Siberian scientists have blocked the publication of a “bombshell” pollution report out of fear of angering voters ahead of this fall’s legislative elections, the Tayga.info news website reported Friday. The Russian Academy of Sciences’ (RAS) Siberian branch reportedly determined that 78% of Russia’s two dozen most polluted cities are located in Siberia and linked the…
This Sunday, April 4, is Easter for the mostly western part of Christendom, and if you are looking for a beautiful and delicious way to celebrate the day, look no farther than the Oriental Bar at the top of the Hyatt Regency in Petrovsky Park. The family brunch, served from noon to 5 p.m., will…
A Russian-controlled court in Crimea said Monday it has jailed an elderly woman for 12 years after finding her guilty of spying for Ukraine. The Sevastopol city court said in a statement that the woman — identified only by the initial D., her birth year of 1955 and residence of the town of Bakhchysarai —…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Monday that he risks being sent to “torture-like” solitary confinement after he received several reprimands at a notoriously harsh penal colony. Navalny, 44, is serving a sentence of two and a half years for violating parole in an old fraud case while recovering abroad from poisoning that he blames…
Russian environmentalists have raised the alarm over plans to mine gold near UNESCO-protected territory on the Kamchatka peninsula in the Far East, the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty news outlet’s Siberian affiliate reported Monday. Russia’s Federal Subsoil Resource Use Agency reportedly plans to open a 61-square-kilometer site in the Milkovsky district of Kamchatka for gold prospecting…
Russia acknowledged Monday that it was developing ties with Myanmar but said it was “very concerned” by an increase in civilian casualties at protests against military rule. More than 100 people including children were killed by security forces in Myanmar on Saturday in the deadliest weekend since February’s military coup. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told…
Russia has agreed a deal for more than 60 million doses of its Sputnik V vaccine to be produced in China from May, the jab’s developer said on Monday. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which has financed the development of the vaccine, said it and Shenzhen Yuanxing Gene-tech Co. “have agreed to cooperate on production…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s ally Ivan Zhdanov said Monday that his father has been arrested for corruption, blaming the Kremlin for the arrest and linking the criminal case to his own political activity. Zhdanov, who heads Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) which is famous for viral video investigations into senior officials’ allegedly illicit wealth, said…
Major historical landmarks worldwide switched off the lights on Saturday in solidarity with Earth Hour, the environmental awareness movement spearheaded by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) since 2007. Moscow’s monuments and iconic buildings were among the famous sights that descended into darkness between 8:30 and 9:30 on Saturday evening, adding an air of mystery to…
Italy should recognize Crimea as Russian territory before being allowed to export parmesan into the country again, the head of Russia’s cheesemakers union said Sunday. Russia banned wholesale imports of fresh EU food produce including parmesan in retaliation to Western sanctions over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Italian Ambassador to Moscow Pasquale Terracciano on…
Russia has launched large-scale military exercises involving more than 12,000 servicemen in eastern Siberia, Interfax reported Monday, citing the Eastern Military District’s press service. The drills will involve up to 3,000 weapons and pieces of military equipment, 60 aircraft and helicopters and more than 10 drones. They will be led by the Eastern Military District’s…
The prime minister this month announced snap parliamentary polls that he said were “the best way out of the current internal political situation.” In a visit to northwest Armenia on Sunday, Pashinyan told villagers he will “resign in April” ahead of the vote. “I will resign not to resign, but in order for early elections to take…
Police in Belarus on Saturday detained more than 100 people, including five journalists, a rights group said, as the opposition resumed rallies against strongman Alexander Lukashenko. Protests erupted in the ex-Soviet country last August after Lukashenko claimed a sixth presidential term in a vote the opposition and Western diplomats said was rigged. But they died…
Police in Belarus detained dozens of protesters and at least five journalists on Saturday, a rights group said, as the opposition restarted rallies against strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko’s rule. Protests erupted in the ex-Soviet country last August after Lukashenko claimed a sixth presidential term in a vote the opposition and Western diplomats said was rigged. news Belarus…
What is more comforting than a bowl of matzoh ball soup? Is there another elixir that can vanquish the blues, kill a cold, warm up the body, or nourish the soul quite like it? Does your spirit not rejoice when a large soup plate is set in front of you: a rich golden chicken broth…
Several German lawmakers have once again fallen victim to a cyberattack, local media said Friday, with security experts pointing the finger at Russian hackers. Hackers used phishing emails to gain access to the computers of at least seven federal MPs and 31 lawmakers in regional parliaments, according to Der Spiegel weekly. A spokesman for the…
The Ukrainian military said that four soldiers were killed in shelling it blamed on Moscow-backed separatists in the east of the country on Friday, further undermining a ceasefire brokered last year. “Unfortunately, from the beginning of 2021 we see an increase in escalation,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a statement in Telegram late on…
Russia and Myanmar are deepening their defense ties as Moscow’s military supplies continue to pour into the country, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said Friday at a meeting with the country’s commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing. Fomin’s visit marked the first high-profile visit to Myanmar by a foreign official since the country was rocked by…
Almost $300 million worth of Russian oil products are waiting to enter the Suez Canal, which remains closed following the grounding of the Ever Given tanker. But Moscow is hoping it can turn the freak grounding into long-term gain. Efforts to dislodge the vessel are now in their third day and those tasked with moving…
March 24 – Mikhail Ledenev, the head of the Russian embassy at the Plurinational State of Bolivia, and the representatives of the Bolivian Ministry of International Affairs accompanied by Alexey Altynov, Vice President of JSC Rusatom Overseas, visited the construction site of the Center for Nuclear Technology Research and Development (CNTRD) in El Alto located…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny fears losing his leg in a penal colony where he is serving two and a half years, he said in an Instagram post Friday. Navalny’s lawyers warned this week that his life may be in danger because of four weeks of severe back pain and loss of sensation in one…
A. Kharlampiev Memorial Sambo World Cup takes place in Moscow on March 25-26, 2021
Background Linde plc is one of the world’s largest companies focused on industrial technologies for natural gas treatment and separation with the recovery of ethane, propane and heavier hydrocarbon fractions. In addition, the company designs and builds cryogenic facilities for natural gas and helium liquefaction. Linde Engineering is an engineering and technical subdivision of Linde. Gazprom and RusGazDobycha are implementing the project for…
RN-Bunker, the operator of Rosneft’s bunkering business, more than doubled its volume of fuelling ships with low-sulphur bunker fuel to 1.3 million tonnes in 2020
Rosneft Oil Company plans to spend about 136 billion roubles on environmental measures at its refineries by 2024
An independent Russian journalist and elections expert has reported receiving threats toward his family and surveillance over his article about a regional elections official seeking re-election to the State Duma this September. Vasily Weissenberg, an expert at the independent Golos election monitor, had published an article about Andrei Gibert, the head of the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district’s…
Rosneft Oil Company continues to implement a programme to equip its filling stations with electric charging infrastructure
Russian conservationists hailed Friday a rare sighting of an Amur leopard mother with three cubs in the Far East as proof of the efficiency of the country’s efforts to boost the population of the endangered species. Scientists in a Russian national park located in the Primorye region on the border with China obtained the stunning…
A fake “TikTok for Business” website has appeared in Russia that hijacks popular accounts with a fraudulent content monetization scheme, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday. This is the first time that the widespread social media entrapment method has involved the popular Chinese short-video app, the newspaper cited the Infosecurity cybersecurity company’s leading analyst Alexander…
Maria Alyokhina is no stranger to being prosecuted for her politics. The veteran Pussy Riot member is best known for her role in the group’s “Punk Prayer,” the provocative February 2012 protest in neon balaclavas at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral. She and fellow activist Nadya Tolokonnikova would spend two years in a prison colony…
France on Friday accused Russia of using its Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine as a tool to spread Moscow’s influence and message rather than as way to fight the global health crisis. “In terms of how it is managed, it (the Sputnik V vaccine) is more a means of propaganda and aggressive diplomacy than a means of solidarity…
On March 25, Alexander Lipnitsky, a journalist, writer and one of the founders of the cult Soviet rock group Zvuki Mu, died near at age 68 his dacha at Nikolina Gora. His son, Vladimir, said he had been skiing across the Moscow River when he fell through the ice and drowned. Lipnitsky was a childhood friend…
On March 24 in Vienna in the Headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General of ROSATOM Alexei Likhachev had a meeting with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi. The main topic of discussion was joint efforts to promote peaceful atom as clean source of electricity generation as well as the contribution of nuclear…
Russia’s second coronavirus vaccine triggers antibodies in all recipients, according to early-trial study results involving 100 volunteers published Thursday. EpiVacCorona, a two-shot peptide vaccine developed by the Siberia-based Vektor Institute, came under scrutiny this week after Phase 3 trial participants claimed that it does not produce an immune response. No peer-reviewed research on the jab has…
Russia in 2020 saw record high average temperatures and a record drop of summer ice cover on its Arctic maritime route, the country’s weather monitoring institute Rosgidromet said Thursday. Russia’s average annual temperature last year was 3.22 degrees Celsius higher than the average for the period of 1961-1990 and more than one degree higher than…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is in great pain, his lawyer said Thursday after visiting him in prison, adding that allies feared for his life. “He is suffering from strong back pain and pain in his right leg,” lawyer Olga Mikhailova said in remarks on Dozhd television, adding that his condition was “extremely unfavorable”. “Everyone…
The East Siberian Oil and Gas Company (Vostsibneftegaz), a subsidiary of Rosneft, organised a round table in Krasnoyarsk on interaction with the indigenous peoples of the Russian North
On the way to work at Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta last Monday morning, journalists noticed a strong chemical stench on the street outside their central Moscow office. By the time they sat down at their desks they had spread a clear, noxious substance throughout the building on the soles of their shoes. Only months after…
The Volgodonsk Branch of JSC AEM-technology (part of ROSATOM machine-building division Atomenergomash) has started a new project manufacturing Passive Core Flooding System Tanks for the Akkuyu NPP Unit 1 (Turkey). Atommash will manufacture the Passive Core Flooding System Tanks for Units 1 and 3 of the Akkuyu NPP under construction. Each Passive Core Flooding System…
The Supreme Court of Russia’s republic of Dagestan has overturned an earlier decision that ruled a mother was unfit for custody of her three children due to her “immoral” tattoos and piercings, she said Thursday. Nina Tseretilova, 33, had lived with her daughter and two sons in the predominantly Muslim, socially conservative region of southern…
Russia said Thursday that jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny was in “satisfactory” condition, but failed to reassure his allies who demanded clarity about his health and whereabouts. Navalny, 44, was detained in January after landing in Russia from Germany where he was recovering for several months from a poisoning attack with a Soviet-designed nerve agent…
Opposition activists in Belarus were preparing for fresh protests on Thursday to breathe life into a movement against President Alexander Lukashenko that fizzled out in the face of a severe crackdown. The authorities were moving military vehicles into the center of the capital Minsk in preparation, according to videos circulating on social media and published by local…
Russia has introduced its third registered coronavirus vaccine for general use, Interfax reported Thursday, citing its developers and the Education and Science Ministry. CoviVak, developed by the state-run Chumakov Research Center, is a two-dose, whole-virion vaccine that uses complete, but inactive, particles of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19. Mass production of CoviVak began Thursday…
March 25, 2021, 13:50 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Dmitry Artyukhov, Governor of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area (YaNAA), took place today via a video link. The parties discussed relevant issues of cooperation. The Company is developing a major gas production center on the basis of the Bovanenkovskoye field in the Yamal Peninsula. Pre-development of the second key field in the region, Kharasaveyskoye, is underway, and geological…
Investors embroiled in one of the most controversial Russian corporate sagas of the last decade have agreed to sell the bank at the center of their dispute Investment fund Baring Vostok — run by detained U.S. investor Michael Calvey — and Artem Avetisyan’s Finvision have sold their stakes in Russia’s Vostochny Bank to rival Sovcombank…
“I hope to watch a film tonight, and this spring I’m going to watch films by Andrey Tarkovsky,” the self-taught and award-winning film director Dmitry Davydov told The Moscow Times. “I find some information on the internet, and I watch a lot of films so I can focus on the work of the directors. I…
Germany has asked the European Commission to purchase doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine for the EU, Politico Europe reported Wednesday. The Commission plans to determine which countries are interested in purchasing the Russian shot as EU countries remain divided on the issue, an unnamed German official told Politico Europe. Requests from at least…
A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East on Thursday carrying 36 UK telecommunications and internet satellites, the Roscosmos space agency said. OneWeb, a London-headquartered company, is working to complete the construction of a constellation of low earth orbit satellites providing enhanced broadband and other services to countries around the world.…
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday Vladimir Putin is responsible for “terrible things,” but wouldn’t go so far as U.S. President Joe Biden in calling the Russian leader a “killer.” Trudeau, unaccustomed to criticizing other world leaders in public, was questioned during an interview on SiriusXM radio’s The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge about Biden’s…
Canada on Wednesday slapped new sanctions against nine Russian officials on Wednesday in response to “gross” rights violations and silencing of Kremlin critics including Alexey Navalny, who was poisoned and jailed. The measure follows similar actions taken earlier this month by the European Union and the United States. “The Russian government has repeatedly shown its…
Alexei Navalny’s health is “deteriorating” in prison and his lawyers weren’t allowed access to him for their latest scheduled meeting, the jailed Kremlin critic’s aides said Wednesday, warning that his life may be in danger. Navalny, who was moved to a prison colony east of Moscow this month, started complaining of severe back pain and numbness…
Russian socialite and television presenter Ksenia Sobchak is facing widespread criticism for interviewing a convicted serial rapist after he was released from prison earlier this month. Viktor Mokhov, 70, spent 17 years in a corrective labor colony after being convicted in 2005 of abducting and repeatedly raping two teenage girls. He held his victims captive in a…
Russian lawmakers on Wednesday approved legislation allowing President Vladimir Putin to hold office for two additional terms, paving the way for him to stay in power until 2036. Putin, already in power for more than 20 years, proposed the change as part of constitutional reforms that Russians overwhelmingly backed in a vote last year. They…
Enterprises of Rosneft Oil Company’s Samara group–Samaraneftegaz, the Novokuibyshevsk, Syzran and Kuibyshev refineries, Novokuibyshevsk Petrochemical Company and Oil and Additives Plant–allocated over 4.5 billion roubles for environmental protection activities in 2020
Chechen authorities have detained dozens of relatives of two gay men who were forcibly returned to the southern Russian region to face terrorism charges, a rights group told the independent Dozhd broadcaster Wednesday. The Moscow-based LGBT Network rights group said Salekh Magamadov, 20, and Ismail Isayev, 18, fled Chechnya last year but were arrested and returned…
Telegram has sold more than $1 billion in bonds to international investors, founder Pavel Durov announced Tuesday — with Russia’s state-run Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) now among the firm’s backers. Durov, who founded Russia’s leading social network VKontakte before launching messaging app Telegram, said the investment will “enable Telegram to continue growing globally, while sticking…
Clinical trial volunteers for Russia’s second coronavirus vaccine have demanded the country’s Health Ministry launch an investigation to explore claims the jab does not produce an immune response. The group — which is currently taking part in Phase 3 studies for Russia’s EpiVacCorona shot, a peptide vaccine developed by the Vektor Institute in Novosibirsk —…
Russia will probe an artistic exhibition of preserved human corpses after the display sparked an uproar among conservative religious groups and public figures. German anatomist Gunter von Hagens’ traveling “Body Worlds” exhibition opened at Moscow’s VDNKh exhibition center on March 12. Its display of donated human bodies and organs aims to educate visitors “by looking inside…
Russians are on average more optimistic than Americans toward the prospect of warmer relations between the countries, though both remain largely pessimistic, a new poll by the independent Levada Center has said Wednesday. If only 10% of American respondents said they believe U.S.-Russian ties would improve in the next decade, 19% of Russian respondents held…
Armenia lifted martial law on Wednesday, five months after the end of its brutal war with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The decision to lift the order came as part of a deal between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the opposition to defuse a political crisis sparked by Armenia’s crushing defeat in the six-week conflict.…