Russia has added Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the Maldives to the list of countries it plans to restart flights with five months after closing its borders due to the coronavirus pandemic, a government decree said Thursday. Russia grounded most international flights in late March to slow the spread of Covid-19. Russia gradually lifted…
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a substance from the deadly Novichok family, the German government said Wednesday, demanding explanations from Moscow. “The Russian government is urged to explain the incident … the substance in Navalny’s organism is undoubtedly from the Novichok family,” said government spokesman Steffen Seibert in a statement. Prominent Kremlin…
On Wednesday, Germany said that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a substance from the deadly Novichok family. Novichok is a military-grade poison that was developed by the Soviet government toward the end of the Cold War. The news sent shockwaves around the West. Here’s an overview of how the world’s leading officials have so far…
The Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok that Germany says poisoned Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny is a military-grade toxin banned as a chemical weapon after it was used in a previous attack in Britain. The newest class of nerve agent, the Novichok family of toxins was developed by the Soviet government towards the end of the…
Germany’s finding that Alexey Navalny was poisoned with nerve agent Novichok shows that only the Russian state could be responsible, the head of the opposition leader’s organization said on Wednesday. “Only the state (FSB, GRU) can use Novichok. This is beyond any reasonable doubt,” Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said on Twitter,…
Eight years ago, Anton, a Russian programmer then in his mid-twenties, was lured to Minsk with an unbeatable offer from one of Belarus’ booming online games companies. He knew the country’s strongman president Alexander Lukashenko was no liberal, but having protested at the Bolotnaya Square demonstrations in Moscow in 2011-12 against Vladimir Putin’s return to…
Russia’s controversial constitutional reforms will make discussions with Japan on the dispute over a set of Pacific islands easier for Moscow, former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday. Russia and Japan are attempting to strike a formal peace treaty, which Tokyo insists on for the return of the Russian-held Kuril Islands. A set of constitutional…
Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko has thanked Russian television channel RT for providing “support” after some staff and presenters at Belarus’s state broadcaster quit in protest over his disputed re-election. “I am grateful to you for this support,” Lukashenko told an RT journalist in a video released by the channel. “This is worth a lot,” he…
Russia’s population could see its biggest decline in 14 years in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic has raised the country’s death rate amid falling birth rates, according to government forecasts reported by the RBC news website Tuesday. The Covid-19 outbreak will also push Russia’s poverty rate up from 12.3% in 2019 to 13.3% this year,…
Russia has confirmed 1,005,000 cases of coronavirus and 17,414 deaths. Sept. 2: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 4,952 new coronavirus infections Wednesday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,005,000 Elderly scientists who helped develop Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine have not reported adverse effects after being injected, the head of the research institute behind the…
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will visit Belarus on Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday, after weeks of protests in Minsk against a disputed presidential election. Lavrov also confirmed that President Vladimir Putin would host Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow “in the next couple of weeks.” He made the announcements at the start of…
Elderly scientists who helped develop Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine have not reported adverse effects after being injected, the head of the research institute behind the inoculation told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency Wednesday. Sputnik V’s registration last month as the world’s first coronavirus vaccine before large-scale clinical trials has sparked questions over its…
Greece and Poland have updated their coronavirus travel restrictions to allow Russian citizens to cross their borders for two-week periods as Russia’s virus caseload topped the one million milestone. Poland’s government has removed Russia from its latest list of countries subject to a travel ban, meaning flights will be able to resume from Wednesday. According…
Facebook on Tuesday said that it caught a budding Russia-linked campaign to fuel political chaos in the US, working off a tip from the FBI in its latest take-down of coordinated inauthentic behavior at the leading social network. The network of 13 Facebook accounts and two pages posing as journalists and targeting left-wing progressives was removed…
Police in Belarus detained several dozen university students on Tuesday as they marked the first day of school with protests against strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko. Hundreds of students took to the streets of the capital Minsk for the latest in three weeks of rallies rejecting the strongman’s claim to have won a sixth term in…
Denmark said Tuesday it had summoned the Russian ambassador for talks after a Russian jet fighter violated the Scandinavian country’s airspace during a NATO exercise last week. “I take very seriously Russia’s unacceptable violation of Danish airspace. It is absolutely essential that everybody — including Russia — respects the ground rules and international principles,” Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod…
The UN’s special rapporteur on torture told Belarus on Tuesday that it must “stop torturing protesters” and bring to justice any police officers who have beaten them with impunity. Nils Melzer and 14 other UN human rights experts said in a statement they had received reports of 450 documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of…
Russia has been involved in several diplomatic rows over the past several months. Here’s a roundup of events: Slovakia The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday it had expelled three Slovakian diplomats from Moscow after Bratislava ordered the removal of the same number of Russian foreign service staff over a “serious crime.” Moscow dubbed Bratislava’s…
On 1 September, a new modern school was opened in Tulun (Irkutsk Region), which was symbolically named New Era.
Russia on Tuesday denounced sanctions against ally Belarus as “unacceptable” and voiced support for strongman Alexander Lukashenko’s proposal of constitutional reforms. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Western countries were “delivering verdicts” on events in Belarus, following weeks of protests against Lukashenko’s claim to have won a sixth presidential term in an August 9 election. Moscow…
A database of several million American voters’ personal information has appeared on the Russian dark web two months ahead of presidential elections clouded by claims of Russian meddling, Russia’s Kommersant business newspaper reported Tuesday. A user nicknamed Gorka9 advertised free access to the personal information of 7.6 million voters in Michigan in an unnamed discussion…
Journalists and technical personnel from Russia’s Kremlin-funded RT broadcaster have been standing in for staff on strike at Belarus state television and radio, Russia’s RBC news website reported Monday. Workers at the Belteleradio broadcasting service walked off the job on Aug. 17 in protest against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s violent crackdown on peaceful opposition rallies. Lukashenko,…
Montenegro’s opposition coalition, which claimed a tiny majority in Sunday’s election on a platform of seeking closer links with Serbia and Russia, has called Western sanctions against Moscow a mistake. Zdravko Krivokapić, leader of the For the Future of Montenegro coalition, told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency Tuesday that the Montenegrin economy has suffered major…
Interpol has removed catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin from its international alert list after U.S. prosecutors dropped a criminal case into election meddling against his company. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed in March the case against Concord Management and Consulting LLC, less than a month before the company was due to…
Russia surpassed 1 million cases of Covid-19 nationwide on Tuesday, making it the fourth country after the United States, Brazil and India to reach the milestone. On Monday, Russia’s Health Minister announced plans to begin the first mass deliveries of its coronavirus vaccine this month, as the country is racing to produce a vaccine against…
Students across Russia are heading back to school Tuesday for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s an uneasy Den Znanii, or Day of Knowledge as Sept. 1 is known in Russia, as the country continues to register nearly 5,000 new coronavirus cases per day, and doctors have sounded the alarm…
The White House on Monday urged Russia to “respect” sovereignty and democracy in neighboring Belarus where strongman President Alexander Lukashenko faces mass demonstrations calling for new elections. “Russia must also respect Belarus’ sovereignty and the right of its own people to elect their own leaders freely and fairly,” President Donald Trump’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, told reporters. Lukashenko…
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on Monday blacklisted embattled Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and 29 other high-ranking officials over alleged election fraud and a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. The Baltic EU members announced their sanctions in a coordinated effort to support the protests in Belarus, which are now entering a fourth week since the country’s disputed…
Bailiffs on Monday seized $460,000 from bank accounts belonging to Russian opposition activist Lyubov Sobol, she said, nearly a year after a court-ordered damages from her and opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Sobol is a lawyer for the Anti-Corruption Foundation set up by Navalny, who is in a coma with suspected poisoning in hospital in Germany.…
Wildfires in the Arctic have emitted more carbon dioxide so far in 2020 than in all of 2019, according to European atmospheric composition data cited by The Guardian newspaper on Monday. As much as 245 megatons of CO2 have been released from Arctic wildfires up to Aug. 24 this year, compared with 181 megatons in…
Belarus has no need for Russia’s troops for the time being, the Kremlin said Monday after President Vladimir Putin announced the creation of a Russian “reserve” ready for deployment in case of mass unrest in the neighboring state. “The use of this reserve is out of the question at the moment,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov…
The Indian military has said it will not participate in Russia’s multinational exercises next month amid border standoffs with China and Pakistan. India has informed Russia that it will not be sending a contingent for the Kavkaz-2020 (Caucasus-2020) exercises, its Defense Ministry spokesperson said via Twitter on Saturday. India was one of several countries due…
Russia said on Monday it was expelling three diplomats from the Slovak embassy in Moscow in a tit-for-tat move after Bratislava forced out three Russians amid a growing diplomatic spat with Europe. “The Russian side, guided by the principle of reciprocity, decided to expel… three diplomatic staff of the Slovak Embassy in Moscow,” the Russian foreign…
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday discussed plans for a referendum on constitutional reforms as discontent with his 26-year rule has fuelled huge protests. The 66-year-old is facing his greatest challenge yet following three weekends of giant protests in Minsk over a disputed August 9 presidential poll where he claimed victory over a popular opposition…
Russia plans to begin the first mass deliveries of its coronavirus vaccine in September, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Monday. Russia has registered the Sputnik V adenoviral vector-based vaccine and is touting it as the world’s first despite it not having undergone large-scale trials to prove its safety and effectiveness. Russia is one of several…
Germany on Monday urged Moscow to step up its efforts to investigate the apparent poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny who is currently being treated at a Berlin hospital in a coma. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a special address to French ambassadors in Paris that Europe needed “constructive” relations with Russia for the…
Prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny had “alarming” hypothermia while he was undergoing treatment in Siberia, according to the NGO that organized his evacuation to Germany. Navalny, 44, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin and the de facto leader of Russia’s opposition, remains in a coma after falling suddenly ill on a flight to Moscow…
A senior French military officer stationed at a NATO base has been indicted and jailed on suspicion of spying for Russia, local media and sources said on Sunday. The French army officer was stationed abroad, a judicial source said confirming details from Europe 1 radio. According to the report, the soldier was stationed on a…
Russia has confirmed 990,326 cases of coronavirus and 17,093 deaths. Aug. 30: What you need to know today The head of a remote Siberian region has contracted the coronavirus a second time in what may be Russia’s first documented case of reinfection. President Vladimir Putin has promised Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko the first export batch of Russia’s candidate…
Tens of thousands of opposition supporters marched through the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Sunday calling for an end to strongman Alexander Lukashenko’s rule, despite heavily armed police and troops blocking streets and detaining dozens of demonstrators. Protests have now entered a third week since the disputed presidential election on August 9 in which Lukashenko…
Belarusian authorities on Saturday withdrew the accreditation of journalists working for several foreign media, including AFP, ahead of the latest demonstration challenging the results of the presidential election. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, is facing unprecedented protests since the disputed August 9 election in which he claimed a landslide…
Russia has confirmed 985,346 cases of coronavirus and 17,025 deaths. Aug. 29: What you need to know today The head of a remote Siberian region has contracted the coronavirus a second time in what may be Russia’s first documented case of reinfection. President Vladimir Putin has promised Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko the first export batch of Russia’s candidate…
Authorities in Russia’s Far East have opened a criminal case against a local teen over a TikTok video that shows him lighting a cigarette with a candle inside a church, a move they qualified as a violation of Russia’s law against insulting religious feelings. Investigators in the Zabaikalsky region said Friday that the unnamed 18-year-old…
Prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny remains in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator more than a week after falling ill from an apparent poisoning but his symptoms appear to be receding, his spokeswoman said Friday as doctors race to identify the substance with which he may have been poisoned. Navalny, 44, has been…
The outspoken head of Russia’s Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) Yury Ganus was fired from his position on Friday after accusing the country’s sporting leadership of failing to fight widespread drug use. The decision to remove the director general “was taken unanimously,” the president of Russia’s Olympic Committee Stanislav Pozdnyakov said at a press conference, according to…
Russian and Belarusian recon troops conducted joint assault exercises Thursday, the day that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the formation of a “law enforcement reserve” standing by in case anti-government protests escalate in Belarus. The exercises are part of the 10-day international army games that Belarus hosts at an army base in Brest on the…
The website editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine has resigned after his publication deleted an article about the daughter of a state development corporation head receiving student financial aid despite not qualifying for it. Forbes reported earlier this week that Anastasia Shuvalova, the daughter of VEB.RF chairman Igor Shuvalov, was accepted into Moscow…
The Kremlin on Friday hailed Shinzo Abe’s contribution to bilateral ties between Moscow and Tokyo after the Japanese Prime Minister announced his resignation for health reasons. Russia’s relationship with Japan has been overshadowed by a decades-long territorial dispute over Tokyo’s claim to a chain of islands seized by the Soviet Union in the final days…
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday said it had expelled a senior Norwegian diplomat in retaliation after Oslo expelled a Russian diplomat following the arrest of a suspected spy. The Russian ministry said that “as a retaliatory measure” a senior diplomat at the Norwegian embassy was declared persona non grata and must leave within three…
Authorities in Belarus detained at least 260 protesters and 17 journalists Thursday evening, human rights activists said as opposition rallies continued more than two weeks after the country’s disputed election. Belarusians have taken to the streets every day since the Aug. 9 vote in which President Alexander Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory. The days immediately…
A Russian nuclear submarine has surfaced near Alaska during navy exercises, spooking American commercial fishing vessels in the area, the U.S. military said early Friday. Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Thursday that its nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine Omsk and missile cruiser Varyag fired at targets in the Bering Sea as part of its “Ocean Shield 2020”…
The highest number of new cases were in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Russia’s fatality rate has remained low compared to other badly-hit countries, raising speculation that Moscow could be underreporting figures. Russian authorities began easing anti-virus measures in June ahead of a massive World War II military parade in Moscow and a nationwide vote on…
Russian prosecutors have asked their German colleagues to provide their evidence that allowed doctors in Berlin to diagnose prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with poisoning. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement Thursday that Russia had opened a preliminary inquiry on the day of Navalny’s sudden illness last week. The de facto Russian…
Rosneft has been awarded by the Rospatent in the category “100 Best Inventions of Russia for 2019 and the H1 2020” for the development of a unique biological product for cleaning the northern seas of oil pollution.
The detention of 33 Russians described as members of the Wagner mercenary group on the eve of a disputed presidential election in Belarus was a joint U.S.-Ukrainian operation, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. Belarus has accused the men of seeking to destabilize the country by colluding with opposition leaders to orchestrate mass disorder. Belarus returned…
While Russia’s most prominent opposition politician Alexei Navalny lies in a coma in a Berlin hospital after suffering an apparent poisoning last week, the pressure on his activities continues back home. On Wednesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a catering magnate nicknamed “Putin’s chef,” bought the 88 million rubles ($1.2 million) in debt Navalny, his ally Lyubov Sobol…
President Vladimir Putin has formed a reserve of Russian law enforcement officers standing by to be sent to Belarus, he said in a new interview that aired Thursday. Putin said he created the reserve at the request of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who faces mass demonstrations in his country weeks after a disputed election he claims…
Police in Siberia said Thursday they have launched a preliminary inquiry into the suspected poisoning of prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week. The Siberian transport police said it inspected Navalny’s hotel room, inspected security footage and scouted out his entire itinerary while he was in the city of Tomsk. They also seized more than…
President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating has jumped to one of its highest levels since the start of the year as Russia continues its steady recovery from the coronavirus outbreak, the independent Levada Center polling agency said Wednesday. At 66% in August, Putin’s approval rating went up by six percentage points in a month and almost…
Alexei Navalny’s doctors in Germany have made contact with Bulgarian colleagues on suspicion that the prominent Kremlin critic may have been poisoned with a similar substance as a local arms dealer in 2015, the Der Spiegel news magazine reported. Doctors at Berlin’s Charité hospital said they believe Navalny was poisoned with an unknown substance belonging…