At first glance Ivan Mertsalov seems like an average teenager. He plays music, watches sports and is not yet sure what he wants to do with his future. Yesterday he wanted to be an actor, today a lawyer, tomorrow it’ll probably be something else. But unlike most teenagers, Mertsalov, 15, can take apart and reassemble…
Researchers who found the body of a 42,000-year-old foal frozen in the Siberian permafrost have retrieved liquid blood from the extinct animal that might help bring its species back to life, media outlets reported on Tuesday. According to The Siberian Times, a group of scientists from Russia and South Korea wants to clone an extinct…
Russia’s republics of Dagestan and Chechnya have suspended negotiations over border delineations following months of public anger over Chechnya’s land swap deal with neighboring Ingushetia. Protests reignited in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia last month to demand the resignation of its governor, who signed the land swap agreement with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in…
Oleg Deripaska’s lawyers plan to set up a $600,000 award for journalists to “dig into” why the United States imposed sanctions on the Russian tycoon, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. Washington lifted sanctions on Deripaska’s main assets — aluminum maker Rusal and its parent En+ — in January after he dropped control of them,…
Russian theater director Kirill Serebrennikov received two prestigious theater awards at a ceremony in Moscow on Tuesday, less than two weeks after his release from house arrest. The Gogol Center’s artistic director was released on bail on April 8 after spending a year and a half under house arrest on criminal fraud charges that his…
Russian President Vladimir Putin favors a plan to build a high-speed railway line from Moscow to his home city of St. Petersburg rather than Nizhny Novgorod, the Vedomosti business daily reported on Tuesday. Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin pushed for the high-speed railway to St. Petersburg to be built at the end of last year, according…
Most Russians view WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as a freedom fighter, according to a state-funded poll published a week after the Australian’s arrest in Britain. WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables that laid bare often critical U.S. appraisals of world leaders, from Russian President Vladimir Putin to members of the Saudi…
Most Russians view WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as a freedom fighter, according to a state-funded poll published a week after the Australian’s arrest in Britain. WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables that laid bare often critical U.S. appraisals of world leaders, from Russian President Vladimir Putin to members of the Saudi…
Moscow recognizes the new authorities in Sudan after President Omar al-Bashir was ousted, Russia‘s state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying on Tuesday. The Sudanese group that led protests against the deposed president called on Monday for the transitional military council that has taken power to be disbanded and for…
A Russian court has granted student Varvara Karaulova early release after she served most of her sentence for attempting to join the Islamic State terrorist group. Karaulova, who had legally changed her name to Alexandra Ivanova, was found guilty and sentenced to four and a half years behind bars in December 2016. Her defense team…
A court in St. Petersburg has sentenced two police officers to four years behind bars for torturing suspects, the Zona Prava (Zone of Law) human rights group said Monday. Russia’s penitentiary system was rocked by a scandal last year after bodycam footage showed guards violently beating prisoners in a notorious prison outside Moscow. The leaks…
Twitter and Facebook have nine months to comply with data law by moving Russian user data onto servers in Russia, Interfax cited communications watchdog head Alexander Zharov as saying on Tuesday. Zharov was also quoted as saying he hoped Russia would not end up blocking Twitter and Facebook.
Russian condolences poured in after a fire tore through the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of Paris late on Monday, but some commentators in the country said the inferno symbolized the decline of Europe. Firefighters doused the smoldering ruins of the eight-centuries-old Gothic cathedral with water on Tuesday as investigators tried to establish…
A Russian court found a Norwegian man guilty on Tuesday of espionage on Russian nuclear submarines and jailed him for 14 years in a verdict that could strain ties between Russia and its NATO-member neighbor. Frode Berg, a retired former guard on the Norwegian-Russian border, was detained in Moscow in December 2017 and tried behind…
Russia’s lower house of parliament approved on Tuesday the third reading of a draft law that aims to increase Moscow’s sovereignty over its internet segment and defend against foreign meddling, Interfax reported. The bill must now be approved by parliament’s upper house and the presidency before passing into law. The bill’s authors said earlier that…
A record 70 percent of Russians approve of Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s role in Russian history, according to a poll published by the independent Levada Center pollster on Tuesday. Stalin’s image has been gradually rehabilitated in the 2000s from that of a bloody autocrat to an “outstanding leader.” President Vladimir Putin has revived the Soviet…
Russia will send up to 30 military personnel to Central African Republic as part of a UN mission to help stabilize the country, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin on Monday. The decree said the Russian contingent would include military observers, staff officers and military communications specialists. Moscow has already sent military…
Russian lawmakers have stepped up calls to ban plastic bags over the past week amid mounting concerns about pollution and Russia’s national waste crisis. Moscow’s plan to export its waste to surrounding regions has riled Russian citizens in recent months, while nationwide trash reforms threaten to shut down garbage collectors in nine regions. In the…
Russia has stopped all cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said in an interview with state media on Monday. The Western alliance suspended military and civilian cooperation with Russia in the spring of 2014 in response to Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula. Several disputes, including a naval…
Russia’s “real men” are being replaced by “scrawny chickens,” a Russian Orthodox official said on Monday as heated debates surround the concept of toxic masculinity and the #MeToo movement in the West. Many Russian women raise their children independently due to the country’s high divorce rate — in 2016, Russians were 1.6 times more likely…
Trash collection companies in at least nine Russian regions are at risk of shutting down over unpaid bills, the Vedomosti business daily reported on Monday. The difficulties are blamed on nationwide reforms tasking regions with choosing operators to collect waste that took effect on Jan. 1. The reforms have been criticized for increasing the costs of…
At least two opposition leaders in Russia’s republic of Ingushetia have been arrested on charges of attacking police shortly after being released from detention following protests against a divisive border-change deal. Thousands took to the streets in Ingushetia last month over a land swap deal signed last fall with the neighboring republic of Chechnya in…
Russia’s biggest aluminum producer Rusal has agreed on a joint project to build a rolling mill in the U.S. just three months after the Trump administration lifted sanctions on the metals giant. In April 2018, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, Rusal and other companies in which he owns stakes, citing…
Two suspected Islamic State members were killed during a shootout in the Siberian town of Tyumen following a raid by the Federal Security Service (FSB). Russia‘s National Anti-Terrorism Commitee released footage in the early hours of Saturday showing security measures around the streets where the raid took place. According to the committee, the FSB obtained…
President Vladimir Putin earned less than half in 2018 than he did the previous year, the Kremlin announced on Friday. Putin earned 18.7 million rubles ($291,000) in 2017, the state-run RIA Novosti news outlet quoted a Kremlin announcement as saying. His pay in 2018 fell to 8.6 million rubles ($134,000). Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s yearly…
Russia has breached the rights of a Chechen domestic abuse victim, a United Nations women’s rights panel ruled on Friday in what has been called the UN’s first decision on domestic violence in the country. Domestic violence complaints have skyrocketed since President Vladimir Putin passed a 2017 law decriminalizing first-time abuse where beatings resulted in…
A court in Russia fined Facebook on Friday for failing to tell authorities where it stores Russian user data, Russian news agencies reported, a ruling that highlights wrangling between tech giants and Moscow as it ramps up internet controls. The court fined Facebook 3,000 rubles ($47) for not providing information in line with legislation that…
Moscow’s real estate costs rose at some of the highest rates in the world last year, the global real estate and investment firm CBRE Group said Thursday. The city of some 12.5 million people has seen its cost of living fall this year and it ranked outside the world’s 50 most expensive cities last year.…
Russia’s state space agency plans to send “outstanding citizens” to the International Space Station (ISS) at no cost in exchange for their achievements, the agency’s head announced on Thursday. The Roscosmos space agency plans to send tourists to the ISS in late 2021 under a deal signed with the U.S. tourism firm Space Adventures. Dmitry…
Three years later, Belka and Strelka gained a place in history as the first animals to survive space orbit. Accompanied by a rabbit, 42 mice, two rats, flies and several plants, the duo and all their traveling companions made it safely back to earth. Sergei Preobrazhensky, Nikolai Sitnikov / TASS
The wealthiest 3 percent of Russians owned 89 percent of all financial assets in 2018, according to joint research by the Higher School of Economics and the state-run VEB Bank. This is the first time a comprehensive study of wealth inequality has been attempted in Russia, the Kommersant business daily reported on Friday. Last month,…
Russians traveling in Sudan are not in danger after the ouster of the African nation’s longtime leader and ongoing unrest, the Russian Embassy in Khartoum said Thursday. An estimated 140 Russian citizens are registered as residing in Sudan, where a military coup overthrew President Omar al-Bashir, a close ally of Russia, after 30 years of…
Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has presumably cast a vote for a controversial bill tightening internet controls while on a working trip to his home region. Shrugging off an outcry from opposition politicians and rights activists, the 450-seat lower chamber of parliament voted in a second reading to pass a largely unchanged version of…
The president of Belarus has ordered the closure of a Russian oil export pipeline for repairs in retaliation to Moscow’s “brazen” import ban. Belarus and Russia have seen a new flare-up in bilateral tensions barely two months after an amicable meeting between their presidents in Sochi. In late March, the two countries’ Foreign Ministries exchanged…
A star Russian football player has sparked national outrage this week after stepping out of his Mercedes at a traffic light to beat up a pedestrian who had bumped against his car. The victim is reportedly a U.S. citizen who is working as a translator in Russia’s capital. The incident took place in the aftermath…
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund RDIF plans a joint investment in the next couple of months with Baring Vostok, the private equity group whose executives are facing charges in Russia of fraud, RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev told Reuters. A Moscow court on Thursday ruled that Michael Calvey, the U.S. citizen who heads Baring Vostok, should be…
Russia is entering the final testing phase of its nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile dubbed Satan-2, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. Russia announced plans in 2013 to develop the ICBM to replace a Cold War standby known in the West as “Satan,” or the RS-20B Voyevoda in Russia. Putin unveiled Satan-2 with an array of other…
A Moscow court has ruled to move detained U.S. investor Michael Calvey from pre-trial detention to house arrest, Russian media reported Thursday. In February, Russia detained Calvey, the founder of the Baring Vostok private equity group, on suspicion of fraud along with three other partners in the fund. Calvey denies the allegations, saying the case…
Update: Moscow’s Basmanny district court has ruled to extend Calvey’s house arrest through July 14, the state-run TASS news agency reported on Friday. A Moscow court has ruled to move detained U.S. investor Michael Calvey from pre-trial detention to house arrest, Russian media reported Thursday. In February, Russia detained Calvey, the founder of the Baring Vostok…
Russian engineers announced on Thursday they have shrunk an artificial heart for infants, giving children with heart defects a new lease on life. A synthetic replacement for the heart remains one of the long-sought holy grails of modern medicine. A functional artificial heart — first successfully implanted in a human in 1982 — lowers the…
A Chechen court has overturned an earlier ruling ordering Russian gas giant Gazprom to write off 9 billion rubles ($140 million) of the region’s gas debt. Unpaid debts on utility bills are a widespread problem in Chechnya’s capital of Grozny, where local media reported extensive raids and mass blackouts over unpaid bills by as many as…
Russian lawmakers have passed a bill on Thursday to criminalize doping in athletics years after the country was thrust into a doping scandal. Several Russian sports bodies and athletes have been banned from international competition since 2015 following a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report that found evidence of widespread doping. Since late 2016, coaches and other…
With Russia’s economy faltering under an onslaught of Western sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the 5th International Arctic Forum in St. Petersburg this week to promote the resource-rich region’s development. Presentations and panel discussions between more than 3,600 Russian and international lawmakers, scientists and businesspeople wrapped up on Wednesday. Delegates discussed topics including the Northern…
Russian officials have spoken out against Britain’s arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday, expressing hopes that the whistleblower’s rights will be respected. Assange was arrested by London’s Metropolitan Police after Ecuador withdrew his asylum which had allowed him to take refuge in the country’s embassy in the United Kingdom since 2012. A video widely shared…
Eight activists who participated in a protest in northern Russia against Moscow’s plans to ship waste to surrounding regions were detained Wednesday, Interfax reported. Between 2,000 and 3,000 protesters gathered for Sunday’s demonstration in Arkhangelsk, calling for the region’s governor to resign over the 10.5 billion ruble ($160.7 million) Shiyes landfill’s construction, media outlets reported.…
Russian lawmakers have spoken out against what they called an “unconstitutional” military coup in Sudan that has reportedly ousted longtime leader and close Russian ally Omar al-Bashir. Sudan’s military deployed troops in Khartoum and surrounded the presidential palace on Thursday following months of protests against al-Bashir’s regime; al-Bashir stepped down soon after, Reuters reported. In January, Russia’s Foreign…
Several news outlets have removed a top Russian regulator’s remarks saying that a draft bill designed to disconnect the national internet network from the outside world will in fact target a popular messaging app. Authors of the bill going through parliament say they want to ensure that the domestic internet continues to function in the…
Americans traveling to some parts of Russia are at risk of being kidnapped, the U.S. State Department said in an updated travel advisory on Tuesday. Russia was listed alongside Sudan and Niger as one of the most dangerous countries for U.S. travelers in the State Department’s new risk-based system in January 2018. Moscow dismissed the…
Saudi Arabia has received its first batch of heavy flamethrower systems from Russia, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Wednesday. Russia signed a deal to supply its “Sunburn” military equipment to Saudi Arabia in 2017. First developed in 2001, the “Sunburn” heavy flamethrower systems’ design was based on the framework of a Soviet T-72…
A former agent of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has been sentenced to six years in maximum-security prison on charges of treason in the agency’s worst scandal in recent history. Ex-FSB operative Dmitry Dokuchayev was the last of four high-profile figures to receive treason sentences. All four were arrested in Russia in December 2016 shortly…
More than 7,000 people have died in fire-related accidents in Russia in 2018, according to data released Wednesday by Russia’s Investigative Committee. Sixty people, many of them children, died in the Siberian city of Kemerovo in March 2018 after the Winter Cherry mall caught on fire due to faulty wiring. Inspections uncovered violations in at…
Russian senators have passed a bill on Wednesday banning hostels in residential buildings, sending the bill to President Vladimir Putin’s desk to be signed into law. Hoteliers have warned that the ban could shutter up to 40 percent of hostels in Moscow and 80 percent in St. Petersburg, costing 16 billion rubles ($243 million) of…
One day after his release from house arrest, theater director Kirill Serebrennikov made a surprise public appearance at the Gogol Center, where he had worked as artistic director before his arrest. Following a Tuesday evening performance of “Dead Souls,” Serebrennikov ran onstage and was met with applause from the audience. He later took selfies and…
While Ukraine currently faces a difficult choice for its leadership, Russia has settled on President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said Wednesday in response to campaign billboards depicting Ukraine’s president facing off against Putin. Posters showing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko opposite Putin with a caption reading “The Decisive Choice” appeared in Ukraine ahead of the country’s…
Russia’s state television has launched a new channel that targets the younger generation with programming dedicated entirely to World War II. The Pobeda (“Victory”) television channel, which will broadcast wartime movies and shows 24/7, appeared in cable and satellite packages ahead of May 9, Russia’s national holiday marking the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. news…
Russian investigators have asked for jailed U.S. investor Michael Calvey to be released from pretrial detention and placed under house arrest instead. In February, Russia detained Calvey, the founder of the Baring Vostok private equity group, on suspicion of fraud along with three other partners in the fund. Calvey denies the allegations, saying the case…
Almost half of Russians say a decent salary is out of their reach no matter how long they live to earn it, the government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta cited research as saying Wednesday. On average, Russians named 66,000 rubles ($1,000) as a decent monthly salary, according to the government’s Financial University survey cited by the outlet.…
A printing press in St. Petersburg will rehire a transgender woman and pay her two years’ worth of lost income in Russia’s first known court case to acknowledge workplace discrimination against a transgender woman. Anastasia Vasilyeva was fired from the printing press after 10 years of employment after changing her identification papers from male to…
The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said on Tuesday the agency would soon unveil an effort to try to use U.S. assistance to counteract Russian influence around the world. “USAID will soon unveil a Framework to help us counter malign Kremlin influence, especially in Europe and Eurasia,” Mark Green said at…
The former mayor of Russia’s Far East capital of Vladivostok has been sentenced to 15 years behind bars on charges of large-scale commercial bribery and abuse of power. Igor Pushkaryov was detained in June 2016 on accusations of abusing his authority to mastermind a large-scale trade deal between the local government and a building supply…