Scientists from Tomsk State University (TSU), who are studying the migration of plastic microparticles in the environment, have completed the first stage of the survey of the Nizhnyaya Tunguska River, a large tributary of the Yenisei, located in the Evenki municipal district.
Russia on Tuesday said high-level talks with the United States this week will show how “serious” Washington is in seeking genuine dialogue with Moscow. The two countries will hold the talks on Wednesday in Geneva — where presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin met last month — in a new bid to encourage stability in…
A popular Moscow coffee shop and an up-and-coming Russian photographer have teamed up to support the country’s LGBTQ+ community. Artyom Temirov, the founder of the Chernyi Co-operative, and his employees, wanted to support some of their customers and friends by donating the profits from sales of specially roasted coffee from the Brazilian grower Fernando Heringer…
A court in southern Russia has sentenced five anti-lockdown protesters to at least five years in jail, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday. Over 2,000 protesters gathered in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the North Caucasus republic of North Ossetia, on April 20, 2020, to demand an end to the regional self-isolation orders as well as…
Russia has approved clinical trials of a combination of its Sputnik V and the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine that will run through next spring. Five Russian clinics will hold AstraZeneca and Sputnik V trials involving 150 people, with testing wrapping up in early March 2022, according to the entry in Russia’s state drug register…
July 26, 2021, El Alto, Bolivia – Luis Alberto Arce Catacora, the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, and Kirill Komarov, First Deputy Director General for Corporate Development and International Business of ROSATOM, took part in the ‘First Concrete’ ceremony of the Research Reactor Complex therefore setting off the construction works for the key…
Russia has begun building an upgraded version of its top-secret aerial command center nicknamed the “Doomsday” plane, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday. The country’s existing “Doomsday” planes, the Ilyushin Il-80s, were developed in the 1980s and are designed to evacuate the Russian president and other top officials in the event of a…
The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) has snapped up 12 medals after three days of competition at the Tokyo Olympics, with its female athletes leading the way. Vitalina Batsarashkina, 25, won the team’s first gold medal Sunday, winning the women’s 10 meter air pistol and setting an Olympic record of 240.3 points. Fellow shooter Anastasia Galashina, 24, took…
Russia’s state internet watchdog on Monday blocked 49 websites linked to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, including his personal website where he published investigations into alleged high-level corruption that have sparked nationwide protests in recent years. Roskomnadzor’s actions come one week after it blocked the website of a prominent legal group that represented Navalny’s Anti-Corruption…
The European Union’s planned carbon border tax could cost Russian exporters with a large carbon footprint at least 1.1 billion euros annually, the highest levy of any country, the RBC news website reported Monday. The border tariff — proposed as part of the EU’s sweeping plans to tackle climate change and become the first carbon-neutral…
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Monday visited the disputed Kuril Islands and said authorities wanted to establish a free economic zone there, sparking a protest from Japan. The Kurils, which lie north of Japan’s Hokkaido island, have been controlled by Moscow since they were seized by Soviet troops in the dying days of World…
Libya has launched an official inquiry into delivery delays of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, according to local media reports. The war-torn country’s UN-backed government announced it will launch an investigation into the hold-ups, which are significantly undermining the country’s vaccination campaign, the Libyan Express reported. Libya received a first batch of Sputnik V vaccines in…
President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that Russia’s navy was capable of delivering lethal strikes against underwater and aerial enemy targets during a parade of warships in the port city of St. Petersburg. The Russian leader’s boast comes days after military officials announced tests of advanced new weapons, some of which come from an arsenal Putin…
Message to the Media July 24, 2021, 19:49 “We have familiarized ourselves with the statement of Yury Vitrenko, CEO of Naftogaz of Ukraine. We would like to point out that no one was offering Ukraine to buy Russian gas. The comment of Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, was addressed to our partners from the EU, primarily German ones. The comment was about the volumes…
Russia dispatched nearly 100 tons of humanitarian aid to Cuba, the Defense Ministry said Saturday, following unprecedented street protests over the communist country’s worst economic crisis in decades. The delivery was directly ordered by President Vladimir Putin, it said. Two An-124 cargo planes carrying more than 88 tons of humanitarian support took off from a…
The Russian Football Federation on Friday named former international midfielder Valery Karpin as manager of the national football team. Karpin, who was coaching FK Rostov, will replace Stanislav Cherchesov, who was sacked after Russia was eliminated in the group stage of Euro 2020. The federation said Karpin, who is 52, had agreed to a contract…
Vegetarianism is on the rise in Russia, of that there can be no doubt. Once unthinkable, today young, urban Russians are eschewing meat like never before for reasons that range from ethics to health concerns. Meatless meals are no longer confined to the forty days that precede Easter, but are becoming integral parts of restaurant…
The United States and Russia will hold high-level talks next week in the second bid in as many months to encourage stability in the tense relationship, officials said Friday. The so-called Strategic Stability Dialogue, set up during a June 16 summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Geneva, will…
Russia’s top diplomat commended the Taliban for being “of sound mind” and criticized the Afghan government of stalling power-sharing talks on Friday. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov becomes the latest Russian political figure to praise the militant group this week, with the Kremlin calling it a “powerful force” and Russia’s envoy for Afghanistan calling its rapid…
Only half of Russia’s Olympic team has been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, significantly lower than other countries taking part in the games. More than 11,000 athletes will take part in the delayed Tokyo Olympics starting this week, and the International Olympics Committee (IOC) has said that at least 80% of all athletes and staff…
Russian state television cut to a commercial during the Ukrainian Olympic team’s appearance in its broadcast of the Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony Friday. During the Opening Ceremony’s parade of athletes — which took place in a nearly empty stadium due to the coronavirus pandemic — Russia’s Channel One took a commercial shortly before the Ugandan…
Russia added investigative news website The Insider to its registry of “foreign agents” Friday, a designation that risks cratering its business model. The Insider is best known for its work alongside U.K.-based Bellingcat in investigating the 2020 poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and the 2018 poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain. It…
Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 23 July 2021 – ROSATOM and GDK Baimskaya LLC have signed an agreement to jointly implement a project to supply power to the Baimsky mining and processing plant (Baimsky GOK), which is located in Russia’s Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The agreement was signed by ROSATOM Deputy Director General and Director of the Northern Sea…
On July 23, at the Arctic Day, which took place in St. Petersburg (Russia), a Cooperation Agreement was signed between ROSATOM and DP World Corporation. The document was signed by ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev and Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO of DP World. ROSATOM seeking to develop its logistics business and…
Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 23 July 2021 – ROSATOM and Aeon Corporation plan to create a strategic partnership in the field of Arctic shipping. ROSATOM-subsidiary JSC Atomenergoprom and Aeon Infrastructure Corporation LLC have concluded a corresponding preliminary agreement. The document was signed by JSC Atomenergoprom Director Kirill Komarov and Aeon Infrastructure Corporation LLC’s Chairman of the Board…
Russia is going ahead with plans to deliver Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets to Myanmar’s increasingly isolated military regime, a top defense cooperation official was quoted as saying Friday. Moscow has continued to support Myanmar with arms deals and military delegation visits following the ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint…
World Whale and Dolphin Day is celebrated annually on 23 July.
More than 12 million fry of valuable fish species were released into the river systems of Russia by employees of Rosneft.
MAKS Air show For a lot of folks, one of the great traditional events of the summer in Moscow is the MAKS (International Aviation and Space Show) held at the Zhukovsky Airport, located 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) of bumper-to-bumper traffic southeast of Moscow. It opened on Tuesday, but the weekday hours are mostly for…
Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 23 July 2021 – FSUE Atomflot, ROSATOM subsidiary in charge of operation and maintenance of the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet, and the Murmansk Marine Biological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have signed a cooperation agreement. The agreement was signed by FSUE Atomflot Director General Mustafa Kashka and the Murmansk Marine Biological…
Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 23 July 2021 – ROSATOM and Moscow State University’s Marine Research Centre signed a cooperation agreement in St. Petersburg in the framework of the ROSATOM-organised event “Arctic Day.” The agreement was signed by ROSATOM’s special representative for Arctic development Vladimir Panov and the Director General of Moscow State University’s Marine Research Centre Dmitry…
Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 23 July 2021 – ROSATOM and Nornickel have signed a supplementary agreement to complement their 2018 cooperation agreement. The additional agreement will last through 2030 – a testament to the strategic partnership between the two companies. In light of mutual interests, the parties intend to cooperate in ensuring uninterrupted and environmentally friendly integrated…
Jailed former journalist Ivan Safronov has said he will not make a plea bargain with Russian authorities over what he argues is an unfounded investigation into treason. Safronov’s lawyers said last month that investigators had pressured him to take a plea deal in exchange for a phone call to his mother on her birthday, an…
The head of Russia’s Olympic Committee, an organization weighed down by a protracted doping scandal, believes his athletes are headed to the Tokyo Games with an unfair disadvantage. Still, Stanislav Pozdnyakov wants his Olympians to haul home dozens of medals. “The national flag and the national anthem are additional motivating factors… for any athlete,” he…
Divorces in Russia have reached a seven-year high so far in 2021 with the country’s conservative, Muslim-majority regions unexpectedly seeing the biggest increases, the MBKh Media news website reported Wednesday. The 251,000 divorces filed between January-May accounted for a 44% increase over the same period in 2020, the outlet said, citing the FinExpertiza consultancy. The…
Message to the Media July 22, 2021, 18:30 “Gazprom has always approached Nord Stream 2 as an economic project. Its goal is to provide reliable, stable and diversified supplies of gas to the market of the European Union. It also aims to reduce the cost of gas for end consumers via a shorter transportation route that reaches Germany almost 2,000 kilometers ahead of the route traversing the gas transmission…
Argentina is in a “very critical situation” as it faces a shortage of second doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, a senior official told Russian vaccine producers earlier this month in a leaked email obtained by Argentina’s La Nacion newspaper. In the July 7 email addressed to Anatoly Braverman, a senior official at the…
Russian authorities on Thursday jailed Pussy Riot member Rita Flores for 15 days on charges of disobeying police, an arrest the group said was for “no damn reason.” Flores’ arrest is the most recent in a growing string of detentions, self-imposed exiles and jail sentences against members of the collective in 2021. Here’s what you…
Moscow has a reputation for fiercely defending its standing on the world stage, but in a years-long and embarrassing doping scandal in sports, it’s playing a different game. Russia is banned from the Tokyo Olympics this summer, a ruling stemming from revelations in 2015 that officials covered up widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs among its…
“Major Grom: Plague Doctor,” the newest smash-hit from streaming giant Netflix has been topping the charts worldwide this week in more than 50 countries from Belgium to Brazil. It’s the first time a Russian-language film has hit the Netflix jackpot, perhaps marking a new era in Russian culture’s relationship with the Western world. Or perhaps…
Russia will help Tajikistan build an outpost on the ex-Soviet state’s border with Afghanistan, a senior diplomat said Friday as Moscow stepped up activity in the region amid a Taliban offensive that has seen the group capture swathes of Afghan territory from government forces. Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told the state-run RIA Novosti news…
The Avangard, the Kinzhal and now the Tsirkon – Russia is leading the race to develop a range of new hypersonic weapons that President Vladimir Putin has dubbed “invincible.” Moscow’s latest step came this week with another successful test of the Tsirkon, a ship-launched hypersonic missile. Fired from one of Russia’s most powerful warships, the…
July 22, 2021, 13:00 Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Andrey Boginsky, Director General of Russian Helicopters (part of the Rostec State Corporation), signed the Agreement of Strategic Cooperation for the supply of domestically-produced certified naval helicopters of the type Mi-171A3. The Mi-171A3 is the first Russian helicopter designed primarily for offshore operations (overseas transportation of passengers and cargo).…
Ivan Khafizov lives in Lobnya, in an apartment on the 5th floor. He doesn’t have a wooden house, and his parents never lived in one. But he loves wooden houses and their nalichniki — carved wooden window surrounds — so much that he has dedicated his life to studying and protecting them. Khafizov’s interest in…
The Russian government is taking Ukraine to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over a slew of issues ranging from violence during anti-government protests and the downing of flight MH17 in 2014. The filing marks Russia’s first-ever interstate complaint with the ECHR. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, which took over the Justice Ministry in…
Russia has “successfully disconnected” from the world wide web during tests of its “sovereign internet” technology, the RBC news website reported Wednesday. Authorities have long flirted with tightening control over the internet on Russian territory, with past attempts to unplug from the global internet having mixed success. The June 15-July 15 test run “tested the…
The Kremlin said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had expressed their satisfaction with the near completion of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline during phone talks. “The leaders are satisfied with the construction of Nord Stream 2 nearing completion,” the Kremlin said in a statement after the talks. During…
A Moscow court on Wednesday extended by six months the house arrest of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s spokeswoman, a top ally said. Russia will hold parliamentary elections in September, and ahead of the polls authorities declared Navalny’s organizations extremist and barred his allies from running. Navalny’s 31-year-old spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, has been under house…
The United States said Wednesday it had reached an agreement with Germany on the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would threaten Russia with sanctions and seek to extend the transit of gas through Ukraine. President Joe Biden’s Republican rivals swiftly denounced the agreement as emboldening President Vladimir Putin but the administration argued that it…
Russian-born, Dubai-based tech billionaire Pavel Durov’s phone number is listed among the 50,000 numbers believed to have been chosen for global surveillance through military-grade spyware, The Guardian reported Wednesday. Investigative reports said politicians, journalists and activists from dozens of countries were the potential targets of the Pegasus spyware, which was developed by Israeli firm NSO…
The Kremlin sees no need to take extra security measures in light of revelations that Israeli-made Pegasus anti-terrorism spyware was misused to monitor politicians, journalists and activists around the world. Russian nationals do not yet appear to be listed in a leak of almost 50,000 phone numbers from 45 countries that investigative reports said were…
The Russian wife of a Nigerian student who drowned while rescuing a swimmer is facing racist online attacks driven by a notorious hate group leader. Richard Eluemunor drowned on a city beach Saturday in Russia’s western exclave of Kaliningrad, unable to break free from a current out of which he had pushed a drowning woman. He…
A northern Siberian region plagued by unprecedented fires is experiencing one of the world’s “worst ever” air pollution events with the concentration of pollutants in the air far exceeding global standards, according to The Guardian. The republic of Sakha’s capital of Yakutsk has been under stay-home orders due to fast-spreading wildfires that blanketed dozens of…
July 21, 2021 PAO Severstal has completed a delivery of large-diameter pipes (LDPs) to Brazil for the first time. In a first for Severstal’s pipe business, the products will be used for a liquified natural gas (LNG) project abroad, the construction of Barcarena LNG. The LDPs have a diameter of 508 mm, wall thickness of…
Russia on Tuesday unveiled its new Sukhoi stealth fighter jet designed to compete with the US F-35 and capable of striking six targets simultaneously. Dubbed “The Checkmate,” the plane was first shown to a reportedly “pleased” President Vladimir Putin before the launch at a biennial airshow outside Moscow. Reports first surfaced that the jet was…
Climate change is the main factor behind the massive wildfires burning across the northern Siberian republic of Sakha, also known as Yakutia, the region’s head Aisen Nikolaev told the Yakutia 24 television channel Tuesday. Russia’s largest, coldest region has been under a state of emergency for nearly a month due to the fast-spreading wildfires covering…
A growing number of Kremlin critics have fled Russia in recent weeks, citing fears of prosecution in the wake of nationwide protests in support of jailed Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny and ahead of high-stakes parliamentary elections. While many of those who have left are allies of Navalny, others are longtime opposition politicians or intellectuals not…
Russian investigators said Tuesday they have uncovered a multi-million ruble bribery scheme run by dozens of senior traffic police officers, with the top cop’s golden toilet bowl stealing the show. In what looked more like a luxury real estate ad, the Investigative Committee published footage of police colonel Alexei Safonov’s opulent residence in southern Russia’s…
Russia’s military has for the first time released footage of a live fire test of its advanced S-500 Prometheus missile system on Tuesday. The footage showed the vehicle elevating into the launch-ready position, releasing the radar and firing a missile into the air. The Defense Ministry said in a statement that the launch took place…
St. Petersburg-based media reported Monday that it had uncovered a secret underground prison disguised as a cottage with a human-sized crematory in an abandoned village outside Russia’s second city. Video shared by the city’s 47news.ru outlet showed two prison cells with bunk beds and toilets in the cottage’s flooded basement. Next to one of the…