A botched deal to supply 1 million Sputnik V doses to Kenya was part of the same controversial Emirati scheme which has seen an Abu Dhabi-based company with royal connections ink deals to resell Russia’s flagship coronavirus vaccine at huge mark-ups. Documents obtained by The Moscow Times confirm that Russia named Aurugulf Health Investments —…
Russia said Monday it had carried out another successful test of its Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile, a new addition to an arsenal of weapons called “invincible” by President Vladimir Putin. Moscow has in recent years touted the development of futuristic weapons which it hopes will give it the edge in any arms race with the…
A Russian legal group that recently defended the organizations of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny said on Sunday it was disbanding over fears of criminal sanctions. Team 29 said its website had been blocked after a request from prosecutors, who accuse the group of links with a Czech organization that has been deemed “undesirable.” Since Navalny’s…
This is not shaping up to be the best summer for grilling. Grilling is an activity that needs an end of the day respite from intense heat, ideally borne in on a gentle breeze from the mountains or sea, and there has been precious little of that lately. And yet, reader, we persist. We endure…
Russian officials hailed a “miracle” on Friday after a passenger plane made an emergency landing in a Siberian field and all 18 people on board emerged, suffering only cuts and bruises. The An-28 plane, operated by Siberian Light Aviation (SiLA), was flying from the town of Kedrovy to Tomsk when communication was lost, Governor Sergei…
Russian investigative journalism outlet Proekt was added to the country’s registry of “undesirable” organizations Thursday, banning its activity in Russia and putting its staff at risk of legal penalties including jail time. The designation is the latest example of Russia’s crackdown on independent and investigative media in recent months, with multiple organizations and individuals being…
Eight swimmers from around the world braved the freezing waters of Lake Baikal in Siberia this week to raise awareness toward the environmental threats facing the world’s largest and oldest freshwater lake. Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has been plagued with environmental problems caused by industrial pollution, mining, sewage discharge and agricultural run-off.…
Take a river cruise With temperatures still high, beaches and pools packed, and tempers fraying, we think a Moscow River cruise is the perfect way to relax, enjoy some sightseeing, keep cool, and — if you wish — have a great meal. There are dozens of companies running tours that start and stop near the…
Belarus on Friday jailed 11 university students and raided the homes of 18 journalists in a continuing crackdown on the opposition by President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. A court in the authoritarian country sentenced 10 students and a teacher to two years and six months in prison on charges of violating public order. Another student was…
Bashneft – part of Rosneft – has carried out the largest landscaping of the territory over the past 20 years.
Muscovites and guests of the capital will no longer be required to present QR codes in order to dine indoors at Moscow’s restaurants, cafes and bars, according to a mayoral decree published Friday. The decree comes into effect starting Monday, July 19, exactly three weeks after the controversial measure was put in place. Last month,…
President Vladimir Putin’s lengthy treatise on Russia and Ukraine’s shared history has been added to the Russian military’s curriculum, the RBC news website reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reportedly personally ordered the 5,300-word opus published by the Kremlin on Monday to be added into the military-patriotic directorate’s curriculum. Russian media called…
Russia on Friday said that the United States had failed in its mission in Afghanistan and blamed the withdrawal of foreign forces for the war-torn country’s rapidly deteriorating stability. Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have capitalised on the last stages of the withdrawal of foreign troops to launch offensives, capturing a swath of districts and border…
July 15, 2021, El-Dabaa, Egypt – ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev and Egypt’s Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohammed Shaker visited the construction site of Egypt’s El-Dabaa NPP on Thursday. The delegation also included ROSATOM’s First Deputy Director General for Nuclear Energy and ASE JSC President Alexander Lokshin, Director for Capital Investments CAPEX; Supervision;…
Independent Russian investigative outlet Proekt has promised a new and potentially explosive investigation in the coming week in defiance of its new “undesirable” ban. Proekt is Russia’s first news outlet to be declared “undesirable,” a designation that forces labeled organizations to disband and places members and financial contributors at risk of significant jail time. Over…
July 16, 2021 The Board of Directors of Severstal (“Severstal”, “the Company”) (LSE: SVST; MICEX-RTS: CHMF), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and steel-related mining companies, is recommending a dividend of 84.45 roubles per share for the three months ended 30 June 2021. Approval of the dividend is expected to take place at…
July 16, 2021 PAO Severstal (MOEX: CHMF; LSE: SVST), one of the world’s leading steel and steel-related mining companies, increased its revenue by 33% qoq to $2,946 mln, EBITDA reached $1,647 mln (+42% qoq), EBITDA margin increased to 55.9% (+3.5 ppts qoq). The full version of the press release is available at the link. KEY…
Pyotr Mamonov, one of the most important figures in popular culture in the late Soviet and post-Soviet era, died on July 15 from complications of coronavirus. He was 70 years old. Mamonov was born in Moscow in a family of the intelligentsia – his father was an engineer and mother a translator of Scandinavian languages.…
Russian prosecutors have asked for a six-year suspended sentence for American investor Michael Calvey in an embezzlement case that has sent shockwaves through the Russian business establishment, Calvey’s lawyer confirmed to The Moscow Times on Thursday. Speaking to reporters after Thursday’s court hearing, Calvey slammed the request, saying his innocence was fully proven in documents…
Russia has added independent investigative outlet Proekt to its registry of “undesirable” organizations, a designation that bans the outlet’s activities and puts its staff at risk of jail time, and labeled several of its journalists “foreign agents.” Founded in 2018, Proekt, one of the country’s last independent news outlets, has been behind several high-profile investigations…
A pair of elite Russian swimmers have been provisionally suspended from the Tokyo Olympics over doping violations on the eve of the games, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) announced in a statement on its website Wednesday. The athletes, Veronika Andrusenko and Alexander Kudashev, had been set to compete under the banner of the Russian Olympic…
Rosneft-Bunker bunkered the legendary training sailing vessel Khersones in the port of Novorossiysk with eco-friendly fuel.
Russian officials’ plans to restrict live streams from polling stations in upcoming parliamentary elections have been met with accusations of pre-emptive attempts to conceal voter fraud, including ballot stuffing. Russia’s Central Election Committee (CEC) said Wednesday that only members, candidates and political parties will have access to the live feeds when voters go to the…
At St. Petersburg’s historic Baltic Shipyard, cranes hover over the shining Neva River as hundreds of workers build four nuclear-powered icebreakers. Fronted by a Russian flag and named after the country’s northern regions, the giant vessels are meant to ensure Moscow’s dominance over the melting Arctic. Russia has scrambled to become a leading power in…
The German government has said it is unable to help repair a Siberian village road in response to appeals from local residents, Russia’s Sib.Realii news website reported Wednesday. Residents of Verkhny Karbush, which was founded by ethnic Germans, sent two letters and filmed a video last month asking for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s help after…
A chorus in medical scrubs intones “polonium, polonium” as an opera about the poisoned Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko premieres in a British theatre on Thursday. The former Russian security agent died in 2006 after drinking tea laced with the radioactive isotope Polonium-210 at a London hotel. As he lay dying in hospital, he pointed the…
An ally of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny who is running for local office has said that she faces a court-approved forced hospitalization in a coronavirus ward despite her negative Covid-19 test, preventing her from submitting election paperwork on time. Violetta Grudina, who had headed Navalny’s political network in the far northern city of Murmansk,…
July 14, Irkutsk Region: The International Transbaikal Ecology Swim BAIKAL GREAT SWIM scored the results. The swim was supported by the Irkutsk Region Government, ROSATOM, and UN Information Center in Moscow. The swim was held to attract attention to the environmental problems of Lake Baikal. The swim was organized by the regional public organization ‘Cold…
What Russian artists do you know? If you ask that question in Russia and then abroad, the answers are usually entirely different. Outside Russia, the best known artists are from the early 20th-century avant-garde: Kazimir Malevich, Vassily Kandinsky, and Marc Chagall. Their works are in the collections of the world’s great museums, from the Louvre…
Russia on Wednesday launched military exercises in Tajikistan as the Taliban continue their blistering offensive in neighboring Afghanistan. The militants in recent weeks have brought huge swathes of the country under their control as foreign troops withdraw, including Afghanistan’s main Shir Khan Bandar border crossing with Tajikistan. Moscow is closely watching the offensive, concerned about…
The FBI and U.S. federal prosecutors are investigating an American company for allegedly bypassing sanctions to supply lab equipment for Russia’s weapons of mass destruction programs, The Daily Beast reported Tuesday, citing newly unsealed documents it said it obtained. According to the federal court documents, Intertech Corporation allegedly “intentionally falsified shipping documents, avoided and circumvented…
Russia recorded its highest-ever daily death toll from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic on Wednesday, the country’s Covid-19 task force said. Russia reported 23,827 new coronavirus cases and 786 deaths on Wednesday as the country battles the surging Delta variant first detected in India. The country’s previous record daily death count of…
Russian President Vladimir Putin told U.S. climate envoy John Kerry that Moscow and Washington have a shared interest in battling climate change, the Kremlin said Wednesday, in a rare area of common ground between the rivals. “The climate problem is one of the areas where Russia and the United States have common interests and similar…
Russian athletes competing under a neutral flag have been instructed to avoid answering “provocative” political questions at the Tokyo Olympics that will open to mostly empty stands next week, the Vedomosti business daily reported Wednesday. “No comment” is the most commonly recommended response on issues ranging from Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the Russian doping…
A Russian-based hacker group blamed for a massive ransomware attack went offline Tuesday, sparking speculation about whether the move was the result of a government-led action. The “dark web” page of the group known as REvil disappeared some two weeks after an attack that crippled networks of hundreds of companies worldwide and prompted a ransom…
Cairo, 12th of July, 2021 – ROSATOM, a global technological leader , organized a focused media roundtable with the honorable presence of the Egyptian Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA). The event assembled journalists representing the leading Egyptian media. It was attended by Alexander Voronkov, director and regional vice-president of the Rosatom Regional Center in Middle…
Authorities in Russia’s largest and coldest region have politely declined Hollywood actor and environmental activist Leonard DiCaprio’s offer to help with its fast-spreading wildfires. Russia’s Far East republic of Sakha, known by its former name of Yakutia, has been ravaged by wildfires since the start of the fire season, with forests the size of Latvia…
Dissident director Kirill Serebrennikov – who is banned from leaving Russia – said Tuesday that he laid a red carpet in Moscow to recreate the Cannes film festival’s premiere he was not allowed to attend. Serebrennikov – who was under house arrest when his last movie “Leto” picked up a prize at the festival three…
June 2021 was the second-hottest June in Russia’s recorded history, with even more record-breaking heat to come, the country’s weather chief said at a press conference Tuesday. Russia recorded its all-time temperature record for the month of June less than a decade ago in 2012. The country can expect to see more records broken in…
Businesses across Russia are racing to inoculate their employees against the coronavirus in order to meet new rules on mandatory vaccinations. Moscow’s service sector firms — from supermarket chains and bank branches to restaurants and bars — have until Friday to ensure at least 60% of their employees have received a first dose of one…
July 13, 2021, 17:15 The Gazprom Board of Directors resolved to form the Sustainable Development Committee of the Board of Directors and to approve the regulation on the Committee. Viktor Zubkov, Chairman of the Gazprom Board of Directors, was elected as Chairman of the Committee, while Alexey Miller, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Andrey Akimov, Member of Board of Directors, were elected as members of the Committee. Background The matters falling within…
Europe’s top human rights court has ordered Russia to recognize same-sex unions in a new ruling on Tuesday. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)’s ruling came in response to complaints filed in 2010 by three Russian same-sex couples whose attempts to register their marriages in Russia were rejected. The ECHR judges unanimously ruled that…
Long lines formed outside Moscow vaccination sites over the weekend as demand for Russia’s third registered coronavirus jab outstripped supply and caused yet another shortage of the jab. Videos published to social media showed Muscovites lining up outside a dozen vaccination sites where authorities had shipped around 850 doses of CoviVac each. Moscow City Hall, which…
From July 5 through 9, the 10th International School on Safety Culture “Developing Leadership and Strong Culture for Safety in the Nuclear Industry” was held online by Rosatom Technical Academy. The professionals and management of leading international organizations – the nuclear industry representatives from Russia, Slovakia, France, Finland, Japan, Austria, Hungary, Turkey, and the USA…
Subsidiaries of the Company, following the results of the implementation of nature restoration measures in 2020, reclaimed about 15,000 hectares of land.
The Russian Foreign Ministry sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. Embassy after one of its employees was caught on video stealing a railway sign this spring, thus endangering passengers’ lives, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. The unnamed 30-year-old U.S. Embassy staffer allegedly stole a railway sign at the Ostashkov railway station in the…
The European Union’s review of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine could be delayed until after the summer over “major” data shortcomings and the vaccine maker’s perceived lack of experience with overseas regulators, Reuters reported Tuesday. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) launched a rolling review of Sputnik V, which Russia touts as the world’s first government-approved…
The developers of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine said on Tuesday a deal had been struck with Indian vaccine maker the Serum Institute to produce 300 million doses annually. “The parties intend to produce over 300 million doses of the vaccine in India per year with the first batch expected in September 2021,” the Russian…
Russia-based hacker groups have been accused of massive ransomware attacks on major U.S. businesses and government agencies in the past year. The attacks, which have breached U.S. government agencies in addition to private enterprises, are now a major point of contention in already strained ties between Washington and Moscow, with U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration…
Drug overdose deaths in Russia have nearly doubled in two years amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Open Media news website reported Monday, citing the state anti-drug authority. A total of 7,400 Russians died from drug overdoses in 2020 compared with 6,300 in 2019, Open Media cited the State Anti-Drug Committee as saying in a report.…
July 13, 2021 PAO Severstal, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and mining companies, has set a medium-term goal to reduce the carbon intensity of its CO2 emissions per tonne of steel, calculated in accordance with the methodology established by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel) by 10% by 31 December 2030, compared with…
The U.S. and Russia said on Monday they would cooperate on climate change despite strained relations, during a visit to Moscow by U.S. climate envoy John Kerry. Kerry, the former secretary of state who has become U.S. President Joe Biden’s globe-trotting climate envoy, said “the stakes could not be higher” as he met with Foreign…
Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine produces a weaker immune response against aggressive new mutations of the coronavirus such as the Delta variant, the jabs’ developers announced Monday in a new peer-reviewed study. Sputnik V’s developers used blood samples from people who had completed a course of vaccination with the jab to investigate the so-called virus-neutralizing activity…
Prominent Russian opposition-leaning columnist Fyodor Krasheninnikov has joined a growing list of activists and political figures to leave the country in recent months amid what Kremlin critics call an intensifying crackdown on dissent. Krasheninnikov fled Russia for neighboring Lithuania last August after being fined and then jailed for “disrespecting authorities” in his online posts criticizing…
For Johann Nikadimus, it all started during what was going to be rather routine museum visit in 2014. But then he saw a painting of a woman wearing a kokoshnik by Konstantin Makovsky and was stopped in his tracks. That was the beginning of Nikadimus’ artistic journey as one of just a handful of artisans…
Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mariam al-Mahdi said during a visit to Moscow on Monday that lawmakers in the African country would consider an agreement brokered by its ousted leader to establish a Russian naval base there. Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Sudan’s former president Omar al-Bashir in 2017 on establishing a naval base in…
Russia on Monday warned against any “outside interference” in Cuba after thousands took part in rare protests against the Communist government on the island nation. “We consider it unacceptable for there to be outside interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state or any destructive actions that would encourage the destabilization of the situation…
Moldova’s main pro-European party has won a resounding victory in parliamentary polls, results showed Monday, strengthening the hand of President Maia Sandu as she pushes to reform her ex-Soviet country. Sunday’s snap election – called by Sandu in April to shore up her position against pro-Russia forces – saw her center-right Action and Solidarity (PAS)…
Moscow opposition municipal deputy Ilya Yashin said Monday he is stepping down as chairman of a local assembly over state pressure he attributes to his support for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Yashin’s announcement comes less than a month after election officials removed him from the Moscow City Duma ballot, citing a new law that…
Russia’s average temperatures in June 2021 were 3 degrees Celsius hotter than normal as some regions of the country hit all-time heat records, scientists from the St. Petersburg-based Voeikov Main Geophysical Observatory told The Moscow Times. The data comes as Russia and Canada continue to swelter under historic heat waves that have been linked to…