The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church has proposed a national ban on abortion to boost the country’s lagging population numbers. Russia legalized abortion in 1955 and has the second-highest abortion rate in the world after China. While Russia’s anti-abortion movement has largely failed to change the law, it has gained momentum in recent years, spurred…
Ukraine’s new President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was inaugurated on Monday morning, saying that his first task in office will be to achieve a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, where a five-year-old conflict with Russian-backed separatists has killed 13,000 people. “Our first task is to end the conflict in the Donbass,” Zelenskiy said in translated comments as he took…
Residents of Nikolayevka haven’t had much to gossip about since the owner of the vodka museum over on People’s Friendship Street died, forcing the closure of the only tourist attraction in town. But now that this hardscrabble village in central Russia has emerged as the epicenter of an international oil scandal, they say they knew…
International scientists criticised on Friday a Russian plan to release 10 captive killer whales into the Sea of Japan rather than return them to their original habitat, saying it could endanger the mammals’ lives. The plight of the orcas, which are being held with 87 beluga whales in cramped conditions in a bay near the port…
The United States shares counterterrorism, North Korean denuclearization and Afghan reconciliation interests with Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said after his visit to Russia. Pompeo’s trip marked the first high-profile U.S. visit to Russia since allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and an investigation rankled bilateral relations. Though the…
Greenpeace will receive 2.7 million euros ($3 million) from Russia under a settlement reached between the Dutch state and Moscow, the environmental group said on Friday. The agreement should end years of legal battles following the seizure by Russian authorities of a Dutch-flagged Greenpeace vessel, the Arctic Sunrise, in 2013 and the arrest of 30…
YEKATERINBURG — Thousands of residents of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains who have been protesting the construction of a new church in the city’s central park have vowed to keep up their vigil until they hear an official announcement the project has been canceled. The Mayor of Yekaterinburg, Alexander Vysokinsky and local governor Yevgeny Kuivashev…
Ukrainian ports have lost $400 million in potential revenue from Russia’s seizure of Crimea and its chokehold on a key shipping passage with a bridge that connects the peninsula to mainland Russia, The Financial Times reported. President Vladimir Putin inaugurated the $4 billion bridge on May 15, 2018, with a ceremonial truck ride across its…
Foreign ministers from the Council of Europe, the continent’s chief human rights watchdog, reached an agreement on Friday that opens the way for Russia to return to the organization, resolving a dispute that began after Moscow’s seizure of Crimea. The agreement follows efforts by France and Germany to find a compromise among the 47-nation group…
The Kremlin said on Friday it would respond in kind to a new round of U.S. sanctions on Russian nationals, saying its retaliation would be consistent with Russia’s national interest. The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Chechen group and five people, including at least three Russians, over allegations of human rights abuses,…
Russia’s state-run television has canceled the results of a popular children’s singing competition after cyber experts uncovered online vote-rigging that favored the 11-year-old daughter of a celebrity and a banker. Channel One hired the Group-IB international cybersecurity firm to investigate claims that “The Voice Kids”’ vote-by-phone system was tampered with in April. Group-IB’s initial investigation…
Billions of rubles have been funneled out of Russia’s federal Roscosmos space agency over the past five years in corruption schemes, the country’s top investigator has revealed this week. Prosecutors uncovered 1.6 billion rubles ($24.6 million) worth of fraud in the Roscosmos and the Rostec state-run defense corporation last year. Overall, fraud involving Russian state-run…
Venezuela would like Moscow to help it restructure its external debt to other countries, Russia’s RIA news agency cited Venezuela’s ambassador in Geneva as saying on Friday. Asked whether sanctions-hit Venezuela would like to receive debt-restructuring assistance from Russia, the ambassador was quoted as saying: “Yes.”
The head of a highly secretive branch of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has been charged for $850,000 bribery three weeks after his detention, the RBC news website reported Thursday. Colonel Kirill Cherkalin headed the FSB economic security department’s financial counterintelligence support unit. The department played key roles in investigations surrounding former economy minister Alexei…
The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Chechen group and five individuals, including at least three Russians, for alleged human rights abuses under the Global Magnitsky Act, including extrajudicial killings and the torture of LGBT individuals. The sanctions against the Terek Special Rapid Response Team in the republic of Chechnya and the five individuals…
The mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg has suspended construction of an Orthodox cathedral on park grounds as mass protests against the project continued for a fourth day. Thousands of residents have taken to the streets against the city authorities’ plans to replace a central park with a replica of a cathedral demolished in…
Russia is to keep its membership in Europe’s top human rights body after Germany and France engineered a last-minute deal to avoid a Russian expulsion, a step that threatened to further incite tensions between the Kremlin and the West. Foreign ministers from the Council of Europe will endorse the agreement at a meeting Friday in…
Russia plans to launch a public database of news it flags as “fake,” the head of Russia’s powerful media regulator announced two months after President Vladimir Putin signed a law criminalizing the spread of “fake news.” Alexander Zharov’s regulatory agency, known by the acronym Roskomnadzor, has successfully blocked LinkedIn in Russia and is currently engaged…
Thousands of Russians in the country’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg have taken to the streets in recent days in growing protests against a controversial plan to build a new cathedral in a popular riverside park. Tensions came to a head on Monday when opponents of the new church toppled a fence surrounding the proposed construction…
Britain has scrambled Typhoon fighters twice in two days in the Baltic to intercept Russian aircraft, the defense ministry said. British Typhoons were launched on Wednesday to intercept two SU-27 fighters and an IL-22 and escorted the formation toward Russia. On Tuesday, British Typhoon fighters scrambled out of Ämari Air Base in Estonia in response to two Russian…
Two-thirds of Russian families have no financial savings to speak of, according to a new survey published by the independent Levada Center polling agency. The findings back up official data showing five consecutive years of declining real incomes as Western sanctions and dropping oil prices hit Russian consumers. Sixty-five percent of Russian households reported a…
Russian lawmakers are seeking to criminalize the publication of materials that leads to sanctions imposed against the country or individuals, the latest in a host of legislation to tighten control over the flow of information. Mikhail Emelyanov, a lawmaker for the pro-Kremlin Just Russia party, is proposing amendments to the criminal code to impose a…
The mayor of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk has canceled plans to build a pre-revolutionary cathedral in place of a public park as protests against similar plans rocked Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg. Clashes erupted in Yekaterinburg this week as residents tore down fencing enclosing its riverside park ahead of church construction. Dozens of arrests…
Authorities in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg have detained dozens of people as thousands of residents continued to defend a riverside park from plans to build a church on its grounds. Protests against placing the church in the city’s central park entered their third day Wednesday following clashes with defenders of the construction site, which…
Moscow will suspend construction of a controversial $162 million landfill in northern Russia after months of protests against plans to ship waste in from the capital, the Vedomosti business daily reported Wednesday. Residents of Arkhangelsk region actively oppose construction of the landfill in the former village of Shiyes designed to take in up to 500…
Russia’s efforts to resolve an unprecedented oil-contamination crisis suffered a setback as the nation loaded another tainted cargo from a port in the Baltic Sea, days after the government had said the port was clear. Traders receiving Urals crude at the Ust-Luga terminal said some oil continues to exceed acceptable levels of organic chloride, the…
Advanced new drones equipped with a stun gun and blinding laser have been developed for the Russian military, Interfax reported Wednesday citing an arms industry official. Russian security forces have been increasingly turning to laser technologies over the past year. In November 2018, Russia’s National Guard bought two laser-equipped vans designed to disperse protesters. The…
A Russian national has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for allegedly plotting a terror attack in the country’s east, state media reported Wednesday. A total of 20 terror attacks were prevented by security forces in 2018, the first deputy chief of Russia’s Anti-Terrorism Committee told reporters earlier this year. According to the committee’s…
Hundreds of thousands of Russians, including former government officials, have had their passport data posted online in the country’s latest massive data leak, the RBC news website cited new research as saying Wednesday. The breach of at least eight government websites, analyzed by privacy expert Ivan Begtin, exposed the passport data of 360,000 people. Last…
Russia has eased its weapons resale rules to alleviate secondary buyers’ fears of U.S. sanctions, according to an unpublished government decree cited by the Vedomosti business daily Wednesday. Reports found that Russia sold the second-most weapons in 2018 despite five years of declining sales. Countries trading with Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors currently face secondary…
The Kremlin protested on Wednesday over the extradition from ex-Soviet Georgia to the United States of a Russian man accused of smuggling F-16 fighter jet manuals into Russia in breach of U.S. arms export law. Oleg Tishchenko, a software developer, was earlier this year extradited to the United States from Georgia, where he was reported to have been…
NARYAN-MAR — Russia’s oil and gas giants are establishing a new model in the country’s Arctic based on sustainable development and cooperation with the region’s native reindeer herders. A decade ago, locals were struggling to sustain their traditional way of life due to the energy firms’ growing encroachment on their pasturelands. And as recently as…
Clashes erupted in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg between protesters and church supporters in riot police gear over the construction of a church in a popular city park. Some of the demonstrators tore down the fencing surrounding the construction site guarded by police and national guardsmen. Witnesses and reporters said that violence and tear gas…
A group of Republican and Democratic U.S. senators introduced legislation on Tuesday seeking sanctions targeting the Nord Stream 2, a planned gas pipeline from Russia to Germany under fire from the United States and some European Union countries. The bill introduced by Republican Senators Ted Cruz, John Barrasso and Tom Cotton and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen,…
Dozens of people opposing plans to build a church in a central park in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg have been detained and five hospitalized on the second day of clashes with supporters. Violence erupted at the construction site after around 2,000 protesters toppled fencing that appeared around the beachfront park on Monday. The park…
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday. Pompeo’s trip marked the first high-profile U.S. visit to Russia since allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and a subsequent investigation rankled bilateral relations. Meeting in the southern city…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a new energy security doctrine preaching self-reliance in the face of geopolitical isolation. Russia has unrivaled energy resources and is the world’s top exporter of gas and its second-biggest of crude oil. The new doctrine replaces the 2012 plan and takes into account threats to Russia’s energy security and…
President Vladimir Putin told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday that he sensed that U.S. President Donald Trump genuinely wanted to repair battered relations between Russia and the United States. Putin, speaking ahead of talks with Pompeo, also said that Russia had never interfered in U.S. elections and that he and Pompeo had something to talk about…
An anonymously published video of Russia’s fighter jet showed on Tuesday what is purported to be “the most powerful” laser-guided bomb in service. “In the video, the work of the Su-34 using the most powerful of the guided bombs in service,” the video caption reads. The undated video identifies the bunker buster in question as…
Russia is racing to return oil exports to normal after deliveries to eastern Europe were cut by a contamination crisis that shut down parts of the giant Druzhba pipeline almost a month ago. Where has supply been restored? Shipments to Belarus via Druzhba have restarted, while oil transport in the direction of Ukraine via the…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday it was time for Moscow and Washington to put aside years of mistrust and find a way to work together constructively. Pompeo is in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi for talks with his Russian counterpart, and later on Tuesday will also…
Famous Russian stylist Sergei Zverev has been fined for staging a one-person picket in Moscow against a Chinese bottling plant near his hometown on Lake Baikal earlier this year. Zverev was described as an “unlikely activist” against the bottling plant in the world’s largest freshwater lake outside a village where he was born 55 years…
Russian Orthodox priest and survivalist Fyodor Konyukhov has broken records while completing the first of his three-leg effort to circumnavigate the Southern Hemisphere in a row boat. Konyukhov, 67, embarked on the 27,000-kilometer solo voyage from New Zealand in early December. He completed the first leg on Thursday, reaching the southern tip of Chile in…
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the United States had not made any formal proposal for U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet on the sidelines of a gathering of the G20 in Japan next month. Trump said on Monday that he would meet Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the…
A promising journalist for an online feminist magazine has died at age 25 after falling from an eighth-floor apartment window in a tragic accident that does not appear suspicious. Wonderzine editor Margarita Virova fell out of her window while trying to take a photograph of her friends in the early hours of Monday. She died…
The United States is laying the groundwork to use nuclear weapons in Europe, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s arms control and nonproliferation chief has warned. The U.S. and Russia are suspending the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which bans either side from stationing short- and intermediate-range, land-based missiles in Europe. Russia has said it was…
Turkey is considering a U.S. request to delay the purchase of a Russian missile-defense system into 2020, a move that could ease tensions between the NATO allies, according to two people familiar with the proposal. The Trump administration last week asked Ankara to postpone receiving the advanced S-400 missile-defense system which was set for July,…
Protesters in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg rallied against the construction of a church in a city park, with reports of church supporters using violence and tear gas against the picketers. Opponents gathered in the city’s central park on Monday after photographs of fencing around the planned church site spread online. They argue that authorities…
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 gathering in Japan next month. Trump said his meeting with Xi could be fruitful as their trade dispute escalated after failing to reach agreement during high-level talks last week.
Russia is losing at least $30 billion every year due to the investment climate that has followed its annexation of Crimea, economist Sergei Guriev said in an interview published Monday. Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine has weakened Russia’s relations with the West, launching multiple rounds of sanctions from the U.S.…
The number of Jehovah’s Witnesses persecuted in Russia has almost doubled after 75 more members of the religious group were added this year, the Memorial human rights group said. Russia labeled the Jehovah’s Witnesses an “extremist” group in 2017, exposing Russia’s estimated 175,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses to mass raids and forcing at least 5,000 to flee…
A disgruntled former officer seeking to restore his retirement benefits has been detained for at least the seventh time outside President Vladimir Putin’s administration in Moscow on Sunday. Vladimir Skubak, a retired missile forces major, has staged one-person pickets for nearly a month on claims that he had been denied retirement allowances in 2015. He…
Russia’s national flag carrier Aeroflot has canceled at least 50 Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ 100) flights since a crash landing of the Russian-made aircraft killed 41 people last week. The deadly SSJ landing in Moscow on May 5 ended in the plane’s tail section catching fire on the runway and raised questions about the jet’s…
The Moscow metro staged a photo op with an Iron Throne inspired by HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones” over the weekend. The one-day event at Delovoy Tsentr station featured three Daenerys Targaryen, Cersei Lannister and Jon Snow lookalikes on Saturday. A cello duet accompaniment made the experience even more immersive as commuters took turns…
On May 9, millions of people across Russia march in the Immortal Regiment, a movement to commemorate family members who fought in World War II. We speak with Maria, a 19-year-old girl from Moscow who hasn’t forgotten the story of her great-grandmother, who fought during the war as a “Night Witch.” The all-women 588th Night…
RIGA, Latvia — The sun was shining on Latvia’s capital Riga on Thursday as the city’s former mayor Nils Ušakovs stepped forward with a World War II veteran to lay flowers at the base of a monument commemorating the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. For the Baltic nation’s sizeable Russian minority Victory Day is…
Children in southern Russia who donned military uniforms and paraded in front of their parents and officials ahead of Victory Day have generated pride among local authorities and caused outrage elsewhere in Russia. The Pyatigorsk city administration boasted that around 500 preschoolers dressed as airborne troops, sailors and Soviet soldiers took part in the parade…
Moscow and Tokyo still have “extremely significant” differences over a World War II peace deal that Japan hopes will end a territorial row between them, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Friday. Japan is seeking a deal with Russia to put an end to a dispute over islands off…
A controversial sculpture of Soviet leader Josef Stalin was unveiled in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk on Thursday. A small black bust and two plaques were unveiled on the date Russia celebrates Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, with crowds gathering at a site where a fence and security measures will protect the memorial…
This week on From Russia With News, Moscow Times columnist and political consultant Max Hess explains why the Kremlin is going all in on Nicolas Maduro, the embattled leader of Venezuela who recently fended off a coup attempt backed by the United States. And it’s Victory Day. We speak with Washington Post bureau chief Anton…