Author: admin
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Historians Unmask Fourth Soviet Spy in U.S. Manhattan Nuclear Project
Cold War sleuths have discovered a fourth Soviet spy within the United States’ atomic bomb project whose work helped the Soviet Union end Washington’s monopoly on nuclear arms, The New York Times reported Saturday. The Soviet Union detonated its own atomic bomb just 49 months after the U.S. detonated the world’s first atomic bomb in…
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Moscow Unveils a Winter Fairytale at Europe’s Largest Ice Rink
Moscow’s VDNKh park has reopened the largest artificial ice rink in Europe just in time for the park’s 80th anniversary. The park’s ice rink, which was closed last winter for renovations, has been a holiday treasure in Moscow ever since the first rink was opened there in 1954. In 1960 the first Russian Winter Festival…
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Moscow Deputy Asks Putin to Block Homeless Shelter
A Moscow deputy has called for President Vladimir Putin to block a prominent homeless NGO from opening a shelter in Russia’s capital, warning of the organization’s foreign backing and the spread of diseases. The Nochlezhka homeless charity, founded in St. Petersburg in 1990, has faced strident criticism from Muscovites opposed to its plans to open…
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8 Russian Agents Linked to Bulgaria Poisoning – Bellingcat
At least eight suspected Russian intelligence officers traveled to Bulgaria around the time a local arms dealer was poisoned in 2015, the investigative outlet Bellingcat reported on Saturday. Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev survived the April 28, 2015, poisoning attempt in Sofia. Investigators reopened Gebrev’s case in 2018 when he linked his poisoning with that…
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Revealing Signs of Moscow’s Hidden Past
To foreigners, Moscow might seem like a closed fortress, always “defending and disguising itself,” as Walter Benjamin once wrote. But under the city facades there is another hidden life waiting to be discovered. Right in the city center on Kostyansky Pereulok, the past has burst into the present with the sign “Streletsky Bakery” (“Стрелецкая пекарня”)…
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Kadyrov’s ‘Right-Hand Man’ Calls on Diaspora to Stop ‘Disgraceful’ Chechens Abroad
Officials from Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Chechnya have called on members of its diaspora to stop their countrymen from “disgracing the Chechen people,” the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported Monday. This is the first time that the Chechen diasporas of the U.S. and especially Canada have been called upon to stop fellow Chechens who behave…
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Unique Pumping Equipment for Dry Dock Delivered to Zvezda Shipyard
Unique pumping equipment for the dry dock under construction has been delivered to the Zvezda Shipyard.
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Turkey Begins Testing Russian Missile Radars at Heart of Row With U.S.
Turkey will test a component of its newly acquired Russian air defense system, a step that risks escalating a dispute with the U.S. and touching off possible sanctions. The lira reversed gains. Military aircraft will be used in the capital Ankara on Monday and Tuesday during the testing of the S-400 system’s radar-detection equipment, a…
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80% of Russia’s Female Murder Convicts Acted in Self-Defense – Study
Four out of five women convicted for premeditated murder in Russia had been defending themselves from domestic violence, according to machine-learning research published by the Novaya Gazeta newspaper and the Mediazona news website Monday. Critics say Russia’s 2017 decriminalization of some forms of domestic violence has eroded protections for women, while supporters defend it for…
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9M 2019 Financial Results: PhosAgro Revenue Rises 12% year-on-year to Record RUB 195.0 Billion
Moscow – PhosAgro (“the Company”) (Moscow Exchange and LSE: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, today announces its interim consolidated IFRS financial results for 3Q and 9M 2019. Revenue in 3Q 2019 rose by 3% year-on-year to RUB 64.6 billion (USD 1.0 billion) mainly due to higher sales in priority…
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Russia’s ‘Orthodox Tycoon’ Is Bankrolling a Monarchist Movement. But Where Does He Get His Money?
Konstantin Malofeyev rose to fame in Russia’s corporate wars of the late 2000s. He became one of the most powerful people in telecommunications, but the devoutly Orthodox tycoon almost lost everything in a bitter dispute with state-owned bank VTB. In 2014, he was sanctioned by the West for providing support to rebels in eastern Ukraine.…
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A Russian Mother’s Suicide Raises Stark Truths About Postpartum Depression
On the morning of Nov. 11, 36-year-old Lyudmila Sokolova gathered her two children into her arms and jumped out of the window of her ninth-floor apartment in northeast Moscow. Her baby girl died with her and her six-year-old son was hospitalized in serious condition. Sokolova had called an ambulance four times that morning because her…
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Alexander Lebedev’s ‘Hunt the Banker’
Can billionaires be good, honest people? Alexander Lebedev, a Russian oligarch turned philanthropist and media mogul, certainly wants us to think he is. His new memoir, “Hunt the Banker,” begins with a preface that laments the burdens of immense wealth. Lebedev confesses that the millions he made during the unbridled capitalist 1990s have brought him…
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Russia Again Faces Olympic Ban After Non-Compliant Recommendation
Russia is again facing a possible Olympic ban after the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Compliance Review Committee (CRC) recommended on Friday that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) be ruled non-compliant. The CRC put forward the recommendation after WADA’s Intelligence and Investigations Committee found evidence of manipulation of data retrieved from a tainted Moscow laboratory in January. A report…
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Convicted Agent Butina Accepts Russian State Job Offer, Reports Say
A Russian agent briefly jailed in the United States and then deported back to Moscow has accepted a state job to defend Russians imprisoned abroad, the state-run TASS news agency reported Friday. Maria Butina, 31, pleaded guilty in a U.S. court last December to one count of conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Russia by infiltrating a…
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PhosAgro Board of Directors Approves Development Priorities for 2020 and Recommends that Shareholders Approve Dividend Payment
Moscow – The Board of Directors of PhosAgro (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, at today’s meeting approved the company’s priority areas for 2020 and has recommended that the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (“EGM”) approve a dividend payment of RUB 6.216 billion, or RUB 48 per…
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Be Kinder, Think Tank Tells Pro-Putin Leaders Ahead of Vote
Russian lawmakers have an image problem and they know it. One think tank may have the solution ahead of a crucial parliament vote: be kinder and temper your repressive urges. The pro-Kremlin United Russia party’s brand became so toxic amid anti-government protests this summer that many of its members ran for Moscow’s city council as…
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Year-to-date gas exports to Austria exceed record supplies of 2018
Background OMV AG is Gazprom’s main partner in Austria. The companies cooperate in gas production, transportation and supplies. In 2018, Gazprom supplied to Austria 12.3 billion cubic meters of gas, an increase of 34.8 per cent (3.2 billion cubic meters) from 2017 (9.1 billion cubic meters). In June 2018, an Agreement was signed to extend until 2040 the existing contract between Gazprom Export and OMV Gas Marketing & Trading GmbH for Russian gas supplies…
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Forbes Ranks Russia’s Richest Instagrammers
Russian television presenter and onetime presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak is the country’s highest-earning Instagrammer, Forbes Russia has said in its list of the top 15 earners on the social media app in 2019. The magazine ranked each user by the income they earn from advertising and sponsored posts on their Instagram pages. All 15 names…
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Results of selling 3.59 per cent of Gazprom’s ordinary shares
Release November 22, 2019, 16:05 Gazprom Gazoraspredeleniye, a company controlled by Gazprom, successfully completed the sale of 850,590,751 ordinary shares of Gazprom (3.59 per cent of the share capital). The placement was carried out using the trading platform of the Moscow Exchange. Gazprombank (Joint Stock Company) acted as the arranger and broker of the offering. As the shares were sold in their totality, Gazprom Gazoraspredeleniye reduced…
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Islam and Orthodox Christianity Have the Same Values, Putin Says
Orthodox Christianity and Islam are based on the same fundamental values, President Vladimir Putin said in an address to a religious conference in Kyrgyzstan. The conference, titled “Orthodoxy and Islam — Religions of Peace,” aimed to promote interethnic and interreligious dialogue between Russia and Kyrgyzstan. “Islam and Orthodox Christianity, just like other world religions, are…
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Russian Watchdog Detects ‘Radiation Incident’ in South China Sea
As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…
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Gazprom in $3Bln Share Sale to Mystery Buyer
Russian gas goliath Gazprom raked in $3 billion Friday selling shares to an unknown mystery buyer in an unconventional share deal. Gazprom sold 3.6% of its own shares in a 188 billion ruble ($3 billion) deal, almost completing a share-offloading program announced in the summer by CEO Alexey Miller, the firm confirmed in submissions to…
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A Russian ‘Freegan’ Challenges Capitalism and Consumerism
Alina Afasyeva wears black leather gloves as she delicately picks through mountains of trash bags in Moscow’s elegant central Tverskaya neighborhood. This is the fourth or fifth dumpster she’s visited tonight, but none of them have yielded results so far. Despite the early winter chill in the air, the smell is pungent — equal parts…
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Spain Probes Russia’s Role in Catalonia Referendum – El Pais
Spain has opened an investigation into the role of a secret Russian military unit in Catalonia’s 2017 independence referendum, the country’s El Pais newspaper reported Thursday. The Spanish government tried to prevent Catalonia’s independence referendum that it declared illegal, leading to hundreds of injuries. Spanish ministers said in 2017 that Russia-based groups promoted the referendum…
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Austrian Embassy Unveils Vadim Kosmatschof Sculpture
On Nov. 19, a small sculpture was unveiled on a tiny patch of courtyard on one of Moscow’s narrow little side streets before a handful of people — a deceptively modest ceremony to mark a momentous event. The sculpture was created by Vadim Kosmatschof and placed in front of the Austrian Embassy. It was the…
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Baring Vostok Cancels New Fund Launch
Baring Vostok — the Russian investment house at the centre of the high-profile fraud case involving its founder U.S. citizen Michael Calvey — has cancelled plans to launch a new investment fund, bne IntelliNews has reported. The company suspended plans to launch a sixth fund, citing investor fears over “contradictions in Russian and international arbitration…
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Russian Athletics Federation President Provisionally Suspended
The president of Russia’s athletics federation and several other federation officials were suspended on Thursday by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for serious breaches of anti-doping rules, adding to the federation’s woes ahead of next year’s Olympics. The AIU, which oversees integrity issues in global athletics including doping, said the provisional suspensions were linked to…
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Serbia’s President Accuses Russia of Spying
Serbian intelligence agencies have uncovered a wide-ranging intelligence operation involving Russian spies and members of the Serbian military, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday. Vucic’s remarks came after a meeting of the National Security Council which he convened after a video showing a Russian intelligence officer handing money to a Serbian man in Belgrade was…
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Putin Says ‘Unparalleled’ Weapons Tested at Deadly Nuclear Accident Site
President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the scientists killed in a mysterious nuclear explosion in northwestern Russia this summer had been testing an “unparalleled” weapon. A liquid propulsion system blast on Aug. 8 at a naval missile test facility in Nyonoksa in Arkhangelsk region killed five people and led to a brief radiation spike nearby.…
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PhosAgro announced as a Global Compact LEAD for its commitment to the UN Global Compact
New York – PhosAgro, a Russian vertically integrated company and one of the world’s leading producers of phosphate-based fertilizers, has been included on the list of Global Compact LEAD companies for its commitment to the United Nations Global Compact and the Compact’s Ten Principles on corporate sustainability. Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has…
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PhosAgro Named a Leader in Corporate Responsibility Under the UN Global Compact
New York – PhosAgro, a Russian vertically integrated company and one of the world’s leading producers of phosphate-based fertilizers, has been included on the list of Global Compact LEAD companies for its commitment to the United Nations Global Compact and the Compact’s Ten Principles on corporate sustainability. Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has…
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Russian Parliament Backs Law to Label Individuals ‘Foreign Agents’
Russia‘s lower house of parliament passed legislation on Thursday that will allow individual journalists to be labeled foreign agents, a move that critics say will tighten curbs on the media. Russia adopted an initial foreign agent law in 2012 which gave the authorities the power to label non-governmental organizations and human rights groups foreign agents. The…
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Kremlin Says Syria Beheading Video Not Linked to Russian Forces
The Kremlin on Thursday distanced itself from a video showing four Russian-speaking men torturing, stabbing and beheading a Syrian man in 2017 and said the incident had nothing to do with Russia’s military. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had not seen the footage, but said: “I am certain that this has no relation to…
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Siberian Schoolkids Must Sing Russian National Anthem Daily
Schoolchildren in Siberia are now required to stand and sing the Russian national anthem during morning assembly under a new decree. Aisen Nikolayev, the head of the republic of Sakha, signed the decree Wednesday as part of a regional initiative aimed at turning each student into “a patriot who is ready to learn and work…
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Latvia Bans 9 Russian TV Stations Over Ties to Sanctioned Billionaire
Nine Russian television channels have been banned from broadcasting in Latvia due to ongoing EU sanctions against their co-owner, the Russian billionaire Yury Kovalchuk, Latvian media reported Thursday. Kovalchuk, a banker close to President Vladimir Putin, was one of several individuals added to the EU blacklist in 2014 in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea…
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Russia Denies It Stole Toilets From Returned Ukrainian Ships
Russia did not remove equipment including toilets from three Ukrainian naval vessels before returning them this week, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday. The chief of Ukraine’s navy said Russia “took off lamps, power outlets and toilets” from the two small armored artillery vessels and a tugboat that it had held for a year.…
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Putin Daughter’s Foundation Posts Record Profits
A foundation run by President Vladimir Putin’s alleged daughter has earned a record 488 million rubles ($7.6 million) last year, the Open Media news website reported Wednesday. Katerina Tikhonova, 33, is widely believed to be Putin’s younger daughter, though the president has neither confirmed nor denied this. Tikhonova’s foundation operating under the Innopraktika brand boasts…
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Russian Public Wi-Fi Provider to Supply Moscow’s Facial Recognition System
The Russian company that provides free public Wi-Fi in Moscow and St. Petersburg will also supply the capital’s facial recognition network, the Kommersant business daily has reported.Maxima Telecom company won a 1.15 billion-ruble ($18 million) contract to provide the servers for Moscow’s facial recognition system, which authorities have been establishing for the past two years,…
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Russia to Investigate Space Center Fraud After Putin Rebuke
Russian investigators said on Thursday they had opened two criminal cases into the management of a company involved in building the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a space center in the country’s Far East. The announcement came less than two weeks after President Vladimir Putin complained to government officials about corruption at the facility and called for further…
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Russian Mercenaries Linked to Gruesome Syrian Torture and Beheading Video
This article contains graphic content which may be disturbing to some readers. Four Russian-speaking men who were filmed beheading, dismembering and setting fire to a Syrian man in 2017 are believed to be private mercenaries for the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, the investigative Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported Wednesday. Novaya Gazeta said it has identified one of…
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PhosAgro 3Q 2019 IFRS Results Announcement Date
On 25 November 2019, PhosAgro will publish its interim reviewed condensed consolidated IFRS financial statements for the three and nine months ended 30 September 2019. The Company will hold a conference call and webcast the same day at 13:00 London time (16:00 Moscow; 08:00 New York). The call will be held in English, with simultaneous…
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Russian Airlines ‘Desperate’ After $50M Losses in Georgia Flight Ban
Russian airlines are ‘desperate’ for compensation from the government after its ban on direct flights to Georgia cost them a combined 3.2 billion rubles ($50 million), the Vedomosti business daily reported Wednesday. President Vladimir Putin ordered the temporary ban of passenger flights from Russia to Georgia this summer following an outbreak of unrest in Tbilisi…
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Video of Russian Spy Allegedly Bribing Serbian Agent Sparks Probe
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic ordered an investigation on Wednesday into a video clip that purportedly shows a Russian intelligence officer handing over money to a Serbian man, in an incident that could strain normally warm bilateral relations. A Bulgaria-based investigative reporter, Christo Grozev, said on his Twitter account at the weekend that the clip, posted on…
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FSB Detains Russian Solider Suspected of Spying for Ukraine
Russia‘s FSB security service has detained a Russian serviceman suspected of spying for Ukraine, the RIA news agency reported on Wednesday. The serviceman was allegedly gathering secret information for Ukraine’s intelligence service and is being investigated for treason, RIA reported, citing the FSB. The independent CIT outlet identified the suspect as Ruslan Artykov, born in 1991.…
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Putin Says Zero-Carbon Energy Will ‘Send Us Baсk to Caves’
Producing energy without carbon emissions will send humanity back to the prehistoric period, Russian President Vladimir Putin told an investment forum Wednesday. Putin has joked about climate change in the past, saying in 2003 that warmer weather could increase grain harvests and cut spending on fur coats. This summer he criticized wind turbines, saying they…
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Ukraine Says Russia ‘Ruined’ Returned Ships
Ukrainian naval ships, captured by Russia last November and released on Tuesday to be returned to Ukraine, are in very poor condition and cannot move independently, the commander of Ukraine’s navy said on Wednesday. Russia seized three ships in the Kerch Strait last year after opening fire on them and wounding several sailors. Moscow said the ships — two…
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Russians Increasingly Value Free Speech, Civil Rights – Poll
The share of Russians who view free speech, the right to a fair trial and other civil rights as important freedoms has increased by double digits in two years, according to the independent Levada Center pollster. Experts and sociologists link the double-digit growth in the importance of civil rights issues among Russians to events surrounding…
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Alexey Miller and Moldova’s Prime Minister Ion Chicu review cooperation-related issues
Background In 2018, Gazprom’s gas deliveries to the Republic of Moldova totaled 2.9 billion cubic meters of gas, an increase of 8.4 per cent against 2017 (2.7 billion cubic meters). The contracts between Gazprom and Moldovagaz for gas supplies to and gas transit across Moldova are valid until the end of 2019. Moldovagaz is a joint Russian-Moldovan company set up by Gazprom, the Moldovan Government, and the Ministry of Industry…
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State-Run Bank Says Russia Unlikely to Meet Economic Targets ‘Without More Active Policies’
President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to meet most of his flagship economic and development goals during his final term without a significant increase in spending and better performance on a host of key indicators, a new report from a government-owned bank said Wednesday. The National Projects program — a $400 billion package of investments covering…
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State-Run Bank Says Putin Unlikely to Meet Economic Targets ‘Without More Active Policies’
President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to meet most of his flagship economic and development goals during his final term without a significant increase in spending and better performance on a host of key indicators, a new report from a government-owned bank said Wednesday. The National Projects program — a $400 billion package of investments covering…
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Widow of Ex-KGB Agent Backs Legal Action for Release of UK’s Russia Report
The widow of a Russian dissident murdered in London has backed a legal challenge to force Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government to publish a report on alleged Russian meddling in British politics. The report by parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) was cleared by Britain’s security services but Johnson’s office has not yet released it, meaning it…
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Climate Change to Inflict Multi-Billion Dollar Damage on Russian Economy
Russia’s economy will lose hundreds of billions of dollars in potential growth as a result of climate change, a new report published Wednesday showed. In its new climate resilience index, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) calculated that Russia’s GDP will be 3.3% lower in 2050 than it would be without the hit to growth from…
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St. Petersburg Won’t See Citywide Recycling Until 2021
St. Petersburg will delay its implementation of citywide recycling for at least another year amid fears that it could lead to a spike in the costs of garbage collection and a public backlash, the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday. Russia launched its nationwide “trash reform” on Jan. 1, 2019, in an effort to tackle a…
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PhosAgro Awarded Gold Medal for Responsible Approach to Production from International Fertilizer Association
Paris – PhosAgro (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR) (“PhosAgro”, the “Company”), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, announces that it has been awarded the Gold Medal from the International Fertilizer Association (IFA) for its responsible approach to production. The IFA’s first ever gold medal awards ceremony took place at the IFA Annual…
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Meet Ivan Savkin, Russia’s Human Mountain
Bogatyrs play an important role in the Russian literary and artistic imagination. Epic poems of the exploits of these fierce and powerful warriors are part of Russia’s rich oral tradition, first written down in the early 19th century. At first, warriors were basically gods or shape-shifters with superhuman strength. Then they became very strong human beings. Ivan Savkin…
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Estonia Demands ‘Annexed’ Territory Back From Russia
Estonia wants Russia to return its territory that it says is annexed by Moscow, its top lawmaker has said as the prospects of a Russian-Estonian border treaty turned grim this year over Tallinn’s territorial claims. Estonia is the only NATO member lacking a ratified border treaty with Russia. The two countries have sparred as recently…
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Swedbank’s High-Risk Russian Secrets
Russian oligarch Mikhail Abyzov built a complex network of offshore companies that were used to move a fortune out of Russia, according to a Swedbank internal draft report obtained by OCCRP and its Swedish partner, national public TV channel Sveriges Television (SVT). Today he’s charged with defrauding the Russian government and investors of US$60 million,…
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30 Billion Cubic Metres of Gas Delivered from Vankor Cluster to Unified Gas Supply System
RN-Vankor–the company of the Rosneft Oil Company production complex–has delivered 30 billion cubic metres of gas produced on the fields of the Vankor cluster to the Unified Gas Supply System (UGSS).
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Ice Between Russia and Alaska Is At Record Lows, Scientists Warn
Arctic sea ice recovery between Russia and Alaska has slowed to record levels since bottoming out over the summer, according to research, as climate change clears ice quicker and for longer periods. Frozen water vanished from Russia’s Northern Sea Route in mid-August, opening up the Arctic shipping lane coveted by the Russian government. Arctic sea…