More than 4,000 Red List tortoises, which were smuggled into Russia in a cabbage truck, were safely returned to their Arys region of Kazakhstan, the Russian Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. The tortoises were hidden amongst cabbage in 24 bags on the back of a truck which was stopped at the Russia-Kazakhstan border on June…
Russia spends almost $73 billion per year on secret weapons and intellectual property, expenditures that total over 5% of the economy, according to official data analyzed by the RBC news website. Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) totaled $1.5 trillion in 2017. A Swedish think tank reported this year that Russia officially spent $66.3 billion on defense…
President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia and Turkey had agreed steps to tackle militants in northwest Syria and “normalize” the situation there after a Syrian army offensive encircled rebel fighters and a Turkish military post. Putin was speaking after talks in Moscow with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has said the Syrian army attacks…
Russia’s 30-year-old nuclear-powered Sevmorput container carrier will soon transport 5,000 tons of fish from the country’s Far East to St. Petersburg via the Northern Sea Route. “This test voyage with the container carrier gives hope that someday such deliveries will become regular,” the Kamchatka region governor Vladimir Kuzmitsky has said in an interview with the region’s official news portal.…
Abnormally low water levels driven by drought are threatening the livelihoods of thousands of people in the Russian Arctic, The Siberian Times has reported. The Lena and other rivers in Russia’s northern republic of Sakha have reportedly experienced the worst shallowing in 30 years, hampering navigation in remote areas that are only reachable by boat.…
A Russian bakery in Siberia has been fined $150 for hanging a sign at its entrance that banned LGBT people from entering. The Ipakov Brothers bakery in the city of Kemerovo placed a wooden sign near its entrance that said “F*****s are not allowed” when it opened in February. The bakery’s co-owner, Anton Ipatov, told…
President Tayyip Erdogan will seek steps from Russia’s Vladimir Putin to safeguard Turkish troops in the face of an offensive by the Syrian army in the country’s northwest when the two leaders meet on Tuesday, a senior Turkish official said. Erdogan, who is making a one-day visit to Russia, told Putin last week that attacks…
Russia’s national carrier Aeroflot has disputed a recent ranking of global airlines’ gender gaps among pilots, saying it has a higher ratio of women aviators than reported. Aeroflot was ranked the last of 45 major airlines worldwide in the FromAtoB.com travel platform’s study cited by Bloomberg last week, with 1.4% of its pilots being women.…
Russia test-fired Sineva and Bulava ballistic missiles from two submarines from the polar region of the Arctic Ocean and from the Barents Sea on Saturday as part of combat training, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The Sineva, a liquid-fueled intercontinental missile, was fired from the Tula submarine, while a Bulava, Russia’s newest solid-fueled…
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a humanoid robot failed to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported, citing a live broadcast. The FEDOR (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research) robot is on its way to the ISS for a planned two-week mission to support the crew and test its skills. The docking…
A Russian doctor found to have a radioactive isotope in his body after treating victims of an Aug. 8 rocket engine explosion had been contaminated by food and not radiation, authorities said Friday. Earlier, The Moscow Times reported that a group of doctors who treated the radiation victims had been flown to Moscow for medical…
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) said on Friday it had suspended Russian national team player Evgeny Kuznetsov for four years for testing positive for cocaine. Kuznetsov, who plays for the Washington Capitals in North America’s National Hockey League (NHL), said he accepted his suspension. “Representing my country has always been so close to my heart…
Authorities in the Russian region of Chechnya on Friday inaugurated what they said was the largest mosque in Europe in a pomp-filled ceremony attended by local and foreign officials. Named after the Prophet Mohammed, the marble-decorated mosque has capacity for more than 30,000 people and has been described by the Chechen authorities as the “largest…
Aug. 23 marks 30 years since the Baltic Way protest, when 2 million people in Soviet Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands to create a 600-kilometer “human chain.” The peaceful protest was held on the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact to demand independence from the U.S.S.R.
The explosion that killed five Russian scientists during a rocket engine test earlier this month was followed by a second blast two hours later, the likely source of a spike in radiation, Norway’s nuclear test-ban monitor said Friday. The second explosion, detected only by infrasonic air pressure sensors and not by the seismic monitors that…
An explosion that killed five Russian scientists during a rocket engine test this month was followed by a second blast two hours later, the likely source of a spike in radiation, Norway’s nuclear test-ban monitor said on Friday. The second explosion was likely from an airborne rocket powered by radioactive fuel, the Norsar agency said —…
It would be impossible for modern-day Russia to cover up an accident the size of Chernobyl, the Kremlin said on Friday as mystery continues to surround this month’s rocket engine explosion in northern Russia. Government officials have given a muted, occasionally contradictory response in the weeks since the Aug. 8 accident that has killed seven…
Russia opened a showroom Friday selling its first post-Soviet luxury limousine under the Aurus brand, a type of car used by President Vladimir Putin at his inauguration last year. Russia has been trying to reduce its dependence on imported goods and technology, a drive that gathered speed after Moscow was hit by Western sanctions in…
Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant set sail Friday from the Arctic port of Murmansk to provide power to one of the country’s most remote regions, sparking environmental concerns. Developed by the Russian state nuclear company Rosatom, the plant, known as “Akademik Lomonosov,” set off on a 5,000 kilometer (3,100 mile) journey through Arctic waters…
A former U.S. Marine held in Russia on suspicion of spying said on Friday that prison authorities in Moscow had injured him, as a court ruled to extend his detention by two months. Paul Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained in a Moscow hotel room on Dec. 28 and accused of espionage,…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered a like-for-like response to a recent U.S. missile test, which he said showed that Washington aimed to deploy previously banned missiles around the world. The Pentagon said on Monday it had tested a conventionally-configured cruise missile that hit its target after more than 500 kilometers of flight, its…
In a previously unreported social media post, a Russian doctor has publicly confirmed that his colleagues were forced to treat radiation victims after a deadly nuclear explosion earlier this month without basic equipment or knowledge of the accident. A blast at a military base in northern Russia killed seven people and injured six on Aug. 8,…
Ukraine’s president backed leading European powers on Thursday in opposing the readmission of Russia to the Group of Seven advanced economies, saying Moscow still occupied Crimea and was frustrating peace in eastern Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday it would be “appropriate” to have Russia rejoin what used to be the G8. France…
Over 550 Russian academics and scientists accused the Kremlin on Thursday of waging a campaign of repression against activists who have staged some of Russia’s biggest anti-government protests in years. In an open letter, they demanded that criminal cases be dropped against more than a dozen people who face up to eight years in jail…
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to exchange as many as 66 prisoners held in both countries as soon as next week, including 24 Ukrainian sailors captured off the coast of Crimea last year, media outlets have reported. Russia holds dozens of Ukrainian captives following five years of conflict in eastern Ukraine, but it is unclear…
Russia has accused the United States of provoking an “uncontrolled” arms race during a United Nations Security Council meeting, the latest in an exchange of barbs between Moscow and Washington over the demise of a Cold War-era arms control treaty. Russia and China on Thursday asked the UN Security Council to meet over U.S. officials’…
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was released on Friday after 30 days in prison, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter. Navalny, a prominent Kremlin critic, was jailed on charges of violating Russia’s protest laws after he called for people to demonstrate in central Moscow over the exclusion of opposition candidates from a local election…
The consortium of Eni, Rosneft, BP, and Mubadala Petroleum continues the successful implementation of the Zohr gas project on the Mediterranean shelf together with Egyptian oil and gas companies
Russia doesn’t “shop” for foreign territories, the Kremlin has said in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s idea to buy the resource-rich Danish territory of Greenland. Trump, who built his career as a real estate mogul, has mused openly in recent days about a U.S. purchase of Greenland, raising eyebrows in Europe and the U.S.…
Russia’s forest authority estimates that forest fires across Siberia and other regions have cost approximately 7 billion rubles ($106 million) so far this year, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency has reported. More than 200 fires are burning across an area of 1.1 million hectares of the country, almost 1 million of which cover remote…
Members of two infamous pro-Kremlin groups have stormed a human rights NGO’s seminar on how to deal with law enforcement at protests, saying they don’t want a repeat of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution in Russia. Two fringe nationalist groups called the National Liberation Movement (NOD) and SERB are known for attacks on opposition activists and…
Doctors who treated victims of radiation after a deadly explosion in northern Russia were told to “get to work” after raising concerns of exposure, Russian media have reported, citing medical personnel involved in treating the victims. A rocket engine blast killed at least five people and injured six on a platform off the coast of the…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that a possible U.S. deployment of missiles in the Asia-Pacific region would pose a threat to international security. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said earlier this month that he was in favor of placing ground-launched, intermediate-range missiles in Asia relatively soon. “U.S. actions are creating a threat for international…
The European Union is against making any unconditional invitation to Russia to let it rejoin talks among the G7 world leaders, a senior official with the bloc said of an idea floated by U.S. President Donald Trump. The seven leaders of the world’s advanced industrialized countries are due to meet in the French resort of…
Russian opposition members were banned from running for Moscow’s legislature because they had submitted “falsified” signatures, President Vladimir Putin has said, playing down the election protests that rocked the capital this summer. Tens of thousands of people have demonstrated in central Moscow since mid-July in support of the opposition candidates. Authorities barred the candidates from…
One in five Russians believe that they can affect their government’s decision-making processes, according to a new poll that sociologists link to growing public discontent with the authorities in Russia. Over the past year, Russia has seen protests against unpopular moves by the authorities, including President Vladimir Putin’s pension reforms that will delay many workers’…
Russian chess grandmaster Anatoly Karpov has been unable for several months to obtain a visa to travel to the United States, his friend, the owner of a chess academy in New York who invited him to teach a summer camp there, said on Wednesday. Karpov, 68, considered one of the greatest chess players of the…
Russia and China have asked the United Nations Security Council to meet on Thursday over “statements by U.S. officials on their plans to develop and deploy medium-range missiles,” according to the request seen by Reuters. Moscow and Beijing want to convene the 15-member council under the agenda item “threats to international peace and security” and…
A Danish Jehovah’s Witness jailed in Russia on extremism charges has accused prison guards of “planting” a knife and then filming its discovery in his cell, the religious organization said. Dennis Christensen was the first Jehovah’s Witness to be convicted in Russia this year after the country declared the group “extremist” in 2017. Christensen, whose…
Russia and Turkey held urgent talks in July on connecting Turkish companies and lenders to the Russian central bank’s alternative to the SWIFT financial messaging system. The two sides met soon after Turkey risked the threat of U.S. sanctions by taking delivery of a Russian S-400 air-defense missile system, snubbing demands by the Trump administration to cancel…
A senior Russian official and an industrial magnate with close Kremlin ties have spoken out this week against police violence in Moscow’s largest protests in years. Critics have said the authorities used excessive force while detaining hundreds of people who rallied this summer in support of fair local elections. The Kremlin said individual cases of…
Ten of thousands of people have fled to Syria’s border with Turkey in the last few days as a Syrian army advance pushed further into the opposition’s last major stronghold, residents, rights groups and opposition sources said on Wednesday. They left Maarat al-Numan, a city in Idlib province that has been a sanctuary for families…
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday it would be appropriate to let Russia join the G7 group of advanced industrialized countries. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump noted his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, had wanted Russia out of what used to be the G8 “because Putin outsmarted him.” “But I think it’s much more appropriate to have Russia in.…
Thirteen police officers in Russia’s republic of Ingushetia will stand trial for refusing to disperse protesters during clashes over a contentious land-swap deal, the MBKh Media news website has reported. Protests held this spring to demand a public vote on the border agreement with neighboring Chechnya turned violent when armed security forces tried to disperse them.…
Russia has detected new cases of African swine fever (AFS) in the Amur region near its border with China, local authorities said on Wednesday. ASF-infected pigs were found at two private farms in the village of Volkovo near Blagoveshchensk, the local administration said on its website. The ASF virus is a highly contagious fever among…
A Russian regional official has caused controversy for allegedly comparing victims of this summer’s historic Siberian floods to animals in a leaked audio file she claims was faked. The comments allegedly made by Irina Alashkevich, the Irkutsk regional administration’s spokeswoman, come a month after another regional official ignited backlash for insulting the victims of flood-hit areas. Over…
Another year, and another Russian billionaire relinquishes ownership of a professional sports club. The latest to do so is Mikhail Prokhorov, who’s selling his stake in the Brooklyn Nets and its arena for a record $3.5 billion to Joe Tsai, the Taiwan-born executive vice chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Last August, Alisher Usmanov sold his 30%…
Russia’s oil and petroleum sales to the United States have reached six-year highs, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data analyzed by the RBC news website. The U.S. imported 61.75 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia in January-May 2019, up from 56 million barrels in January-May 2018. Russia’s Federal Customs Service,…
Russia is a European country, French President Emmanuel Macron has said following talks with President Vladimir Putin. Macron hosted Putin in France on Monday, where the French leader played up efforts “to tie Russia and Europe back together” and underscored his belief that “Europe stretches from Lisbon to Vladivostok.” “Russia is a very deeply European…
On a dreary Sunday afternoon in northeast Moscow, over 800 people came out to support three young sisters who have been charged with the murder of their father. Among an audience of varied genders and ages, some came to support the sisters, others for the bands scheduled to perform. The audience brought in 176,600 rubles…
The Russian military has unveiled footage of a reconnaissance drone, which it claims can fly for over 24 hours, performing its first flight. Previous reporting has suggested that Russia’s long-endurance armed drone project had been beset by cost overruns and delays. Russia’s Altius-U boasts an “entire spectrum of reconnaissance tasks using optical, radio and radar…
A majority of Russians believe that conditions in their country make it hard to plan for the long-term future, according to a state-funded survey published on Tuesday. Russians have been affected by five years of Western sanctions and dropping oil prices, with real incomes shrinking and almost 21 million people in the country living below the poverty line.…
Russia’s federal anti-monopoly service FAS said on Tuesday it fined a media group that broadcasts CNN International in Russia 200,000 rubles ($3,000) for breaking volume regulations in its programming. The fine was imposed on Monday, FAS said on its website.
On the night of Aug. 8, the last of 120 reactor compartments from Cold War-era submarines were docked and brought safely into the storage pad in Saida Bay on the Kola Peninsula. Bringing the last reactors onshore improves the environmental situation in the Barents Sea, said SevRAO, the northern branch of Russia’s state radioactive waste management company.…
The radioactive-particle sensors of at least one of the stations in Russia that went offline after a mysterious blast in the country’s far north are transmitting again, the operator of the global network to which they belong said on Tuesday. Four of the stations that scan for so-called radionuclide particles wafting through the air for…
Russia told an international organization set up to verify a ban on nuclear tests that a military testing accident in northern Russia earlier this month was none of its business and that handing it radiation data was entirely voluntary. Russia has acknowledged that five nuclear workers were killed in the explosion on Aug. 8, which…
Russia and seven of its allies, including China and India, will send 128,000 soldiers to train in mass anti-terrorism drills next month, the country’s Defense Ministry has announced. The upcoming maneuvers will take place a year after Russia and China staged 300,000-strong anti-missile exercises near the Chinese border. Those exercises, which were Russia’s largest war…
Russia said on Tuesday that the U.S. test of a ground-launched cruise missile was regrettable and showed that Washington had long been preparing for the demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The Pentagon said Monday that it tested a ground-launched cruise missile with a range of more than 500 kilometers, the first such…
Russia’s Norilsk smelter complex and a town in South Africa’s eastern coal mining province have the highest sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions in the world, according to satellite data from U.S. space agency NASA. The NASA-compiled data published on Monday was commissioned by environmental group Greenpeace India and used the space authority’s satellites to track anthropogenic…
President Vladimir Putin rebuked his French counterpart on Monday, saying he did not want “yellow vest” protests to spring up like in France, after Emmanuel Macron urged the Russian leader to abide by democratic principles following weeks of protests in Moscow. Macron, who was meeting Putin at his summer residence in southern France five days before…