The Arctic shortcut that connects Asia and Europe is open and ice-free and shipping appears smooth, including for vessels without ice class standards. The last pieces of frozen water vanished in mid-August and data shows that the whole route is now free of ice. This includes the East Siberian Sea, a region that normally has…
More than $175 billion had circulated in Russia’s shadow economy in 2017, according to the latest available official data analyzed by the RBC news website on Thursday. Russia’s State Statistics Service (Rosstat) defines the shadow economy as off-the-books salaries, unofficial employment and informal sales, but not criminal activity. Financial authorities say the shadow economy’s share…
August 29, 2019 Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, today held in St. Petersburg a conference call marking Oil and Gas Industry Workers Day. The heads of Gazprom Dobycha Noyabrsk, Gazprom Dobycha Urengoy, Gazprom Transgaz Saint Petersburg, and Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta made operational performance reports at the meeting. Shorthand record of message delivered by Alexey Miller at conference call marking Oil…
Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov has been moved from a jail in northern Russia to Moscow ahead of a rumored prisoner exchange with Kiev, Russian news agencies reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources. Sentsov, 43, is serving a 20-year sentence at a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle on charges of terrorism, which the filmmaker has…
In 1H 2019 Rosneft Aero, a subsidiary of PJSC NK Rosneft, increased its overwing fueling at Russian airports by 9.5% y-to-y to 1.035 mln tons.
Over a dozen cities and districts on Russia’s Pacific coast have declared a state of emergency over torrential rains that have caused severe floods this week. Footage showed flooded roads and homes, as well as dangerous mudslides, in the major Far Eastern city of Vladivostok. Weather forecasters say a month’s worth of rainfall has descended…
Prominent Russian opposition figure and rejected Moscow city election candidate Ilya Yashin has been detained for a record fifth time Wednesday after serving four consecutive jail terms. Yashin, 36, is among a slew of opposition candidates who were barred from running for Moscow’s legislature on Sept. 8 and handed short jail terms on protest-related charges.…
Three families have entered Forbes Russia’s 2019 list of the country’s 10 wealthiest dynasties, which is dominated by the Gutseriyev family and the Rotenberg brothers. The business magazine estimates that Russia’s 10 richest families held a combined $25 billion this year, slightly up from $24.98 billion in 2018. Gutseriyev, along with his son Said, brother…
A little boy in a bright yellow jacket stares at a picture of an abandoned kindergarten in Pripyat, Ukraine, a series of rusted cribs covered by dust and chunks of plaster filling a room that has been left untouched since a few days after the nuclear plant explosion in 1986. “Why have they left all…
Moscow – PhosAgro (“PhosAgro” or “the Company”) (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, today announces its interim condensed consolidated IFRS financial results for the three months (2Q) and six months (1H) ended 30 June 2019. Revenue for 2Q 2019 rose by 3% year-on-year to RUB 58.1 billion…
Over a dozen Russian cabinet offices will relocate to a cluster of skyscrapers in the sprawling financial district of western Moscow, the Kommersant business daily has reported. More than two decades in the making, Moscow’s business hub has struggled to fill its office space following the 2008 global financial crisis and Western sanctions on Russia.…
Moscow’s mayor has raised the city’s monthly retirement payout less than two weeks before a local election that has triggered the largest sustained protest movement in Russia in recent years. The protests broke out this summer after election authorities barred a slew of opposition candidates from running for the Moscow City Duma on Sept. 8.…
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the murder of an ethnic Chechen exile in Berlin last week had nothing to do with the Russian state or its official agencies. German prosecutors are considering whether there was a political motive behind the killing on Friday of 40-year-old Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, allegedly by a Russian citizen who shot…
The Russian military has officially confirmed the discovery of five new Arctic islands which have emerged as climate change accelerates glacial melting. The new islands were discovered by a student onboard a Russian Navy research vessel that conducted a voyage through Arctic waters in late 2016. Russia has been increasing its military and commercial presence…
A court in Ukraine ordered jailed Russian journalist Kirill Vyshinsky to be freed on bail and released from custody, as Moscow and Kiev hold behind-the-scenes talks on a possible prisoner swap. Vyshinsky, the head of Russia‘s state-backed RIA Novosti news agency in Ukraine, was arrested last year and accused of supporting pro-Russian separatists. Vyshinsky faces up to…
Russia and Turkey are discussing the possibility of deliveries of the Russian-made Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter jet and Su-35 aircraft to Turkey, the state-run RIA news agency cited a Russian official as saying on Wednesday. Russia began delivering S-400 missile systems to Turkey this year, in a step that strained ties with Ankara’s NATO allies…
Republican and Democratic U.S. senators said Russia refused to grant them visas for a visit to Moscow next week, amid disagreement within Washington and among U.S. allies over whether the country should be readmitted to the Group of Seven. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said on Tuesday that Russia denied him a visa. Senator Ron Johnson,…
More than 4,000 Red List tortoises, which were smuggled into Russia in a cabbage truck, were safely returned to their Arys region of Kazakhstan, the Russian Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. The tortoises were hidden amongst cabbage in 24 bags on the back of a truck which was stopped at the Russia-Kazakhstan border on June…
Russia spends almost $73 billion per year on secret weapons and intellectual property, expenditures that total over 5% of the economy, according to official data analyzed by the RBC news website. Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) totaled $1.5 trillion in 2017. A Swedish think tank reported this year that Russia officially spent $66.3 billion on defense…
Moscow – The Board of Directors of PhosAgro, one of the world’s leading producers of phosphate-based fertilizers, heard a report by Andrey Guryev on the results of his work as CEO of the Company over the past six years and about the Company’s medium-term plans. Members of the Board of Directors noted the Company’s significant…
President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia and Turkey had agreed steps to tackle militants in northwest Syria and “normalize” the situation there after a Syrian army offensive encircled rebel fighters and a Turkish military post. Putin was speaking after talks in Moscow with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has said the Syrian army attacks…
Russia’s 30-year-old nuclear-powered Sevmorput container carrier will soon transport 5,000 tons of fish from the country’s Far East to St. Petersburg via the Northern Sea Route. “This test voyage with the container carrier gives hope that someday such deliveries will become regular,” the Kamchatka region governor Vladimir Kuzmitsky has said in an interview with the region’s official news portal.…
Abnormally low water levels driven by drought are threatening the livelihoods of thousands of people in the Russian Arctic, The Siberian Times has reported. The Lena and other rivers in Russia’s northern republic of Sakha have reportedly experienced the worst shallowing in 30 years, hampering navigation in remote areas that are only reachable by boat.…
A Russian bakery in Siberia has been fined $150 for hanging a sign at its entrance that banned LGBT people from entering. The Ipakov Brothers bakery in the city of Kemerovo placed a wooden sign near its entrance that said “F*****s are not allowed” when it opened in February. The bakery’s co-owner, Anton Ipatov, told…
Moscow – The PhosAgro Board of Directors Committee on Sustainable Development has held its first meeting, which was chaired by Irina Bokova. Prior to joining PhosAgro, Ms Bokova was the first woman ever to serve as Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a post she held for eight years. The…
On Aug. 27, 1958, the Soviet Union launched the dogs Pyostrya and Belyanka into space. The craft, a R-5A rocket, set a new record in terms of weight-to-height ratio, as it reached 453 kilometers above the earth’s surface at a weight of over 1,500 kilograms. The dogs safely returned to earth following the flight. Between…
President Tayyip Erdogan will seek steps from Russia’s Vladimir Putin to safeguard Turkish troops in the face of an offensive by the Syrian army in the country’s northwest when the two leaders meet on Tuesday, a senior Turkish official said. Erdogan, who is making a one-day visit to Russia, told Putin last week that attacks…
Russia is the largest country on earth — and as a result, its regions and cities are incredibly diverse and unique. There’s no better place to see this diversity than on their flags. Many are beautiful, some are weird, and others just ridiculous. Over the weekend, Moscow marked its national Flag Day festivities by unfurling…
Russia’s national carrier Aeroflot has disputed a recent ranking of global airlines’ gender gaps among pilots, saying it has a higher ratio of women aviators than reported. Aeroflot was ranked the last of 45 major airlines worldwide in the FromAtoB.com travel platform’s study cited by Bloomberg last week, with 1.4% of its pilots being women.…
Every summer, Red Square plays host to the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival. The event features military orchestras and marching bands from across the world. This year, 30 orchestras from 12 countries will take part in the festival. The winner will be chosen not by a panel of judges, but by the audience’s vote.…
Ivan Vasilevich, more commonly known as Ivan the Terrible or Ivan IV, was born on Aug. 25, 1530 in Kolomenskoye, Moscow. The grandson of Ivan the Great, he acquired huge amounts of land during his reign, transforming a Grand Duchy into a Tsardom. Through this, however, he imposed a reign of terror and exhibited uncontrollable…
Born in Leningrad, U.S.S.R. in 1979, Olga Zilberbourg moved to the United States when she was seventeen. Following three short story collections in Russian, her first English collection. “Like Water and Other Stories,” explores the lives of women who have different and often competing roles and cultures. She introduces the intriguing theory that “the past,…
Russia test-fired Sineva and Bulava ballistic missiles from two submarines from the polar region of the Arctic Ocean and from the Barents Sea on Saturday as part of combat training, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The Sineva, a liquid-fueled intercontinental missile, was fired from the Tula submarine, while a Bulava, Russia’s newest solid-fueled…
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a humanoid robot failed to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported, citing a live broadcast. The FEDOR (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research) robot is on its way to the ISS for a planned two-week mission to support the crew and test its skills. The docking…
A Russian doctor found to have a radioactive isotope in his body after treating victims of an Aug. 8 rocket engine explosion had been contaminated by food and not radiation, authorities said Friday. Earlier, The Moscow Times reported that a group of doctors who treated the radiation victims had been flown to Moscow for medical…
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) said on Friday it had suspended Russian national team player Evgeny Kuznetsov for four years for testing positive for cocaine. Kuznetsov, who plays for the Washington Capitals in North America’s National Hockey League (NHL), said he accepted his suspension. “Representing my country has always been so close to my heart…
Authorities in the Russian region of Chechnya on Friday inaugurated what they said was the largest mosque in Europe in a pomp-filled ceremony attended by local and foreign officials. Named after the Prophet Mohammed, the marble-decorated mosque has capacity for more than 30,000 people and has been described by the Chechen authorities as the “largest…
Aug. 23 marks 30 years since the Baltic Way protest, when 2 million people in Soviet Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands to create a 600-kilometer “human chain.” The peaceful protest was held on the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact to demand independence from the U.S.S.R.
The explosion that killed five Russian scientists during a rocket engine test earlier this month was followed by a second blast two hours later, the likely source of a spike in radiation, Norway’s nuclear test-ban monitor said Friday. The second explosion, detected only by infrasonic air pressure sensors and not by the seismic monitors that…
An explosion that killed five Russian scientists during a rocket engine test this month was followed by a second blast two hours later, the likely source of a spike in radiation, Norway’s nuclear test-ban monitor said on Friday. The second explosion was likely from an airborne rocket powered by radioactive fuel, the Norsar agency said —…
It would be impossible for modern-day Russia to cover up an accident the size of Chernobyl, the Kremlin said on Friday as mystery continues to surround this month’s rocket engine explosion in northern Russia. Government officials have given a muted, occasionally contradictory response in the weeks since the Aug. 8 accident that has killed seven…
Russia opened a showroom Friday selling its first post-Soviet luxury limousine under the Aurus brand, a type of car used by President Vladimir Putin at his inauguration last year. Russia has been trying to reduce its dependence on imported goods and technology, a drive that gathered speed after Moscow was hit by Western sanctions in…
August 23, 2019, Murmansk, Russia – The world’s only floating power unit (FPU) Akademik Lomonosov set sail for its final destination of Pevek, Chukotka, in Russia’s Far East, where it will provide a stable supply of clean energy. Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev gave the signal for the Akademik Lomonosov to set sail and said,…
Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant set sail Friday from the Arctic port of Murmansk to provide power to one of the country’s most remote regions, sparking environmental concerns. Developed by the Russian state nuclear company Rosatom, the plant, known as “Akademik Lomonosov,” set off on a 5,000 kilometer (3,100 mile) journey through Arctic waters…
A former U.S. Marine held in Russia on suspicion of spying said on Friday that prison authorities in Moscow had injured him, as a court ruled to extend his detention by two months. Paul Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained in a Moscow hotel room on Dec. 28 and accused of espionage,…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered a like-for-like response to a recent U.S. missile test, which he said showed that Washington aimed to deploy previously banned missiles around the world. The Pentagon said on Monday it had tested a conventionally-configured cruise missile that hit its target after more than 500 kilometers of flight, its…
In a previously unreported social media post, a Russian doctor has publicly confirmed that his colleagues were forced to treat radiation victims after a deadly nuclear explosion earlier this month without basic equipment or knowledge of the accident. A blast at a military base in northern Russia killed seven people and injured six on Aug. 8,…
Ukraine’s president backed leading European powers on Thursday in opposing the readmission of Russia to the Group of Seven advanced economies, saying Moscow still occupied Crimea and was frustrating peace in eastern Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday it would be “appropriate” to have Russia rejoin what used to be the G8. France…
Over 550 Russian academics and scientists accused the Kremlin on Thursday of waging a campaign of repression against activists who have staged some of Russia’s biggest anti-government protests in years. In an open letter, they demanded that criminal cases be dropped against more than a dozen people who face up to eight years in jail…
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to exchange as many as 66 prisoners held in both countries as soon as next week, including 24 Ukrainian sailors captured off the coast of Crimea last year, media outlets have reported. Russia holds dozens of Ukrainian captives following five years of conflict in eastern Ukraine, but it is unclear…
Russia has accused the United States of provoking an “uncontrolled” arms race during a United Nations Security Council meeting, the latest in an exchange of barbs between Moscow and Washington over the demise of a Cold War-era arms control treaty. Russia and China on Thursday asked the UN Security Council to meet over U.S. officials’…
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was released on Friday after 30 days in prison, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter. Navalny, a prominent Kremlin critic, was jailed on charges of violating Russia’s protest laws after he called for people to demonstrate in central Moscow over the exclusion of opposition candidates from a local election…
August 23, 2019 Excerpts from the book “Rem Ivanovich Vyakhirev.” Published by Real Modern Pictures, 2014. Oil rig operator. Kilometers traveled with tools on shoulder After graduation, Rem Vyakhirev was an oil field operator on patrol for several years. I can give a brief explanation to those who have no idea what it is: in the 1950s, a worker with a gas mask and a set of tools on his…
The consortium of Eni, Rosneft, BP, and Mubadala Petroleum continues the successful implementation of the Zohr gas project on the Mediterranean shelf together with Egyptian oil and gas companies
Russia doesn’t “shop” for foreign territories, the Kremlin has said in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s idea to buy the resource-rich Danish territory of Greenland. Trump, who built his career as a real estate mogul, has mused openly in recent days about a U.S. purchase of Greenland, raising eyebrows in Europe and the U.S.…
Russia’s forest authority estimates that forest fires across Siberia and other regions have cost approximately 7 billion rubles ($106 million) so far this year, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency has reported. More than 200 fires are burning across an area of 1.1 million hectares of the country, almost 1 million of which cover remote…
News from projects and regions August 22, 2019, 17:00 On August 21, the St. Petersburg Yacht Club held the award ceremony for the winners and participants of the Optimists of the Northern Capital. Gazprom Cup regatta – Russia’s largest national children’s sports tournament, which has been held since 2012 by the St. Petersburg Yacht Club and the Sailing Academy with…
Members of two infamous pro-Kremlin groups have stormed a human rights NGO’s seminar on how to deal with law enforcement at protests, saying they don’t want a repeat of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution in Russia. Two fringe nationalist groups called the National Liberation Movement (NOD) and SERB are known for attacks on opposition activists and…
On Aug. 20 collector and art patron Mikhail Abramov was killed in an accident near Peloponnes, Greece on his way to the international airport and a flight to Moscow. The helicopter he was in crashed into the sea, killing Abramov, another passenger and the pilot. Abramov was a businessman and collector of ancient Christian art…
Doctors who treated victims of radiation after a deadly explosion in northern Russia were told to “get to work” after raising concerns of exposure, Russian media have reported, citing medical personnel involved in treating the victims. A rocket engine blast killed at least five people and injured six on a platform off the coast of the…