This piece was originally published in Coda Story’s Authoritarian Tech channel. When video blogger Natalia Chernikhovskaya looked out the window of her Moscow apartment building she saw an antenna tower with white panels and a circular dish in the center. At first, she never suspected it could be the source of unexplained headaches and pains that she began…
The International Space Station is now working normally with no danger to its occupants after the crew managed to resolve a series of technical issues overnight, Russia’s space agency said Tuesday. The crew aboard the ISS had reported issues with the oxygen production system, a toilet and the oven for preparing food. “The problems that occurred…
A group of former Vedomosti business daily senior editors and journalists has launched a new Russian-language news website Tuesday in partnership with The Moscow Times. The project came to life after the appointment of a pro-Kremlin editor-in-chief at Vedomosti sparked accusations of censorship and a mass resignation earlier this year. VTimes, which aims to continue…
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has thrown out ventilators shipped from Russia this spring as part of a coronavirus aid exchange, BuzzFeed News reported Monday. FEMA said in May that it had mothballed the 45 Aventa-M ventilators after they were blamed for two fires that killed seven coronavirus patients in Moscow and St.…
Scientists of the Rosneft United Research and Development Centre have developed an innovative methane aromatisation technology.
Six Russian military intelligence officers have been charged in the United States with carrying out cyberattacks on Ukraine’s power grid, the 2017 French elections and the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, the Justice Department announced Monday. The six GRU agents were also accused of staging a malware attack called “NotPetya” that infected computers of businesses worldwide,…
Six Russian military intelligence officers have been charged with carrying out cyberattacks on Ukraine’s power grid, the 2017 French elections and the 2018 Winter Olympics, the US Justice Department announced on Monday. The six current or former members of the GRU were also accused of staging a malware attack called “NotPetya” that infected computers of…
The authorities in Belarus have moved to house arrest a high-profile American political analyst and strategist held for over two-and-a-half months in jail as President Alexander Lukashenko cracks down on opponents, his lawyer said on Monday. Vitali Shkliarov, a Harvard University fellow who has advised presidential candidates in the U.S., Russia and Ukraine, was detained…
Two Russian MMA fighters, Zelim Imadaev and Albert Duraev, have shown support for the decapitation of a French teacher by a Chechen refugee this weekend, reports said. Police shot dead 18-year-old suspect Abdullakh Anzorov in a Paris suburb Friday after he posted a photo of 47-year-old history teacher Samuel Paty’s severed head on his now-suspended…
Ilbrus, 59 years old I was born in Azerbaijan and I studied in Baku. During the Soviet period I went to study in Nizhny Novgorod at the Institute of Water Transportation. And I’ve lived here since then. Today I am driving a taxi, but in the 1990s and 2000s, I had my own business and…
Moscow will not return to a full coronavirus lockdown like it did in spring as long as residents abide by current restrictions, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Monday as new cases continued to rise. The epicenter of Russia’s Covid-19 outbreak, Moscow confirmed 5,376 new infections in the past 24 hours and almost 367,000 since the start…
On October 19, 2020 first elements of reactor building safety system for unit No.7 of Tianwan NPP being constructed under VVER-1200 Russian project were delivered to China. “In the beginning of October the first batch of equipment – four sets of the sump tank penetrations – arrived at the Tianwan NPS construction site. Currently, the…
Russia confirmed 15,982 new Covid-19 cases Monday, bringing its official number of cases to 1,415,316 and breaking the country’s record for new infections. The latest one-day record comes as Russia for the first time since the start of the pandemic confirmed more than 100,000 Covid-19 cases within a week. Russia’s national coronavirus information center said…
Thousands of dead fish washed up on the shores of a reservoir in southern Russia’s republic of Kalmykia this weekend, prompting fears of an environmental disaster. Witnesses filmed the fish carcasses lining the Arshan-Zelmen reservoir, describing an “absolutely terrible” smell and pointing to emissions from factories in nearby regions as a possible cause. Investigators have…
Belarusian police on Sunday detained more than 200 people as tens of thousands marched against strongman Alexander Lukashenko in defiance of police threats to open fire after weeks of demonstrations. Crowds of demonstrators waving red-and-white opposition flags descended on a gritty industrial neighbourhood in southeast Minsk for a march along Partisan Prospect, a key transport…
Russia has confirmed 1,399,334 cases of coronavirus and 24,187 deaths. Oct. 18: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 15,099 new Covid-19 cases Sunday, bringing its official number of cases to 1,399,334. Russia resumed flights with Serbia and Cuba on Oct. 15 and will resume flights with Japan from Nov. 1, the RBC news website reported, citing Russia’s air transport…
An 18-year-old Chechen accused of beheading a teacher near his school in a Paris suburb received asylum in France and had no links to Russia, a Russian diplomat said on Saturday. “This crime has no relation to Russia because this person had lived in France for the past 12 years,” the spokesman for the Russian…
I love soup season, and where I live, this lasts about nine months of the year. As you may imagine, borshch is in heavy rotation in our household, but as I’ve written before, no two pots of borshch are ever the same. There is no hard and fast recipe for borshch; it varies depending on…
The man suspected of beheading a French teacher who had shown his students cartoons of the prophet Mohammed was an 18-year-old born in Moscow and originating from Russia’s southern region of Chechnya, a judicial source said on Saturday. Five more people have been detained over the murder on Friday outside Paris, including the parents of…
The United States on Friday rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to extend the New START nuclear treaty for one year unconditionally, countering that both nations must cap warheads during the period. “President Putin’s response today to extend New START without freezing nuclear warheads is a non-starter,” said Robert O’Brien, the national security advisor. O’Brien…
Russia has confirmed 1,369,313 cases of coronavirus and 23,723 deaths. Oct. 16: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 15,150 new Covid-19 cases Friday, bringing its official number of cases to 1,369,313 and breaking the record for new infections. Russia resumed flights with Serbia and Cuba on Oct. 15 and will resume flights with Japan from Nov. 1, the RBC…
In the era of Covid-19 Kinotavr, aka the Open Russian Film Festival, was postponed from June until September. It took place at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, and despite social distancing and other precautions, several directors, actors and film critics still got infected with the coronavirus. It’s just as well that we are watching…
President Vladimir Putin on Friday proposed that Moscow and Washington extend for a year and without any conditions the last major nuclear arms reduction accord between Russia and the United States. The New START deal was signed in April 2010 but went into force in February 2011. It lasts for 10 years but with a…
President Vladimir Putin wants to enact changes that would ban Russian authorities from recognizing gay marriages registered outside the country, the Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday. A legal loophole in Russia’s family law recognizes same-sex couples who have tied the knot abroad as long as they’re not close relatives or are already married. This led…
Russia’s population decline in 2020 will be 1,100% greater than that of 2019 amid the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, according to government projections cited by the RBC news website Thursday. The government forecasts a 352,500 drop in Russia’s population this year, according to the report, leading to a population of 146.4 million by the end…
A whirlwind two weeks of post-election violence and fierce power struggles in Kyrgyzstan has political observers at odds over Russia’s role and true intentions in Central Asia’s “island of democracy.” Anger over pro-government parties’ gains in an Oct. 4 parliamentary vote spilled into the streets of Bishkek, prompting the fall of the government and resignation…
Russia confirmed 15,150 cases of the novel coronavirus Friday, a new daily record since the start of the pandemic as authorities grapple with the onset of a second wave. This is the first time that Russia has confirmed more than 15,000 Covid-19 infections in a single day. Friday’s increase pushed the overall number of Covid-19…
RN-Vankor, a part of Rosneft Oil Company’s production complex, has released over 250,000 Siberian sturgeon fry into the Yenisei River.
The Arctic Attraction photographic exhibition has opened in Arkhangelsk, arranged by Rosneft Oil Company jointly with the Innopraktika non-governmental development institution as part of the international Arctic nations film festival Arctic Open 2020.
Kyrgyzstan’s new prime minister Sadyr Japarov claimed presidential powers on Thursday after the Central Asian country’s head of state Sooronbay Jeenbekov resigned amid a post-election crisis. “The powers of the president and the prime minister have been transferred to me,” Sadyr Japarov told cheering supporters on Thursday, after Jeenbekov resigned and the parliament speaker refused…
Russia has withdrawn from talks with Australia and the Netherlands launched nearly two years ago to establish responsibility for the 2014 downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday. Moscow said the Dutch government’s “unfriendly” move this summer to take Russia to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for its role…
An emergency ministry inspector in Russia’s Far East spent Wednesday night in an unusual way: rescuing a family of beluga whales that beached on the shore near the Sea of Okhotsk. Residents of the coastal Chumikan village reached out to Alexei Paramonov on Wednesday afternoon, saying two adult whales and a baby were left to…
Around two-thirds of Russian medics believe that the country is not ready for a second wave of the coronavirus, according to a survey published by the VTimes news website Thursday. Russia is the world’s fourth-most affected country with more than 1.35 million confirmed cases of Covid-19. Its number of new coronavirus cases has nearly tripled…
Russia has suspended its financial assistance to the cash-strapped Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan until political stability is restored there, the RBC news website reported Wednesday, citing a Finance Ministry source and another federal official. The Kyrgyz government, a Russian ally, has been paralyzed since protesters chased out its president following disputed parliamentary elections on…
Scientists of the Rosneft United Research and Development Centre developed a technology for production of casing pipes from ultra high strength polymer polydicyclopentadiene.
The oxygen supply system has failed in a module on the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) but the crew is in no danger, Russian space agency Roscosmos said Thursday. The oxygen supply system on the Zvezda module on the orbital lab failed late on Wednesday but a second system on the American…
Moscow partygoers will be required to register their phone numbers before they can enter bars, nightclubs and other late-night establishments, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday as the city sees a renewed rise in coronavirus cases. Starting Oct. 19, all visitors of establishments operating between midnight and 6 a.m. will be required to scan a QR…
The European Union has slapped sanctions on senior Kremlin officials and the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) over the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, according to a decision published on the EU’s legal portal Thursday. The EU banned travel and froze the assets of FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov, as well as President…
Russia has confirmed 1,354,163 cases of coronavirus and 23,491 deaths. Oct. 15: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 13,754 new Covid-19 cases Thursday, bringing its official number of cases to 1,354,163. A record 286 people have died from the virus in the past 24 hours. Starting Oct. 19, Muscovites will be required to register their phone numbers before they…
Kyrgyzstan’s President Sooronbay Jeenbekov resigned on Thursday, saying he wanted to bring an end to the crisis sparked by disputed parliamentary elections earlier this month. Protests had erupted after the election on Oct. 4 was won by parties loyal to Jeenbekov but opponents said was hit by vote-buying. The results were later annulled but this…
Russia has cleared two antiviral drugs called remdesivir for coronavirus treatment after doctors used the drugs to treat U.S. President Donald Trump, the Health Ministry announced Wednesday. U.S. studies have said that biochemical firm Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir can shorten coronavirus recovery time by an average of four days but does not reduce deaths. Remdesivir was…
An oil slick the size of a hockey rink has been discovered on the Volga River north of Moscow, authorities said Wednesday, the latest instance of pollution to hit Russia’s waterways this year. The 5,000 square meter layer of fuel was spotted near the port of Kimry some 150 kilometers north of the Russian capital,…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called for international cooperation to end fierce clashes over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan, during a telephone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Kremlin said. The two leaders “stressed the urgent need for joint efforts to end the bloodshed as soon as possible and move to…
Soviet film lovers rejoice! None other than the iconic Cheburashka will return to the big screen in 2022. Produced by the famous Soyuzmultfilm, the new movie will be a collaboration between Russian independent studio YBA and Disney, with production set to begin in 2021. Cheburashka made his on-screen debut in a 1969 film by Soviet…
Russian photographer Sergey Gorshkov has claimed the top prize in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition with his photo of an Amur tiger, the British Natural History Museum announced Wednesday. Gorshkov’s winning photo titled “The Embrace” shows an Amur tigress scent-marking an ancient fir tree in the Land of the Leopard National Park…
Russia has approved its second coronavirus vaccine, President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday as the peptide-based shot developed by a Siberian biotech company readies for large-scale trials. “Novosibirsk’s Vektor [State Virology and Biotechnology Center] has registered the second Russian coronavirus vaccine today,” Putin said via televised video conference. Putin said that Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova…
Russia has been re-elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) following a four-year absence, Moscow’s mission to the UN in Geneva announced Wednesday. Comprising 47 member states elected by the General Assembly for a three-year term, the HRC is responsible for addressing human rights violations and promoting the human rights agenda across the…
Russia plans to resume flights to Japan, Serbia and Cuba starting next month, the country’s coronavirus crisis center announced Wednesday. From Nov. 1, airports in Moscow will be able to operate two flights per week to Tokyo, Belgrade and the Cuban islands of Cayo Coco and Cayo Santa Maria. One weekly flight will operate from Russia’s…
Rosneft Oil Company has been implementing its comprehensive long-term research programme in Arctic that includes geological, weather and environmental surveys.
Specialists of Orenburgneft, a subsidiary of Rosneft Oil Company, have reduced the number of field pipeline failures by 44% in six years.
A three-person crew successfully reached the International Space Station on Wednesday aboard a Russian rocket after the fastest ever journey from Earth of just over three hours. The mission of the Soyuz space craft carrying two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut was of immense importance to Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, coming as the SpaceX…
The EU on Wednesday agreed to impose sanctions on six people and one entity over the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny with a Novichok nerve agent, diplomats told AFP. Ambassadors from the 27 EU countries approved sanctions after France and Germany proposed measures last week, saying Russia was responsible for the poisoning. In line with…
Russian peacekeepers should be sent to Nagorno-Karabakh to observe a shaky Moscow-brokered ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday. Russia’s top diplomat made the proposal as new fighting erupted between the Caucasus rivals despite a truce that they reached in Moscow over the weekend. According to the state-run RIA Novosti news…
First to fifth-grade students in Moscow will return to classrooms next week following a two-week recess aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Wednesday. Moscow authorities had extended the traditional weeklong fall school break by a week in an effort to prevent children from contracting and spreading the coronavirus, which has…
Russia has broken its record for new coronavirus infections for the sixth day in a row as authorities grapple with a second wave that has pushed hospitals to near-capacity. Russia’s coronavirus information center confirmed 14,231 new Covid-19 cases Wednesday, setting a record for new infections. This is the first time that Russia has confirmed more…
Russian hospitals are near capacity with coronavirus patients as new infections break records and authorities attempt to slow the second wave of the virus, a top health official said Tuesday. “To date, hospital bed occupancy is almost 90%,” Deputy Health Minister Oleg Gridnev was quoted as saying at a conference by Interfax. Gridnev said one-fifth…
The United States said Tuesday it had reached an “agreement in principle” with Russia on extending New START, the two nations’ last major nuclear accord, which is due to expire in February. President Donald Trump’s administration has been insisting without success that China enter the nuclear reduction agreement but, with U.S. elections three weeks away, signaled it…
Norway’s government on Tuesday said that it believes Russia was behind an August cyber attack targeting the email system of the country’s parliament. Hackers gained access to some lawmakers’ messages in the attack. “Based on the information the government has, it is our view that Russia is responsible for these activities,” Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen…
Belarus’s exiled opposition leader on Tuesday gave strongman President Alexander Lukashenko a deadline of two weeks to resign, halt violence and release political prisoners, warning he would otherwise face a crippling general strike. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who maintains she was the true winner of an Aug. 9 election, issued what she said was a “people’s ultimatum,”…
Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov on Tuesday asked parliament to vote again on a new prime minister after MPs backed Sadyr Japarov, a nationalist politician recently freed from jail by supporters. Embattled president Jeenbekov met Japarov and said he would not approve his appointment, citing doubts that rules were adhered to during a vote by lawmakers,…