A Russian blogger has been fined for dancing to reggaeton music in front of a World War II monument under a new law banning “disrespect” of the authorities. The blogger, identified as “A. Chervyakova,” posted an Instagram video showing her dance at the Burial Mound of Immortality in April, court documents in the western Russian city…
Russia released two killer whales and six beluga whales back into the wild on Thursday, the first group of almost 100 whales whose detention in the Far East since last year caused an international outcry. The whales, caught last summer in order to be sold to marine parks or aquariums in China, were released in the…
Half of Russians are unable to tell the difference between real news and fake news, the head of a state-funded polling agency said on Wednesday. Almost one-third of Russians said they have encountered fake news online and one-fifths on television in recent years, the VTsIOM pollster said in April. MIT research has shown that fake…
Moscow – Andrey Guryev, the CEO of PhosAgro and Head of the Russian Fertilizer Producers Association (RFPA), has been unanimously elected as Chairman of the Russia-Brazil Business Council. He replaces VEB.RF Deputy Chairman Sergey Vasiliev, who had headed up the Council since 2009. Established in 2004, the Council’s main objectives are the development of business…
The Russian Orthodox Church has developed plans to construct its own Vatican to the tune of $2 billion in the Moscow region, the Vedomosti business daily reported on Thursday. Church officials have been in talks with officials in the city of Sergiyev Posad to transform it into the capital of Orthodoxy since 2017. Sergiyev Posad…
UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen is working on fostering “a deeper understanding” between Russia and the United States to move the Syrian peace process forward, he said in an interview published on Thursday. In an interview published by the Geneva-based Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, Pedersen also said he wanted to convene a group of influential…
The former head of a contracting firm charged with embezzling almost $6.5 million during construction of a Russian spaceport and spending money on luxury goods has received a suspended sentence and escaped jail time. The Vostochny Cosmodrome, a $3 billion project seen in Moscow as vital to secure Russia’s independent access to space, has been…
Representatives of leading investment companies visited production facilities of Rosneft Oil Company in Eastern Siberia. The event was attended by more than 30 analysts from global investment banks (including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan) and portfolio managers from investment funds (including Capital, HSBC Global AM, AIG…
A Russian police officer has been detained for firing his handgun at a child who accidentally kicked a ball into his car while playing with friends, Russian authorities have said. The intoxicated 36-year-old had been parked near a courtyard in the western city of Kursk when he became “infuriated” by the ball that hit his…
Two people were killed and at least seven injured when an Antonov An-24 passenger plane made an emergency landing at a regional airport in Russia’s republic of Buryatia, in Siberia, on Thursday, the area’s emergency situations ministry said. There were 46 people, including four crew, on board the plane, which was en route from the…
Europe’s top human rights body has confirmed Russia’s return as a member after the country was suspended for five years over the annexation of Crimea. Russia was suspended from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in 2014, leading Moscow to halt its annual payments to the organization in 2017. PACE voted this…
Moscow and St. Petersburg are becoming more affordable for expats, according to new rankings from a global consulting firm. Moscow placed 27th and St. Petersburg 75th out of 209 cities worldwide for the most expensive locations to work abroad in Mercer’s 2019 ranking, dropping by 10 and 26 spots from last year respectively. “Despite moderate…
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will have an hourlong meeting on the sidelines of a G20 summit on June 28 in Osaka in Japan, a Kremlin aide said on Wednesday, in their first official encounter for almost a year. The meeting will take place amid growing tension over Tehran. Trump threatened…
Two Russian paratroopers have drowned after a failed parachute landing attempt, the country’s military was quoted by news agencies as saying on Wednesday. It was unclear if the paratroopers died during the snap combat readiness inspections currently taking place in Russia’s central, eastern and southern military districts. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday that…
Iran “won’t be alone” if the United States decides to launch a military strike on the Islamic republic, a senior Russian diplomat said on Wednesday. U.S. President Donald Trump targeted Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian officials with sanctions on Monday. The dramatic step to increase pressure on Iran follows Tehran’s…
Moscow, Russia, 26th June 2019 – ROSATOM, the global technological leader in high-performance clean energy solutions, has today officially launched a series of events to mark the birth 65 years ago of Russia’s nuclear energy industry including the 65th anniversary of the world’s first nuclear power plant in Obninsk (Kaluga Region). ROSATOM’s CEO Alexey Likhachev…
Alexei Mordashov’s children are quickly climbing the ranks of the world’s wealthiest, even as one of them just emerged from his teens. The country’s fourth-richest man transferred some of his holdings last week in European tour operator TUI AG, worth $890 million, to his sons Kirill, 20, and Nikita, 19. In February, he gave them…
Tourists could be barred from visiting Russia’s Lake Baikal in order to protect its ecosystem, a senior aide to President Vladimir Putin has said. Pollution has plagued Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest and oldest freshwater lake, for at least two decades. Scientists recently warned that government proposals risk exacerbating the problem. “We’ll have to artificially…
Russian senators have voted unanimously to uphold President Vladimir Putin’s suspension of a landmark nuclear arms control treaty with the United States on Wednesday. The U.S. will withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty on Aug. 2 unless Moscow ends violations, which Russia denies, of the 1987 pact. Putin signed a decree suspending Russia’s…
Russia has agreed to pay Kazakhstan a fixed per-barrel rate of compensation for tainted oil, industry sources said on Wednesday, a breakthrough in an oil contamination crisis that disrupted Russian and Kazakh flows earlier this year. It is the first such deal and could serve as a template for other agreements, including with Western buyers…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that the Russian air force plane that landed in Venezuela this week was carrying a rotation of military specialists but that their number in the country had not increased, the state-run TASS news agency reported. The plane landed on Monday in Venezuela’s main airport, according to a Reuters witness…
If there’s one thing Russia’s good at, it’s rolling out the tanks for a grand display of military might and armed excellence. The 2019 Army forum, held Tuesday in the outskirts of Moscow, was no different. Here are a few of the fiercest fighters that the Defense Ministry put on display:
TVEL JSC and Haykakan Atomayin Electrakayan CJSC (Armenian NPP) have signed contractual documents for supplies of Russian nuclear fuel in 2019 – 2020. Earlier, in compliance with the relevant documents signed in 2017, a stock of fresh nuclear fuel was formed at the site of the power plant. “The latest supplement to the general contract…
One in 10 Russians say they have been tortured by law enforcement officials, a survey by the independent Levada Center pollster said. Russian law enforcement has been rocked with several torture scandals, with victims including LGBT people in Chechnya, Jehovah’s Witnesses and prisoners. In 2018, United Nations human rights investigators called on Russia to halt frequent torture…
Regional authorities in Russia’s Arctic have introduced stricter environmental regimes on Kolguev Island to protect the island’s bird and wildlife species. The small island located in the southeastern Barents Sea, north of the Nenets coast, is considered a crucial area for migrating birds. It is also inhabited by several endangered species. The Kolguevsky Nature Reserve was…
Russian authorities are taking steps toward banning Georgian wines amid an escalation in tensions between the ex-Soviet neighbors over the past week, the Kommersant business daily reported on Wednesday. Violent protests erupted in Georgia’s capital last week after a Russian lawmaker addressed the Georgian parliament in Russian from the speaker’s chair. On Monday, Russia’s state consumer…
Moscow will respond in kind to any steps NATO takes over Russia’s decision to suspend a 1987 nuclear missile treaty, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday, according to the state-run RIA news agency. NATO defense ministers will discuss later on Wednesday their next steps if Moscow keeps a missile system that the…
Russians are increasingly likely to rally over social than political issues, according to a newly released study of protests in the first three months of 2019. Freedom of assembly has been gradually restricted in Russia since a wave of mass protests in 2011-2012 against President Vladimir Putin. Observers say that nonpolitical demonstrations have become more frequent…
The Hungarian delegation headed by Mr. János Süli, Minister without Portfolio for maintaining the capacity of the Paks NPP paid a working visit to the Belarus NPP on June 24, 2019. Hungarian experts take interest in construction of the NPP in Belarus due to the fact that the Paks-2 NPP units are expected to be…
Baptized Russian soldiers won World War II while most of the country’s atheist soldiers died in battle, according to an Orthodox Church bishop. Metropolitan Ioann of Belgorod and Stary Oskol’s remarks were caught on video during a service honoring the anniversary of the beginning of the war. Although ultimately victorious, the Soviet Union lost over 27…
Russian police have detained a man suspected of being behind a string of druggings and robberies at popular hangout spots in central Moscow, media reported Tuesday. Russia’s The Village news website said Monday that at least 24 victims, including its photo editor, had been drugged and robbed by a single suspect in the past month. The…
Two Russian biathletes have been suspended for four years for doping violations detected in data from Russia‘s former anti-doping agency laboratory, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) said on Tuesday. Alexander Pechenkin and Alexander Chernyshov were among the four Russian biathletes who were charged with doping violations by the IBU and provisionally suspended last November. In addition to a…
Release June 25, 2019, 14:45 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO of Fortum, took place in St. Petersburg today. The parties discussed the issues related to their bilateral cooperation, including joint efforts in the field of power generation. Background Fortum is a Finnish energy concern that owns 29.5 per cent of TGC-1 (part of the Gazprom Energoholding…
NATO urged Russia on Tuesday to destroy a new missile before an August deadline and save a treaty that keeps land-based nuclear warheads out of Europe or face a more determined alliance response in the region. NATO defense ministers will discuss on Wednesday their next steps if Moscow keeps the missile system that the United States says…
A court in Moscow has sentenced a Polish national to 14 years behind bars on charges of espionage, Russian media have reported. Marian Radzajewski, 42, has reportedly been held in custody in Russia since April 2018. Security officials said they had caught him “in the attempt of making a deal” to allegedly smuggle secret parts…
Russia has military intelligence that shows that a U.S. drone was in Iranian air space when it was shot down by Iran last week, Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said on Tuesday. Speaking at a briefing for journalists in Jerusalem, Patrushev said evidence presented by the United States alleging Iran was behind attacks…
This summer the Anatoly Zverev Museum is celebrating the work of four geniuses — one literary and three artistic. In the exhibition entitled, “The Flying Troika and Its Passengers,” Nikolai Gogol’s novel “Dead Souls” is interpreted by Marc Chagall, Anatoly Zverev and Vadim Kosmatschof. The non-conformist artist Anatoly Zverev (1931-1986) loved Nikolai Gogol, and over…
Foreign students who graduate from Russian universities may find it easier to get a Russian passport as soon as this year as the country grapples with a shrinking population, a cabinet official has said. The Russian government has enacted a number of financial programs in recent years to reverse its declining population and record-low migration…
Europe’s top human rights body has voted to allow Russia to return as a member of its parliamentary assembly, dividing the 70-year-old watchdog tasked with monitoring civil liberties among its 47 member states. Russia was suspended from the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) in 2014 over Moscow’s behavior toward Ukraine, including the annexation of…
A Russian Air Force plane that landed in Venezuela is there to service Russian military equipment already in the country, Russia‘s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Tuesday, according to Interfax. The plane landed on Monday in Venezuela’s main airport, according to a Reuters witness and a website that tracks plane movements, three months after a similar arrival…
Russia’s middle class has fallen by nearly one-fifth since the start of the country’s economic crisis in 2014, an analysis by the Moscow-based Alfa Bank has said. Low oil prices and Western sanctions have reduced Russians’ real incomes for five years in a row. Economists forecast that the population’s purchasing power will keep falling in…
The head of Russia’s smallest region has resigned following months of controversy over a land-swap deal with the neighboring republic of Chechnya, Russian media have reported. Residents of the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia first took to the streets against the border-swap agreement signed with Chechnya in fall 2018. Violent protests reignited in March as…
Georgia’s economy could lose up to $300 million annually from the absence of Russian tourists amid tensions between the ex-Soviet neighbors, Georgian analysts estimate. Angry protests erupted in Tbilisi after a Russian lawmaker’s visit last week, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to suspend flights to Georgia, a popular vacation destination for Russians, as of July…
News from projects and regions June 24, 2019, 17:00 Photos On June 23, a cultural and educational event named Sunday in the Radishchev State Art Museum took place in Saratov. During the event organized by Gazprom Transgaz Saratov, over 1,200 residents and guests of the city of Saratov took the opportunity to visit one of the main points of interest in the region. The entrance to the museum’s…
Bolshoi and Moscow ballet Cultural life in the Russian capital usually begins to slow down a bit in the summer, as theater troupes head out on tour, museums start gearing up for the autumn openings, and movie theaters are filled with Hollywood blockbusters. You wouldn’t know it by the premieres and openings at the end…
Cultural life in the Russian capital usually begins to slow down a bit in the summer, as theater troupes head out on tour, museums start gearing up for the autumn openings, and movie theaters are filled with Hollywood blockbusters. You wouldn’t know it by the premieres and openings at the end of last week. On…
Nearly half of Russians say they wouldn’t support a switch to a four-day work week over fears that it would reduce their earnings, a new poll has said. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that a shift to a four-day work week is “very likely” to happen as a way to help workers…
News from projects and regions June 24, 2019, 16:30 Photos On June 22, the second extreme cross-country run named At the Limit took place in the Pangody settlement (Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area), gathering 140 athletes in 35 teams from seven subsidiaries of Gazprom: Gazprom Dobycha Nadym, Gazprom Dobycha Urengoy, Gazprom Dobycha Yamburg, Gazprom Transgaz Yugorsk, Gazprom Pererabotka, Gazprom Energo, and Novy Urengoy…
While the summer solstice is more commonly marked with parties, fireworks and picnics in today’s Russia, there’s plenty of history behind the rituals that preceded modern-day celebrations. Ancient tribes that inhabited this part of the world celebrated with fire, water, song, dance and rituals. Called the Night of Ivan Kupala (from the word “to bathe”),…
Prominent businessman David Yakobashvili told Interfax news agency on Monday he did not plan to return to Russia after security services searched his art gallery, though he later denied this was the reason for his staying away. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) searched a Moscow art gallery owned by Yakobashvili earlier this month as part…
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday extending a Russian ban on food imports from the European Union until the end of 2020, according to a government database. Russia imposed an embargo on a wide range of imports from the EU and other countries in 2014 in retaliation for international sanctions over Moscow’s role…
The Islamic State (IS) terror group has claimed responsibility for a gun attack on security officials in Russia’s republic of Chechnya, the online monitor Site Intelligence Group reported on Sunday. IS has claimed a series of attacks over the past year in Chechnya, a predominately Muslim republic in Russia’s North Caucasus. An estimated 3,400 Russians fought…
The U.S. deployment of land-based missile systems near Russia’s borders could lead to a stand-off comparable to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying on Monday. Russia has been fiercely critical of U.S. plans to deploy missile systems in eastern Europe, and of Washington’s withdrawal from the…
A majority of Russians believe that the Soviet system took care of the common man and woman, according to a recent poll by the independent Levada Center pollster. Russia has seen an upward trend in positive opinions about the Soviet Union in recent years, with nostalgia toward it hitting a 14-year high in December. Public…
Ex-Soviet Georgia is in the grip of a wave of Russophobic hysteria which is being artificially whipped up and is getting worse, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. He said Russia was not imposing sanctions on Tbilisi, but had been forced to halt Russian airline flights to Georgia to protect its citizens after violent…
Russia and its partners will take steps to counter new sanctions that Washington has said it will impose on Iran, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on Monday. In the comments reported by the state-run TASS and RIA news agencies, Ryabkov did not specify what those steps would…
St. Petersburg is famous for its midsummer celebrations when the night skies never reach complete darkness due to the city’s northern location. The most spectacular celebration of them all took place this weekend: “Aliye Parusa,” or Scarlet Sails. Officially a celebration for high school graduates, the event has evolved into a celebration for the whole…
Anna Akhmatova is one of Russia’s most brilliant poets. Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Akhmatova’s parents were both descended from Russian nobility. Her family moved to St. Petersburg before she was a year old, and she started writing poetry at age 11. Her father didn’t want any of her work published under his “respectable” name (Gorenko),…
The film crew of a Russian state-run television channel was attacked in Georgia’s capital on Saturday amid a flare-up in tensions between the two countries, Russian media have reported. Tensions between Russia and Georgia were ignited after a Russian lawmaker’s speech in the Georgian parliament set off mass protests in Tbilisi on Thursday. Demonstrators violently…
Moscow transformed itself to host hundreds of thousands of fans for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. One year after, what’s the legacy of the event in Russia… and how did Russia change? We headed to two popular places for fans, Nikolskaya Street and Luzhniki Stadium to ask Muscovites about their memories of the World Cup.