Russia’s nationwide paid holiday aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus came to an end Monday as some regions kept the restrictions in place and many others implemented digital passes showing proof of vaccination or recent Covid-19 recovery. President Vladimir Putin ordered the partial lockdown from Oct. 30 to Nov. 7 in a bid…
Russia on Saturday reported a record number of daily coronavirus cases as the country reaches the end of a nationwide paid holiday introduced to curb the spread of infections. Saturday’s official tally registered 41,335 new cases in the past 24 hours, the highest number of new infections since the beginning of the pandemic. The country…
A Russian diplomat linked to the Federal Security Service (FSB) was found dead outside Russia’s Embassy in Berlin after apparently falling from an upper-floor window, Germany’s Der Spiegel news website reported Friday. Berlin police reportedly found the unnamed 35-year-old man’s lifeless body on the sidewalk in front of the embassy building on the morning of…
Dozens of ambulance workers in Russia’s Far East have staged a mass walkout in opposition to coronavirus vaccine mandates, media reported this week. Residents of the town of Obluchye 6,000 kilometers east of Moscow risk being left without emergency care after all 15 ambulance workers submitted resignations in protest of the vaccine requirements. “They say they…
The Dutch supreme court on Friday overturned an order for Russia to pay $50 billion to former shareholders in dismantled oil giant Yukos, but shunted the lengthy legal saga back to a lower court for more hearings. The ex-shareholders were awarded compensation in 2014 by a Hague-based arbitration tribunal for the break-up of Yukos after its former…
Moscow police arrested dozens of nationalists planning to hold the annual far-right Russian March in the Russian capital, the police-monitoring website OVD-Info reported Thursday. The ultra-nationalist Russian March has been held every Nov. 4, the day of Russia’s National Unity Day state holiday, with and without the authorities’ permission since 2005. That year, President Vladimir…
A Russia expert who was a key source for the explosive dossier by former British spy Christopher Steele that purportedly documented ties between Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign and Moscow was arrested Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department said. Igor Danchenko, a consultant and former researcher in Russian affairs at the Brookings Institution, was indicted for…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday vowed to back Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko against foreign “interference,” as the two signed a series of agreements on closer integration. Speaking during a televised video meeting with Lukashenko, Putin hailed the bilateral ties between Russia and Belarus and promised Moscow’s continued backing for the increasingly isolated Lukashenko. “We…
Danish authorities have detained a Russian research vessel in the northern port of Skagen as part of a legal dispute with a Canadian company, the Russian Embassy in Denmark said Thursday. The state-owned Akademik Ioffe, which belongs to Russia’s Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, was detained on Monday and its documents seized, the Embassy said in…
Inflation in Russia climbed to its highest level in almost six years in October as the government and Central Bank struggle to rein in rapid price rises which threaten to undermine economic recovery. Inflation hit 8.1% last month, the Rosstat national statistics service said Wednesday — the fastest rate of price increases since February 2016,…
Russia has expelled a second foreign correspondent in two months over past minor infractions, a move that his publication called unusual. The deportation of Tom Vennink, Dutch daily de Volkskrant’s Russia correspondent, follows BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford’s expulsion in August. Russian authorities revoked Vennink’s residence permit on Monday and gave him three days to leave the…
A Russian cargo plane crash landed and caught fire in Siberia on Wednesday leaving no survivors among five to seven people believed to be on board, local authorities said. The Antonov An-12 aircraft “disappeared from radars” during its final approach outside the eastern city of Irkutsk, the emergencies ministry said on its Telegram channel. It…
Russian investors are taking interest in the crematorium business as Russians continue to die from the coronavirus at unprecedented rates — all while the country’s cemetery business is riddled with corruption, industry figures told The Moscow Times. Russia has one of the world’s highest excess death tolls from Covid, both on absolute terms and after…
An unseasonably rare forest fire has engulfed the Russian tundra as the country faces significant changes from climate change, Interfax reported Wednesday. Some 360 hectares are burning despite below-zero temperatures in the Magadan region some 10,000 kilometers east of Moscow. “The tundra is usually covered with snow at this time of year, so such fires…
Rosneft will report its Q3 2021 IFRS financial results on Friday, November 12, 2021.
Moscow authorities have been cracking down on businesses staying open illegally during the city’s partial lockdown, as some company owners say they have no choice but to test the rules or risk going under. Officials posted clips of raids and searches of a number of premises that were reportedly violating Moscow’s shutdown earlier this week…
U.S. President Joe Biden has criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping for not attending the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow on Tuesday. Putin, citing coronavirus concerns in his decision to avoid traveling to the summit, recorded a video address that was delivered at COP26. Russia’s 270-person delegation was led by Putin’s climate…
Russia is calling on the United States to send embassy staff to Moscow in order to resume U.S. visa services, senior Russian diplomats said Tuesday. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov issued the invitation after the U.S. Embassy in Moscow stopped processing immigrant visas, requiring Russians to travel to the Embassy in Warsaw to apply. The U.S. State…
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns met the head of Russia’s powerful Security Council for talks in Moscow on Tuesday, the council’s press service said. Burns and Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev discussed “Russian-American relations,” it said in a terse statement. Burns’ visit to Moscow was not previously announced and the Security Council released…
Russia is not one of over 90 countries that promised at the COP26 summit Tuesday to slash their methane emissions, The New York Times reported. Experts say cutting methane, which can heat the atmosphere up to 80 times as fast as carbon dioxide, is the single most effective way of reducing short-term greenhouse gas emissions…
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday told his defense chiefs to work on further developing Russia’s arsenal of drones, especially through artificial intelligence. During a meeting with senior Defense Ministry officials, Putin said the military already had more than 2,000 drones at its disposal. “More work must be done on this… in particular through the use…
Russia’s Supreme Court will not hear the case of the surviving descendants of Stalin-era Gulag prisoners fighting for state compensation, according to a court database spotted by Russian media Tuesday. The dwindling group of so-called “Gulag Children” filed a class action lawsuit against Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, last week to demand the…
As world leaders gather in Glasgow for the COP26 climate summit in hopes of agreeing on a strategy to avoid catastrophic global warming, Russia stands to face significant changes from climate change in the coming decades. Here’s a look at some of the ways Russia, which is warming 2.5 times faster than the planet, is…
Prominent Russian ex-journalist Ivan Safronov faces new charges of treason, his former lawyer said Tuesday as reports indicated that authorities were wrapping up their investigation into his case. Though case materials are classified, investigators allege that NATO recruited Safronov in 2012 and that he passed secret information on Russia’s military activities in the Middle East…
Foreign tourists are canceling trips to Russia in droves over confusion surrounding digital coronavirus passes after current nationwide restrictions are lifted, the Russian Association of Tour Operators (ATOR) said Tuesday. ATOR head Maya Lomidze said foreign visitors vaccinated with non-Russian jabs are not allowed to visit popular tourist destinations like museums and theaters in certain…
Ukraine has denied reports of a Russian military build-up near its eastern border that raised fears of a new escalation in fighting with pro-Moscow separatists. Social media videos in recent days showed Russian military trains and truck convoys moving tanks and missiles in the country’s southwest near the Ukrainian border. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told…
Ukraine has denied reports of a Russian military buildup near its eastern border that raised fears of a new escalation in fighting with pro-Moscow separatists. The statement came hours before a government official said Tuesday that Ukraine’s Defense Minister Andriy Taran had resigned — reportedly on health grounds. Taran, who had led the ministry since…
Russia has joined over 100 countries in promising to end deforestation by 2030, in the first major deal of the COP26 climate summit taking place in Glasgow this week. The pledge, to be announced Tuesday, includes around $20 billion in funds for protection of woodlands worldwide, according to summit hosts the British government. Felling forests…
Russia will soon implement nationwide digital passes showing proof of vaccination or recent recovery from coronavirus to enter public areas and events, the state-run TASS news agency reported Monday. News of the digital pass system, which was first briefly used in Moscow this summer, comes amid a nationwide paid holiday aimed at reversing a record surge…
Half of Russians are unafraid of contracting the coronavirus, according to an independent Levada Center poll published Monday. While 50% of Russian respondents said they are unafraid of contracting the virus, the Levada poll found that 48% are afraid of it, an increase from 43% in August. The country with Europe’s highest Covid-19 death toll…
Russian authorities said Monday that doctors were under “extraordinary” strain due to surging coronavirus cases in Europe’s worst-hit country, with Moscow shuttered during a nationwide holiday to curb infections. The capital was quiet on the first morning of the working week, with businesses mostly closed and non-essential services in the capital halted from Oct. 28…
Russia is cutting its greenhouse gas emissions faster than the G7 group of nations, President Vladimir Putin said in his video address to the G20 summit in Rome on Sunday. Russia is heating 2.5 times faster than the rest of the planet and its Arctic regions are warming especially fast, Putin told the meeting of…
A recent leak at a pipeline owned by Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom pumped a huge cloud of potent greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere, Bloomberg reported, citing satellite tracking data from geoanalytics firm Kayrros SAS. Some 164 metric tons of methane (CH4) leaked into the atmosphere during a single hour of repairs on a…
Solar energy in Russia might be on the verge of a major expansion, thanks to a government support program for renewable energy sources, industry experts told The Moscow Times. Russia, the world’s fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has historically relied on its vast oil and gas reserves to bolster its economy. But the Kremlin has…
Russian billionaire Oleg Tinkov was required to pay nearly $509 million to settle U.S. charges of tax evasion, the U.S. Justice Department said Friday. The banking and investment tycoon paid the back taxes and fine after pleading guilty on October 1 to felony charges of concealing more than $1 billion in assets to avoid paying…
Russia’s excess death toll since the start of the coronavirus pandemic climbed to 723,000 even before the latest and most deadly wave of the virus took hold across the country, analysis of official government data shows. The Rosstat government statistics office said Friday that 201,945 people died from all causes during the month of September…
Russia’s Federal Statistics Agency Rosstat said Friday that 44,265 people died of coronavirus in the country in September — double the official government figure. That brings the agency’s tally of Covid-19 deaths in Russia to nearly 450,000, the highest toll in Europe. Russian authorities have been accused of downplaying the effects of the Covid-19…
A St. Petersburg blogger known for exploring abandoned urban and industrial sites has been sentenced to prison for spreading state secrets abroad. Investigators say Andrei Pyzh, 37, illegally obtained information relating to the design and technical features of classified facilities in the Moscow region from December 2018 until the time of his August 2020 detention. …
A Moscow court has sentenced two bloggers to nearly a year in prison for staging an X-rated photoshoot across from St. Basil’s Cathedral near the Kremlin, the state-run TASS news agency reported Friday. Ruslan Bobiyev, an internet prankster from ex-Soviet Tajikistan, stirred outrage last month with the photo of himself standing in front of St.…
Several Russian regions are facing medical oxygen shortages because of surging numbers of Covid-19 cases, doctors, oxygen suppliers and officials told The Moscow Times. Hospitals are struggling to find supplies of liquid oxygen to boost the lung function of patients as the country continues to see consecutive daily death records and has gone into partial…
Vogue Russia has featured a plus-size model on its cover for the first time in its 23-year history, drawing equal celebration and condemnation. The magazine’s November issue, which focuses on the upsides and downsides of the modeling industry, features Dutch model Jill Kortleve wrapped in a black Gucci jacket with feather trim, her unretouched backside…
When the Russian delegation touches down in Glasgow for the Cop26 climate summit this weekend, it will be representing a country with an increasingly split personality on environmental issues. Though still the world’s fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the Russia that will be on show in Scotland is one that has abandoned its previous refusal…
The United States and its allies on Thursday urged Russia to protect media freedom, condemning what they called a crackdown on independent outlets. In a joint statement, the United States and 17 other nations including France, Germany, and Britain said that Russia’s strenuous new requirements on media to label themselves as “foreign agents,” with fines…
A veteran Communist Party lawmaker has been detained on charges of illegal hunting in central Russia, police said Friday. Police in the Saratov region said they opened a criminal case into hunting without a license against Valery Rashkin and another man accompanying him in his vehicle. While responding to reports of gunfire in the area,…
Russia reported a record number of coronavirus deaths Friday as most of the country headed into its last day before a partial lockdown aimed at curbing soaring infections. According to government figures, 1,163 people died from Covid in the past 24 hours. That brings the official death toll to 236,220 — Europe’s highest — though…
The health of Georgia’s most famous prisoner, former president Mikheil Saakashvili, has deteriorated after nearly a month of a hunger strike. But the weaker he gets, the bigger problem he is becoming for the Georgian government. Saakashvili has been refusing food for nearly a month since he was detained following his dramatic, surreptitious return to Georgia at…
An annual commemoration of victims of Stalinist repressions has resumed live in person Friday after going online due to the coronavirus pandemic last year. The Memorial human rights group organizes the “Returning the Names” ceremony, an annual gathering outside the former KGB headquarters in central Moscow that takes place every Oct. 29. Participants read the names,…
A prominent Russian human rights lawyer who fled Russia to escape criminal charges has been placed on the country’s wanted list, he said Thursday. Ivan Pavlov left Russia for the Caucasus republic of Georgia in early September after authorities charged him with disclosing details of an investigation into his former client, jailed journalist Ivan Safronov. Russian…
President Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings are once again on the rise, according to an independent Levada Center poll published Thursday. The Russian president enjoys the approval of 67% of Russian respondents despite weeks of record Covid-19 infections and deaths that the authorities have largely pinned on slow vaccination uptake. Putin ordered a nationwide partial lockdown…
Russian authorities will probe whether a visitor who hung a portrait of himself at the famed Hermitage Museum broke the law against insulting veterans, St. Petersburg media reported Wednesday. According to the Fontanka.ru news website, Kirill Smorodin hung the portrait of himself wearing 19th-century military uniform at the museum’s Patriotic War of 1812 exhibit last…
Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft Igor Sechin has presented a keynote speech at the special session “Reliable energy and global energy transition” at the XIV Eurasian Economic Forum in Verona (Italy).
Three out of four unvaccinated Russians do not plan to get vaccinated against the coronavirus despite the authorities’ efforts to increase the population’s stubbornly low uptake, according to a Gallup survey. The international pollster published the results as Moscow and five Russian regions went into a partial lockdown Thursday, two days ahead of nationwide weeklong…
Russia reported a record number of coronavirus deaths and cases Thursday as Moscow and five other regions went into a partial lockdown to curb infections. According to government figures, 1,159 people died from Covid in the past 24 hours. Another 40,096 people have been infected — a daily record since the start of the pandemic.…
Russians are making travel plans en masse ahead of a nationwide non-working week introduced to stem the spread of coronavirus. President Vladimir Putin last week ordered the week-long paid holiday between Oct. 30-Nov. 7 in a bid to slow a Covid-19 wave that has seen record infections and deaths. This period, essentially a soft lockdown,…
Russian engineers have developed the country’s first walking robot dog prototype, the Moscow State University (MSU) has announced. The team said it took two years to build the dog-like robot “from scratch.” A short video posted on the MSU engineering project Voltbro’s YouTube page showcased some of the machine’s capabilities, like walking at different speeds…
The U.S. embassy in Moscow could stop performing most functions next year unless there is progress with Russia on increasing the number of visas for diplomats, a U.S. official warned Wednesday. The United States earlier this month stopped processing visas in Moscow, with Russians obliged to head to the US embassy in Warsaw. “We need…
The number of political prisoners in Russia has risen sharply this year in a trend that recalls late Soviet-era repression, Russia’s leading rights group Memorial said on Wednesday. It listed at least 420 political prisoners in Russia, including top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny who survived a poisoning attempt with Novichok nerve agent last year. That…
Sheltered by snow-spattered mountains, the Stordalen mire is a flat, marshy plateau, pockmarked with muddy puddles. A whiff of rotten eggs wafts through the fresh air. Here in the Arctic in Sweden’s far north, about 10 kilometers east of the tiny town of Abisko, global warming is happening three times faster than in the rest…
The Kremlin said Wednesday that talks with Moldova’s pro-European government on gas prices are “exclusively commercial” and denied any political pressure was involved. Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu was due to meet with the head of Russia’s state-controlled energy giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller, in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. Spinu’s government has declared a state…
Ukraine has destroyed the artillery of pro-Russian separatists in the country’s east in its first combat deployment of a Turkish drone, the Ukrainian military announced Tuesday. Footage published on the Ukrainian armed forces’ Facebook page showed the Bayraktar TB2k targeting and shooting a Soviet-era howitzer it identified as the pro-Russian forces’ D-30. The Ukrainian armed…