Rosneft Sets Drilling Data Monitoring Stations with Artificial Intelligence Elements at Heavy Drilling Rigs
Rosneft has set drilling data monitoring stations with artificial intelligence elements at heavy drilling rigs.
Rosneft Gives More Than 120 Licenses for Unique Russian digital Complex for Modelling Hydraulic Fracturing
Rosneft Oil Company has given more than 30 commercial and more than 40 test licenses for the right to use RN-GRID, Eurasia’s first industrial simulator of hydraulic fracturing, to twenty-five oilfield servicing and oil and gas companies.
Economic Benefits of Introduction of Digital Planning Complex in Upstream Area Amounted to More Than 2 Billion Rubles
Rosneft gained economic benefits from the introduction of a digital complex for planning, accounting and monitoring of the well intervention programme efficiency in the amount of more than 2 billion rubles.
Putin Orders Monitoring of Youth Behavior Online
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the government to monitor the online behavior of young Russians and to produce “moral and spiritual education” content for them. Young Russians have been targeted by several government initiatives in recent years, including a ban on minors attending protests and efforts to provide them with a military and patriotic…
Russia Protests After U.S. Diplomats Found Near Secret Test Site
Russia said on Thursday it would issue a formal note of protest to the United States after police caught three U.S. diplomats in what it said was a restricted area near a closed military testing site. The diplomats were stopped by police after they arrived by train on Monday and were sent back, the Russian…
Kadyrov Denies ‘Purging’ Chechen Elite
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has denied reports that senior officials and their relatives have been tortured in secret prisons in his republic for showing disrespect and disloyalty to him and his family. The independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported this week that members of Kadyrov’s inner circle have been tortured since August and forced to confess…
Russia Moves to Require Visitors to Submit Fingerprints
Russian authorities are drawing up plans to require all visiting foreigners to submit fingerprints upon arrival, the country’s deputy police chief has said, as experts warned that the move would hurt tourism. Russia has prosecuted more than 30,000 foreigners so far in 2019 for violating migration law, Russia’s Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Gorovoy said at…
Russia Removed U.S. Diplomats From Train Near Secret Nuclear Accident Site – Reports
Russia removed three U.S. diplomats from a train near the site of a mysterious military testing accident on Monday because they did not have special permits to be in the area, Interfax reported Wednesday. Russia’s state nuclear agency, Rosatom, has acknowledged that five of its nuclear workers were killed in an Aug. 8 explosion during…
Sweden Spent $2M Hunting for Nonexistent ‘Russian Sub’ – Reports
The Swedish navy spent almost $2 million hunting for a Russian submarine off the coast of Stockholm that turned out to be a broken buoy, Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet newspaper has reported. Sweden said in 2014 it had proof that a foreign submarine had been operating illegally in the Stockholm archipelago after suspicions sparked the country’s…
Trump Officials Rush to Turkey as Russia Advances to Fill Syria Void From U.S. Retreat
The Trump administration dispatched its top officials to Turkey on Wednesday for emergency talks to try to persuade Ankara to halt an assault on northern Syria, while Russian troops swept into territory abandoned by Washington in a sudden retreat. Robert O’Brien, White House national security adviser since last month, arrived in Turkey aiming to meet Foreign…
Russia Arrests 5 More Opposition Protesters in ‘Moscow Case’ Prosecutions
Russian police have arrested five more people on suspicion of assaulting police officers at opposition protests this summer, marking a new wave of trials in the so-called “Moscow case.” Russians took to the streets nearly every weekend this summer after a slew of opposition politicians were barred from taking part in Moscow’s local election. The…
Russian Opposition Figure Sobol Named One of World’s 100 Most Influential Women
Russian opposition activist Lyubov Sobol has been named one of the world’s 100 most influential women by the BBC, becoming the only woman from Russia to be included in the list. The list published Wednesday names 100 women from around the world who “give us their vision of what life could look like in 2030.” Sobol,…
Syrian Observatory: Russian Forces Cross Euphrates, Reach Area Outside Kobani in Northern Syria
Russian forces have crossed the Euphrates river in northern Syria and reached areas outside the city of Kobani, pushing eastward with Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Syrian Observatory said on Wednesday. The troop movement comes days after the SDF cut a deal with the Syrian government for army troops to deploy at the border…
5,500 Russians Moved Abroad to Fight Alongside Terrorists – FSB
Russia’s security agencies have identified more than 5,500 Russian citizens who have traveled abroad to fight alongside terrorists, the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) said Wednesday. “Criminal cases against almost 4,000 of them have been opened,” the state-run RIA news agency quoted FSB director Alexander Bortnikov as saying at a meeting of security…
Is a Sports Website Russia’s Most Vibrant Forum for Free Expression?
This summer, images from Russia of police beating protesters with batons and dragging them off to armored vans flashed across the world’s screens so often they became routine. Sparked by the arrest of an investigative journalist on fabricated drug charges, the mass rallies then became weekly affairs after opposition politicians were blocked from running in…
Russia Considers Banning Foreign Companies from Renewable Energy Projects
Russia is considering banning foreign companies from taking a lead role in designing and building the country’s green energy infrastructure, Russian daily Vedomosti said on Wednesday. New proposals currently being discussed would block contracts for new wind and solar farms, along with other renewable energy production projects, from being awarded to non-Russian entities. Analysts say…
Turkey-Syria Cooperation Must Be Based on Cross-Border Adana Accord, Russia Says
Russia said on Wednesday that Syrian and Turkish military forces should work out how to cooperate in northern Syria based on the Adana accord, a 1998 security pact, the state-run RIA news agency reported. Moscow would be prepared to help with that cooperation, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in the southern Russian city of Sochi.…
Russia Mulls Formation of Kremlin-Run ‘Green Party’ – RBC
A growing chorus of voices expressing environmental concerns has prompted the Russian government to consider setting up a “Green Party” controlled by the Kremlin, the RBC news website reported Wednesday. President Vladimir Putin’s administration has been jolted into action by Russia’s nascent climate protest movement and frustration with nationwide waste-collection reforms, which critics warned would…
Pro-Kremlin Reporters Tour Abandoned U.S. Base in Syria
Footage of an abandoned U.S. military base in the town of Manbij in northeast Syria shared by pro-Russian government media shows the haste with which U.S. troops pulled out of the city they had patrolled for a year. The Russian-backed Syrian army entered Manbij on Tuesday, taking advantage of an abrupt U.S. retreat from Syria…
Russians’ Biggest Fears Are Police Violence and Radiation
Police violence and radiation prompted the highest levels of anxiety among Russians on social media, according to a quarterly analysis cited in Russian Forbes on Wednesday. The findings by Russian PR firm CROS follow a summer of mass anti-government protests in Moscow, where police detained thousands of demonstrators, and two high-profile nuclear accidents that sparked…
Russia Doles Out First ‘Fake News’ Fine Over Moscow Protest Interviews
A Moscow court on Tuesday handed down Russia’s first fine for spreading “fake news” against an online media outlet over its interviews about this summer’s Moscow opposition rallies. President Vladimir Putin signed legislation into law this year that fines online media for spreading “fake news.” Observers warned that the “fake news” and “disrespect for authority”…
Russian Reporters Receive Threats After Investigating Secret Military Group
A group of Russian journalists who investigated the activities of a secretive group of Russian mercenaries in Africa and the Middle East have been subject to a campaign of physical threats and harassment, their editor-in-chief said. “Proekt,” an independent Moscow-based online news outlet which specializes in investigations, began to publish a series of articles in…
Chechen Leader’s Inner Circle Being Held, Tortured in Secret Prisons – Novaya Gazeta
Senior officials and their relatives in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya are being held and tortured in secret prisons in the region, the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported Monday. The crackdown is targeting officials deemed to be showing disrespect and disloyalty toward Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and his family, Novaya Gazeta reported, citing unnamed…
Russians Feel More Positive Toward Ukraine Since Zelenskiy’s Election, Poll Says
Russian attitudes toward Ukraine have improved since the beginning of the year thanks to the election of Volodymyr Zelenskiy as Ukraine’s president, a joint study by the independent Levada Center pollster and the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) has said. Ties between the two neighbors have been fraught since 2014, when Russia annexed the…
Kremlin Envoy Calls Turkish Military Operation in Syria ‘Unacceptable’
The Kremlin’s envoy for Syria on Tuesday called Turkey’s military offensive in northeast Syria “unacceptable” and denied Ankara’s operation had been cleared by Moscow in advance, Russian news agencies reported. Alexander Lavrentiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy for Syria, was speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi during an official visit there by Putin. He made…
Russia Says ‘Unacceptable’ Turkish Incursion Into Syria Must Be Temporary
Russia called Turkey’s military incursion into northeast Syria “unacceptable” and said on Tuesday the operation had to be limited in time and scale, a rare broadside that suggests Moscow’s patience with Ankara is wearing thin. In Russia‘s strongest criticism since Turkey launched its military operation last week, President Vladimir Putin’s envoy for Syria indicated Moscow…
U.S. ‘Hands Over’ Syrian City to Russia, Reports Say
The United States has “handed over” the northern Syrian city of Manbij to Russia, Newsweek magazine reported as Russia announced that its military was patrolling the area. The abrupt U.S. withdrawal from the eight-year Syrian war, and the Syrian army’s return to the Kurdish-controlled northeast, are major victories for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his…
Belarus Detains Russian Accused of U.S. Election Meddling
A Russian national indicted in the United States for meddling in the country’s 2016 presidential election was briefly detained in Belarus, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Tuesday. U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller in 2018 charged 13 Russians and three companies for allegedly carrying out a sophisticated, years-long conspiracy to meddle in the 2016…
Moscow Considers More Tax Breaks for Crimea
Crimea could be set for a fresh round of tax breaks and investment incentives to support the annexed peninsula’s tourism industry, according to Russian daily Kommersant. An influential business group founded by the Kremlin has called on the government to give tax breaks on land, real estate and utilities to Crimean businesses, while also offering…
Skripal Poisoning Suspect Spotted at Russian Spymaster’s Daughter’s Wedding
A man Britain suspects of poisoning former Russian spy Sergei Skripal has been filmed attending the wedding of the daughter of an alleged top military intelligence unit commander, according to media reports. British prosecutors last year accused two Russians they said were operating under aliases of trying to murder GRU defector Skripal and his daughter…
Russian Universities Named the Best in Eastern Europe
Three Russian universities topped a list of the best universities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia compiled by British education marketing company Quacquarelli Symonds. Lomonosov Moscow State University, St. Petersburg State University and Novosibirsk State University took the top three spots, while Tomsk State University, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Higher…
Russian Women Stranded in Syrian ISIS Prison Seek Help as Turkey Mounts Offensive – RTVI
Dozens of Russian women in a camp for Islamic State prisoners in northern Syria are seeking help from their motherland as Turkey’s incursion against the Kurds has thrown the region into disarray, the international Russian language news outlet RTVI reported on Monday. Turkey’s defense minister said Monday that Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters had emptied a…
Massive Nuclear War Games Start in Russian Arctic
Swathes of Russia’s arctic seas are closed off for huge nuclear war games taking place this week. Five submarines, more than 100 aircraft, 200 missile launchers and 12,000 Russian troops will be taking part in the exercise, the Defense Ministry said Monday — the latest major drill testing the readiness of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces. …
Putin’s Dollar Dump Costs Russia $8Bln
The first year of President Vladimir Putin’s experiment in diversifying away from the U.S. dollar cost Russia about $7.7 billion in potential returns. Russia’s central bank added exposure to underperforming currencies such as the euro and yuan just as it missed out on a 6.5% rally in the greenback. If it had maintained the previous…
New Wave of Police Searches Targets Allies of Opposition Leader Navalny Across Russia
Police searched the homes of opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s supporters in at least 12 Russian cities overnight following mass raids last month, the police-monitoring website OVD-Info reported Tuesday. News of the latest wave of early-morning home searches came from cities including Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar in the south and Arkhangelsk in the north. Police carried out more…
Thousands March in Kiev in Protest Against Donbass Peace Plan With Russia
Thousands of people marched through central Kiev on Monday to protest against President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s deal with Moscow to grant special status to a pro-Russian rebel-held region of eastern Ukraine as part of efforts to end a five-year conflict there. Around 20,000 people, including war veterans, took part in the rally ‘No capitulation’ against what…
Saudi Visit Signals Putin’s Deepening Middle East Influence
President Vladimir Putin signaled Moscow’s growing Middle East clout on Monday by visiting Saudi Arabia for the first time in over a decade, buoyed by Russian military gains in Syria, strong ties with Riyadh’s regional rivals and energy cooperation. Moscow accrued power in the Middle East in 2015 by sending troops to Syria, where it and…
Russia Will Hold Major Test of Its Strategic Missile Forces
Russia announced on Monday it would hold a large test of its Strategic Missile Forces that will see it fire ballistic and cruise missiles from the land, sea and air this week. The exercise, from Oct. 15-17, will involve around 12,000 military personnel, as well as aircraft, including strategic nuclear bombers, surface ships and submarines,…
Russian Prison Warden Faces Probe After Video Surfaces of Inmate Being Beaten
Authorities have opened a criminal case into abuse of authority after a prison warden was caught on video beating an inmate in northern Russia, investigators said Monday. Russia’s prison system has faced tighter scrutiny since the summer of 2018, when revelations of torture prompted nationwide inspections and dozens of legal cases. On Oct. 8, President…
Russia Arrests Four Opposition Protesters in New Police Violence Case
Russian police have arrested four people on suspicion of assaulting police officers at opposition protests this summer, the Investigative Committee said on Monday, an announcement likely to be condemned by the Kremlin’s critics. The jailing of a handful of other protesters on charges including assaulting police at political rallies that began in July caused a…
Undocumented U.S. Citizen Accused of Assaulting Russian Police Officer
An undocumented American citizen has been detained south of Moscow on suspicion of beating a Russian police officer, authorities said Monday. The unnamed 68-year-old American faces up to five years in prison if found guilty of assaulting a police officer, prosecutors in the Kaluga region said in a statement. “The man struck the police officer…
‘We Don’t Want to Entertain Possibility of Clash With Turkey in Syria,’ Kremlin Says
The Kremlin said on Monday it did not want to entertain the possibility of a clash in Syria between Russian and Turkish forces and said Moscow was in regular contact with Ankara, including at a military level. The Kremlin was commenting after Syrian Kurdish leaders said they had struck a deal with the Syrian government, brokered…
Russian Defense Ministry Denies Report Accusing It of Bombing Syrian Hospitals
Russia has denied an explosive New York Times report saying it bombed Syrian hospitals, including four in one day in May, insisting that its planes attacked a “terrorist bunker” rather than an underground hospital. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said Monday that the ministry last week organized a press tour for dozens…
Russia Is Bombing Syrian Hospitals – NYT
Russian jets have repeatedly bombed Syrian hospitals, including at least four in one day this spring, The New York Times reported, citing intercepted Russian Air Force radio recordings, witness accounts and data gathered by plane spotters. Western states have accused Russia and its ally Syria of targeting civilians in northwest Syria, a charge that Moscow…
Authorities Detain ‘Organizer’ of Moscow Summer Protests
Police have detained an activist identified by state television as an “organizer” of this summer’s election protests in Moscow, the MBKh Media news website reported Monday. Russia’s Ren-TV state broadcaster said in July that Danny Kulinich had organized protests over the exclusion of opposition candidates from local elections held last month. Kulinich, who is a…
Russia Takes Part in Talks Between Syria and Kurdish-Led SDF
The Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been holding negotiations with Russian participation, a Syrian Kurdish politician said on Sunday, expressing hope for a deal that would halt a Turkish attack. Ahmed Suleiman, a senior member of the Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party in Syria, said the talks were being held at…
Putin Offers to Help Ease Gulf Tensions Before Saudi Trip
Russia can play a positive role in easing tensions in the Gulf following a spate of attacks in the region, President Vladimir Putin said in comments published on Sunday before his first visit to Saudi Arabia in over a decade. He cited good Russian ties with Gulf Arab states and Iran in an interview with Arab broadcasters,…
Putin Says Trump Not to Blame for Lack of Improvement in Russia-U.S. Ties
Moscow is not blaming U.S. President Donald Trump for failing to improve U.S.-Russian relations, a pledge he had made during his election campaign, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Arab broadcasters. “We know that, including during his previous election campaign, he spoke in favor of a normalization (of U.S.-Russia relations), but unfortunately it has…
Russia Says Exploring Settlement in Euros, Rubles for Energy Exports
Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said the country is considering alternatives to the U.S. dollar for energy transactions and is exploring currency settlements in euros and rubles for energy exports to minimize U.S. exposure. “We have a very good currency, it’s stable. Why not use it for global transactions?” Oreshkin said in an interview with…
Israel Asks Putin to Pardon U.S.-Israeli Jailed for Moscow Airport Transit Drugs
Israel asked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday to pardon a U.S.-Israeli woman given a 7.5-year jail sentence for drugs found in her luggage as she transited through a Moscow airport. Naama Issachar’s case has opened up an unusually public rift between Israel and Russia. Her family says she is being punished disproportionately to pressure Israel into…
Syria Must Be Freed From Foreign Military Presence — Putin
Syria must be freed from foreign military presence, Russian President Vladimir Putin according to Russian news agencies. “Everyone who is illegitimately on the territory of any state, in this case Syria, must leave this territory. This applies to all states,” Putin told RT, Arabik Sky News and Al Arabiya in an interview, excerpts from which were quoted by the…
Yandex Shares Plummet as Russia Considers Limits on Foreign Ownership
Shares in Russian tech giant Yandex have plummeted after reports the Kremlin is backing plans to limit the stakes of foreign owners in Russian IT companies. Yandex shares fell by 17% in the first minutes of trading on the Nasdaq exchange in New York on Friday, wiping more than $1 billion from the company’s value.…
Russia Sentences U.S.-Israeli Woman to 7.5 Years Over Airport Marijuana Possession
A Russian court has sentenced a U.S.-Israeli woman to seven and a half years in prison on charges of drug possession and smuggling, her lawyer told Russian media Friday. Police detained Naama Issachar, 25, in April while in transit in a Moscow airport and accused her of having 9 grams of cannabis in her bag,…
Russian Women Accused of Killing Pakistani Prison Guard Over ‘Religious Dispute’
Three Russian women said to be followers of the Islamic State terrorist group are suspected of killing a prison guard in Pakistan, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said. The three women were charged with premeditated murder after the 23-year-old warden’s body was discovered by the gate of the women’s barrack near the city of Karachi, Pakistani…
Russian Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, First Human to Perform Spacewalk, Dies
Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who made history by becoming the first man to walk in space, has died Friday at age 85. Leonov’s pioneering spacewalk marked a crucial step for the development of moon landing programs and the International Space Station. On March 18, 1965, Leonov became the first man to walk in space when…
Russians Onboard in DR Congo Plane Crash, Embassy Says
Russian crew members are believed to be onboard a plane that vanished off radar and crashed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Russian diplomats told state media Friday. A cargo plane carrying eight passengers and crew, including DRC presidential staff, crashed in a forest in the country’s east on Thursday. The Antonov An-72…
U.S. Senator Told Russian Prank Callers He’s ‘Sympathetic’ to Turkey in Kurdish Row
A pair of notorious Russian pranksters duped U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham into telling them this summer that he supported Turkey’s stance against Kurdish separatists in marked contrast to his public statements, according to audio of their phone talks published Friday. Turkey launched a military operation Wednesday against Kurdish fighters in Syria as U.S. Republicans condemned President…
What Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Said About Russia During His Marathon Press Conference
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday held a marathon 14-hour press conference with journalists in a Kiev food court. During the event, which reportedly set a record for the world’s longest press conference, Zelenskiy answered more than 500 questions about topics ranging from the Trump-Zelenskiy phone call to his relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.…
Putin Says Turkey’s Syria Operation May Allow Militants to Escape
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Friday that Islamic State militants held in northeast Syria could escape as a result of a Turkish military operation there, Interfax reported. The Turkish offensive against U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in the northeast of Syria opens one of the biggest new fronts in years in an eight-year-old civil war that…
Kremlin Critic Navalny Says Prosecutors Want to Seize His Home
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Friday that Russian prosecutors had asked a court to seize his Moscow apartment as collateral in a lawsuit over opposition protests he helped organize. Russia’s National Guard, which polices political rallies, wants Navalny and others to pay it 4 million rubles ($62,336) to compensate it for overtime paid to…