversary of the tram service’s opening. The event, which takes place each spring, reached record attendance with more than 250,000 spectators, the local mos.ru news website reported. Here’s a look at the parade’s display of historic, Soviet-era models and the innovative trams…
Anti-Communist activists have made a visual call to take down Moscow’s largest surviving statue of Lenin on the Soviet leader’s 149th birthday. Several republics of the former Soviet Union have dismantled and replaced Lenin statues since the USSR collapsed in 1991. Russian politicians have continued to debate whether to bury Lenin’s body or preserve it…
Rosneft took part in all-Russia ecological clean-up event Green Spring. The opening ceremony took place in Sokolniki Park in Moscow. As part of the event, the Company employees planted young birch trees and painted a children’s playground. Green Spring is an annual project implemented by Nongovernmental Ecological Foundation named after V.I. Vernadskiy and All-Russian Society…
A region in Russia’s Far East has bolstered its capabilities to combat wildfires after the first wave injured dozens and left hundreds more homeless. Wildfires that tore through Zabaikalsky region injured at least 34 people, four of them critically, and left more than 400 people homeless. Authorities estimate the blaze, which was swept in from Mongolia by high winds,…
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a comedian and actor with no political experience, swept to victory on Sunday in the second round of Ukraine’s presidential election, in a race that has fascinated the country’s looming neighbor to the north. The victory triggered speculation in Russia on Sunday that relations between the neighboring countries might improve. It also presented…
Felix Sater argued that a skyscraper in Moscow bearing Donald Trump’s name could be the key to putting the real-estate tycoon in the White House. “Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it,” Sater, a Moscow-born businessman, wrote to Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, on Nov. 3, 2015, according to…
April 22, 2019 PAO Severstal (MICEX-RTS: CHMF; LSE: SVST), one of the world’s leading steel and steel-related mining companies, today announces its Q1 2019 financial results for the period ended 31 March 2019. CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE QUARTER ENDED 31 MARCH 2019 $ million, unless otherwise stated Q1 2019 Q4 2018 Change, % Q1…
Ukraine entered uncharted political waters on Sunday after an exit poll showed a comedian with no political experience and few detailed policies had easily won enough votes to become the next president of a country at war. The apparent landslide victory of Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 41, is a bitter blow for incumbent Petro Poroshenko who tried…
Russia has received a debt payment from Venezuela under the terms of a $3.15 billion restructuring deal agreed to in 2017, Russian news agency Interfax reported, citing Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. The debt payment was due in March, but Siluanov said at the beginning of April that a grace period gave Venezuela another month to…
Writing about cookbooks should not be a minefield, but in trying to nail down exactly what constitutes a “Russian” cookbook, I often feel the need of a sturdy flak jacket. When you focus on a region whose physical and political borders have ebbed and flowed as often as Russia’s has, culinary history can well become controversial if not positively incendiary.…
Maria Butina, who has admitted to working as a Russian agent to infiltrate an influential U.S. gun rights group and make inroads with conservative activists and Republicans, asked the court to sentence her to time served ahead of her April 26 sentencing, according to court documents. Butina, 30, a former graduate student at American University who…
The U.S. State Department spokesperson has called on countries to “follow Malta’s example” and block Russian military planes en route for Venezuela from using their airspace. On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Malta refused a Russian request to use its airspace to fly military aircraft from Syria to Venezuela on April…
The Rosneft oil giant has threatened to ban Reuters from operating in Russia after the international news agency released a report saying that Venezuela had sold oil to Russia in an attempt to evade U.S. sanctions. Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has started passing invoices from its oil sales to Rosneft, Reuters reported Friday, citing…
Russia sent the United States a draft joint declaration on how to prevent nuclear war, only to never hear back from Washington, the Kommersant business daily reported on Friday. The U.S. and Russia are suspending the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty this summer. The only U.S.-Russia arms control pact limiting deployed nuclear weapons —…
The Kremlin said on Friday that U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report did not contain any evidence the Russian state had meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Mueller’s report, released on Thursday, details extensive contacts between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian operatives who, it said, sought to tilt the election in Trump’s favor. However,…
Almost half of the alcohol products sold in Russia last year were on the market illegally, the state Federal Alcohol Market Regulation Service (Rosalkogolregulirovanie) said this week. Sales of alcoholic beverages in Russia rose by 4.6 percent in 2018, according to Nielsen estimates, while official statistics show a 1.5-percent decline in vodka sales to 786…
After Western sanctions gutted Russia’s financial system five years ago, a new bank card began appearing in the wallets of many Russians. Now the country is hoping to introduce its cards, known as Mir cards, to foreign markets where Russian nationals live and travel, Vladimir Komlev, the head of Russia’s National Card Payment System (NSPK),…
Special Counsel Robert Mueller may not have found evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia, but his report details extensive contacts between the campaign and Russian operatives who sought to influence the U.S. election. Many of the contacts in the report were already known. They included former national security adviser…
In stuffy room with painted black walls, a group of students clap vigorously as if applauding a performance. Then they seem to be a shower, rubbing their faces and necks, before throwing their arms forward with loud shouts of “Ha!” From the front of the room, an older man observes them intently. For an outsider…
Ukraine’s new president could regain control over the separatist-controlled east of his country within months and get cheap gas and major investment from Russia if he repairs ties with Moscow, the Kremlin’s closest ally in Ukraine said. Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent figure in Ukraine’s Russia-leaning opposition, outlined the prospect in an interview before a presidential election runoff in…
President Nicolas Maduro is funneling cash flow from Venezuelan oil sales through Russian state energy giant Rosneft as he seeks to evade U.S. sanctions designed to oust him from power, according to sources and documents reviewed by Reuters. The sales are the latest sign of the growing dependence of Venezuela’s cash-strapped government on Russia as the…
The United States and Russia both said on Thursday they could not support a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Libya at this time, diplomats said, as mortar bombs crashed down on a suburb of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Russia objects to the British-drafted resolution blaming eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar for the latest…
Справка Royal Dutch Shell is a British-Dutch oil and gas holding company focused on hydrocarbon production, processing and marketing in more than 70 countries. Gazprom and Shell are jointly engaged in the Sakhalin II project, which includes Russia’s first LNG plant. The project operator of Sakhalin II is Sakhalin Energy (Gazprom – 50 per cent plus one share, Shell – 27.5 per cent minus one share, Mitsui – 12.5 per cent,…
U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Thursday offered some details of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia‘s role in the 2016 U.S. election before making it public, emphasizing that it found no collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Moscow. Barr, a Trump appointee, gave a news conference ahead of the planned release of the…
When you’re serious about your city’s statues, it isn’t just your home that needs spring cleaning. Muscovites headed outside to give the capital’s famous monuments a solid scrubbing and clean off the winter dirt. Here’s a look at Moscow’s statues getting spruced up for the new season:
A marijuana business has helped Roman Abramovich’s associate Andrei Bloch return to Forbes magazine’s list of richest Russians. Bloch briefly served as president of oil producer Sibneft from 1998 until Abramovich sold it to Russia’s state energy firm Gazprom in 2005. Bloch and another partner bought Abramovich’s Unimilk dairy business in 2004 — which merged…
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will travel to Russia in the second half of this month and meet President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Thursday. The announcement coincided with a moment of discord in efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to reach a deal with Kim to end nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula.…
Russia’s internet sector has contributed 3.9 trillion rubles ($60.8 billion) to the overall economy last year, an 11 percent increase from 2017, according to the Russian Association of Electronic Communications. The study correlates with Kremlin estimates that Russian internet companies account for about 4 percent of gross domestic product. E-commerce accounts for half of Russia’s…
A sharp decline in chestnut trees caused by a parasitic fungus in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region is threatening the area’s honey production, according to local beekeepers and scientists. Asya Minasyan and her husband say they used to produce 500 kilograms of honey per year, but that the situation now is changing rapidly. “The bee is…
Oleg Deripaska’s van maker GAZ is asking the government for almost 30 billion rubles ($468 million) in support because it claims U.S. sanctions could slash production by almost 40 percent in the second half of the year, the Kommersant business daily reported on Thursday. Kommersant cited a March 29 letter from GAZ Deputy General Director…
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree banning Russian exports of coal, crude oil and oil products to Ukraine, he told government officials in televised comments on Thursday. Starting June 1, the export of products listed in the decree will require a special permit, Interfax reported. The decree will also ban the import into Russia of…
Fiona Hill, an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, visited Moscow this week and discussed bilateral relations with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday. Ties between Washington and Moscow are at post-Cold War lows and later on Thursday a long-awaited report on Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election…
Russia has been rated 149th out of 180 countries for press freedom, according to an annual index published by international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Russia and Turkey (ranked 157th) continue to be the biggest players in the suppression of free speech in the region, RSF researchers said. A recently passed law that punishes “fake…
On April 16, the 11th ATOMEXPO International Forum 2019, a global industry discussion event organized by Rosatom State Corporation, finished its work in the Main Media Center of Sochi. This year, the number of cooperation agreements, memoranda and contracts signed in the margins of the forum has increased. More than 40 signing ceremonies were held…
A young male polar bear has washed up on an ice floe in Russia’s Far East 700 kilometers south of its natural habitat, triggering efforts to rescue the endangered animal. Polar bears’ dangerous encounters with humans are becoming more frequent as climate change melts the sea ice where the creatures roam. A polar bear invasion…
16th April 2019, Sochi – ROSATOM and Cuba’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, have signed a memorandum of cooperation education and training in the field of nuclear energy on the sidelines of the 11th ATOMEXPO International Forum. The memorandum was signed by the Deputy Director General For International Relations of ROSATOM, Nikolay Spassky, and…
The almost decade-long hiatus in high-level meetings between Baltic presidents and Russia’s Vladimir Putin is set to end this week. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — home to sizable Russian-speaking minorities — have had an uneasy relationship with the Kremlin since communism collapsed. Putin’s annexation of Crimea from nearby Ukraine in 2014 and the ensuing military…
Almost two decades ago, in a remote Russian city best known for its butter and linen, two brothers shared a bedroom and a Pentium 100-powered computer they used to code their first game. Wall Street wants a piece of what they’ve built since. Playrix has met with some of the biggest banks “and visited their…
Russia’s environmental ministry has proposed more than 100 oil and gas extraction, infrastructure and tourism projects in the Arctic valued at 10.5 trillion rubles ($164.2 billion), the RBC news website reported Thursday. President Vladimir Putin has promised tax incentives and other benefits to encourage companies to develop the Arctic region and the Northern Sea shipping…
Russia considers new U.S. sanctions against Venezuela and Cuba to be illegal and it plans to do everything to support its allies in Caracas and Havana, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday. U.S. national security adviser John Bolton announced a series of new sanctions against…
Russian police detained 11 LGBT activists on Wednesday at a Silence Day protest in the city of St. Petersburg. The yearly event meant to raise people’s awareness of LGBT problems in the country gathered around 50 people who sealed their mouths with red tape and marched through the city’s streets. Russia passed a law in…
April 18, 2019 The Board of Directors of Severstal (“Severstal”, “the Company”) (LSE: SVST; MICEX-RTS: CHMF), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and steel-related mining companies, is recommending a dividend of 35.43 roubles per share for the three months ended 31 March 2019. Approval of the dividend is expected at the Company’s EGM…
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) is reportedly investigating allegations that presidential front-runner Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s campaign could be financed by Kremlin-linked figures. Polls have forecast a heavy defeat for President Petro Poroshenko in the second round of Ukraine’s presidential elections on Sunday. Zelenskiy, a comedian and actor with no political experience, won twice as many votes as…
Russians expressed their support for France in the wake of Monday’s devastating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris with both condolences and monetary donations. Yet even as the Culture Ministry announced plans to call on the Russian public to raise funds to help restore the 12th-century cathedral, Russian critics have pointed to several historic…