Russian construction minister Vladimir Yakushev has been hospitalized with coronavirus, local media said Friday, just a day after the prime minister announced he was infected. The construction and housing minister’s deputy was also infected, the news agency Interfax reported, as Russia has seen a steady increase in infections that have reached the highest levels of government. “I…
Russia’s healthcare system has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic as new infections have continued to surge every day. Russian doctors and nurses have described shifts that last 24 hours or more, startling equipment shortages and hospitals filled to capacity with patients. And some, distrusting official statistics, have launched a running tally of their…
A mosaic featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin will no longer be displayed in a grand military church being built outside Moscow after the leader objected, a cleric said on Friday. Russian Orthodox Bishop Stefan of Klin told news agency Interfax the committee in charge of the church’s interior decoration “decided not to display it” because…
As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 234,000 people worldwide continues to spread, Russia has stepped up its measures to slow the pandemic’s spread within its borders. There have been 114,431 cases of coronavirus infections reported in Russia so far and 1,169 deaths. May 1: 3 things you need to know today Russian Prime Minister Mikhail…
Half of Moscow’s coronavirus patients in serious condition have tested negative for the virus, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Thursday amid questions over the accuracy of Russia’s tests. His revelation follows a directive for Russian doctors to diagnose Covid-19 without tests after a widely reported study placed their accuracy at around 70%. Moscow’s health department reportedly…
President Vladimir Putin warned Tuesday that Russia had not yet reached the peak of coronavirus infections but said a “phased exit” from the country’s lockdown measures could begin in two weeks. With the number of cases rising by several thousand daily, Putin extended a non-working period across the country until May 11, telling officials to plan for…
The Russian economy has been rocked by the coronavirus outbreak, and fears the fresh OPEC+ oil production pact between Russia and Saudi Arabia will not be enough to address a historic fall in demand. The turmoil has shocked traders around the world and resulted in sharp volatility on the Russian stock markets and swings in…
NATO will involve Georgia in its regional security program to help protect the Black Sea country from Russia’s “aggressive” cyber- and misinformation threats, the Western military bloc said Wednesday. Georgia’s NATO ambitions have angered Russia since 2008, when NATO leaders promised the Russian neighbor that it would one day join the alliance. Russian President Vladimir…
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has been diagnosed with coronavirus, he said during a video meeting with President Vladimir Putin broadcast on the state-run Rossiya 24 television channel Thursday. Mishustin, 54, who was appointed prime minister in January, has played a leading role in Russia’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. He is now self-isolating in the hospital…
More Russians approve of local officials’ coronavirus response efforts than they do of President Vladimir Putin and the federal government’s response to the pandemic, according to a newly published independent survey. In a public address over the pandemic early this month, Putin largely delegated decisionmaking authority to regional leaders due to regional differences in infection rates.…
The sale of Russia’s top business newspaper Vedomosti has been postponed as the paper struggles to maintain independence under its new chief editor, the Open Media investigative website reported Wednesday. Claims of censorship have swirled around Vedomosti since its sale was announced in March. In the span of a month, acting editor-in-chief Andrei Shmarov has…
On Wednesday afternoon, Tatiana, a 22-year-old sixth-year medical student at First Moscow State Medical University, received a message from the university’s administration. Starting Friday, the text read, all students in their fourth year or higher would be deployed to coronavirus hospitals around Moscow. Tatiana, who asked that her last name be withheld, is one of…
As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 227,000 people worldwide continues to spread, Russia has stepped up its measures to slow the pandemic’s spread within its borders. There have been 106,498 cases of coronavirus infections reported in Russia so far and 1,073 deaths. April 30: 3 things you need to know today Russia confirmed 7,099 new coronavirus infections…
More than 80% of young Russians have no interest in politics, according to a new survey on Generation Z’s values published by the Vedomosti business daily Thursday. Russian authorities have targeted the country’s youth with several initiatives, including a ban on minors attending protests, funding for military and patriotic education and a plan to monitor youngsters’ online…
Stuck in cramped flats and struggling with fears of the coronavirus and its economic impact, many Russians are worried about the return of an old demon. “When I found myself alone at home, the first thought I had was ‘ah, it’s a good time to get drunk,’” says Tatyana, a recovering alcoholic on lockdown in…
President Vladimir Putin warned Tuesday that Russia had not yet reached the peak of coronavirus infections but said a “phased exit” from the country’s lockdown measures could begin in two weeks. With the number of cases rising by several thousand daily, Putin extended a non-working period across the country until May 11, telling officials to plan for…
The Russian economy has been rocked by the coronavirus outbreak, and fears the fresh OPEC+ oil production pact between Russia and Saudi Arabia will not be enough to address a historic fall in demand. The turmoil has shocked traders around the world and resulted in sharp volatility on the Russian stock markets and swings in…
Russia will allow its nationals who hold second passports to leave the country amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to a government decree issued Wednesday. To date, Russia has allowed only foreigners to leave the country to return home as it grounded international flights and effectively closed its land border in an effort to slow the…
Iran must not give in to U.S. “provocations,” Russia said on Wednesday, following months of mounting tension between Washington and Tehran. “We are urging maximum restraint and caution, not to give in to provocations and aggressive rhetoric,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters. Tehran and Washington have traded barbs over a spate of incidents in the…
The Russian Orthodox Church on Wednesday banned popular theologian Andrei Kurayev from holding services over his criticism of a church official who died from coronavirus last week. Protodeacon Kurayev referred to Alexander Ageykin, the head of a central Moscow cathedral who died from Covid-19 on April 21, as “a dumb careerist.” Ageykin’s death marked the highest-level…
A group suspected of attempting to sell 100 counterfeit ventilators used to treat coronavirus patients have been detained after an armed confrontation outside Moscow, news outlets reported Wednesday. The coronavirus pandemic has strained Russia’s healthcare system as infections have soared, with officials and healthcare workers pointing to widespread shortages in equipment such as ventilators. Russia has…
Update: Venediktov apologized to Veduta for causing her trauma but continued to deny the allegations of wrongdoing. “Anya’s accusations against me did not take place. However, I apologize once again if this stayed in her mind. If she’s suffering, please don’t suffer,” Venediktov said on air Wednesday evening. Two women have accused Alexei Venediktov, the…
Russia on Wednesday extended an entry ban for foreigners to slow the coronavirus as the country registers a steep rise in the number of new infections. The decree barring foreigners from entering the country, which was introduced in mid-March and set to expire Thursday, was extended until Russia has the virus under control, Prime Minister…
The mayor of a remote Siberian town has accused four district officials of attempting to start wildfires after catching them with gas canisters near his property, local media reported Wednesday. The four officials from the Ust-Kutsky district in the Irkutsk region said they were on assignment to film reported burn sites, according to a series…
As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 217,000 people worldwide continues to spread, Russia has stepped up its measures to slow the pandemic’s spread within its borders. There have been 99,399 cases of coronavirus infections reported in Russia so far and 972 deaths. April 29: 3 things you need to know today Russia confirmed 5,841 new coronavirus…
The Kremlin is attempting to take advantage of Russia’s coronavirus outbreak to maintain President Vladimir Putin’s popularity and ensure that the public votes for his constitutional reforms, the Proekt investigative outlet reported Wednesday, citing unnamed federal officials. The reforms would potentially allow Putin, 67, to extend his 20-year rule into 2036. Putin postponed a public…
The Russian economy has been rocked by the coronavirus outbreak, and fears the fresh OPEC+ oil production pact between Russia and Saudi Arabia will not be enough to address a historic fall in demand. The turmoil has shocked traders around the world and resulted in sharp volatility on the Russian stock markets and swings in…
President Vladimir Putin warned Tuesday that Russia had not yet reached the peak of coronavirus infections but said a “phased exit” from the country’s lockdown measures could begin in two weeks. With the number of cases rising by several thousand daily, Putin extended a non-working period across the country until May 11, telling officials to plan for…
A Prague official has alleged that there was a Russian plot to “liquidate” him and two other Czech politicians, all of whom have clashed with the Kremlin over controversial Soviet memorials in the city. Prague district 6 mayor Ondrej Kolar told Czech media late Tuesday that he was being kept at an undisclosed location after…
Russian opposition activists avoided lockdown measures by holding an online protest on Tuesday against President Vladimir Putin’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Speakers also criticized Putin’s proposed constitutional changes that allow him to extend his stay in office. But the YouTube feed experienced serious technical problems, making the speeches initially inaudible and the number of viewers…
Russians’ trust in President Vladimir Putin has fallen to a 14-year low, the state-funded VTsIOM polling agency said Monday. The latest poll results come as Russian authorities — and Putin in particular — have faced criticism for their response to the coronavirus pandemic, which many see as providing insufficient support to businesses and workers. Before…
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday extended the national “non-working” month through May 11, warning that Russia has yet to see the peak of its coronavirus outbreak. Russia now ranks eighth in the world for coronavirus infections, with 93,558 confirmed Covid-19 cases as of Tuesday. Putin originally declared a “non-working” week late in March, then extended…
Federal Security Service (FSB) Col. Gen. Andrei Burlaka is believed to be the highest-ranking Russian official linked to the investigation into the downing of Flight MH17, according to a joint investigation by the investigative outlet Bellingcat and Russia’s The Insider news website published Tuesday. Dutch-led investigators have so far named four pro-Russian separatists as suspects…
Gas workers in Russia’s Far East staged a mass rally to demand better working conditions and more transparency amid a reported coronavirus outbreak at their gas field, local media reported Tuesday. Footage from the Gazprom energy giant’s Chayanda field, which supplies China with natural gas through the recently launched Power of Siberia pipeline, showed laborers…
A Russian football player for FC Krylia Sovetov in the city of Samara faces punishment from his team after he harshly criticizied President Vladimir Putin and other Russian authorities over their response to the coronavirus pandemic. Goalkeeper Yevgeny Frolov, 32, made the comments in a Sunday interview with sports journalist Sergei Yegorov. He described the…
The transportation of unique equipment for the largest Russian dry dock under construction at the Zvezda Shipyard has been successfully completed in the town of Bolshoy Kamen
Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar said Monday he had “a popular mandate” to govern the country, declaring a key 2015 political deal over and vowing to press his assault to seize Tripoli, drawing concerned reactions from Moscow. Russia has been accused of propping up Haftar’s forces in their offensive against Libya’s UN-backed government with the use…
As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 211,000 people worldwide continues to spread, Russia has stepped up its measures to slow the pandemic’s spread within its borders. There have been 93,558 cases of coronavirus infections reported in Russia so far and 867 deaths. MT The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia as of April…
A second Russian doctor has fallen from a hospital building in a week as the country’s health system continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, with authorities ruling her death a tragic accident. Natalia Lebedeva, the chief EMS officer at a cosmonaut training center outside Moscow, plunged to her death Friday from the window of…
The majority of Russia’s cases are in Moscow, although Covid-19 patients have been confirmed in every one of Russia’s 85 regions and the spread is accelerating outside the capital. Since March 30, all of Moscow’s 12 million residents have been ordered to stay in their homes with few exceptions. City officials have warned the capital…
The Russian economy has been rocked by the coronavirus outbreak, and fears the fresh OPEC+ oil production pact between Russia and Saudi Arabia will not be enough to address a historic fall in demand. The turmoil has shocked traders around the world and resulted in sharp volatility on the Russian stock markets and swings in…
A region in northern Russia will create an interactive map of confirmed coronavirus patients’ addresses for residents to avoid, its governor said Monday. Russian coronavirus patients have previously reported being targeted with online bullying, threats and intimidation as well as leaks of their personal data. “I issued instructions to make an online map of all…
Six-time short-track Olympic champion Viktor Ahn announced Monday he is retiring due to repeated injuries. Ahn, 34, was born in South Korea but became a naturalized Russian before the 2014 Sochi Olympics where he won three gold medals. In a letter published by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency, he said permanent knee pain and…
The mayor of Prague has said he is under heightened police protection the day after Czech media reported on an alleged Russian plot to poison him. Zdenek Hrib confirmed the news in a Monday interview with the independent Ekho Moskvy radio station. On Sunday, the Czech news website Respekt, citing anonymous intelligence sources, reported that an individual…
Russian doctors mistrustful of official coronavirus data have launched an unofficial list of their colleagues who have died from the virus. The news comes as a growing number of hospitals across Russia have reported Covid-19 outbreaks among doctors and patients in recent weeks. At least 69 Russian doctors have died from coronavirus-related complications as of…
Russian and Belarussian doctors mistrustful of official coronavirus data have launched an unofficial list of their colleagues who have died from the virus. The news comes as a growing number of hospitals across Russia have reported Covid-19 outbreaks among doctors and patients in recent weeks. At least 69 doctors in the two countries have died…
President Vladimir Putin’s “business tsar” has called for the government to end the economic lockdown and reopen the economy. Boris Titov, the president’s business ombudsman, announced Monday he will organize an online protest Friday calling for businesses to be reopened, as frustration at the government’s economic response to the coronavirus grows throughout Russia’s business community.…
Nurses have quit en masse from Russia’s top coronavirus hospital in Moscow over poor working conditions and low wages, the investigative news website Open Media reported Monday. A former nurse who said she quit the Kommunarka hospital after almost two months told the outlet that more than a dozen nursing staff had left in that…
Russian paratroopers in the Arctic have carried out a test landing from an altitude of 10,000 meters in what officials say is a historic exercise. “Today, for the first time in world history, we conducted a group landing of personnel with special parachute systems in Arctic conditions from a height of 10,000 meters using oxygen…
Russia re-entered the world’s top five defense spending nations in 2019 after briefly falling to sixth place the previous year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)’s latest annual report published Monday. Global defense spending saw its highest one-year increase since 2010 last year, rising by 3.6% to $1.917 trillion, the Swedish think…
President Vladimir Putin is not waiting out the coronavirus pandemic in a bunker, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday. Putin began working remotely at the start of April, a week after visiting Russia’s main coronavirus hospital in Moscow whose chief doctor tested positive for the deadly virus soon after the president’s visit. “There are always…
Russia will begin drawing up lockdown exit plans to switch the economy back on, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Monday. In a meeting with ministers, Mishustin ordered various government departments to start working out how businesses could get back to work once the coronavirus pandemic becomes less severe, news site RBC reported. “As the situation…
The head of a Siberian hospital repurposed for coronavirus patients is in critical condition after she fell from the hospital building following a conference call with health officials, local media reported Saturday. Yelena Nepomnyashchaya, 47, fell from a fifth-floor window of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Hospital for War Veterans after talks with the head of the…
A Russian Orthodox Church official has urged women not to reprimand their husbands during coronavirus lockdown in order to avoid domestic conflict — and to punish themselves if they do. Bishop Panteleimon’s remarks come three years after Russia scrapped criminal punishments for first-time domestic abuse offenses and as the coronavirus pandemic has stalled efforts to…
A prisoner in penal colony no. 1 in the city of Yaroslavl has less than three months left of his three-year sentence for drug possession. But with the coronavirus raging around Russia, July 15 feels like an eternity away. “It’s impossible to keep any sort of distance from each other here,” he said. “The guards…
As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 206,000 people worldwide continues to spread, Russia has stepped up its measures to slow the pandemic’s spread within its borders. There have been 87,147 cases of coronavirus infections reported in Russia so far and 794 deaths. MT The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia as of April…
The majority of Russia’s cases are in Moscow, although Covid-19 patients have been confirmed in every one of Russia’s 85 regions and the spread is accelerating outside the capital. Since March 30, all of Moscow’s 12 million residents have been ordered to stay in their homes with few exceptions. City officials have warned the capital…
The Russian economy has been rocked by the coronavirus outbreak, and fears the fresh OPEC+ oil production pact between Russia and Saudi Arabia will not be enough to address a historic fall in demand. The turmoil has shocked traders around the world and resulted in sharp volatility on the Russian stock markets and swings in…
The majority of Russia’s cases are in Moscow, although Covid-19 patients have been confirmed in every one of Russia’s 85 regions and the spread is accelerating outside the capital. Since March 30, all of Moscow’s 12 million residents have been ordered to stay in their homes with few exceptions. Moscow Deputy mayor Anastasia Rakova has…
As Belarus resists imposing a lockdown to combat the coronavirus, its football league has stumbled into the international limelight as Europe’s only remaining top-flight competition. But players are worried about the health risks and only diehard fans are braving matches. FC Slutsk fan Yahor Khavanski, 26, is “a bit afraid” but could not imagine quitting…