A Russian sushi restaurant has stood up to racist attacks by a far-right hate group after another sushi chain was forced to take down its ad featuring a black model. On Monday, the YobiDoyobi sushi chain pulled its ad that featured a black model and publicly apologized after being targeted by the “Male State” group.…
Slovakia on Tuesday announced it will halt the use of the Russian-made Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine due to low demand among its population. “Today [Tuesday] is the last day when citizens of Slovakia who wanted to vaccinate can get the second dose of the Sputnik vaccine,” the state-run TASS news agency quoted the European Union…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday ordered law enforcement officers and army staff receive $200, as he seeks support for his unpopular United Russia party ahead of parliamentary elections next month. The cash handouts follow earlier one-time payments for pensioners of $135 ahead of lower house State Duma polls in September, with United Russia’s ratings…
Europe’s top human rights court said it has found no evidence of Russian state involvement in the 2009 murder of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova but ruled that authorities failed to properly investigate the case. The ruling was met with criticism from Estemirova’s daughter, Lana, who called the decision “upsetting and infuriating” and pledged to…
Switzerland said Tuesday it had rejected a request from Russia to extradite a Russian businessman, who is already fighting extradition to the United States over suspicions of large-scale insider trading. The Swiss justice ministry confirmed Swiss media reports that it had recently rejected a Russian request to extradite Vladislav Klyushin. In an email to AFP,…
Russia has confirmed 6,918,965 cases of coronavirus and 183,224 deaths, according to the national coronavirus information center. Russia’s total excess fatality count since the start of the coronavirus pandemic is around 596,000. August 31: What you need to know today Russia on Monday reported 17,813 new coronavirus cases and 795 deaths. Slovakia will halt the use of Sputnik V due…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s spokeswoman, one of his last close associates remaining in the country, has fled Russia, Interfax reported Monday. Kira Yarmysh’s reported departure comes amid a growing exodus of opposition-leaning journalists and dissidents that The New York Times calls “the biggest wave of political emigration” in Russia’s post-Soviet history. Kremlin critics point…
The Kremlin on Monday welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to create a “safe zone” in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul to protect humanitarian operations. “This is certainly a proposal that must be discussed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He said that it was “very important” to discuss all aspects of “such a zone.” France and…
Russia will expand the practice of raising the national flag in schools from next month, its top education official said Monday. The move comes amid a wider push to enshrine patriotic values in Russian schools in recent years. Education and Science Minister Vladimir Kravtsov said that flag-raising ceremonies would be rolled out throughout Russia for…
Russia has blocked the website of independent media outlet Readovka after it published an investigation into the alleged hidden wealth of a parliamentarian. The ruling comes in the midst of an escalating crackdown against independent media outlets, which has seen popular independent outlets such as the Meduza news site and the Dozhd broadcaster labeled “foreign…
Russia has urged Western countries not to freeze Afghanistan’s gold and foreign exchange reserves abroad following the Taliban’s takeover of the country. In an interview with the state-run Rossiya 24 broadcaster, Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s presidential envoy to Afghanistan, warned that such a move ultimately harms ordinary Afghans. “If our Western colleagues really care about the…
Russia has issued an expulsion order against a popular Belarusian comedian after ruling he insulted ethnic Russians in a stand-up routine. Idrak Mirzalizade had sparked controversy with a joke on a popular YouTube show this spring, where he told a story about non-Slavs facing discrimination when trying to rent apartments in Moscow. The Interior Ministry…
A Russian sushi delivery chain has publicly apologized for an advertisement that featured a black man after its owner received death threats from an ultra-nationalist hate group. The Krasnoyarsk-based YobiDoyobi chain’s Aug. 14 social media ad showed a photograph of a black man surrounded by three young women of Slavic appearance. Yobidoyobi co-founder Konstantin Zimen…
Russia has confirmed 6,901,152 cases of coronavirus and 182,429 deaths, according to the national coronavirus information center. Russia’s total excess fatality count since the start of the coronavirus pandemic is around 596,000. August 30: What you need to know today Russia on Monday reported 18,325 new coronavirus cases and 792 deaths. Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine offers strong protection against…
Russia has confirmed 6,863,541 cases of coronavirus and 180,840 deaths, according to the national coronavirus information center. Russia’s total excess fatality count since the start of the coronavirus pandemic is around 596,000. August 28: What you need to know today Russia on Saturday reported 19,492 new coronavirus cases and 799 deaths. Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine offers strong protection against hospitalization,…
Russia recorded almost 64,000 excess fatalities in July as a brutal third wave of the coronavirus swept across the country, encountering an under-vaccinated population and overwhelmed hospitals in its path. In a report released late Friday evening, the Rosstat state statistics service said 215,000 people died in July 2021 — more than in any single…
Russia has fined two activists for organizing a demonstration in support of Afghan women who face an uncertain future after the Taliban returned to power in the country, a court said Friday. The two activists, Artemy Pityukov and Ksenia Bezdenezhnykh, were fined 200,000 rubles ($2,670) each for “violating public order”, a spokeswoman for the Presnensky…
The Syzran Refinery, an enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company’s refining complex, produced more than 67,000 tonnes of low-sulphur RMLS 40 marine fuel in the first half of 2021.
Athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who said the Belarus team tried to forcibly fly her home from the Tokyo Olympics and has since sought refuge in Poland, has sold a medal of hers for $21,000, a sports NGO said. “The medal has now been sold and paid for by a buyer from the U.S. with a very…
Several Russian media outlets on Friday published an open letter to President Vladimir Putin and other top officials demanding an end to the “state campaign” against independent journalism. The outcry comes after Russia slapped several media outlets and individual journalists with the “foreign agent” label that requires them to carry out tedious administrative procedures and…
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday Russia “condemns in the strongest possible terms” the twin suicide bombings — claimed by the Islamic State group — on crowds trying to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The attacks near Kabul airport on Thursday killed at least 85 people, including 13 U.S. servicemen. “Of course, it is very sad news about the…
Oleg Moiseev initially thought he was leaving Belarus for just two weeks. But as circumstances changed, so did his plans — and what was meant to be a short trip to Lithuania turned into a life of political exile. Moiseev, 43, is one of thousands of Belarusians who have fled the country in the year…
Russia plans to rely on its forests and swamps to absorb enough greenhouse gases to meet its climate goals while continuing to increase its carbon emissions through 2050, the Kommersant business daily reported, citing the Economic Development Ministry’s draft strategy. Russia, the world’s fourth-largest carbon emitter, emitted 2.12 billion tons of CO2 in 2019 compared…
Russia has confirmed 6,844,049 cases of coronavirus and 180,041 deaths, according to the national coronavirus information center. Russia’s total excess fatality count since the start of the coronavirus pandemic is around 531,000. August 27: What you need to know today Russia on Thursday reported 19,509 new coronavirus cases and 798 deaths. Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine offers strong protection…
Police visits of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s supporters have spread to St. Petersburg, Russian media reported early Friday after rights activists said several hundred Moscow residents were subjected to similar visits recently. At least 1,200 Moscow-based Navalny supporters whose addresses leaked online were visited by law enforcement authorities in the past two weeks, according to…
A world paratriathlon champion from Russia won two cycling gold medals at the Tokyo Paralympics on Thursday, setting world and Paralympic records both times. Mikhail Astashov, who has a congenital limb deficiency, made headlines in early 2020 when he was filmed delivering food in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg wearing prosthetic legs. Astashov, 32, said…
Russia has slapped online travel agency Booking.com with a $17.5 million fine for “abusing” its dominant position in the market, a government regulator said Thursday. The move comes as Russia ratchets up pressure against Western tech companies and several months after authorities hit Apple with a $12 million fine for the same violation. Russia’s Federal…
Russia has slapped online travel agency Booking.com with a $17.5 million fine for “abusing” its dominant position in the market, a government regulator said Thursday. The move comes as Russia ratchets up pressure against Western tech companies and several months after authorities hit Apple with a $12 million fine for the same violation. Russia’s Federal…
Russia has fined Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp for failing to store the data of Russian users on local servers, the country’s internet watchdog said Thursday, as authorities clamp down on foreign internet companies. The penalties come as authorities ramp up control of the Russian segment of the internet and after President Vladimir Putin accused Western social…
The Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan will lead to a blossoming of radical Islam in the region and will threaten Russia’s security, a senior member of the Anti-Taliban National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) told The Moscow Times on Thursday. “Russia should be concerned about the rise of the Taliban. The country will become a terrorist…
Russia reported its highest daily coronavirus death count Thursday as cases continue to decline and major regions lift restrictions they had reintroduced during the summer surge. The government’s Covid-19 information center said that 820 people have died over the past 24 hours. The new record fatality count beats the previous one-day record of 819 deaths…
Russia said Thursday it has received new orders for arms and helicopters from Central Asian republics bordering Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover of the country. The orders come as countries in the ex-Soviet region, where Moscow holds military bases, have raised concerns over the militant group sweeping to power. “We are already working on a…
Moscow will offer small stimulus payments to businesses in the capital that have vaccinated at least 60% of their employees against the coronavirus, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday. Firms operating in certain service sectors, including bars and restaurants, cinemas, beauty salons and educational and cultural institutions, will be able to access the payouts of at…
The Russian government’s public services portal should avoid showing non-Slavic people and excessive fun in its advertising materials, its branding book that resurfaced on social media this week recommends. Russia’s Communications Ministry admitted Thursday that the 2015 brand book was “inappropriate” and plans to issue a new set of guidelines. The “Gosuslugi” public services portal provides…
Russia has confirmed 6,824,540 cases of coronavirus and 179,243 deaths, according to the national coronavirus information center. Russia’s total excess fatality count since the start of the coronavirus pandemic is around 531,000. August 26: What you need to know today Russia on Thursday reported 19,630 new coronavirus cases and 820 deaths, a new record fatality count since the start of the…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has given his first interview from prison, comparing it to a Chinese labor camp and saying he is forced to watch eight hours of state television a day. Navalny, who built his political career on exposing corruption in Russia, is being held in a maximum security prison colony in Pokrov, 100…
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have agreed their countries will step up efforts to counter “threats” emerging from Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover, the Kremlin said Wednesday. In a phone call, the two leaders “expressed their readiness to step up efforts to combat threats of terrorism and drug trafficking coming…
Pussy Riot member and Moscow municipal deputy Lucy Shtein has been sentenced to one year of so-called “restricted freedom” for promoting a protest that called for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s release. Shtein is one of 10 opposition figures accused of violating coronavirus restrictions on mass events by calling for the unauthorized protest on Jan.…
Russia will allow the resettlement of around 1,000 Afghan nationals following the Taliban militant group’s sudden takeover of Afghanistan, an Afghan diaspora leader told Russian state media Wednesday. Chairman of the Afghan Diaspora in Russia Ghulam Mohammad Jalal made the remarks as huge crowds remained outside Kabul airport, with thousands of Afghans hoping to flee…
More than one-fourth of Russians remain skeptical of climate change despite the country being battered by intensifying natural disasters in recent years, according to a poll by the SuperJob job portal published Wednesday. Superjob polled 1,600 “economically active” Russians aged 18 and older from Aug. 17-23, two weeks after United Nations climate scientists released a…
Russia’s central regions on Wednesday battled “extreme” wildfires fueled by an unusual heatwave that comes after forest fires linked to climate change ravaged Siberia for most of the summer. Authorities were fighting 15 wildfires in the Urals region of Sverdlovsk, the emergencies ministry said. The region — which lies on the border of Europe and…
Nearly two out of every five Russians have avoided buying necessities because they can’t afford them, according to a survey by the independent Levada Center pollster published Wednesday. Russians’ real disposable incomes have stagnated in recent years, and the coronavirus pandemic and inflation have hit businesses hard and driven up prices for groceries and other…
A Russian transport helicopter was looted at the Kabul airport during the chaotic scramble to flee Taliban militants following the group’s sudden takeover of Afghanistan, the aircraft’s operator UTair confirmed to The Moscow Times on Wednesday. Unidentified individuals boarded the Mil Mi-8MTV helicopter on Aug. 17, two days after Kabul fell to the Taliban and…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to protect the country’s forests, saying the nation must learn from the “unprecedented” wildfires that engulfed swathes of Siberia. Experts blame the huge fires that have ripped across Russia’s vast territory in recent years on climate change, negligence, and underfunded forestry management services.…
The Russian military has begun evacuating 500 citizens of Russia and its regional allies from Afghanistan, the Defense Ministry announced Wednesday. In a statement carried by news agencies, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it will deploy four military transport aircraft to airlift Russians, Belarusians and Central Asian nationals as well as Ukrainians seeking to flee Afghanistan…
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that U.S. forces are “pawning off” Afghans fleeing the Taliban to neighboring Moscow-allied Central Asia. During a visit to Hungary, Lavrov said the United States is trying to convince “several Central Asian countries” to take in Afghans who previously worked with U.S. forces in the now Taliban-controlled country.…
Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine offers strong protection against hospitalization, according to scientists who have conducted the first independent real-world study of the jab’s effectiveness in combating severe infections. Scientists at a group of Russian universities found the vaccine was 81% effective in preventing hospitalization among people who had contracted a symptomatic Covid-19 infection. The…
Ukrainian soldiers marched through Kiev Tuesday alongside servicemen of NATO member countries as the country marked the 30th anniversary of its independence from the Soviet Union. The show of solidarity came after Ukraine and its Western allies agreed in a summit in Kiev on Monday to work towards ending Russia’s “occupation” of Crimea. Ukraine is not a…
Russia revealed Tuesday it postponed its first mission to the moon’s surface in decades as a result of “problems” encountered during tests of the Luna-25 spacecraft. The country’s space agency Roscosmos announced last week that the mission – originally scheduled for Oct. 1 – from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Far East had been moved to May…
Russia’s annual showcase of its latest military innovations is well under way at Patriot Park, a military-themed park outside Moscow. The seventh annual ARMY-2021 military-technical forum will host exhibitions and demos of an array of new armed vehicles, weapons systems, aircraft and more to a global audience, making it a key event for Russia, the…
Russian authorities have declared an interregional state of emergency as tough-to-contain forest fires threaten the country’s top-secret nuclear weapons research center, Interfax reported Tuesday, citing the emergencies ministry. Wildfires have raged in the Nizhny Novgorod region and the neighboring republic of Mordovia, both roughly 500 kilometers east of Moscow, since early August. The fires have…
Ukraine’s foreign ministry has refuted an earlier statement that a Ukrainian aircraft was hijacked at Kabul airport during a desperate evacuation of Afghans and other nationals seeking to flee the Taliban militant group. On Monday, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister Yevhen Yenin spoke of two incidents involving its evacuation aircraft over the past week in comments…
Russia’s Justice Ministry has said that gifts from relatives and participation in international conferences are fair game for a media outlet to be labeled a “foreign agent,” a member of the presidential human rights council said Monday. Eva Merkacheva’s account of the Justice Ministry briefing appeared after the ministry added the independent Dozhd broadcaster and…
Russia has confirmed 6,785,374 cases of coronavirus and 177,614 deaths, according to the national coronavirus information center. Russia’s total excess fatality count since the start of the coronavirus pandemic is around 531,000. August 24: What you need to know today Russia on Tuesday reported 18,833 new coronavirus cases and 794 pandemic deaths. Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine offers strong protection against…
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has allocated Belarus almost $1 billion in reserve funds as part of the body’s unprecedented program to support the global economy as it emerges from the coronavirus pandemic, the IMF said Monday. The payout comes despite last-ditch attempts by opponents of the embattled Lukashenko regime to block the transaction, fearing…
A Moscow-led security bloc said Monday it was concerned that the Taliban had not yet started forming a transitional government in Afghanistan, a week after the group’s military takeover of the country. Russia has been cautiously optimistic about the new leadership in Kabul and welcomed the Taliban’s promise after the militants completed their takeover last weekend…
The Kremlin was not behind Russia’s labeling of two leading independent media outlets as “foreign agents,” its spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday. On Friday, the Justice Ministry added the Dozhd broadcaster and investigative site Important Stories (iStories), as well as six journalists from iStories, to its registry of “foreign agents.” Kremlin critics say the designations…
Ukraine on Monday blocked the websites of several prominent Russian media outlets in its latest round of sanctions against neighboring Russia which it has accused of spreading propaganda. Ties between the ex-Soviet countries have deteriorated sharply since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and threw its weight behind armed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for one-off cash payments to be awarded to Russia’s pensioners and military service personnel in a highly anticipated pre-election move. Speaking at a meeting with delegates of the ruling United Russia party, the president called on his lawmakers to pass legislation for a 10,000 ruble ($135) payment to pensioners,…
A Russian man swam 20 kilometers from the disputed Kuril Islands to Japan to ask for political asylum, state media reported Sunday following Japanese media reports that the man had been detained in Hokkaido. Authorities in the Yuzhno-Kurilsk municipal administration said the refugee was an Urals native who had received free land on the Kuril…