The Moscow city government announced Tuesday that it will offer newly enlisted contract soldiers an extra one-time payment of 1.9 million rubles ($21,783) as Russia continues to face an acute manpower shortage in the war on Ukraine. Moscow’s mayor’s office said all local and national-level support measures previously introduced for soldiers and their families would…
Western countries have overestimated the effectiveness of their pressure on the potential of the Russian and Chinese economies; all efforts to curb growth have the opposite effect, said Igor Sechin, Executive Secretary of the Russian Presidential Commission on the Strategy for the Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex and Environmental Safety, Chief Executive Officer…
Russian-Chinese cooperation in the field of oil supplies is unique for Eurasia, said Igor Sechin, Executive Secretary of the Presidential Commission for the Strategy of Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex and Environmental Safety, CEO of Rosneft
Wildfires have destroyed nearly 5 million hectares of forest in Russia so far this summer, the country’s Aerial Forest Protection Service reported Monday. This figure means that this year’s wildfire season in Russia has already been more devastating than the previous two, which saw 4.6 million hectares and 3.5 million hectares of forest destroyed respectively,…
… we have a small favor to ask. As you may have heard, The Moscow Times, an independent news source for over 30 years, has been unjustly branded as a “foreign agent” by the Russian government. This blatant attempt to silence our voice is a direct assault on the integrity of journalism and the values…
Russia’s military said Tuesday it captured another small village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where its forces have been making incremental advances for the past several months. The defense ministry said its troops “liberated” the settlement of Ivano-Dariivka, a village that consisted of just a few streets and houses before Russia launched its full-scale invasion…
A Moscow court has sentenced exiled journalist Mikhail Zygar to eight-and-a-half years in prison in absentia for spreading so-called “fake” information about the Russian military’s actions in Ukraine, the independent Mediazona news website reported Tuesday. The criminal case against Zygar stems from his April 2022 Instagram post in which he spoke about the Russian army’s atrocities against…
President Vladimir Putin has ordered the transfer of the nationalized power-generating company TGK-2 to a subsidiary of Russian state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom. TGK-2 is one of northwestern Russia’s largest thermal power companies with 12 plants, 30 boiler houses and four heat network enterprises spanning six regions. A court in the city of Yaroslavl northeast of Moscow ruled…
The popular Russian online marketplace Avito said Tuesday that its app has been removed from Apple’s App Store for unknown reasons. “Unfortunately, our app is currently unavailable for download in the App Store. The reasons are being looked into,” Avito’s press service said in a post on Telegram. The company said it contacted Apple to…
A Russian ballistic missile attack on northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed dozens of Western military instructors, state media reported on Tuesday, citing Russia’s Defense Ministry. “[An] Iskander-M missile defense system launched an attack on the temporary deployment point of instructors and mercenaries from Western countries in the locality of Derhachi, Kharkiv region,” the state-run TASS…
WARSAW, Poland — “Poland has never been a popular immigration destination for Russians,” says Alexandr Menyukov, a Warsaw-based coordinator of Kovcheg, an international group supporting Russian wartime emigres and activists. “This is, perhaps, understandable, because in Russian propagandists’ list of enemies Poland ranks second after the U.S. It even seems like Russia is fighting the…
World Whale and Dolphin Day is celebrated annually on 23 July
Russian state-run TV channels mocked the United States presidential election after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race on Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s new nominee. Vladimir Solovyov, the host of a popular evening talk show broadcast on the Rossiya 1 channel and one of the Kremlin’s most loyal…
Indonesia’s state-owned oil and natural gas corporation Pertamina is looking to purchase Russian oil for the first time in more than a decade, Reuters reported on Monday, citing three anonymous traders familiar with the matter. As Southeast Asia’s largest economy, Indonesia stepped back from buying Russian oil following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but the country…
Election authorities in St. Petersburg have rejected all candidates from the liberal opposition party Yabloko who had sought to run in the city’s upcoming municipal elections, the local news outlet Bumaga reported on Monday. Yabloko spokesman Dmitry Anisimov told Bumaga that all 83 members who filed paperwork to run for municipal council seats in September were…
A court in the republic of Tatarstan has sentenced Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to six-and-a-half years in prison for spreading “fakes” about the army, the Associated Press reported on Monday, citing court records and a court spokeswoman. Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen who works for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was arrested in October of last…
Russia’s Supreme Court has upheld a 19-year prison sentence for Alexei Navalny, state media reported on Monday, more than five months after the opposition activist died in an Arctic prison. In a closed-door hearing held on July 2, the court rejected an appeal by Navalny’s defense team against a nearly two-decade sentence for creating an…
Читайте русскую версию здесь. Russian regions’ spending on cemetery expansion projects was nearly three times higher during the first two years of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine than it was during the two years prior, The Moscow Times has found. According to data from the official state procurement portal, Russia’s regions spent more than 225…
Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti said Monday that French authorities rejected accreditation requests for its journalist to cover the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, which are set to kick off later this week. Five RIA Novosti sports correspondents received identical letters on Sunday informing them that the event organizer, for reasons unknown, had not…
A gas explosion ripped through storefronts in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region, injuring at least four people, investigators said Monday. “Building structures collapsed in the city of Apsheronsk as a result of the explosion of a gas-air mixture early this morning,” Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement. Videos published by independent…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Monday that it dismantled a channel for smuggling explosives and detonators into St. Petersburg from Europe, allegedly intended for carrying out terrorist attacks. “The terrorist weapons were transported in several packages in stages from Italy and Germany and were hidden in spare car parts,” the law enforcement agency said…
Updated with Peskov’s comments on Monday. The Kremlin said late Sunday that it would continue to follow the 2024 U.S. presidential election after President Joe Biden made a surprise announcement to withdraw from the race, but otherwise stressed that Moscow’s main priority is progress in its ongoing war against Ukraine. “The [U.S.] election is still four…
A Rosneft scientific expedition to study the wild reindeer in the western part of Taymyr has left from Norilsk
An unknown man wielding a sledgehammer has decapitated a statue honoring Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in a city near Moscow, Russian state media reported. Video taken in the city of Zvenigorod showed the suspect staggering around the statue before knocking its head off in what appeared to be one swoop and walking away. “On Saturday,…
Russia said Sunday that its forces had captured two frontline villages in Ukraine, Andriivka in the eastern Luhansk region and Pishchane in the northeast Kharkiv region. The two villages are less than 20 kilometers from each other on a section of the frontline where Moscow has made grinding advances in recent weeks. Russian army units…
Russia said Sunday that it scrambled fighter jets to prevent two U.S. strategic bomber planes from crossing its border over the Barents Sea in the Arctic. The U.S. military routinely carries out flights over international waters, operations that it says are conducted in neutral airspace and in accordance with international law. But Moscow has responded…
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Saturday it was resigned to the Paris Games being targeted by disinformation attacks following recent incidents blamed on Russia. IOC spokesman Mark Adams said he believed a campaign against the Paris Olympics was already under way as final preparations for the sports spectacular entered the home stretch. “Clearly there…
At least two people were killed and four wounded in a Russian airstrike overnight on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, the regional prosecutor said Saturday. “Around 3:15 in the morning the enemy launched a missile attack on the town of Barvinkove, in Izyum district,” the prosecutor said in a statement. The prosecuted said two men aged…
Russia shot down 26 Ukrainian drones overnight in the southern Rostov region, several hundred kilometers from the front line, the regional governor said Saturday. “Last night, air defense forces intercepted and destroyed a total of 26 UAVs in Rostov region. There were no casualties as a result of the attack,” Governor Vasily Golubev posted on…
Authorities in Russia on Friday designated a Grammy-winning pianist, a priest who helps Ukrainian refugees and a former Soviet spy as “foreign agents,” the latest update to Moscow’s burgeoning list of individuals it deems as enemies of the state. Hundreds of cultural figures, journalists, businesspeople, as well as news outlets and organizations, have been branded “foreign…
Russian attacks killed two people in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region on Friday, a day after Kyiv acknowledged its foothold on the left bank of the Dnipro River was mostly destroyed. Ukraine managed to establish a small bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnipro River that cuts through the Kherson region last year in an attempt…
Russian investigators said Friday that they have launched a criminal probe into “attempted murder” following an assault on a federal lawmaker. Mikhail Matveyev, a Communist Party member of Russia’s lower-house State Duma, said Thursday he had been attacked by “migrants” while attempting to stop them from harassing a passerby in the southern city of Samara.…
Orenburgneft (part of the Rosneft production complex) organized the Best in Profession professional skills competition among employees of transport enterprises in the Orenburg region
Russia’s Digital Communications Ministry said Friday that airlines and banks in the country did not appear to have been impacted by a widespread Microsoft outage that has disrupted flights and business across the globe, touting Moscow’s measures against Western sanctions as a shield from the digital disarray. The international travel industry, as well as some…
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hosted a Russian military delegation led by Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko to discuss the “importance and necessity” of bilateral defense cooperation, state media said Friday. Thursday’s meeting in Pyongyang came roughly a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the North Korean capital, during which the two…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Friday that it thwarted an attempted terrorist attack at a bus station in the southern Stavropol region. The law enforcement agency said it detained a man who had purchased supplies to make an improvised explosive device, which he allegedly stored in a garage in the city of Yessentuki. Authorities…
Updated with sentencing, Smirnov’s comments, White House statement. A judge in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region on Friday sentenced Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison on spying charges, a forgone conclusion in a closed trial that has been condemned as a sham by Washington and the journalist’s employer. “The court finds Evan Gershkovich…
A Russian court on Thursday sentenced a man to five years in prison over rare opposition protests in the Urals republic of Bashkortostan. A court in the city of Orsk said in a statement that a 50-year-old man had been found guilty of “participating in mass unrest” and “violence against law enforcement officers” in the…
Oil deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia from Russian oil giant Lukoil have come to a halt due to Ukrainian sanctions, media reported Thursday. Restrictions signed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last month effectively banned Russia’s second-largest oil producer Lukoil from using Ukraine as a transit hub. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said late Tuesday that Lukoil…
Authorities in Russia on Thursday added the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to the country’s list of “undesirable” organizations. While the listing does not specify why the organization was added, it does cite a decision by Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office from July 1 to designate Carnegie as “undesirable.” It was not immediately clear what specific…
Russia may make a new deployment of nuclear weapons in response to U.S. plans to station missiles in Germany, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday. “I’m not ruling out any options,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by the state-run Interfax news agency. “Considering the combined capabilities of NATO member countries, we must calibrate…
A former U.S. paratrooper and rock musician detained in Russia more than a year ago on drug charges was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Thursday, the Moscow court system’s press service said. Michael Travis Leake, who fronted the Moscow-based rock band Lovi Noch, was detained in June 2023 after prosecutors accused him of…
A Moscow court has banned the sale of toilet paper with printed patterns of 1,000-ruble bills, the independent news website Vyorstka reported Thursday, citing the court’s ruling. The decorative toilet paper was deemed to “offend religious feelings” since the 1,000-ruble banknote depicts Yaroslav the Wise, an 11th-century Kyivan Rus’ prince who was made a saint…
Rosneft’s subsidiaries in Krasnoyarsk Krai and the Krai Ministry of Education signed an Agreement on the creation of educational and production clusters «Transport. Logistics» and «Fuel and Energy Complex» in the region as part of the implementation of the Federal Project «Professionalitet»
The United States has handed a three-year prison sentence to a Russian businessman who admitted to smuggling military-grade electronics to Russia, the U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday. Maxim Marchenko, who lived and operated several companies in Hong Kong, was arrested in September and pleaded guilty to smuggling and money laundering in a New York court…
Russia’s Constitutional Court has banned the euthanasia of stray animals unless they pose a direct threat to humans, state media reported Thursday. “Killing animals without owners is an extraordinary measure, which is justified only when others cannot ensure an adequate level of protection of a person, their rights and freedoms and public safety,” Russia’s Constitutional…
Timur Kamaev, a prominent Imam from Russia’s republic of Tatarstan, found himself at the center of a nationwide scandal this week after releasing a video in which he appears to instruct believers on the proper ways to beat one’s wife. Released on Monday as a part of the Tea With Hazrat podcast series, the original…
Updated with AFP report. The espionage trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich resumed on Thursday morning behind closed doors in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, local media reported. The hearing was originally set to resume on Aug. 13, but Gershkovich’s defense lawyers had requested the date be moved up. Thursday’s hearing is closed…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday morning that it had downed dozens of Ukrainian aerial and waterborne drones targeting the annexed Crimean peninsula in an overnight attack. “Air defense systems on duty destroyed and intercepted 33 aerial drones over… Crimea,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that forces “in the Black Sea destroyed 10…
President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that unregulated cryptocurrency mining risks overloading Russia’s electrical grid and causing widespread power outages. “An uncontrolled increase in electricity consumption for mining cryptocurrencies can lead to power shortages in certain regions,” Putin told senior government officials at a meeting focused on the economy. Russia’s Energy Ministry estimates that crypto mining consumes…
Lithuania will no longer allow passenger vehicles with Belarusian license plates to enter the country, the Baltic nation’s customs agency announced on Wednesday. The ban, which takes effect Thursday, applies to passenger cars “regardless of the nationality of their owner or driver,” the agency said. An exception will be made until Aug. 16 for Belarusian…
A young couple was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike while driving in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region, Russian authorities said Wednesday. Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the latest attack took place in the village of Tserkovny, less than 10 kilometers from the border with northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. “As a result of a car fire,…
In a forest in the Kharkiv region, Commander Vyacheslav walks briskly, his eyes fixed on the sky. The radio on his shoulder crackles: “The sky is clear, no more drones, we can go.” The men of one Territorial Defense Brigade of Kharkiv have come to locate a Ukrainian tank destroyed earlier by a Russian drone…
The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed suggestions that its ground offensive on northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region had failed, coming a day after Russian officials said they would seal off border villages to protect civilians from Ukrainian shelling. Russia launched a surprise assault into the Kharkiv region in early May in a bid to push Ukrainian forces…
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 190 captured soldiers as part of a deal mediated by the United Arab Emirates, the Russian Defense Ministry announced Wednesday. “As a result of a negotiation process, 95 Russian servicemen … have been returned,” the ministry wrote on Telegram, adding that 95 Ukrainian soldiers had also been released. Ukraine’s human…
Russian media executive Andrei Shmarov, whose short stint as editor-in-chief of the business daily Vedomosti was marred by censorship scandals, has died at the age of 69, the newspaper said Wednesday, citing a family friend. Vedomosti did not name the cause of Shmarov’s death, but anonymously run Telegram news channels with links to Russia’s law…
Around 650,000 Russians have left the country and not returned since Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to a new report by the independent business news outlet The Bell, citing migration data from dozens of countries. Russia saw two waves of outward migration in 2022 — one initially after the start…
Last month’s deadly attacks on Orthodox churches and synagogues in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan have renewed the debate over introducing a nationwide legal ban on the niqab, a full-face veil worn by some Muslim women. The debate was triggered by a report that one of the armed assailants had planned to escape from…
Authorities in Russia have issued an arrest warrant for exiled investigative journalist Andrei Zakharov, the independent news website Mediazona reported Wednesday, citing the Interior Ministry’s database of wanted persons. The database does not specify what criminal charges Zakharov faces, but Mediazona noted that he was previously charged with failing to comply with Russia’s “foreign agent” labeling…
Piet Ploeg lost his brother Alex, his brother’s wife Edith and their son Robert while they were traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in 2014. They were among the passengers on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 when it was shot down over war-torn eastern Ukraine on July 17, killing all 298 people on board. The remains…