Marine specialists in Norway have said a harnessed whale that was discovered off its coast may have been trained by the Russian Navy as part of a program to use underwater mammals for service operations. Norwegian media reported Saturday that local fisherman Joar Hesten removed a harness from a beluga whale in northern Norway after…
More than half of Russians believe the internet in Russia should continue to develop as a network “uniting the whole world,” according to a study conducted by the state-funded VTsIOM pollster. The study comes two weeks after Russia’s lower house of parliament approved the third reading of a draft law that aims to increase Moscow’s…
Russia has fallen out of the top five defense spending countries for the first time since 2006 after its spending decreased by 3.5 percent from 2017 to 2018, according to a new report published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Russia has expanded its military presence abroad in recent years, with its 2014…
Orthodox Easter, called Paskha in Russian, celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ and is one of Russia’s most widely celebrated religious holidays. Because it follows the Orthodox Calendar, it is usually celebrated later than Catholic Easter. People prepare for the celebration by coloring eggs, baking the traditional kulich cake and making paskha, a cottage cheese…
On Saturday night Orthodox churches and cathedrals around the world ushered in Easter with solemn ceremonies. Easter celebrations culminated in a grand midnight procession with crosses and icons, and worshipers chanting “Christ is risen indeed!” Easter is Christianity’s most important holiday which symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Orthodox world marks Easter this year a week later than the Catholic and…
President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday Moscow was considering offering all Ukrainian citizens fast-tracked Russian passports, a move likely to anger some politicians in Ukraine which has been at war with pro-Russian separatists since 2014. Putin made the statement days after signing an order to simplify the procedure for obtaining a Russian passport for residents…
A full-scale assault against militants in Syria’s Idlib province “is not expedient now” and civilians’ security needs to be taken into account, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday. Speaking in Beijing, Putin said Russia would work with the Syrian opposition to finalise the make-up of a constitutional committee, part of efforts to secure a…
U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposals on nuclear arms disarmament is “not serious,” a Kremlin spokesman said on Saturday. Trump has ordered his administration to prepare a push for a new arms-control agreements with Russia and China citing the cost of the 21st-century nuclear arms race, The Washington Post reported on Thursday citing administration officials. “It…
Vladimir Kozlov was born in Mogilev, in what was once the Belorussian S.S.R. and is now Belarus. After his childhood and adolescence in industrial Mogilev experiencing all the chaos, upheaval, crime and freedom of the perestroika years, he moved to Minsk and then Moscow. He has written more than a dozen works of fiction, including…
Every Friday, 24-year-old student Arshak Makichyan stands alone in Moscow’s Pushkin Square with a poster warning locals about the dangers of climate change. He started his protest in mid-March, inspired by the #Climatestrike movement led by young activists around the world. Back then, Makichyan and around two dozen other Muscovites gathered in Sokolniki Park in…
A federal judge on Friday sentenced Russian agent Maria Butina to 18 months in prison after Butina pleaded guilty in December to conspiring with a Russian official to infiltrate a gun rights group and influence U.S. conservative activists and Republicans. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan said the 18 months will include the approximately nine months Butina…
ASE EC JSC (Engineering Division of ROSATOM) has been assigned the “Acknowledged Excellence” level by the accessors of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). The certificate confirming the highest (5 star) level according to the criteria of Excellence Model of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) was awarded today by Nikolay Akatov, the leading assessor…
The Syrian government and armed opposition groups, together with both sides’ backers, could agree on the makeup of a constitutional committee in coming months, Russian negotiator Alexander Lavrentyev said on Friday. Forming a constitutional committee is key to political reforms and new elections meant to unify Syria and end an eight-year war which has killed…
A Russian-born socialite has been found guilty of theft of services and grand larceny in New York, facing up to 15 years in prison and deportation to Germany, the Associated Press reported Friday. Anna Sorokin, 28, assumed the name of Anna Delvey when she tricked her friends and banks into financing her lavish $275,000 lifestyle…
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a catering magnate with ties to Vladimir Putin, has paid out compensation to the parents of dozens of children who were reportedly poisoned after eating food provided by his catering company. Officials confirmed some 130 cases of food poisoning among kindergarteners in southeastern Moscow in December, leading parents to file a class-action lawsuit…
Half of Russia’s Orthodox Christians do not know the origins of Easter, according to a state-run poll published on Friday. Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Day after his death on the cross. Orthodox Easter falls on Sunday, April 28, ending seven weeks of fasting and kickstarting the traditions of spring cleaning…
Admitted Russian agent Maria Butina will be sentenced on Friday by a federal judge after pleading guilty in December to conspiring with a Russian official to infiltrate a gun rights group and influence U.S. conservative activists and Republicans. Butina, a former graduate student at American University in Washington who publicly advocated for gun rights, faces…
Veteran columnist Michele Berdy kicked off The Moscow Times’ new monthly Theater series on Wednesday with a talk about her experiences of living in Russia since 1978. The lecture is part of a new series aimed at bringing the local expat community fun, fascinating and occasionally controversial talks and debates with Moscow’s most interesting people. Stay…
Moscow – PhosAgro (MOEX/LSE ticker: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, increased fertilizer production volumes by 1.2% year-on-year to 2.3 million tonnes in 1Q 2019. Sales volumes for the same period grew by 5.2% year-on-year to 2.5 million tonnes. PhosAgro’s production and sales volumes are summarised in the tables below.…
At the first Belt and Road summit in Beijing two years ago, Vladimir Putin offered little more than platitudes for Xi Jinping’s global infrastructure initiative, essentially calling China’s “project of the century” a welcome new plank in Russia’s own strategy for ending American hegemony. Since then, deep-pocketed Chinese companies have intensified their march across Asia, Africa…
Russia will hold talks with Poland, Belarus and Ukraine on Friday about how to solve a problem of polluted Russian oil being pumped through a major pipeline serving Europe and which supplies refineries as far west as Germany. Poland, Germany, Ukraine and Slovakia have suspended imports of Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline over quality…
In 1Q2019 Rosneft Aero, a subsidiary of PJSC NK Rosneft, increased its overwing fueling at Russian airports by 9.5% q-o-q to 458,000 tons. Overwing fueling operations grew by 13% and amounted to 50,700 in the reporting period. Rosneft Aero sold over 797 tons of aviation kerosene in the first three months of 2019, having increased…
Thousands died of hunger and cold as they laid rails across the desolate areas of North Siberia. Now Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu hints he is ready to give the Transpolar Mainline project a new shot. It was one of the many monstrous projects started by Josef Stalin. The railway line was to be built…
The head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) highly secretive branch has been detained on suspicion of large-scale bribery, the Kommersant business daily reported on Friday. Colonel Kirill Cherkalin headed the FSB economic security department’s financial counterintelligence support unit. The department played key roles in investigations surrounding former economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev, deputy prime minister…
A large consignment of germanium-76 isotope has been shipped to Germany under the contract between Isotope JSC and the Technical University of Munich. The batch was produced by PA Electrochemical Plant JSC (ECP, Zelenogorsk, Krasnoyarsk region; an enterprise of TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom). Germanium-76 has been supplied for the joint international research collaboration LEGEND…
April 26 marks the anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear disaster to date at the Chernobyl power plant in northern Ukraine. Following the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl’s reactor number four, radioactive material spread across much of the Northern Hemisphere. Thirty-three years on, the power plant is surrounded by both a hushed desolation and a buzz…
Two people are reportedly dead following a shooting at a Moscow metro station, the state-run TASS news agency reported on Thursday. A man opened fire and killed one person at the entrance of Noviye Cheryomushki station before committing suicide, TASS cited a law enforcement source as saying. Russian media, citing the Baza Telegram channel, have…
The wildfires tearing through southeastern Siberia claimed their first human victim on Thursday as damages almost doubled to nearly 1 billion rubles ($15.4 million), authorities said. At least 36 people were injured and nearly 650 left homeless in Zabaikalsky region, while almost 12,000 pets and livestock animals were killed in the flames. The Emergency Situations…
Lawmakers in Kiev approved a bill boosting the use of Ukrainian across state administration and media, in a move that risks complicating relations with Russia and the West at the same time. While Ukrainian has been the sole official language since 2014 when Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych was toppled from the presidency in deadly street protests,…
In Moscow on Thursday, the short list for the 2019 Pushkin House Book Prize was announced by Alexander Drozdov, executive director of the Yeltsin Presidential Center and a member of this year’s jury. The Prize has been awarded annually since 2013 to the best book of non-fiction about Russia or the Russian-speaking world written for…
Rosneft Aero, a subsidiary of PJSC NK Rosneft, sold 20 mn tons of aviation fuel since the launch of its operating activities in 2008. The Moscow-London “Aeroflot” flight at Sheremetyevo airport marked the jubilee fueling. The total number of Rosneft Aero regular customers amounts to more than 100 airlines. The company provides overwing fueling at…
Release April 25, 2019, 15:35 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Wang Yilin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CNPC, took place today in Beijing, China. The meeting participants reviewed the development prospects of the Chinese gas market and the strategic aspects of cooperation between Gazprom and CNPC, paying particular attention to gas supplies. It was noted that…
Outgoing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s policy has suffered a “total failure” which manifested in his election loss, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in first remarks on the Ukrainian vote. Poroshenko garnered 24 percent of the vote in the Sunday runoffs, behind television comedian and political novice Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s 73 percent. His defeat was seen as…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday a decision to give residents of Ukrainian rebel regions fast-track access to Russian passports was no different from what some European Union states were already doing. Speaking to reporters at the end of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Putin said that Poland, Romania and Hungary…
Russia is considering banning certain meat and dairy products, including parmesan and jamon, over health concerns tied to infectious diseases, the Vedomosti business daily reported. Wholesale imports of fresh EU food products were banned in 2014 in retaliation to Western states imposing sanctions over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.…
Takuya Hattori, senior advisor of Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, and also member of the International Expert Council of Rosatom visited Novovoronezh NPP. He was accompanied by representatives of Japanese companies related to nuclear power. Guests visited the Education and Training Center (ETC), the Main Control Room (MCR), the Turbine Hall of Unit №6. According to…
Poland and Germany have suspended imports of Russian oil via a major pipeline, citing poor quality and triggering a rare crisis over supply from the world’s second-largest crude exporter. Halting imports from the Druzhba pipeline could trigger legal claims by Western buyers against Russian suppliers, who would in turn seek compensation from Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft, three traders…
President Vladimir Putin’s order simplifying the procedure for residents of separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine to obtain a Russian passport prompted condemnations from Kiev and the United States. Putin’s decree on Wednesday eases the path to Russian citizenship for an estimated 3.7 million people living in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics after five years of war…
The United States is capable of attacking Russia from space, a senior Russian general said Wednesday. U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a plan in January calling for the development of space-based sensors to shoot down missiles before they can threaten U.S. soil, among other capabilities. Moscow warned the new U.S. missile defense strategy would unleash…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said after holding talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday that he thought U.S. security guarantees would probably not be enough to persuade Pyongyang to shut its nuclear program. Putin and Kim held a day of talks on an island off the Russian Pacific city of Vladivostok two months…
A high-ranking aide to Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar was in Moscow on Wednesday, a sign of Haftar’s closeness to Russia at a time when forces loyal to him are fighting the internationally recognized government for control of Tripoli. Kheiri Al Tamimi, the head of Haftar’s office, showed up at the high-profile Moscow Conference on International…
Release April 24, 2019, 16:25 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Vasily Orlov, Governor of the Amur Region, took place today in Moscow. It was noted that the Amur Region is an area of strategic interest for Gazprom, as the Power of Siberia gas pipeline passes through its territory. The pipeline will start delivering gas supplies from Russia to China on December 1,…
Release April 24, 2019, 16:20 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Ulf Heitmueller, Chairman of the Executive Board of Verbundnetz Gas (VNG), took place today in Moscow. The parties discussed their ongoing and future cooperation, in particular the interaction in the field of underground gas storage (UGS) in Germany. It was noted that the joint project for the development of the…
Release April 24, 2019, 15:30 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Ruediger von Fritsch, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Russian Federation, took place today in Moscow. The parties discussed issues related to cooperation in the gas sector. It was noted that Germany is the largest importer of Russian gas in the world. In 2018, Gazprom’s…
President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree making it easier for residents of separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine to obtain Russian passports and citizenship, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. In 2017, Putin signed an executive order recognizing the passports from the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics as valid in Russia. The move was widely regarded as the…
The joint Russia-IAEA Nuclear Energy Management School for Managers in Nuclear Organizations concluded in Sochi on April 19. The objective of the NEM School was to support middle-level managers and decision-makers in the nuclear sector in enhancing managerial and technical competencies that are essential for establishing or expanding national nuclear energy programmes. This year hit…
Wildfires tore through nearly 20 towns in the grasslands of southeastern Siberia between April 19-22. The fires injured at least 34 people, four of them critically, and left at least 645 people homeless in Zabaikalsky region. Some 11,800 pets and livestock animals were also killed, The Siberian Times reported. Regional authorities estimate the blaze, which…
Reuters has corrected a story it published on April 18 saying Venezuela is funneling cash flow from oil sales through Russian state energy giant Rosneft to evade U.S. sanctions after Rosneft threatened to ban the international news agency from operating in Russia. The story, datelined Mexico City, said Reuters had uncovered a scheme whereby Venezuelan…
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman has boarded one of two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers that arrived in the Mediterranean on Tuesday to caution Moscow against its activities in Syria and around the world. The U.S. and other Western countries have accused Russia of a range of bad behavior, including aggression in Ukraine, involvement in…
Kim Jong Un, like Vladimir Putin, has enjoyed flourishes of bonhomie with Donald Trump only to see the relationship fray over sanctions. Now, the North Korean leader is turning to the Russian president for help. Kim left North Korea by train and crossed into Russia on Wednesday, the Interfax newswire reported, citing an unidentified official.…
On Sunday, April 21, a small memorial plaque was installed in Moscow on the wall of an apartment house on Ultisa Myasnitskaya, where in 1938 the artist Aleksander Drevin was arrested and taken away to be eventually shot by the N.K.V.D. – the Soviet secret police. Drevin was the most prominent artist killed in Stalin’s…
President Vladimir Putin may look beyond Russia for a mechanism to keep power after his current term ends. That’s making Moscow’s closest ally nervous amid spiraling tensions over Kremlin threats to slash economic subsidies. After years of spending billions of dollars to support Belarus’s state-dominated economy, Russia is intensifying pressure on President Alexander Lukashenko to…
Sounds of explosion rocked through the borderlands as 1,000 forces and more than 340 military vehicles, tanks and aircraft engaged in military training. There was no silent Easter in the border areas between Russia and Norway. As locals on the Norwegian side relaxed in their cabins on Easter Monday, the nearby military units based in…
Russian authorities have issued the first guilty verdict under a new law criminalizing “blatant disrespect” toward the authorities for online posts calling President Vladimir Putin an expletive. A Novgorod region court 570 kilometers northwest of Moscow found a local resident guilty and fined him 30,000 rubles ($470) Monday for posts calling Putin “a fantastic f——”…
Murmansk, Russia – After a series of successful and comprehensive tests, including on its twin KLT-40 reactor system, the unique floating nuclear power unit (FPU) “Akademik Lomonosov” is ready to start commercial operations. The FPU’s reactors, No.1 and No.2, were successfully brought up to 100% capacity on the March 31. These tests confirmed the operational…
Murmansk, Russia – After a series of successful and comprehensive tests, including on its twin KLT-40 reactor system, the unique floating nuclear power unit (FPU) “Akademik Lomonosov” is ready to start commercial operations. The FPU’s reactors, No.1 and No.2, were successfully brought up to 100% capacity on the March 31. These tests confirmed the operational…
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un crossed the border into Russia on Wednesday by train, Russian media reported, for his first trip there aimed at galvanizing support from President Vladimir Putin while nuclear talks with Washington are in limbo. Kim is expected to project himself as a serious world player with his first meeting with the Russian leader and…
Vladimir Putin’s poll ratings are down after a tax hike squeezed cash-strapped consumers. But the Kremlin has opened the coffers to give as much as $8 billion this year to another key constituency: oil companies awash in record profits. The handouts are part of a complex arrangement under which oil companies agree to freeze fuel…
President Vladimir Putin has unveiled a submarine capable of carrying six thermonuclear warheads on Tuesday ahead of its deployment in 2020-2021. Russia’s naval submarine called “Belgorod” will be the world’s longest submarine ever built, measuring 184 meters, The Barents Observer has estimated. The Belgorod will be able to carry six underwater “Poseidon” drones, the state-run…
VSEVOLOZHSK, Leningrad region — When Ivan first learned he would be losing his job at the Ford factory he was floored. For more than a decade, the 50-year-old welder has been producing the frames of Focus and Mondeo cars at the U.S. automaker’s plant in Vsevolozhsk, an industrial town 30 kilometers east of St. Petersburg.…