The Year’s Best in Cinema: “The Frenchman”

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…

2020: The Year in Culture

The Russian Ministry of Culture has named 2020 as the year of Memory and Glory, and also dedicated it to the 150th anniversary of the birth of writer Ivan Bunin; the year of traditional crafts; the year of intellectual property and inventiveness, and the year of fathers. How these themes will be brought to life…

Contracts for gas supplies to and transit across Belarus extended until 2021

Release December 31, 2019, 22:00 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, Belarusian Minister of Energy, took place today in Moscow. The parties discussed in detail the issues related to cooperation in the gas sector from 2020 onward. Alexey Miller and Vladimir…

Gazprom to continue supplying gas to Armenia on same terms in 2020

Background Gazprom Armenia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom, is focused on natural gas supplies to the Armenian market. In addition, the company transports, stores, distributes and sells natural gas, as well as upgrades and expands the gas transmission system and underground gas storage facilities in the Republic of Armenia. The contract between Gazprom Export and Gazprom Armenia for the supplies of up to 2.5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per…

Authorities Raid Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses

Authorities raided homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses in northern Russia as part of a criminal probe into extremism against the banned religious organization, investigators said in a statement Monday. Russia banned the Christian denomination known for door-to-door preaching, close Bible study and rejection of military service and blood transfusions in 2017. Rights groups have condemned the…

Britain Floated NATO Membership for Russia, Archives Reveal

Britain considered granting Russia partial membership in NATO 25 years ago, according to declassified National Archives documents cited by British media Tuesday. NATO, a U.S.-led Western military alliance created to provide collective security against the Soviet Union, suspended relations with Russia in response to Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Russia…

Russia, Ukraine Clinch Final Deal on Gas Transit to Europe

Russian and Ukrainian companies signed a final five-year agreement safeguarding Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine, Kremlin-controlled gas giant Gazprom and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday night. The deal, which came just 24 hours before the current agreement expires on Tuesday, averted a potential Russian gas-flow interruption to Europe and helped Moscow avoid…

Alexey Miller: major package deal with Ukraine restores balance between parties’ interests

December 30, 2019 “Following five days of continuous bilateral negotiations, final decisions and arrangements have been reached in Vienna. At the same time, a whole set of agreements and contracts has been signed, and one can fairly say that these arrangements represent a major package deal that has restored the balance between the interests of the parties. These documents are coming into…

Package of documents signed for Russian gas transit across Ukraine to continue beyond 2019

Release December 30, 2019, 23:55 Pursuant to the Protocol of December 20, 2019, Gazprom, Naftogaz of Ukraine, Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine signed a package of documents providing for Russian gas transit across Ukraine to continue beyond December 31, 2019. Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine concluded an irrevocable settlement agreement stipulating that all outstanding arbitration and judicial claims…

Moscow Is Ready to Celebrate the New Year

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…

The X Session of Joint Coordination Committee on Modernization and Life Extension of Armenian NPP took place in Moscow

The X session of the Joint Coordination Committee on the Project of Unit 2 modernization and life extension at Armenian NPP took place in Moscow on 26 December. The representatives of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of the Republic of Armenia, Haykakan Atomayin Electrakayan JSC (Armenian NPP), Armatom Scientific Research Institute JSC, Rosatom…

The Year’s Most Scandalous Film: ‘Text’

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…

Savory Kutiya for Kolodia and Christmas

Pity poor Russian Christmas! Russian Christmas is the poor relation in the winter holiday line-up. In the Orthodox world, Easter has always loomed liturgically larger than Christmas, particularly so in northern countries, where the return of spring is always welcomed with particular fervor. Thanks to the discrepancy between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, Orthodox Christmas…

Gas reserves of Yamal’s Kruzenshternskoye field raised to 2 trillion cubic meters

Release December 27, 2019, 19:40 Gazprom boosted Yamal gas production center’s resource base. Kruzenshternskoye field’s gas reserves were increased by 360 billion cubic meters. Hi-tech directional well was built. Subsurface use right was granted for Sopochny block in YaNAA’s Tazovsky District. The Federal Agency for Mineral Resources approved the expert opinion of the State Reserves Commission with regard to the calculation…

ROSATOM has completed the first phase of wind turbines’ commissioning at its wind farm at Adygea

ROSATOM has completed the first phase of wind turbines’ commissioning at its wind farm at Adygea. This marks an important milestone in further development of low-carbon programs at ROSATOM. Adygea Wind Farm with total capacity of 150 MW, which construction has been recently completed at Shovgenovsky and Giaginsky districts of the Republic of Adygea, proved…

ROSATOM has manufactured first Russian accident-tolerant fuel for commercial reactors

The first Russian-made nuclear fuel assemblies with experimental accident-tolerant fuel rods (ATF) for commercial reactor have been manufactured and passed acceptance inspection at Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant, a fabrication facility of ROSATOM’s TVEL Fuel Company.  Already in the first quarter of 2020, they should be loaded into one of VVER-1000 reactors at Rostov NPP. Each…