Violations of Russia’s environmental protection laws cost the country more than $187 million in 2018, a reduction from previous years, officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office said on Monday. The 2018 figures represent a downward trend in environmental damage over the past decade, the state-run TASS news agency quoted Miroshnik as saying. Since 2009, damage…
A U.S. agreement with Poland to send 1,000 extra troops to the country is a defensive measure needed for its security, the U.S. ambassador to Warsaw said on Monday, replying to accusations from neighboring Russia that the move is aggressive. U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge last week to dispatch the troops to Poland was a…
A German exchange student has reportedly been expelled from a Russian university and ordered to leave the country after writing an article about environmental protests. Lukas Latz, a Freie University student studying abroad at St. Petersburg State University, published an article in April on a German news website about an ongoing protest movement against copper…
Russia’s Air Force has received its first delivery of two MiG-35 fighter jets, the corporation that manufactures the jets has said. Air Force commander-in-chief Viktor Bondarev in 2017 announced the Defense Ministry’s plans to replace its entire fleet of light fighters with the MiG-35, a modernized version of the ship-based MiG-29K fighters which Russia has…
The Kremlin said on Monday that a report in the New York Times newspaper citing sources as saying the United States had inserted potentially disruptive implants into Russia’s power grid showed a cyber war was, in theory, possible. The New York Times on Saturday published an article citing current and former unnamed U.S. government officials…
Russian officials have said that the country’s energy infrastructure is safe, days after a New York Times article detailed U.S. cyberattacks on Russia’s electric grid. Citing anonymous sources, the report published Saturday details escalating efforts by the U.S. to hack Russia’s power grid. The article said the U.S. strategy was enacted in response to reports…
Lost in the furor over the arrest of the since-released investigative journalist Ivan Golunov on fabricated drug charges last week was another high-profile detention: this one of the opposition activist Leonid Volkov. Volkov, who is a key senior aide to opposition politician Alexei Navalny, had just spent 20 days in prison charged with co-organizing Navalny’s…
An official from Russia‘s security council described as absurd accusations that Moscow used disinformation to sway voters towards right-wing parties in last month’s European Union elections, Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper reported on Sunday. An EU review into elections to its parliament, published on Friday, said there was evidence both Russian and European online sources had sought to promote…
Chinese President Xi Jinping celebrated his 66th birthday on Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Xi considers a close friend and who gave Xi ice cream as a present, Chinese state media reported. The discussion of senior leaders’ private lives is extremely rare in China, and the exact birth dates of most of them are…
In August 2018, the armed forces on Kotelny fired two Termit cruise missiles with missile complex Rubezh on targets located about 50 km away in the ice-covered part of the Laptev Sea. In 2015, the country moved the S-400 Triumph the new generation anti-aircraft weapon system, to the Kola Peninsula. That was followed by the deployment…
Russian runner Artyom Denmukhametov has been provisionally suspended for working with banned coach Vladimir Kazarin, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Friday. Athletes are not allowed to receive training, strategy, nutritional or medical advice from coaches or medical staff serving doping bans, according to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules — and they face sanctions if…
Exactly one year ago, hundreds of thousands of football fans descended on Russia to attend one of the most long-awaited competitions in the country’s history – the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Russia proudly hosted the event, reviving its global image and spending over $14 billion on construction, infrastructure and planning, making it the most expensive…
Kazakhstan has been roiled with mass protests following a presidential election seen by critics as undemocratic and an extension of their longtime authoritarian leader’s rule. Swathes of citizens have taken to the streets in the capital Nur-Sultan and largest city Almaty to condemn a vote they say was rigged, a rare sight in a country…
A Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft that crashed in May killing 41 people lost autopilot after a lightning strike and came in to land at excessive speed, according to a report from crash investigators, Russian news agencies reported on Friday. But the preliminary report, from the Interstate Aviation Committee which investigates plane crashes in Russia,…
The Middle East situation requires closer ties between Iran and Russia, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said at a China-led security bloc summit on Friday, according to the Russian state-run RIA news agency. Rouhani earlier said U.S. actions pose a serious threat to stability in the Middle East after Washington accused Iran of attacks on oil…
A court in Russia’s Far East has fined a company nearly $900,000 for its role in the so-called “whale prison” that has garnered international outrage in recent months. Nearly 100 whales reportedly bound for export to China have been held for months in cramped pens near the Sea of Japan port of Nakhodka, triggering a…
Living in a country where so-called gay propaganda is banned, Denis, 19, was happy to finally meet someone he felt a connection with on the dating app Tinder. A few weeks after they had started chatting, the guy on the other side of the screen invited him over and asked him to bring “some weed”…
Jets used for corporate travel by Russian state-owned oil major Rosneft flew at least 13 times to Mallorca, Ibiza, Sardinia and the Maldives when CEO Igor Sechin or people from his social circle were in the same vacation spots. Using publicly available data, Reuters tracked 290 Rosneft flights between January 2015 and May 2019. Of…
Russians’ perception of the United States and Ukraine as hostile foreign powers has dropped significantly over the past year, according to a new poll by the independent Levada Center pollster. The U.S., Ukraine and Britain have ranked as the top three countries Russians view as enemies since 2017. Russia has experienced fraught relations with the…
Europe’s Baltic states are at risk from further Russian money laundering, a top European police official said after several big banks were hit by scandals centered on the region. Pedro Felicio, who is responsible for fighting money laundering at European police agency Europol, told Reuters that “huge inflows of criminal money” are mainly coming into…
Moscow police have released all but four of the more than 500 people who were detained during Wednesday’s protest in support of freed journalist Ivan Golunov. At least 549 people were detained in central Moscow at the protest, the OVD-Info police-monitoring website reported. The unauthorized march had originally been scheduled in support of Golunov, who…
Russia on Thursday warned against rushing to attribute blame for a suspected attack on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, and said the incident should not be used to stoke tensions with Tehran, Russia’s state-run RIA news agency reported. Two oil tankers were attacked, leaving one ablaze and both adrift, shipping firms said, driving…
The leader of Russia’s republic of Chechnya has threatened to break the fingers and tear out the tongues of anyone who leaves offensive comments about his subjects online. Residents of the neighboring republic of Dagestan have expressed outrage this week over a new sign that was installed near their border that marked the area as…
The Russian military said on Thursday that Syrian rebels had attacked a Turkish observation point in Syria’s Idlib province, a version of events at odds with Ankara which said the attack was mounted by the Syrian army. Turkey’s Defence Ministry said earlier on Thursday that Syrian government forces had carried out what it assessed to…
Turkey denied Russian assertions on Thursday that a ceasefire had been put in place in Syria’s Idlib province and demanded Russia restore calm, after the Syrian army and its allies shelled and attacked a Turkish observation post there. Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Syrian government forces had carried out what it assessed to be a deliberate…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed two high-ranking police generals involved in the case against investigative journalist Ivan Golunov. Major General Yuri Devyatkin, the head of the Interior Ministry’s drug trafficking department, and Major General Andrei Puchkov, head of the Interior Ministry’s Moscow department, were dismissed Thursday, according to a Kremlin decree. Interior Minister Vladimir…
Russian lawmakers said on Thursday that a new U.S. military deployment to Poland announced by President Donald Trump would force Moscow to take retaliatory steps, with one saying it would make Poland a target in the event of a conflict. Trump pledged to Polish President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday that he would deploy 1,000 U.S.…
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday that its planes had carried out four air strikes against militants in Syria’s Idlib region, the state-run RIA news agency reported. The Russian military said that the Turkish army had asked for its help to protect Turkish troops by striking “terrorists in Idlib.”
Activists in eastern Ukraine’s separatist republic of Luhansk marked Russia Day by carrying a gigantic Russian passport through the streets. Russian President Vladimir Putin in April signed a decree to expedite the process of naturalization for residents of separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin said Putin enacted the measures to protect the rights of the area’s…
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has vowed to support embattled Moldovan President Igor Dodon against “usurpers” in the country’s ongoing constitutional crisis. On Sunday, Moldova’s constitutional court suspended Dodon’s powers and appointed former Prime Minister Pavel Filip as the country’s acting president. Dodon’s ministers have refused to resign, resulting in two separate governments claiming power in…
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was considering sanctions over Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project — which the United States has told European companies to avoid — and warned Germany against being dependent on Russia for the fuel. “We’re protecting Germany from Russia and Russia is getting billions and billions of dollars…
President Vladimir Putin said relations between Moscow and Washington were getting worse and worse, noting in an interview published on Thursday that the current U.S. administration had imposed dozens of sanctions on Russia. Putin made his gloomy assessment ahead of a G20 summit in Japan later this month at which he might meet U.S. President…
Russia and Turkey have brokered a complete ceasefire in Syria’s Idlib province between Syrian government forces and rebels, Russian news agencies cited the Russian military as saying on Wednesday. The Russian military said the ceasefire applied to the so-called Idlib de-escalation zone and had led to a significant reduction in violence on Wednesday, Russian news…
Police arrested more than 400 protesters in Russia’s capital on Wednesday during a march calling for the punishment of those responsible for the arrest of an investigative reporter on trumped-up drug charges. The march, which was not authorized by the authorities, had been planned to call for the release of Ivan Golunov, a Moscow-based investigative…
A senior Russian athletics official is facing a ban for a suspected anti-doping violation, the country’s suspended athletics federation said on Wednesday. The federation said first vice president Andrei Silnov, gold medalist in the high jump at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, had been suspended and would face a hearing on Friday for a “possible violation…
Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in the decision to free investigative journalist Ivan Golunov, one of the men who reportedly negotiated Golunov’s release told the Bell business outlet on Tuesday. Late last week, Golunov was detained and charged with drug trafficking in what critics said was a set-up punishing him for his anti-corruption investigations.…
Russia said on Tuesday it plans to deliver its S-400 missile defense systems to Turkey in July, setting the clock ticking on a U.S. threat to hit Ankara with sanctions if it goes ahead with a deal that has strained ties between the NATO allies. Turkey and the United States have sparred publicly for months…
Russian customs officials have seized 400 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a shipping container transporting canned fish from Ecuador, the Federal Customs Service (FTS) said in a statement Tuesday. The contraband was seized in coordination with federal anti-drug officials and local police on Monday, the FTS said. When the shipping container was opened, officers reportedly…
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has suggested that a four-day work week will likely be adopted in the future to help workers overcome burnout syndrome and chronic fatigue. Last month, the World Health Organization classified burnout syndrome as an occupational phenomenon resulting from workplace stress that leads to exhaustion and mental distance. According to a report…
Russia’s Interior Ministry has ruled to end the drug trafficking case against investigative journalist Ivan Golunov, Russian media reported Tuesday. The anti-corruption reporter’s detention and charging last week led to a national outcry among Russian journalists and human rights activists, who described it as a case against media freedom. His colleagues at the Meduza news website…
A group of Siberian residents who asked for Canadian asylum over the weekend, citing worsening environmental conditions, will only be able to apply for the status if they’ve left Russia, local media cited Canada’s immigration ministry as saying on Tuesday. Residents of the Siberian coal-mining town of Kiselyovsk posted a video appeal for asylum on…
Ten years ago this month, Ivan Golunov wrote his first freelance article for Alexei Munipov, an editor at Bolshoi Gorod, or Big City, a since-shuttered magazine. The story was about the arrest of a young artist in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk on what appeared to be fabricated drug charges. A decade on, Golunov and…
A fight between high school students and what appear to be police officers in Russia’s republic of Chechnya ended in gunshots, Russian media reported Monday. According to the local Kavkazr.com news website, the scuffle at public school number 54 in Chechnya’s capital of Grozny started as a verbal altercation when a police officer insulted a…
Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, on Tuesday called the case against Ivan Golunov, an investigative journalist charged with drug offenses, a “very bad story,” Interfax reported. The comments, by a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, are likely to encourage supporters of Golunov who believe he was framed and have…
A majority of Russians say they want two seperatist-led republics in eastern Ukraine to break away from the country, according to a recent poll conducted by the independent Levada Center pollster. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions, collectively known as the Donbass, have existed as de facto states in eastern Ukraine since conflict broke out there…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday its Su-27 jet intercepted U.S. and Swedish reconnaissance planes over the Baltic Sea where NATO is holding Baltops 2019 naval drills. “On June 10, Russia airspace control means over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea detected two air targets approaching Russia‘s state border,” the ministry said in a statement. It also said…
Aerial strikes on Monday killed at least 25 people, mostly civilians, in northwestern Syria in the sixth week of a Russian-led military offensive that has so far killed hundreds of civilians, according to residents and civil rescuers. They said warplanes flying at high altitude, which monitors said were Russian Sukhoi jets, dropped bombs on the…
Three people were missing and two injured on Tuesday after a blast on an oil tanker caused a fire while it was pumping oil in the southern Russian port of Makhachkala, Russia’s Transport Ministry said. The port is functioning as normal despite the incident, the RIA news agency cited the Federal Agency for Maritime and…
A Moscow court has sentenced a former anti-corruption official in the Interior Ministry to 13 years in prison after finding him guilty of large-scale bribery and obstruction of justice. Dmitry Zakharchenko, who served as deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s economic security and anti-corruption office, was arrested in September 2016 on bribery and abuse of…
A Russian court has granted early release to Oyub Titiyev, a prominent human rights leader in Russia’s republic of Chechnya, Interfax reported Monday. Titiyev, who runs the office of the Memorial Human Rights Center in the southern Russian region, was sentenced to four years in a penal settlement in March after he was found guilty…
Three of Russia’s leading newspapers coordinated with each other to publish almost identical front pages Monday in solidarity with arrested investigative journalist Ivan Golunov. The move is unprecedented in Russia. Vedomosti, RBC and Kommersant’s front page headlines all read “I/We Are Ivan Golunov,” and the accompanying stories asked for a detailed investigation into the actions…
Russian police uncovered around $3 million worth of stolen diamonds, and over $2.5 million in cash, at the homes of a criminal ring operating inside state-controlled diamond producer Alrosa, authorities said on Monday. Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds in carat terms, confirmed that security services had uncovered an ongoing diamond theft ring…
It’s possible that mistakes were made during last week’s arrest of prominent investigative reporter Ivan Golunov on large-scale drug trafficking charges, the Kremlin has said. Anti-corruption journalist Golunov was detained and formally charged in a case that has drawn international attention to Russia’s media climate. The Interior Ministry on Friday published nine photos that it…
Kazakhstan‘s interim president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the chosen successor of veteran ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev who retains sweeping powers, has won a snap presidential election with nearly 71 percent of the vote, according to early results on Monday. Nazarbayev, who ruled oil producer Kazakhstan for almost three decades, handpicked the 66-year-old career diplomat as his successor when…
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Monday it welcomed the formation of a ruling coalition and government in Moldova, and hoped to restore good relations between Moscow and Chisinau. It also said it hoped the situation in Moldova‘s capital would stabilise soon after Russia’s ally, President Igor Dodon, was temporarily relieved of his duties by a…
The arrest of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov on drug charges last week has led to an outpouring of support from Russia’s journalists and civil society activists. His colleagues have said they believe the evidence against him was fabricated as punishment for his investigations. Golunov is a correspondent for the Meduza news website who is best-known…
An aide to opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been detained on the same day he was set to be released from jail for organizing nationwide protests last year against an unpopular government decision to raise the pension age. Leonid Volkov could now stay in prison until September 9, the Mediazona online news site reported, citing…
A senior American banker once secretly awarded a shareholding in powerful Moscow investment bank Renaissance Capital to one of Vladimir Putin’s closest friends and brokered meetings for the friend with top U.S. foreign policy officials a decade ago, emails show. The American banker, Robert Foresman, currently vice chairman at UBS investment bank in New York,…
Three of Russia’s leading newspapers published identical front pages Monday in solidarity with investigative journalist Ivan Golunov. The move by the Kommersant, RBC and Vedomosti newspapers is unprecedented in Russia. The newspapers, whose front pages read “I/We Are Ivan Golunov,” asked for a detailed investigation into the actions of the police officers involved in Golunov’s…
A Russian journalist known for investigating corruption among Moscow city officials has been charged with large-scale drug trafficking, but his lawyer, his employer and colleagues say he has been framed. The journalist, 36-year-old Ivan Golunov, was detained in central Moscow on Thursday on his way to a meeting with a source when illegal drugs were…