‘Welcome to Chechnya’ Gay Purge Documentary Now Streaming for Russian-Speaking Audiences

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The BBC’s Russian service has made a critically acclaimed documentary on the anti-gay crackdown in the republic of Chechnya available to Russian-speaking audiences. Oscar-nominated American filmmaker David France’s “Welcome to Chechnya” traces a Moscow-based LGBT association’s attempts to exfiltrate gay Chechens to safety. The film pioneers deepfake face-swapping technology to disguise the identities of his…

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Russia Finds No Criminal Influence on Journalist’s Self-Immolation Death – Kommersant

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Russian investigators do not believe that independent journalist Irina Slavina was driven to suicide by external factors that could carry criminal punishment, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday. Slavina, the editor-in-chief of the independent KozaPress news outlet, set herself on fire outside the Nizhny Novgorod police headquarters on Oct. 2 the day after security forces raided…

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Moldova Torn Between Russia and West in Presidential Runoff

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Moldova heads to the polls on Sunday for the second round of a tightly-contested presidential election pitting a pro-European challenger against the country’s Moscow-backed incumbent. The tiny ex-Soviet nation votes under the watchful eye of Russia, which wants polarised Moldova to remain in its sphere of influence as several Kremlin-aligned governments are rocked by political…

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A Persimmon Primer

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Has this ever happened to you?  You see something unusual at the market—you may have no clue what it is — but you pounce on it anyway, only to get it home and wonder, “now what?” These are the inciting incidents of my culinary life in Russia. I fill my pantry with oddities that intrigue…

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Russia Breaks One-Day Coronavirus Record With 22K Infections

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Russia confirmed more than 22,000 coronavirus infections in a single day for the first time since the start of the pandemic as the authorities continue to hold off on widespread lockdown measures. Saturday’s increase of 22,702 Covid-19 cases brings the country’s official total to 1,903,253, the world’s fifth-highest count behind France, Brazil, India and the United States.…

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Belarus Briefing | Nov. 17

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Belarus has seen weekly mass protests against the disputed presidential re-election of Alexander Lukashenko for nearly three months. Here’s more of the latest news from Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbor: Nov. 17: What you need to know today The Belarusian Association of Journalists has won the Media Freedom Award, a prize awarded by the governments of Britain and…

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Nagorno-Karabakh Briefing | Nov. 13

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Nov. 13: what you need to know today The ceasefire continued to hold with no reports of fighting flaring up in Nagorno-Karabakh or the surrounding territory. A delegation from Moscow is in Ankara on Friday to discuss the details of a joint Russian-Turkish ceasefire monitoring center.  The deployment of almost 2,000 Russian peacekeepers continues. The…

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Belarus Briefing | Nov. 13

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Belarus has seen weekly mass protests against the disputed presidential re-election of Alexander Lukashenko for nearly three months. Here’s more of the latest news from Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbor: Nov. 13: What you need to know today Roman Bondarenko, 31, died on Thursday after being beaten to death by unknown security agents. Witnesses say Bondarenko was detained…

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Moscow Calls Off Christmas, New Year Celebrations Due to Coronavirus – Mayor

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Moscow will not hold its traditional Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Wednesday amid record coronavirus infections and deaths in recent weeks. Earlier that day, Sobyanin suspended mass events and ordered late-night establishments to close starting from Friday and ending in mid-January 2021 as part of the latest restrictions to try…

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Anger Mounts in Armenia Over Karabakh Peace Deal

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Several thousand demonstrators protested Wednesday in the Armenian capital Yerevan as anger mounted over Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s decision to cede swathes of disputed territory to Azerbaijan under a controversial peace deal. Pashinyan announced a Russian-brokered peace agreement with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in the early hours of Tuesday, ending weeks of intense…

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Severstal aouces corporate repositioig ad update to the compay’s brad

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November 12, 2020 PAO Severstal, one of the world’s leading steel and steel-related mining companies, has launched new corporate branding to reflect the significant transformation of the business into a customer-centric innovative solutions provider. The Company’s new positioning will be presented as part of a large-scale online conference for customers and partners later today. The…

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Negotiations launched on gas supply conditions for Belarus from January 1, 2021

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November 11, 2020, 17:50 A working meeting between Alexey Miller Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Viktor Karankevich, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Belarus, took place today in St. Petersburg. At the start of the meeting, the parties noted that the issue of repaying the debt owed by Belarusian consumers for Russian gas supplies had been completely settled. In this connection, negotiations have been launched…

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Damascus Holds Russia-Backed Conference on Refugee Returns

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Syria’s government kicked off a two-day Russia-backed conference in Damascus Wednesday towards facilitating the return of millions of Syrian refugees to the war-torn country, despite reservations within the international community. Of neighboring countries hosting the bulk of Syrian refugees, only Lebanon and Iraq sent representatives, according to organizers. Other attendees included a Russian delegation and representatives…

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Nagorno-Karabakh Briefing | Nov. 11

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The Moscow-brokered ceasefire appeared to be holding Wednesday morning, 36 hours after an agreement was reached to end six weeks of bitter fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and surrounding districts. The conflict is seen as a victory for Azerbaijan, which reclaimed significant portions of territory previously occupied by Armenian-backed forces. Nov…

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Vaccinated Siberian Medics Get Coronavirus

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At least three medics who received Russia’s vaunted Sputnik V vaccine have contracted the coronavirus in Siberia as part of a vaccination drive of at-risk groups, regional authorities said Tuesday. The adenovirus vector-based vaccine’s developer had previously suggested that recipients infected with Covid-19 may have received a placebo during final clinical trials. Authorities are administering…

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JSC Rusatom Healthcare and GEM signed a contract for sterilization of products of the new plant producing microbiology material handling systems

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On November 9, 2020 in Moscow, GEM, supported by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, has opened Russia’s first plant producing uniform line of virus and microbiology handling systems used for coronavirus tests. The production capacity is 1.5 mln handling systems a month. They will be sterilized by ROSATOM’s Sterion, the operator of…

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Russian PM Mishustin Tightens Grip on Domestic Policy in Mini Reshuffle

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The Russian government is pushing ahead with a long-rumored mini-reshuffle this week in what analysts see as a mark of both newly installed prime minister Mikhail Mishustin’s growing influence and President Vladimir Putin’s divide-and-conquer approach to keeping his underlings in check. A handful of mid-ranking cabinet members have been shuffled out and replaced by new…

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First Diplomatic Mission to Open in Crimea Since Annexation – TASS

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The first foreign diplomatic mission will open in sanctions-hit Crimea six years after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine and incurred international sanctions, Russian state media reported Tuesday. The consulate will belong to the Central American nation of Nicaragua, which had named sanctioned Russian naval officer Oleg Belaventsev as its honorary consul in Crimea this…

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Over 400 Jehovah’s Witnesses Charged or Convicted in Russia, Group Says

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More than 400 Jehovah’s Witnesses have been charged or convicted in Russia since the country banned the religious group as an “extremist” organization three years ago, the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia has said. Since the April 2017 ban by Russia’s Supreme Court, law enforcement officers raided the homes of 1,166 worshippers’ families, the Jehovah’s Witnesses…

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