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Moscow authorities plan to attract voters for next month’s public vote on constitutional reforms that would allow President Vladimir Putin to rule Russia until 2036 with prizes totaling almost $144 million. The constitutional amendments, in addition to adding social guarantees to Russia’s basic law, reset Putin’s four previous terms as president, allowing him two additional…

There have been 502,436 cases of coronavirus infection reported in Russia so far and 6,532 deaths. June 11: 3 things you need to know today Moscow will end its self-isolation orders — including its digital pass system and schedule system for taking walks outside — starting June 9, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. The city also released a schedule of which…

Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg has a shortage of hospital beds for coronavirus patients, the Fontanka news website reported Wednesday as patients decried poor conditions at a hastily built temporary hospital. St. Petersburg has officially confirmed 19,769 coronavirus cases, a figure that according to Fontanka jumps to 30,000 when community-acquired pneumonia cases are included. …

The mayor of Russia’s Arctic city of Norilsk has been charged with negligence over his response to a spill that dumped thousands of tons of diesel fuel into local waterways, investigators said Thursday. Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement that Rinat Akhmetchin had failed in his duties to contain the spill, which environmentalists say…

There were more melting permafrost problems for Russia’s energy infrastructure after the TGK1 power station on the Far Northwest reported June 9 that two of its hydropower units were flooded with “abnormal water inflow” due to melting snow.  No serious damage was done, although the company’s personnel have been put on high alert. The water…

Moscow lifted restrictions including compulsory travel passes on Tuesday, a move welcomed by residents who rushed out to enjoy the streets and parks. Many other regions are lifting lockdown restrictions as Russia is preparing to hold a July 1 national vote despite the pandemic.    President Vladimir Putin is seeking public backing for constitutional amendments that would…

Russian investigators on Wednesday detained three staff of a power plant over a huge fuel spill in the Arctic, as response teams warned a full clean-up would take years. The spill of over 21,000 tons of fuel took place after a fuel reservoir collapsed last month at a power plant operated by a subsidiary of…

Guards at one of Russia’s strictest prisons recently took part in a self-awareness course involving walking on glass, the prison service has said. The Orenburg region’s prison service said the goal of the course at Penal Colony No. 6 was to promote “self-discovery” among the guards and help them “defeat their own fears.” The colony 1,500…

U.S. fighter jets intercepted Russian bombers twice on Wednesday off the coast of Alaska, U.S. air defense command said. The intercepts come less than two weeks after U.S. bombers were met by Russian jets over the Black Sea. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said U.S. F-22 Raptors intercepted a Russian bomber formation early Wednesday…

Authorities in Far East Russia charged an LGBT rights activist with distributing pornography for posting drawings of vaginas on social media, the activist told Russian media Tuesday. Yulia Tsvetkova, 27, had been under house arrest from November to March in the remote city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur before authorities lifted her house arrest. Tsvetkova faces up to six years…

Around 14% of Russians tested for the coronavirus have developed immunity to the infection, Interfax reported Wednesday, citing health officials. Almost 650,000 Russians have been tested for the virus across 46 regions of the country, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s consumer protection watchdog, was cited as saying. “The percentage of immune cases among minors under…

Russian investigators on Wednesday detained three staff at a power plant where thousands of tons of diesel leaked into the soil and waterways of the Arctic region. The spill of over 21,000 tons of fuel, which environmentalists say is the largest ever in the Arctic, took place after a fuel reservoir collapsed at a power…

Several thousand Russians traveled abroad in April despite closed national borders around the world due to the coronavirus pandemic, the RBC news website reported Wednesday. 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 government. Many…

There have been 493,657 cases of coronavirus infection reported in Russia so far and 6,358 deaths. June 10: 3 things you need to know today Moscow will end its self-isolation orders — including its digital pass system and schedule system for taking walks outside — starting June 9, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. The city also released a schedule of which…

When Moscow began lifting its coronavirus lockdown on Tuesday, the Russian capital’s beauty salons and shops were among the first businesses given permission to reopen. As expected, many Muscovites rushed to the salon to get long-awaited haircuts and get their looks back to a pre-coronavirus state. But because Moscow remains the epicenter of the coronavirus…

The Russian manufacturer of ventilators involved in two deadly fires at hospitals treating virus patients said Wednesday it has recalled the devices for checks. In a statement sent to AFP, the Urals Instrument-Building Factory that makes the ventilators said it decided to “carry out extra technical tests on the equipment supplied earlier.” Doctors said the…

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has announced plans to donate 10.3 million rubles ($131,500) to help men cash-strapped by the coronavirus pandemic “buy” brides under Islamic law. The families of 207 grooms in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Chechnya would each receive 50,000 rubles ($635) for their sons to get married in accordance with traditional Islamic practices,…

Early voting began in remote parts of Russia on Wednesday ahead of a referendum that could extend President Vladimir Putin’s term in the Kremlin, despite coronavirus fears and rising infections.  Initially planned for April, the vote on constitutional reforms proposed by the longtime leader has been rescheduled for July 1. Election officials in the isolated…

A retired Austrian army colonel was jailed for three years on Tuesday after being convicted of spying for Russia. The 71-year-old who has not been named “betrayed state secrets at the expense of Austria for a foreign secret service,” a Salzburg court ruled. He also “deliberately disclosed a military secret,” according to the verdict. The…

Almost 60% more people in Moscow have died in May than the city’s average toll for the past three years, the city health department confirmed Wednesday as questions continue to swirl around Russia’s low coronavirus death figures. According to the Moscow health department’s figures, 15,713 people in the city died last month. That figure is 58%…

Authorities in northern Russia have pulled their support for a controversial landfill after two years of nationwide protests against shipping Moscow’s waste to remote regions, though experts and activists warn it’s too early to declare victory. The Arkhangelsk region’s administration said Tuesday it has unilaterally terminated its deal with the contractor building the Shiyes landfill…

Russia confirmed Tuesday that it would open talks with the United States this month on extending a major nuclear disarmament treaty but warned that U.S. insistence on including China could scuttle efforts. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov will meet in Vienna on June 22 with U.S. envoy Marshall Billingslea to start negotiations on New START, which…

After months under lockdown, Moscow was back to life Tuesday as restrictions eased, luring sun baskers and strollers back to the streets — along with the city’s legendary traffic jams. But all was not as before in the Russian capital, where face masks and gloves in shops and public transport remain compulsory.  Still, it was…

Two Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station played chess against an Earth-bound grandmaster on Tuesday, in a celebration of the first such game half a century ago. Equipped with an electronic chessboard, cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner played in zero gravity against 30-year-old Russian former child prodigy Sergei Karyakin. The game was broadcast…

A young mixed-race Russian blogger says she has faced a barrage of racist threats online after she posted a TikTok video criticizing racism in her country. Maria Magdalena Tunkara, 22, took to the popular app to dispute widespread claims that racism doesn’t exist in Russia amid a wave of anti-racism protests in the U.S. that…

A massive fuel spill in northern Siberia has reached an Arctic glacial lake after seeping through floating barriers installed to stop the leak, regional officials said Tuesday. President Vladimir Putin declared a state of emergency last Wednesday, several days after 21,000 metric tons of diesel leaked from a collapsed fuel tank outside the city of…

The trial of a decorated Russian historian accused of murdering and dismembering his young lover began Tuesday in a case that has fueled intense debate in Russia over domestic violence. Oleg Sokolov, a history lecturer who received France’s Legion d’Honneur from Jacques Chirac in 2003, was arrested last year on suspicion of murder after he was hauled…

A court in western Russia has sentenced a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses to six and a half years in jail on charges of extremism, a prison term the religious organization described as unprecedented in length and severity. The Pskov City Court handed Gennady Shpakovsky, 61, the sentence early Tuesday after mass raids led to…

The city of Murmansk in Russia’s Arctic has opened a new coronavirus field hospital two weeks after breaking ground on construction. Nowhere in the country has a hospital been erected as quickly, regional authorities say. The 10,000-square-meter hospital in Murmashi, about 15 kilometers south of Murmansk, has 700 beds for coronavirus patients. It consists of…

Mikhail Yefremov, one of Russia’s most well-known actors, faces up to 12 years in jail for a drunken head-on collision in central Moscow that killed the driver of the vehicle he crashed into late Monday. Security camera footage captured Yefremov’s SUV driving into oncoming traffic and crashing into a van on the Garden Ring road…

New infections have plateaued since mid-May when officials were reporting daily increases of around 11,000 cases. Officials say Russia’s high virus count is the result of mass testing and that a steady decline in new infections and its low fatality numbers mean the country can begin to return to normal. Yet critics have cast doubt…

There have been 485,253 cases of coronavirus infections reported in Russia so far and 6,142 deaths. June 9: 3 things you need to know today Moscow will end its self-isolation orders — including its digital pass system and schedule system for taking walks outside — on June 9, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. The city also released a schedule of which…

In the middle of May, as Moscow passed the peak of its new coronavirus case total and began heading back down the curve toward zero, the city’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin warned that strict restrictions would nonetheless remain in place for the foreseeable future. At the time, new daily cases in Moscow had plateaued at around…

Moscow was treated to its first glimpse of summer over the weekend — and Muscovites wasted no time in flocking to the city’s most popular spots despite the coronavirus after months of self-isolation. From strolling through Gorky Park to basking in the sunshine along the Moscow River’s shoreline, residents embraced the warm weather — although…

Lawyers for a Russian suspect in the trial of four men accused of downing flight MH17 said Monday that the coronavirus pandemic has severely hampered efforts to prepare a preliminary defense. The high-profile trial on the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines jetliner over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 people on board, resumed…

Russia has accelerated its drive to recruit Syrians to fight for Libya’s rebel leader Khalifa Haftar in May in violation of a UN arms embargo, Reuters reported Sunday. Haftar’s forces retreated from one of their last strongholds on the outskirts of the Libyan capital of Tripoli last week, ending his 14-month offensive against the country’s…

Moscow officials announced plans to lift coronavirus restrictions starting Tuesday despite the Russian capital continuing to see about 2,000 new infections each day. The city of 12.7 million, which has been under lockdown since late March, is the epicenter of Russia’s coronavirus outbreak with more than 197,000 cases. Its new case numbers have gradually fallen from…

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia have relocated to New Zealand two years after suffering a near-fatal poisoning attempt that Britain pins on Russia, The Sunday Times reported Sunday. Sergei, 68, and Yulia, 35, were exposed to military-grade nerve agent Novichok in the British city of Salisbury in March 2018. British officials…

There have been 476,658 cases of coronavirus infections reported in Russia so far and 5,971 deaths. June 8: 3 things you need to know today Moscow will end its self-isolation orders — including its digital pass system and schedule system for taking walks outside — on June 9, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. The city also released a schedule of which…

Independent journalism isn’t dead. You can help keep it alive. The Moscow Times’ team of journalists has been first with the big stories on the coronavirus crisis in Russia since day one. Our exclusives and on-the-ground reporting are being read and shared by many high-profile journalists. We wouldn’t be able to produce this crucial journalism…

The Russian military is using an anti-tank gun to help put out a fire that has been raging in a Siberian oil field for more than a week, The Siberian Times reported Monday. The Irkutsk Oil Company, a small producer, last week asked the Russian military to bombard a wellhead at the Yarakta oil field…

Russia announced Monday it would lift a range of anti-coronavirus measures including a strict lockdown on Moscow, despite still recording thousands of new infections every day. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the capital’s general lockdown and pass system would end on Tuesday, allowing residents to travel freely for the first time since late March. “Moscow…

Russia plans to resume international air travel on July 15 as it eyes a gradual return to normal life amid the coronavirus pandemic, the RBC news website and state-run TASS news agency reported Sunday. Russia grounded nearly all international flights in late March amid the coronavirus outbreak, allowing only special flights evacuating Russians from abroad and…

Russian journalist and activist Ilya Azar was released Sunday after ten days in detention, his punishment for standing on a solo picket protest. President Vladimir Putin’s government has cracked down on opposition demonstrations, and single-person protests are the only kind allowed without prior permission from the authorities. A court sentenced the 35-year-old journalist and municipal…

There have been 467,673 cases of coronavirus infections reported in Russia so far and 5,859 deaths. June 7: 3 things you need to know today Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has ordered to lift some of Moscow’s coronavirus restrictions starting June 1. All non-food shops and some service sector businesses will be able to re-open, he said. The…

New infections have been steadily dropping since mid-May when officials were reporting daily increases of around 11,000 cases. Officials say Russia’s high virus count is the result of mass testing and that a steady decline in new infections and its low fatality numbers mean the country can begin to return to normal. Yet critics have…

The United States on Saturday offered to help Russia clean up a vast fuel spill that has fouled an Arctic river in northern Siberia. “Saddened to hear about the fuel spill in Norilsk, Russia,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter. Saddened to hear about the fuel spill in Norilsk, Russia. Despite our disagreements,…

There have been 458,689 cases of coronavirus infections reported in Russia so far and 5,725 deaths. June 6: 3 things you need to know today Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has ordered to lift some of Moscow’s coronavirus restrictions starting June 1. All non-food shops and some service sector businesses will be able to re-open, he said. The city will…

New infections have been steadily dropping since mid-May when officials were reporting daily increases of around 11,000 cases. Officials say Russia’s high virus count is the result of mass testing and that a steady decline in new infections and its low fatality numbers mean the country can begin to return to normal. Yet critics have…

Young right-wing extremists from Germany are receiving combat training from Russian white supremacists whom the United States has blacklisted as terrorists, Germany’s Focus news magazine reported Friday. The U.S. State Department branded the Russian Imperial Movement as a foreign terrorist organization in April, saying it runs two paramilitary training camps in St. Petersburg that have…

Russia’s prosecutor general on Friday ordered a review of hazardous structures built on permafrost after concluding that a huge Arctic fuel spill last week was caused by shifting ground. The office of the prosecutor general said in a statement that a preliminary conclusion of the spill’s causes is the “sagging of the ground and the…

Russia’s Communist Party has launched a campaign urging supporters to vote against a set of constitutional amendments that would allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power for the next decade and a half. Russians are set to vote on July 1 to approve Putin’s changes to Russia’s basic law that would, among other things,…

The Czech Republic has expelled two Russian diplomats after a Russian embassy employee spread a hoax about a planned poison attack on three Prague politicians, officials said on Friday. In April, Respekt newspaper cited security sources as saying that a Russian national using a diplomatic passport had arrived in Prague carrying ricin, a toxic poison…

Over the past year, Siberia has seen disaster on a biblical scale.  Last spring, forest fires enveloped an area larger than Greece, causing $100 million in damage. In what Greenpeace called a “climate catastrophe,” the fires emitted more carbon dioxide in June alone than Sweden does in an entire year. Then, as those fires were…

Russia has managed to contain a massive diesel spill into a river in the Arctic, a spokeswoman for the emergencies ministry told AFP on Friday. “We have stopped the spread of the petroleum products,” the spokeswoman for the taskforce in charge of the accident clean-up said.  “They are contained in all directions, they are not…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said he expected metals giant Norilsk Nickel to fully restore the environment after an unprecedented Arctic fuel spill, as responders said they had managed to stop the slick from spreading further. A national-level state of emergency was announced after 21,000 tons of diesel fuel spilled from a reservoir that…

Moscow and central Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region will be able to cast their votes online on a set of constitutional amendments that would allow President Vladimir Putin to extend his rule into the next decade, election officials said Thursday. The vote was originally set for April 22 but was pushed back to July 1 due…