Authorities in Moscow have ordered 260 million rubles ($4 million) of facial-recognition technology for surveillance cameras to monitor protests and other mass gatherings, the Vedomosti business daily reported Friday. Moscow claims one of the world’s largest network of 160,000 surveillance cameras, some equipped with facial-recognition technology, with plans to boost the number to 200,000 this…
A masked robber has allegedly tried to tase the head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, during a burglary, police said Friday. The attack came two days before Russians vote in regional elections, including in Moscow. The vote in the Russian capital has triggered weeks of protests after Pamfilova and her colleagues refused to register a…
A Russian court on Friday ordered the release on parole of two famous Russian football players jailed for their involvement in a pair of violent attacks last year, Russian news agencies reported on Friday. Alexander Kokorin and Pavel Mamayev, who both played in Russia’s top league and used to play for their country, apologized after…
Russia’s military is incorporating mercenaries hired by a wealthy ally of President Vladimir Putin into its planned offensive to help Syria’s army retake the last major stronghold held by jihadist rebels, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Hundreds of freelance fighters who answer to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the businessman known as “Putin’s chef”…
Authorities have raided three of opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s offices in Moscow on the eve of a local election where he is advocating voters to unseat Kremlin-backed candidates. The raids took place ahead of the Sept. 8 city legislature vote that galvanized this summer’s mass protests in Moscow when election officials disqualified opposition candidates, including…
Russian activist Konstantin Kotov has been sentenced to 4 years after a court convicted him of “multiple breaches” of Russian protest law, making him the second person ever to be prosecuted under the controversial legislation. The clause in the Russian Criminal Code punishing repeat violations of public demonstration rules became known as Ildar “Dadin’s article”…
At least three Russian soldiers have been killed in a firefight in Syria’s de-escalation zone this week, the Vedomosti business daily has reported Thursday, citing an unnamed military source. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, backed by Russian airpower, have been waging an offensive in the Idlib region, the last remaining rebel-held territory in Syria. Much…
An executive with Russia’s state engine maker has been arrested in Italy at the request of the U.S., which suspects him of economic espionage, the Fontanka.ru news website reported Thursday. Alexander Korshunov, 57, the head of business development at the state conglomerate Rostec’s subsidiary United Engine Corporation, was reportedly detained Tuesday as he arrived in…
The Kremlin has agreed to probe a senior member of Moscow’s city legislature over two investigations into his dealings by opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption team, the Vedomosti business daily reported. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) has claimed that municipal lawmaker Andrei Metelsky’s family owns a motorcycle dealership in Moscow and a hotel franchise in Austria…
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would produce missiles that were banned under a landmark Cold-War era nuclear pact that ended last month, but that Moscow would not deploy them unless the United States did so first. Speaking at an economic forum in Russia’s Far East, Putin said Moscow had urged the United…
“India is tuned toward interaction with Russia in the Arctic,” says a joint declaration signed this week by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Russia-India Summit in Vladivostok. “India is following the development of the Arctic region and is ready to play an important role in the Arctic Council,” the declaration…
A court in Kiev has ruled Thursday to release a potential key witness in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as Ukraine and Russia gear up for a highly anticipated prisoner exchange. Volodymyr Tsemakh had faced prison time for fighting on the side of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, leading observers to speculate that…
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that a major prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine was close, after a court in Kiev freed on bail a man suspected of involvement in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine in 2014. Ukraine is hoping to secure the release of dozens of prisoners, including 24 sailors…
Authorities have launched an inspection after an unnamed woman brought a grenade to the Federal Security Service (FSB) building in central Moscow, the Moskva news agency reported Thursday. The explosive device was reportedly seized from the 34-year-old Moscow region resident at the FSB’s reception hall late on Wednesday. “The woman explained that it was a…
Most Russians believe that wildfires have swept across Siberia this summer because of illegal logging and the authorities’ negligence, according to a new poll published by the independent Levada Center pollster. Activists and environmentalists have decried the authorities’ slow response to the fires, which at their peak covered an area the size of Belgium and…
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on Thursday that Tokyo’s military ties with the United States and many other issues made it hard for Japan and Russia to sign a World War Two peace treaty. Putin made the comment at an economic forum in Russia’s Far East after Abe called on…
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The Kremlin is in talks to set up a system to monitor what Russian internet users watch online, the Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday, citing unnamed government sources. Russia has in recent years attempted to curb internet freedoms by blocking access to certain websites and messaging services such as Telegram. The country has required search…
Ahead of Sunday’s nationwide regional elections, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, is urging voters dissatisfied with the status quo to ignore their ideological beliefs and focus solely on casting the ruling United Russia party out of power. But in the Russian capital, voters heading to the polls to select deputies for the Moscow…
As part of the 5th Eastern Economic Forum, Rosneft has held a round table with leading representatives of the energy industry of Japan and heads of major Japanese corporations.
India has ordered a “breakthrough” $14.5 billion of Russian-made weapons since last year despite sanctions pressure from the United States, Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation (FSVTS) has said. India is the largest buyer of Russian military hardware, having signed a $5 billion deal for Russian S-400 surface to air missile systems last…
Russian media have dubbed Tuesday “Judgment Day” for the number of court decisions related to this summer’s wave of Moscow anti-government protests that took place. A blogger was sentenced to five years behind bars over a tweet that seemingly threatened the families of security officers accused of violently detaining protesters. The court’s seemingly contradictory move…
The 250-meter long Korolev Prospect tanker set out from Murmansk fully loaded with oil on August 28. Seven days into its eastbound course, it reached Cape Dezhnev in the Bering Strait. The tanker is expected to arrive in a Chinese port by Sept. 14. It is the first time that an LNG-powered tanker will transit across…
Climate change is heating Russia at a faster rate than the rest of the world, the country’s environment ministry has said in a draft report of environmental data for 2018. Earlier reports have predicted that climate change will bring epidemics, drought and mass hunger to Russia if left unchecked. Melting permafrost in the Russian Arctic…
When Russian President Vladimir Putin slapped a tit-for-tat embargo on Western dairy products five years ago, cheese lovers lamented the replacement of parmesan camembert and cheddar on store shelves with bland, Russian-made substitutes filled with palm oil and other cheap additives. But for one man, the embargo was a dream come true. “I’m very grateful…
The Russian government has commissioned a new analysis of well samples at a drill site in a Norwegian Arctic archipelago used by the Soviet Union nearly 50 years ago. The Grumantskaya-1 well proved to be an underwhelming gas resource and was soon abandoned by Soviet authorities. Half a century later, Moscow is again interested in the…
Russia is planning to legalize a prescription drug used to treat epilepsy which almost landed two mothers in jail this summer after they had ordered the unregulated pharmaceutical online for their epileptic children. The drug smuggling accusations against the two mothers have sparked calls to re-register the epilepsy drug that Russia’s health minister said had no demand…
Russia and India said on Wednesday they planned to continue legitimate economic and trade cooperation with Iran, the state-run RIA news agency reported, citing a joint statement issued after talks between the two country’s leaders. The statement was released after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks at an economic…
President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi have visited the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex located in Bolshoy Kamen, Primorsky Region.
German media outlet Deutsche Welle has turned down an invitation to attend Russian lawmakers’ hearings on alleged foreign interference over this summer’s anti-government protests, saying its journalism standards make such meddling impossible. Weeks of demonstrations over elections for the Moscow city legislature have become the biggest sustained protest movement in Russia since 2011-2013. The Foreign…
Bulgaria lambasted a World War II exhibition organized by the Russian Embassy marking “the liberation of Eastern Europe from Nazism,” saying the region had instead been subjected to a half-century of repression by “Soviet army bayonets.” In a statement, the Foreign Ministry of Bulgaria — which for decades a Soviet satellite in Eastern Europe but now…
Russian authorities have begun handing jail sentences to activists on protest-related charges after they took to the streets in support of fair elections this summer. The Investigative Committee opened criminal proceedings following the July 27 opposition protest and placed 14 suspects of what it called mass civil unrest in pre-trial detention. Charges of mass civil unrest carry a…
Two pilots’ bodies have been found a day after their Su-25 fighter jet had crashed during a training flight in southern Russia, rescue services told newswires Wednesday. Searches had been underway since Tuesday afternoon for the two pilots, who had ejected from the Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack jet in the Stavropol region, Interfax cited the…
Journalists in northern Russia have measured high levels of radiation near two abandoned boats that were brought ashore following last month’s mysterious accident during a test at a military site that has raised international concerns and safety fears. Five nuclear engineers and two Defense Ministry employees were killed after a liquid propulsion system exploded on…
Russia’s natural resources and environment minister said on Wednesday he supported allowing private oil and gas companies to work on the Arctic shelf. Speaking to reporters at an economic forum in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, the minister, Dmitry Kobylkin, said he supported “any decision linked to an increase in investment in projects…
Its streets helped form the backdrop for this year’s hit TV show Chernobyl, which depicted a deadly explosion at the Soviet-era nuclear plant in 1986. Now, the Baltic city of Vilnius is preparing for its own potential real-life atomic catastrophe. The Lithuanian capital is on edge over the imminent opening of a nuclear-power facility just…
Authorities in Russia’s predominantly Muslim republic of Ingushetia have issued a brochure for the new school year instructing women to “defer” to men no matter their age. The brochure “promoting the Ingush people’s traditional values” includes visual depictions of the “Ingush code of conduct” and is printed in Russian and Ingush as well as English.…
A New York-based film student has been charged with drug possession in St. Petersburg for allegedly bringing medical marijuana into the country. Russia bans the circulation of drugs including marijuana and other cannabinoids, whose use is legalized in certain U.S. states and European countries. U.S. citizen Audrey Elizabeth Lorber was allegedly found in possession of…
A Su-25 fighter jet crashed during a training flight in southern Russia, news agencies reported Tuesday, citing the Defense Ministry. Searches are underway for the two pilots who had ejected from the Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack jet in the Stavropol region, Interfax cited the Defense Ministry as saying. The plane reportedly crashed in a deserted…
A kindergarten in a coal-mining region of Siberia has been temporarily shut down after an inspection uncovered high levels of the radioactive gas radon. Humans cannot see, smell or taste radon, a gas that causes cancer. It is created from the natural decay of uranium in soil and rocks and can seep into homes through…
Two Russian couples have gotten away with a warning after authorities had threatened to strip them of parental rights over their young children for taking them to unauthorized anti-Kremlin rallies in Moscow. The two couples faced losing custody after being filmed with their children at what the authorities said were unauthorized rallies in support of…
A Russian blogger has been sentenced to five years in jail for a tweet that the authorities said advocated violence against the children of law enforcement officers at the height of this summer’s opposition protests in Moscow. Thousands took to the streets and hundreds were detained, sometimes violently, on July 27 during unauthorized demonstrations in…
A majority of Russians don’t believe in the authorities’ claim that Western powers are to blame for election protests in Moscow this summer, according to the independent Levada Center polling agency. Weeks of demonstrations over elections for the city legislature have turned into the biggest sustained protest movement in Russia since 2011-2013. Russia has accused the…
One of Russia’s 200 most successful private companies has become the first major brand to feature a model wearing a hijab, an Islamic headscarf, in one of its advertisements. Russia has had a conflicted relationship with allowing Muslim girls and women to wear headscarves. In 2017, a village school in Russia’s predominantly Muslim republic of…
Russian opposition activist Lyubov Sobol, an ally of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, was detained by police on Monday after a weekend protest in Moscow, Navalny’s spokeswoman said on Twitter. A few thousand Russians took to the streets of Moscow on Saturday to demand free elections to the capital’s city legislature on Sept. 8, defying a…
Moscow hosted a new dance party last week featuring a line-up composed exclusively of refugees who are DJs. The Civic Assistance Committee, a Russian NGO that helps migrants in Moscow, hosted the event. Meet Simba, a DJ from Zimbabwe, as he shares the difficulties and hopes of life in Russia’s capital.
A series of corruption scandals, cost overruns and mishaps at Russia’s new Vostochny Cosmodrome have brought long-simmering questions about the leadership of the country’s space agency into public view. “The situation is unacceptable for everyone, including the construction of the first stage and the second stage” of the space center, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov…
Russian lawmakers have ordered a study on assisted human reproduction, including a cutting-edge and controversial gene-editing technology that would create a “new type of society.” New gene-editing tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 have made it possible to rearrange the genetic code much more precisely and at lower costs than before. A Chinese scientist caused outrage last…
Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky hopes a new documentary film about his life chronicling his journey from being Russia’s richest man to an exiled dissident will open the West’s eyes to the nature of modern Russia. The film, “Citizen K,” was made by Oscar-winning U.S. filmmaker Alex Gibney and premiered at the Venice Film festival this…
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said on Monday after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that Tehran welcomed a Russian proposal for ensuring security in the Gulf. Iran and Russia’s energy ministers were also holding talks in Moscow on Monday, Lavrov told reporters at a joint news conference with Zarif.
The international community has called for restraint as Georgia warned of a “serious confrontation” with the Russian-backed breakaway territory of South Ossetia last week. Only Moscow and a handful of other states have recognized the independence of South Ossetia after Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war over the region in August 2008. Russian troops…
Crimea has offered Iran access to its ports as a way for Tehran to avoid Western sanctions on oil exports, a senior official in the annexed region’s Kremlin-backed administration told Russian media. Iran is increasingly looking for alternative trade routes to skirt tensions in the Persian Gulf brought on by U.S. sanctions. The OPEC member’s…
On the last official day of summer in Russia, several thousand people in Moscow turned out for what has become the flavor of the season: the Saturday protest. But the turnout was lower and the mood subdued compared with previous demonstrations in this year’s summer of discontent, which saw as many as 50,000 people at…
Thousands of Russians took to the streets of central Moscow on Saturday to demand free elections to the capital’s city legislature on Sept. 8, defying a ban which has been enforced with violent detentions during previous protests. Weeks of demonstrations over elections for the city legislature have turned into the biggest sustained protest movement in…
Sept. 1 in Russia marks the beginning of the school year for Russian students and the unofficial start of fall. But with summer barely behind us, we’re not ready to let the season go just yet. The past three months have been tumultuous ones for Russia. It seemed like the country was simultaneously burning, drowning…
Russian students are preparing for Sept. 1, which marks the beginning of the school year and the onset of fall. But with summer barely behind us, we’re not ready to let the season go just yet. The past three months have been tumultuous ones for Russia. It seemed like the country was simultaneously burning, drowning…
Ninety-eight percent of Moscow’s popular shawarma restaurants do not comply with Russian food hygiene standards, according to the city consumer protection watchdog. Last year, a Federal Consumer Protection Service (Rospotrebnadzor) inspection uncovered foodborne bacterial pathogens in a majority of the 252 shawarma spots in Moscow. This year, health violations were uncovered in 65 of 66…
Russia is ramping up its imports of plastic waste year after year as its lack of a national waste sorting system leaves recycling plants lacking enough raw materials, the RBC news website has reported. Russia generated over 7.2 billion tons of household and industrial waste in 2018, almost 315,000 tons of which were imported, according…
As far as marriage proposal pranks go, Russia is a torchbearer of the extreme and the unsparing. One such proposal — with armed men ambushing a couple and turning up fake drugs with an engagement ring inside — went viral and made international headlines this summer. The scenes of initial horror that turned into hysterical…
The development of the Northern Sea Route appeared on the agenda in the Foreign Ministry’s latest weekly press conference after several foreign leaders reportedly commented on the environment in the region. Among them was French President Emmanuel Macron, who was called upon to protect Arctic nature in a meeting with business leaders. According to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Macron had…