Moscow Activists Protest Widespread Facial Recognition With Face Paint

A Moscow activist campaign is encouraging people to protect their privacy by covering their faces in bright, bold designs.  Police-controlled facial recognition technology has been expanding in Moscow’s wide-reaching surveillance network since 2017. While law enforcement says the technology helps catch wanted criminals, critics have spoken out against what they say is non-consensual identification and…

Half of Moscow’s Luxury Suburb Linked to Russia’s Elite – Proekt

Nearly half the landowners in Moscow’s luxury suburb of Rublyovka are linked to Russia’s ruling elite, the Proekt news website has said in a massive investigation published Thursday. Altogether, it said the 800 Kremlin functionaries, governors and mayors own an estimated 1.3 trillion rubles ($20.75 billion) in properties dotting the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway in western Moscow.…

Russia Proposes Internet Ecosystem to Protect Users From ‘Foreign Influence’ – Report

Russia’s state-controlled telecommunications provider is proposing a 260-billion-ruble ($4.1 billion) online ecosystem to “protect users from foreign influence,” the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday. Rostelecom’s so-called roadmap reportedly envisions the creation of state-run messengers, gaming services, browsers and operating systems. The telecom provider’s ambitious proposal also includes state-controlled content recommendation systems and speech and gesture…

Gazprom Transgaz Nizhny Novgorod wins prize at international talent competition

Background Gazprom Transgaz Nizhny Novgorod is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom that delivers natural gas to 15 regions in the Volga and Central Federal Districts of the Russian Federation. The company’s gas transmission system is composed of trunklines stretching for over 13,000 kilometers. Gazprom Transgaz Nizhny Novgorod operates 54 compressor workshops, 284 gas compressor units, 371 gas distribution stations, 2 mobile CNG refuelers, and 4 gas refueling modules located at gas…

“Peasant” Breaks Russian Box Office

“Peasant” has become the highest-grossing domestic film in the history of Russian cinema.  Directed by Klim Shipenko, the comedy has raked in over 3 billion rubles (roughly 45.5 million USD). Only the 2009 Hollywood blockbuster “Avatar” grossed more in Russia.  The film is about a spoiled rich boy who is sent back in time to…

Board of Directors reviews annual General Shareholders Meeting related issues

Release February 4, 2020, 17:00 General Shareholders Meeting to be held on June 26, 2020, in St. Petersburg. Lists of nominees approved for Board of Directors and Audit Commission. The Company’s Board of Directors resolved to hold the annual General Shareholders Meeting of Gazprom on June 26, 2020, in St. Petersburg. The list of persons entitled to participate in the Shareholders Meeting will be drawn up on the basis of Gazprom’s Register of Shareholders at the end…

Sociologist Teodor Shanin Dies at 89

Teodor Shanin, a renowned scholar and president of the Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences  — “Shaninka” —  died on Tuesday in Moscow.  Shanin, 89, was credited as the originator of peasant studies, a field which combines sociology, economics, history, and other academic disciplines to form a comprehensive understanding of modern peasant lives. …

Dali’s Magic Art in Moscow

“Salvador Dali: Magic Art” at Manege Central Exhibition Hall is the first comprehensive exhibition of the famous Spaniard in Russia. The Faberge Museum in St. Petersburg and “The Link of Times” Foundation (both belong to billionaire Viktor Vekselberg) brought to Moscow more than 180 works from different periods of Dali’s life — not just his…