Russia’s S-400 is the “best all-around” missile defense system out there, the U.S. intelligence firm Stratfor has said in a new report, but it is severely limited if operating alone. Russia began delivering the S-400 surface-to-air system to Turkey last week, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling it “the strongest defence system against those…
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The Zverev Center for Contemporary Art, a gallery which occupies half of a small wooden cabin nestled into a shady corner of a park, is generally locked, but a sign on the door gives a number for the determined to call for access to the latest exhibition. Last month, this space was taken over by…
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When Yelena Ageyeva moved to the Moskvorechye-Saburovo neighborhood in southeastern Moscow in 1987, she was aware that there was a radioactive site across the railroad tracks from her apartment building. “They calmed us down by saying that it was all buried under soil and so we had nothing to worry about,” said the 59-year-old pensioner…
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Turkish will cooperate with Russia on the production of advanced missile defense systems, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said as the country continues to defy its NATO allies with purchases of Russia’s S-400 system. Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 from Russia has raised tensions with NATO and the United States, which has warned Turkey that…
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Hackers stole thousands of Bulgarians’ personal financial data and distributed it from a Russian-based email in an attack possibly related to the purchase of new F-16 fighter jets from the United States, the government said on Tuesday. The hackers accessed the National Revenue Agency’s (NRA) systems on Monday before sending local media confidential information purportedly…
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Violent clashes have erupted at a protest against plans for a new garbage processing facility in a Moscow suburb, with local activists saying that it has led to a spike in deforestation in the area. Over the past year, Moscow’s plans to ship waste outside its city limits have sparked widespread protests in parts of…
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An American teenager has been accused of raping a woman at a beach town in southern Russia, authorities have said. Investigators say the unnamed 19-year-old U.S. citizen invited the woman to his hotel room in the Black Sea town of Divnomorskoye Friday night, where he proceeded to rape her. A 16-year-old Russian was also allegedly involved…
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Vladimir Putin’s 20-trillion-ruble ($300 billion) weapons-buying binge over the last decade has brought advanced hypersonic warheads and drone submarines. It’s also left the country’s defense industry with a massive hangover of debt that officials now say is suffocating the strategic sector. The industry “is living from hand to mouth” and doesn’t have enough money to…
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“It’s being discussed — we’re thinking about it,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said Monday, the Interfax news service reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskiy, a former TV comic who won a landslide election victory in April, discussed the 24 imprisoned sailors during the first phone call between the two leaders last week. Zelenskiy, a…
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Background Gazprom Transgaz Ufa is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom. It performs gas transmission within the Republic of Bashkortostan. The company operates some 5,000 kilometers of gas trunklines. Gazprom Transgaz Ufa’s 16 branches include 9 gas pipeline operation centers, 12 compressor workshops, 82 gas compressor units, and 146 gas distribution stations. An environmental management system certified to ISO 14001:2015 is adopted at the company. Gazprom Transgaz Ufa has about 5,000 employees…
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Police in Moscow detained 39 protesters at a rally calling for opposition candidates to be allowed to run in September’s elections to the Russian capital’s parliament. Opposition leaders cried foul after Moscow’s election commission said most of their candidates failed to secure the required number of signatures to participate in the election.
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Relics of Saint Peter and Fevronia, the patrons of family and marriage in Orthodoxy, were transported to Moscow from the town of Murom on July 14. Pilgrims will be able to see the shrine and pray to the relics in Christ the Savior Cathedral from July 14 to July 21. Huge queues formed when St.…
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When the sun goes down, Moscow appears in a new light. But last weekend it changed in a special way when more than 22,500 people gathered for a great double event — the night run race and the bike parade. A column of more than 15,000 cyclists traveled about 11 kilometers through the main streets,…
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Humanity will die out if same-sex couples are granted the right to adopt children, the head of Russia’s upper house of parliament has claimed. Russia banned the adoption of children by same-sex couples and “propaganda of homosexuality among minors” in 2013. While some independent polls say Russians have largely negative views of LGBT people, other…
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A senior citizen has been detained in Russia for attempting to install a plaque commemorating Richard Nixon’s visit to a small mining town dating back 70 years. Vice President Richard Nixon traveled to Degtyarsk in 1959 as part of his visit to the Soviet Union, which culminated in his so-called “Kitchen Debate” with Nikita Khrushchev.…
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On January 29, 1860 in the Russian city of Taganrog on the coast of the Azov Sea, one of the world’s most famous playwrights and short story writers, was born. Chekhov had a difficult childhood shaped by his physically abusive father and his family’s precarious financial situation. From his school days, Chekhov supported his family…
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July 15, 2019 PAO Severstal (MICEX-RTS: CHMF; LSE: SVST), one of the world’s leading steel and steel-related mining companies, has published its Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development Report for the year ended 31 December 2018 on the Company’s corporate website. The full report is available at: https://www.severstal.com/files/28593/CSR_SD_Report_2018_EN.pdf
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The head of Russia’s Rosneft oil giant has asked the government for a 2.6 trillion ruble ($41.3 billion) tax break in exchange for large-scale investment in the Arctic, the Vedomosti business daily reported Monday. President Vladimir Putin has promised tax incentives and other benefits to encourage companies to develop the Arctic region and the Northern…
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One by one, opposition politicians who say the authorities are trying to remove them from the ballot for elections to Moscow’s city legislature this September climbed onto a ledge on City Hall Sunday afternoon and addressed around 2,000 protestors who had gathered to support them. The protest was the latest in a rising tide of…
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On this day in 1894, the writer, journalist and playwright Isaac Babel was born in Odessa, present-day Ukraine, to a middle-class Jewish family. Called “the greatest prose writer of Russian Jewry” and considered one of the luminaries of 20th-century Soviet literature, Babel is best-known for the semi-autobiographical short story collections “Red Cavalry” and “Story of…
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Set on the Kamchatka Peninsula, “Disappearing Earth” by Julia Phillips explores questions of gender and race ignited by the mysterious disappearance of two ethnically Slavic young girls, Alyona and Sophia. The novel follows different but interrelated female characters wrestling with these questions in their daily lives. A New Jersey native and graduate of Barnard College,…
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Russia flew a fresh shipment of advanced air defense equipment to Turkey on Saturday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said, continuing to implement a deal that is likely to trigger U.S. sanctions against a NATO ally. The ministry said a fourth Russian cargo plane landed at the Murted air base near the Turkish capital Ankara, a day after…
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Saudi Arabia, Russia and 35 other states have written to the United Nations supporting China’s policies in its western region of Xinjiang, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters on Friday, in contrast to strong Western criticism. China has been accused of detaining a million Muslims and persecuting ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang, and 22…
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Thousands of Buddhist pilgrims are travelling to Russia’s republic of Buryatia for the Kalachakra festival, celebrating world peace and harmony. An estimated 1 million Buddhists live in Russia, many in the republics of Kalmykia, Tuva and Buryatia — where the religion is traditionally practiced.
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Seven men believed to be supporters of the Islamic State terror group have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms in Russia on Friday for attempting to stage a collision on a high-speed railway between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The suspects, hailing from post-Soviet Tajikistan, placed a metal object on the tracks in an attempt to…
DetailsParis, July 10, 2019 – ROSATOM and the Commissariat for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy Sources (CEA) signed the Implementation Plan for the Strategic Document on Russian-French Partnership in the Field of Peaceful Use of Atomic Energy. On the Russian side, the document was signed by Alexey Likhachev, the Director General of ROSATOM, from the…
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A Russian national accused of fighting for the Islamic State militant group against Syrian government forces was arrested in Albania and will be extradited to Russia, Albanian police said on Friday. Police said the 34-year-old man, identified as R.M., who was born in and a resident of Norilsk in Russia, entered Albania illegally after a…
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The weather isn’t ideal, but cultural life, broadly defined, is hot this weekend in and around the Russian capital. Here is a troika of truly wonderful, unusual, and fun events you could join on Saturday. For love and peace On Saturday the 18th-century Apothecary Garden will be rocking a multi-format festival or electronic music, performances,…
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A Russian police officer has been convicted of negligence after telling a domestic violence victim to “come back when you’re dead” minutes before she was murdered. Police inspector Natalya Bashkatova received a domestic abuse call in the city of Oryol in late 2016 but refused to investigate the victim’s claims, telling her, “If he kills…
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HOLLYWOOD—With awards season around the corner, the mini-series “Chernobyl” continues to gain momentum in the entertainment world. Distributor HBO, now a unit of the AT&T telecom giant, is putting its muscle behind the series, giving it a competitive edge in the Emmy competition. Nominations will be announced on July 16. Jared Harris, who plays scientist…
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“The expedition cruises, including the Arctic, will become a trend. And we have already seen that this segment shows growth, faster than the rest of the cruise market, the tickets are commonly sold out six months ahead of the cruise departures,” Alexei Rakhmanov, president of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, Russia’s largest state-own shipbuilding company, said. Rakhmanov…
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New Russian payment system laws could lead the world’s largest credit and debit card companies Visa and Mastercard to exit the country’s market, the Kommersant business daily reported on Friday. U.S.-based Visa and Mastercard stopped servicing bank cards in annexed Crimea after the United States imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014. Russia created its own…
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The history of the Mariinsky Theater began on July 12, 1783, when Empress Catherine II approved the establishment of an Imperial drama, opera, and ballet troupe in St. Petersburg. This decree led to the construction of the Bolshoi Stone Theater, the Mariinsky Theater’s predecessor, and placed the first stone in what would become St. Peterbsurg’s…
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With public support for President Vladimir Putin wilting, the Kremlin is considering changing election rules in an effort to secure its lock on parliament ahead of potentially vital decisions that could extend his rule. Putin faces the end of what under the constitution must be his final presidential term in 2024. Though he’s given no…
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The first parts of a Russian S-400 missile defense system were delivered to NATO member Turkey on Friday, Russia has confirmed. Turkey’s acquisition of the Russian system is a source of tension between Turkey and NATO ally United States. The U.S. has demanded that Ankara abandon its deal with Moscow and purchase American-made Patriot systems…
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Over two thousand paratroopers landed at Naimanskaya military site near Black Sea on Thursday, July 11, as Russia staged large-scale aviation drills at the annexed Crimea peninsula. Russian paratroopers were dropped from Il-76 transport planes 100 meters apart and landed on this site for the first time, according to Russian Military Transport Aviation Commander, Lieutenant…
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A top official at the Russian national pension fund has pleaded guilty to charges of accepting a bribe and submitted his resignation, Russian media reported. Law enforcement authorities detained deputy chairman of the pension fund Alexei Ivanov on Wednesday, the TAdviser business news website had reported. Ivanov was taken into custody ahead of the fund’s key…
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Background Gazprom Dobycha Astrakhan is a subsidiary of Gazprom focused on prospecting, exploration and development of hydrocarbon fields. The Levoberezhnaya part of the Astrakhanskoye gas and condensate field with an area of 1,360 square kilometers has been in operation since 1986. The field produces formation fluid with a high content of sulfur (25 per cent) and carbon dioxide (15 per cent). The company has around 300 wells of various use, hundreds…
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Moscow’s weather will feel like that of present-day Detroit while St. Petersburg’s will more closely resemble that of Sofia three decades from now, researchers warned. A fifth of the world’s major cities will face “unknown” climate conditions by 2050 as rising temperatures heighten the risks of drought and flooding, according to climate scientists at The…
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July 12, 2019 PAO Severstal (MICEX-RTS: CHMF; LSE: SVST), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and steel-related mining companies, today announces its operational results for Q2 2019. Q2 2019 GROUP HIGHLIGHTS Hot metal output declined q/q in Q2 2019 to 2.30 mln tonnes (Q1 2019: 2.36 mln tonnes) due to short-term maintenance works…
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy held their first telephone conversation on Thursday and discussed settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the return of prisoners, the Kremlin said. Zelenskiy, a former comic actor with no previous political experience, won Ukraine’s presidential election in April and he has declared the settlement of…
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Paris – PhosAgro CEO and head of the Russian Fertilizer Producers Association Andrey Guryev took part in a meeting of world chemistry leaders organised on the sidelines of the 47th World Chemistry Congress hosted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). In addition to Guryev, the heads of other industry leaders also…
DetailsMoscow, 11 July – ROSATOM and the Ministry of Energies of the Plurinational State of Bolivia signed a Memorandum of cooperation in the field of developing industrial projects and research in the lithium industry. The document was signed by Alexey Likhachev, Director General of ROSATOM, from the Russian side, and Rafael Alarcón Orihuela, Minister of…
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The AB1 recoverable oil reserves of the Russkoye field have increased 8% following exploration work carried out by Tyumenneftegaz, a petroleum production company belonging to Rosneft. The increase in the hydrocarbon potential of the project became possible thanks to the performance of 3D seismic and the drilling of three prospecting and exploration wells and 164…
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned a decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to exclude former Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko from taking part in the Olympic Games, court documents published on Thursday showed. The IOC in 2017 excluded Mutko from “any participation in all future Olympic Games” as part of…
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One summer night last year, sisters Krestina, Angelina and Maria Khachaturyan went into the room where their 57-year-old father Mikhail was sleeping and attacked him with pepper spray, a knife and a hammer. The sisters are now on trial for his murder, but thousands of people have come out in support of them, saying the…
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Russian authorities have violated an agreement to allow animal rights activists to oversee the release of captive whales back into the wild on Thursday, Greenpeace Russia has said. Russia began last month the release of almost 100 captive whales, caught last year for commercial sale, with the return of two killer and six beluga whales…
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European Council President Donald Tusk said on Thursday that Russia’s decision to ban flights to Georgia was “unjustified and disproportional.” Relations between Russia and Georgia came under strain three weeks ago when protests erupted in Tbilisi over a visit by a Russian lawmaker with many demonstrators saying they were angry about the continued presence of…
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Russian police on Thursday detained over 40 Crimean Tatars who were protesting outside the Supreme Court in Moscow over what they said was the wrongful conviction of four compatriots on terrorism-related charges, a monitoring group said. OVD-Info, the monitor, said in a statement that police had detained 44 Crimean Tatars who had gathered outside the…
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Russian poet and translator Yevgeny Baratynsky was born on March 2, 1800 and spent his childhood on his family’s estate in the Tambov region of southwest Russia. The son of a retired lieutenant general, Baratnysky attended the Page Corps, an elite military academy which prepared sons of noble families for military leadership. At age 15,…
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A top official at the Russian national pension fund has been detained on suspicion of accepting a bribe, Russian media outlets reported on Thursday. Ivanov was allegedly taken into custody ahead of the fund’s key $23.8 million data system tender announcement. Law enforcement authorities detained deputy chairman of the pension fund Alexei Ivanov on Wednesday,…
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A woman was killed and 13 people were injured in a major fire at a power station in the Moscow region on Thursday that was put out by firefighters, the emergencies ministry and Russian media said. “The open flames have been extinguished,” Interfax cited the emergencies ministry as saying. Earlier, huge flames could be seen…
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The building of the Lider nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet could radically alter international shipping and trade routes, Alexei Likhachev, general director of the Rosatom nuclear power company, has said in an interview with Reuters. With the 120-megawatt icebreakers, the most powerful Arctic vessels ever built by far, Russia will be able to open up major shipping lanes…
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Two to three Russians have been arrested in Uruguay on suspicion of aiding the escape of a notorious Italian mob boss in the South American country, according to media reports. Rocco Morabito, dubbed the “cocaine king of Milan,” escaped from a Montevideo jail last month as he was waiting to be extradited back to Italy…
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Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini on Wednesday denied a media report that his far-right League party had sought millions of euros from Russian investors via a secret oil deal. The U.S. website BuzzFeed said it had received an audio recording of talks in Moscow in October among three Italians including a close aide of…
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Russians don’t trust the politicians in power and trust the political opposition even less, according to focus-group research by analysts who correctly predicted mass anti-government rallies in 2012. The study’s authors had detailed plummeting support for the ruling elite and growing public discontent in March 2011, less than a year before a wave of anti-Kremlin…
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Senior U.S. diplomat David Hale met with Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, in Helsinki on Wednesday to discuss U.S.-Russian relations, the State Department said, amid tensions between the two countries over a range of issues. The meeting between Hale, who is undersecretary for political affairs, and Ryabkov followed June 28 talks between President Donald…
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Russia is among the leading countries in Europe where employees regularly work night or weekend shifts, recent research published by the Moscow-based Higher School of Economics (HSE) has said. Nearly half of Russians polled last month said they don’t support the idea of a four-day work week over fears that it would reduce their income.…
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Five officials in Moscow’s police department have been dismissed over last month’s arrest and subsequent release of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov, a letter by the head of Moscow’s Interior Ministry said. Police detained Golunov, an anti-corruption reporter for the Meduza news website, last month on drug trafficking charges, which his supporters said were fabricated as…
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