Moldova heads to the polls on Sunday for the second round of a tightly-contested presidential election pitting a pro-European challenger against the country’s Moscow-backed incumbent. The tiny ex-Soviet nation votes under the watchful eye of Russia, which wants polarised Moldova to remain in its sphere of influence as several Kremlin-aligned governments are rocked by political…
Russia confirmed more than 22,000 coronavirus infections in a single day for the first time since the start of the pandemic as the authorities continue to hold off on widespread lockdown measures. Saturday’s increase of 22,702 Covid-19 cases brings the country’s official total to 1,903,253, the world’s fifth-highest count behind France, Brazil, India and the United States.…
Russia has confirmed 1,903,253 cases of coronavirus and 32,834 deaths. Nov. 14: What you need to know today Russia confirmed a new one-day record of 22,702 coronavirus cases and 391 deaths. Russia’s flagship air carrier Aeroflot will resume flights with Cyprus starting Nov. 22, the Russian Embassy in Nicosia said. The flights will not immediately be open to Russian…
Thousands of furious protesters rallied in the Armenian capital for a fourth day running on Friday demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resign over a controversial peace agreement with Azerbaijan. Pashinyan announced the Moscow-brokered agreement Tuesday, ending more than six weeks of intense fighting over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh that left at least 1,400 dead…
Alexei may have the coolest Zoom background in the world, but he’d rather not have to climb a tree for it. Alexei Dudoladov goes by “Omskiy Kolkhoznik” (Farmer from Omsk) on TikTok, where his videos of village life have racked up millions of views and likes in a year. But because his remote Siberian village…
St. Petersburg police and officials from Russia’s consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor disrupted the opening night of Russia’s only annual LGBT film festival, its organizers said. The Side By Side film festival has been subjected to numerous disruptions, bomb threats and protests in its 13-year history. Last year, the film festival’s opening was disrupted by bomb…
More than 50 countries have requested to buy or localize production of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine as the race for a safe and effective vaccine that could end the deadly pandemic heats up across the globe. In recent weeks, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) that is marketing Sputnik V has announced plans to…
The mayor of a Siberian city that was at the center of a corruption expose by opposition leader Alexei Navalny was arrested Friday for abuse of power, regional officials and Russian media said. The arrest comes two months after Kremlin critic Navalny published the investigation alleging corruption by local officials in Tomsk. Navalny, 44, fell…
Belarus has seen weekly mass protests against the disputed presidential re-election of Alexander Lukashenko for nearly three months. Here’s more of the latest news from Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbor: Nov. 17: What you need to know today The Belarusian Association of Journalists has won the Media Freedom Award, a prize awarded by the governments of Britain and…
In a cramped office decorated with posters of Stalin, a veteran Communist Party member addresses a group of concerned citizens, banging his fist on a desk.“Friends, we are at war,” Alexander Golovanov declares. “They want to take away our history and pride.” The ancient town of Tarusa, 140 kilometers south of Moscow, still has a…
Nov. 13: what you need to know today The ceasefire continued to hold with no reports of fighting flaring up in Nagorno-Karabakh or the surrounding territory. A delegation from Moscow is in Ankara on Friday to discuss the details of a joint Russian-Turkish ceasefire monitoring center. The deployment of almost 2,000 Russian peacekeepers continues. The…
Russian President Vladimir Putin was a “tough” but “physically unremarkable” man, former U.S. President Barack Obama said in the first volume of his upcoming memoir. According to a New York Times review of “A Promised Land,” Obama likened Putin to “the tough, street-smart ward bosses who used to run the Chicago machine.” Obama’s personal relationship…
Russia has broken its daily coronavirus record, confirming nearly 22,000 new infections Friday as the latest restrictions on clubs and restaurants are taking effect later in the day. The 21,983 new Covid-19 infections bring the total caseload to 1,880,551, the world’s fifth-highest count behind France, Brazil, India and the United States. A quarter of those…
A Russian court has ordered the arrest on treason charges of a representative of the Aeroflot flagship airline’s office in Britain, state media reported Thursday. Dmitry Fedotkin has been placed in pre-trial detention until Jan. 10, 2021, according to the state-run TASS news agency. A court database shows that Moscow’s Lefortovo District Court registered the…
Belarus has seen weekly mass protests against the disputed presidential re-election of Alexander Lukashenko for nearly three months. Here’s more of the latest news from Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbor: Nov. 13: What you need to know today Roman Bondarenko, 31, died on Thursday after being beaten to death by unknown security agents. Witnesses say Bondarenko was detained…
A Russian nonprofit organization has built a replica World War II prison camp through a presidential grant for children’s patriotic education, local media in northern Russia has reported. When it opens in the republic of Karelia on the Finnish border in December, schoolchildren will be able to roam the guard towers, barracks and barbed wire…
RN-Vostoknefteprodukt, an enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company’s retail network, has been expanding the sales of the trademark Pulsar 95 fuel in the Far Eastern Federal District.
The Lakhta Center skyscraper in St. Petersburg has received the Emporis Skyscraper Award, becoming the first structure in Russia to win the prize in its 20-year history. The 462-meter Lakhta Center, which has been Europe’s tallest skyscraper and the 15th-tallest in the world since its completion in 2018, is the headquarters of Russia’s Gazprom gas…
The U.S. system of electing presidents is archaic and distorts the will of the people, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. Joe Biden won the popular vote by more than 5 million ballots in the U.S. last week but that translated to an extremely tight margin in the electoral college that ultimately decides…
Russia said Thursday it will soon introduce retaliatory sanctions on German and French officials over the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. The 44-year-old anti-graft campaigner collapsed on a flight in Russia in August and was transported to Germany where experts concluded he was poisoned with the Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok. The European Union…
A religious ruling that bans Muslim men in Russia from marrying non-Muslim women sparked backlash from senior Muslim clerics across the country this week. The ruling by the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia (DUM)’s advisory council of scholars says that interfaith marriages between Muslim men and non-Muslim women are allowed “in isolated cases” that only…
Citizens of 52 countries will be able to visit Russia with an electronic visa starting Jan. 1, 2021, according to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s order published Wednesday. While Russia’s borders have partially reopened following a nearly total border shut-down in the spring, most foreigners are still not able to enter the country. The e-visa system is…
Moscow will not hold its traditional Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Wednesday amid record coronavirus infections and deaths in recent weeks. Earlier that day, Sobyanin suspended mass events and ordered late-night establishments to close starting from Friday and ending in mid-January 2021 as part of the latest restrictions to try…
Alexander Komarov, a patient in one of Moscow’s temporary hospital wards, cannot hold back tears as he speaks about his fear of dying from the coronavirus. But as Russia’s underfunded and poorly staffed hospitals in the regions beyond Moscow are struggling to cope with a new surge in virus patients, Komarov acknowledges that he is…
Russia has confirmed 1,858,568 cases of coronavirus and 32,032 deaths. Nov. 12: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 21,608 new coronavirus cases and a record 439 deaths. About one in three, or 31%, of coronavirus infections in Russia are asymptomatic, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said. Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine is 92% effective, its developers said…
Russia plans to open a military logistics hub for nuclear warships in Sudan, according to a draft deal that also allows Russia to ferry weapons in and out of the volatile northeast African country. Under the draft deal published on the government website, the Russian Navy will station up to four warships, including those with…
Several thousand demonstrators protested Wednesday in the Armenian capital Yerevan as anger mounted over Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s decision to cede swathes of disputed territory to Azerbaijan under a controversial peace deal. Pashinyan announced a Russian-brokered peace agreement with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in the early hours of Tuesday, ending weeks of intense…
Russia has almost finished building a secure nuclear command and control post capable of withstanding a nuclear strike, President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday. Speaking at one of a series of military-themed meetings, Putin emphasized the need for control systems to continue working in combat conditions “even in the event of a nuclear strike.” “I was…
Syria’s government kicked off a two-day Russia-backed conference in Damascus Wednesday towards facilitating the return of millions of Syrian refugees to the war-torn country, despite reservations within the international community. Of neighboring countries hosting the bulk of Syrian refugees, only Lebanon and Iraq sent representatives, according to organizers. Other attendees included a Russian delegation and representatives…
Russian aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska has dispatched essentials and an assistant to a famous Siberian hermit ahead of the harsh winter, the RBC news website reported Wednesday. Agafya Lykova was born 76 years ago to a family of Old Believers, a traditionalist Orthodox Christian sect, fleeing Stalinist persecutions in the remote Siberian taiga. She has…
The Moscow-brokered ceasefire appeared to be holding Wednesday morning, 36 hours after an agreement was reached to end six weeks of bitter fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and surrounding districts. The conflict is seen as a victory for Azerbaijan, which reclaimed significant portions of territory previously occupied by Armenian-backed forces. Nov…
Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine is 92% effective, its developers said Wednesday as the global race heats up over mass vaccination to slow the spread of the pandemic that has killed nearly 1.3 million people and battered economies worldwide. Interim results showed that 20 of the 16,000 volunteers who received both Sputnik V doses have…
Russia has confirmed more than 400 new coronavirus deaths for the first time since the start of the pandemic Wednesday as authorities hold off on a widespread lockdown in favor of targeted measures. The grim milestone of 432 deaths in a single day pushed Russia’s overall Covid-19 death toll to 31,593. This figure is based…
At least three medics who received Russia’s vaunted Sputnik V vaccine have contracted the coronavirus in Siberia as part of a vaccination drive of at-risk groups, regional authorities said Tuesday. The adenovirus vector-based vaccine’s developer had previously suggested that recipients infected with Covid-19 may have received a placebo during final clinical trials. Authorities are administering…
Hundreds of Russian peacekeepers were heading to Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday after Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a peace deal to end weeks of fierce fighting over the disputed region. The Moscow-brokered agreement, which saw a ceasefire take effect at 21:00 GMT, came after a string of Azerbaijani victories in its fight to retake the ethnic…
A set of Arctic islands north of the Siberian mainland saw temperatures as much as 10 degrees Celsius warmer than normal for the season last month, temperature maps from Russian meteorology service Roshydromet show. It was one of the warmest October months on record for the Russian archipelago of Severnaya Zemlya, which also saw the…
The new Russia-brokered peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan is a sign of Moscow seeking to reaffirm its influence in the conflict over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, analysts said Tuesday. But they disagreed on the level of the Kremlin’s success. Unlike previous agreements brokered by Russia and the U.S. which have fallen through within…
The Russian government is pushing ahead with a long-rumored mini-reshuffle this week in what analysts see as a mark of both newly installed prime minister Mikhail Mishustin’s growing influence and President Vladimir Putin’s divide-and-conquer approach to keeping his underlings in check. A handful of mid-ranking cabinet members have been shuffled out and replaced by new…
Moscow will limit hours at clubs, bars and restaurants for two months starting Friday, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced alongside other measures in the latest effort to contain a record-breaking surge of the coronavirus pandemic. Starting Nov. 13, these establishments as well as others like bowling alleys, karaoke bars and cafes, will not be allowed to…
Russia has confirmed 1,817,109 cases of coronavirus and 31,161 deaths. Nov. 10: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 20,977 new coronavirus cases — the fifth day in a row where new infections passed 20,000 — and 368 deaths. Moscow will order all bars, restaurants, clubs and other nighttime establishments to close between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.…
The first foreign diplomatic mission will open in sanctions-hit Crimea six years after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine and incurred international sanctions, Russian state media reported Tuesday. The consulate will belong to the Central American nation of Nicaragua, which had named sanctioned Russian naval officer Oleg Belaventsev as its honorary consul in Crimea this…
Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on Tuesday to a Russian-brokered peace deal to end weeks of heavy fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh and find a long-term solution to the dispute over the region. Here are the main points of the deal, which came after Azerbaijan managed to retake significant territory it had lost to Armenian separatists in a…
Russia needs to improve its ties with the United States under Joe Biden, though “not at any cost,” the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said after major U.S. television networks called the race for the Democratic Party challenger. Gorbachev said Biden appeared to “understand the importance of relations with Russia” when he last met the…
More than 400 Jehovah’s Witnesses have been charged or convicted in Russia since the country banned the religious group as an “extremist” organization three years ago, the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia has said. Since the April 2017 ban by Russia’s Supreme Court, law enforcement officers raided the homes of 1,166 worshippers’ families, the Jehovah’s Witnesses…
Rosneft’s Integrated Health, Safety and Environment Management System (HSE IMS) conform to the requirements of ISO 45001:2018, Occupational Health and Safety Management System, and ISO 14001:2015, Environmental Management System.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have reached an agreement to end the war in Nagorno-Karabakh with immediate effect. Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan first made the announcement on Facebook early Tuesday morning. Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed details of the deal, brokered by Moscow, minutes later in a televised statement. “I have signed a statement on the…
Armenia and Azerbaijan have reached an agreement to end the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced on Facebook early Tuesday morning. “I have signed a statement on the termination of the Karabakh war along with the Russian and Azerbaijani presidents,” he wrote. The agreement came into effect at 01:00 local time, he added — minutes…
A Russian soldier suspected of killing three servicemen using an axe and a gun at a military base has been detained after a massive manhunt, officials said. The shooting — the second at a military base in a year — took place at an airfield near the city of Voronezh where activists say army conscripts…
Belarus has seen weekly mass protests against the disputed presidential re-election of Alexander Lukashenko for nearly three months. On Monday, exiled Belarusian opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called for a national strike after the deadline she set for Lukashenko to resign and free all political prisoners expired the previous day. Here’s more of the latest news…
Crew members on a nuclear submarine have shot and killed a bear and her cub that climbed on board their vessel in Russia’s Far East, reports said Sunday. Footage shared by local media in the Kamchatka region shows the cub and its mother swimming toward the submarine, then sitting on its deck before shotgun fire…
The Russian ruble and stock market soared Monday, hitting their strongest levels in months as global markets cheered positive news from one of the frontrunners in the coronavirus vaccine race. American pharma giant Pfizer and German BioNTech said their vaccine, currently in Phase 3 medical trials, was 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 infections. It is…
The Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex has commenced the construction of the second MR-type product carrier tanker fuelled with gas.
All cartoons that offend religious believers should be banned, a senior Russian Orthodox Church cleric has said following the killing of a French teacher by a Chechen refugee last month. Metropolitan Hilarion, who heads the church’s Department of External Relations, told state television Saturday that cartoons depicting the founders of major religions in an offensive light “don’t…
Like most of the world, Moscow has been anticipating the U.S. presidential election results, which were finally projected Saturday after days of vote-counting. With former Vice President Joe Biden set to replace President Donald Trump in the White House in January, there could be new opportunities to reshape the U.S.-Russia relationship, which has chilled to…
The captain of Russia’s national football team Artyom Dzyuba has been excluded from the squad’s training camp and three upcoming international fixtures after a private video appearing to show him masturbating went viral. The team said Sunday it would not call up Dzyuba for November matches against Moldova, Turkey and Serbia to “protect the team…
Russia will not yet recognize Joe Biden as President-elect of the United States, the Kremlin said Monday as world leaders rushed to congratulate the Democratic Party challenger after U.S. television networks declared him the winner. “We believe it’s correct to wait for the official results of the elections to be announced,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov…
Russia’s elections chief said Monday that voting by mail in the U.S. presidential election had paved the way for massive voter fraud, echoing rhetoric from the campaign of Donald Trump. Ella Pamfilova, the head of Russia’s elections commission, said she had carefully studied mail-in voting in the United States and found the process vulnerable to…
Russia has broken its daily coronavirus record, confirming more than 21,000 new infections Monday as the second wave of the outbreak shows no signs of slowing down. The 21,798 new coronavirus cases shattered Friday’s record by over 1,200 and pushed the total caseload to 1,796,132, the world’s fourth-highest count after a brief lead taken by…
Azerbaijan accidently shot down a Russian military helicopter in Armenia as fighting raged over Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday, threatening to draw Moscow further into the conflict. The Defense Ministry in Moscow said two crew members were killed when the Mi-24 helicopter was hit by a man-portable air defense system close to the border with Azerbaijan. A…
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his victory Sunday before there was any reaction from the Kremlin to the U.S. election results. Navalny in a tweet congratulated Biden, running mate Kamala Harris and Americans for “defining the new leadership in a free and fair election”. “This is a privilege which is…