As the world’s attention remains fixated on the war in Ukraine and the constant intrigue of Kremlin politics, it is easy to overlook what has been happening in Russia’s regions. Yet the past year proved to be no less eventful for the regions beyond Moscow than it was for the country as a whole. Here…
The breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia on Wednesday ratified a deal transferring a dacha in the coastal town of Pitsunda to Russia’s Federal Protection Service (FSO). Located on the Black Sea Coast, the Soviet-built Pitsunda dacha has long been a popular holiday destination for Soviet, Russian and allied leaders. Its transfer has sparked protests by locals concerned that…
Pro-peace Russian presidential candidate Yekaterina Duntsova announced Wednesday that she plans to form a new political party after the Supreme Court upheld the electoral commission’s rejection of her candidacy. Duntsova, 40, a journalist from the Tver region northwest of Moscow, launched her bid for the presidency in November on a pro-peace, pro-democracy platform. Though she secured…
Dozens of sailors remain missing following a Ukrainian missile strike on a large Russian naval landing ship in annexed Crimea, Russian news outlets have reported, citing anonymous sources. Ukraine’s Air Force claimed to have destroyed the Novocherkassk landing ship with cruise missiles at the port of Feodosia on Tuesday. The Kremlin only acknowledged that Novocherkassk…
George Orwell’s “1984” has earned the distinction of being the most stolen book from the shelves of Russia’s Chitai-Gorod bookstore chain in 2023. The dystopian classic, which was stolen from Chitai-Gorod stores 460 times, was also among the top 10 most-purchased books from the chain this year, the company said in a press release cited…
Russia has redirected its oil exports from Europe to China and India, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Wednesday, almost two years after Moscow was hit by Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict. After President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries hit Russia with a slew of sanctions including a European Union…
The international direct-sales cosmetics brand Avon has suspended plans to sell its business in Russia over the Kremlin’s steep exit tax, the Kommersant daily reported Wednesday, citing two anonymous industry sources. The U.S.-based Avon, owned since 2020 by Brazilian multinational Natura & Co., announced in March 2022 that it had halted investments in Russia and exports from…
From mercenary leaders to pro-Kremlin pop stars — and from opposition activists to conservative internet crusaders — these were the biggest names in the headlines in 2023: Yevgeny Prigozhin Yevgeny Prigozhin. Lev Borodin / TASS Known as “Putin’s chef,” Yevgeny Prigozhin became a prominent restaurateur and government caterer in the 1990s after leaving prison. Today…
The past year has been another year of significant change in Russia, from drone attacks, cross-border incursions and the Wagner mutiny to the arrests of journalists, the ICC’s arrest warrant for Putin and Azerbaijan’s takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh. Here is a look back at some of the top headlines of 2023: Ukraine’s Much-Anticipated Counteroffensive Floundered Analysts…
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief said on Tuesday his forces had pulled back to the outskirts of the town of Maryinka, a day after Moscow claimed full control of the key town. “We have now moved to the outskirts of Maryinka, and in some places already beyond the boundaries of the settlement,” Valerii Zaluzhnyi told reporters in Kyiv.…
Russian celebrities and pop stars have started issuing on-camera apologies for attending a scandalous “almost naked” party that was widely condemned in pro-Kremlin circles as unpatriotic and disrespectful of Russian soldiers. After initially dismissing the public outcry over footage of scantily clad celebrities and other guests at last week’s private party at a Moscow nightclub, the party’s organizer,…
The Kremlin is investing in movements of wives and mothers who support the war in Ukraine and promote traditional values to counter the growing influence of protesting relatives of soldiers, according to a report by the independent news outlet Holod published Tuesday. Mobilized soldiers’ relatives, most notably the Put’ Domoi (Way Home) group, are demanding the return…
Over 1,000 roe deer have invaded the Omsk region in western Siberia due to abnormal weather, with around 100 animals wandering in the city of Omsk, the region’s deputy natural resources minister told local television Monday. Icy rains in late November, which were followed by severe frosts, could have triggered the sudden migration of the deer, which…
“They forced me to castrate a pig because I wanted gender-affirming surgery.” Ada Blakewell, 23, a non-binary transgender woman, was undergoing hormone therapy when in August 2022 her parents took her to a private center in the Altai region to undergo “masculinization” — an attempt to change her to her birth sex. “My parents, with…
Russian authorities have issued arrest warrants for two popular animators and exiled opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov, the independent news website Mediazona reported Tuesday. The Russian Interior Ministry’s wanted persons database lists Gudkov, who served in Russia’s lower-house State Duma from 2011-16, alongside cartoonists Oleg Kuvayev and Pavel Muntyan. Kuvayev is the creator of the long-running flash-animated series “Masyanya,” whose…
Rosneft has completed the reconstruction of five boiler stations of the Nizhny Tagil heating and power complex
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday detailed his transfer to a high-security prison colony in Russia’s Arctic that had kept him from the public eye for nearly three weeks and raised concerns about his safety. In his first public letter since unveiling an anti-Putin 2024 presidential election strategy in a Dec. 7 post, Navalny sought to…
The Kremlin on Tuesday acknowledged a Ukrainian attack had damaged a warship in the occupied Crimean port of Feodosia in what Ukraine and its Western allies called a major setback for the Russian Navy. Feodosia is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet naval base on the annexed Crimean peninsula. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been located at a prison colony in Russia’s Arctic, his team said Monday, ending a frantic three-week search for the opposition figure’s whereabouts. Navalny’s spokeswoman said he had been found at the IK-3 prison colony in Kharp, a settlement in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district some 2,000 kilometers northeast of…
Jailed Moscow municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov was located at a prison hospital in the city of Vladimir on Monday after being missing for over two weeks, his supporters announced. Gorinov, 62, was sentenced to seven years in prison in April 2022 for spreading “knowingly false information” about the Russian military. He has been serving the sentence…
Authorities in northwestern Russia’s republic of Karelia have erected a monument to “victims of Finnish occupation” at a memorial site for the victims of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s purges, a local opposition deputy said Monday. The Sandarmokh memorial, where at least 6,000 gulag prisoners were buried in mass graves, is officially designated as a “burial place…
Russia said Monday that its forces have captured Maryinka, a town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region that has been all but destroyed during Moscow’s invasion. “The assault detachment of the ‘South’ grouping completely liberated the settlement of Maryinka today,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting. Kyiv has not yet commented on Moscow’s…
If one story dominated the headlines from Russia in 2023, it was the rise and the fall of the murky and brutal Wagner mercenary group — and of its leader, the late Kremlin-linked catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin. Wagner rose to prominence as one of the driving forces of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine starting in mid-2022.…
The Rosneft pavilion at VDNKh hosted a presentation of unique robotic complexes for petrochemical equipment diagnostics as part of the Russia International Exhibition and Forum.
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been located in a prison colony in northern Russia after going missing for nearly three weeks, his spokeswoman said Monday. The disappearance of Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, who mobilized huge protests before being jailed in 2021, had spurred concerns from allies, rights groups and Western governments. “We have…
Officials in Russia’s Irkutsk region in southeastern Siberia have publicly denounced activists seeking to block a controversial bill that would ease logging restrictions along the shores of Lake Baikal, the Govorit NeMoskva news outlet reported Monday. In an open letter, 34 regional officials, including six mayors, accused environmental activists of waging a cyberbullying campaign and inciting…
Russian authorities have opened at least 190 criminal cases against Wagner mercenaries who were pardoned in exchange for fighting in Ukraine, the independent media outlet Vyorstka reported Monday. Russia’s Defense Ministry and the Wagner mercenary group have recruited heavily from Russian prisons to bolster their manpower in Ukraine, promising convicts a pardon in exchange for military…
Foreign shareholders have suspended their participation in Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project due to U.S. sanctions, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday, citing anonymous government sources. The United States in November issued sanctions on Arctic LNG as part of broader measures targeting Russia’s future energy production and other areas over its invasion of Ukraine. The European Union…
A fire erupted on board Russia’s Sevmorput nuclear-powered cargo ship, authorities said Monday, adding that the blaze was quickly extinguished. Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said it had dispatched crews to vessel manager Atomflot’s base outside the Arctic city of Murmansk late on Sunday. “It was established there was a fire in one of the Sevmorput cabins spanning…
Rosneft launched a project to adapt technologies to control fugitive emissions of methane and other hydrocarbons and improve industrial safety at production facilities of its refineries.
Hundreds of supporters of Igor Girkin, a jailed former commander of Russian-backed fighters in Ukraine, rallied in Moscow Sunday to back his bid to stand for president. Better known by his alias Igor Strelkov, Girkin was a key leader of separatist fighters in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The nationalist…
Iran has summoned Russia’s envoy to protest a recent statement by Moscow and Arab countries calling for talks over three islands controlled by Tehran but claimed by the United Arab Emirates. The summoning of Moscow’s charge d’affaires came days after Iran’s key ally Russia signed a joint declaration with Arab countries which “supported peaceful solutions…
Two suspects have been detained in Riga following a grenade attack at a bar where journalists from the BBC Russian service had gathered, Latvian police said Sunday. While police claimed the motive was a “personal” conflict with the bar’s owners, many have speculated that it was a targeted intimidation effort against the journalists. An unidentified…
Russian bombardment killed four people and injured nine over 24 hours in the frontline southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, a regional official said Sunday. Russian forces fired 71 shells at Kherson from Saturday to Sunday morning, hitting the city center, residential areas, medical and educational institutions and “critical infrastructure facilities,” the region’s governor Oleksandr Prokudin…
ST. PETERSBURG — A pair of tall drag queens is performing on a stage, cracking jokes and interacting with the only three guests who have come to this gay bar on a Thursday night. The entrance to this renowned venue is marked only by a nondescript metal door in a dimly lit courtyard. “We could…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been telegraphing a readiness to discuss a ceasefire in his nearly two-year war on Ukraine through diplomatic backchannels, The New York Times reported Saturday. The report comes as the 22-month Russian invasion of Ukraine has effectively ground to a stalemate, Western aid for Kyiv is at risk of drying up…
The Communist Party of Russia, the second-largest party in parliament, on Saturday selected a 75-year-old to stand next March in presidential polls against Vladimir Putin. At a party congress in the Moscow region, the members held a single-candidate vote backing Nikolai Kharitonov. He won just under 14% of the national vote when he stood against…
Independent Russian presidential candidate Yekaterina Duntsova will not be permitted to appear on the ballot in the March 2024 vote after the Central Election Commission (CEC) rejected her nomination documents. Duntsova, 40, a journalist and local politician from the Tver region northwest of Moscow, announced her bid for the presidency in November on a pro-peace,…
Ukraine’s military said it has shot down three Russian fighter-bombers in the south of the country. Air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk said the Su-34 jets were downed around noon on Friday. In his announcement he noted a message found on a downed Russian drone which read “Die, bitches.” “Great idea! Here is our response!” he…
Police on Friday detained the deputy director of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos over the suspected embezzlement of 4.3 million euros ($4.7 million) from the crisis-hit sector. Oleg Frolov and two other suspects are accused of a “large-scale fraud,” said a statement from the Russian investigative committee, which handles major criminal investigations. “Frolov, using his official…
A man in the Russian city of Saratov has been detained on suspicion of arson after the door of a museum dedicated to the war in Ukraine was set on fire, the ASTRA Telegram news channel reported Friday. ASTRA identified the detainee as 21-year-old Saratov resident Maxim Kim and said no injuries had been reported in the early…
The leader of Armenian separatists, who were ousted from the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan this year, on Friday said his previous decree ordering the dissolution of separatist institutions was not valid. The statement appeared to undo a historic move by the separatists to dissolve the disputed territory that was at the center of two costly wars…
The United States said Friday it will impose sanctions on foreign banks that support Russia’s war in Ukraine, in a new bid to exert pressure on Moscow as it diversifies from the West to China. Under an executive order signed by President Joe Biden, the United States will slap so-called secondary sanctions against financial institutions…
Russian authorities have charged exiled liberal opposition politician Leonid Gozman with violating the country’s wartime censorship laws, the state-run TASS news agency reported Friday, citing an anonymous law enforcement source. Gozman is reportedly accused of spreading “fake news” about the Russian military’s actions in Ukraine. “He posted distorted statements about the leadership of Russia and the…
On Dec. 8, President Vladimir Putin, 71, announces his candidacy for a fifth term. Putin and Lieutenant Colonel Artyom Zhoga Artyom Zhoga, a former separatist fighter in eastern Ukraine, are seen after a ceremony to award Gold Star medals to people honored with the title of Hero of Russia, at the St. George’s Hall of…
Russian air defense systems have downed a Ukrainian drone approaching Moscow for at least the second time this week, the Defense Ministry said Friday. The Russian military referred to the afternoon drone incursion as “an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack.” Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the unmanned aircraft was shot down on…
A court in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan has sentenced ethnic Bashkir activist Ramilya Saitova to five years in prison over an anti-war video, local media reported Thursday. Saitova, 57, recorded and published a video appeal calling on Bashkir soldiers and mobilized men to refuse to fight during Russia’s partial military mobilization in the fall of…
The Rosneft pavilion at the Russia Expo hosted the Power Engineer’s Day
Udmurtneft (operated jointly by Rosneft and Sinopec) is introducing an alternative power supply system, which uses solar cells to power oil production facilities
Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s dramatic death by plane crash was ordered by Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and former spy, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing Western intelligence agencies and a Russian intelligence officer. The Kremlin has denied a role in the deaths of Prigozhin and…
President Vladimir Putin has ordered the seizure of Russia’s largest car dealership from exiled former lawmaker and billionaire Sergei Petrov, a presidential decree said Thursday. Shares in the Rolf dealership will be transferred from the Cypriot company Delance Limited and Rolf Motors to Russia’s Federal Property Management Agency (Rosimushchestvo), according to the document. This appears to…
Russian officials and pro-war activists have slammed a star-studded “almost naked” party hosted by media personality Anastasia Ivleeva for going against the country’s conservative values. Footage from the party at Mutabor, a popular Moscow nightclub, on Wednesday showed scantily clad pop stars Filipp Kirkorov, Lolita and Dima Bilan, as well as TV host and 2018…
The White House said Thursday it was preparing a new proposal to Russia to seek the release of two imprisoned Americans after Moscow rejected an earlier attempt. “We’re working hard to see what we can do to get another proposal that might be more successful,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. The State…
The Kremlin and the Defense Ministry plan to continue their campaign to recruit contract servicemen for the Russian army next year, our sources have said. Russia’s regions have already received the 2024 contract soldier recruitment plan from Moscow, and its quota is approximately the same as in 2023, a high-ranking source familiar with the military…
A Russian court Thursday condemned a former minister and ally of ex-president Dmitry Medvedev to 12 years in prison for embezzlement and criminal conspiracy. Mikhail Abyzov was also fined 80 million rubles ($860,000) by the Moscow court, according to Russian media reports. One of his lawyers, Arthur Bolshakov, told the TASS news agency that he…
The total area of the ice palace is 6500 m2.
Russian authorities have issued arrest warrants for two exiled associates of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the independent Mediazona news website reported Thursday. The Interior Ministry’s database of wanted persons lists investigator Maria Pevchikh and Navalny YouTube channel host Dmitry Nizovtsev, both of whom live outside Russia. The database does not indicate which criminal charges Pevchikh and…
Russia on Thursday handed long jail sentences to a Ukrainian man and another individual for financing an ultranationalist group in Ukraine by selling illegal drugs. Thousands of Russians have been detained for protesting Russia’s large-scale military campaign against Ukraine and authorities have handed out long jail terms to people accused of providing material support to…
A 34-year-old man died in hospital after being hit by a falling ice block while standing in line at the Lyubertsy military enlistment office in the Moscow region, the local prosecutor’s office said Thursday. The accident on Wednesday left three other people injured, prompting investigators to open a criminal case of causing death by negligence.…
Kazakhstan will extradite Russian cybersecurity expert Nikita Kislitsin to face hacking and extortion charges in his home country, Moscow’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced Thursday. Kislitsin was detained in the Central Asian country in June following an extradition request from the United States, which accused him of buying personal data obtained through the 2012 hack of the…