Russia and seven of its allies, including China and India, will send 128,000 soldiers to train in mass anti-terrorism drills next month, the country’s Defense Ministry has announced. The upcoming maneuvers will take place a year after Russia and China staged 300,000-strong anti-missile exercises near the Chinese border. Those exercises, which were Russia’s largest war…
Flags flutter above linen tents, musicians play ancient melodies on old musical instruments, craftsmen peddle their wares… This might look like the film set for the latest television series, but it’s actually a historical reenactment festival called Ladeinoye Pole that has been held every year since 2007 in the Lipetsk region, about 500 kilometers to…
Russia said on Tuesday that the U.S. test of a ground-launched cruise missile was regrettable and showed that Washington had long been preparing for the demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The Pentagon said Monday that it tested a ground-launched cruise missile with a range of more than 500 kilometers, the first such…
Russia’s Norilsk smelter complex and a town in South Africa’s eastern coal mining province have the highest sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions in the world, according to satellite data from U.S. space agency NASA. The NASA-compiled data published on Monday was commissioned by environmental group Greenpeace India and used the space authority’s satellites to track anthropogenic…
President Vladimir Putin rebuked his French counterpart on Monday, saying he did not want “yellow vest” protests to spring up like in France, after Emmanuel Macron urged the Russian leader to abide by democratic principles following weeks of protests in Moscow. Macron, who was meeting Putin at his summer residence in southern France five days before…
Nearly one in five Russians plays video games, according to a new state-funded survey. Research says that Russia has the world’s sixth-largest video game market, with 66.1 million gamers counted in 2018. Previous polling has said that most Russians prefer to spend their free time watching movies and television. Nineteen percent of Russian respondents said they…
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Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine have rejected newly published evidence of Russia’s military involvement in one of the deadliest battles of Ukraine’s five-year conflict. The battle of Ilovaysk, which pitted Ukrainian forces against Russian-backed rebels in August 2014, resulted in hundreds of deaths on both sides. Russia has consistently denied that it has provided arms or…
Two of Moscow’s transportation authorities and a restaurant owner are seeking nearly $200,000 in damages from opposition figures over alleged traffic disruptions and lost revenue during protests they organized last month, Moscow City Court said Friday. Thousands took to the streets and hundreds were detained on July 27 during unauthorized demonstrations in support of candidates…
Two of Russia’s nuclear radiation monitoring stations went silent two days after a mysterious explosion that led to a radiation spike in northern Russia earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported. Russian officials say at least five nuclear engineers were killed during a rocket test involving “isotope power sources” on a platform in the…
On Aug. 19, 1991 the Soviet Union woke up to “Swan Lake” being broadcast on television interspersed with newscasters reading an announcement. The “State Emergency Committee” (Russian acronym GKChP) had taken control in the country from a supposedly ailing Mikhail Gorbachev, who was at a state residence in Crimea. The country would be headed by…
Seventeen countries owe Russia a total of $27 billion, with most of the country’s lending made through arms deals or unreported political loans, according to a tally by Russia’s RBC news website. The Finance Ministry estimated this year that 25 countries and other legal entities owe Russia $39.4 billion, including through government bonds. Russia classifies…
ROSATOM files an application for the participation in the procedure for selection a strategic investor for the Belene nuclear power plant construction Under the procedure for selection of a strategic investor for Belene NPP project (Bulgaria), announced on May 22, 2019, ROSATOM filed an application for the participation in the procedure in a timely manner.…
Russia is set to open a new tourism center in Franz Josef Land, a remote Arctic archipelago, in response to heightened interest in traveling above the Arctic Circle. The visitor center is located on Guker Island, one of the largest in the archipelago. On this site in 1929, Soviet explorers established the very first research…
Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the 20th century’s most celebrated and prolific composers, whose symphonies, concerti, string quartets and dozens of other works became the musical backdrop for several generations of Soviet citizens. A slim man in thick glasses, Shostakovich was fastidious, diffident, and orderly, the very image of an intellectual composer. But Dmitri Shostakovich…
French President Emmanuel Macron hosts Russian leader Vladimir Putin at his summer residence on Monday and his office is adamant about what the get-together is not. France isn’t playing the role of go-between with Russia and other world powers, Macron’s office says, after being stung by a tweet from President Donald Trump earlier in August that suggested…
Russia will not deploy new missiles as long as the United States shows similar restraint in Europe and Asia, Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu said on Sunday, after Washington’s withdrawal from a Soviet-era arms pact. The United States formally left the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia earlier this month after accusing Moscow of violating the treaty and…
Block 4 of Russia‘s Beloyarsk nuclear power station in the Urals mountains was switched off on Sunday following a “false” response by the safety system, a subsidiary of state nuclear corporation Rosatom said. It said the block was halted at 09.15 (0415 GMT). “The stoppage was carried out under a routine algorithm,” Rosenergoatom said in a…
Russian opposition activists staged a string of pickets in central Moscow on Saturday to call for free elections and for charges against protesters detained at recent rallies to be dropped. Moscow has been rocked by weekly protests for more than a month since the authorities barred opposition candidates from running in an election for the…
The three injured men arrived at the hospital around 4:30 pm, naked and wrapped in translucent plastic bags. The state of the patients made staff suspect they were dealing with something very serious. But the only information they had at the time was that there had been an explosion at a nearby military site around…
Russia’s prison authority has confirmed reports of abuse at Europe’s largest pre-trial detention center days after new video footage renewed concerns about conditions in Russia’s penitentiary system. Russia’s prison system has been under scrutiny since mid-2018, when revelations of torture set off nationwide inspections and dozens of legal cases. Last week, a prisoners’ rights NGO…
Women in Russia will soon be able to work in more than 350 job positions they’d previously been barred from under largely unchanged Soviet-era labor restrictions. Russia currently prohibits women from holding 456 jobs in dozens of industries that involve physically strenuous tasks or harmful working conditions. Previous media reports suggested that the Labor Ministry…
Women in Russia will soon be able to work in more than 350 job positions they’d previously been barred from under largely unchanged Soviet-era labor restrictions. Russia currently prohibits women from holding 456 jobs in dozens of industries that involve physically strenuous tasks or harmful working conditions. Previous media reports suggested that the Labor Ministry…
A Russian court’s decision to release Baring Vostok executive Phillipe Delpal from custody and put him under house arrest followed talks between Russian president Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, the Kremlin said Friday. Delpal, a French national, was ordered to be released from custody and placed under house arrest by a Moscow…
Despite concerns over censorship, the film and performing arts in Russia remain largely free of government interference. While the government can certainly impact the film industry and theater through funding and sometimes, with film, by withholding screening permits, there are many independent companies that can produce whatever they want. Now that the awards season for…
The second Goliath giant crane, with a capacity of 1,200 tonnes, height of 120 metres, and width of 189 metres, has been assembled at the dry dock of Zvezda Shipyard that is being constructed by the Rosneft-led Consortium upon instructions of the President of Russia.
A Russian pilot who landed a passenger plane in a cornfield after hitting a flock of birds said he was no hero despite the Kremlin lauding him for saving the lives of 233 people. Russian media have said it was a miracle that no one was killed when the Ural Airlines Airbus 321 was forced…
Moscow authorities said they have “discovered” gulls flocking around one of two garbage sites near the airport where a Russian passenger plane made a “miraculous” emergency landing on Thursday. All 234 people on board the Ural Airlines Airbus A321 survived when it landed in a cornfield southeast of Moscow after both of its engines struck a…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that two of its nuclear-capable TU-160 bombers had left an airfield opposite Alaska after training exercises and returned to their base, the Interfax news agency reported. Russia said Wednesday it had flown two bombers to a far eastern Russian region opposite Alaska as part of a training exercise that state…
Russia’s Defense Ministry has released footage of its stealth drone flying with a fighter jet a week after unveiling the unmanned aircraft’s maiden flight. The Okhotnik (“Hunter”) combat drone is equipped with a jet engine, anti-radar skin coating and can speed up to 1,000 kilometers per hour, according to the Defense Ministry. The Okhotnik’s design…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has for the first time in two decades released data on the number of labor migrants who have arrived so far in 2019, revealing the extent of work-related migration into the country. President Vladimir Putin aims to offset Russia’s declining population numbers with measures that include attracting up to 10…
A draft law proposing to limit foreign ownership in ‘significant’ Russian technology firms to 20% is not aimed at making its top search engine Yandex state-owned, the lawmaker behind the idea, Anton Gorelkin, said. The draft law, submitted to Russia’s lower house of parliament, the Duma, in late July, proposes limiting foreign ownership in internet…
On August 7th the supplies of the reactor plant main equipment for the third unit of Kudankulam NPP in India were completed. According to Andrey Lebedev, the Vice-President of JSC ASE EC for projects in India, all main equipment items located on the red line of the reactor pit installation have been supplied. This is…
An American freelance journalist has been fined for interviewing Siberian residents who had asked for Canadian asylum this summer over the deteriorating environment in their region. Alina Simone was sued by the mayor of the coal-mining town of Kiselyovsk after she was spotted filming residents who made headlines in June for asking Canadian Prime Minister…
A chill ran down Artyom Tyurin’s spine when he heard the news that his friend and fellow student Yegor Zhukov had been hauled from his bed in the middle of the night by police and charged with “organizing mass unrest,” a crime punishable by up to eight years in prison. It was the latest sign…
An ecologist in northern Russia said Thursday the state nuclear agency Rosatom had committed a crime by carrying out a mysterious test last week close to inhabited areas, which caused a spike in radiation in his native city. Rosatom has said that the Aug. 8 accident occurred during a rocket test involving “isotope power sources”…
Britain has banned the export of submarines to Russia over what it says are advances that pose a national security risk, including the alleged ability to cut undersea cables which carry most global internet communications. Britain and the U.S. have warned that the Russian Navy could disrupt over $10 trillion in daily transactions by attacking…
Russia risks falling behind the rest of the world in next-generation 5G technology after President Vladimir Putin has reserved its most popular frequency range for the military and intelligence services, Russia’s Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday. With speeds at least 10 times faster than 4G technology, 5G is expected to power internet-connected products ranging from…
Russia softened its stance in a high-profile legal standoff that has shaken foreign investors when a court Thursday freed jailed French private equity executive Philippe Delpal from custody and placed him under house arrest instead. Delpal was one of several executives at private equity group Baring Vostok, including U.S. citizen Michael Calvey, who were detained…
A Russian passenger plane’s emergency landing in a cornfield near Moscow after birds were sucked into its engines has been hailed by state media as a “miracle” and compared to a 2009 U.S. flight’s landing after striking a flock of geese. Russians have said it was a miracle that no one was killed when the Ural…
Chepetsky Mechanical Plant (ChMP JSC), a subsidiary of TVEL Fuel Company in Glazov, Udmurt Republic, started pilot works of recycling the waste, which had been stored at the facility during the years of producing uranium tetrafluoride. This is Russia’s first project of recycling tailings dump bottom settings left after uranium conversion. Production of uranium tetrafluoride…
Russia has stolen hypersonic cruise missile technology from the United States, U.S. President Donald Trump’s top national security aide John Bolton said while discussing last week’s deadly explosion at a military test site in Russia’s north. The mysterious explosion that killed five Russian nuclear engineers and caused a radiation spike last Thursday has spawned conflicting…
Viktor Robertovich Tsoi was born and raised in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. The Russian rock legend and frontman of the group Kino was the only child of Valentina Tsoi, a Russian school teacher, and Robert Tsoi, a Soviet-Korean engineer. Tsoi’s roots go back to Songjin, or what today is known as Kimchaek, North Korea, where…
A Moscow court has ruled to keep in custody pending trial six of the 14 defendants accused of “mass unrest” over recent election protests that have rocked Russia’s capital. At least 14 people face up to eight years behind bars for what the authorities call participating in “mass riots” during unauthorized protests in support of…
Norway’s nuclear safety authority is analyzing tiny amounts of radioactive iodine detected in the air in northern Norway in the days after a deadly explosion during a rocket engine test over the border in Russia. Russia’s state nuclear agency, Rosatom, said Saturday that five people killed in the blast were its staff members and the…
The Kremlin will bestow state awards on two pilots who made a successful emergency landing of a passenger plane with 233 people on board near Moscow on Thursday. The Health Ministry said 23 people had suffered injuries but that nobody had been killed when the Ural Airlines Airbus 321 came down in a field southeast…
To keep our newsroom in Moscow running, we need your support. With your help, we can continue with our mission to keep you informed with breaking news, business analysis, thought-provoking opinions, the best of culture and insights into everyday life.
Russian opposition politician Lyubov Sobol has announced she has ended her month-long hunger strike over health concerns for an arrested campaign aide who had joined her in striking. Sobol went on hunger strike last month after Moscow election authorities refused to allow her and other opposition candidates on the ballot for next month’s local legislature…
Russia could ban timber exports to China unless Beijing takes action to help mitigate the effects of illegal logging, a Russian government minister said in an interview published Thursday. Russian authorities this month attributed some of the vast wildfires that have engulfed portions of Siberia in recent weeks to arsonists trying to conceal illegal logging…
A region in northern Russia has ordered more than 1,000 gas masks after a deadly explosion led to a spike in radiation, Russia’s Open Media news website reported. At least five nuclear experts were killed in the explosion, which took place during a rocket test at sea off the coast of the Arkhangelsk region last…
Q2 2019 IFRS financial results and corresponding MD&A will be available on our website on August 21, 2019 at 09:30 (Moscow time)
The Kremlin said Wednesday that Russia must be vigilant in protecting its industrial secrets against foreign intelligence services after scientists criticized new restrictions on them meeting foreigners. Under an order issued by the Education Ministry in February but which has only now come to light, government-affiliated scientists are advised to meet their foreign colleagues only…
Russia said Wednesday it had flown two nuclear-capable TU-160 bombers to a far eastern Russian region opposite Alaska as part of a training exercise that state media said showed Moscow’s ability to park nuclear arms on the United States’ doorstep. The Tupolev TU-160 strategic bomber, nicknamed the White Swan in Russia, is a supersonic Soviet-era…
Russian security officers armed with automatic rifles searched on Wednesday the Moscow offices of a rights group that represents the interests of Russian nationals in the European Court of Human Rights, the group said. Members of the Federal Security Service (FSB) searched an office used by Justice Initiative and its partner organisation Astreya and confiscated…
A Russian media outlet has for the first time compiled a ranking of the country’s 100 most influential Muslims, with UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov featured alongside tycoons, government officials and spiritual leaders. An estimated 20 million Muslims make up Russia’s second-largest religious minority, comprising about 14% of the overall population. Seven of Russia’s 85…
Dmitry Merezhkovsky was born in St. Petersburg in 1866 in a family of a government official. In his teen years, and with his mother’s support, he was already writing poetry and contemplating the religious questions that would come to occupy him throughout his life. From 1884 to 1889, he studied philology and history at the…
During a recent session of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, officials whipped themselves into a frenzy over a worrisome development: foreign powers trying to meddle in the country’s elections. The elections in question were for the Moscow City Duma, a toothless body with little or no ability to influence affairs in Russia’s…
The consortium of Eni, Rosneft, BP, and Mubadala Petroleum together with Egyptian oil and gas companies continues the successful implementation of the Zohr gas project on the Mediterranean offshore. In H1 2019, the production on the field amounted to 11.3 bcm of gas, which is 3.6 times more than in the same period last year.…
Locals from the closed military settlement at Nyonoksa on the White Sea coast were earlier this week told that they would have to leave the area on Wednesday morning. Russian military authorities explained to locals that the evacuation was planned in advance and had nothing to do with last week’s missile explosion, the local 29.ru…
Russian authorities have recommended for scientists to avoid communicating with their foreign colleagues, a prominent academic has complained in an open letter. The Russian Science and Higher Education Ministry reportedly distributed a decree in July advising scientists to brief the ministry in detail about upcoming meetings with foreign counterparts and to seek approval from bosses…