Less than half of Russians would vote for President Vladimir Putin in a new presidential election, according to a closed state-run survey obtained by the RBC news website. Putin won reelection with nearly 77 percent of the vote in March 2018, extending his presidency for another six-year term. If the elections were held this Sunday,…
A news website in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg has been ordered to remove videos of protests against plans to build a church due to “extremist” comments. Mass protests against a controversial plan to build a new cathedral in a popular riverside park gained national attention this month as protesters clashed with vigilantes and riot…
Russia summoned Spain’s ambassador to Moscow on Tuesday after acting Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell referred to the country as an “old enemy,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. Borrell told Spanish newspaper El Periodico last week: “Russia, our old enemy, is once again saying, ‘here I am,’ and has returned as a threat,…
Major automakers are accusing courts in southern Russia of using consumer protection claims to scam them out of 200 million rubles ($3 million) in 2016-2018, the RBC news website reported Tuesday. Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes and Jaguar Land Rover filed a complaint with Russian authorities alleging that Krasnodar judges abuse the consumer protection system to seek…
Think of road bike racing and your mind turns to French Alps and Italian lakes rather than onion domes and birch forests. But the Gran Fondo Russia event, now in its fourth year, is establishing cycling in the country as a sport for both elite athletes and enthusiastic amateurs. The format was born in 1970…
Russians said they spent less on food, travel, clothes and other goods and services in 2019 than last year, a survey by Russia’s Romir researcher said Tuesday. Among those who said they had to cut spending, 24 percent said they saved on food, 29 percent on travel and 23 percent on clothes. Another 13 percent…
A controversial high school celebration in which students dressed in revealing outfits has divided Russian society over questions of morality and freedom of expression. Police issued fines and a headmistress submitted her resignation in the Far East city of Vladivostok after video of the would-be graduates celebrating the last days of school in leather shorts,…
Kosovo released a Russian national working for the United Nations on Tuesday, the United Nations mission in Kosovo said, after Moscow demanded that Pristina release him. The Russian was detained in a Serb-populated municipality in Kosovo’s north during a police operation there. The UN mission said the Russian and another UN staff member who was…
Russia has requested an official explanation from China over a reported new policy in which Russian citizens’ phones are randomly seized and searched by Chinese border guards. The Russian Consulate General in Guangzhou issued an advisory last week, warning that border guards at China’s Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport had begun to randomly select Russian travellers to…
A seventh-grade student attacked a classmate with an axe in central Russia on Tuesday in what appeared to be an act inspired by past school shootings. Authorities detained the 15-year-old in the Saratov region town of Volsk after he hit a 12-year-old girl in the head with an axe at school, Interfax reported. The teenager…
Russia‘s embassy in Serbia on Tuesday demanded that Kosovo immediately release a detained Russian national working at a United Nations mission in Kosovo, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported. The Russian national was detained in a Serb-populated municipality in Kosovo’s north during a police operation there, RIA said. “We demand the immediate release of the Russian and…
U.S. private equity manager Michael Calvey, whose February arrest on fraud charges shook Russia’s foreign-investment community, still wants to go to the Kremlin’s premier economic showcase in St. Petersburg next week. But he needs the permission of the country’s Investigative Committee to leave his Moscow apartment, where he’s being held under house arrest in a…
An associate of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a blogger from western Russia have become the latest individuals to be charged for online posts insulting President Vladimir Putin under a new law that bans “disrespect” toward authorities. People who show “blatant disrespect” online for the state, the authorities, the public, the Russian flag or the…
Recent mass protests against plans to replace a city park in central Russia with an Orthodox cathedral are akin to the execution of the country’s last royal family, the head of Yekaterinburg’s diocese said. Protests erupted in Russia’s fourth-largest city this month after fencing went up around a riverside park ahead of the church’s construction,…
The United States’ new foreign policy approach in Latin America goes against international law, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said after talks with his Cuban counterpart. U.S. national security advisor John Bolton has invoked the 1823 policy established by then-President James Monroe to warn other countries, including Russia and Cuba, against interfering in Venezuela.…
Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill has claimed that Russia constructs three new churches per day less than two weeks after mass protests erupted over the construction of a new cathedral in Yekaterinburg. The Orthodox Church’s influence has grown in recent years as it has received increased support from the Kremlin. Last year, Patriarch Kirill announced…
At least four journalists in the southern Russian city of Stavropol have been stabbed and wounded, regional authorities and media reports said on Monday. The attack took place in the editorial office of the Russian Communist Party’s Rodina newspaper, the governor of Stavropol region said. The unnamed assailant was taken into custody, he added. The…
An inmate has died in a Russian prison as a result of torture, activists have reported, in what they say was a “de facto murder.” Several leaked videos showing prisoner abuse over the past year have led to a mass outcry over torture and nationwide inspections to root out violence. Alexei Sidyakin, who was sentenced in 2018…
Migrant children in Russian kindergartens are to begin learning the language of their adopted country as the authorities launch a teacher-training program to integrate the kids into society, and tackle a demographic problem. Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from Central Asia and the Caucasus have traveled to Russia each year since the fall of…
A district head in Siberia is under investigation for body-slamming a state-run television journalist during an interview featuring questions about corruption allegations. The Rossia 24 news channel showed Sergei Zaytsev, who heads the Shirinsky district in the republic of Khakasia, snatching the reporter’s microphone and throwing him to the ground. Zaytsev told local media that…
Russian cities with populations of 1 million or greater will need at least 100 years to catch up to Moscow’s level of economic development, according to research by the Strelka Consulting Bureau. The 16 cities contributed almost one-third of Russia’s GDP in 2017, more than half of which came from Moscow, the RBC news website…
The Kremlin on Monday rebuffed a call by an international maritime tribunal for Russia to release 24 Ukrainian sailors, saying the court had no jurisdiction over the strait where Russian security forces captured them. The Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on Saturday said Moscow should release the sailors immediately and that both nations…
The tomb of a 19th-century figure behind legislative statutes that led to the freeing of Russia’s serfs has been discovered in St. Petersburg, Interfax reported. Yakov Rostovtsev, a career military man loyal to the imperial family, chaired a commission tasked with drafting rules that led to the great emancipation of 1861. Rostovtsev died a year…
Russia launched a nuclear-powered icebreaker on Saturday, part of an ambitious program to renew and expand its fleet of the vessels in order to improve its ability to tap the Arctic’s commercial potential. The ship, dubbed the Ural and which was floated out from a dockyard in St. Petersburg, is one of a trio that when…
Moscow must release 24 sailors who were aboard three Ukrainian vessels it intercepted in November as they crossed a strait between Russian-annexed Crimea and southern Russia, an international maritime tribunal said on Saturday. The Russian Navy had captured the Ukrainian sailors and their vessels in the Kerch Strait, which links the Black and Azov seas, on Nov. 25,…
Public trust in President Vladimir Putin has dropped to its lowest level since 2006, according to a new state-run poll, another setback for Russia’s president as the country begins to discuss its leadership options after his term limit ends. The results do not pose an immediate problem for Putin, who won a landslide election victory…
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman will boycott Russia’s showcase economic forum in St. Petersburg in June in response to the house arrest of American investor Michael Calvey, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson told media. Calvey, who was transferred to house arrest last month, faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted on embezzlement charges…
Vardø is a small fishing village on a little island off Norway’s coast in the Barents Sea. A huge military radar facility forms its skyline. In clear weather, if you look east across the water, you can see the shoreline of Russia’s Fishermen Peninsula, a northern appendix of the Kola Peninsula. Officially, the intelligence service…
Russia’s armed forces have introduced a new military rank of sergeant major, “experimenting” with 370 of the new recruits in the southern district. Plans to add the new rank as part of Russia’s military reform have been considered since the early 2010s. A sergeant major would undergo grueling recruitment procedures and oversee the military’s sergeant…
The delivery of Russia’s most expensive and technically advanced nuclear submarine to the Russian Navy is being delayed by design flaws, Russian media have reported. “Kazan” (K-561) is the first modernized multipurpose submarine of the Yasen-M class after “Severodvinsk” was handed over to the Northern Fleet in 2013. There are considerable changes in the auxiliary systems on…
British Prime Minister Theresa May led her country at a difficult period for its ties with Russia, the Kremlin said after she announced her resignation on Friday. May said she will step down on June 7, ending her three-year tenure following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in 2016 and deepening the Brexit crisis.…
Russia’s deputy chief of police declared an income of 38 million rubles ($588,000) two days after complaining that law enforcement officers’ living standards are falling. Deputy Interior Minister Arkady Gostev’s income grew tenfold between 2017 and 2018, according to declarations published on Thursday, making him the richest police officer in Russia. Police spokeswoman Irina Volk…
A former U.S. Marine held in Moscow on suspicion of spying said on Friday he had been threatened by a Russian investigator and harassed in custody, accusations that added to strains in U.S.-Russian relations. Paul Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained in a Moscow hotel room on Dec. 28 and accused…
Russia plans to take back around 1 million tons of contaminated oil from Belarus, cleaning up the Druzhba export pipeline section leading to Poland and Germany, four industry sources familiar with the plan told Reuters. The plan was discussed at talks in Warsaw on Thursday between Russian, Belarussian and European companies. Another roughly 1 million…
Pro-Kremlin activists tried to shut down the opening of an LGBT film festival in Moscow on Thursday. Two fringe nationalist groups called the National Liberation Movement (NOD) and SERB harassed attendees and poured ammonia on an employee of the Canadian Embassy in Moscow, organizers said. The two groups are known for attacks on opposition activists…
Russia has signed a bilateral agreement to send military “specialists” to the Republic of Congo to advise their counterparts and repair Soviet equipment in a move that further increases Moscow’s footprint on the continent. The Republic of Congo is the latest sub-Saharan African nation where Russia has stepped up its presence recently. Since Western nations…
Ice hockey heavyweights Russia and Canada reached the world championship semi-finals after thrilling wins while holders Sweden crashed out after a 5-4 sudden-death overtime defeat by traditional rivals Finland on Thursday. On a day of enthralling action in Bratislava and Kosice, the Czech Republic were the only side to enjoy a smooth ride into the last four…
Police officers in large Russian cities will be able to identify criminals using face recognition glasses by 2020, the head of state-owned industrial conglomerate Rostec said Thursday. The augmented-reality (AR) glasses will use technology that helped catch more than 180 criminals during the football World Cup in Russia last year, Sergei Chemezov said at a…
Russian investigators say they have found drugs in the apartment of detained former minister Mikhail Abyzov, Interfax reported on Thursday. Abyzov, 46, faces up to 20 years behind bars on suspicion of embezzling $62 million. The former minister of a since-disbanded Open Government Affairs post denies the charges. A forensic analysis showed that a “narcotic substance”…
Russia is using rail, storage tanks and ships to remove contaminated oil from an export pipeline, and has so far extracted around 2 million tons of the tainted oil — or over a third of volumes hit, industry sources and data showed. A month ago, Russia had to stop exports via the Druzhba pipeline to Poland…
FIFA President Gianni Infantino thanked Russia on Thursday for hosting the “best World Cup ever” as President Vladimir Putin presented him with a state award for his role in making last year’s tournament possible. In a Kremlin ceremony broadcast on television, Putin thanked “all those who helped to make this dream come to life,” including the…
The son of LUKoil chief executive Vagit Alekperov is Russia’s richest heir with an expected inheritance of $21.8 billion, according to rankings published by Forbes Russia on Thursday. Forbes estimates that the 48 ranked sons and daughters of Russian tycoons are set to inherit a combined $238 billion from their parents. Last year, the business…
An elite school in central Russia has drawn national attention after it lowered passing grades for boys because its headmaster says girls are better students and boys grow up to lead the country. A bulletin posted on the wall of the school in the city of Perm showed that the passing grade was set at…
A Danish adherent of the Jehovah’s Witnesses jailed for six years in Russia after being found guilty of organizing a banned extremist group lost his court appeal on Thursday, a spokesman for the group said. Armed police detained Dennis Christensen, a builder, in May 2017 at a prayer meeting in Oryol, some 200 miles (320…
Nearly half of Russians support equal rights for members of the LGBT community, marking the highest level of support in 14 years, according to the independent Levada Center pollster. Since Russia banned the display of “gay propaganda” to minors in 2013, authorities have refused to authorize gay pride events across the country and polls have…
Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar’s almost two-month assault on the capital, Tripoli, has stalled and he can’t take the city, according to a Russian special envoy to the oil-rich North African state. “It was absolutely predictable that Haftar would get bogged down,” said Lev Dengov, who forecast a lengthy stand-off. The leader of the self-styled…
A resident of the Russian city of Yekaterinburg has filed a lawsuit with Europe’s human rights court for his detention during rallies against the construction of a church on park grounds. Daniil Pugin was one of dozens detained amid spontaneous and unauthorized protests at the proposed construction site last week. A state-sponsored poll published Wednesday…
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government is increasingly turning to allies Cuba, China and Russia to offset a health crisis caused by U.S. sanctions, a minister said on Wednesday. Venezuelans have been suffering dire shortages of medicines and health equipment for several years as it has spiralled into economic chaos and political conflict. The opposition blames…
Russian soldiers in Siberia have told their supervisors that they are willing to open fire on protesters if ordered, a special forces serviceman has claimed in an interview. The soldier made the statement in a video interview published Tuesday by opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s office in the Siberian city of Tyumen. In the video, the…
A majority of residents in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg oppose the construction of an Orthodox cathedral in a popular riverside park, according to a state-run poll released on Wednesday. Thousands of residents took to the streets last week to protest plans to replace the park with a replica of a cathedral demolished in the…
Russians are more likely to oppose having an LGBT neighbor than a neighbor from another social group, according to a new survey released by the independent Levada Center pollster. Recent public polling has shown surging anti-LGBT sentiment in the years since Russia banned “homosexual propaganda” among minors in 2013. Respondents to the survey released Wednesday…
Syrian government troops on Wednesday morning repelled three big attacks by militants in Syria’s Idlib province, the Russian Defense Ministry said. It said in a statement that 500 Nusra front militants, seven tanks and about 30 pickups mounted with heavy machine guns had taken part in the attacks. The ministry said that Syrian militants based in…
The Russian government has rejected a bill that would have introduced fines for officials who exhibit disrespect toward citizens, weeks after lawmakers passed a bill that introduced fines for disrespecting the authorities. Communist lawmakers introduced the legislation in February, seeking to fine and suspend civil servants for humiliating voters. Around the same time, another bill that…
U.S. fighter jets intercepted several Russian bombers in international airspace off the coast of Alaska on Tuesday, in the fourth and fifth such incursions this year, U.S. military officials said on Wednesday. “The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and at no time entered U.S. or Canadian sovereign airspace,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command…
Russian senators have unanimously voted to unseat their colleague who faces life in prison on aggravated murder charges months after his dramatic arrest in the Federation Council’s chambers. Rauf Arashukov, 32, was arrested during a session of the upper house of parliament after attempting to flee the chamber on Jan. 30. Arashukov, who represented the…
The United States has sanctioned two Russian arms manufacturers and a missile training center for allegedly violating international arms control restrictions on exports to Iran, North Korea and Syria. The move was a response to the Russian entities’ transfer of restricted goods, services and technologies to the countries in violation of a U.S. law, a State…
New systems for radio-electronic warfare installed along Russia’s Arctic coast are capable of jamming foreign ships and aircraft from thousands of kilometers away, Russian military officials have been cited as saying by the Izvestia tabloid. The Northern Fleet has completed its new Center for Radio-Electronic Warfare, military representatives told Izvestia. The center includes two Murmansk-BN systems, as…
Ukraine may submit any preliminary peace deal agreed with Russia to the Ukrainian people for a referendum, the new head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration told Ukrainian television Tuesday. Ukrainian troops are fighting Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass region in a conflict that has killed 13,000 people since 2014. Ukraine also wants Russia to return…
Security forces have killed two militants in western Russia suspected of planning a terrorist act, authorities said Wednesday. The suspects in Vladimir region refused to lay down arms and opened fire on FSB officers, Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee (NAC) said in a statement. “They were neutralized by return fire in the ensuing shootout,” the statement…
Russians living with HIV will be able to legally adopt children living with them under new legislation passed on Tuesday. Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled last year that preventing HIV-positive families from adopting children who already live with them was unconstitutional. The changes were anticipated as part of Russia’s broader state strategy to combat the epidemic…