Russia has labeled a prominent human rights activist, three journalists and an artist-activist as “foreign agents” on Monday, the first time that individuals, not organizations, have been given the designation amid worries of a renewed clampdown on dissent. Veteran human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov; Radio Svoboda and MBKh Media journalist Lyudmila Savitskaya; Pskovskaya Guberniya newspaper…
Russia recorded more than 2,500 excess deaths a day during November in what was by far the deadliest month since the start of the pandemic, official figures released Monday have shown. Deaths from all causes — regarded as the most accurate indicator in assessing the impact of the coronavirus — came in 78,541 higher than…
Russia has confirmed 3,078,035 cases of coronavirus and 55,265 deaths. Dec. 29: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 27,787 new coronavirus cases and 487 deaths Monday. Russia has extended its suspension of flights with Britain through Jan. 12, 2021. More than half of Russians say they are not ready to receive the coronavirus vaccine, according to…
Russia on Monday said that it had expelled a Bulgarian diplomat in a tit-for-tat response after the EU and NATO member state declared a Russian military attache persona non-grata earlier this month. The Foreign Ministry said in response to the “unjustified” removal of its diplomat from Bulgaria, it had declared the assistant to Bulgaria’s military…
Rosneft Oil Company has published atlases “Barents Sea” and “Species: Biological Indicators for the State of Arctic Marine Ecosystems” as part of its Environmental Atlases of the Russian Seas series, jointly with the Innopraktika non-governmental development institute.
At least three people have been killed following a knife attack in the Chechen capital of Grozny on Monday. Two armed militants attacked law enforcement officers on Putin Avenue in central Grozny, TASS and Interfax cited anonymous sources as saying Monday afternoon, with conflicting reports of the number of people killed. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov…
Seventeen fishermen were missing and feared dead on Monday after a Russian trawler capsized during a storm and sank in the freezing waters of the Barents Sea. Officials said that two people had been rescued by a passing vessel, but hopes were quickly fading that more survivors could be found during a snowstorm over the…
For much of the world, 2020 was a historic, unprecedented year. This is especially true for Russia, which saw unprecedented environmental, social and political changes in addition to the pandemic. The Moscow Times is taking a look back at the images that defined 2020 in Russia — from snapshots of everyday life to historic moments…
Face masks, sofas and televisions were the most in-demand consumer goods in Russia this year, according to online sales data. Demand for masks was seven times higher than in 2019, data from online classified ads site Avito cited by the Vedomosti business daily showed. Russians preferred single-use masks to reusable ones, Avito found, with disposable…
Russia has sent additional military police units to the Raqqa province of northern Syria amid a flare-up in fighting between rebel groups there, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday, citing a top Russian official in Syria. Russia, a close ally of the Syrian government in Damascus, maintains a military presence in northeastern Syria, one of…
Azerbaijan said Monday that one of its soldiers was killed during a skirmish with Armenian separatists, in an apparent escalation of hostilities undermining a recent Russian-brokered ceasefire. The defense ministry said in a statement that an illegal group of Armenian fighters in territory adjacent to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region carried out the ambush on Sunday.…
Seventeen people were missing Monday and two were rescued after a Russian fishing boat sank in the Barents Sea, apparently due to icing, the emergencies ministry said. “The crew consisted of 19 people. Two people were rescued,” the emergencies ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies. The privately owned boat, called Onega,…
Russia has confirmed 3,021,964 cases of coronavirus and 54,226 deaths. Dec. 27: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 29,258 new coronavirus cases and 567 deaths. Moscow residents working in law enforcement, urban planning, sports and the catering industry will be eligible to receive Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine starting Dec. 28, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday. Social…
Russia on Saturday passed 3 million confirmed coronavirus infections, as authorities hold out against reimposing a national lockdown while the country is battered by a second wave. Official figures showed that a total of 3,021,964 cases have been detected, with 54,226 deaths. In the past 24 hours, 29,258 new infections and 567 deaths were registered…
George Blake, a famous “mole” in British intelligence who spied for the Soviet KGB during the 1950s before fleeing across the Iron Curtain, has died aged 98, Russian news agencies reported Saturday. “The legendary intelligence officer George Blake has passed away today,” the spokesman for Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service Sergei Ivanov told the TASS…
Russia will impose a 14-day quarantine requirement on individuals arriving from the U.K. starting Dec. 26 due to the spread of a more-contagious coronavirus strain in southeastern England, state consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has ordered. All arriving passengers with the exception of aircraft crew members must self-isolate at home for 14 days after entering Russia,…
A decorated Russian historian has received a lengthy prison sentence for murdering and dismembering his young lover, St. Petersburg-based media reported Friday. Oleg Sokolov, 64, who taught at St. Petersburg State University, was pulled out of the Moika River with severed arms in his bag last November. He confessed to shooting his former student and…
A former Moscow region official has been sentenced to 15 years in a maximum-security prison on corruption charges Friday, more than a year after a dramatic court hearing during which he attempted to take his own life. Alexander Shestun, the former head of the Serpukhov district of the Moscow region, was found guilty of taking…
Russian authorities on Friday launched a criminal probe into an ally of Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny and raided her flat for allegedly threatening a man Navalny said took part in his poisoning. Investigators accused Lyubov Sobol of trespassing “with the use of violence or a threat to use it” after she rang the doorbell of…
Western European scientists are ringing the alarm as the Caspian Sea shrinks due to climate change, saying the falling water levels presage a fast-approaching ecocide and the loss of unique local species. The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest inland body of water and borders southern Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. By the end…
Russia’s growing role in the volatile Central African Republic was in the spotlight this week, after Moscow dispatched military instructors following a rebel threat to disrupt Sunday’s elections. Moscow has led a diplomatic and financial offensive in the deeply troubled nation since 2018 in return for concessions given to its companies to exploit the country’s…
Russia has listed four NGOs, two civil society groups and one media outlet as “foreign agents” and “undesirable organizations” amid a renewed crackdown on critical voices this week. The Justice Ministry labeled three AIDS service organizations and one educational affiliate of exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Open Russia pro-democracy group as “foreign agents” Monday. St. Petersburg’s…
A vodka box stuffed with more than $1 million of Iranian cash was stolen from the Russian Foreign Ministry building last year, the government confirmed Thursday following media reports. Russia had received the $1.5 million stashed in an Absolut vodka box and two bags via diplomatic pouch in November 2019 as a payment for consular…
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said police early Friday raided the apartment of an ally and detained her after he tricked a security service agent into admitting he was poisoned. Navalny, 44, on Monday said he had impersonated an official in the Kremlin’s Security Council and got an admission of guilt from a toxins expert…
Russian authorities said the fuel spill at an Arctic power station earlier in 2020 was the largest in world history, a top emergencies official said Thursday. Some 21,000 tons of oil poured into the surrounding ground and waterways near the city of Norilsk after a diesel oil tank belonging to a subsidiary of Russian metals…
Four former Russian policemen on trial for planting drugs on a prominent investigative journalist denied the charges against them on Thursday. The arrest of reporter Ivan Golunov in June 2019 on trumped-up drug charges spurred a massive campaign calling for his release led by activists and Kremlin critics. His supporters and employer — the independent…
Around half of Russians believe that Western secret agents orchestrated leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s poisoning or that he wasn’t poisoned at all, according to an independent survey published Thursday. Navalny fell into a coma on Aug. 20 on a flight from Siberia to Moscow. He was flown for treatment to Germany two days later, where European…
Russia has confirmed 2,963,688 cases of coronavirus and 53,096 deaths. Dec. 25: What you need to know today Russia confirmed new record-breaking numbers of 29,935 coronavirus cases and 635 deaths Thursday. Moscow residents working in law enforcement, urban planning, sports and the catering industry will be eligible to receive Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine starting Dec. 28, Mayor Sergei…
A Russian couple has been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for blowing a secret agent’s cover in their wedding photos, the state-run TASS news agency reported Thursday. Baltic affairs expert Antonina Zimina and her husband Konstantin Antonets were charged with treason after Zimina’s old classmate, a Federal Security Service (FSB) counterintelligence officer, appeared in their…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has returned an 18th-century Orthodox Christian icon to Bosnia and Herzegovina embassy after reports said the religious artifact originated from rebel-held eastern Ukraine. Lavrov received the 300-year-old icon as a gift from Milorad Dodik, the Serb chair of Bosnia’s three-man presidency, during his visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina on Dec.…
Moscow set a new single-day record of more than 8,000 coronavirus cases as national deaths and infections shattered previous records Thursday. The latest record comes as Moscow prepares to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s without its traditional mass festivities due to the pandemic. Of the 8,203 newly infected residents in the Russian capital, official data…
A cat that was rescued from a central Russian waste processing plant has been named an assistant to the regional environment minister, the administration said Wednesday. Widely circulated surveillance footage this week showed a plant worker retrieving the cat from a tied plastic bag on a conveyor belt. Veterinarians said the healthy and well-fed cat…
Russia has confirmed 2,933,753 cases of coronavirus and 52,461 deaths. Dec. 24: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 27,250 new coronavirus cases and 549 deaths Wednesday. Argentina gave “emergency” authorization to Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, becoming the first Latin American country to do so. The first 300,000 doses of the vaccine are set to reach…
Argentina’s health ministry said Wednesday it has given the controversial Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine “emergency” authorization, making the country the first in Latin America to do so. The first shipment of the 25 million doses of the vaccine bought by the Argentine government is due to arrive on Thursday. The authorization for the Gam-CovidVac…
Lawmakers in Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, have passed over a dozen laws this week that expand the government’s powers while imposing new restrictions on free speech and information access. State Duma deputy Dmitry Vyatkin authored many of the bills, which have moved through parliament at breakneck pace in what observers call…
Russia’s leading media holding, which is controlled by state energy giant Gazprom, will launch an app similar to the video-sharing social network TikTok, the group’s CEO said Wednesday. The Kommersant business daily cited Gazprom-Media CEO Alexander Zharov as saying the holding had purchased a service called “Ya Molodets” (“I am great”). Zharov said the app…
Moscow opposition deputy Yulia Galyamina will walk free after receiving a suspended sentence under Russia’s law criminalizing multiple protest violations, the Mediazona news website reported Wednesday. Galyamina, a member of north-central Moscow’s Timiryazevsky District council, is accused of demonstrating against local elections in the summer of 2019 and against Russia’s constitutional reforms this summer. She…
Russian lawmakers took first steps Wednesday to formally allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036. Current law limits the Russian presidency to two consecutive terms, requiring Putin, 68, to step down in 2024. But a clause within a set of constitutional reforms approved in a nationwide vote this summer allows Putin to…
RN-Krasnodarneftegaz, a subsidiary of Rosneft Oil Company, will quadruple the funding for its land remediation programme.
Rosneft Oil Company top executives, HSE executives, the interregional trade union organisation management, directors and HSE managers of the Company’s enterprises have participated in an extended meeting on accident-free production in the Company’s operations.
Rosneft and specialists of the Siberian Federal University have developed the technology of production of environmentally friendly drilling fluids based on seed oils and containing biodegradable components.
With less than a month before Joe Biden moves into the White House, Moscow on Wednesday accused the incoming U.S. administration of “Russophobia” after the president-elect promised to punish Russia for a major cyber attack. Biden is expected to take a tougher stance against Russia than Donald Trump, whose ascent to the U.S. presidency in…
Ruslan Shaveddinov, an associate of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, has returned to Moscow following a year of forced military service in the Arctic, the Mediazona news website reported. Shaveddinov worked for Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) which leads investigations into corrupt individuals among the Kremlin’s ruling elite. In December 2019, men in uniform broke…
The medical journal The Lancet has published Tuesday a case report detailing Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s treatment in Germany following his poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent. Doctors at Berlin’s Charité clinic, where Navalny was flown two days after falling suddenly ill on a flight in Siberia in August, diagnosed him with severe poisoning.…
Encrypted messaging app Telegram will launch pay-for services in 2021, its Russian-born founder Pavel Durov said Wednesday, as the growing company needed “at least a few hundred million dollars per year.” “Telegram will begin to generate revenue, starting next year,” Durov said in a statement. “We will be able to launch countless new features and…
In a year when the coronavirus pandemic dominated news headlines worldwide, Russia also embraced the prospect of Vladimir Putin as president until 2036 and faced fallout from the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Political unrest at home and abroad gathered steam as the first wave of Covid-19 infections abated, while a huge Arctic fuel…
Colombia has expelled two alleged Russian intelligence officers working under diplomatic protection earlier this month, media reported Tuesday. Colombian authorities said the Russian diplomats violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations but would not detail why they left, according to Reuters. The news agency reported that President Ivan Duque declined to reveal additional information, telling…
Russian lawmakers passed a bill Tuesday to ban the public dissemination of data about security and law enforcement members. The move follows leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s viral YouTube video of a phone call with one of his alleged poisoners. That agent and other purported Federal Security Service (FSB) agents’ identities were revealed by the…
Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin has sued Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a close ally for defamation, a Moscow court said Tuesday. The lawsuit appeared Tuesday on the website of a Moscow court, which later told the Russian news agency TASS that the claim sought 5 million rubles ($66,000) each from Navalny and his ally…
Moscow said Tuesday it had dispatched 300 Russian military instructors to the Central African Republic at the CAR’s request after an alleged attempted coup ahead of upcoming elections. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said Russia had “promptly responded” to a request and sent “an additional 300 instructors to train the military personnel of the national army”…
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed into law a bill granting lifetime immunity from criminal prosecution to Russian presidents and their family members. The law comes amid swirling questions over Putin’s future after his current term limit expires in 2024 and is part of sweeping constitutional reforms allowing Putin to ignore current limits and run for…
Famed Russian documentary film director Vitaly Mansky has been detained outside the Federal Security Service (FSB) headquarters in central Moscow for staging a single-person picket with a pair of blue boxers, reports said Tuesday. Mansky, 57, staged the protest after leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny published a viral video of his phone talks with whom…
Hardly ever before has a ship with such a peculiar shape been rolled out of St. Petersburg’s Admiralty Shipyard. On Dec. 18, the stout, 83-meter-long vessel Severny Polyus, or North Pole, made it onto the waters of the Neva River. The launch is met with great expectation by Russia’s Arctic research community. Once completed, the…
In a year dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, some of the largest and most protracted protests in post-Soviet history also grabbed headlines. People took to the streets to protest issues including electoral fraud, corruption and territorial disputes. Gathering despite government-imposed public assembly restrictions, protesters across the region faced off against police — with thousands being injured…
Rosneft Deutschland GmbH, a Rosneft subsidiary, started deliveries of two new grades of the company’s proprietary polymer-modified bitumen product (PMB), Alfabit, to Switzerland
Russia’s leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny has delusions of grandeur and persecution, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday after Navalny said he tricked an intelligence officer into admitting an attempt to poison him. Peskov said he allowed himself to “indulge a personal point of view” after Navalny’s video of a phone call with an alleged…
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill into law Tuesday that allows former presidents to become senators for life when they leave office. The law is the latest legislative change regarding Russia’s ex-presidents amid continuing questions over Putin’s future after his current term limit expires in 2024. The law is also part of sweeping constitutional…
Russia said Tuesday it was hitting several EU representatives with tit-for-tat sanctions in response to penalties imposed by the bloc over the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The Foreign Ministry said that in response to “confrontational” EU actions, it had “decided to expand the list of representatives of EU member states and institutions who will…
Russia’s federal media watchdog has accused YouTube of circulating more fake news than any other foreign platform on the Russian internet, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited the agency as saying Monday. “About 60% of fakes are related to the Covid-19 virus,” said Roskomnadzor, the federal agency responsible for regulating communications, information technology and…
The U.S. Commerce Department has added 45 Russian and 58 Chinese companies it claims have ties to those countries’ militaries Monday, restricting exports of certain goods and technology to the designated entities. The number of Russian aviation, rocket and nuclear companies with alleged military ties is nearly double that of the initial draft list reported…