Russia’s law enforcement authorities will look into whether arson was a factor behind the raging wildfires across Siberia, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday as emergency officials decried insufficient firefighting efforts. The vast wildfires that have engulfed forest areas the size of Belgium were initially thought to be triggered by a combination of dry lightning and…
U.S. President Donald Trump offered his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin help in putting out vast wildfires that are raging in Siberia, the Kremlin said late on Wednesday, a move it said Putin took as a sign that battered ties can be restored. The Kremlin said the two leaders had spoken by phone at Washington’s initiative, hours…
A Russian state hospital said on Wednesday that opposition leader Alexei Navalny had tested negative for poison after falling ill in custody, but his personal doctor warned the findings were inconclusive and could be wrong. Navalny, who was jailed for 30 days last week for urging people to take part in an unauthorized protest, was rushed…
Update: The embassy’s account has been re-activated as of late Wednesday night. Twitter has suspended the account of Russia’s Embassy in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry has confirmed, with fellow Russian embassy accounts saying it was suspended for its “factual” criticism of Syrian rescue workers. Syrian rebel commanders and rights groups said Monday that Russia…
More people have died from HIV-related causes in Russia last year than in 2017 as the country grapples with a rise in infections, according to Health Ministry data cited by the Kommersant business daily on Wednesday. More than 1.2 million people live with HIV in Russia, a figure experts say is likely underreported and that…
Opponents of a controversial landfill in northwestern Russia have asked Sweden, Norway and Finland for help in averting an environmental crisis, the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported Tuesday. Activists have staged protests near the small train station of Shiyes for the past year against Moscow’s plans to ship 2.3 million tons of garbage there annually.…
Russian police said they had arrested a man suspected of murdering a popular lifestyle blogger and model whose body was found in a suitcase in her apartment in Moscow. Ekaterina Karaglanova’s landlord found the 24-year-old’s body at a rented apartment Saturday after her parents had been unable to reach her by phone, the Investigative Committee…
As 3 million hectares of remote forest burn across six regions in Russia’s Siberia and Far East – the approximate size of annexed Crimea — residents of affected areas are using social media to demand that the authorities take tougher action. Authorities have been slow to respond to the blazes and said any efforts to extinguish…
Devastating floods hit Russia’s Irkutsk region again as the water level in local rivers has risen by over a meter on Tuesday, the local authorities said on their website. The administration of Tulun, the town in Irkutsk region almost destroyed by the first wave of floods this June, said the water in the local Iya…
Moscow authorities have conducted raids on opposition activists and issued warnings to Muscovites in the run-up to this weekend’s planned protest to demand that opposition candidates be allowed to run in the city’s local elections. Activists have rallied for three weekends in a row after authorities barred independent candidates from running because they failed to…
Russia could make domestic violence a crime two years after lawmakers decriminalized some forms of domestic abuse, a top senator has said after a ruling by Europe’s top human rights court put a spotlight on the issue. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) this month ruled for the first time that Russia failed to…
Almost a quarter of Russians say they have felt their finances dwindle in recent months, according to a survey by the state-run Foundation of Public Opinion (FOM) pollster. Real incomes have declined in the past five years in Russia against the backdrop of Western sanctions and falling oil prices. As he took office last year,…
In a YouTube video posted on the evening of July 13 that has been viewed more than half a million times, Lyubov Sobol made two announcements. The first was that Moscow’s election commission would be preventing her from running in upcoming city council elections. The second was that she would be going on a hunger…
The popular ride-sharing service BlaBlaCar risks being banned in Russia as a passenger association seeks legislative help in cracking down on illegal buses, the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper reported Tuesday. About one-third of 900,000 bus carriers in Russia are uninsured and operate without undergoing checkups, obtaining the required permits or paying taxes, according to the All-Russian…
Smog from wildfires currently raging in Siberia could reach as far as Moscow, Greenpeace Russia told The Moscow Times on Tuesday. An unprecedented number of wildfires has spread across the region since June, exceeding an area the size of annexed Crimea. Authorities have been slow to declare emergencies and firefighting efforts have been scaled back…
All of the opposition candidates running in Moscow’s local elections have been placed under arrest or sentenced to jail over a mass protest that rocked Moscow on Saturday in an unprecedented act. Nearly 1,400 demonstrators were detained, some violently, during Saturday’s rally to demand that opposition-minded candidates be allowed onto the ballot in Moscow’s city…
A court in Moscow rejected jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s appeal for early release on health grounds on Tuesday, after he was suddenly taken ill in custody at the weekend and rushed to hospital to be treated. Navalny was jailed for 30 days last week for urging people to take part in an unauthorized opposition…
The United States may be planning to quit an international treaty that bans nuclear explosions, using accusations of Russian non-compliance as a pretext, a Russian diplomat told the world’s main arms talks forum on Tuesday. The United States has signed but not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), although it has observed a unilateral…
Moscow authorities will not authorize a new protest over the city’s local elections planned for this weekend after organizers argued for a more central location. Opposition candidates have called for supporters to take to the streets for a third consecutive weekend to demand that the candidates be allowed to participate in local elections. Authorities had…
Almost two out of five Russians would not like to see President Vladimir Putin stay in office after his current term ends in 2024, according to a new poll published by the independent Levada Center pollster. The question of who will succeed Putin, the country’s longest-serving leader since Josef Stalin, has grown more pressing as…
Ukraine plans to launch a worldwide Russian-language TV channel, as part of an effort to win the hearts and minds of people living in the eastern Donbass region and Russia, a senior presidential official was quoted as saying on Monday. Ukraine’s new President Volodymyr Zelenskiy won a landslide election victory this year promising to end…
The number of Russians living below the poverty line has grown by half a million since early 2018, according to official data. Western sanctions and falling oil prices over the past five years have led to a decline in real incomes and a rise in consumer prices. President Vladimir Putin is pursuing a national program…
On Sunday morning July 28, the journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza (senior) passed away after a long illness. His son, Vladimir, who is also a prominent journalist and an opposition politician, announced that his father had died at “8 o’clock in the morning on his name-day.” He was 59 years old. Kara-Murza was a historian who became…
Massive wildfires sweeping through Russia have spread to an area the size of annexed Crimea as regional authorities have been slow to declare emergencies and firefighting efforts have been scaled back. Scientists have observed an “unprecedented” number of wildfires in Siberia and the Russian Arctic since June. Russian authorities have said a combination of lightning…
A mass protest that rocked Moscow on Saturday was marked by one of the biggest crackdowns in recent years against an increasingly defiant opposition decrying President Vladimir Putin’s tight grip on power. The protest, which demanded that the authorities allow opposition-minded candidates onto the ballot in Moscow’s city council elections, has drawn international attention to…
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was discharged from a Moscow hospital on Monday and returned to prison under guard after being treated for what his lawyer and doctor have described as suspected poisoning from a chemical agent. Navalny, 43, was rushed to hospital from jail on Sunday with what his spokeswoman said were signs of…
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Russia plans to educate youngsters in military-patriotic themes in a new $63 million facility at its sprawling military-themed park outside Moscow, the RBC news website reported Monday. The militarization of young Russians has been a controversial topic in the past several years, with President Vladimir Putin’s establishment of the Youth Army in late 2015 drawing…
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was hospitalized on Sunday after suffering an acute allergic reaction which one doctor said may have been the result of him being poisoned with an unknown chemical substance. Navalny, 43, was rushed to hospital on Sunday morning from jail where he is serving a 30-day sentence for violating tough protest…
North Korea has released a Russian fishing boat held after being accused of violating entry regulations, the Russian embassy in North Korea said on Sunday, in an incident that prompted a Russian warning of a freezing of talks on fisheries cooperation. North Korea detained the 15 Russian and two South Korean crew members of the fishing boat on July…
For two weeks, the authorities had allowed Russia’s political opposition to vent frustration in the capital’s streets over the decision of election officials to bar anti-establishment candidates from running in upcoming local elections. But after some 22,500 people turned out for a protest in central Moscow last weekend that was approved by city officials —…
Russian police have detained prominent members of the opposition in Moscow ahead of a planned protest later on Saturday which the authorities have declared illegal and warned could become violent. The demonstration, due to be held outside the Moscow mayor’s office from 2 p.m. local time, is designed to protest against what the opposition says…
To keep our newsroom in Moscow running, we need your support. With your help, we can continue with our mission to keep you informed with breaking news, business analysis, thought-provoking opinions, the best of culture and insights into everyday life.
Arctic winters are long and the next one is just around the corner. Stockpiles across Russia’s vast northern coastline and in its remote Arctic archipelagos are already running low and will soon be in need of fresh supplies. The only way to deliver supplies to the region is by boat and the delivery window is…
One of Moscow’s few English-language movie theaters has asked the Russian Constitutional Court to settle a dispute over censorship stemming from its release of director Armando Iannucci’s “The Death of Stalin” last year. Pioner Cinema was raided and fined in early 2018 for screening the satirical film on the power struggle that took place following…
Russia‘s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday warned British media operating in Russia that they should be ready to face the consequences after a British regulator fined Russia‘s RT state-financed TV channel. Moscow was responding after Ofcom, Britain’s media regulator, earlier on Friday fined RT £200,000 ($248,740) for breaching broadcasting impartiality rules in its coverage of the poisoning…
Russia has called on the United States to end its “discriminatory” visa policy toward Russian athletes after it denied a visa to tennis star Svetlana Kuznetsova, effectively forcing her to skip a tournament to defend her title. Kuznetsova, 34, will not be able to defend her title at the July 27-Aug. 4 Citi Open in…
Huge swathes of Russia have been engulfed in wildfires over the past month, prompting hundreds of social media users to issue a plea to the authorities to step up measures to put out the flames. European scientists have rung the alarm about the 100 and counting “unprecedented” wildfires that have hit Russia’s Arctic and Siberia since…
Britain’s media regulator fined Russia‘s RT £200,000 ($248,740) for breaching broadcasting impartiality rules in its coverage of the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal, the policies of Ukraine and the conflict in Syria. Relations between London and Moscow sank to a post-Cold War low over the 2018 poisoning of Skripal, a mole who betrayed hundreds of Russian…
As footage pans over honey bees lying dead on the ground, a beekeeper breaks into tears. “How can we go on?” he says. From the Moscow suburbs to the Altai republic more than 4,000 kilometers to the east in Siberia, millions of bees were reported to have died off this summer. Mass bee deaths were…
Russia said Thursday it was preparing to ban the Atlantic Council, a think-tank formerly run by the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, which Russia‘s prosecutor general described as a security threat. “It has been established that the activities of this organization present a threat to the fundamentals of the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation,” the prosecutor…
Russian police dragged opposition candidate Lyubov Sobol out of the Moscow election office on a couch as she staged a sit-in protest on Thursday night against the exclusion of several opposition candidates from upcoming local elections. Sobol, a longtime aide to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, had declared a hunger strike nearly two weeks ago over…
Rich Russians should not be discriminated against, the country’s senate speaker has said days after Forbes published a ranking of the 100 wealthiest civil servants. Regional deputies, governors and federal executive and legislative officials collectively earned 71 billion rubles ($1.1 billion) in 2018, Forbes Russia said earlier this month. The business magazine used the incomes…
Two people have been detained for allegedly placing a fake bomb in front of President Vladimir Putin’s motorcade in central Russia, the Znak.com news website reported. The device made to resemble an explosive was reportedly found lying on a road 15 minutes before Putin’s motorcade was scheduled to pass in the city of Yekaterinburg earlier…
Russia has completed delivery of the first shipment of its S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems to Turkey and a second shipment is now being planned, Turkish military officials said Thursday. Turkey began taking delivery of the advanced Russian air defence system earlier this month, prompting the United States to remove NATO ally Turkey from the F-35…
A former Russian serviceman who had claimed that his unit expressed a willingness to shoot protesters was forced to retract his explosive allegations by a senior officer, the Znak.com news website has reported. Unit members in Siberia allegedly gave affirmative answers when asked by superiors whether they would be willing to fire at demonstrators if…
Ukraine has seized a Russian oil tanker in the Ukrainian port of Izmail over a November 2018 incident between the two countries in a strategic strait near Crimea. The Ukrainian security services (SBU) said that the tanker had been involved in the Kerch Strait incident in which Russia captured a Ukrainian ship and detained 24…
Ukraine has seized a Russian oil tanker in the Ukrainian port of Izmail over a November 2018 incident between the two countries in a strategic strait near Crimea. The Ukrainian security services (SBU) said that the tanker had been involved in the Kerch Strait incident in which Russia captured a Ukrainian ship and detained 24…
Russian opposition activists said Thursday they planned to press ahead with an unauthorized rally in Moscow this weekend despite overnight police searches and a raft of detentions, including the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Navalny, a prominent opposition figure, was jailed Wednesday for 30 days for calling on people to protest in Moscow this…
A journalist in Siberia has been found guilty over a reference he made to George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984,” marking a milestone in Russia’s legal system. Mikhail Romanov was detained earlier this month over an article on the alleged torture of an academic that contained a reference to the famous phrase “Big Brother is watching.” A…
A Russian state official warned on Wednesday that an abandoned chemicals factory in Siberia could cause an environmental disaster akin to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident unless urgent action is taken to tackle it. The Usolyekhimprom plant, which produced chlorine and other chemicals in the Irkutsk region, was abandoned due to bankruptcy in 2017, according…
The international community should continue fostering dialogue between the government in Venezuela and the opposition, but not in order to impose its own agenda, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters during a visit to Havana. In the joint news conference with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez, Lavrov said Havana and Moscow agree that Venezuela’s…
Thousands of Russian women are posting selfies on social media with their faces covered in fake blood and bruises in an effort to push the government to pass a domestic violence law. A series of recent abuse cases have jolted Russia and prompted fierce discussions about attitudes towards domestic violence in the country. About one…
Russian lawmakers have passed legislation to allow bow-and-arrow hunting. Possession of bows for purposes other than sport and research is currently prohibited in Russia. Around 1 million unlicensed bows, crossbows and similar ranged weapons are owned by “hundreds of thousands” of Russians, lawmakers cite official data as saying. A newly passed bill distinguishes throwing weapons…
The blame game over a contamination scandal in Russia’s oil industry has breached President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft, the world’s biggest publicly-traded oil company, and Nikolai Tokarev, the boss of Transneft, the world’s largest pipeline network, are embroiled in an unusually public and rancorous dispute over their companies’ responses to…
In the early hours of Thursday, police raided four of the Moscow City Duma opposition candidates’ homes and summoned several others to appear for questioning. Lyubov Sobol, one of the candidates who was barred from the ballot, said she refused to appear for questioning after receiving a call on Wednesday night from investigators. Anti-corruption activist…
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was jailed for 30 days on Wednesday, his spokeswoman said, ahead of a march he planned to lead in Moscow in protest at the exclusion of several opposition-minded candidates from a local election in September. Police detained Navalny as he left his home earlier on Wednesday, accusing him of calling for…
President Vladimir Putin’s eldest daughter Maria Vorontsova has taken her first steps into the business world as a shareholder of a new firm developing a $634 million medical center near St. Petersburg, BBC Russia has reported. Nomeko, a contraction of the Russian phrase for ‘new medical company,’ was founded in January 2019 and is closely…
Foreign tourists have spent a record 864 billion rubles ($13.6 billion) in 2018 in Moscow, City Hall said Wednesday. Some 5.5 million foreign tourists visited the Russian capital last year, according to the mayor’s office. The influx placed Moscow in the top-20 list of the most visited European capitals last year, City Hall said. Thanks…
A Russian defense contractor accused by the United States of supporting cyberattacks has developed sophisticated software used to spy on smartphones, an American security company said on Wednesday. St. Petersburg-based Special Technology Center (STC) developed code that has been aimed at a small number of targets, including those interested in a rebel militia in Russian-allied…