A high-profile political analyst and strategist who has advised presidential candidates in the U.S., Russia and Ukraine has been detained in Belarus ahead of a tense election. “I have been arrested,” Vitali Shkliarov, a Harvard University fellow, said on Telegram without providing further details. The 44-year-old was born in the Belarussian city of Gomel but…
Russian prosecutors on Wednesday asked for a sentence of nearly 10 years in a penal colony for a former U.S. marine accused of attacking police officers. Trevor Reed, a 28-year-old student and former Marine from Texas, allegedly attacked police while drunk after attending a party last year. He is accused of grabbing one policeman while…
Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday demanded an explanation from Moscow after Minsk arrested more than 30 allegedly Russian fighters ahead of next month’s tense presidential election. “It is necessary to immediately turn to appropriate Russian structures so that they explain what is going on,” Lukashenko said at an emergency meeting. Earlier in the day…
Russia said Wednesday that it plans to begin production of two “promising” coronavirus vaccines in September and October as Moscow races to develop a formula before Western countries. At a meeting chaired by President Vladimir Putin, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova singled out two vaccines under development by a research institute in Moscow and a lab in Siberia. “Today…
Belarussian law enforcement has detained 33 mercenaries from the private Russian military contractor Wagner Group less than two weeks before the country’s presidential election, the Belarus state-run Belta news agency reported Wednesday. The surprise announcement is the latest twist in an extraordinary election campaign that has seen strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko jail his key would-be…
This summer, when international travel is difficult or impossible, tourists are flocking south to the resort towns on the Black Sea or Sea of Azov. But after a few days of lying on the beach, you and your family might want to see what else the Krasnodrar region has to offer. You’re in luck! If…
Russians’ trust in President Vladimir Putin fell to a new low in July as tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in anti-Kremlin protests in the Far East, according to newly published results from the independent Levada Center pollster. Only 23% of respondents named Putin when asked to identify which politicians they trust…
On July 27, 2020 ROSATOM approved the Unified Sectoral Sustainable Development Policy. The main purpose of the document is the structuring and alignment of activities in the field of sustainable development of the nuclear sector. The document secures the position of the state-owned corporation regarding sustainable development issues, including goals, objectives and main principles of…
Russia will help Syria construct a replica of the Hagia Sophia that will operate as an Orthodox cathedral, a Russian lawmaker has said after Turkey converted the iconic Istanbul museum into a mosque this month. The UNESCO World Heritage site’s conversion has sparked outcry worldwide, with political and religious leaders saying the structure had been…
Russia has confirmed 828,990 cases of coronavirus and 13,673 deaths. July 29: 3 things you need to know today Russia’s coronavirus vaccine could be administered to civilians as soon as Aug. 15, Interfax cited a source at the state-run Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology as saying. The source said the Health Ministry will likely register the vaccine,…
The highest number of new cases were in Moscow, the western Siberian region of Khanty-Mansiysk and Sverdlovsk in the Urals. Russia’s fatality rate has remained low compared to other badly-hit countries, raising speculation that Moscow could be underreporting figures. Russian authorities began easing anti-virus measures in June ahead of a massive World War II military…
In a forest outside Yekaterinburg, pilgrims chant and wave banners in their annual midnight procession in honor of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia and a saint in the Russian Orthdox Church. But this year’s pilgrimage to the spot where the emperor and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks on July 16, 1918,…
France, Saint-Paul-l?s-Durance, July 28, 2020. The ceremony marking the start of the machine assembly of ITER, the international experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor, has taken place online. Russia plays a significant role in this project’s development, alongside the member states of the European Union, United States, India, China, South Korea, and Japan. The assembly and…
Two Russian fighter jets are suspected of violating Finnish airspace off the coast of Helsinki on Tuesday, the Finnish Defense Ministry said. The incident “occurred over the Gulf of Finland near Helsinki at around 2:00 p.m. Finnish time (11:00 GMT)” and the border surveillance authority has opened an investigation to confirm the violation, the ministry said…
Russian judges on Tuesday slapped the anti-corruption group founded by Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with fines and convicted its director for refusing to delete a film about President Vladimir Putin’s top ally. The film is an expose which accuses former prime minister Dmitry Medvedev of controlling a huge luxury property empire. Published in 2017 by…
Beat Film Festival, founded in 2010, is likely to become the headliner of this summer’s cultural events in Moscow. It launches on Aug. 1, when the city’s movie theaters are allowed to open after their long downtime during the coronavirus quarantine. This year the films will be shown online and offline, sometimes with discussions including…
Ivan Safronov, a journalist-turned-space adviser arrested on treason charges, has turned down a plea deal that would have required him to disclose his journalistic sources, his lawyer told Interfax on Tuesday. Safronov, who was a well-respected reporter for 10 years before becoming media adviser to the head of Russia’s state space agency Roscosmos, was charged…
Russia has confirmed 823,515 cases of coronavirus and 13,504 deaths. July 28: 3 things you need to know today The European Union won’t open its borders to Russian citizens until at least mid-August, the state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday, citing a source in one of the EU member states’ delegations. The EU is revising its “white list”…
The number of infections in northern Russia’s Murmansk region has surpassed those of the two countries it neighbors, according to official data. The Murmansk region has confirmed a total of 9,791 coronavirus cases as of Tuesday. To the region’s east, Finland has confirmed 7,404 cases and Norway has registered 9,132. Finland and Norway each have…
Russians have been trying to obtain foreign passports and residence permits in unprecedented numbers since the coronavirus pandemic shut borders worldwide, Forbes Russia reported Monday. Demand for foreign residence permits was up 20% in March-May 2020 compared with the same period last year, Forbes reported, citing data from the Knight Frank real estate consultancy and…
Nearly half of Russians say they approve of a recent wave of anti-Kremlin protests in the Far East, according to an independent Levada Center poll published Tuesday. Mass protests broke out this month after the arrest of the Khabarovsk region’s popular governor Sergei Furgal and his replacement with a Putin-appointed lawmaker from an outside region.…
Ivan Safronov, a former journalist arrested on treason charges, has been isolated in jail with suspected coronavirus, prison watchdog representatives told Interfax on Monday. Safronov was arrested this month shortly after leaving his decade-long journalism career to become a media adviser to Russia’s space chief. He was placed in pre-trial detention in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison…
The European Union will remain closed to Russian citizens until at least mid-August, the state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday, citing a source in one of the EU member states’ delegations. After three months of being closed to nonessential travel, the EU reopened its borders on July 1 to visitors from countries that were considered…
The highest number of new cases were in Moscow, the western Siberian region of Khanty-Mansiysk and Sverdlovsk in the Urals. Russia’s fatality rate has remained low compared to other badly-hit countries, raising speculation that Moscow could be underreporting figures. Russian authorities began easing anti-virus measures in June ahead of a massive World War II military…
Hundreds were evacuated after a fire broke out Monday at a pre-trial detention center for women in Moscow, Russian news agencies reported. “850 people were evacuated” after a fire broke out in the prison in southeastern Moscow, the state-run TASS news agency quoted the Moscow branch of the prison service as saying. White smoke rose…
Reindeer herders in northern Siberia have found a well-preserved wooly mammoth skeleton as climate change thaws the vast region’s permafrost layer at a rapid pace. The surprise archaeological find came during a historically hot summer in Siberia and the Russian Arctic, which is one of the world’s fastest-warming regions. Archeologists are working to find more…
Messoyakhaneftegaz, a joint venture of Gazprom Neft and Rosneft, has commissioned an underground gas storage facility at the West-Messoyakha license area
Moscow-backed separatists on Monday breached a tense ceasefire in eastern Ukraine just hours after it began, the Ukrainian army said, but the separatists denied the accusation. The ceasefire came into force from midnight Sunday and had been agreed last week by negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the international monitor group OSCE. The Ukrainian army said…
Doping whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov says no Russian athletes should be allowed to take part in next year’s postponed Tokyo Olympics. The World Anti-Doping Agency in December banned Russia for four years from major global sporting events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar over manipulated doping data. Russia is appealing…
Russia has confirmed 818,120 cases of coronavirus and 13,354 deaths. July 27: 3 things you need to know today Russia plans to administer its experimental coronavirus vaccine on healthcare professionals next month before its clinical trials are completed, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Thursday. Russian schools across the country will re-open for the new school year on Sept. 1,…
Wildfires currently burning across Russia have doubled in size over the past week, the state-run TASS news agency reported Monday, citing a source in the Federal Forestry Agency. “Over the week, the total area of forest fires has more than doubled,” TASS quoted its source as saying. “The most difficult situation is developing in Siberia…
KHABAROVSK — As they have for nearly three weeks, the first protesters started to gather at Lenin Square in the city of Khabarovsk in Russia’s Far East at 7 pm on a recent weekday evening. They were soon joined by independent Russian journalists and a small army of YouTube bloggers, a growing profession in Russia as…
Russia held its annual Navy Day commemorations in St. Petersburg on Sunday with a parade that showed off the country’s best ships, nuclear submarines and naval aviation. The parade took place as President Vladimir Putin has boasted of the Navy’s growing capabilities and amid ongoing tensions with NATO. Here’s a look at the nautical display…
Rimma, age 85 I have always been interested in the unknown. I was born on the 25th lunar day, that means I am prone to insight and intuitions. My destiny is to interact with people, my karmic task is to serve them. I have been learning and practicing numerology and esotericism for 40 years already.…
A Siberian shaman who made national headlines for attempting to trek to Moscow and “cast out” Putin from power won’t restart his journey, he said after being discharged from the mental asylum he was forced into earlier this year. In a statement carried by local media, Alexander Gabyshev said he wishes to focus on his…
The highest number of new cases were in Moscow, the western Siberian region of Khanty-Mansiysk and Sverdlovsk in the Urals. Russia’s fatality rate has remained low compared to other badly-hit countries, raising speculation that Moscow could be underreporting figures. Russian authorities began easing anti-virus measures in June ahead of a massive World War II military…
Former senior editors and journalists from the Vedomosti business daily are launching a new media project after the appointment of a pro-Kremlin editor-in-chief sparked accusations of censorship and a mass departure of staff from the paper. VTimes aims to continue Vedomosti’s tradition of independent journalism and editorial objectivity. “More than ever before Russia needs independent…
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday welcomed efforts to resolve Ukraine’s conflict with Kremlin-backed separatists during a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin ahead of a ceasefire starting Monday. Moscow and Kiev agreed to implement a ceasefire in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbass during negotiations earlier this month, as a precondition for a broader…
Members of the Russian “United Democrats” movement, which campaigns for meaningful elections, were arrested in the western Tatarstan region on Saturday, the group said on Facebook. Russian special forces seized the members in the Tatarstan capital Kazan “to investigate their involvement in terrorism,” the group said, without giving details. Anastasia Burakova, one of the movement’s…
Russia has confirmed 812,485 cases of coronavirus and 13,269 deaths. July 26: 3 things you need to know today Russia plans to administer its experimental coronavirus vaccine on healthcare professionals next month before its clinical trials are completed, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Thursday. Russia plans to restart international flights to Britain, Turkey and Tanzania on Aug. 1…
The highest number of new cases were in Moscow, the western Siberian region of Khanty-Mansiysk and Sverdlovsk in the Urals. Russia’s fatality rate has remained low compared to other badly-hit countries, raising speculation that Moscow could be underreporting figures. Russian authorities began easing anti-virus measures in June ahead of a massive World War II military…
Behind many a successful food writer stands an inspirational grandparent. This is certainly true of Anna Kharzeeva, author of “The Soviet Diet Cookbook: Exploring Life, Culture and History — One Recipe at a Time.” With the help of her grandmother, Yelena Moiseyevna, Kharzeeva, a thirty-something Muscovite, set out to explore the world of Soviet-era cuisine by…
Russia has confirmed 806,720 cases of coronavirus and 13,192 deaths. July 25: 3 things you need to know today Russia plans to administer its experimental coronavirus vaccine on healthcare professionals next month before its clinical trials are completed, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Thursday. Russia plans to restart international flights to Britain, Turkey and Tanzania on Aug.…
The highest number of new cases were in Moscow, the western Siberian region of Khanty-Mansiysk and Sverdlovsk in the Urals. Russia’s fatality rate has remained low compared to other badly-hit countries, raising speculation that Moscow could be underreporting figures. Russian authorities began easing anti-virus measures in June ahead of a massive World War II military…
KHABAROVSK — Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Russia’s Far East for the third Saturday running for the latest rally in an unprecedented protest movement that is gaining momentum and taking on an anti-Kremlin bent. Now entering their third week, the protests in the Khabarovsk region on the border with China kicked…
Russia continues to supply a broad range of arms to Libyan rebels including fighter jets, air defense missiles, land mines, and armored vehicles through the state-backed mercenary Wagner Group, the U.S. Defense Department said Friday. The Pentagon released satellite photographs that it said shows Wagner-supplied military equipment “on the front lines” of the Libyan conflict…
The head of Russia’s republic of Chechnya has declared “all the sanctions” in his region on U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, baselessly claiming that the U.S. official ordered the killing of African-American man George Floyd that sparked anti-racism protests in the United States. Pompeo’s State Department placed Ramzan Kadyrov on its blacklist of human…
Russia on Friday dismissed accusations from the United States and Britain that it had tested an anti-satellite weapon in space as “propaganda.” Moscow responded after the United States Space Command on Thursday accused Russia of test-firing an anti-satellite weapon in space and warned the threat against U.S. systems was “real, serious and increasing.” The head…
Russia plans to administer its experimental coronavirus vaccine on healthcare professionals next month before its clinical trials are completed, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Thursday. Russia’s adenoviral vector-based vaccine developed by military and government researchers is in Phase II trials with plans to launch the next and final phase sometime after Aug. 3. The vaccine…
Komsomolsk Refinery became the winner of the Energy Ministry’s contest for the most community-focused company in oil-and-gas industry in 2020 in the nomination for developing the healthy lifestyle culture and promoting the standards of healthy lifestyle among employees
A Belarussian opposition politician barred from presidential elections has fled to Moscow fearing arrest, his campaign team told AFP on Friday. Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko is running for a sixth term in the Aug. 9 election and his regime has cracked down on the opposition ahead of the ballot, detaining protesters and would-be candidates. Valery…
A mass brawl erupted between ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the Russian capital of Moscow overnight following clashes on the border between two ex-Soviet republics, according to media reports. The latest fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia broke out along the two countries’ shared border, claiming at least 17 lives and marking the deadliest confrontations between…
Russia plans to restart international flights to Britain, Turkey and Tanzania on Aug. 1 more than four months after closing its borders due to the coronavirus pandemic. Russia grounded nearly all international flights in late March to slow the coronavirus outbreak, allowing only special flights evacuating Russians from abroad and other flights authorized by the…
Russia’s second-largest city St. Petersburg has registered 10 times the number of community-acquired pneumonia cases in May 2020 than it did in May 2019, according to official data. The surge comes as St. Petersburg’s health authorities began reporting a drop in new coronavirus infections from 300 per day earlier in July to fewer than 200…
After four months of coronavirus lockdown and counting, we all could use an escape from Moscow’s urban expanse. Nikola-Lenivets, a sprawling open-air art park filled with wonders both natural and manmade, is a great option for getting away from the noise without breaking social distancing. Covering 650 hectares of Ugra National Park in the Kaluga…
Russia on Thursday handed three air traffic controllers jail terms for the deaths of Total CEO Christophe de Margerie and crew members in a collision with a snowplow in Moscow. The CEO of the French oil giant was killed along with two pilots and a flight attendant when his private jet crashed into a snowplow…
Russia has confirmed 800,849 cases of coronavirus and 13,046 deaths. July 24: 3 things you need to know today Russia plans to administer its experimental coronavirus vaccine on healthcare professionals next month before its clinical trials are completed, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Thursday. Russia plans to restart international flights to Britain, Turkey and Tanzania on Aug. 1 more…
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko has threatened to kick out foreign journalists he accuses of stirring up protests against him ahead of next month’s election. Lukashenko, 65, faces what analysts call the toughest re-election campaign in his 26 years in power. Three of his main election rivals have been either jailed or barred from running, prompting…
Russia has confirmed 795,038 cases of coronavirus and 12,892 deaths. July 23: 3 things you need to know today Valentina Matviyenko, the head of Russia’s upper house of parliament, said current progress made it possible for the vaccine to enter mass production by the end of 2020. The vaccine’s creator Denis Logunov echoed her claim, telling Meduza that the Gamaleya institute…
Russian cinemas will delay premiering heavy dramas after reopening because viewers “aren’t ready” for heavy dramas amid the coronavirus pandemic, authorities said Wednesday. Russia closed down movie theaters, museums and other cultural establishments after the outbreak first hit the country in late March. Russia’s Culture Ministry lifted the nationwide ban last week, leaving it up…