The U.S., British and Canadian embassies in Russia on Friday hung rainbow flags on their buildings in Moscow in honor of LGBT Pride Month celebrated worldwide. In a joint statement with colleagues from Australia, Iceland and New Zealand, the Western diplomats said the actions affirm the countries’ “commitment to protecting the human rights of all…
The Kremlin on Friday said it “regretted” a decision by EU leaders to reject a proposal by Germany and France to resume summit meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “President Putin was and remains interested in establishing working relations between Moscow and Brussels,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. EU leaders said Friday they had…
CHERTANOVO — It’s 11 p.m. in a south Moscow hypermarket and Roman Yuneman is feeling philosophical. “Either I’ll end up in jail, or on the ballot,” says the twenty-six-year-old independent candidate for Russia’s State Duma, over supermarket cafe sushi. “I knew that sooner or later it would come to this. I just didn’t think it…
Russian opposition politician and Moscow municipal deputy Ilya Yashin said he has been barred from running in the upcoming Moscow City Duma elections for supporting jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Yashin said the Moscow electoral commission cited a recent law that bars anyone associated with a terrorist or extremist organization from running for public office.…
Russia has for the first time deployed two interceptor jets capable of carrying the hyped Kinzhal hypersonic missile for war games in Syria, media reported Friday. “A pair of MiG-31K aircraft with the ability to use the latest hypersonic missiles from the Kinzhal complex flew from Russian airfields to the Russian airbase Khmeimim in Syria…
EU leaders said Friday the bloc had rejected a push by Germany and France to relaunch meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin after fierce resistance from member states worried about Moscow’s aggressions. Berlin and Paris blindsided EU counterparts by putting forward a last-minute proposal for the bloc to resume meetings with Putin in the wake…
Nearly 100 supporters of Finland’s national football team who traveled to Russia for a Euro 2020 defeat against Belgium have caught the coronavirus, authorities said Thursday. The prime minister joined the THL health authority overseeing the epidemic in calling for Finns who returned home after Monday’s 2-0 loss in St. Petersburg to take a test. “It is…
A Russian military helicopter on a training flight crashed on Thursday evening near St. Petersburg, killing three people, local authorities said. The Mi-8, which belonged to the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia), was carrying three crew members who were all killed in the crash, according to a spokesperson quoted by the local online news site Fontanka.…
The United States’ Ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan has returned to his posting in Russia on Thursday after he was recalled to Washington amid a major diplomatic fallout between the two powers. Sullivan and his counterpart, Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov, were recalled to their respective countries for consultations — an unprecedented move…
A record-breaking heatwave hitting Moscow and other parts of Russia shows no sign of letting up until July, the head of Russia’s meteorological service told the Izvestia newspaper on Wednesday. While meteorologists initially predicted that the heatwave would retreat at the beginning of next week, the abnormal temperatures are now expected to last well into…
Kondaneft, a production enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company, planted 964,000 pine saplings in the Kondinskiy District of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District-Yugra.
Russia’s Black Sea coastal resorts including popular holiday destination Sochi will no longer accept tourists who haven’t been vaccinated against the coronavirus starting later this summer, Krasnodar region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev announced Thursday. The restrictions come as Moscow and St. Petersburg battle surging Covid-19 infections and deaths driven by the highly infectious Delta variant and…
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday defended the route taken by a Royal Navy destroyer through Black Sea waters claimed by Russia after it purportedly came under warning fire. Speaking at army barracks the day after the incident involving HMS Defender, Johnson said “it was entirely right that we should vindicate the law and…
The European Union on Thursday imposed sanctions on key sectors of the Belarus economy, ratcheting up pressure on the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko after the forced landing of an airliner. The new package looks to hit key sources of revenue for the authorities in Minsk by restricting trade in potash fertilizer, petroleum and tobacco…
Much of Russia has been fighting a scorching summer heatwave this week, and Moscow has been no exception. This week saw the Russian capital’s previous hottest recorded day — in 1901 — broken by over 1 degree Celsius. Similar records have been broken in St. Petersburg and in the Arctic Circle. Muscovites have been finding…
Russia on Thursday reported more than 20,000 new coronavirus infections and 568 deaths, a peak not seen since January, as the country battles a surging outbreak of the Delta variant worsened by a sluggish jab drive. In total, officials reported 20,182 new cases across the country over the past 24 hours, including just over 8,500…
Russian human rights activists have criticized the country’s official report to the United Nations regarding its detentions of protesters at this winter’s nationwide pro-Navalny protests, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday. Tens of thousands of Russians protested nationwide in January and February to call for Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s release after he was detained upon…
Muscovites queued in Red Square’s iconic GUM department store on the hottest June day on record Wednesday, waiting for vaccinations that will allow them to keep their jobs. “I am not against vaccinations, I just didn’t think I needed one since I already had Covid,” Aleksey, a 31-year-old barman, told The Moscow Times while standing…
Russia warned Thursday it could “hit targets” as well as fire warning shots following a disputed military encounter with a British warship near the coast of annexed Crimea. The Russian military said its aircraft dropped bombs in the vessel’s path and border guard ships fired warning shots after the Royal Navy’s HMS Defender crossed into…
Russia’s fashion and art scene has a new name — and an unexpected name it is: Emmie America, age 25, photographer and artist. She shot the April Russian Vogue cover — the youngest woman to do so in the history of the Russian version — and has a solo exhibition called “crazy is right now”…
Rosneft Deutschland GmbH, a Rosneft subsidiary, commenced into-plane fuelling in Nuremberg Airport.
Pop star Filipp Kirkorov has become the 201st Russian pop culture figure to be blacklisted in Ukraine for supporting Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, the Ukrainian culture ministry announced Wednesday. Kirkorov’s inclusion on the “list of persons who pose a threat to national security” means that his work cannot be seen or heard in Ukraine. Ukraine’s…
The results of the Rosatom Engineering Division’s operations in the area of labor safety in 2020 were announced at a meeting dedicated to the Unified Industry Day on Labor Safety. The event held as a video-conference and guided by Alexander Lokshin, the First Deputy Director General for Nuclear Energy of the ROSATOM, President of ASE…
The European Union should seek direct talks with President Vladimir Putin even as it stands together against “provocations” from Russia, said Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday. “In my opinion, we as the European Union must also seek direct contact with Russia and the Russian president,” she told parliament. “It is not enough for the…
Two senior pilots for Russia’s second-largest airline S7 have been detained on suspicion of receiving bribes in exchange for employing pilots of Russia’s first medium-haul Airbus A320neo planes, Russian media reported Wednesday. One of them was identified as S7 flight crew director Mansur Badrakov, who was allegedly caught in the act of receiving 1.5 million…
Samotlorneftegaz, an oil-producing enterprise of Rosneft, systematically reduces the number of legacy lands
Russia warned on Wednesday of an “explosive” spread of the Delta coronavirus variant in the country that was made worse by a sluggish vaccination campaign leading to rapidly rising infections and deaths. Citing increases in cases of coronavirus in all Russian regions, Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova called for stronger restrictive measures and speeding up…
A famous Russian actor sparked criticism after he took to the stage to slam Moscow’s restrictions for unvaccinated people while wearing a yellow Star of David badge at an awards ceremony Tuesday night. Yegor Beroyev compared the Russian capital’s latest measures to the Holocaust at the World War II-themed TEFI TV awards on the 80th…
June 23, 2021 Published in corporate Gazprom Magazine Issue 6, written by Sergey Pravosudov Last year was dominated by the pandemic of the new coronavirus infection. Quarantine and epidemiological response measures caused a decline in economic activity and consumption, including energy consumption. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the global economy shrank by 3.4 per cent in 2020. Preliminary estimates show that natural…
France on Wednesday added Russia to its list of countries from which non-essential travel is banned, as concern grows over a spike of cases in Moscow due to the Delta variant. Namibia and the Seychelles are also being added to the “red” list, government spokesman Gabriel Attal told reporters. Russia, and especially Moscow, have been…
Russian villagers in the country’s Far East region of Magadan have come to the rescue of two beluga whales that were stranded on shore, local media reported Tuesday. The two whales had been hunting herring, their usual prey, in Gizhigin Bay when the tide receded, trapping them in shallow waters and eventually leaving them on…
A Russian fighter jet and border guard ship have fired “warning” shots at a British warship that the military said violated Russia’s borders in the Black Sea near annexed Crimea, the Defense Ministry told state media Wednesday in a claim Britain later denied. The Russian Navy’s Su-24 attack aircraft dropped four bombs along the path of…
The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised concerns about possible cross contamination and insufficient sterilization checks during an inspection at a factory involved in manufacturing Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. In an interim report published Wednesday, the organization outlined six production infringements at a Pharmstandard plant located in Ufa — one of four sites the WHO…
Russians and Ukrainians hold starkly different opinions of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin as a leader, according to surveys conducted in the two ex-Soviet countries that were published Wednesday. Russia’s independent polling agency Levada Center said 56% of Russian respondents agreed with the statement that “Stalin was a great leader.” The share of Russians who view…
At least four members of the activist group Pussy Riot have been detained in Moscow less than a week after a fellow member was jailed on suspicion of planning to disrupt the ongoing Euro 2020 football championship, media reported Tuesday. The detentions began in the early hours of Tuesday with Alexander Sofeyev and his photographer…
Two Russians who attended this winter’s rallies in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny have been sentenced to two years in prison on charges of attacking police. Tens of thousands took to the streets across the country in late January and early February after Navalny was detained upon his return to Moscow from poisoning recovery…
Moscow authorities have eased online registration rules to allow vaccinated or negative-tested foreigners to obtain QR codes needed to dine at “Covid-free” restaurants, Russian state media reported Tuesday. Starting Monday, June 28, Moscow restaurants will only accept diners who present an official QR code proving their vaccination, recovery from Covid-19 over the past six months…
Belarus on Tuesday denounced coordinated sanctions against the ex-Soviet country by the EU, U.S., Britain and Canada, imposed after the forced landing of a Ryanair flight to arrest a regime critic. The sanctions follow global outrage over the forced landing of a passenger flight in Minsk where authorities detained opposition activist Roman Protasevich and his…
President Vladimir Putin published an essay revisiting the “collective” lessons for Europe following World War II to urge cooperation between Russia and the West in the German newspaper Die Zeit on Tuesday. Titled “Being Open, Despite the Past,” the essay marks the 80th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and is the…
Russia’s capital has experienced record-breaking temperatures throughout the month of June and is bracing for an all-time high in the next few days, according to meteorological data cited by the state-run TASS and Interfax news agencies. Moscow recorded its hottest June 22 in 142 years Tuesday when the temperature hit 31.9 degrees Celsius. The day…
The city of Moscow will require all restaurant patrons to be either vaccinated against or immune to the coronavirus, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Tuesday as the Russian capital continued to grapple with the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Starting Monday, June 28, restaurants will only accept diners who present an official QR code proving…
At least 17 Russian regions have reintroduced coronavirus restrictions in recent weeks as the country grapples with the rise of the highly infectious Delta variant. Russia’s regions have largely followed suit from Moscow, the epicenter of the pandemic in Russia and where officials say the Delta variant accounts for nearly 90% of new cases. Many…
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Russia has denied reports that it is investing in AI technology that would allow humans to control cars, planes and nuclear power plants through microchips implanted into their brains. The Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday the government plans to spend 54 billion rubles ($740 million) on the brain-computer interface project as part of Russia’s massive…
Prosecutors in Belarus on Tuesday requested 15 years in jail for a leading opposition figure, who was arrested last year ahead of presidential elections that sparked historic anti-government protests. The demonstrations swept the former Soviet country after strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in August polls that the opposition and many Western countries…
In 1983 film director Andrei Tarkovsky was invited by the Royal Opera House (ROH), Covent Garden, to stage a production of the opera “Boris Godunov,” composed by Modest Mussorgsky. After Tarkovsky’s death and changes to cultural policies in the Soviet Union, the Covent Garden production was brought to the Mariinsky Theater in 1990. In 2006…
A new exhibition opening on the 80th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union — the start of what Russians call the Great Patriotic War and the largest land invasion in history — puts iconic Soviet World War II-era photographs on display. Over 800,000 Soviet soldiers would be killed in the invasion, called…
Concreting of the inner containment cylindrical part has been completed at Rooppur NPP power unit 2 reactor building which is being constructed in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (its General Contractor being JSC Atomstroyexport that is included in the Engineering Division of ROSATOM). The specialists of the Trest RossSEM LLC branch have laid 976 m3…
More Russians are legally deprived of the right to run for office today than they were during the Soviet period, according to newly published research by the Golos independent election monitor. Golos estimates that at least 9 million Russians, or 8% of the population, have been stripped of so-called “passive suffrage” even before Russian lawmakers tightened…
This week’s visit by Myanmar’s junta chief to Moscow “legitimizes” the country’s “brutal and unlawful attempted coup,” Justice for Myanmar, a leading human rights group that investigates the military’s business interests, told The Moscow Times. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing arrived in Moscow on Sunday for a three-day international security conference starting Tuesday that brings…
Russia has declared Bard College an “undesirable” organization in a move that risks significant jail time for anyone affiliated with the U.S. liberal arts college. The Prosecutor General’s Office accused the institution Monday of “threatening Russia’s constitutional order and security.” Once blacklisted, any “undesirable” organization must cease all activities in Russia or anyone affiliated with…
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has traveled to Moscow for a three-day international security conference kicking off Tuesday which brings together defense officials from across the globe. Russia’s Security Council said its chief Nikolai Patrushev had met with Min Aung Hlaing and discussed the “fight against terrorism, issues related to regional security” and foreign interference…
Ancient layers of Siberian permafrost are more resilient to rising global temperatures than previously thought, according to a study by an international team of scientists at the University of Sussex. Permafrost, which covers roughly 65% of Russia’s territory, holds roughly twice as much carbon than is found in Earth’s atmosphere, according to the U.S. National…
Russians who were vaccinated against the coronavirus over six months ago should revaccinate themselves for extra protection as the country grapples with the third wave of the pandemic, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Monday. Moscow, the epicenter of the pandemic in Russia, reported its highest-ever number of Covid-19 cases in a single day this weekend…
Two weeks after 82-year-old Kirill Kruchkov died of Covid-19 in the Tula region, 200 kilometers south of Moscow, his family received a phone call from Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s state consumer protection watchdog. “They told us lab tests showed that grandpa died of the Indian strain. I was very confused. He hasn’t been to India,” said his…
Rosneft Oil Company’s refining complex has fully switched to hydroprocessing catalyst manufactured by RN-Kat, a specialized enterprise of the Company
By approving sanctions on potash fertilisers and petroleum and petrochemical products, European Union foreign ministers are targeting two mainstays of the Belarus economy. The sanctions – to be formally adopted by the 27-nation bloc in the coming days – target major sources of revenue for the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. Potash Belarus is the world’s…
Argentina and Mexico are facing a shortage of second doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine despite Moscow’s pledge to supply 10% of the world’s population, according to several media outlets. Argentina’s La Nacion daily reported Sunday that its government is in “intense talks” with Russia on new deliveries because many first-dose recipients between late…
The UN rights chief said Monday she was “dismayed” by the Kremlin’s moves to undermine the right to voice critical opinions and participate in Russia’s forthcoming elections. “I am dismayed by recent measures that further undermine people’s right to express critical views, and their ability to take part in the parliamentary elections scheduled in September,” Michelle…
Hundreds of leading Moscow doctors and healthcare professionals staged a decadent “Medics’ Ball” as the Russian capital struggled to get the third wave of the pandemic under control. Over 400 doctors, pharmacists and heads of clinics and pharmacies attended Sunday’s black-tie event just a day after Moscow recorded its highest number of new Covid-19 infections…