The European Union declared Tuesday that the Belarus presidential election that returned authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko to office had been “neither free nor fair.” And, in a statement from EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell on behalf of EU members, the bloc threatened “measures on those responsible for the observed violence, unjustified arrests and falsification of…
Russia has become the first country to approve a vaccine against the coronavirus, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday despite widespread concerns about its safety. Russia, which has the world’s fourth-highest coronavirus caseload, is one of several countries racing to develop a vaccine to halt the disease that has killed more than 740,000 people and slammed…
The death toll from the coronavirus across many Russian regions could be many times higher than official statistics show, analysis of new data by The Moscow Times suggests. Experts pointed to systemic underreporting of deaths, and highlighted a complex incentive structure and political relationship between the Kremlin and Russia’s governors in the regions. They believe…
The World Health Organization said any WHO stamp of approval on a Covid-19 vaccine candidate would require a rigorous safety data review, after Russia announced Tuesday it had approved a vaccine. President Vladimir Putin said Russia had become the first country to approve a vaccine offering “sustainable immunity” against the new coronavirus. “We are in…
Official election results in Belarus showing an overwhelming victory for its longtime ruler were likely falsified, a senior Russian lawmaker has said in a rare stinging rebuke from Alexander Lukashenko’s traditional ally Moscow. Belarusian election officials announced that Lukashenko won more than 80% of the vote Sunday, a result that triggered ongoing nationwide protests, strikes…
Russia has registered the world’s first coronavirus vaccine early Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin announced, adding that one of his daughters has already been inoculated amid ongoing concerns about the rapidly developed vaccine’s safety. The state-run Gamaleya research institute last week launched Phase III trials of the Covid-19 vaccine involving thousands of volunteers. The Health Ministry…
Russia will move forward with registering its potential coronavirus vaccine, its state health watchdog said, defying calls to put off the process until the vaccine’s trials are complete. President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday announced that the vaccine was registered, with mass production expected to start in September and mass vaccination in October. On Monday, the Association…
The highest number of new cases were in Moscow and Sverdlovsk in the Urals. 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…
One man has died in protests in Belarus as demonstrators clashed with police for a second night after a disputed election handed a sixth term to strongman Alexander Lukashenko. Thousands took to the streets of the capital Minsk Monday night, saying Lukashenko had stolen the election from his surprise challenger, political novice Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. Police used rubber…
Belarus police on Monday used rubber bullets and tear gas to break up fresh protests challenging the result of a controversial weekend presidential election, witnesses and reports said. Several thousand protesters took to the streets of the capital Minsk for a second night of post-election rallies, with opposition supporters shouting and hundreds of cars honking…
Thousands of Belarusian demonstrators were met with a violent police response on Sunday night as they protested what they said was a fraudulent election, after long-serving incumbent Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory. Here is how the world has reacted to the disputed vote on Europe’s eastern frontier. EU: ‘count votes accurately’ From Brussels, European Commission President…
The main challenger in Belarus’s disputed election on Monday called on President Alexander Lukashenko to cede power but said she would not join demonstrations that have been brutally broken up by police, attracting widespread condemnation in Europe. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, whose surprise candidacy posed the biggest challenge to the veteran leader in years, said Sunday’s presidential…
Workers at a major steel plant in Belarus have gone on strike over the country’s contentious presidential election that they described as “unfair,” Belarusian media reported Monday. Belarus’ longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko claimed an overwhelming victory after Sunday’s vote, while his main challenger said it had been rigged and called on him to give up…
Several Russian journalists have been detained, deported or have gone missing in Belarus ahead of and during Sunday’s highly contested presidential election. Police detained 3,000 people for taking part in unauthorized post-election demonstrations in Minsk and other cities, the Belarusian interior ministry said in a statement Monday. Fifty civilians and 39 police officers were injured…
Russian-annexed Crimea has stepped up efforts to hire more doctors to staff its overwhelmed hospitals amid a resurgence of new coronavirus cases in the popular Black Sea holiday destination. New daily cases in August, averaging 29.3 so far, are two to three times higher than the peninsula’s reported cases in June, the Kommersant business daily…
Massive clashes broke out overnight in Belarus as thousands of protesters disputed presidential election results that showed long-serving leader Alexander Lukashenko winning with an overwhelming majority of votes. Police broke up crowds of protesters with stun grenades and rubber bullets in Minsk and other cities Sunday evening. One protester was killed and dozens wounded in…
Update: The protester who was previously reported to have been killed has survived, Reuters reported. A protester was killed and dozens wounded when police in Belarus used stun grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse demonstrators disputing election results, a prominent rights group said on Monday. The Viasna Human Rights Center said the young male protester…
Russia has confirmed 887,536 cases of coronavirus and 14,931 deaths. Aug. 10: What you need to know today Russia’s statistics agency Rosstat said 11,917 people with the coronavirus died in June, compared to an official death toll of 4,880 for the same period. Rosstat said Covid-19 was confirmed or believed to be the main cause of death…
The highest number of new cases were in Moscow and Sverdlovsk in the Urals. 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…
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was set for an overwhelming victory in a presidential election on Sunday, an official exit poll said, after a political newcomer mounted a historic challenge to the strongman leader. The exit poll for state television gave Lukashenko 79.7% of the vote, with main challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya coming second with 6.8%. The…
Belarus held tense presidential polls on Sunday with a popular woman opposition candidate posing the greatest challenge in years to long-ruling strongman Alexander Lukashenko. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old English teacher and translator by training, stood for office after the authorities detained her husband, popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, and barred him from running. She emerged as…
The main opposition candidate challenging Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko demanded a fair election as she cast her ballot in the presidential poll on Sunday. “I really want the election to be honest, because if the authorities have nothing to fear, if all the people are for Alexander Grigoryevich (Lukashenko), then we will agree with that,”…
The highest number of new cases were in Moscow and Sverdlovsk in the Urals. 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…
The campaign manager of Belarus’s leading opposition candidate was detained on Saturday on the eve of a tense presidential vote, her office said. A spokeswoman for presidential hopeful Svetlana Tikhanovskaya told AFP that Maria Moroz had been detained and was expected to be held until Monday. It was not immediately clear on what grounds she…
Three Russian opposition activists were detained Saturday as they travelled to Belarus to observe a tense presidential election there, the group said. Andrei Pivovarov and two other members of Open Russia, an opposition group established by self-exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, were taken off a bus in the western Pskov region, the group said. Pivovarov,…
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Russia’s Far East for a fifth consecutive weekend as anti-Kremlin rallies showed little sign of dying down on Saturday. The rallies in the city of some 600,000 people on the border with China is a major show of defiance against Moscow’s policies and present a…
Russia has confirmed 882,347 cases of coronavirus and 14,854 deaths. Aug. 8: What you need to know today Russia’s statistics agency Rosstat said 11,917 people with the coronavirus died in June, compared to an official death toll of 4,880 for the same period. Rosstat said Covid-19 was confirmed or believed to be the main cause of death…
The highest number of new cases were in Moscow and Sverdlovsk in the Urals. 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…
KHABAROVSK — From pink salmon to chum salmon to the glistening orange globes of their roe, Nadezhda Donkan remembers the tables of her childhood always being fully laden in her village in the Far Eastern region of Khabarovsk. Now a 57-year-old pensioner, Donkan, a member of the indigenous Nanai people whose livelihoods have for centuries depended…
A Russian virologist has questioned the country’s swiftly developed coronavirus vaccine, warning that it could be dangerous for people who have antibodies against the virus. Russia is one of several countries racing to develop a vaccine to halt the disease that has killed more than 700,000 people and slammed the global economy. One vaccine, developed…
The head of Russia’s space agency said Friday that Roscosmos wants to return to Venus and bring back soil samples and build spacecraft that will surpass Elon Musk’s rockets. Last week America’s first crewed spaceship to fly to the International Space Station in nearly a decade returned safely to Earth, splashing down in the Gulf…
Belarus on Friday announced it had loaded fuel into its Russian-built nuclear power station as strongman Alexander Lukashenko prepares to contest a presidential poll on Sunday. The country is launching its first ever nuclear plant to gain cheaper energy despite suffering severe radiation from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and against strong opposition from neighboring Lithuania.…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he wants ex-Soviet neighbor Belarus to remain stable ahead of a presidential vote on Sunday, after Minsk accused Moscow of sending mercenaries to foment riots. The Kremlin released a statement after a phone call between Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to discuss ties as Belarus ramped up tensions…
Indigenous groups in Siberia and the Russian Far East have asked Elon Musk to boycott a mining giant linked to several recent environmental disasters in the Arctic. Last month, the Tesla CEO urged global mining companies to ramp up nickel production as current costs of the metal, a key ingredient in electric car batteries, were…
Russians are receiving spam text messages offering huge rewards in exchange for information about their country’s efforts to interfere in the United States’ presidential election. News of the SMS messages came after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the $10 million reward in an attempt to prevent foreign interference in the November vote, pointing…
Twitter and Facebook on Thursday announced moves to thwart efforts to deceive or divide voters as the U.S. nears a contentious presidential election. Twitter unveiled new steps to prevent the spread of content from “state-affiliated media” used to advance a government’s political agenda — a move affecting key outlets from Russia and China. Facebook, meanwhile, said it…
Strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled over ex-Soviet Belarus for nearly three decades, is facing down the greatest challenge to his rule yet ahead of presidential elections on Sunday. In the run-up to the vote in which Lukashenko will seek a sixth term, protests have erupted across the country straddling Russia and Europe, with 37-year-old…
A 15-year-old girl living in a Russian Orthodox monastery controlled by a defrocked coronavirus-denying priest has died, Interfax reported Wednesday. The Sredneuralsk women’s monastery near Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg has been under the control of Father Sergei Romanov since he forced out its mother superior in June. Since then, Russian media outlets have reported…
Belarus holds presidential polls on Sunday with a novice opposition candidate posing the greatest challenge in years to long-ruling strongman Alexander Lukashenko. The 65-year-old authoritarian leader has headed the ex-Soviet country bordering Russia since 1994 and Sunday’s polls could hand him his sixth term. After appearing to guarantee himself a smooth path to victory by…
Moscow city government employees and healthcare workers are being offered early access to Russia’s coronavirus vaccine as the country rushes to approve what it says is the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. Officials in recent weeks have said Russia aims to launch mass production of a coronavirus vaccine next month and produce “several…
Cypriot police said Thursday they had questioned a Russian over alleged links to a ship and its cargo of ammonium nitrate said to have caused the devastating explosion in Beirut. “Lebanese authorities asked us to locate the individual and ask him some questions which we did,” a Cypriot police spokesman told AFP. “His response has been…
A Moscow court on Thursday sentenced three young activists to long jail terms for plotting to overthrow President Vladimir Putin in a case that has sparked protests and allegations of police overreach. In 2018, authorities detained 10 people accusing them of belonging to an anarchist cell called the “New Greatness” that was plotting an uprising…
Belarus has arrested a number of U.S. nationals, its President Alexander Lukashenko said days before the country’s presidential election. Authorities have cracked down on the Belarusian opposition as Lukashenko seeks a sixth term in office, with rights groups saying more than 1,300 people have been detained. “Some people were detained with American passports, married to…
Russia has confirmed 871,894 cases of coronavirus and 14,606 deaths. Aug. 6: What you need to know today Russia’s flagship airline Aeroflot has canceled flights to 87 international destinations for the rest of August due to the coronavirus situation. The list doesn’t include countries where Russia has already resumed or plans to resume flights: Britain, Turkey, Tanzania and…
The highest number of new cases were in Moscow, the western Siberian region of Khanty-Mansiysk and Sverdlovsk in the Urals. 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…
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday offered a $10 million reward aimed at preventing foreign interference in the November election, as the State Department accused Russia of waging an increasingly sophisticated disinformation campaign. The reward marks one of the most public signs that members of President Donald Trump’s administration are taking election meddling seriously, despite…
A group of Russians completed an icy swim across Lake Baikal in Siberia on Wednesday in an effort to draw attention to ecological threats facing the world’s largest freshwater lake. The four men and one woman finished their continuous relay of 55 kilometers (34 miles) spanning the width of the lake and ending near the…
Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko seems set on burning once “brotherly” bridges with the Kremlin during a volatile election campaign that has seen him arrest Russian citizens and raid a bank with links to Moscow. The strongman leader of ex-Soviet Belarus has accused “puppeteers” and “Telegram channels” with ties to Moscow of meddling in the Aug.…
Russia’s state nuclear agency plans to remove several nuclear objects from the depths of Russia’s Arctic waters in an effort to reduce environmental hazards, Rosatom said this week as it presented a clean-up plan for the region. From the late 1960s to the late 1980s, about 18,000 radioactive objects were dumped into Russia’s remote northern…
About 500 migrants from Uzbekistan clashed with police in southern Russia as they tried to force their way toward the border into Kazakhstan, Russian media reported Tuesday. Thousands of migrant workers, mostly from ex-Soviet states, have been stranded in Russia since late March, when countries closed their borders and halted international flights due to the…
Nearly 3,000 tons of a highly explosive fertilizer that caused Tuesday’s devastating blast in Beirut came from a ship owned by a Russian businessman, the Mediazona news website reported Wednesday, citing Lebanese television and members of the ship’s crew. Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said in a statement Tuesday that 2,750 metric tons of ammonium…
Q2 and 6M 2020 IFRS financial results and corresponding MD&A will be available on our website on Friday, August 14, 2020 at 10:00 Moscow time
The highest number of new cases were in Moscow, the western Siberian region of Khanty-Mansiysk and Sverdlovsk in the Urals. 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…
Foreigners whose countries have visa-free travel agreements with Russia will once again be able to come to the country for short business trips, according to a decree signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Wednesday. Russia sealed its borders to nearly all foreigners in late March in an effort to contain the spread of the…
Record-setting summer temperatures across Siberia are opening up the Batagaika megaslump, which locals call the “gateway to the underworld,” at an unprecedented pace, scientists say. The Batagaika crater in the eastern Siberian republic of Sakha appeared in the 1960s after forest in the area was cleared, causing the land to sink. Currently the world’s largest…
The World Health Organization on Tuesday urged Russia to follow the established guidelines for producing safe and effective vaccines after Moscow announced plans to start swiftly producing COVID-19 jabs. Russia said Monday it aims to launch mass production of a coronavirus vaccine in September and turn out “several million” doses per month by next year.…
Russia has confirmed 861,423 cases of coronavirus and 14,351 deaths. Aug. 4: What you need to know today The World Health Organization on Tuesday urged Russia to follow the established guidelines for producing safe and effective vaccines after Moscow announced plans to start swiftly producing COVID-19 jabs. Moscow authorities have issued 5,000-ruble fines ($68) to more than 40,000 people…
Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday vowed to protect his country from the opposition and Russia which he said were coordinating violent protests ahead of presidential elections this week. The 65-year-old has ruled over the ex-Soviet country wedged between Russia and Europe with an authoritarian grip for 26 years and has cracked down on the…
The highest number of new cases were in Moscow, the western Siberian region of Khanty-Mansiysk and Sverdlovsk in the Urals. 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…
At a small-town campaign rally held by the rising star of Belarus’s political opposition, Elena stood among the unusually large crowd, wrapped in a red and white flag — the colors of the ex-Soviet country’s emboldened opposition. Like many others at the gathering for opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, she preferred to give her first name…