Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains a higher level of global trust than U.S. President Donald Trump, according to the latest Pew Research Center poll published Tuesday. Respondents in 13 mainly European countries voiced the highest confidence in German Chancellor Angela Merkel (76%), French President Emmanuel Macron (64%) and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (48%). Putin…
Reindeer herders in Russia’s Arctic have discovered what scientists say is the first-ever cave bear carcass with soft tissues intact in the region’s rapidly thawing permafrost. The Ice Age-era animal is believed to have lived between 22,000 and 39,500 years ago, Russia’s North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) said in a statement Monday. Previously, the university said…
Moscow law enforcement authorities shut down a Tuesday night “Vulva 3.0” documentary screening in support of Yulia Tsvetkova, an LGBT activist who is being prosecuted for her drawings of female genitals. Tsvetkova, 27, faces up to six years in jail on charges of distributing pornography for posting drawings of vaginas on her social media page…
Venus is a “Russian planet,” the head of Russia’s state space agency said Tuesday following new research that suggests there could be life on the second planet from the sun. The research, published in the journal Nature Astronomy on Monday, details British and American scientists’ discovery of phosphine gas in Venus’ clouds and puts forward…
Roman Shirokov, the former captain of Russia’s national football team, has been charged for violently attacking an amateur referee during a game. Cameras last month captured Shirokov, 39, punching the referee in the face and kicking him after he fell to the ground curled over for not being awarded a penalty and getting a red…
A campaign fundraising ad for U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at rallying support for the country’s troops actually displays Russian-made military equipment, Politico reported Monday. The digital “Support Our Troops” campaign that ran between Sept. 8-12 shows the silhouettes of three soldiers as fighter jets fly overhead. “That’s definitely a [Russian] MiG-29,” defense analyst Pierre…
The head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service said Tuesday opposition leader Alexei Navalny showed no signs of poisoning before he was flown to Berlin for treatment and that Moscow had “questions” for Germany. The 44-year-old lawyer and outspoken Kremlin critic last month fell severely ill on a flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk to…
One in seven volunteers have complained of side effects including weakness and muscle pain after taking Russia’s highly touted coronavirus vaccine, Russia’s health minister said Tuesday. Final clinical trials of the Sputnik V vaccine began in Moscow earlier this month amid questions over its long-term safety and effectiveness. Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said more than…
Sea trials of the Vladimir Monomakh tanker have begun at Zvezda Shipbuilding complex.
Russia has withdrawn a rapidly formed unit of “law enforcement reserves” that had been standing by to intervene in Belarus if the country’s post-election unrest got out of hand, the Kremlin said Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Aug. 27 that he has formed the unit of law enforcement officers at the request of Belarusian…
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Tuesday that he is able to breathe on his own, his first public message since he fell into a coma after being poisoned by Novichok last month. Navalny’s Instagram post shows him sitting hunched over on a hospital bed surrounded by his wife and two children. The Russian opposition leader has been…
Russia has confirmed 1,073,849 cases of coronavirus and 18,785 deaths. Sept 15: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 5,529 new coronavirus infections Tuesday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,073,849. Russian health officials have proposed depriving medics of promised coronavirus payouts if they refuse to vaccinate against the infection, the Medvestnik medical news website has reported. …
Prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny plans to return to Russia as soon as he recovers from being poisoned, The New York Times reported Monday, citing a German security official. News of the opposition leader’s plans follows accounts by Russian paramedics, reported by Reuters, that contradict Moscow’s theory that Navalny fell into a coma because of…
A competition for ideas to redevelop Lenin’s mausoleum on Red Square has been canceled less than 24 hours after its launch due to overwhelming criticism, its organizers told the Moskva news agency Monday. The Russian Union of Architects faced a barrage of criticism, mainly from the Communist Party, for calling on contestants to reimagine what…
Three newly registered political parties will be able to take part in Russia’s State Duma elections next year without collecting the required voter signatures, Central Election Commission chief Ella Pamfilova said Monday. While the For Truth, New People and Green Alternative parties have varying ideological platforms, some analysts have linked their appearance to a Kremlin strategy…
Russian health officials have proposed depriving medics of promised coronavirus payouts if they refuse to vaccinate against the infection, the Medvestnik medical news website has reported. President Vladimir Putin this spring promised monthly bonuses ranging from $300 to $1,000 for doctors and other medical professionals treating Covid-19 patients. Russian doctors have since reported being underpaid…
Alexei Navalny has been removed from his ventilator and is able to get out of bed, Berlin’s Charité hospital said Monday as the prominent Kremlin critic’s condition continues to improve after what Germany said was a poisoning by the Novichok nerve agent. Last week, Charité announced that Navalny had been taken out of his medically induced…
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to urgently shed light on the “attempted murder” of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, after French tests confirmed the use of the Novichok nerve agent, the Elysee said. Macron told Putin in telephone talks that it is “imperative that all light be shed, without…
Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskya has criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to hold talks with “usurper” Alexander Lukashenko rather than the Belarusian people. Tikhanovskaya’s statement comes ahead of one-on-one talks between Putin and Lukashenko in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi on Monday. The talks follow a month of mass protests that broke out…
Online learning in the coronavirus era has affected the mental health of an overwhelming majority of Russian schoolchildren, according to a survey cited by the RBC news website Monday. Russian schools went on a three-week holiday in mid-March at the start of the pandemic, switching to distance learning entirely as the number of cases spiked…
Three labs have independently confirmed that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent, Germany said Monday, renewing calls for Russia to explain the incident. Germany said earlier this month it had “unquestionable proof” that Navalny, 44, was poisoned with Novichok when he fell ill after boarding a flight in Siberia on…
President Vladimir Putin on Monday backed embattled Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko and promised a $1.5 billion loan as the Belarusian strongman vowed to strengthen ties with Moscow. Lukashenko thanked Putin and vowed to stick closer to “elder brother” Moscow during one-to-one talks at the Russian president’s residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi that…
Russian President Vladimir Putin will encourage steps toward an “eventual succession” in Belarus but will not accept the opposition coming to power through street protests, Bloomberg reported Sunday. Moscow doesn’t trust embattled Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko but is “determined” not to see protesters topple his rule, Bloomberg cited five unnamed sources close to the Kremlin…
Allies of poisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Sunday they had secured city council seats in Siberia as independent monitors condemned a reported “stream” of voting irregularities in regional polls. In several dozen of the country’s 85 regions, Russians voted for regional governors and lawmakers in regional and city legislatures as well as in…
Riot police harshly detained more than 400 demonstrators in Belarus on Sunday as tens of thousands of people took to the streets, on the eve of crunch talks between strongman Alexander Lukashenko and his main ally, Russia’s Vladimir Putin. More than 100,000 people are estimated to have marched in Minsk on each of the past…
Russia has confirmed 1,062,811 cases of coronavirus and 18,578 deaths. Sept 13: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 5,449 new coronavirus infections Sunday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,062,811. Nearly half of Russians say they will never vaccinate against the coronavirus regardless of its country of production, according to a survey cited by the RBC…
Russia plans to require long-staying foreigners to submit fingerprints and carry electronic migration cards as part of the country’s wide-ranging immigration reforms, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday. The Interior Ministry has drafted legislation requiring foreigners who intend to stay in Russia for more than 30 days to submit their fingerprints and other personal data,…
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who is facing the largest protests of his rule, will discuss plans to further integrate their countries on Monday, the Kremlin said. Lukashenko’s visit will be the first to Russia by the Belarusian leader since protests broke out over his disputed election win last month. In…
Hollywood actor and naturalized Russian citizen Steven Seagal is spearheading a campaign to protect Lake Baikal from pollution amid regional elections currently taking place in many regions. Seagal, 68, is known to support nationalist author Zakhar Prilepin’s For Truth party, whose platform includes criminalizing pollution. Seagal announced plans Friday to push for a law that would…
A Ukrainian captain’s tanker has been stranded in the Mediterranean for more than a month since rescuing 27 migrants off the coast of Libya. Volodymyr Yeroshkin’s vessel has been unable to dock in any European ports after picking up 25 men, a pregnant woman and a 15-year-old in an Aug. 4 rescue operation coordinated by…
Russia has confirmed 1,051,874 cases of coronavirus and 18,365 deaths. Sept. 11: What you need to know today Nearly half of Russians say they will never vaccinate against the coronavirus regardless of its country of production, according to a survey cited by the RBC news website Friday. Moscow authorities will no longer require a two-week home quarantine period for…
Nearly half of Russians say they will never vaccinate against the coronavirus regardless of its country of production, according to a survey cited by the RBC news website Friday. The current share of coronavirus skeptics (45.6%) has increased from the last time Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (HSE) polled Russians at the height of the…
Russians are heading to the polls through Sunday to elect new regional and city leadership. In a year that has seen a global pandemic, weeks of anti-Kremlin protests in the Far East and historically low approval ratings for President Vladimir Putin, the vote is set to be a key test for the country’s pro-Putin ruling…
Russian police said Friday they were seeking to question opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Berlin after Moscow rubbished Germany’s declaration that he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. The 44-year-old Kremlin critic and anti-corruption campaigner fell ill after boarding a plane in Siberia and was hospitalized there before being flown to Berlin. Germany reported…
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have apologized to Serbia’s president for a social media post by Russia’s diplomatic spokeswoman that appeared to mock him. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova sparked a rare spat between the allies when she posted a photo of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in the White House…
Microsoft said Thursday it detected and thwarted cyberattacks in recent weeks from China and Russia targeting US presidential campaign staff. The attackers have been targeting staff from the campaigns of President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Microsoft said in a security blog. “In recent weeks, Microsoft has detected cyberattacks targeting people and organizations involved in…
The US Treasury slapped sanctions Thursday on Ukrainian politician Andrii Derkach, an alleged Russian intelligence operative who has stoked conspiracy theories advanced by the White House that purport to implicate Democrat Joe Biden in corruption. Derkach, who met with President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani several times over the past year as he searched for…
Russia has pushed back against claims its published research into a Covid-19 vaccine included “highly improbable” and “statistically unlikely” results. A group of scientists and doctors published an open letter to Russia’s Gamaleya research center, which is leading the Sputnik V vaccine’s development, and renowned British medical journal The Lancet on Wednesday outlining a number…
Teachers in Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg have been instructed to monitor their students’ social media profiles for the presence of “LGBT symbols,” the LGBT Network rights group said. Any such symbols would be considered violations of Russia’s 2013 law that bans the display of “gay propaganda” toward minors. This spring, teachers of grades…
An amateur Russian military historian was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison for treason this week, the latest in a string of treason and espionage convictions targeting a wide range of Russians. Andrei Zhukov was arrested in June 2018 on suspicions linked to “the history of the Russian Armed Forces and his…
Italian prosecutors are probing the mysterious drowning of a Russian glamour model while on a photo shoot near a major NATO base on Sardinia over the weekend. Coast guards found the naked body of Galina Fedorova, 35, on Saturday after she and a photographer reportedly went for a swim off the Italian island’s southern coastline…
Maria Kolesnikova, the last member of a trio of women opposition leaders remaining in Belarus, alleged Thursday that security forces threatened her life as she was being detained on charges of attempting to seize power. Kolesnikova went missing Monday after witnesses described seeing masked men forcing her into a minibus in central Minsk. Investigators confirmed…
Unidentified attackers beat up an activist campaigning for hospitalized Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, his colleagues said Thursday. Alexei Baraboshkin, the local coordinator for Navalny, was “assaulted by unknown attackers” late Wednesday after receiving threats for several weeks, his campaign office wrote on Telegram. It posted a picture of…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to set up a panel of inquiry into the suspected nerve-agent poisoning of prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in an interview published Thursday. Germany said last week it has “unequivocal evidence” that Navalny, 44, was poisoned with a nerve agent from the Novichok…
The experts at АО Novokuybyshev Refinery (a part of Rosneft’s Samara group of enterprises) have developed and introduced an innovative programme for monitoring occupational safety and health with the use of a learning neural network.
Leading Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a new, deadlier variant of military-grade nerve agent Novichok, the German weekly Die Zeit reported Wednesday. Hours after the Die Zeit report, The Insider news website reported, citing anonymous sources, that Navalny, 44, has almost completely recovered after falling violently ill on a flight in Siberia on Aug.…
A senior US intelligence official said the White House ordered him to stop reporting on Russian election interference and highlight Chinese and Iran meddling instead, according to a whistleblower complaint revealed Wednesday. Offering explosive evidence to support Democratic allegations that President Donald Trump has manipulated intelligence to support his reelection effort, Department of Homeland Security…
Serbia has dropped out of planned military drills in Belarus with Russia after pressure from the EU, the Balkan state’s defense minister said Wednesday. Serbia — an EU candidate country that also maintains close ties with Moscow — was due to participate in the ‘Slavic Brotherhood 2020’ exercise with Russian and Belarusian troops this month. “We are…
Belarus investigators said Wednesday prominent opposition figures Maria Kolesnikova and Maxim Znak had been detained in a national security probe as Minsk ramped up a crackdown on a protest movement. The country’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crime, said in a statement the two were being held as an investigation continued into “calls urging action…
A Russian deputy energy minister has been arrested on suspicion of embezzling more than 600 million rubles worth of public money, investigators announced Wednesday. Anatoly Tikhonov, one of eight deputies to Energy Minister Alexander Novak, is accused of misusing public funds worth around $7.9 million which had been intended for a new IT system, announced…
The Zvezda Shipbuilding complex successfully carried out the first launch of the main engine of Vladimir Mohomakh Aframax tanker.
Russia has confirmed 1,041,007 cases of coronavirus and 18,135 deaths. Sept. 9: What you need to know today Russia has launched Phase 3 trials of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to determine the jab’s long-term safety and effectiveness, authorities said Wednesday. A group of prominent scientists and doctors has questioned the published results of the vaccine’s initial trials. Russia’s…
Russia has launched Phase 3 trials of its highly touted coronavirus vaccine to determine the jab’s long-term safety and effectiveness, authorities said Wednesday as questions surrounded the results of its Phase 1 and 2 trials. Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said 31,000 out of the announced 40,000 volunteers have been recruited for the study, the state-run…
Belarusian Nobel Literature Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich said unknown people tried to enter her apartment on Wednesday amid an intensifying crackdown by President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime over a disputed election. Alexievich, 72, is now the last free leading member of the Belarusian opposition’s Coordination Council still in the country after masked men detained lawyer Maxim…
Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya urged Russians on Wednesday to resist what she called state media efforts to smear her country’s post-election protests as anti-Russian. Tikhanovskaya, 37, made the comments a day after President Alexander Lukashenko’s interview with Russian state media, where he warned that “if Belarus collapses today, Russia will be next.” Moscow has been…
One of the last remaining members of the Belarusian opposition’s Coordination Council at large, lawyer Maxim Znak, was detained by masked men on Wednesday, his colleagues said. Znak, who had worked as a lawyer for jailed presidential hopeful Viktor Babaryko, had been due to participate in a video call but did not show up, instead…
President Vladimir Putin has canceled his annual call-in session with the public due to the coronavirus pandemic, his spokesman announced Wednesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin “has already been conducting the Direct Line the past few months,” referring to his several video addresses announcing support measures for Russians during the Covid-19 outbreak. “It would…
Germany will keep all options open on possible sanctions against Russia over the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the country’s minister for Europe told AFP. “We have made it very clear that we will look at the entire set of instruments,” Michael Roth said in an interview, responding to a question on what action…
Assailants have spilled a foul-smelling liquid at the office of Siberian opposition candidates backed by Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny ahead of upcoming regional elections, the candidates said Tuesday. The attack is the latest attempt to disrupt the work of a coalition of opposition candidates planning to challenge pro-Kremlin incumbents in the Novosibirsk city council elections…
A group of prominent scientists and doctors has questioned the results of Russia’s research into a Covid-19 vaccine. The group said there are a number of unexplained apparent duplications in Russia’s data — published in scientific journal The Lancet on Friday — concerning the antibody response of volunteers who took part in early stage trials…