Moscow authorities have allocated more than $10 million to purchase and install across the city’s sprawling metro system high-definition cameras that can recognize faces and track fast movements, Russian media reported Thursday. Russia’s capital Moscow in recent years has developed a vast network of some 100,000 facial recognition cameras, sparking concerns from activists over state…
On the night of Aug. 23 1991, as a coup attempt by communist hardliners bent on preserving the dissolving Soviet Union collapsed, Sergei Stankevich rushed to the KGB headquarters on Moscow’s Lubyanka Square. With victorious anti-coup Muscovites preparing to pull down the statue of Soviet secret police founder Felix Dzherzinsky outside the building, Stankevich —…
A Russian national has been sentenced to 8 years in prison for treason by handing state secrets to China, a court in Siberia announced Thursday. Vladimir Vasilyev, 52, had pleaded guilty to passing state secrets to China’s intelligence services, the state-run TASS news agency quoted an unnamed law enforcement source as saying. He is at…
Several spotted deer at Moscow’s Losiny Ostrov (Elk Island) forest preserve have been mauled to death by a pack of stray dogs, park management told Russian media Thursday. Environmental activists reported 10 killings over the long holiday weekend, blaming the park’s new administration for making cuts to the ranger service that left approximately 150 spotted…
Russia’s top online retailer, Wildberries, launched in three major European countries Wednesday. The company has started selling in France, Italy and Spain, it said in a statement sent to The Moscow Times. The move follows other recent expansions, including into Germany, and means Wildberries is now active in all four of the EU’s largest consumer…
Two gay men who were forcibly returned to Chechnya this month have been charged with terror-related offenses without proof and face up to 15 years in prison, a rights group said Wednesday. Authorities in Russia’s restive region of Chechnya have come under fire in recent years from rights groups, which accuse officials of jailing and torturing…
Russian President Vladimir Putin urged his domestic intelligence agency Wednesday to be on guard against Western attempts to “shackle” the country, after the EU agreed on new sanctions on Moscow. The comments came as relations between Russia and the West approach their lowest point since the Cold War, with new EU and U.S. penalties looming…
A court in southern Siberia has sentenced a woman Jehovah’s Witness to a real prison term for the first time as part of Russia’s ongoing campaign against members of the Christian denomination, the religious group said. The court in the republic of Khakassia’s regional capital of Abakan ruled that Valentina Baranovskaya, 69, and her son…
Russia has confirmed 4,200,902 cases of coronavirus and 84,430 deaths. Feb. 24: What you need to know today Russia on Wednesday confirmed 11,749 new coronavirus cases and 383 deaths. The Egyptian Drug Authority gave emergency authorization to Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the jab’s developers confirmed Wednesday. Georgia will be open to Russian tourists from March 1, Russia’s…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lambasted the West for failing to unite globally in the fight against the pandemic and its economic fallout, in an address to the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday. In his speech to the United Nations’ human rights body, Lavrov criticized the West for refusing to suspend sanctions in the…
Russia is helping Armenia reform its military following the country’s deadly war with Azerbaijan last year over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian defense minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. The reforms are aimed at optimizing the Armenian military’s numerical strength as well as implementing new weapons systems and military equipment,…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a handful of new laws Wednesday that impose heavy fines on protesters and “foreign agents,” as well as on social media giants accused of “discriminating” against Russian media. Observers have described legislators’ recent activity as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to tighten restrictions on dissent ahead of this fall’s…
Moscow police have blocked supporters of slain opposition politician Boris Nemtsov from laying flowers at the site of his death on a bridge steps away from the Kremlin. Nemtsov’s supporters have maintained and guarded a makeshift memorial at the site where he was shot dead on Feb. 27, 2015, day and night for nearly six…
A Russian fugitive whose dramatic sprint out of an Indonesian immigration office was captured on CCTV has been caught again after two weeks on the run, authorities said Wednesday. Andrey Kovalenko fled the office on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali to avoid deportation, with the surveillance footage showing him keeping pace on foot with a…
The voyage of the Christophe de Margerie from Jiangsu in China to the remote Arctic terminal of Sabetta was made in the Arctic winter dark and through thick sea-ice, marking the first time that a commercial vessel has sailed the Northern Sea Route in February. Glimpses of the voyage have now been put on display by shipping company Sovcomflot and…
A Russian Orthodox priest has blessed a police van on a recent visit to the Siberian republic of Buryatia, the regional Interior Ministry announced. Russian priests have previously been seen sprinkling holy water on military hardware including ballistic missiles, submarines and space rockets as part of blessing rituals. The practice has become so widespread that…
Amnesty International has withdrawn its “prisoner of conscience” designation from jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny due to past nationalist and anti-immigrant rhetoric, the human rights organization said Tuesday. Amnesty declared Navalny a prisoner of conscience after he was detained upon his Jan. 17 return from Germany, where he had spent months recovering from nerve…
Thousands of anti-government protesters rallied in Georgia on Tuesday after the arrest of an opposition leader, deepening a political crisis that erupted after disputed elections last year. Hundreds of riot police used tear gas against Nika Melia’s supporters who were camped out at his United National Movement party’s headquarters in the capital Tbilisi before he was arrested…
New video footage claiming to show the brutal torture of Russian inmates, one of whom died shortly after the footage was filmed, has surfaced, the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported on Tuesday. Novaya Gazeta says the two videos came from the same prison colony where gruesome leaked footage of guards torturing inmates sparked a national…
A growing number of Russians get their news from social media and the internet, according to a survey published by the independent Levada Center pollster on Tuesday. Forty-two percent of Levada’s Russian respondents use social media to get their daily news, while 39% get it from the internet. While television remains the primary news source…
Ukraine has accused Russia of targeted assassinations of “perceived opponents” in a case lodged at the European Court of Human Rights, the latest salvo by Kiev in a barrage of legal complaints against Moscow. The case, which was filed last week, accuses Russia of carrying out “state-authorized” assassinations “in Russia and on the territory of…
Georgian police on Tuesday arrested a top opposition leader and used tear gas in a violent raid on his party headquarters, further deepening a political crisis sparked by last year’s disputed parliamentary elections. Live television footage showed Nika Melia, the leader of the United National Movement, the country’s main opposition party, being dragged from his…
NHL star Artemi Panarin will take a leave of absence from the New York Rangers after a Russian tabloid published assault allegations that his team links to his criticism of the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin. Panarin, 29, was accused of attacking an 18-year-old woman in Latvia in 2011 by his former KHL coach…
EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed to impose sanctions on Russian officials for the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and to target Myanmar’s military over its seizure of power, the bloc’s top envoy said. Diplomats told AFP the sanctions against Moscow would target four senior officials deemed responsible for persecuting Navalny, using the…
Russian lawmakers are seeking to criminalize insulting World War II veterans, the state-run TASS news agency reported Monday. Amendments to a bill on the protection of historical memory will be included in its second reading in Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma. They come on the heels of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s conviction…
A Swedish tech consultant has been charged with espionage for allegedly selling information about truckmakers Volvo and Scania to Russia that put Sweden’s security at risk, prosecutors said on Monday. The 47-year-old man, whose name was not disclosed, was arrested in dramatic fashion in February 2019 while dining at a restaurant in central Stockholm with…
Russia has confirmed 4,177,330 cases of coronavirus and 83,630 deaths. Feb. 22: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 12,604 new coronavirus cases and 337 deaths. Ghana’s Ministry of Health has authorized Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, The Russian Direct Investment Fund announced Saturday. Montenegro started using Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine in its coronavirus vaccination drive, Russia’s…
40 homeless people in Saint Petersburg received coronavirus vaccine jabs on Sunday under a charity initiative that has received the backing of local officials. “Here, there are many people at risk. It is important for them to be vaccinated,” said Taisia Suvorova of the Nochlezhka non-governmental organization that provides aid to the homeless in Russia’s second-largest…
Three workers died and three more were injured on Saturday during repair works at a processing plant owned by Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel, the company said. In the small hours of Saturday an ore-reloading facility and the adjacent walkway collapsed during repairs to reinforce the structure, said the company. The plant is located in the…
European Union foreign ministers are expected to give the go-ahead Monday to sanctions on Russia over the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and a crackdown on protests. The top diplomats from the 27-nation bloc meet in Brussels for talks that will also include a wide-ranging videoconference with new U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The move…
A Moscow court on Saturday upheld a ruling to jail the Kremlin’s most prominent opponent Alexei Navalny, sealing his first lengthy prison sentence after a decade of legal battles with Russian authorities. Another court also convicted Navalny on defamation charges — part of a slew of cases he has faced since returning to Russia from…
Russia said Saturday its scientists had detected the first case of transmission of the H5N8 strain of avian flu to humans and had alerted the World Health Organization. In televised remarks, the head of Russia’s health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, said scientists at the Vektor laboratory had isolated the strain’s genetic material from seven workers…
A Moscow court on Saturday upheld a ruling to jail the Kremlin’s most prominent opponent Alexei Navalny, sealing his first lengthy prison sentence in a decade of legal battles with Russian authorities. Judge Dmitry Balashov dismissed Navalny’s appeal against a recent decision to imprison him for violating the terms of a suspended sentence on embezzlement…
Moscow announced Saturday it had registered its third vaccine against the coronavirus and promised to introduce the jab to the Russian population by March. Russia was the first country to register a vaccine against Covid-19 in August ahead of clinical trials, and the Sputnik V jab has been authorised in more than two dozen countries…
Foreign nationals may now enter Russia for work purposes as long as their employer obtains permission ahead of time, according to a decree published by the Russian government Friday. The decree, which went into effect on Feb. 16, follows a nearly yearlong suspension on most foreign arrivals to Russia prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. Previously,…
The Moscow Civic Chamber plans to launch a citywide vote next week on whether to restore the statue of the Soviet secret police’s notorious founder 30 years after it was toppled, its senior member announced Friday. The monument to “Iron” Felix Dzerzhinsky, who headed the Cheka secret police following the 1917 revolution, was removed from…
A surge in production of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine combined with domestic distrust of the jab could lead to a boom in exports, pharmaceutical executives and industry specialists in the country told The Moscow Times. After big promises and a shaky start to production ahead of a wide-scale rollout in the fall — which…
Russian police dismissed a western Siberian department chief following an internal review into a viral video showing riot officers teaching schoolchildren to detain protesters, the police force announced Friday. Monday’s televised police presentation in the oil city of Nizhnevartovsk that circulated widely on social media showed teenagers with shields and riot gear carrying out mock…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for mediating a secretive prisoner swap with Syria, Moscow’s ally in Damascus’ ongoing military campaign against rebels and terrorists. The Israeli government announced early Friday that it exchanged two Syrian shepherds for an Israeli woman with Russian mediation. The unnamed woman in her early…
The United States has imposed visa restrictions on Belarusian law enforcement and justice officials it holds responsible for a renewed crackdown on activists and journalists, the State Department announced Thursday. The State Department condemned this week’s sentencing of two Belarusian journalists for covering 2020 election protests, as well as police raids on dozens of journalists,…
U.S. diplomats in Moscow have appealed for doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in the face of delivery shortages from Washington, The Washington Post reported Thursday. Unnamed officials cited in the story say the “humbling” experience is prompted by Washington’s inability to promise the delivery of U.S.-made vaccine doses in the near future. While…
Russia will resume flights to Egypt’s Red Sea resorts in March after the lifting of a ban imposed following a 2015 attack on a Russian jet, an aviation official said. Flights “to the two cities of Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada will resume on March 28 via the Russian company Nordwind at a rate of four…
Russia is likely to ignore the European rights court’s demand for the immediate release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, legal experts said as Moscow categorically rejected the calls. Navalny, 44, appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for his release on Jan. 20, days after his arrest at a Moscow airport. The…
Latvia on Thursday said it would ban entry to a Russian TV host after he called Hitler a “very brave man” while disparaging Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. “The glorification of Nazism in any form is unacceptable to Latvia,” Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics wrote on Twitter. На основании ч. 2 ст. 61 Закона об иммиграции я…
Russians are showing few signs of anger over the government’s handling of the health aspects of the coronavirus pandemic, despite the country recording one of the world’s largest increases in mortalities last year. Russia’s excess death toll — calculated by comparing the number of people who died over a given period compared with the number…
Prominent Russian activist Anastasia Shevchenko will walk free after receiving a suspended sentence for her involvement in a pro-democracy group that the government labeled “undesirable.” Shevchenko, 41, is the first activist to be prosecuted under Russia’s 2015 law against “undesirable organizations.” She has been under house arrest since 2019, when one of her three children…
Siberian mammoth teeth have contributed to the discovery of the world’s oldest DNA, the scientific journal Nature reported Wednesday. Before the latest findings, the oldest DNA sequences were believed to have come from a 700,000-year-old Canadian horse’s leg bone in 2013. Geneticists have now uncovered DNA as much as 1.2 million years old from molar…
The Kremlin has said the U.S. should mind its own business when it comes to Moscow’s work on the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline and focus on power outages in Texas instead. Millions of people in Texas were left without power and drinking water this week due to an abnormally severe winter storm. Meanwhile, the…
Russia has confirmed 4,125,598 cases of coronavirus and 81,926 deaths. Feb. 18: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 13,447 new coronavirus cases and 480 deaths. Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine has been certified and approved for mass use in Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan’s state coronavirus commission announced Wednesday. Muslim Spiritual Board of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan announced Tuesday…
Russian scientists believe that a massive crater above the Arctic Circle described as a “pit to hell” was formed as a result of an explosion caused by built-up methane. The researchers based their conclusions on a 3D model they created from drone footage from inside the well-preserved crater that has not yet eroded or filled with water.…
Spain has reopened a criminal case against Kremlin-linked billionaire Mikhail Fridman over his alleged role in the deliberate bankruptcy of a Spanish tech firm, Deutsche Welle reported Wednesday. Spain’s National Court first opened a case against the tycoon in 2019, with prosecutors accusing Fridman of market manipulation, fraudulent insolvency, business corruption and misuse of company…
Spain’s move to reopen a criminal case against Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman and two of his associates over their alleged role in the deliberate bankruptcy of a Spanish tech firm was a “technical error,” a judge said Thursday. Spain’s National Court first opened a case against the tycoon in 2019, with prosecutors accusing Fridman of…
A court in Belarus on Thursday sentenced a pair of young television journalists to two years in prison for covering a protest last year, the first lengthy jail term in a legal crackdown on independent media. Standing defiant in a cage, Katerina Bakhvalova, 27, and Daria Chultsova, 23, flashed V for victory signs as they…
Europe’s rights court told Russia on Wednesday to release jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny out of concern for his life, but Moscow swiftly rejected the call. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken opponent, was arrested and jailed upon returning to Russia last month following months of treatment in Germany for a nerve agent poisoning he…
Russia is the world’s last bastion of freedom in the face of the U.S. labor movement’s decline and pressure on Russian media in the Baltics and Ukraine, the head of Russia’s lower house of parliament said Wednesday. “Russia is the last island of freedom,” State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said during a legislative session, according to…
Europe’s top human rights court has called on Russia to release jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny “immediately.” Navalny was sentenced to nearly 3 years in prison on Feb. 2 for violating his probation in a 2014 fraud conviction while he recovered from a near-fatal poisoning in Germany. The ECHR in 2017 ruled that Navalny’s 2014 conviction…
A leading opposition figure went on trial Wednesday in Belarus, where authorities are pursuing a series of criminal cases against activists and journalists following months of anti-government protests last year. Viktor Babaryko had planned to run against strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko but was arrested in June ahead of elections and charged with bribery and money laundering. …
North Korea is offering a bounty of up to $10,000 to help find runaway workers in Russia, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Tuesday, citing Russian citizens of Korean descent in the country’s Far East. The United Nations demanded that all countries send home North Korean laborers by late 2019 to stop Pyongyang from funneling a cut of…
The unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh has introduced a bill to add Russian as an official language alongside Armenian, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Wednesday. The bill follows a recent Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan regain most of its former territories in the region, including the strategic city of Shusha, from Armenian control.…
Russian security forces have detained 19 suspected radical Islamists accused of plotting attacks across southern Russia, Interfax reported Wednesday, citing the Federal Security Service (FSB). The security operation took place in the Black Sea regions of Krasnodar, Crimea, Rostov and Karachayevo-Cherkessia. Authorities identified the suspects as members of Takfir wal-Hijra, a group that Russia banned…