A Russian commission on Thursday recommended President Vladimir Putin pardon a Norwegian man jailed for spying, spurring hopes in Norway that he may be released as part of a spy swap brokered behind closed doors. Frode Berg, a retired guard on the Norwegian-Russian border, was detained in December 2017 and jailed for 14 years after…
Around $1 trillion of capital has been pulled out of Russia since the fall of the U.S.S.R., a close aide to President Vladimir Putin has told world leaders at the Russia-Africa forum in Sochi. Sergei Glazyev, who was a long-time economic adviser to Putin and is now minister in charge of integration at the Eurasian…
President Vladimir Putin hosted the first-ever Russia-Africa summit Wednesday and Thursday in the latest display of Moscow’s efforts to restore its geopolitical foothold on the continent after the fall of the Soviet Union. Amid a deluge of memoranda of understanding and cooperation agreements, Russia clinched a series of trade agreements with some of the 54…
What if I were to tell you that the most exciting contemporary art in Moscow today lies an hour-and-a-half drive through the traffic-choked motorways towards Domodedevo airport? It gets worse. Those who brave the tailbacks and hold-ups will find themselves arriving not at a gallery, museum or even studio complex, but rather at a real-estate…
Russia’s biggest foreign-owned utilities company Enel Russia has finally sold its biggest coal-burning power station Reftinskaya for an undisclosed amount as part of its efforts to go green as well as become more profitable. The Italian-owned firm is already a leader in investing into renewable energy and has several large wind and solar power projects…
23rd October, 2019, Sochi, Russia – A Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between ROSATOM and the People’s Friendship University of Russia (RUDN) during the Russia-Africa Summit. The agreement allows ROSATOM, its partner universities and RUDN to work together in promoting Russian nuclear education abroad, mainly in African countries. Areas of cooperation include: developing international inter-university…
A performing bear has mauled its handler during a show in northern Russia, as animal rights activists step up their campaign to ban traveling circuses that use trained animals in the country. Audience members filmed dramatic scenes Wednesday of the brown bear slamming its trainer to the ground and an assistant kicking it in an…
Moscow – PhosAgro (MOEX/LSE ticker: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, announces that its 3Q 2019 fertilizer production volumes increased by over 15% year-on-year to 2.5 million tonnes. Total fertilizer production in 3Q 2019 increased by 15.2% year-on-year to 2,460.4 kt. Fertilizer output for 9M 2019 grew by 7.2% year-on-year…
Russia will send a further 276 military policemen and 33 units of military hardware to Syria in a week, Russia‘s RIA news agency cited a defense ministry source as saying on Thursday. Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke by video conference to the leader of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday. Shoigu told the SDF head that Russia will increase the number of its military police near…
Russia has inched upward in the World Bank’s latest Doing Business report, rising three places but still missing President Vladimir Putin’s goal of breaking into the top 20. Putin set the challenge of leaping up the ease-of-business ratings by 2018 after the country placed a dismal 120th in 2011. The 2020 Doing Business report published…
A former U.S. Marine held in Russia on suspicion of spying said on Thursday that a prison guard had forced him to his knees in custody and that he had been threatened with a gun, the Interfax news agency reported. Paul Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained in December and accused of…
Russia said on Thursday a division of its S-400 missile defense system would take part in a military drill in Serbia, underlining Moscow’s wish to keep a traditional ally on side even as Belgrade pursues links with NATO and the European Union. It will be the first time that the sophisticated S-400s, together with a…
A Russian priest who lives in Italy has whipped up a frenzy over a pro-Kremlin pundit’s citizenship status. Almost 195,000 people have signed Father Sergius’ online petition urging Italy to deny citizenship to political talk show host Vladimir Solovyov, even though Solovyov has not applied for citizenship and has had an Italian residence permit for…
Venedikt Yerofeyev was born near Murmansk on Oct. 24, 1938, the son of a former political prisoner. After graduating from grade school in Murmansk, he began language and literature studies at Moscow State University, but was soon expelled for failure to fulfill his military service requirements. For much of the rest of his life, Yerofeyev…
Russians trust President Vladimir Putin less than they do their armed forces, according to a new independent survey seen by the Vedomosti newspaper. The army emerged as Russia’s most trusted institution last year as a result of what sociologists called the Kremlin’s “saber-rattling.” This year’s institutional trust rating published by the independent Levada Center pollster placed…
Russian internet firm Yandex will begin testing its driverless cars in the United States next summer, the company said Wednesday. As part of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, to take place from June 6-21, Yandex will provide a driverless taxi service in the city’s business center. “The first 10 cars will take…
A Russian migrant in Latvia has launched a hunger strike to protest the country’s refusal to allow his elderly mother-in-law to obtain a residence permit there without taking the required language exam. Around one-third of Latvia’s population of 2 million are ethnic Russians, many of whom do not have Latvian citizenship and are thus unable…
23 October 2019, Sochi – Russia and Ethiopia signed an Intergovernmental framework agreement on cooperation in the peaceful use of atomic energy on the side lines of the Russia-Africa Economic Forum. The parties were represented by ROSATOM’s Director General Alexey Likhachev and Ethiopia’s Innovation and Technology Minister Getahun Mecuria Kuma respectively, both of whom lent…
A European uranium enrichment firm has resumed shipments of a highly toxic and radioactive waste product from Germany to Russia, Greenpeace Russia warned Wednesday. The enrichment firm Urenco and Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom halted the radioactive waste imports from Germany in 2009 over revelations that the waste was stored in the open. German media…
Russia will land two nuclear-capable strategic Tu-160 bombers in South Africa on Wednesday, Interfax news agency cited South Africa’s military as saying. Observers say it would be the first such deployment on the African continent. The Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber, nicknamed the White Swan in Russia, is a supersonic Soviet-era aircraft capable of carrying up…
Russian political consultants ran online campaigns supporting Bolivian President Evo Morales and criticising his election opponents in a bid to secure a fourth-term for the Kremlin-friendly leader, Russian news site Proekt has reported. The support, which focused on pumping out hostile social media campaigns against Morales’ critics, was orchestrated by political consultants close to Rosatom,…
Russia’s mega high-speed rail project to link Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod is set to cost 2.3 trillion rubles ($36 billion), according to Russian media reports. Around 600 billion rubles ($9.4 billion) will come in the form of direct state grants or cheap government-backed loans, while the rest will be financed directly by Russian…
The Czech Republic’s chief of counterintelligence has said that his country’s security forces had dismantled a Russian espionage ring last year that had been planning cyberattacks against the European Union member state. The BIS counterintelligence service said last year that Russian intelligence services were behind cyber attacks targeting the Czech foreign ministry. The BIS warned…
MOSCOW, Oct. 22, 2019 – Rusatom Automated Control Systems JSC (RASU JSC), a subsidiary of ROSATOM, and the Franco-German consortium Framatome – Siemens signed an agreement to manufacture, deliver and commission automated process control systems for the Paks Nuclear Power Plant Units 5 and 6, located in central Hungary. This award was based on the…
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the United States had betrayed and abandoned the Syrian Kurds and advised the Kurds to withdraw from the Syrian border as per a deal between Moscow and Ankara or be mauled by the Turkish army. The comments by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov to Russian news agencies followed a deal…
The last picture police officer Nikolay Korokhov posted on the Russian social media site VKontakte shows him carrying his young daughter on his shoulders while his wife Yekaterina takes a photo of the three of them. They’re all wearing silly sunglasses and smiling. A week later Korokhov shot himself in his office. He left a…
Moscow – PhosAgro (“PhosAgro” or “the Company”) (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, has joined the European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform (ESPP). PhosAgro is the first fertilizer company with production sites outside the European Union to join ESPP. Membership in the not-for-profit association serves as confirmation of PhosAgro’s…
Turkey and Russia agreed on Tuesday to remove the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia to beyond 30 km (19 miles) from the Turkish border, after which their troops will jointly patrol a narrower strip of land in a “safe zone” Ankara has long sought in northern Syria. Beginning at noon on Wednesday, Russian military police and Syrian border guards…
Three people were killed on Tuesday in an accident at Norilsk Nickel’s Taimyr underground mine in Siberia, the Russian mining giant said. The world’s largest palladium producer and second-largest nickel producer said the facility was still working after the incident. It is one of the company’s main mines in Siberia and contains mixed ores. At 16:30…
Release October 22, 2019, 18:50 The Gazprom Board of Directors took note of the information about the ongoing implementation of programs aimed at expanding gas infrastructure in Russian constituent entities, including the data on the economic model, synchronization with regional programs for converting housing and utilities to gas, and extension of gas grid coverage in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. It was stressed that consistent expansion of gas infrastructure in Russian regions…
Police in St. Petersburg rounded up more than 800 migrant workers in a market raid last week following a mass brawl, the local 47news.ru news website reported Monday. The raid is one of two launched by police this month in an attempt to find the instigators of a Sept. 14 violent altercation involving 50 migrants…
President Vladimir Putin announced Monday that Moscow will soon forgive Ethiopia its debts — the fourth African country to be forgiven in recent years as Russia moves to increase its influence on the continent. Putin made the announcement on the eve of the first-ever Russia Africa Summit, which will bring more than 50 African leaders…
Russia says it has obtained the data needed to support its claims in the Arctic region. The new information will be assessed by the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) during a meeting in February, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said. Last week, the high-ranking government official spoke in the Marine…
The Kremlin said Tuesday that preparations to organize a four-way summit aimed at finding a resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine had effectively ground to a halt. A breakthrough in talks last month appeared to open the way to a possible summit between Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, known as the Normandy Four. But…
Special agents in northern Russia have raided a resort where dozens of Jehovah’s Witnesses had gathered, marking the latest instance in an ongoing campaign against the religious group that Russia considers extremist. Russia labeled the Jehovah’s Witnesses an extremist organization in 2017, leading to mass arrests and spurring hundreds of its estimated 175,000 Russian members…
The Kalinin NPP’s activities with regard to facilitating technical support of the power blocks and managing system and equipment configuration and modification comply with the standards set forth by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This was the conclusion presented by Tea Bilic Zabric, an IAEA expert from Slovenia, during the seminar held at the…
Background Fortum is a Finnish energy corporation. Fortum holds a 49.99 per cent stake in Uniper SE. On October 8, 2019, Fortum announced that it had entered into agreements with the Elliott and Knight Vinke investment funds to acquire a 20.5 per cent stake in Uniper for approximately EUR 2.3 billion. As a result of the deal, Fortum’s share in Uniper may increase to 70.5 per cent. Nord Stream 2 is the construction…
Russia has the world’s highest levels of wealth inequality, surpassing the United States and China, the Credit Suisse Research Institute’s annual review has said. An estimated 83% of Russia’s wealth is now owned by its richest decile despite the country’s modest average wealth, the financial services company said in its report published Monday. “This is…
President Vladimir Putin is on a mission to wean Russia off foreign food and modernize the dairy industry, where milking is still often done by hand. To do that, he’s getting help from Europe. Five years after the food embargo banning Dutch gouda and Italian parmesan, Russian companies are trucking in thousands of black-and-white holsteins…
This month the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Awards, a joint project of the Tolstoy Estate Museum and Samsung Electronics, announced the 2019 winners. Sergei Samsonov won the main award in Contemporary Russian Prose for his novel “Hold On To This Land” (“Держаться за землю”). The Foreign Literature Prize went to Hernán Rivera Letelier for his novel…
Three Russian military helicopters have landed in the Tabqa military airfield in Syria that the United States abandoned earlier this month, Russian state media reported Tuesday. Syrian government forces took control of the airfield last week when U.S.-led coalition forces left the base as part of the U.S. withdrawal of troops from northern Syria. The airfield had…
Lev Yashin was born in Moscow exactly 90 years ago. He would go on to become the most recognized goalkeeper in history and the most famous Russian athlete of the 20th century. Yashin started off from humble beginnings. Both of his parents worked in factories in Moscow when he was growing up. The family was evacuated…
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has accused Russia, among other countries, of trying to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential election through the social network. In at least the third instance this year, Facebook announced Monday that it had shut down one Facebook and 50 Instagram accounts it linked to Russia’s infamous “troll farm.” The U.S.…
October 22, 2019 Cherepovets Steel Mill, one of the largest steel plants in the world (part of the Russian Steel division of PAO Severstal), reduced its overall consumption of almost all energy sources per product ton in the first nine months of 2019, compared to the same period of 2018. This resulted in a total…
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…
Background Gazprom Transgaz Stavropol is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom. The company operates linear gas trunklines that pass through 10 constituent entities of the North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts of the Russian Federation. It also ensures that gas is supplied to Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, and the Republic of South Ossetia. Gazprom Transgaz Stavropol consists of 18 branches, including 10 gas pipeline operation centers. The company’s annual gas transmission volumes…
Soil samples taken along the route of a planned highway in Moscow are emitting radiation levels that pose cancer risks to residents, Greenpeace Russia said Monday. Activists have warned that the eight-lane highway, which authorities hope to start building next year and finish by 2024, will release buried radioactive dust into the air and the…
President Vladimir Putin has appointed state television presenter Valery Fadeyev as the new head of the presidential human rights council and expelled several prominent liberals from the consultative body. Mikhail Fedotov, the council’s current head, has been dismissed from his position because of his age, Putin’s decree signed Monday said. Fadeyev, who hosted a Channel…
A former journalist may be among the dozens of Russian mercenaries believed to have died while fighting in Libya’s civil war last month, the Znak.com news website reported Monday. Previous reporting said that more than 100 Russian mercenaries arrived at a base in Libya in early September and up to 35 may have died in…
Russia is opening more new floor space in shopping malls than any other country in Europe, real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield has found. In the first half of 2019, around 200,000 square meters of new mall space was opened in Russia — equivalent to 27 football fields and accounting for nearly one-quarter of all…
Children and teenagers in St. Petersburg are dying from cancer almost 680% more than they were 10 years ago, according to a new report by the region’s anti-cancer program. Dozens of Russian regions have cut spending on cancer treatments in recent years amid rising costs. Advocacy groups have long campaigned for easier access to cancer…
On Saturday evening the Zaryadye Concert Hall was filled with blue and red hair: on stage, one singer was blue and another was red; in the audience, blue rinses and bifocals mingled with hipster multi-colored streaks. The occasion for all this color was “The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” — not the monumental sculpture created by…
Russia wants to make its Arctic waters more attractive to shippers than the Suez Canal and could be willing to compensate for potential risks to make that happen. President Vladimir Putin has made development of the Arctic one of Russia’s top long-term priorities and huge projects to export liquefied natural gas via the Northern Sea…
Shares in Russian tech giant Yandex have jumped higher on reports Russia will soften proposals to limit foreign ownership of strategically important tech firms. The government is now considering placing a 50%-minus-one cap on the number of shares that can be held by non-Russian investors — up from the 20% limit proposed in a draft…
Billionaire Elon Musk appeared at a government-run small-business forum in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, making good on a promise after its organizers invited him by billboard. “What is the point of any company? To produce any product or service that is useful to other people,” Musk told delegates via video. “Starting a company…
Turkey’s offensive in Syria has left at least 12 prisons for foreign fighters unguarded, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Monday, warning that hundreds of escaped fighters could return to their home countries. Turkey launched an operation against Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria earlier this month after President Donald Trump announced he was withdrawing U.S.…
A member of an elite Chechen police unit has killed a Russian special-forces police officer after an altercation at a training course in the North Caucasus region, Interfax reported Saturday. The two servicemen reportedly got into a fight during advanced training courses at an Interior Ministry university in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. The Chechen policeman is…
On October 19, 2019, during the visit of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to Belgrade, Russia and Serbia signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the construction of the Center for Nuclear Science, Technology and Innovations in the Republic of Serbia. On the Russian side, the document was signed by Alexey Likhachev, General Director of…
At least 15 gold miners were killed on Saturday when a dam collapsed, flooding an artisanal mining encampment in a remote part of Siberia, officials said. Heavy rains had weakened the dam and water broke through, sweeping away several cabins where the artisan miners lived, about 160 kilometers south of the city of Krasnoyarsk. President…
On October 17, Director General of ROSATOM Alexey Likhachev visited the construction site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France. The project aims to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of industrial use of thermonuclear energy, as well as develop the required technological processes. During his visit, the head of ROSATOM conducted a…