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Belarus authorities said Tuesday that opposition politician Viktor Babaryko — who until his arrest had intended to run against President Alexander Lukashenko in the August election — was charged with corruption and money laundering. For over three months Belarus has been gripped by historic protests against the re-election of strongman leader Lukashenko, 66, who secured a sixth term…

Ozon Shares Jump 40% on U.S. IPO

MoscowBy admin November 24, 2020 Leave a comment

Shares in Russian online retail giant Ozon surged by more than 40% in the first minutes of trading after the most eagerly anticipated Russian initial public offering (IPO) in years. Ozon is the country’s second-largest e-commerce player and is placing itself to become Russia’s answer to Amazon with a plan to consolidate and dominate the…

Moscow Welcomes Winter’s First Snowfall

Cyclone Sara arrived in Russia from northern Europe late on Sunday, bringing the much-awaited first substantive snows of the season to Moscow. Muscovites streamed outside to enjoy the winter wonderland while they still can — because it’s already expected to disappear when warmer weather arrives later this week. Here’s a closer look at the magic…

St. Petersburg Dad Takes 6 Children Hostage – Reports

A drunk father took six children hostage in his St. Petersburg apartment during a suspected dispute with his wife, Russian news outlets reported Tuesday. According to Interfax, police responded to a call by the hostage-taker’s wife, who said she was unable to get inside the apartment where she heard the children crying. Special forces ended…

Russia To Vaccinate Mink Against Coronavirus Amid Mutation Fears

Russia plans to vaccinate its minks against the coronavirus after a mutated form of the virus found on mink farms prompted mass culls in Europe, the Defense Ministry’s Zvezda news channel reported Monday. Earlier this month, Denmark said it will cull its entire population of about 17 million mink after discovering a mutated Covid-19 strain…

Is the WHO Too Soft on Russia?

In May, as Russia was tentatively emerging from a nationwide lockdown and clocking up near-record numbers of new infections, Russian officials began mounting an aggressive public campaign to present Moscow’s handling of the coronavirus as faultless. Central to that was boasting about the country’s low number of fatalities compared with Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere. …

Coronavirus in Russia: The Latest News | Nov. 24

Russia has confirmed 2,138,828 of coronavirus and 37,031 deaths. Nov. 24: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 24,326 coronavirus cases and a new record of 491 deaths. A contact tracing smartphone app developed by the Ministry of Digital Development is now available on App Store and Google Play. The app, called Gosuslugi.COVID Treker, alerts users of…

Russia Says Its Sputnik V Coronavirus Vaccine 95% Effective

Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine is 95% effective, its developers said Tuesday as Russia seeks a leading role in the high-stakes global race for a safe, effective vaccine that can end to the deadly pandemic. The calculations were based on preliminary data obtained 42 days after volunteers received the first dose, the Health Ministry, the…

Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses Targeted in Fresh Raids

Russian authorities have arrested Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow and across 20 other regions as part of their latest investigation into the religious group that is officially banned as “extremist,” investigators said Tuesday. Video released by the Moscow branch of the federal Investigative Committee, which investigates major crimes, showed masked men prying open an apartment door…

Russia Says Chased off U.S. Warship in Its Pacific Waters

A Russian warship caught a U.S. Navy destroyer operating in Russia’s Pacific waters on Tuesday and chased it off, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said. The USS John S. McCain, a guided-missile destroyer, violated Russia’s territorial waters by moving two kilometers beyond the maritime border at 03:17 GMT into Peter the Great Gulf, the ministry said in…

Putin Still Won’t Congratulate Biden Despite Start of Formal Transition

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not congratulate U.S. President-elect Joe Biden despite news that the Trump administration has approved the formal presidential transition process, the Kremlin said Tuesday. Trump eased some lingering post-election uncertainty by tweeting late Monday that the agency that works with incoming administrations would begin work to assist Biden’s team. While the…

Yevgeny Lebedev Named ‘Baron of Hampton and Siberia’ in Britain

Queen Elizabeth II has granted Russian-British media mogul Yevgeny Lebedev the title of “Baron of Hampton and Siberia,” according to the British government’s official journal of record The Gazette. The British monarch conferred a lifetime peerage to Lebedev, 40, after his longtime friend Prime Minister Boris Johnson nominated him in July. Reports suggested that Lebedev’s…

Russian WWII Vet Given Presidential Medal for Raising Coronavirus Funds

President Vladimir Putin has awarded a Russian World War II veteran for raising funds to support the families of doctors who died from coronavirus, according to a government decree published Monday. Zinaida Korneva, 98, received the Decoration “For Beneficence” for her “great contribution to charitable and public activities,” the decree said. The medal recognizes charity…

Russian Peacekeeper Wounded in Deadly Nagorno-Karabakh Mine Blast

A Russian peacekeeper has been wounded and an Azerbaijani soldier killed in a mine explosion in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday. Four emergency workers from the unrecognized ethnic Armenian republic of Nagorno-Karabakh were also wounded in the region’s Tartar district, the Defense Ministry was cited as saying by Interfax.…

Ice Storm in Russia’s Far East Linked to Climate Change

A freak snowstorm that has battered parts of the Russian Far East and left 100,000 residents without electricity for several days is linked to climate change, analysts and activists say. The storm that hit the Primorye region and its capital of Vladivostok last Thursday brought down trees and power lines and covered outdoor surfaces in…

Russia Fines Pussy Riot Activists for Hanging Pride Flags

MoscowBy admin November 23, 2020 Leave a comment

Russian courts on Monday fined two Pussy Riot activists for hanging rainbow flags on several government buildings last month to mark President Vladimir Putin’s birthday. On Oct. 7 — Putin’s 68th birthday — members of the anti-Kremlin punk group draped the flags associated with LGBT pride on buildings in Moscow including Russia’s Supreme Court and the…

Russian New Music Gets a Reboot

A man dressed in all black mimes scrambled Brodsky verses while a cellist rakes her instrument with plastic wedges…thundering drum beats are inspired by the latest protests in Belarus… musicians in virtual reality goggles clatter on mechanical typewriters. These are just some of the images and sounds that the audience at “Russian Music 2.0” was…

Putin Signs Law Raising Income Tax for High Earners

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a law on increasing income tax for high earners in the first move away from a flat tax system in place since 2001. Starting next year, the tax rate will rise from 13% to 15% on incomes over 5 million rubles (about $65,800/55,370 euros at the current exchange…

Bashneft Water Treatment Facilities Process 65 mil m3 of Wastewater

Bashneft (an enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company) has treated approximately 65 million cubic metres of wastewater at the Ufa Refining Complex’s biological waste treatment facilities since their launch and brought them to the full process mode.

Siberian Schoolkids Charged With Terror Over Minecraft Plot – Reports

Three Siberian schoolchildren have been charged with terrorism over an alleged plot to blow up a virtual security building in the popular block-building game Minecraft, according to reports. Investigators in the Krasnoyarsk region announced the arrest of three 14-year-old “anarchists” over the summer on suspicion of training at abandoned sites to commit acts of terrorism.…

NYT’s Russia Job Posting ‘Russophobic,’ Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Says

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has slammed The New York Times’ job posting for a Russia correspondent, criticizing it for “political bias” and “Russophobia.” In its description for the job posted early last week, The New York Times lists its requirements for an ideal candidate along with a description of the job’s location, “Vladimir Putin’s Russia.” …

7 Die From Drinking Hand Sanitizer at Party in Russia

At least seven people in the Far East Russian republic of Sakha have died from drinking hand sanitizer at a party, authorities and news reports have said. Nine people consumed the hand rub from a five-liter container that they purchased from a local store, the regional branch of consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said in a…

Russia Plans Biometric Database for Citizens, Foreigners – TASS

Russia plans to create a national biometric database to identify both citizens and foreign nationals via face recognition and fingerprints, state media reported Sunday. Russia’s Interior Ministry told the state-run TASS news agency it plans to develop the centralized biometric database in 2021-23. The database will allow the authorities to identify individuals or bodies through…

Russia Confirms Record 25K Coronavirus Cases

anotherBy admin November 22, 2020 Leave a comment

Russia has confirmed more than 25,000 new coronavirus infections in a single day for the first time since the pandemic hit earlier this year. Health officials reported 25,173 new infections across Russia’s 85 regions Monday, bringing the national total to 2,114,502 cases. The country surpassed 2 million cases three days ago. Over 23% of those…

Thousands March in Belarus Opposition Rally in Minsk

Tens of thousands of Belarus opposition protesters took to the streets on Sunday, the latest large-scale rally against President Alexander Lukashenko’s contested re-election. For more than three months Belarus has been gripped by historic weekly opposition rallies following Lukashenko’s reelection to a sixth term in August, which Western governments have refused to recognise. Tens of…

Coronavirus in Russia: The Latest News | Nov. 22

anotherBy admin November 22, 2020 Leave a comment

Russia has confirmed 2,089,329 of coronavirus and 36,179 deaths. Nov. 22: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 24,581 coronavirus cases and 401 deaths. First samples of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine arrived in Hungary, its developers reported Friday. In a move that has drawn criticism from the European Commission, Hungary is set to become the first EU member…

Armenia PM Urges Stronger Military Links With Russia

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called Saturday for greater military cooperation with Russia, a day after Azerbaijani troops began moving into disputed territory previously held by Armenian separatist forces. “We hope we can reinforce cooperation with Russia not only in the security sector but also military and technical cooperation,” he said, according to his press service. “Of course,…

Russia Imposes Reciprocal Sanctions on 25 UK Officials

Russia on Saturday imposed sanctions on 25 British officials, responding to penalties Britain imposed in July against the same number of Russians over human rights violations. “In response to unfriendly actions by the British authorities and on the basis of reciprocity, the Russian side made a decision to impose personal sanctions on 25 representatives of Great…

Russia Extends Western Food Imports Embargo to End 2021

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday extended an embargo on Western food imports introduced in 2014 until the end of 2021, an economic measure that mainly affects EU imports. The Russian embargo was in response to EU sanctions introduced after Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, sanctions that Brussels renewed for another six months at the…

Russia Virus Toll, Deaths, Hit New Highs

MoscowBy admin November 21, 2020 Leave a comment

Russia on Saturday registered record numbers for daily infections and deaths from the coronavirus, two days after having passed 2 million cases. Health officials reported 24,822 new infections and 476 deaths, bringing the national total to 2,064,748 million cases and 35,778 fatalities since the beginning of the year. While those figures suggest a lower death rate…

Celebrate Thanksgiving with an Uzbek Chicken

During my years in Moscow, I’ve experienced every kind of Thanksgiving from an ostentatious luncheon for 30 in the late 1990s at a palatial flat in the House on the Embankment to the nadir of the bleak, almost Dickensian Thursday night, when my daughter and I sat down to a plate of chicken nuggets and…

ROSATOM and the Democratic Republic of the Congo will devel workforce capacity and make efforts to create a positive public opinion on nuclear energy

BusinessBy admin November 20, 2020 Leave a comment

On November 19, 2020, in Moscow, the Ministry of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and ROSATOM signed 2 memorandums: a memorandum on cooperation in the education and training of the nuclear personnel of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a memorandum on cooperation in the creation of…

Swiss Prosecutors to Close Magnitsky Probe – Reports

Swiss prosecutors plan to close a nearly decade-old money laundering investigation into allegations made by the late lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Swiss prosecutors opened the money-laundering probe in 2011 after Hermitage Capital, once the largest foreign investor in Russia, claimed that a former Russian tax official moved fraudulent tax refunds through Swiss bank…

Moscow, St. Petersburg Residents Least Likely to Catch Coronavirus – Study

While Moscow and St. Petersburg are the epicenters of Russia’s coronavirus outbreak, a new analysis claims that its residents are among those with the lowest risk of getting coronavirus within the country. Residents of Perm and Voronezh, on the other hand, are among those most likely to contract the virus, with the risk of getting…

Macron Accuses Russia, Turkey of Promoting Anti-French Sentiment in Africa

MoscowBy admin November 20, 2020 Leave a comment

President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia and Turkey of seeking to promote anti-French sentiment in Africa by funding people who whip up resentment against France in the media, in an interview published Friday. “We must not be naive on this subject: many of those who speak, who make videos, who are present in the French-speaking media are funded…

Moscow Prepares for Pandemic New Year’s

Muscovites are bracing for an unconventional holiday season after the cancellation of the city’s annual Christmas and New Year’s festivities, the closure of late-night entertainment and new restrictions on cinemas and theaters. Despite the restrictions, Moscow is already putting up extravagant lighting displays across the city, inviting residents to enjoy a festive stroll through the…

Ice Storms in Russia’s Far East Prompt State of Emergency

MoscowBy admin November 20, 2020 Leave a comment

Freak ice storms following an abnormal weather phenomenon have left 150,000 people without water and electricity in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok and prompted a state of emergency. The exceptional weather brought down cables and trees with the government of the Primorye region declaring a state of emergency. “The situation with the electricity…

A Tolstoy Descendant Returns to His Roots in Yasnaya Polyana

As a descendant of revered literary genius Leo Tolstoy, Ilya Tolstoy spent much of his childhood at the writer’s countryside estate in Yasnaya Polyana south of Moscow. After years of working as a producer at several state-run news channels, Ilya, 33, grew tired of the breakneck pace of life in Russia’s capital and yearned for…

In a Poor Russian City, Coronavirus Hits Hard

BusinessBy admin November 20, 2020 Leave a comment

IVANOVO — In this hardscrabble city in central Russia, the morgues are full and well-paid jobs are scarce. Though many of Russia’s outlying regions are struggling with the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Ivanovo — a working-class city of 400,000 located 300 kilometers northeast of Moscow — is coping worse than most. “It’s impossible…

Gazprom continuing to supply gas via Power of Siberia in excess of planned amounts

Background Gazprom’s main partner in China is CNPC, a state-owned oil and gas company. Power of Siberia is the largest gas transmission system in Russia’s East. The trunkline supplies gas to consumers in Russia’s Far East and China. It has an export capacity of 38 billion cubic meters of gas per year. On May 21, 2014, Gazprom and CNPC signed the 30-year Sales and Purchase Agreement for Russian gas…

Russian Jailed for Sharing Military Secrets With CIA – TASS

A Russian citizen who worked on naval ships has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for attempting to pass military secrets to the CIA, the state-run TASS news agency reported Friday. Yury Yeshchenko is accused of trying to share confidential information about advanced weaponry of the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet. According to the report,…

Russia Preparing Golden Visa Scheme – Reports

Russia is planning to introduce a golden visa scheme, offering foreigners a permanent residency permit in exchange for investing in the Russian economy, the Izvestia news site reported Friday. Draft legislation drawn up by the country’s Economy Ministry would seek to woo foreign investors by offering residency rights for investments in the Russian economy starting…

Russia Confirms Record 24K Coronavirus Cases

BusinessBy admin November 20, 2020 Leave a comment

Russia has confirmed more than 24,000 new infections for the first time since the pandemic hit the country eight months ago. Russia’s coronavirus information center confirmed a new record of 24,318 infections across all 85 regions Friday. Moscow, the epicenter of Russia’s outbreak, recorded a new daily high of 6,902 cases as did St. Petersburg…

International Leaders to Discuss Human-Centric Sustainability at Global Impact Conference 2020

November 19, 2020, Moscow – On December 1-2, 2020 the first Global Impact Conference 2020 “Energy for Impact” will discuss human-centric solutions facilitating steady growth of the global economy. Over two days, 60 world-renowned experts from state institutions, businesses, NGOs and civil society will take part in the online event. The Global Impact Conference 2020…

Why Russians Dislike ‘Good Russians’ in American Films No Less than ‘Bad Russians’

MoscowBy admin November 20, 2020 Leave a comment

Western audiences are in raptures over the series. Its rating on the authoritative IMDb website stands at 8.8 of 10 based on more than 100,000 responses. But in Russia, it elicits a mix of emotions — even though it portrays Russian chess masters as undeniable geniuses. It seems that the series has touched some deep…

Coronavirus in Russia: The Latest News | Nov. 20

Russia has confirmed 2,039,926 cases of coronavirus and 35,311 deaths. Nov. 20: What you need to know today Russia confirmed the record-breaking number of 24,318 coronavirus cases and 461 deaths. First samples of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine arrived in Hungary, its developers reported Friday. In a move that has drawn criticism from the European Commission, Hungary is set to become…

Russia Battles Exiled Parishioners for French Church Ownership

Russia is fighting exiled parishioners for ownership of an Orthodox cathedral in France as the Kremlin is accused of an “aggressive” campaign to reclaim pre-revolutionary churches overseas, The Guardian has reported. The St. Nicholas and St. Alexandra Church in the city of Nice, run by the descendants of emigres who fled the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution,…

Zvezda Shipyard Launches Steel Cutting for Liquified Gas Tankers of Ice-Class Arc7 New Ship Series