A powerful Russian icebreaker has crossed the Northern Sea Route for the first time at this time of year as ice coverage shrinks in the rapidly melting Arctic. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker Christophe de Margerie made it through the Chukchi Sea and into the Bering Strait on Saturday, Jan. 16, after 10 days…
Russians celebrate the feast of the Epiphany every year on Jan. 19 by bathing in ice-cold lakes and rivers to celebrate the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. The Orthodox Christian tradition is popular with believers and non-believers too, as a freezing ice bath is believed to be good for you. Here’s a look…
The arrest and detention for thirty days of prominent opposition activist Alexei Navalny is threatening to upend Russian politics in an already fraught year that will include parliamentary elections in September. Since rising to prominence for his anti-Kremlin activism, Navalny — who was poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok in August last year and had…
A Russian police officer is under suspicion of leaking the travel data of security officers allegedly behind opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s poisoning, the RBC news website reported Tuesday. The arrest in the central city of Samara comes less than a month after a media investigation named several alleged Rusian Federal Security Service (FSB) chemical-weapons experts…
From hospitals to courtrooms to demonstrations, Russia’s chief opposition figure Alexei Navalny is often flanked by his wife Yulia Navalnaya, who has been thrown into the limelight since his poisoning in August. On Sunday she flew back with her husband to Russia from Germany, where the couple had spent five months as the Kremlin critic…
Navalny ally Vladimir Ashurkov has published a list of eight Russian business and political elites who he says Alexei Navalny wants Western governments to sanction. Top of the list is Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, who Ashurkov calls “one of the key enablers and beneficiaries of Russian kleptocracy, with significant ties and assets in…
Russia’s most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny called Monday for his supporters to take to the streets after a hastily organized court ordered him jailed for 30 days. The makeshift court — set up in a police station on the outskirts of Moscow where Navalny was being held — agreed to a request from prosecutors…
Russia launched a mass coronavirus vaccination campaign on Monday in a bid to end its outbreak without reimposing a new nationwide lockdown. Residents of the far eastern city of Vladivostok queued to receive the country’s homemade Sputnik V jab early Monday after President Vladimir Putin last week tasked officials with making it available to the country’s…
Russian math graduate student and self-described anarchist Azat Miftakhov was sentenced to six years in prison Monday after almost two years in detention on hooliganism charges his supporters say are politically motivated. Miftakhov, 27, was initially detained in February 2019 on accusations of bomb-making, but was later held for breaking the office window of Russia’s…
Moscow said Monday it was expelling two Dutch diplomats from the country in response to a “provocative” decision by the Netherlands in December to remove two Russian embassy staff over spying allegations. Moscow summoned Dutch charge d’affaires Joost Reintjes, the foreign ministry said in a statement, telling him that two Dutch diplomats had two weeks…
Chief Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny returned to Russia from Germany Sunday and was immediately detained. The 44-year-old opposition leader flew back to Moscow after spending several months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack that he said was carried out on the orders of President Vladimir Putin. Amid heavy police presence, hundreds of his supporters…
The decision to divert the Pobeda Airlines flight with Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny onboard from Vnukovo to Sheremetyevo airport created “a dangerous and reckless situation in the Moscow airspace,” a pilot who was forced to delay their descent on Sunday evening told The Moscow Times. The pilot — who asked to remain anonymous for fear…
Background Gazprom developed and successfully implemented a corporate Quality Management System. The QMS is aimed at further improving the Company’s performance and efficiency. The system covers business processes in such areas as natural gas, condensate and oil production, transportation, storage and processing, as well as in other fields. The ISO 9001:2015 standard is based on such principles as, inter alia, customer focus, motivation and engagement…
89 projects developed by young specialists of Rosneft Oil Company are to be recommended for implementation at the Company’s enterprises.
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is facing a court hearing in the police station where he was taken immediately following his Sunday evening return to Russia. The 44-year-old opposition leader flew back to Moscow after spending several months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack that he said was carried out on the orders of President…
A U.S. NGO has sued Apple in federal court in a bid to remove secure messaging app Telegram from its App Store, claiming the app fails to filter out far-right extremist activity. Telegram’s downloads soared last week after Twitter and Facebook banned U.S. President Donald Trump’s accounts and Google and Apple removed conservative social network…
Russia has confirmed 3,591,066 cases of coronavirus and 66,037 deaths. Jan. 18: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 22,857 new coronavirus cases and 471 deaths. Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan is set to become the first region to introduce immunity passports for residents with Covid-19 antibodies starting February, Bashkortostan Governor Radiy Khabirov announced Monday. Russia’s Sputnik V…
World leaders have called on Russia to release prominent opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who was detained minutes after he landed in Moscow following five months of recovery from nerve agent poisoning in Germany. Below is a selection of international reactions to Navalny’s detention at Sheremetyevo International Airport passport control late Sunday. — U.S. Secretary of…
The Vladimir Monomakh, Russia’s first oil loading Aframax tanker built at the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex, has sailed for its first voyage.
Russian police detained prominent opposition leader Alexey Navalny Sunday on his arrival in Moscow from Germany, where he had been recovering from an attempted poisoning by the nerve agent Novichok. Navalny — who became a thorn in the Kremlin’s side through his campaigns against corruption and rigged elections in Russia — had been added to…
Chief Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny returned to Russia from Germany today and was immediately detained. The 44-year-old opposition leader flew back to Moscow after spending several months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack that he said was carried out on the orders of President Vladimir Putin. Follow the latest developments on the Navalny return…
A charismatic anti-corruption campaigner, Alexei Navalny has been Russia’s leading opposition politician for around a decade, determined to challenge Vladimir Putin’s grip on power despite frequent prison stays and harm to his health. The Yale-educated 44-year-old lawyer — who has said he will return to Russia from Germany on Sunday after treatment there for a…
Arch Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny returns to Russia from Germany on Sunday, facing imminent arrest after authorities warned they would detain him for violating a sentence over alleged fraud. The 44-year-old opposition leader is flying back to Moscow after spending several months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack that he said was carried out…
Germany has transmitted to Russia transcripts of interviews with Alexei Navalny as part of its response to Moscow’s request for assistance in its investigation into the poisoning of the Kremlin critic, Berlin said Saturday. Navalny was evacuated to Berlin in late August for treatment after he fell violently ill on a flight from Siberia to…
Russia has confirmed 3,544,623 cases of coronavirus and 65,058 deaths. Jan. 16: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 24,092 new coronavirus cases and 590 deaths. Russia’s Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona coronavirus vaccines are not available or in short supply in 42 of the country’s regions, a report from the Peterburgskaya Politica think tank suggests. Health care…
When President Vladimir Putin named little-known former tax chief Mikhail Mishustin as his prime minister a year ago, he stunned the country. In replacing Dmitry Medvedev — a political heavyweight and former president, but one tarnished by allegations of serious corruption — Putin had chosen a man few in Russia or abroad had even heard…
A share of nuclear power plants (branches of Rosenergoatom Concern, part of ROSATOM’s Electric Power Division) in the energy mix of Russia was 20.28% in 2020. In 2019, this indicator was 19.04%. In the National Grid of Russia (EES) their share has increased up to 20.58% against 19.3% in 2019 (exclusive of electricity generation by…
Russia told the United Nations this week it plans to withdraw the 300 “military instructors” it sent to the Central African Republic at the end of 2020 for the presidential election, diplomats told AFP Friday. “The Russians have informed the UN that they will withdraw the troops and helicopters” which had been deployed to the…
The Open Skies Treaty, which Russia says it is leaving after the U.S. quit last year, was agreed just after the Cold War to allow signatories to avoid nasty surprises by monitoring rival militaries. Moscow and Washington had long accused each other of breaching its terms, and President Donald Trump formally pulled the U.S. out last November.…
The U.S. is willing to lift sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline if Europe suspends its construction, adviser to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and incoming C.I.A. chief Nicholas Burns told the German newspaper Handelsblatt. “The Europeans must stop the construction of Nord Stream 2, and the Americans must suspend the sanctions. This will…
Russia’s top lawmaker said Thursday he is considering sending election advice to the United States following the storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump who dispute his loss. Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of parliament, was among numerous Russian politicians who called the U.S. electoral system “archaic” and…
Russia’s foreign ministry said Friday it is leaving the Open Skies treaty, a post-Cold War defense accord that allows its signatories to carry out unarmed surveillance flights over each other’s territories. Citing “lack of progress” on maintaining the functioning of the treaty after the United States withdrew from it last year, the ministry said in…
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s defiant pledge to return to Moscow from Germany after surviving a poisoning attack puts the Kremlin in a major bind. President Vladimir Putin, observers say, is caught between a rock and a hard place: allow his most outspoken critic to freely return to Russia and risk looking weak, or hand Navalny a…
Russian tycoon Yevgeny Prigozhin has offered to erect a tombstone for three Russian journalists who were killed in the Central African Republic while investigating a secretive mercenary group linked to him. Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguyev and Orkhan Dzhemal were shot and killed on July 30, 2018, while investigating the activities of the Wagner private military…
The Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex has commenced the construction of the third MR-type product carrier tanker fuelled with gas.
Russia’s Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona vaccinations for the coronavirus are not available or in short supply in 42 of the country’s regions, according to a report from the Peterburgskaya Politica think tank. The main barriers to the start of the mass vaccination in the regions are shortage of supplies, lack of coordination between regional authorities…
The Kuibyshev refinery, an enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company refining complex, has attested the compliance of its Environmental Management System with the ISO 14001:2015 international standard.
Russians are still overwhelmingly unwilling to take the coronavirus vaccine as the national vaccination drive gains steam, the RBC news website reported Friday, citing poll results. The Superjob.ru job board’s survey taken this month showed 60% of Russian respondents opposing the vaccine compared with 40% favoring it, according to RBC. Opponents cited mistrust of the…
Russia and the United States have until Feb. 5 to prolong a key agreement to curb their nuclear arsenals, the last remaining arms reduction pact between the former Cold War rivals. Here are key details of the New START treaty, which expires a little over two weeks into U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s first term. A legacy…
Public figures and ordinary Russians have appealed to President Vladimir Putin to expedite housing promised to 1,500 elderly people whose parents were deported to the gulags under Stalin’s repressions. “They still can’t come back,” 107 prominent artists, academics and executives said in an open letter published in the Kommersant newspaper. Nearly 83,000 people signed a…
Life in the Russian capital could return to normal by May, as long as people get vaccinated, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Thursday. Sobyanin said “about 140,000 people” had been vaccinated in Moscow so far, in the first update since the end of last year on the vaccination drive in the capital. But the figures…
Russia’s largest online retailer — Wildberries — has launched in Germany in the latest stage of its international expansion, the company said Thursday. Germany is Wildberries’ tenth country of operations and its first in western Europe. The firm will offer more than four million products to German shoppers and said it has a network of…
Russia on Thursday compared the decision of social media giants to suspend U.S. President Donald Trump’s accounts to a “nuclear blast in cyber space” with the consequences hard to predict. “The decision of U.S. internet platforms to block the head of state can be compared to a nuclear blast in cyber space,” Russian Foreign Ministry…
Russia’s prison service said on Thursday it was “obliged” to detain Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny who has said he plans to return to Moscow from Germany on Sunday. Navalny has been in Germany since late August after he collapsed on a flight from Siberia to Moscow and was flown to Berlin by medical aircraft. Western…
A “Balkan cyclone” arrived in Moscow early Thursday, bringing the first heavy snowfall of the season and nearly paralyzing the city’s traffic. The flurries are expected to be replaced by temperatures as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius, bringing a quintessential Russian winter to the capital after the warm winters of recent years. Here is…
Russia is building a coastal base for its unmanned underwater “doomsday nuke” to extend its lifespan, the Izvestia newspaper reported Thursday, citing specifications it said it had obtained. The Defense Ministry had indicated in 2020 that testing of the torpedo-shaped Poseidon drone was nearing completion but its launch was postponed to 2021. Russia was due…
Russians vaccinated against the coronavirus in the Sakhalin region of the Far East will be exempted from wearing face masks, its governor announced Thursday in contradiction to expert recommendations. Health officials urge vaccine recipients to continue wearing masks, maintaining social distance and steering clear of crowds until the shot builds up their immunity. “Everyone who gets…
A complaint brought by Ukraine against Russia alleging human rights violations in the Crimean peninsula in 2014 is “partly admissible,” the European Court of Human Rights said on Thursday. Ukraine alleges a pattern of violations of the European Convention on Human Rights by Russia in Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in a move never…
The official Twitter account for Russia’s coronavirus vaccine announced on Jan.11 that “over 1.5 million people have already been vaccinated with Sputnik V as part of the mass scale vaccination in Russia.” As the country seeks to vaccinate more people and claim one of the top spots in the global vaccine race, the tally, which…
Amnesty International said Thursday Azerbaijan and Armenia must immediately probe the use of “inaccurate and indiscriminate weapons” in heavily populated civilian areas during the recent fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory. Azerbaijan and Armenia in November signed a Moscow-brokered peace deal ending six weeks of brutal war over the breakaway Karabakh region after Baku’s forces…
Russia has confirmed 3,495,816 cases of coronavirus and 63,940 deaths. Jan. 14: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 24,763 new coronavirus cases and 570 deaths. Moscow has extended restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus until Jan. 21, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday. All Moscow schoolchildren will be able to return to in-person classes next Monday. …
Russia placed Alexei Navalny on its federal wanted list late last year, according to an official decree published on the Mash Telegram channel and confirmed by one of Navalny’s lawyers Wednesday. The news comes as the opposition leader prepares to return to Russia, despite numerous legal threats, after recovering in Germany from what Western scientists…
All Moscow schoolchildren will return to in-person classes next Monday after coronavirus cases stabilized over the New Year holidays, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday. He said all other restrictions that were due to expire Friday — including self-isolation for those 65 and older and remote work for 30% of employees — have been extended for…
President Vladimir Putin has on Wednesday ordered the mass vaccination of Russians against coronavirus amid reports of a slower-than-expected initial rollout. Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova, who is in charge of Russia’s Covid-19 response efforts, said the mass vaccination will begin on Monday. “We need to move from large-scale to mass vaccination,” Putin said at…
On January 12, at 19-57, the first power unit of Belarus NPP of the newest III+ generation with VVER-1200 reactor (general designer and general contractor – ROSATOM’s Engineering Division) was for the first time brought to rated power level. “Commencement of power ascension to 100% is the main event at the stage of trial operation…
Russian prosecutors have opened a probe into a state-run circus that featured a monkey in a Nazi uniform and two goats displaying swastikas during a Christmas performance. The prosecutor’s office for the Udmurtia region said in a statement it was checking after images emerged on social media of “animals dressed in blankets with Nazi symbols”…
Independent journalism isn’t dead. You can help keep it alive. The Moscow Times’ team of journalists has been first with the big stories on the coronavirus crisis in Russia since day one. Our exclusives and on-the-ground reporting are being read and shared by many high-profile journalists. We wouldn’t be able to produce this crucial journalism…
The Russian ruble is the world’s most undervalued currency, according to the Big Mac Index, compiled by British newspaper The Economist. Based on market exchange rates, the Russian currency should be worth three times more against the U.S. dollar — 24 rubles per $1, rather than the 73.8 the currency was trading at Wednesday. The…
A libertarian U.S. think tank is investigating a former aide-turned-critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin for a blog post containing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and last week’s assault on the U.S. Capitol, Politico reported Tuesday. Cato Institute fellow Andrei Illarionov claimed in a Russian-language LiveJournal entry Friday that rioters who stormed the legislative…
Specialists of SevKomNeftegaz, a joint venture between Rosneft Oil Company and Equinor ASA, have produced their first million tonnes of oil in the course of the full-scale development of the North-Komsomolskoye field.