A senior Russian athletics official is facing a ban for a suspected anti-doping violation, the country’s suspended athletics federation said on Wednesday. The federation said first vice president Andrei Silnov, gold medalist in the high jump at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, had been suspended and would face a hearing on Friday for a “possible violation…
Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in the decision to free investigative journalist Ivan Golunov, one of the men who reportedly negotiated Golunov’s release told the Bell business outlet on Tuesday. Late last week, Golunov was detained and charged with drug trafficking in what critics said was a set-up punishing him for his anti-corruption investigations.…
Russia said on Tuesday it plans to deliver its S-400 missile defense systems to Turkey in July, setting the clock ticking on a U.S. threat to hit Ankara with sanctions if it goes ahead with a deal that has strained ties between the NATO allies. Turkey and the United States have sparred publicly for months…
Russian customs officials have seized 400 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a shipping container transporting canned fish from Ecuador, the Federal Customs Service (FTS) said in a statement Tuesday. The contraband was seized in coordination with federal anti-drug officials and local police on Monday, the FTS said. When the shipping container was opened, officers reportedly…
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has suggested that a four-day work week will likely be adopted in the future to help workers overcome burnout syndrome and chronic fatigue. Last month, the World Health Organization classified burnout syndrome as an occupational phenomenon resulting from workplace stress that leads to exhaustion and mental distance. According to a report…
Russia’s Interior Ministry has ruled to end the drug trafficking case against investigative journalist Ivan Golunov, Russian media reported Tuesday. The anti-corruption reporter’s detention and charging last week led to a national outcry among Russian journalists and human rights activists, who described it as a case against media freedom. His colleagues at the Meduza news website…
A group of Siberian residents who asked for Canadian asylum over the weekend, citing worsening environmental conditions, will only be able to apply for the status if they’ve left Russia, local media cited Canada’s immigration ministry as saying on Tuesday. Residents of the Siberian coal-mining town of Kiselyovsk posted a video appeal for asylum on…
Ten years ago this month, Ivan Golunov wrote his first freelance article for Alexei Munipov, an editor at Bolshoi Gorod, or Big City, a since-shuttered magazine. The story was about the arrest of a young artist in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk on what appeared to be fabricated drug charges. A decade on, Golunov and…
A fight between high school students and what appear to be police officers in Russia’s republic of Chechnya ended in gunshots, Russian media reported Monday. According to the local Kavkazr.com news website, the scuffle at public school number 54 in Chechnya’s capital of Grozny started as a verbal altercation when a police officer insulted a…
St. Petersburg – PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev took part in a panel session on “Identifying the Future Industrial Leaders” during which he set forth his vision of PhosAgro’s digital transformation as a way to retain the company’s leadership on the global fertiliser market. According to Guryev, awareness of the need to digitalise key production and…
June 10, 2019, Moscow – During the 6th session of the Russian-Saudi Arabian intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technological cooperation, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak confirmed Russia’s plans to develop active partnership with Saudi Arabia in the peaceful use of nuclear technologies and announced the opening of a Rusatom Overseas branch in Riyadh.…
Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, on Tuesday called the case against Ivan Golunov, an investigative journalist charged with drug offenses, a “very bad story,” Interfax reported. The comments, by a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, are likely to encourage supporters of Golunov who believe he was framed and have…
A majority of Russians say they want two seperatist-led republics in eastern Ukraine to break away from the country, according to a recent poll conducted by the independent Levada Center pollster. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions, collectively known as the Donbass, have existed as de facto states in eastern Ukraine since conflict broke out there…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday its Su-27 jet intercepted U.S. and Swedish reconnaissance planes over the Baltic Sea where NATO is holding Baltops 2019 naval drills. “On June 10, Russia airspace control means over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea detected two air targets approaching Russia‘s state border,” the ministry said in a statement. It also said…
Aerial strikes on Monday killed at least 25 people, mostly civilians, in northwestern Syria in the sixth week of a Russian-led military offensive that has so far killed hundreds of civilians, according to residents and civil rescuers. They said warplanes flying at high altitude, which monitors said were Russian Sukhoi jets, dropped bombs on the…
Three people were missing and two injured on Tuesday after a blast on an oil tanker caused a fire while it was pumping oil in the southern Russian port of Makhachkala, Russia’s Transport Ministry said. The port is functioning as normal despite the incident, the RIA news agency cited the Federal Agency for Maritime and…
A Moscow court has sentenced a former anti-corruption official in the Interior Ministry to 13 years in prison after finding him guilty of large-scale bribery and obstruction of justice. Dmitry Zakharchenko, who served as deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s economic security and anti-corruption office, was arrested in September 2016 on bribery and abuse of…
A Russian court has granted early release to Oyub Titiyev, a prominent human rights leader in Russia’s republic of Chechnya, Interfax reported Monday. Titiyev, who runs the office of the Memorial Human Rights Center in the southern Russian region, was sentenced to four years in a penal settlement in March after he was found guilty…
Three of Russia’s leading newspapers coordinated with each other to publish almost identical front pages Monday in solidarity with arrested investigative journalist Ivan Golunov. The move is unprecedented in Russia. Vedomosti, RBC and Kommersant’s front page headlines all read “I/We Are Ivan Golunov,” and the accompanying stories asked for a detailed investigation into the actions…
Russian police uncovered around $3 million worth of stolen diamonds, and over $2.5 million in cash, at the homes of a criminal ring operating inside state-controlled diamond producer Alrosa, authorities said on Monday. Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds in carat terms, confirmed that security services had uncovered an ongoing diamond theft ring…
It’s possible that mistakes were made during last week’s arrest of prominent investigative reporter Ivan Golunov on large-scale drug trafficking charges, the Kremlin has said. Anti-corruption journalist Golunov was detained and formally charged in a case that has drawn international attention to Russia’s media climate. The Interior Ministry on Friday published nine photos that it…
“The Spy and the Traitor” by Ben Macintyre is meticulously researched history narrated by a natural storyteller. Macintyre, a columnist and associate editor of The Times, is the author of ten books about 20th century wars, espionage, spies and a variety of strange and colorful characters. His grasp of the arcane world — and lingo…
Kazakhstan‘s interim president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the chosen successor of veteran ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev who retains sweeping powers, has won a snap presidential election with nearly 71 percent of the vote, according to early results on Monday. Nazarbayev, who ruled oil producer Kazakhstan for almost three decades, handpicked the 66-year-old career diplomat as his successor when…
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Monday it welcomed the formation of a ruling coalition and government in Moldova, and hoped to restore good relations between Moscow and Chisinau. It also said it hoped the situation in Moldova‘s capital would stabilise soon after Russia’s ally, President Igor Dodon, was temporarily relieved of his duties by a…
The arrest of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov on drug charges last week has led to an outpouring of support from Russia’s journalists and civil society activists. His colleagues have said they believe the evidence against him was fabricated as punishment for his investigations. Golunov is a correspondent for the Meduza news website who is best-known…
An aide to opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been detained on the same day he was set to be released from jail for organizing nationwide protests last year against an unpopular government decision to raise the pension age. Leonid Volkov could now stay in prison until September 9, the Mediazona online news site reported, citing…
A senior American banker once secretly awarded a shareholding in powerful Moscow investment bank Renaissance Capital to one of Vladimir Putin’s closest friends and brokered meetings for the friend with top U.S. foreign policy officials a decade ago, emails show. The American banker, Robert Foresman, currently vice chairman at UBS investment bank in New York,…
Three of Russia’s leading newspapers published identical front pages Monday in solidarity with investigative journalist Ivan Golunov. The move by the Kommersant, RBC and Vedomosti newspapers is unprecedented in Russia. The newspapers, whose front pages read “I/We Are Ivan Golunov,” asked for a detailed investigation into the actions of the police officers involved in Golunov’s…
In “1983: The World At The Brink,” Taylor Downing delves into one of the most pivotal years of the Cold War, when escalating brinkmanship between the Soviet Union and the United States nearly caused nuclear apocalypse. Downing is a historian, award-winning television producer and writer who has penned best-selling books on both world wars and…
Background The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 is being held at the EXPOFORUM Convention and Exhibition Centre from June 6 to 8. This year’s key topic is Creating a Sustainable Development Agenda. In 2018, Gazprom delivered 245 million cubic meters of gas to Bosnia and Herzegovina. TurkStream is the project for an export gas pipeline stretching across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey and further…
Background The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 is being held at the EXPOFORUM Convention and Exhibition Centre from June 6 to 8. This year’s key topic is Creating a Sustainable Development Agenda. In 2018, Gazprom delivered 245 million cubic meters of gas to Bosnia and Herzegovina. TurkStream is the project for an export gas pipeline stretching across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey and further…
Background Japan Bank for International Cooperation was set up in 1999 as a state-owned financial institution aimed at developing economic cooperation with foreign countries. The bank is focused on supporting international economic activities of Japanese companies. Gazprom and JBIC have established a long-standing and fruitful cooperation. Specifically, JBIC participated in financing the Blue Stream gas pipeline construction project and the Sakhalin II project. In December 2018, Gazprom successfully placed its…
A Russian journalist known for investigating corruption among Moscow city officials has been charged with large-scale drug trafficking, but his lawyer, his employer and colleagues say he has been framed. The journalist, 36-year-old Ivan Golunov, was detained in central Moscow on Thursday on his way to a meeting with a source when illegal drugs were…
With trade tensions between the United States and Сhina front and center, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the U.S. of “unbridled economic egoism” that is a recipe for trade wars and real wars. In some of his strongest words on the subject, Putin used an economic forum in St. Petersburg to align Moscow…
A new history of the world’s worst nuclear accident has emerged from the recent opening of Chernobyl archival materials. In “Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy,” Serhii Plokhy traces how the explosion occurred in 1986, the Soviet government’s crisis management, and the repercussions of the explosion that released radiation equivalent to 500 bombs dropped on Hiroshima.…
Background The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 is being held at the EXPOFORUM Convention and Exhibition Centre from June 6 to 8. This year’s key topic is Creating a Sustainable Development Agenda. Gazprom is represented in Vietnam by Gazprom International B.V., a specialized company focused on the implementation of power generation and LNG projects outside Russia. Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) is engaged in hydrocarbon exploration, production,…
Release June 7, 2019, 20:30 The project for a large-scale industrial cluster to be created in the northwest of Russia in 2019–2024 was presented today at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019. The event was attended by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Konstantin Makhov, Chief Executive Officer of RusGazDobycha, Kirill Seleznev, Director General of RusKhimAlyans, Andrey Ivanov, Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation,…
St Petersburg – PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev took part in a panel session called “Responsible Development vs. Sustainable Consumption: Nature and Technology” at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. The discussion was moderated by Andrey Fursenko, aide to the President of the Russian Federation. Panel participants included Irina Bokova, Chairperson of the PhosAgro Committee on…
St Petersburg – PhosAgro Board of Directors Chairman Xavier Rolet took part in the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (“SPIEF”) panel session ‘Is Modern Business Capable of Implementing Successful Long-Term Strategies?’ organised by PwC. Last year PhosAgro set new records for mining and production output volumes, and the company achieved its goals under its long-term…
At least 100 people gathered in central Moscow Friday evening to hold single pickets against the arrest of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov. Golunov, an investigative reporter for the Meduza news website, was detained Thursday afternoon on drug trafficking charges which his colleagues say were “persecution” for his reports. Russia’s independent trade union of journalists on Friday…
Russia’s state communications regulator on Friday said it was not satisfied with Google’s content filtering system and that it could open a new case against the company, the state-run RIA news agency reported. Russia last year launched a civil case against Google, accusing it of failing to comply with a legal requirement to remove certain…
Background The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 is being held at the EXPOFORUM Convention and Exhibition Centre from June 6 to 8. This year’s key topic is Creating a Sustainable Development Agenda. Siemens AG is a leading manufacturer of electronics and electric tools. The company entered the Russian market in 1853. Gazprom Energoholding, a vertically integrated holding company (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom), manages the production companies of the…
Release June 7, 2019, 15:40 Denis Fyodorov, Director General of Gazprom Energoholding, and Sergey Milto, Director General of TER-Servis, today signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 a contract for the long-term service maintenance of Siemens-made gas turbines and generators at the Grozny Thermal Power Plant (TPP). The signing ceremony took place in the presence of Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom…
Background In June 2018, the Gazprom Board of Directors approved the Company’s power generation strategy for 2018–2027. The document provides for, among other things, the diversification of Gazprom’s power business by entering promising foreign markets. At present, the Gazprom Energoholding Group, together with NIS a.d. Novi Sad (Gazprom Neft Group), is implementing a project for the construction of a combined cycle thermal power plant…
Russian soldiers of the future will be assigned service in specific military branches based on their hereditary predispositions detailed in so-called “genetic passports,” the country’s chief scientist has said. President Vladimir Putin decreed in March for all Russians to be assigned “genetic passports” by 2025 under the national chemical and biological security strategy. Scientists speculated…
Release June 7, 2019, 15:30 Oleg Aksyutin, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee, Head of Department at Gazprom, and Petr Mishnev, Technical Development & Quality Director of Severstal Management, today signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 an updated Scientific and Technical Cooperation Program. The ceremony took place in the presence of Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee. The document,…
Release June 7, 2019, 15:25 Kirill Seleznev, Director General of RusKhimAlyans, and Alexander Drozdenko, Governor of the Leningrad Region, today signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 an Agreement on social and economic cooperation. The signing ceremony took place in the presence of Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Konstantin Makhov, Chief Executive Officer of RusGazDobycha. In line with the…
Release June 7, 2019, 15:20 Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Alexander Beglov, Acting Governor of St. Petersburg, and Vladimir Lyubomirov, President of the regional sports public organization St. Petersburg Yacht Club, today signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 a Cooperation Agreement in the area of physical education and sports. The Agreement was made due to the expiration of a similar trilateral…
Background The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 is being held at the EXPOFORUM Convention and Exhibition Centre from June 6 to 8. This year’s key topic is Creating a Sustainable Development Agenda. Cooperation between Gazprom and the Sakhalin Region is strategic. Within the state-run Eastern Gas Program, the Company is developing a major gas production center on the shelf of Sakhalin Island. In particular, commercial development…
Release June 7, 2019, 15:10 Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Ivan Belozertsev, Governor of the Penza Region, today signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 a Roadmap to expand the use of hi-tech products, including import-substituting ones, manufactured by the Penza Region’s companies in the interests of Gazprom. The document covers the period up to 2021. The Roadmap will contribute…
Release June 7, 2019, 15:05 A series of agreements on the wider use of natural gas as a vehicle fuel was signed today at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019. Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan, signed an Agreement on the implementation of two investment projects in the region, namely the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex…
Release June 7, 2019, 15:00 A number of agreements relating to the manufacturing of cutting-edge high-technology equipment for Gazprom were signed today at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019. Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Sergey Chemezov, Director General of the state-owned Rostec Corporation, signed a Cooperation Agreement. The document identifies the priority areas of interaction between the parties. The…
Release June 7, 2019, 14:50 A number of cooperation agreements in the area of metrology, standardization and certification were signed today at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019. Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Denis Manturov, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, signed a Roadmap to introduce a Special National Primary Standard for the storage, reproduction and transfer of a flow…
Release June 7, 2019, 14:45 Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Ulf Heitmueller, Chairman of the Executive Board of VNG, today signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 the General Terms of Gas Supply to VNG Handel & Vertrieb (a subsidiary of VNG). According to the document, Gazprom will supply up to 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year to VNG Handel &…
Release June 7, 2019, 14:40 Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Rainer Seele, Chairman of the Executive Board of OMV, today signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 the Contract on the amendments to the Basic Agreement on Asset Sale. The signing ceremony took place in the presence of Alexander Novak, Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation, and Elisabeth Udolf-Strobl, Minister…
Release June 7, 2019, 14:35 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Elisabeth Udolf-Strobl, Minister for Digital and Economic Affairs of Austria, took place today at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019. The meeting participants discussed relevant issues related to cooperation. The parties noted the continued and active growth in the Austrian imports of Russian gas…
Background The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 is being held at the EXPOFORUM Convention and Exhibition Centre from June 6 to 8. This year’s key topic is Creating a Sustainable Development Agenda. Gazprom’s main partner in China is CNPC, a state-owned oil and gas company. On May 21, 2014, Gazprom and CNPC signed the 30-year Sales and Purchase Agreement for Russian gas to be supplied via the eastern…
President Donald Trump has said the United States could improve relations with Russia, days after the end of a U.S. special counsel investigation. U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced his resignation last week — two years after being appointed to probe Russian interference in the 2016 election — saying the investigation was never going to…
St. Petersburg, 7th June 2019 – ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev has issued an invitation to world leaders from politics, business and education to join a debate to urgently implement human-centred solutions that can help solve the widening global skills gap and worsening talent shortage. Around 6% of the world’s GDP has been lost due…
The Kremlin said on Friday that Britain was responsible for damaging its relations with Russia and rebuffed a call made by London for Moscow to change its behavior on the international stage, Russian news agencies reported. British Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokeswoman said on Thursday Britain could only have a better relationship with Russia if…