The Russian Orthodox Church has defrocked one of the country’s most prominent priests after he was found to have slandered a fellow priest who died from Covid-19. Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev, a well-known radio and television personality whose views on homosexuality, blasphemy and Russia’s Orthodox hierarchy have made him one of the country’s best-known priests, had…
Moscow on Wednesday expanded a list of UK officials banned from entering Russia in a tit-for-tat response to British sanctions imposed over the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that in response to “unconstructive and unfriendly” UK penalties it had “decided to expand the number of British citizens who…
President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill allowing any politically active, foreign-funded individual or organization to be labeled a “foreign agent.” The new law significantly widens the scope of who can be recognized as a foreign agent in Russia and has been criticized as an effort to stamp out critical voices. The foreign…
Since this year most museums, fairs, and theaters are closed and few families can travel, it’s the perfect chance to go back in time and celebrate the holidays the way Russian families did before electricity, and then before radio, television, the internet and modern gadgets. When you and your family get bored with online movies…
Russian investigators Tuesday opened a criminal probe into Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, alleging he used more than 356 million rubles ($4.8 million) of donations to his organizations for personal purposes including holidays abroad. The Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement that the money was part of more than 588 million rubles…
Argentina on Tuesday launched a Covid-19 vaccination campaign with the controversial Sputnik V shots developed by Russia, the government said. It is the first country in the Americas to use this vaccine against the pandemic. The vaccination drive began simultaneously around the country with frontline healthcare workers given priority, Health Minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia said.…
Russia has labeled prominent women’s rights organization Nasiliyu.net (“No to Violence”) as a “foreign agent,” the Justice Ministry announced Tuesday. The Justice Ministry’s addition of the NGO, which provides legal and psychological help to domestic violence victims, to the “foreign agent” registry comes amid fears of a renewed crackdown on critical voices ahead of Russia’s 2021…
Moscow on Tuesday expanded a list of German officials who are banned from entering Russia in response to EU sanctions that the bloc imposed over Russian cyber attacks on the German parliament. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that in response to “destructive” EU sanctions in October, “Moscow made a decision to expand the reciprocal list of German…
Russia and the United States have cut off an international cocaine smuggling chain and seized over 330 kilograms of the drug, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Tuesday, marking a rare joint law enforcement effort between the two countries. A multi-stage investigation by the FSB and the U.S. Justice Department disrupted “a transnational criminal community…
A Russian court on Tuesday handed a 15-year prison sentence to a former manager of an energy company for spying for Moldova, the latest in a string of high-profile espionage trials. Karina Tsurkan, a former board member of the Inter RAO energy group, was detained in 2018 on suspicion of handing classified information to Moldovan…
Russia experienced a multitude of environmental disasters in 2020 — both sudden, manmade catastrophes as well as those stemming from the mounting long-term effects of climate change. From forest fires larger than some European countries to historic oil spills, these disasters have brought renewed attention and concern toward the ecosystems of the world’s largest country. …
A medical clinic in Moscow plans to be the first to bring two leading western-developed coronavirus vaccines to Russia, the clinic’s head told Forbes Russia on Tuesday. The Hadassah Clinic is working to bring the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to Russia as soon as it becomes possible, its head Evgeny Tugolukov said. The clinic belongs…
Belarus on Tuesday began a vaccination drive against coronavirus using the Sputnik V jab, becoming the first country outside Russia to use the vaccine developed by Moscow. Belarus, with a population of around 9.5 million people, has registered more than 188,000 cases of coronavirus infections and nearly 1,400 deaths. “Today the first vaccine shipment has arrived in…
Russian law enforcement officers have detained an excommunicated priest at the women’s monastery he seized near the city of Yekaterinburg on suspicion of encouraging minors to “die for Russia,” the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday. Father Sergei Romanov has been charged with persuading minors to commit suicide, criminal charges that carry a maximum prison sentence…
The year 2020 began as usual for the music world in Russia, but came to screeching halt in March. Music lovers had to be content with live-streamed performances, musicians languished and the fate of large orchestras and their future contracts with soloists became uncertain. The Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, led by Valery Gergiev, was…
Hungary said it received 6,000 doses of Russia’s controversial coronavirus vaccine on Monday, in a new display of Budapest’s maverick vaccine policy. “6,000 doses of Russian vaccine crossed Hungary’s border with Slovakia,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a Facebook video message. The consignment was taken to Budapest for a decision by Hungarian experts on…
Russia has labeled a prominent human rights activist, three journalists and an artist-activist as “foreign agents” on Monday, the first time that individuals, not organizations, have been given the designation amid worries of a renewed clampdown on dissent. Veteran human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov; Radio Svoboda and MBKh Media journalist Lyudmila Savitskaya; Pskovskaya Guberniya newspaper…
Russia has confirmed 3,078,035 cases of coronavirus and 55,265 deaths. Dec. 29: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 27,787 new coronavirus cases and 487 deaths Monday. Russia has extended its suspension of flights with Britain through Jan. 12, 2021. More than half of Russians say they are not ready to receive the coronavirus vaccine, according to…
Russia recorded more than 2,500 excess deaths a day during November in what was by far the deadliest month since the start of the pandemic, official figures released Monday have shown. Deaths from all causes — regarded as the most accurate indicator in assessing the impact of the coronavirus — came in 78,541 higher than…
Russia on Monday said that it had expelled a Bulgarian diplomat in a tit-for-tat response after the EU and NATO member state declared a Russian military attache persona non-grata earlier this month. The Foreign Ministry said in response to the “unjustified” removal of its diplomat from Bulgaria, it had declared the assistant to Bulgaria’s military…
Rosneft Oil Company has published atlases “Barents Sea” and “Species: Biological Indicators for the State of Arctic Marine Ecosystems” as part of its Environmental Atlases of the Russian Seas series, jointly with the Innopraktika non-governmental development institute.
At least three people have been killed following a knife attack in the Chechen capital of Grozny on Monday. Two armed militants attacked law enforcement officers on Putin Avenue in central Grozny, TASS and Interfax cited anonymous sources as saying Monday afternoon, with conflicting reports of the number of people killed. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov…
Seventeen fishermen were missing and feared dead on Monday after a Russian trawler capsized during a storm and sank in the freezing waters of the Barents Sea. Officials said that two people had been rescued by a passing vessel, but hopes were quickly fading that more survivors could be found during a snowstorm over the…
For much of the world, 2020 was a historic, unprecedented year. This is especially true for Russia, which saw unprecedented environmental, social and political changes in addition to the pandemic. The Moscow Times is taking a look back at the images that defined 2020 in Russia — from snapshots of everyday life to historic moments…
ROSATOM Engineering Division handed over to the Customer – Jangsu Nuclear Power Corporation Company – Tianwan NPP facilities of Unit 4 Nuclear Island after two-year warranty operation. The corresponding Minutes of the Meeting on the final acceptance of the Unit was signed on December 25. “Tianwan NPS Units 3-4 is an outstanding successful project,…
Face masks, sofas and televisions were the most in-demand consumer goods in Russia this year, according to online sales data. Demand for masks was seven times higher than in 2019, data from online classified ads site Avito cited by the Vedomosti business daily showed. Russians preferred single-use masks to reusable ones, Avito found, with disposable…
Russia has sent additional military police units to the Raqqa province of northern Syria amid a flare-up in fighting between rebel groups there, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday, citing a top Russian official in Syria. Russia, a close ally of the Syrian government in Damascus, maintains a military presence in northeastern Syria, one of…
Azerbaijan said Monday that one of its soldiers was killed during a skirmish with Armenian separatists, in an apparent escalation of hostilities undermining a recent Russian-brokered ceasefire. The defense ministry said in a statement that an illegal group of Armenian fighters in territory adjacent to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region carried out the ambush on Sunday.…
Seventeen people were missing Monday and two were rescued after a Russian fishing boat sank in the Barents Sea, apparently due to icing, the emergencies ministry said. “The crew consisted of 19 people. Two people were rescued,” the emergencies ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies. The privately owned boat, called Onega,…
Russia has confirmed 3,021,964 cases of coronavirus and 54,226 deaths. Dec. 27: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 29,258 new coronavirus cases and 567 deaths. Moscow residents working in law enforcement, urban planning, sports and the catering industry will be eligible to receive Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine starting Dec. 28, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday. Social…
Russia on Saturday passed 3 million confirmed coronavirus infections, as authorities hold out against reimposing a national lockdown while the country is battered by a second wave. Official figures showed that a total of 3,021,964 cases have been detected, with 54,226 deaths. In the past 24 hours, 29,258 new infections and 567 deaths were registered…
George Blake, a famous “mole” in British intelligence who spied for the Soviet KGB during the 1950s before fleeing across the Iron Curtain, has died aged 98, Russian news agencies reported Saturday. “The legendary intelligence officer George Blake has passed away today,” the spokesman for Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service Sergei Ivanov told the TASS…
I’ve just finished celebrating what the Russians call “Catholic Christmas” with the usual cornucopia of rich foods: triple cream cheese, fresh oysters, beef, potatoes swimming in cream, chocolate sauce, ham, and more Christmas cookies than I care to count. With Russian New Year and all its high cholesterol mayonnaise-based salads looming on the horizon, it…
When the pandemic hit Russia in the spring and the city went under an almost complete lockdown, communication and creativity did not stop. Cultural institutions launched in record time a huge variety of online activities that were different but not always worse than in-house events. And they had one great advantage: they had a rapt…
Russia will impose a 14-day quarantine requirement on individuals arriving from the U.K. starting Dec. 26 due to the spread of a more-contagious coronavirus strain in southeastern England, state consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has ordered. All arriving passengers with the exception of aircraft crew members must self-isolate at home for 14 days after entering Russia,…
A decorated Russian historian has received a lengthy prison sentence for murdering and dismembering his young lover, St. Petersburg-based media reported Friday. Oleg Sokolov, 64, who taught at St. Petersburg State University, was pulled out of the Moika River with severed arms in his bag last November. He confessed to shooting his former student and…
A former Moscow region official has been sentenced to 15 years in a maximum-security prison on corruption charges Friday, more than a year after a dramatic court hearing during which he attempted to take his own life. Alexander Shestun, the former head of the Serpukhov district of the Moscow region, was found guilty of taking…
Russian authorities on Friday launched a criminal probe into an ally of Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny and raided her flat for allegedly threatening a man Navalny said took part in his poisoning. Investigators accused Lyubov Sobol of trespassing “with the use of violence or a threat to use it” after she rang the doorbell of…
Western European scientists are ringing the alarm as the Caspian Sea shrinks due to climate change, saying the falling water levels presage a fast-approaching ecocide and the loss of unique local species. The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest inland body of water and borders southern Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. By the end…
Russia’s growing role in the volatile Central African Republic was in the spotlight this week, after Moscow dispatched military instructors following a rebel threat to disrupt Sunday’s elections. Moscow has led a diplomatic and financial offensive in the deeply troubled nation since 2018 in return for concessions given to its companies to exploit the country’s…
Russia has listed four NGOs, two civil society groups and one media outlet as “foreign agents” and “undesirable organizations” amid a renewed crackdown on critical voices this week. The Justice Ministry labeled three AIDS service organizations and one educational affiliate of exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Open Russia pro-democracy group as “foreign agents” Monday. St. Petersburg’s…
The Committee for Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) December 23 announced results of calculations of sustainable development indexes (ESG indexes) “Responsibility and Openness” and “Sustainable Development Vector” of 2020. ROSATOM became a leader in both groups (43 companies won highest results in the index “Responsibility…
A vodka box stuffed with more than $1 million of Iranian cash was stolen from the Russian Foreign Ministry building last year, the government confirmed Thursday following media reports. Russia had received the $1.5 million stashed in an Absolut vodka box and two bags via diplomatic pouch in November 2019 as a payment for consular…
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said police early Friday raided the apartment of an ally and detained her after he tricked a security service agent into admitting he was poisoned. Navalny, 44, on Monday said he had impersonated an official in the Kremlin’s Security Council and got an admission of guilt from a toxins expert…
December 25, 2020 PAO Severstal, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and mining companies, has completed the construction of environmental facilities for blast furnace No. 3. The modernization of blast furnace No. 3 will mitigate the environmental impact of pig iron production throughout the production chain through use of the best available technologies.…
December 25, 2020 PAO Severstal, one of the world’s largest vertically integrated steel and mining companies, has put blast furnace No. 3 (BF-3) at the Cherepovets Steel Mill (part of Severstal’s Russian steel division) onto hot test mode. The new furnace has been named “Cherepovchanka,” its name having been chosen by local residents. BF-3 has…
December 24, 2020, 19:43 A working meeting of Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, with Vladimir Semashko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Russian Federation, and Viktor Karankevich, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Belarus, took place today in St. Petersburg. Alexey Miller and Viktor Karankevich signed the Protocol between Gazprom and the Government of the Republic of Belarus…
Russian authorities said the fuel spill at an Arctic power station earlier in 2020 was the largest in world history, a top emergencies official said Thursday. Some 21,000 tons of oil poured into the surrounding ground and waterways near the city of Norilsk after a diesel oil tank belonging to a subsidiary of Russian metals…
Four former Russian policemen on trial for planting drugs on a prominent investigative journalist denied the charges against them on Thursday. The arrest of reporter Ivan Golunov in June 2019 on trumped-up drug charges spurred a massive campaign calling for his release led by activists and Kremlin critics. His supporters and employer — the independent…
As the New Year quickly approaches, Russians around the country are getting ready for their most festive holiday of the year. Nowhere is this more evident than in Moscow, where the city is already gleaming with endless lights and decorations. Here’s a closer look at how Russia’s capital transforms for the holidays:
Around half of Russians believe that Western secret agents orchestrated leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s poisoning or that he wasn’t poisoned at all, according to an independent survey published Thursday. Navalny fell into a coma on Aug. 20 on a flight from Siberia to Moscow. He was flown for treatment to Germany two days later, where European…
Russia has confirmed 2,963,688 cases of coronavirus and 53,096 deaths. Dec. 25: What you need to know today Russia confirmed new record-breaking numbers of 29,935 coronavirus cases and 635 deaths Thursday. Moscow residents working in law enforcement, urban planning, sports and the catering industry will be eligible to receive Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine starting Dec. 28, Mayor Sergei…
A Russian couple has been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for blowing a secret agent’s cover in their wedding photos, the state-run TASS news agency reported Thursday. Baltic affairs expert Antonina Zimina and her husband Konstantin Antonets were charged with treason after Zimina’s old classmate, a Federal Security Service (FSB) counterintelligence officer, appeared in their…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has returned an 18th-century Orthodox Christian icon to Bosnia and Herzegovina embassy after reports said the religious artifact originated from rebel-held eastern Ukraine. Lavrov received the 300-year-old icon as a gift from Milorad Dodik, the Serb chair of Bosnia’s three-man presidency, during his visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina on Dec.…
It’s a holiday! Finally! In the absence of friends and relatives, what better way to finally relax than to get cozy in front of the TV for some serious binge-watching? Here are seven fictional series or feature films about Russia and their neighbors that got the thumbs up from a highly opinionated, extremely demanding, multi-generational,…
Moscow set a new single-day record of more than 8,000 coronavirus cases as national deaths and infections shattered previous records Thursday. The latest record comes as Moscow prepares to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s without its traditional mass festivities due to the pandemic. Of the 8,203 newly infected residents in the Russian capital, official data…
The pandemic of 2020 may go down in history as one of the most devastating events for world ballet. In March, Russian theaters closed for what everyone thought would be a short quarantine, and most returned to work in the rehearsal studios only during the summer months (the Bolshoi in July and the Mariinsky in…
A cat that was rescued from a central Russian waste processing plant has been named an assistant to the regional environment minister, the administration said Wednesday. Widely circulated surveillance footage this week showed a plant worker retrieving the cat from a tied plastic bag on a conveyor belt. Veterinarians said the healthy and well-fed cat…
Russia has confirmed 2,933,753 cases of coronavirus and 52,461 deaths. Dec. 24: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 27,250 new coronavirus cases and 549 deaths Wednesday. Argentina gave “emergency” authorization to Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, becoming the first Latin American country to do so. The first 300,000 doses of the vaccine are set to reach…
Argentina’s health ministry said Wednesday it has given the controversial Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine “emergency” authorization, making the country the first in Latin America to do so. The first shipment of the 25 million doses of the vaccine bought by the Argentine government is due to arrive on Thursday. The authorization for the Gam-CovidVac…