President Vladimir Putin misspoke Thursday by asserting that treason charges against former journalist Ivan Safronov relate to his short-lived career at Russia’s state space agency Roscosmos this year. Putin, speaking to the presidential human rights council, claimed that Safronov is being prosecuted for passing secrets to the European special services while at Roscosmos and not…
December 10, 2020, 16:50 The Gazprom Management Committee approved the Company’s tax policy framework for the year 2021 and the 2022–2023 planning period. One of the key objectives of the tax policy is to continue the gradual transition to tax monitoring at the companies of the Gazprom Group. It was noted that the online interactions with the Federal Taxation Service have proven highly effective. As of today, seven subsidiaries…
December 10, 2020, 16:45 The winners of the occupational health and safety management contest for the subsidiaries of Gazprom in 2017–2019 were awarded at the meeting of the Company’s Management Committee. Among the gas production, processing and storage subsidiaries, Gazprom Dobycha Astrakhan emerged as the winner, Gazprom UGS took second place, and Gazprom Dobycha Urengoy won third place. Among the gas transportation…
December 10, 2020, 16:40 The award ceremony for the 2020 edition of Gazprom’s Science and Technology Prize took place at the meeting of the Company’s Management Committee. The paper entitled “Creating and implementing innovative analytics software tools for the assessment, shaping and effective management of geological exploration projects and portfolios at the licensed areas of the Gazprom Group” by NIIgazeconomika won the top prize at the…
Russian lawmakers have approved new restrictions on protests, prompting criticism from the opposition that they violate Russians’ constitutional rights. Deputies in Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved a pair of bills Wednesday that ban foreign funding for protest organizers as well as rallies outside law enforcement and security buildings. If they come…
A group of scientists from leading Russian universities has blasted the development process of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine as “completely unacceptable” and “ridiculous” in an open letter raising new concerns over a lack of sufficient data on its safety and effectiveness. The experts said Russia’s state-run Gamaleya Research Institute, which is developing the jab,…
President Vladimir Putin’s support among young voters has roughly halved in the past year, according to independent survey results released Thursday. If 36% of voters aged 18-24 said they would cast their ballots for Putin in 2019, only 20% expressed the same intention in November 2020, the Levada Center polling agency said. While sociologists have…
December 10, 2020, 14:45 The Eighth Season of the Gazprom International Children’s Social Programme Football for Friendship has finished. This season, the first-ever Football for Friendship eWorld Championship united young athletes from 104 countries. Over 1 million people participated in the events of the Eighth Season. “Uniting friends – uniting the world” is the slogan of the Gazprom International Children’s Social Programme Football for…
“75 Days, 80 Stories, Jan. 15.”That is the number of days Muscovites were in quarantine in the spring, the number of personal stories the Museum of Moscow and Triumf Gallery have collected, and the date that the on-site part of this exhibition will open (hopefully). The on-site show has four sections of works by artists…
A steady stream of videos depicting shocking atrocities by Azerbaijani soldiers against Armenian civilians and prisoners of war has emerged on social media. The videos, shot by soldiers and distributed on various Telegram news channels, depict a wide variety of torture, humiliations and mutilations of corpses. There have been several executions of captives shown, and…
The Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex and the Research Fleet Department of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have signed a contract on construction of two cross-functional research vessels with limitless navigation.
The son of a Russian oligarch lost $50 million in day trading while studying at university in the U.K., it emerged this week. Temur Akhmedov said the staggering losses were bankrolled by his father, Russian-Azeri billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov. After some initial success trading on the stock market, Temur hit a losing streak and started pouring…
The Russian Navy will participate in joint exercises alongside NATO members for the first time in 10 years, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing the Black Sea Fleet. The Aman-2021 multinational exercises will take place in February off the coast of Karachi, Pakistan. In addition to Russia, the exercises will also feature ships…
In one of the most famous tales from St. Petersburg — Nikolai Gogol’s “The Nose” — Major Kovalyov wakes up one day to find his nose has disappeared from his face. He learns that the anthropomorphic nose has developed a life of its own, eventually even surpassing him in rank. Now, another St. Petersburg man…
Authorities in southern Russia say they will deploy uniformed Cossacks alongside police officers on New Year’s Eve to enforce a ban on mass celebrations due to the coronavirus pandemic. Krasnodar region Governor Venyamin Kondratyev called off Christmas and New Year celebrations to slow the spread of Covid-19 as the popular domestic tourism destination saw record-breaking…
Belarus will suspend departures from its ground borders due to the coronavirus situation, a government decree published Thursday says. Starting Dec. 20, Belarus will prohibit its citizens as well as foreigners with permanent or temporary residency to cross the border via automobile checkpoints, simplified checkpoints, checkpoints at railway stations or in river ports. Departures may…
Russian Communist Party members distributed anti-vaccination leaflets in Moscow falsely claiming there is no coronavirus pandemic, the Podyom Telegram news channel reported Wednesday. The leaflets, reportedly handed out to protesters outside the Moscow Mayor’s Office, called Covid-19 vaccination the “rebirth of fascism” and equated the jab to weapons of mass destruction. According to Podyom, they…
The trial of two Russian men, accused of launching a savage attack on an English football supporter during Euro 2016 that left him in a wheelchair, continued Wednesday with the defense presenting video evidence. Pavel Kossov and Mikhail Ivkine, both 34, are accused of beating 55-year-old Andrew Bache, who suffered brain injuries in the violence…
The Kremlin on Wednesday sounded the alarm over the theft of sensitive equipment from a secretive “doomsday plane” designed for the country’s top command in event of a nuclear attack. The Interior Ministry said police in the southern city of Taganrog had been alerted that 1 million rubles ($13,600) worth of equipment was stolen from an…
Russia has denied a Turkish newspaper report that Turkey won’t purchase Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. Russia’s state-run TASS news agency on Wednesday cited Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca telling the Habertürk newspaper that the vaccine had failed to obtain a license in Turkey. TASS later quoted a source in the Russian Direct Investment Fund as…
News from projects and regions December 9, 2020, 19:10 Gazprom Transgaz Surgut is taking additional measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus infection. The measures involve the key personnel of the gas transmission company’s units and services who are essential to the continuity and reliability of the production process. The restrictions on access to the company’s facilities and the workplaces of the…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday called on Iran to show “maximum responsibility” in preserving a 2015 major nuclear deal with global powers. Earlier this week Iran announced that it intends to install advanced centrifuges in its main nuclear enrichment plant in Natanz, raising concerns from the governments of France, Germany and the UK. The European…
The Russian space agency said on Wednesday it planned to offer the Sputnik coronavirus vaccine to cosmonauts but insisted that the vaccination would be done on a voluntary basis. Last week Russia launched its mass vaccination program using Sputnik V, which has been named after a Soviet-era satellite. Developers say it is 95 percent effective based on…
The Russian-language version of Google posted its end-of-year video summarizing its top searches and main events in 2020. Spoiler alert: it’s as depressing as you think. The search engine’s annual tradition took a dark turn this year with the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Arctic fuel spill in Norilsk, mass death of sea…
Russia has signed an agreement with Sudan to build a naval base on the country’s Red Sea coast, in Moscow’s latest push into Africa as it seeks to renew its geopolitical clout. The deal, published on the Russian government’s website Tuesday, will see Moscow establish a “logistical support center” in Port Sudan where “repairs and resupply…
Police in France have taken into custody five Chechens suspected of having been in contact with the Chechen refugee who beheaded a history teacher this fall, the French press reported Tuesday. At least 14 people are being prosecuted in connection with Samuel Paty’s killing, with five of them indicted for pointing out him out to 18-year-old…
Lawmakers in Russia’s lower house of parliament have voted to approve legislation that would give former presidents lifetime immunity from prosecution. The proposal is a part of a larger set of constitutional reforms announced by President Vladimir Putin which Russians approved in a nationwide vote this summer. Those reforms also include a provision that would…
Russia has announced a ban on imports of tomatoes from Azerbaijan beginning Thursday, in a damaging move for a key export that analysts tied to fallout from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Agriculture watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor on Tuesday announced the embargo beginning December 10 to protect against harmful substances detected in several recent shipments. It said the ban…
A Russian national’s arrest on suspicion of espionage in Denmark is a mistake, Russia’s Embassy in Copenhagen told Interfax on Wednesday. The unnamed Russian citizen is suspected of providing information about Danish energy technology to Russia’s intelligence service, Reuters quoted Danish public prosecutors earlier in the day. “The Russian Embassy in Denmark considers the arrest…
Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, the last Defense Minister of the Soviet Union and a Marshal of Aviation, has died at age 78, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Tuesday. The state-run TASS news agency reported, citing unnamed medical sources, that Shaposhnikov had died as a result of Covid-19. According to the Mash Telegram channel, Shaposhnikov was…
A dozen dead endangered seals have been found washed up on the shores of the Caspian Sea in southern Russia. Footage shared from the republic of Dagestan last week showed Caspian seal carcasses lying motionless on the beach. Rescuer Ziyavdin Nikamogamedov said he had encountered at least 17 dead mammals in the dirty waters following…
Russia’s Yandex has started using its self-driving robot to deliver fast food orders, the company announced Wednesday. The small six-wheeled autonomous robot — dubbed Yandex Rover — has started delivering orders from Yandex’s food delivery service, Yandex Eats, to customers in one of Moscow’s central business districts. Just like a human courier, after an order…
TVEL Fuel Company of ROSATOM and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) have signed a supplement agreement to the fuel supply contract, aimed at the implementation of a comprehensive engineering project, including introduction of the new TVS-2M nuclear fuel and elongation of the fuel cycle from 12 to 18 months for both operating VVER-1000…
The State Reserves Commission has acknowledged Rosneft Oil Company’s discovery of an Arctic gas field in the Kara Sea and has recommended the Russian Federal Geological Foundation (RosGeolFond) to put the field on the state register as per Rosneft’s estimates of 800 billion cubic metres of gas deposits.
VetroSGC JSC (part of NovaWind, the ROSATOM division for wind power) and SiburEnergoManagement signed an agreement to supply power to BIAXPLEN Ltd. (part of PJSC SIBUR Holding) for BOPP film production facility in Novokuybyshevsk (Samara Region). Electricity will be supplied from the Adygeya Wind Farm. The task for the supplier and the consumer at this…
Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine only requires patients to avoid drinking alcohol for six days, not 42 as previously recommended, its developer said Wednesday. Health officials overseeing Russia’s Covid-19 response urged Sputnik V recipients earlier to abstain from alcohol for nearly two months while taking the two-shot vaccine. Alexander Gintsburg, who heads the state-run Gamaleya…
The Kremlin has spoken out against attempts to justify the beheading of a French teacher by a Chechen refugee following a Chechen state television segment that cast the killer in a sympathetic light. Abdulakh Anzorov, 18, was shot dead by French police on Oct. 16 after decapitating history teacher Samuel Paty, who had displayed Prophet…
Record-setting wildfires in far northeastern Russia in 2020 are linked to extreme weather changes in the warming Arctic, a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Tuesday. Uncontrolled forest fires within the Arctic Circle have set records this year for both their cumulative number and the amount of CO2 emissions. The extent of…
Russian lawmakers on Tuesday passed in its first reading controversial draft legislation including an expansion of who can be labeled a “foreign agent” amid an unrelenting clampdown on dissent. Lawmakers in Russia’s lower-house State Duma last month tabled legislation that would give authorities sweeping powers to designate individuals as foreign agents and further limit public gatherings…
Russia’s second city St. Petersburg registered a record number of virus deaths on Tuesday as authorities warned of an imminent lockdown and shuttered restaurants for the New Year’s holidays. St. Petersburg — one of Russia’s most popular tourist destinations — is struggling with a major health crisis, with hospitals overwhelmed with coronavirus patients but residents flouting…
Recipients of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine should abstain from alcohol for nearly two months before and after immunization, the head of Russia’s consumer safety watchdog said Tuesday. Rospotrebnadzor head Anna Popova’s instructions follow Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova’s recommendations to avoid alcohol and immunosuppressants for 42 days because the two-shot vaccine is administered with…
Held amid the Arkhangelsk region’s harsh Nordic landscapes, the annual Arctic Open is one of Russia’s least glamorous film festivals. It is also one of the few cinema events in the world dedicated to the unique culture of the Arctic peoples and intended to foster closer cooperation within the region’s artistic community. The open air…
Russia has confirmed 2,515,009 cases of coronavirus and 44,159 deaths. Dec. 9: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 26,097 coronavirus cases and 562 deaths Tuesday. More than 50% of Russia’s medics have no plans to vaccinate against the coronavirus, according to the result of the Russian Federation Medics Network poll published by VTimes Monday. Over 21% percent…
Russia has launched a mass vaccination campaign against the coronavirus with its own vaccine, putting doctors, social workers and teachers in the top priority group. The Sputnik V vaccine’s developers have said the jab is 95% effective based on interim data from its Phase 3 clinical trials, which are still underway as the large-scale vaccination…
President Vladimir Putin has signed bills into law elevating a low-profile advisory body known as the State Council, criminalizing secession and prioritizing the Russian Constitution over international law. Putin approved the set of laws on Tuesday, 160 days after Russian voters overwhelmingly approved constitutional reforms that pave the way for him to extend his 20-year…
As climate experts sound the alarm over record temperatures in Russia’s Arctic, the Christmas season is unlikely to be much different than the preceding months. According to Russian meteorological service Roshydromet, the extraordinary Arctic heat of November was followed by temperature records in a number of places across the Russian north on the first day of…
The United States has added Russia to its special watchlist of countries that have engaged in or tolerated “severe violations” of religious freedom, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Monday. Russia appears on the U.S. watchlist alongside Comoros, Cuba and Nicaragua. It’s not the first time the U.S. has raised concerns over…
Rosneft Oil Company has commenced the industrial use of an in-house hydrotreatment catalyst.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the poisoning of Russia’s main opposition figure Alexei Navalny in a phone conversation Monday, a German cabinet representative told the state-run TASS news agency. Navalny has recovered in Berlin after being poisoned with what Western governments say was the deadly Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in…
Moscow clinics are distributing coronavirus vaccines to anyone who registers without giving priority to high-risk groups in contradiction to officials’ orders, the Meduza news website reported Tuesday. Moscow kick-started Russia’s nationwide vaccination drive over the weekend, with Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reporting that 2,000 volunteers have so far received the first of two Sputnik V jabs…
A French court on Monday sentenced a Russian to five years in prison for money laundering, but cleared him of an original charge of defrauding nearly 200 people using ransomware. Prosecutors had said that Alexander Vinnik sent emails to his targets masquerading as invoices, whose attached document, when opened, activated malware that shut down the…
Russia is looking to expand its military power in Kaliningrad by adding a new division that includes motorized rifle, artillery and tank regiments amid NATO buildup along the border with Russia’s Baltic exclave, a naval admiral said Monday. Admiral Alexander Nosatov, the commander of Russia’s Baltic Fleet, accused the Western military bloc of deploying an…
A Turkish court on Monday ordered the release of two Russian journalists detained in Istanbul after they were accused of filming near a facility manufacturing drones without authorization, an official said. Journalist Alexei Petrushko and cameraman Ivan Malyshkin from Kremlin-friendly NTV channel were arrested by police in Istanbul on Thursday morning. A Turkish foreign ministry…
Estonia has installed a barbed-wire fence along an 8-kilometer section of its border with Russia in the first installment of its three-year border infrastructure project, media in the Baltic country reported Monday. Estonia began construction of border infrastructure stretching 23.5 kilometers from the Estonian-Latvian-Russian meeting point to the Luhamaa border crossing further north in July. In…
Specialists of the Novokuibyshevsk refinery, an enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company’s Samara refining complex, jointly with Rostelecom PJSC have performed pilot tests for the introduction of smart safety helmets–pieces of digital personal protective equipment–at the sites.
President Vladimir Putin’s former son-in-law purchased $380 million worth of shares in Russia’s top petrochemicals company for $100 after marrying the president’s daughter, according to a report by the iStories investigative outlet. Kirill Shamalov acquired 3.8% of petrochemicals producer Sibur through a web of offshore companies months after marrying Katerina Tikhonova in February 2013, iStories reported,…
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said on Monday the Kremlin hopes that two Russian journalists detained in Turkey will be released as soon as possible. Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russian diplomats were in contact with Turkish representatives to secure the release of two journalists working with Kremlin-friendly NTV channel “in the near future.” “We hope through…
They did their best to keep spirits up by doing what they did before it happened, by writing music, singing, and dancing. By parodying their circumstances in lighthearted tunes, they could perhaps forget for a moment the death all around them. They were the prisoners in Theresienstadt, a concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, who organized…
The Russian Orthodox Church has warned worshippers against performing exorcisms at home, saying that casting out demons should be left to members of the clergy. Metropolitan Hilarion, who heads the church’s Department of External Relations, made the comments in reaction to a viral video showing parents attempting to expel a demon from their 10-year-old son…
The United States exercises World War II “revisionism” by classifying Russian visa-seekers born on a disputed island chain in the Far East as Japanese nationals, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday. Russians born on the islands of Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashiri and Etorofu have been required to name Japan as their birthplace to receive permanent residency known…