A former agent of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has been sentenced to six years in maximum-security prison on charges of treason in the agency’s worst scandal in recent history. Ex-FSB operative Dmitry Dokuchayev was the last of four high-profile figures to receive treason sentences. All four were arrested in Russia in December 2016 shortly…
More than 7,000 people have died in fire-related accidents in Russia in 2018, according to data released Wednesday by Russia’s Investigative Committee. Sixty people, many of them children, died in the Siberian city of Kemerovo in March 2018 after the Winter Cherry mall caught on fire due to faulty wiring. Inspections uncovered violations in at…
Russian senators have passed a bill on Wednesday banning hostels in residential buildings, sending the bill to President Vladimir Putin’s desk to be signed into law. Hoteliers have warned that the ban could shutter up to 40 percent of hostels in Moscow and 80 percent in St. Petersburg, costing 16 billion rubles ($243 million) of…
One day after his release from house arrest, theater director Kirill Serebrennikov made a surprise public appearance at the Gogol Center, where he had worked as artistic director before his arrest. Following a Tuesday evening performance of “Dead Souls,” Serebrennikov ran onstage and was met with applause from the audience. He later took selfies and…
While Ukraine currently faces a difficult choice for its leadership, Russia has settled on President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said Wednesday in response to campaign billboards depicting Ukraine’s president facing off against Putin. Posters showing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko opposite Putin with a caption reading “The Decisive Choice” appeared in Ukraine ahead of the country’s…
Russia’s state television has launched a new channel that targets the younger generation with programming dedicated entirely to World War II. The Pobeda (“Victory”) television channel, which will broadcast wartime movies and shows 24/7, appeared in cable and satellite packages ahead of May 9, Russia’s national holiday marking the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. news…
Russian investigators have asked for jailed U.S. investor Michael Calvey to be released from pretrial detention and placed under house arrest instead. In February, Russia detained Calvey, the founder of the Baring Vostok private equity group, on suspicion of fraud along with three other partners in the fund. Calvey denies the allegations, saying the case…
Almost half of Russians say a decent salary is out of their reach no matter how long they live to earn it, the government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta cited research as saying Wednesday. On average, Russians named 66,000 rubles ($1,000) as a decent monthly salary, according to the government’s Financial University survey cited by the outlet.…
A printing press in St. Petersburg will rehire a transgender woman and pay her two years’ worth of lost income in Russia’s first known court case to acknowledge workplace discrimination against a transgender woman. Anastasia Vasilyeva was fired from the printing press after 10 years of employment after changing her identification papers from male to…
The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said on Tuesday the agency would soon unveil an effort to try to use U.S. assistance to counteract Russian influence around the world. “USAID will soon unveil a Framework to help us counter malign Kremlin influence, especially in Europe and Eurasia,” Mark Green said at…
The former mayor of Russia’s Far East capital of Vladivostok has been sentenced to 15 years behind bars on charges of large-scale commercial bribery and abuse of power. Igor Pushkaryov was detained in June 2016 on accusations of abusing his authority to mastermind a large-scale trade deal between the local government and a building supply…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that he could not consider pardoning a Norwegian held in Russia on espionage charges as a verdict had not yet been reached in his trial, Russian news agencies reported. Frode Berg, a retired guard on the Norwegian-Russian border, is being tried in Russia for allegedly gathering information about…
Russian authorities have blacklisted an anti-fascist activist group whose members are on trial on charges of plotting to overthrow the government as a terrorist organization. Federal agents opened a criminal case against Set — Russian for “Network” — in the fall of 2017, leading to the arrests of 11 people in St. Petersburg and Penza…
Environmentally conscious Russians are most likely to conserve water and recycle compared to other eco-conscious practices, according to a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) online poll published Tuesday. WWF Russia conducted its fourth annual online survey among 60,000 Russian respondents in 800 cities on March 30, the day of Earth Hour, an international event to promote environmental…
President Vladimir Putin has commented publicly for the first time on U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s alleged collusion with President Donald Trump’s campaign. Russia has repeatedly denied claims that it interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, although U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that it did. Last month, Mueller’s nearly two-year investigation concluded…
TOBOLSK — Workers at Russian petrochemicals company Sibur’s soon-to-be-completed ZapSibNefteKhim plant in Tobolsk will arrive for shifts at a building decorated with an enormous portrait of the city’s most famous son — the inventor of the periodic table of elements Dmitri Mendeleyev. It’s a fitting image for a factory that will be one of the…
The head of one of eastern Ukraine’s breakaway regions has said his separatist-held republic wants to join Russia as a full-fledged member. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions, collectively known as the Donbass, are combat zones between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian military in a conflict that broke out in April 2014. More than 13,000 people have…
Auction house Christie’s is to sell a tiara by Faberge, jeweller to the Russian Tsars, made of aquamarines and diamonds and with a pre-sale estimate of $230,000-340,000. The tiara was made in 1904 as a wedding gift from Germany’s Frederick Francis IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, to his bride, Princess Alexandra of Hanover and Cumberland.…
Russia’s riot police officers have released a video address to President Vladimir Putin complaining that they and their families are being evicted from their homes after retirement. The officers in the video said they had participated in assignments including quelling anti-Kremlin protests in 2011-2013 in central Moscow. They went on to accuse their superiors of…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov defended his country’s military buildup in the Arctic amid U.S. warnings of rising tensions in the remote and energy-rich region. “We don’t threaten anyone. We ensure sufficient defense capabilities given the political and military situation around our borders,” Lavrov said during a panel at the International Arctic Forum in St.…
Russia’s migrant numbers have declined by the highest amount in the post-Soviet period last year as the country grapples with its own population crisis, the Vedomosti business daily reported on Monday. For the first time in a decade, migration has been unable to cancel out Russia’s population decline. Faced with the need for up to…
Russian political operatives disguised as “tourists” have offered money to at least six presidential candidates in Madagascar last year in exchange for Russia’s support for the eventual winner, a BBC investigation reported on Monday. Former leader Andry Rajoelina, 44, was declared the winner of a hard-fought presidential vote in December, rejecting his rival’s accusations of fraud. Yevgeny…
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday that Russia violated the rights of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny by placing him under house arrest in 2014 and imposing other restrictive measures on him. Navalny was placed under house arrest in February 2014 and held there for months while he was investigated for embezzlement…
The Indian government has agreed to buy 464 Russian battle tanks worth $1.93 billion, a defense and intelligence magazine reported Monday, citing unnamed official sources. India is the largest buyer of Russian military hardware, with the latest purchase being a quietly signed $5 billion deal for Russian S-400 surface to air missile systems last fall.…
Russia vowed to use “all available means” to try to broker peace in Libya as warlord Khalifa Haftar brushed aside U.S. warnings to press his military advance on the capital Tripoli. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia is urging all sides “to avoid any actions that could provoke bloodshed and the death of…
Russia has asked Interpol for the seventh time to arrest Bill Browder, a London-based Kremlin critic who leads a campaign to punish Russian officials for the 2009 death of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, according to a letter seen by Reuters. Once the biggest foreign money manager in Moscow, Browder has become one of the most vociferous Western…
Russia’s aircraft production has dropped by 13.5 percent in 2018 following two years of growth because of what experts say is a combined effect of U.S. sanctions and lower demand for warplanes. The decline in civil and military aircraft, helicopter, spacecraft and intercontinental ballistic missile manufacturing follows a period of annual growth between 9 and…
Almost 1,500 miles from Moscow, the tiny port of Sabetta nestles in a desolate Russian Arctic peninsula. A former outpost for Soviet geologists, it’s now the site of Russia’s most ambitious liquefied natural gas project, operated by a company that only entered the market just over a year ago. Several times a week, a giant…
Three Russian ships docked in Manila, the Philippines for a five-day port call on Monday aimed at improving navy-to-navy relations amid heightened tensions in the South China Sea. The arrival of two anti-submarine ships Admiral Tributs and Admiral Vinogradov and a tanker ship is the sixth visit by the Russian navy under Philippine President Rodrigo…
A Moscow court has released theater director Kirill Serebrennikov on bail after a year and a half spent under house arrest on criminal fraud charges, Russian news agencies reported Monday. Serebrennikov was detained on Aug. 22, 2017, on charges of embezzling 68 million rubles ($1 million) in government funds as part of a theater project,…
Russian prisoners will continue doing yoga despite religious scholars’ claims that the practice could turn inmates gay, Russian prison authorities said on Sunday. Yoga classes were suspended last month after a conservative lawmaker forwarded to prosecutors a theologian’s complaint that yoga could cause prisoners to become gay and start prison riots as a result, according…
Thousands of demonstrators in northern Russia continued months of protests against Moscow’s plans to ship its garbage outside its city limits and demanded their governor to resign. Russians across 26 regions, including Arkhangelsk, have staged protests against Moscow’s plan to solve a trash crisis by sending waste to surrounding regions. Anti-trash reform sentiment has been…
Russia on Monday signed an agreement with a group of international scientists to free nearly 100 whales that have been held for months in cramped pens in Russia’s Far East, a scandal that has triggered a wave of criticism. Images of the 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales, kept in enclosures in a bay near…
Moscow police have detained two British citizens in central Moscow on suspicion of drug possession, the RBC news outlet reported. English teachers Domian Osborne and Ian Evans were arrested after attempting to discard two bags of unidentified powder upon spotting a police patrol near the Chistiye Prudy metro station Saturday evening, RBC quoted a Moscow…
A British man whose partner died after being exposed to nerve agent Novichok was told by Russia‘s ambassador that Moscow could not have been behind the attacks because they would have “killed everyone,” he told the Sunday Mirror newspaper. Charlie Rowley, who was also exposed to Novichok after coming across a perfume bottle contaminated with the…
The Kremlin said on Friday (April 5) it was not helping Libyan military forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar push westward and that it supported a negotiated political settlement to Libya’s problems that ruled out any new bloodshed. The Kremlin was commenting after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was flying to eastern Libya…
Russian supermarket chain and market leader Magnit has made a $1.78 billion bid to buy 100 percent of smaller rival Lenta, Russia Business Today reported on Friday. Lenta has been the focus of attention in recent weeks since the investment holding Severgroup of steel tycoon Alexei Mordashov paid $729 million to buy a 42 percent stake in the retailer,…
Workers at the Ford Sollers automobile plant outside St. Petersburg will begin a partial shutdown of production next week, a local Ford labor union leader said Friday, to protest hundreds of impending layoffs at the plant as it moves to shut down production. Ford Sollers, the American automotive giant’s joint venture in Russia, announced late…
A Russian court fined Twitter 3,000 rubles ($46) on Friday for failing to supply information to Russia’s authorities on where it stores its Russian users’ personal data, the state-run TASS news agency reported. Russian legislation requires social media companies to store user data on servers located in Russia. At the moment, the only tools Russia…
The Russian military released footage on Friday showing its naval forces shooting and launching missiles in the Black Sea. Earlier this week, NATO announced plans to expand its surveillance in the Black Sea in support of Ukraine. Two of the Black Sea Fleet’s guided missile corvettes launched “Moskit” (“Mosquito”) supersonic missiles at targets simulating enemy…
Russian officials took to social media with posts mocking a Ukrainian minister’s pledge to storm Moscow with tanks. Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan wrote on Facebook Thursday that Ukrainian tanks will “eventually” arrive in the Russian capital alongside its allies. His post was made in response to an invitation from Moscow to discuss Ukraine’s membership…
Russian regulators have blocked more than 1,000 online news stories ruled by a court as defamatory toward the head of a major bank, leading lawyers to decry the mass censorship as “legal nihilism.” The state-owned VTB Bank went to court last year seeking to stop the circulation of stories harmful to its business reputation, the…
Hundreds of labor migrants have been detained in the Siberian region of Irkutsk, rights activists told the sibreal.org news website on Friday. Authorities in Irkutsk, some 5,000 kilometers east of Moscow, carry out regular raids against undocumented migrants. Around 280 migrants were rounded up and “pushed en masse into police vans” by masked men and…
The family of an American killed when a Malaysian Airlines plane was shot down over Ukraine in 2014 filed a lawsuit on Thursday against U.S.-based money transfer companies and two Russian banks they accuse of providing services to the group they blame for striking Flight MH17. MH17 was brought down over territory held by pro-Russian…
The first round of Ukraine’s presidential elections last Sunday was met with widespread interest in Russia, thanks in part to extensive coverage on Russian state television. According to the official results published on Wednesday, actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky secured first place with 30.3 percent of the votes. Current Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko trailed in…
Russia has wielded gifts and political office to maintain control of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) last year, according to a Financial Times investigation. FIDE elected former deputy prime minister Arkady Dvorkovich in October 2018 on his pledge to draw a line under years of scandal and internal feuding. Russia secured Dvorkovich’s victory “with promises…
Behind the perimeter of a Defense Ministry base in southern Russia stand three barrack buildings where two witnesses say they have seen private fighters being billeted before they are dispatched to fight in Syria for President Bashar Assad. Yet on paper, the barracks have nothing to do with the Russian defense ministry: court documents list…
A record one-fifth of Russians would like to leave the country if they could, a threefold increase from five years ago, the Gallup pollster said Thursday. Public polling inside Russia has indicated in recent years that between 17 and 20 percent of Russians were willing to migrate. Official data, which has been criticized for downplaying…
An official survey on the extent of economic hardship that Russians currently face — including their inability to afford new shoes — has left the Kremlin scratching its head. An extensive State Statistics Service, or Rosstat, survey said that four-fifths of Russian families had a hard time making ends meet — and one-third of households…
Venezuela’s deputy foreign minister Ivan Gil said on Thursday he does not rule out that more Russian military personnel may arrive in Venezuela under agreements already concluded with Russia, Interfax news agency reported. The deputy minister also said Russian forces will stay in Venezuela as long as needed, and that there is no set period…
President Vladimir Putin told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that Russian special forces troops in Syria had found the remains of a U.S.-born Israeli soldier missing since 1982, allowing him to be finally buried. The disappearance of Zachary Baumel, who was 21 when he fought in Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and was declared missing…
Russia has extensively deployed electronic warfare capabilities to hide President Vladimir Putin’s location, a U.S.-based research group said in a recent report. The report suggests that GPS spoofing extends far beyond previously recorded instances in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where drivers passing by the Kremlin or Putin’s known whereabouts have seen their navigation software “teleport”…
The head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization warned the U.S. Congress on Wednesday of the threat posed by “a more assertive Russia,” including a massive military buildup, threats to sovereign states, the use of nerve agents and cyberattacks. “We must overcome our differences now because we will need our alliance even more in the…
The Japanese government has voiced protest against planned Russian military shooting drills on a chain of disputed Pacific islands, its foreign ministry told Russian media Thursday. Both countries claim sovereignty over the island chain known in Russia as the Kuril Islands and in Japan as the Northern Territories, preventing the sides from signing a treaty…
Russian lawmakers have accused Ukraine of bringing 1.5 trillion rubles ($23 billion) in losses to the Crimean economy in the 23 years that the peninsula was part of independent Ukraine. The assessment comes from the State Duma’s newly established task force to measure damages under what it labels Ukraine’s “annexation” of Crimea between 1991 — the fall…
The Russian military tested the telepathic effects of parapsychology in its wars in Chechnya in the 1990s and the early 2000s, a news magazine run by the Defense Ministry has claimed. The techniques reportedly allowed soldiers to wiretap conversations, disrupt software, identify potential terrorists and read foreign-language documents locked in a safe — all using…
Britain said on Wednesday it had scrambled Typhoon jets to monitor two Russian “Blackjack” bombers which approached the United Kingdom’s airspace. The two Russian Tupolev Tu-160 long-range bombers flew in international airspace off Britain’s northeastern coast. “We can confirm that RAF quick reaction alert Typhoon aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth scrambled to monitor two Blackjack bombers while they…
A mock gravestone for President Vladimir Putin appeared in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, in at least the third such display in the past two months. The headstone popped up near the iconic St. Isaac’s Cathedral shortly after an activist was sentenced to 15 days behind bars for placing a mock Putin tombstone in Kurgan region…
At least two suspected members of the banned Islamic State terrorist organization have been killed in a shootout with police in Russia’s North Caucasus that took place overnight Wednesday. The region, known for its instability, has seen frequent attacks on law enforcement officials, including in the republics of Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan. The suspects opened fire…
Russian authorities believe Tuesday’s explosion that injured four people at a St. Petersburg military and space academy was a deliberate attack, the Kommersant business daily has reported. The Investigative Committee opened a criminal investigation into attempted murder after the blast at the Mozhaysky Military Space Academy injured four officers midday Tuesday. The bomb, which was…