Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed off allegations of hacking and involvement in jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s poisoning in his first interview with U.S. media in three years. During the NBC News interview, which aired ahead of his bilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, Putin spoke with interviewer Keir Simmons for 90 minutes on…
Russia’s population decline more than doubled in 2020, the latest sign of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the country, according to updated figures from Russia’s federal statistics agency seen by The Moscow Times. Russia’s population totaled 146.05 million as of Jan. 1, 2021, down from 146.75 million at the start of 2020 — a decrease…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia is open to handing over cyber criminals to the U.S. if Washington agrees to do the same, Reuters reported Monday. “If we agree to extradite criminals, then of course Russia will do that, we will do that, but only if the other side, in this case the United…
The Kremlin has barred the independent Dozhd broadcaster from the presidential press pool over its coverage of protests in support of jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the independent Meduza news website. Dozhd’s Kremlin pool reporter has been unable to attend Peskov’s press briefings since May 13, Meduza reported, and will…
Russia and the United States grew their nuclear arsenals in 2020, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think tank said in a new report Monday. The world’s two largest nuclear powers boosted their stockpiles even as the overall number of nuclear warheads decreased globally last year, (the Swedish based) SIPRI said. Both are estimated…
Authorities in St. Petersburg, which is hosting a series of Euro 2020 matches, said Monday they were tightening anti-coronavirus restrictions in an effort to curb a new spike in infections. Russia’s second city is the country’s worst hotspot after Moscow and is expected to host thousands of football fans from Europe. The new restrictions will…
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Sunday that residents of the Russian capital who get their first coronavirus jab will now take part in a lottery to win a car. The move comes as authorities seek to speed up Russia’s vaccination drive that has stagnated while new infections in Moscow and across the country are on…
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Saturday announced a “non-working” week in the Russian capital, with non-essential workers told to stay home, as Covid-19 cases hit a six-month high. The decision marks a change of tone for Russian authorities, with President Vladimir Putin repeatedly insisting that Russia has handled the pandemic better than most countries. …
Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced hope Friday that U.S. President Joe Biden will be less impulsive than his predecessor Donald Trump, ahead of his first summit with the new U.S. leader. In an interview with NBC News, Putin described Biden as a “career man” who has spent his life in politics. Though he described relations…
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has issued a note of protest to the Russian Foreign Ministry over its lack of access to jailed ex-Marine Trevor Reed and “grave concern” for his health, it said in a statement Friday. The Embassy said Reed, who was diagnosed with coronavirus on May 25 and hospitalized after his condition worsened,…
An exiled top associate of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Friday that Russian authorities have put him on a wanted list on suspicion of committing an unspecified crime. Ivan Zhdanov, the former director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) which a Russian court declared “extremist” earlier this week, has been living in Lithuania to avoid…
Every day at 6 a.m., former Russian army officer Yevgeny sits bolt upright in bed, remembering security officers in black balaclavas storming his apartment during an early morning raid. His was one of 16 Moscow households targeted by the authorities earlier this year for being Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Christian denomination outlawed in Russia since 2017,…
A Chechen domestic violence victim’s life is at risk after police returned her to her home region after raiding the women’s shelter in neighboring Dagestan where she had fled, media reported Friday. Khalimat Taramova said divulging her whereabouts would “endanger” her life after she escaped “regular beatings and threats” by her family, according to a video…
The mayor of Lisbon has apologized for sharing contact details of residents who staged rallies in support of poisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after he was arrested upon his return to Russia. The Portuguese capital was among the 95 cities outside Russia where rallies calling for Navalny’s release took place in January. Several hundred thousand…
Russia is set to deliver an advanced satellite system to Iran that will vastly improve its spying capabilities, according to a U.S. media report. Moscow is preparing to give Iran a Kanopus-V satellite with a high-resolution camera, the Washington Post reported Thursday. It will allow the Islamic republic to monitor facilities of its adversaries across the…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption group vowed Thursday to fight on after a court branded it an “extremist” organization and ordered its closure. Western countries and the European Union were quick to condemn Wednesday’s late-night ruling, but Russian officials doubled down, describing Navalny as an agent collaborating with Washington. The court decision, which came…
Russia’s prison service on Thursday said that convicts would be sent to construct a new section of the Baikal-Amur Mainline track (BAM) in Siberia, a railway partially built by Gulag prisoners. Amid labour shortages Russian government officials have discussed plans to use prison labour for major construction projects but they insist there are no plans…
The committee of ministers of pan-European rights body the Council of Europe on Thursday said it strongly urged Russia to “immediately” release jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in line with a previous ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. The committee, which oversees the implementation of ECHR rulings, expressed “its grave concern” that Navalny…
Siberian doctors falsified Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s medical records that contained evidence of his nerve agent poisoning last summer, the jailed opposition figure’s allies said in an investigation published Thursday. Omsk region doctors who first treated Navalny after he fell severely ill on Aug. 20, 2020, said their tests did not find any toxic substances despite…
Russian authorities are ramping up pressure on researchers and activists who oppose Moscow’s historical narrative, especially concerning Stalin-era purges and collaboration with Nazi Germany, an international rights group charged Thursday. The report published by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) “comprehensively catalogues repressive acts related to historical memory” targeting historians, activists and journalists for…
A Siberian journalist investigating a U.S.-sanctioned Chechen fight club said Wednesday that he had been severely beaten by unknown men. Andrei Afanasyev said at least three people had hit him “with either a pipe or piece of rebar” outside his apartment in the Far East city of Blagoveshchensk 7,500 kilometers east of Moscow. Afanasyev, appearing…
A lawsuit filed with a Moscow court accuses popular YouTuber and journalist Yury Dud of “online drug propaganda,” the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday. The government-affiliated Safe Internet League — a nonprofit that acts as an online morality watchdog — filed a police appeal against Dud in April, accusing him of promoting drugs in…
UEFA on Thursday demanded that Ukraine make changes to their jersey for Euro 2020 to remove a “political” slogan that sparked protests from Russia. European football’s governing body said the message “Glory to the Heroes,” a rallying cry during the 2014 anti-Russia protests in Ukraine that is featured inside the shirt, was “clearly political in…
Around 500 super rich Russians control more wealth than the poorest 99.8% of Russians, according to a new report into Russia’s inequality problem. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that Russia’s financial elite — the approximately 500 individuals with a net worth of more than $100 million — controlled 40% of the country’s entire household…
A majority of Europeans do not trust Russian coronavirus vaccines, according to a study by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) cited by the RBC news website Thursday. The results come as President Vladimir Putin orders officials to develop a “vaccine tourism” plan and as the European Union’s medicines regulator continues its ongoing review of…
Three years ago, scenes of euphoria erupted in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium and all over Russia after Igor Akinfeev saved two penalty spot kicks to beat Spain 4-3 and take World Cup hosts Russia through to the quarter-finals for the first time since the Soviet era. Russia would eventually lose to Croatia in the quarter-finals, but…
A Chechen asylum seeker fleeing torture who was deported from France has been jailed in his native Russian republic of Chechnya, Russian media reported Wednesday. Magomed Gadayev was sent back in April, despite a French court overturning his deportation order, amid a wave of expulsions following the gruesome beheading of a French teacher by an…
A Moscow court has outlawed the political and activist networks of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny as “extremist” in a closed-door hearing Wednesday. Here’s what it means for Russia’s most potent opposition force moving forward: Why did the court declare Navalny’s groups “extremist”? The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office, the plaintiff, had argued that Navalny’s organizations “aim…
An improvised explosive device killed one Russian soldier and wounded three more on patrol in northern Syria, Russian news agencies reported Wednesday, citing the Defense Ministry. “On June 9, during a patrol by the Russian military police in the province of Hassakeh in the Syrian Arab Republic, an armored car was hit in the explosion…
A Russian court has outlawed the political and activist networks of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny as “extremist” in a closed-door hearing Wednesday, effectively dismantling one of Russia’s most potent opposition forces amid a wider crackdown in the lead-up to parliamentary elections. The designation bars opposition groups affiliated with Navalny from crowdfunded operations and puts…
A Dutch court heard Wednesday how two defendants discussed the procurement of a surface-to-air missile which prosecutors say was eventually used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014. Judges this week began hearing evidence in the trial of four people — three Russians and a Ukrainian — charged in connection with an attack on the…
Moscow authorities announced Wednesday plans to reopen field hospitals and step up mask and glove enforcement as the epicenter of Russia’s outbreak reported its highest number of new cases since the start of 2021. Russia’s Covid-19 response center confirmed 4,124 new Moscow infections Wednesday, the first time since Jan. 16 when the capital was nearing…
Rosneft and its subsidiaries participated in Water of Russia environmental action.
A Russian journalist has been banned from covering football’s European Championship by Azerbaijan’s organizing committee over his visits to the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, sparking outrage in Moscow on Wednesday. Nobel Arustamyan, a journalist with Armenian ancestry working for the Russian Match TV station, said Tuesday that Azerbaijan’s organizing committee has denied him accreditation for…
Russia’s new “green” Arctic oil infrastructure projects are vital to the global economy, Igor Sechin, the head of Russian state-controlled energy giant Rosneft, has said. Rosneft recently launched construction of its Vostok Oil facility, which is set to become the Arctic’s largest oil terminal with 30 million tons of oil per year produced by 2024…
The percentage of Russians who say they want to move out of the country has climbed to its highest level in nearly a decade, according to an independent poll published Wednesday. One out of five respondents told the Levada Center pollster that they would “absolutely” or “most likely” want to emigrate. “This indicator has reached…
Russian security agents linked to the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny previously poisoned prominent writer and journalist Dmitry Bykov, The Insider news website and Bellingcat investigative outlet reported Wednesday. The latest report follows investigations by The Insider, Bellingcat and CNN claiming that alleged members of an elite Federal Security Service (FSB) chemical-weapons unit trailed…
Three people have died in a fire at a hospital in the Russian city of Ryazan, investigators said Wednesday, with local authorities suggesting the blaze was caused by a faulty ventilator. The fire broke out in the intensive care unit of a state hospital in Ryazan, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of Moscow, at…
A popular Russian YouTuber has been charged with justifying terrorism over an alleged performance mocking the deadly 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, investigators announced Wednesday. Yury Khovasnky, 31, who boasts 4.4 million YouTube subscribers, was apprehended at his St. Petersburg apartment Tuesday evening. “Is it because of that song?” Khovansky Khovansky can be heard asking in the…
Thousands of fans are set to descend on Russia’s former imperial capital St. Petersburg for Europe’s biggest football extravaganza, Euro 2020, even as coronavirus cases are surging in the city. Russia’s second city has been selected to host seven matches — including a quarter-final — in June and July after the tournament was postponed for…
Russia will probe the recent national music awards for “gay propaganda” after it featured attendees in gender-flipped clothing and what viewers said resembled a gay marriage ceremony. Last Friday’s Muz-TV music awards broadcast sparked controversy when beauty blogger Igor Sinyak walked the red carpet in a gown and one of Russia’s highest-paid TikTokers Danya Milokhin…
Russia on Tuesday sent a letter of complaint to UEFA over Ukraine’s “political” Euro 2020 kit that features the outline of Moscow-annexed Crimea and is emblazoned with popular patriotic chants. In the letter from the Russian football federation to UEFA just three days before the Euro starts, it said: “We draw attention to the use…
An elderly Russian man who had been declared dead was found alive days after his funeral, his relatives have said. “This is a story about human stupidity, medical negligence, incompetence and the complete collapse of the healthcare system,” his granddaughter wrote on Facebook. Grigory Vasilyev, 79, was placed in a Moscow region hospital with limb…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has dedicated a prestigious rights award to all political prisoners in Russia and in Belarus, his daughter told a summit of rights defenders on Tuesday. “My dad asked me today to give this award to every single political prisoner in Russia and Belarus,” Daria Navalnaya said in a video statement to the Geneva Summit…
Belarusian strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday signed legislation toughening protest laws, raising the stakes of a crackdown following his disputed re-election last year. The measures come into force amid an unprecedented legal sweep of government critics and civil society in the ex-Soviet country following the presidential vote last year that sparked huge demonstrations. The…
Novokuibyshevsk and Saratov refineries, Rosneft Oil Company’s oil refining enterprises, have won awards in nominations Best Video and Green Line of a creative contest held as part of the Green Spring 2021 national environmental campaign.
The Russian government is seeking to allocate money toward President Vladimir Putin’s national genetic database program, according to recent instructions from Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. Putin, who has sought to transform Russia into a world leader in genetic technologies, ordered in 2020 the creation of a “National Genetic Information Database.” Mishustin signed a series of orders…
Luxury travel company director Yelena Stepnovaya knew she had to act fast when the coronavirus pandemic hit Russia, closing borders and bringing commercial air travel to a virtual standstill. Along with her colleagues at private charter firm Sirius Aero, she decided to skirt restrictions by offering wealthy Russians individual, or “shuttle” seats on private jets…
The governor of a Siberian region said Tuesday he was fined for holding a barbecue and violating laws his government put in place to prevent forest fires. Massive blazes have swept through Russia – the world’s largest country by landmass – more and more frequently in recent years, particularly impacting Siberia, the Arctic and the…
Russians are less likely to expect new protests than they were earlier this year as the country’s opposition accuses the authorities of cracking down on challengers ahead of key elections, according to an independent survey published Tuesday. The dip comes as several opposition figures have been jailed or fled Russia in the months since Kremlin…
Russia on Monday announced tit-for-tat sanctions against nine senior Canadian officials, including the justice minister, following similar measures from Ottawa over the treatment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that the nine Canadians had been banned from entering Russia “for an undetermined period.” The banned Canadians include Justice…
A microscopic animal called a bdelloid rotifer came back to life after being frozen for 24,000 years in Siberia and then successfully made clones of itself, Russian scientists said Monday. Stas Malavin, who co-authored a paper in the journal Current Biology on the development, told AFP the finding raised intriguing questions about what mechanisms the…
Ukraine said Monday it would not allow anyone to insult its football kit that features Moscow-annexed Crimea while its Western allies gave the uniforms emblazoned with popular nationalist chants a thumbs up. Kiev has provoked Moscow’s ire after its football association unveiled Euro 2020 kits that show the outline of Ukraine including Crimea, that was…
At least three Siberian regions are reporting an alarming spike in new coronavirus cases, with hospitals near capacity in at least one of those regions, The Siberian Times reported Monday. Authorities in the republic of Buryatia 6,000 kilometers east of Moscow have announced new restrictions after reporting 91% of hospital beds being occupied by Covid-19 patients. …
Russia’s Far North region of Murmansk will become a testing ground for “green” technologies in a bid to achieve carbon neutrality, according to an agreement signed between state innovation corporation Rusnano and regional authorities. The Carbon-Free Zone seeks to test renewable technologies and systems which can later be expanded nationwide, including electric transportation and sustainable…
Every year on June 5, the world community celebrates World Environment Day, established in 1972 by the UN General Assembly.
The mother of a Russian arms trafficker, who is serving a 25-year jail term in the U.S. and inspired a Nicolas Cage film, has asked the U.S. and Russian leaders to negotiate his release. Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin are expected to discuss a range of geopolitical and other issues, including potential prisoner swaps, when…
Russian fertilizer tycoon Dmitry Mazepin denied Monday that he had financed opposition social media in his native Belarus after a jailed journalist hinted at an unnamed Urals oligarch’s role in the country’s anti-government protests last summer. “Neither I nor my companies have ever financed the [Nexta] Telegram channel,” Mazepin said in a video interview published…
A man has broken into the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and claimed that a “universal conspiracy” motivated him, the RBC news website reported Monday, citing police sources. It wasn’t immediately clear what “universal conspiracy” the unnamed Russian national was referring to. RBC reported that the man told police he climbed over the Embassy’s fence in…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been transferred from a prison hospital back to his penal colony after receiving treatment following a hunger strike, his allies said Monday. Navalny was jailed for two and a half years in February on old embezzlement charges he and his supporters say are politically motivated. He was sentenced shortly…