The United States has imposed visa restrictions on Belarusian law enforcement and justice officials it holds responsible for a renewed crackdown on activists and journalists, the State Department announced Thursday. The State Department condemned this week’s sentencing of two Belarusian journalists for covering 2020 election protests, as well as police raids on dozens of journalists,…
U.S. diplomats in Moscow have appealed for doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in the face of delivery shortages from Washington, The Washington Post reported Thursday. Unnamed officials cited in the story say the “humbling” experience is prompted by Washington’s inability to promise the delivery of U.S.-made vaccine doses in the near future. While…
Russia will resume flights to Egypt’s Red Sea resorts in March after the lifting of a ban imposed following a 2015 attack on a Russian jet, an aviation official said. Flights “to the two cities of Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada will resume on March 28 via the Russian company Nordwind at a rate of four…
Russia is likely to ignore the European rights court’s demand for the immediate release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, legal experts said as Moscow categorically rejected the calls. Navalny, 44, appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for his release on Jan. 20, days after his arrest at a Moscow airport. The…
Latvia on Thursday said it would ban entry to a Russian TV host after he called Hitler a “very brave man” while disparaging Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. “The glorification of Nazism in any form is unacceptable to Latvia,” Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics wrote on Twitter. На основании ч. 2 ст. 61 Закона об иммиграции я…
Russians are showing few signs of anger over the government’s handling of the health aspects of the coronavirus pandemic, despite the country recording one of the world’s largest increases in mortalities last year. Russia’s excess death toll — calculated by comparing the number of people who died over a given period compared with the number…
Prominent Russian activist Anastasia Shevchenko will walk free after receiving a suspended sentence for her involvement in a pro-democracy group that the government labeled “undesirable.” Shevchenko, 41, is the first activist to be prosecuted under Russia’s 2015 law against “undesirable organizations.” She has been under house arrest since 2019, when one of her three children…
Siberian mammoth teeth have contributed to the discovery of the world’s oldest DNA, the scientific journal Nature reported Wednesday. Before the latest findings, the oldest DNA sequences were believed to have come from a 700,000-year-old Canadian horse’s leg bone in 2013. Geneticists have now uncovered DNA as much as 1.2 million years old from molar…
The Kremlin has said the U.S. should mind its own business when it comes to Moscow’s work on the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline and focus on power outages in Texas instead. Millions of people in Texas were left without power and drinking water this week due to an abnormally severe winter storm. Meanwhile, the…
Russia has confirmed 4,125,598 cases of coronavirus and 81,926 deaths. Feb. 18: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 13,447 new coronavirus cases and 480 deaths. Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine has been certified and approved for mass use in Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan’s state coronavirus commission announced Wednesday. Muslim Spiritual Board of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan announced Tuesday…
Russian scientists believe that a massive crater above the Arctic Circle described as a “pit to hell” was formed as a result of an explosion caused by built-up methane. The researchers based their conclusions on a 3D model they created from drone footage from inside the well-preserved crater that has not yet eroded or filled with water.…
Spain’s move to reopen a criminal case against Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman and two of his associates over their alleged role in the deliberate bankruptcy of a Spanish tech firm was a “technical error,” a judge said Thursday. Spain’s National Court first opened a case against the tycoon in 2019, with prosecutors accusing Fridman of…
Spain has reopened a criminal case against Kremlin-linked billionaire Mikhail Fridman over his alleged role in the deliberate bankruptcy of a Spanish tech firm, Deutsche Welle reported Wednesday. Spain’s National Court first opened a case against the tycoon in 2019, with prosecutors accusing Fridman of market manipulation, fraudulent insolvency, business corruption and misuse of company…
A court in Belarus on Thursday sentenced a pair of young television journalists to two years in prison for covering a protest last year, the first lengthy jail term in a legal crackdown on independent media. Standing defiant in a cage, Katerina Bakhvalova, 27, and Daria Chultsova, 23, flashed V for victory signs as they…
Europe’s rights court told Russia on Wednesday to release jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny out of concern for his life, but Moscow swiftly rejected the call. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken opponent, was arrested and jailed upon returning to Russia last month following months of treatment in Germany for a nerve agent poisoning he…
Russia is the world’s last bastion of freedom in the face of the U.S. labor movement’s decline and pressure on Russian media in the Baltics and Ukraine, the head of Russia’s lower house of parliament said Wednesday. “Russia is the last island of freedom,” State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said during a legislative session, according to…
Europe’s top human rights court has called on Russia to release jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny “immediately.” Navalny was sentenced to nearly 3 years in prison on Feb. 2 for violating his probation in a 2014 fraud conviction while he recovered from a near-fatal poisoning in Germany. The ECHR in 2017 ruled that Navalny’s 2014 conviction…
A leading opposition figure went on trial Wednesday in Belarus, where authorities are pursuing a series of criminal cases against activists and journalists following months of anti-government protests last year. Viktor Babaryko had planned to run against strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko but was arrested in June ahead of elections and charged with bribery and money laundering. …
North Korea is offering a bounty of up to $10,000 to help find runaway workers in Russia, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Tuesday, citing Russian citizens of Korean descent in the country’s Far East. The United Nations demanded that all countries send home North Korean laborers by late 2019 to stop Pyongyang from funneling a cut of…
The unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh has introduced a bill to add Russian as an official language alongside Armenian, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Wednesday. The bill follows a recent Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan regain most of its former territories in the region, including the strategic city of Shusha, from Armenian control.…
Russian security forces have detained 19 suspected radical Islamists accused of plotting attacks across southern Russia, Interfax reported Wednesday, citing the Federal Security Service (FSB). The security operation took place in the Black Sea regions of Krasnodar, Crimea, Rostov and Karachayevo-Cherkessia. Authorities identified the suspects as members of Takfir wal-Hijra, a group that Russia banned…
Turkish border guards have detained five Russians, including a woman suspected of being a member of the Islamic State group and a Libyan, who were attempting to cross from Syria, officials said Wednesday. It was not immediately clear whether all six were suspected of being members of the jihadist group. “Our border guards stationed in…
Police in Belarus raided the homes and offices of dozens of journalists, rights defenders and trade union members on Tuesday, investigators and activists said, as part of a probe into mass protests. Belarus was gripped by months of demonstrations against the rule of President Alexander Lukashenko after he claimed an overwhelming victory in an August…
Yulia Navalnya does not yet plan to replace her jailed husband Alexei Navalny as Russia’s main opposition politician, she said in an interview with the Harper’s Bazaar fashion magazine. Navalnaya’s latest refusal to engage in politics comes amid calls from supporters for her to take up her husband’s cause as he faces multiple criminal charges that…
Russian state laboratory Vektor on Tuesday announced it was launching research into prehistoric viruses by analyzing the remains of animals recovered from melted permafrost. The Siberia-based lab said in a statement that the aim of the project was to identify paleoviruses and conduct advanced research into virus evolution. The research in collaboration with the University of…
Russia remains supportive of Myanmar’s military after China’s ambassador expressed concern with the crisis in its neighboring country and denied rumors of its involvement. Ambassador Chen Hai said Beijing maintained “friendly” ties with both the Burmese army and its former ruling civilian government, noting that the current political situation was “absolutely not what China wants…
Updated at 2:52 p.m. on Feb. 17 to add the Interior Ministry’s statement. Russian security forces have taught Siberian schoolchildren how to detain protesters in a simulated riot, according to video published by local television Tuesday. The footage comes on the heels of a mass protest crackdown during rallies calling for jailed opposition leader Alexei…
Iran’s armed forces on Tuesday launched a joint naval drill with Russia in the north of the Indian Ocean designed to “enhance security” of maritime trade, state television reported. The “Maritime Security Belt Exercise” is to cover an area of 17,000 square kilometers and include units from the Iranian army and the elite Revolutionary Guards as well…
A St. Petersburg court has upheld prominent Gulag historian Yury Dmitriyev’s 13-year prison sentence Tuesday in a child sexual abuse case that activists and other prominent figures call politically motivated. Dmitriyev, 65, was due to be released in November 2020 after serving 3.5 years on charges of sexually abusing his adopted daughter, but a court…
The independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper has published new findings into the alleged extrajudicial killings of nearly 30 Chechens in 2017. The newspaper says the new evidence corroborates its 2017 investigation which claimed that Chechen security officials executed 27 of more than 100 people detained in sweeping anti-terror raids in late 2016 and early 2017. Novaya…
Russia is re-opening its borders to foreign students who show two negative coronavirus tests and arrive from countries with flight resumption agreements in place, authorities said Tuesday. More than 300,000 international students are estimated to have been unable to enter Russia due to the pandemic. Russian universities resumed in-person courses earlier in February after nearly…
Pro-Kremlin spin doctor Vladimir Solovyov has been banned from the Clubhouse app after attempting to start a discussion on LGBT issues in Russia. The conservative talk show host was banned from the audio-based social media platform Monday shortly after he created a discussion room titled “Why didn’t Russia’s queer revolution take off?” “This is very…
A Russian prosecutor on Tuesday called for Alexei Navalny to face a $13,000 fine in a defamation case, one of a series of legal proceedings the jailed Kremlin critic says are aimed at silencing him. President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal opponent was taken into police custody immediately after returning to Moscow in January from Germany,…
Russia is in talks with the United States on a prisoner swap involving Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine that Moscow jailed for spying, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing his Russian lawyer. Whelan’s attorneys previously suggested that prisoner exchange talks had stalled over the 2020 U.S. elections and the Trump administration’s reluctance to release a Russian…
Kazakhstan will be the first country in the world to locally produce Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine after a pharmaceutical company received government authorization to make the jab, the company said Tuesday. The company, called the Karaganda Pharmaceutical Complex (KPC), “was granted certification” to produce the vaccine by Kazakhstan’s health ministry on Monday, KPC…
Russian women activists have received hundreds of death threats after their Valentine’s Day “chain of solidarity” for female victims of political repression, the Mediazona news website reported Tuesday. Around 300 participants formed human chains in central Moscow and St. Petersburg on Sunday following weeks of harsh police crackdowns at pro-Navalny protests. The event’s organizer, activist…
Russian academics are warning that lawmakers seek to curb their freedoms with a new law that would require state permission for public outreach, the weekly journal Nature reported Monday. Amendments to Russia’s education law advancing through the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, seek to stamp out “anti-Russian” influence in educational activities outside formal settings.…
France’s national cyber security agency said Monday it had discovered a hack of several organizations that bore similarities to other attacks by a group linked to Russian intelligence. It said the hackers had taken advantage of a vulnerability in monitoring software sold by French group Centreon, which lists blue-chip French companies as clients, such as…
The annual march in honor of slain Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov will not take place this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, one of its organizers announced on Monday. Supporters have held memorial marches for Nemtsov every Feb. 27 near the site on a bridge steps away from the Kremlin where he was shot…
Courtyard protests across Russia in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny were a success despite lacking the massive crowds of previous rallies, his team said Monday. The Valentine’s Day demonstrations saw Navalny supporters hold up flashlights and candles in residential courtyards rather than stage traditional street protests. Photos from the event flooded social media…
Russian billionaire Oleg Tinkov, arrested in London on tax fraud charges, said he plans to dedicate himself to charity work including fighting leukemia, with which he was diagnosed in 2019. “To be honest, I no longer have the motivation to do business. I’m done; I’m retired,” Tinkov, who founded the online bank Tinkoff, was quoted…
A Moscow coronavirus hospital medic said he has been fired for joining a flashlight protest in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny while wearing his protective gear. Saidanvar Sulaimonov was among the tens of thousands to share photos of themselves holding up phone flashlights Sunday in a show of muted solidarity after weeks of…
Indonesian police are on the hunt in Bali for a Russian fugitive wanted by Interpol after he escaped from custody while waiting to be deported from the resort island, authorities said Monday. CCTV footage released by the authorities showed Andrei Kovalenko sneaking out of the immigration office in Denpasar detention center on Thursday while officials…
A Russian court is creating a “dangerous precedent” for press freedom by fining the Ura.ru news website 15 million rubles ($205,000) for defaming a Chechen official, the outlet said Monday. The Chechen Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Ura.ru’s appeal this Friday against a lower court ruling that found the Yekaterinburg-based outlet guilty of falsely…
People across Russia gathered in residential courtyards and public squares late on Sunday, lighting their phone flashlights in a show of support for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The new tactics were an effort to avoid the harsh police crackdown seen at previous protests in Navalny’s support over the past month and resembled similar neighborhood…
Russia has launched a postponed cargo spacecraft carrying food and supplies to cosmonauts at the International Space Station who had been forced to rely on American colleagues for supplies. The Progress MS-16 freighter was due to send 2.5 tons of food, fuel and adhesives for air leak repairs to the ISS in December but was…
Russia has confirmed 4,086,090 cases of coronavirus and 80,520 deaths. Feb. 15: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 14,207 new coronavirus cases and 394 deaths. Health workers in Bosnia received the first dose of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Reuters reported Friday. Montenegro, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Kazakhstan have authorized Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine,…
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Sunday invited President Vladimir Putin to a “conversation” on the popular invitation-only audio chat app Clubhouse. “Would you like to join me for a conversation on Clubhouse?” Musk tweeted at Putin’s official Twitter account. In a Russian-language follow-up, Musk said “it would be a great honor to speak…
President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has held a working meeting with Rosneft Oil Company Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin
Hundreds of women formed a “chain of solidarity” in central Moscow Sunday to support jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s wife Yulia and female victims of political repression. The Valentine’s Day demonstration follows weeks of harsh police crackdowns at pro-Navalny protests and was inspired by last summer’s protests in neighboring Belarus, where women formed human chains…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday accused the West of using jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny to try to “contain” Russia. “Our opponents or our potential opponents… have always relied on — and used — ambitious, power-hungry people,” Putin said in an interview with Russian media conducted on Wednesday but only broadcast on Sunday by…
Russia has given preliminary approval for its Covid-19 Sputnik V vaccine to be manufactured in Serbia, a minister said on Friday. “The first phase of the production of Russia’s vaccine Sputnik V on Serbia’s territory has been preliminarily approved,” Serbia’s minister for innovations Nenad Popovic said in a statement. The announcement was made after a…
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bager Galibaf paid a visit to Russia this week, marking his first foreign trip since assuming the post in May of last year. Though the visit is unlikely to bring an immediate breakthrough despite Iran’s plans for fast-track membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), it will certainly make a long-term imprint…
A Russian-born socialite has been released from U.S. prison after completing a nearly four-year sentence for theft and larceny, the Insider reported Thursday. A New York City court in 2019 sentenced Anna Sorokin to at least four years in prison for posing as a German heiress named Anna Delvey and scamming banks and friends into…
The conflict was at the center of diplomatic spat the UN Thursday when Western countries claimed Russia was blocking efforts to bring about an end to the fighting. Kiev has repeatedly accused Moscow and the separatists of undermining a ceasefire that brought relative calm when it took effect in July last year. Ukraine’s defense ministry reported that…
Russia is ready to cut ties with the European Union if it imposes further sanctions on the Russian economy, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday. The heated rhetoric comes 10 days before top EU diplomats are scheduled to discuss new travel bans and asset freezes on President Vladimir Putin’s allies in response to the jailing…
Russia’s main Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was back in court Friday for allegedly defaming a World War II veteran, after being ordered to prison in another case that sparked global outrage and mass protests in his country. The hearing came a little over one week after the 44-year-old opposition leader, a persistent thorn in President…
When Nikolai Bondarenko stepped outside his apartment building in the Volga River city of Saratov on the morning of Feb. 8, the police were waiting for him. The city council communist deputy and video blogger was arrested and fined 20,000 rubles ($270) for attending an unsanctioned protest in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.…
A court in southern Russia has handed the country’s longest prison sentence yet to an elderly Jehovah’s Witness leader for organizing an “extremist” group, the religious organization said Wednesday. Authorities accused Alexander Ivshin, 63, of organizing the activities of a banned organization, including hosting Bible discussions with friends via video link, until his April 2020…
President Vladimir Putin has floated the possibility of getting vaccinated against the coronavirus later in 2021, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday, citing his closed-door meeting with journalists. Putin, 68, has held off on receiving Russia’s domestically manufactured Covid-19 vaccine despite touting it as the world’s “best” jab and boasting of its first-in-the-world approval. His…