Kazakhstan’s largest city was back online and appeared to be returning to normal on Monday, as the nation observed a day of mourning after clashes that left dozens dead and the financial hub of 1.8 million people reeling. Almaty, the country’s former capital, had been nearly completely offline since Wednesday, but local and foreign websites…
Russia ruled out Sunday any concession at talks with the United States on soaring tensions over Ukraine, as Moscow, facing strong pressure to pull back troops, seeks a wide-ranging new security arrangement with the West. Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian news agencies ahead of his talks in Geneva the Kremlin was “disappointed”…
More than a hundred people died in Kazakhstan in the wake of violent riots that shook Central Asia’s largest country this week, media reported Sunday citing the Health Ministry. The energy-rich nation of 19 million people has been rocked by a week of upheaval with nearly 6,000 — including a number of foreigners — detained…
Turkmenistan’s strongman leader has ordered experts to find a way to finally extinguish a massive five-decade old fire in a giant natural gas crater in the Central Asian country, dubbed the “Gateway to Hell.” Citing environmental and economic concerns, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov appeared on state television Saturday telling officials to put out the flames at…
The former head of Kazakhstan’s domestic security agency has been detained on suspicion of treason, the agency said Saturday, after he was fired amid unprecedented unrest. The detention of Karim Masimov, a former prime minister and longtime ally of Kazakhstan’s ex-leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, was the first major move against a top official in the biggest…
Russia’s Sevmash shipyard, the only one in the country that builds nuclear-powered submarines, saw a record year in 2021. Three subs were handed over to the Navy, two were put on water and construction started on another two. Not since the late days of the Soviet Union have the workers at the building and repair…
A submarine from the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet collided with a British frigate’s underwater listening system in late 2020, the U.K. Defense Ministry has confirmed to the BBC. The incident was captured by a Channel 5 TV crew filming a documentary onboard the British warship as it was tracking the Russian submarine somewhere in the…
Kazakhstan’s president on Friday rejected calls for talks with protesters after days of unprecedented unrest, vowing to destroy “armed bandits” and authorising his forces to shoot to kill without warning. In a hardline address to the nation, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also gave “special thanks” to Russian President Vladimir Putin after a Moscow-led military alliance sent troops…
Bursts of gunfire echoed through the streets of Kazakhstan’s largest city on Thursday as Moscow-led troops arrived to help quell mass unrest that left dozens dead and hundreds detained. Fighting appeared to be continuing a day after protesters stormed several government buildings, with an AFP correspondent hearing regular eruptions of gunfire from the direction of a…
Russia’s deployment of troops as part of a military alliance to put down growing protest in neighboring Kazakhstan will have major ramifications for Moscow’s foreign and domestic policy, experts told the Moscow Times on Thursday. “For now, this is less an armed intervention than a police operation,” said Andrei Kortunov, head of the Russian International…
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell vowed the bloc’s full support for Ukraine Wednesday as he visited amid fears Moscow plans to invade and ahead of U.S.-Russia talks on the crisis. The visit comes as the West tries to deter Moscow from launching an attack on its ex-Soviet neighbour, which has battled pro-Kremlin separatists in…
Russia’s businesses had a record-breaking 2021, yet frustration among owners remains high, optimism for the future is in short supply and fears of Kremlin intervention are growing. Corporate revenues have risen by at least a third during 2021, and turnovers at large and medium sized businesses are set to hit their highest levels ever this…
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Wednesday that Russia must ease pressure on Ukraine if it wants progress, as he renewed a warning of “massive consequences” for an invasion. Russia and the United States hold talks next week in Geneva after Moscow amassed tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border and…
A Russia-led military alliance said it would send peacekeeping forces to “stabilize” Kazakhstan, blaming mass protests that have plunged the ex-Soviet country into chaos on “outside interference.” Long seen as one the most stable of the ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia, energy-rich Kazakhstan was facing its biggest crisis in decades after protesters angry over rising…
Kazakhstan cut internet and mobile phone access on Wednesday as its president promised a tough response to what he said were “massive attacks” on security forces. Days of protests over a rise in fuel prices erupted into clashes with police and the storming of government buildings on Wednesday, in the biggest challenge to the Central…
VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia – On a remote mountain roadside, not far from a flashy ski resort, narrowed eyes on a stencil of the Soviet Union’s most notorious tyrant stare impassively out of the rockface. His head and shoulders, generously whiskered and draped in medals and gold piping, loom four meters high, dominating the pass below.…
Politics Alexei Navalny, opposition figure President Vladimir Putin’s biggest domestic opponent enters the New Year with his movement gutted as he enters the second year of his 2.5-year prison sentence for violating parole on an old embezzlement conviction his supporters call politically motivated. Navalny, 45, also faces an additional 10 years as part of a…
The son of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s close ally has been named the head coach of Russia’s richest hockey team, SKA St. Petersburg, drawing criticism from sports commentators for his lack of coaching experience. Roman Rotenberg, 40, is the son of Boris Rotenberg — who is Putin’s childhood friend, former judo sparring partner and recreational…
The Russian economy is set to revert to its pre-coronavirus pattern of sluggish growth, weak investment and underwhelming living standards in 2022, economists predict, as the Kremlin re-embraces austerity after the initial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. While other countries have used the pandemic to overhaul their economic policies, launch ambitious investment projects or accelerate…
Five global nuclear powers pledged Monday to prevent atomic weapons spreading and to avoid nuclear conflict, in a rare joint statement ahead of a review of a key nuclear treaty later this year. “We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented,” said permanent UN Security Council members China, France, Russia,…
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will visit Ukraine’s frontline this week in a show of support for Kiev in the face of Moscow’s military buildup on its border, Brussels said Monday. Tensions have soared in recent months as the West has warned that Moscow could be planning a full-scale invasion of its neighbour after…
Russian foreign policy is likely to continue to dominate global news headlines this year after a tense 2021. Russia’s military build-up on the Ukrainian border has set the world on edge, raising fears of an invasion. In neighboring Belarus, the Kremlin has moved closer to fully-fledged integration with the country, whose embattled strongman President Alexander…
U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday told his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Washington “will respond decisively” if Russia moves to invade its pro-Western neighbor, the White House said in a statement. With a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s borders, Biden “made clear” to Zelenskiy during a phone call that the “United States and its…
Five people died and 21 were injured in a bus accident south of Moscow on Sunday, Russian authorities said. The Federal Road Traffic Inspection agency said the crash happened at 5:45 am local time (0245 GMT) in the Ryazan region. “As a result of the accident five people died. Twenty-one were injured,” the agency said…
The coming year in Russian politics is likely to be marked by continued repression of the remnants of political opposition and independent media, experts told The Moscow Times. After a year in which the radical “non-systemic” opposition around jailed activist Alexei Navalny was all but destroyed, and a host of independent media outlets were declared…
President Vladimir Putin said Moscow “firmly” defended its interests in 2021 — a year marked by an unprecedented crackdown on the opposition and increased tensions with the West — in a New Year’s address. “We firmly and consistently defended our national interests, the security of the country and (of) citizens,” Putin said in a televised…
On the surface, post-Soviet Russia’s 30th anniversary year has brought precious little to celebrate. A brutal crackdown on political opposition, independent media and civil society, one of the world’s highest pandemic excess death tolls and a stuttering, inflation-wracked economy mean 2021 has been a difficult year for many Russians. Even so, say some experts, present…
President Joe Biden on Thursday warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of a tough US response to any invasion of Ukraine, while the Kremlin leader said anti-Moscow sanctions would be a “colossal mistake.” After a 50 minute phone call — their second in just over three weeks — both presidents indicated support for further diplomacy…
Russia recorded more than 115,000 excess deaths during November 2021 according to official statistics published Thursday — a new record high since the start of the pandemic. The number takes Russia’s overall excess death count since the start of the pandemic to 929,000, according to The Moscow Times’ analysis. The record figure for November —…
Russia has added members of the Pussy Riot art activist collective, a prominent satirist and an independent journalist its registry of “foreign agents” Thursday. The designations close a year in which Russia labeled nearly every major independent domestic news outlet, as well as dozens of individual journalists and activists, a “foreign agent.” Founding Pussy Riot…
U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin emphasized the need for diplomatic solutions ahead of their latest phone call Thursday aimed at defusing tensions surrounding the Ukraine conflict. The call comes after Moscow earlier this month presented Western capitals with sweeping security demands, saying NATO must not admit new members and seeking…
Russia’s about-face in 2021 on its attitude to climate change may be little more than window dressing to protect its industrial giants, experts fear. During his two decades in power, Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved from joking about the climate crisis to accepting responsibility for responding to climate change as its effects have become…
Russian President Vladimir Putin told U.S. counterpart Joe Biden on Thursday he is “convinced” that “effective dialogue” between Moscow and Washington is possible, hours ahead of telephone talks as tensions rise over Ukraine. Putin and Biden will hold their second telephone call in less than a month at 20:30 GMT in the latest effort to…
Russian President Vladimir Putin took to the ice with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in a hockey match in St. Petersburg that followed their diplomatic talks Wednesday. Putin scored seven goals, while Lukashenko scored 2 and Lukashenko’s 17-year-old son Nikolai scored 4, bringing their team to an 18-7 victory. Putin, 69, and Lukashenko, 67, played…
An exiled top associate of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny says Russian authorities have rearrested his elderly father just days after he was handed a suspended sentence for corruption charges his son says are politically motivated. In an Instagram post Wednesday, Ivan Zhdanov said that his father Yury had been re-arrested and sent to pre-trial…
When Alexei Navalny returned to Russia at the start of 2021, the country’s leading opposition figure and his army of followers sensed their moment. “We need to fight,” Navalny told a crowd of reporters on Jan. 17, just before passport control at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, where he had landed on a flight from Germany after…
Russia’s state media watchdog will require Netflix to offer state television channels to its Russian customers after it added the U.S.-based streaming service to its register of “audio-visual services” Tuesday. Roskomnadzor’s register, which was created in late 2020, applies to online streaming services with over 100,000 daily users and requires them to comply with Russian law…
A Russian court on Wednesday ordered a branch of the Memorial civil rights group that raises awareness toward contemporary rights abuses to shut down for repeated violations of the country’s controversial foreign agents law and allegedly justifying terrorism and extremism. Judge Mikhail Kazakov of the Moscow City Court ordered the Memorial Human Rights Center’s dissolution…
Updated at 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 29 to add three more detentions. At least five former coordinators of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s network have been detained nationwide on charges of organizing an extremist group, media reported Tuesday. The raids and arrests in the cities of Tomsk and Irkutsk come one month after a court…
Memorial, dissolved by Russia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, was the country’s most respected human rights organization whose closure signals the tightening authoritarian tendencies under President Vladimir Putin. The court ruling against Memorial International, the organization’s central structure, seals a swift judicial process to shut down the group, which emerged as a hopeful symbol during Russia’s chaotic transition…
Russia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the shuttering of Memorial, Russia’s oldest human rights watchdog, for repeatedly violating the country’s foreign agent law. The group’s closure rounds out a year in which Russian authorities have cracked down on nearly all forms of dissent, from Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s opposition groups to independent news outlets and…
At least two former coordinators of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s network have been detained in Siberia on charges of organizing an extremist group, media reported Tuesday. The raids and arrests in the cities of Tomsk and Irkutsk come one month after a court in central Russia jailed another ex-Navalny coordinator who faces up to…
Russia has conducted a third launch of its new heavy-class Angara rocket, the first developed after the fall of the Soviet Union 30 years ago this month. Space agency Roscosmos announced late Monday that the next-generation Angara-A5 rocket had been launched with a mock payload from Plesetsk in northern Russia. It was the third launch…
The United States and Russia will hold much-anticipated talks in January on European security and the Ukraine conflict after Moscow listed demands including to end NATO’s expansion. A spokesperson for the US National Security Council told AFP on condition of anonymity late Monday that the talks with Russia will take place on Jan. 10. Russian…
Russia’s top diplomat on Monday likened the European Union’s policy of “pushing back, constraining and engaging” with Moscow to “political Kama Sutra.” Brussels’ high representative Josep Borrell outlined the multilateral Russia strategy in June as the sides reached their “lowest level” in relations due to a litany of disagreements including Ukraine, Belarus and human rights. “I…
Rescuer Alexander Zakovryashin, injured in a search and rescue operation after the Listvyazhnaya coal mine accident, is transported to a miners’ healthcare center in the Kemerovo region of southwestern Siberia. On the morning of Nov. 25, coal dust caught on fire in a ventilation shaft some 250 meters underground, filling the mine with smoke. At…
A court in Belarus has sentenced a Russian national to 11 years in prison on charges of threatening national security and inciting hatred online, the Belarusian human rights news website Charter 97 reported Monday. Yegor Dudnikov, 21, was arrested in May for doing voice-over work for Belarusian opposition videos in the wake of mass protests…
A prominent Russian investigative journalist working for the BBC’s Russian service said on Monday he has left the country two months after being labeled a “foreign agent.” In a video published by BBC Russia, Andrei Zakharov said he moved to Britain after facing “unprecedented surveillance” following his designation as a “foreign agent” in October. Zakharov…
Turkey urged Russia on Monday to drop “one-sided” demands and adopt a more constructive approach in its standoff with Western powers and NATO over Ukraine. NATO member Turkey has irritated Moscow by supplying combat drones to Ukraine that Russia fears could be used by Kiev in its conflict with separatists in two eastern regions. But…
A court in northern Russia has sentenced prominent Gulag historian and human rights activist Yury Dmitriyev to 15 years in prison for the second time, media reported Monday. The latest conviction adds 2 years to Dmitriyev’s 13-year sentence last year on charges of sexually abusing his adopted daughter. Critics say his prosecution is politically motivated…
Russian energy giant Gazprom has rejected accusations that Moscow is limiting gas deliveries to Europe and denounced Germany’s resale of gas to Poland amid soaring prices. Poland this week accused Moscow of having stopped its deliveries via the Yamal-Europe pipeline that sends Russian gas to Western Europe, accusing Gazprom of “manipulation”. The pipeline was operating…
Russia announced Saturday that more than 10,000 troops had finished month-long drills near Ukraine, amid Western accusations that Moscow was plotting an invasion of its ex-Soviet neighbour. The defense ministry said in a statement that the drills for Southern Military District forces had taken place in a host of southern regions including Rostov, Krasnodar and…
Russia has blocked the website of a rights monitor tracking political persecution, saying it promoted terrorism and extremism, amid an unprecedented official crackdown on dissent. The move comes in a year that has seen the opposition dismantled and scores of independent media and rights groups branded as “foreign agents” or banned outright. OVD-Info, which tracks…
Russia started the year with fewer Covid restrictions than the West and the belief that its newly registered Sputnik V vaccine would put pandemic woes behind it. But a fresh coronavirus wave in the summer was followed by an even more devastating surge in the fall fueled by the Delta variant, which saw Russia registering…
Russia has blocked the website of a prominent human rights monitor tracking political persecution, the group said Saturday, as authorities press ahead with an unprecedented crackdown on dissent. The move against the monitor is the latest in a year that has seen Russia’s opposition dismantled and scores of independent media and rights organisations branded as…
President Vladimir Putin said Friday the Russian military successfully fired a simultaneous salvo of its Tsirkon hypersonic missiles, calling it “a big event” for the country. As world powers race to develop advanced weaponry, Russia has carried out a number of successful tests of its Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile. This was however the first time…
A new movie backed by Kremlin-linked catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin depicts a group of Russian “military instructors” invited to Mozambique to fight Islamic State-linked insurgents in the country’s north. “Granit,” set to premiere next Tuesday on the government-friendly NTV channel, is produced by Aurum, a company in which Prigozhin holds a major stake, according to…
Russia has slapped tech giants Google and Meta with record penalties totaling over $125 million for repeated failure to remove banned content, state media reported Friday. The fines mark the first time Russia has imposed a fine based on a company’s turnover and comes as Moscow amplifies pressure on foreign internet platforms, which it says…
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has obtained Portuguese citizenship through his Jewish ancestry following years of failed visa and residence bids elsewhere in Europe, media reported Thursday. Abramovich became a citizen of the EU member after he withdrew his residency application with non-EU member Switzerland in 2017 over Swiss concerns with reputational and public safety risks…
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Friday that Washington grew “arrogant and self-confident” after the collapse of the Soviet Union, leading to the expansion of the NATO military alliance. In recent years President Vladimir Putin has grown increasingly insistent that NATO is encroaching close to Russia’s borders, and Moscow last week demanded “legal guarantees” that the…