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…
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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…
Update: FC Porto has denied the allegations. Comment added below. Football fans in Russia were abruptly blocked from watching FC Krasnodar spring a major upset against FC Porto Tuesday after the Portuguese side reportedly spiked the price for broadcasting rights before the game, Russia’s Match TV sports broadcaster has alleged. The Russian side secured a…
The Moscow city court canceled a decision by the election commission to bar a Russian opposition candidate, Sergei Mitrokhin, from running in a municipal election in September, TASS news agency reported. The court ruled in favor of Mitrokhin three days after tens of thousands of protesters turned out at a rally in Moscow, in which…
An ex-special forces commander and current Russian senator has called a recent police crackdown on protests in Moscow “illegal and incompetent” while the Kremlin has voiced support for the tough response. Russian authorities detained hundreds of people and launched criminal cases against dozens at a series of election protests in Moscow over the past month.…
At least three state-backed agencies have reduced the frequency of their publications of economic and polling data over increasingly worrisome figures this year. Low oil prices and Western sanctions, as well as Russia’s expenditures on its military campaign in Syria and a reported backing of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, have put a dent in many…
The Kremlin boasted Tuesday it was winning the race to develop new cutting edge nuclear weapons despite a mysterious rocket accident last week in northern Russia that caused a temporary spike in radiation levels. Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear agency, has said that the Aug. 8 accident occurred during a rocket test on a sea platform…
Russian fighter jets pushed away a NATO war plane after it tried to approach Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s plane over neutral waters in the Baltic Sea, TASS news agency reported. The plane was flying from Kaliningrad to Moscow and was carrying a TASS reporter on board, the report said.
Background Gazprom Dobycha Nadym is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom. The company’s key activities are production and treatment of gas and gas condensate. Gazprom Dobycha Nadym was the first gas production company in the north of Western Siberia. It was created to develop and operate the Medvezhye oil, gas and condensate field. It is now also involved in production at the Yubileynoye, Yamsoveyskoye, and Bovanenkovskoye fields. The company holds the license…
An estimated 50,000 people took to the streets of Moscow on Saturday in one of the largest protests in Russia since 2012. They rallied against the authorities’ blocking of opposition candidates from local elections next month and the heavy police crackdowns during recent demonstrations. Chants calling on Russia to free its political prisoners could be…
Ukraine’s new president has made it easier for Russians facing “political persecution” to become Ukrainian citizens in an ongoing passport battle between the countries. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last month ordered an overhaul of the process for granting Ukrainian citizenship in response to Russia expanding the number of Ukrainians who can apply for fast-track Russian passports.…
The Kremlin on Tuesday shrugged off five weeks of street protests in support of free elections in Moscow, saying the situation had not warranted comment from President Vladimir Putin and voicing strong support for the tough police response. The demonstrations over a planned election for the Moscow city legislature in September have turned into the…
The Kremlin denied Tuesday that political protests in Moscow in recent weeks have created a political crisis in Russia in its first comments on the rallies. The demonstrations, over elections for the Moscow city legislature, have turned into the biggest sustained protest movement in Russia since 2011-2013, when protesters took to the streets against perceived…
In late July, the internationally acclaimed art group AES + F launched a new exhibition, “Predictions and Revelations,” featuring eight of their biggest projects from the last two decades. The eye needs time to adjust before it can take in the enormous digital collage installation that greets the visitor to the exhibition “Predictions and Revelations”…
Russia and China plan to discuss foreign interference as anti-government protests continue to rock Moscow and Hong Kong and spur accusations of U.S. meddling. Russian lawmakers said they plan to cut short their summer recess to debate foreign powers’ “meddling in domestic issues” as they blamed Google for allegedly promoting last Saturday’s 50,000-strong protest on YouTube.…
Radiation levels in the Russian city of Severodvinsk rose by up to 16 times on Aug. 8 after an accident that authorities said involved a rocket test on a sea platform, Russia‘s state weather agency said Tuesday, the TASS news agency reported. The defense ministry initially said background radiation had remained normal after the incident…
The United States has “more advanced” technology than Russia’s nuclear-powered cruise missile that was presumed to have been involved in a mysterious accident last week, President Donald Trump has said. At least five nuclear experts were killed in the secretive rocket engine test at sea in northern Russia five days ago. U.S.-based experts and intelligence…
An estimated 50,000 protesters took to the streets of Moscow on Saturday, Aug. 10, in one of the largest protests in Russia since 2012. They rallied against the barring of opposition candidates from local elections next month and police crackdowns at recent rallies. 256 were detained in a march after the demonstration.
Less than 15 percent of Russians are considered to be part of the middle class, according to an analysis of official data by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. Russians’ real incomes and ability to save money have suffered from low oil prices and Western sanctions in the past five years. Independent polling has said…
On Aug. 12, 2000, the nuclear submarine Kursk sank, killing all on board: 118 crew members. President Vladimir Putin, then in his first term as president, was faced with intense criticism over his handling of his first national disaster. The catastrophe took place in the Barents Sea on the first Russian naval annual exercise that…
Muslims in Russia celebrated the religious holiday of Kurban Bairam, or Eid al-Adha, on Sunday. The holiday, whose name means “Festival of the Sacrifice,” commemorates the prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to God. During the festival of Kurban Bairam, considered one of the holiest days in the Islamic calendar, large groups…
Video footage of a Russian police officer punching a young woman in the stomach has stirred anger among many Russians who believe the authorities have used excessive force to disperse weeks of political demonstrations in Moscow. The clip, filmed Saturday and later circulated online by Russian celebrities with millions of followers, shows the moment two…
At least five nuclear experts have been killed in a mysterious explosion during a rocket engine test at sea in northern Russia four days ago. Officials have been slow to release information about Thursday’s blast, which led to a radiation spike in a nearby city and sparked heightened demand for iodine. U.S.-based nuclear experts said…
Background Gazprom Dobycha Yamburg is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom. It operates in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area. The company is focused on gas and gas condensate production. Gazprom Dobycha Yamburg holds licenses for the development and production of hydrocarbons from the Yamburgskoye and Zapolyarnoye fields and is preparing for commercial production the Severo-Kamennomyssky, Kamennomysskoye-Sea, Obsky, Chugoryakhinsky, Tazovsko-Zapolyarny and Yuzhno-Parusovy subsurface areas, and, as part of joint ventures, the Parusovy,…
Russia‘s top nuclear official promised on Monday to succeed in developing new weapons as he paid tribute to five scientists killed in what U.S. experts suspect was the botched test of a new missile vaunted by President Vladimir Putin. The five scientists were buried in the closed city of Sarov on Monday. They died last…
Russia held a memorial service on Monday for five scientists killed in a mysterious explosion last week after an official at their research institute suggested they had been working on developing a small nuclear reactor. Authorities have been drip-feeding information about a blast during a rocket test on a platform in the White Sea off…
The estimated 50,000 people who braved Moscow’s rainy weather on Saturday to support opposition politicians barred from a local election and protesters arrested on charges of “mass unrest” last month were largely young adults who see themselves as ordinary people, a survey has said. Russian state television has branded participants of the latest authorized gathering…
A series of explosions that rocked a Russian ammo depot in Siberia has injured a total of 32 people over the past week in addition to one death, authorities have said. Explosions ripped through the site last Monday, killing one, injuring 13 and prompting the authorities to evacuate 16,000 residents from nearby areas in the…
Russia’s military has thwarted the third attack on its airbase in Syria in the past week, Russian news agencies have reported. The attacks took place as Russia’s ally Syria said last week it was resuming military operations in a Russian-led campaign in Idlib, blaming Turkey for not abiding by its commitments under a truce deal.…
Russia’s state communications watchdog has asked Google to stop advertising “illegal mass events” on its YouTube video platform, it said Sunday. Tens of thousands of Russians staged what observers called the country’s biggest political protest for eight years on Saturday, defying a crackdown to demand free elections to Moscow’s city legislature. Multiple YouTube channels broadcast…
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A Tesla electric car caught fire after crashing into a tow truck on a Moscow motorway late on Saturday. Footage of the incident on state TV channel Rossia 24 showed the car by the side of the road engulfed in flames and thick black smoke. Two small explosions occurred within a few seconds of each…
Russian riot police ringed off the presidential administration building in Moscow on Saturday after a crowd gathered nearby following an opposition rally and hundreds more were seen walking toward the area chanting, Reuters witnesses said. Police detained at least 120 people, according to the OVD-Info police-monitoring website, after more than 500 people were seen moving…
Russia’s state nuclear agency acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that nuclear workers were involved in an explosion during a rocket engine test that caused a spike in radiation in a nearby city. The agency, Rosatom, said five people killed in the blast were its staff members, and the accident involved “isotope power sources,”…
Nearly 50,000 people took to Moscow’s streets to rally for fair elections on a rainy Saturday despite weeks of heavy crackdowns, making it one of Russia’s largest protests in several years. This summer’s protest movement, which began as a standoff between opposition figures and Moscow authorities over the barring of independent candidates from an upcoming…