Two Russians who attended this winter’s rallies in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny have been sentenced to two years in prison on charges of attacking police. Tens of thousands took to the streets across the country in late January and early February after Navalny was detained upon his return to Moscow from poisoning recovery…
Details
Moscow authorities have eased online registration rules to allow vaccinated or negative-tested foreigners to obtain QR codes needed to dine at “Covid-free” restaurants, Russian state media reported Tuesday. Starting Monday, June 28, Moscow restaurants will only accept diners who present an official QR code proving their vaccination, recovery from Covid-19 over the past six months…
Details
Belarus on Tuesday denounced coordinated sanctions against the ex-Soviet country by the EU, U.S., Britain and Canada, imposed after the forced landing of a Ryanair flight to arrest a regime critic. The sanctions follow global outrage over the forced landing of a passenger flight in Minsk where authorities detained opposition activist Roman Protasevich and his…
Details
President Vladimir Putin published an essay revisiting the “collective” lessons for Europe following World War II to urge cooperation between Russia and the West in the German newspaper Die Zeit on Tuesday. Titled “Being Open, Despite the Past,” the essay marks the 80th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and is the…
Details
Russia’s capital has experienced record-breaking temperatures throughout the month of June and is bracing for an all-time high in the next few days, according to meteorological data cited by the state-run TASS and Interfax news agencies. Moscow recorded its hottest June 22 in 142 years Tuesday when the temperature hit 31.9 degrees Celsius. The day…
Details
The city of Moscow will require all restaurant patrons to be either vaccinated against or immune to the coronavirus, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Tuesday as the Russian capital continued to grapple with the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Starting Monday, June 28, restaurants will only accept diners who present an official QR code proving…
Details
At least 17 Russian regions have reintroduced coronavirus restrictions in recent weeks as the country grapples with the rise of the highly infectious Delta variant. Russia’s regions have largely followed suit from Moscow, the epicenter of the pandemic in Russia and where officials say the Delta variant accounts for nearly 90% of new cases. Many…
Details
The Moscow Times’ team of journalists has been first with the big stories on the coronavirus crisis in Russia since day one. Our exclusives and on-the-ground reporting are being read and shared by many high-profile journalists. We wouldn’t be able to produce this crucial journalism without the support of our loyal readers. Please consider making…
Details
Russia has denied reports that it is investing in AI technology that would allow humans to control cars, planes and nuclear power plants through microchips implanted into their brains. The Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday the government plans to spend 54 billion rubles ($740 million) on the brain-computer interface project as part of Russia’s massive…
Details
Prosecutors in Belarus on Tuesday requested 15 years in jail for a leading opposition figure, who was arrested last year ahead of presidential elections that sparked historic anti-government protests. The demonstrations swept the former Soviet country after strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in August polls that the opposition and many Western countries…
Details
In 1983 film director Andrei Tarkovsky was invited by the Royal Opera House (ROH), Covent Garden, to stage a production of the opera “Boris Godunov,” composed by Modest Mussorgsky. After Tarkovsky’s death and changes to cultural policies in the Soviet Union, the Covent Garden production was brought to the Mariinsky Theater in 1990. In 2006…
Details
A new exhibition opening on the 80th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union — the start of what Russians call the Great Patriotic War and the largest land invasion in history — puts iconic Soviet World War II-era photographs on display. Over 800,000 Soviet soldiers would be killed in the invasion, called…
DetailsConcreting of the inner containment cylindrical part has been completed at Rooppur NPP power unit 2 reactor building which is being constructed in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (its General Contractor being JSC Atomstroyexport that is included in the Engineering Division of ROSATOM). The specialists of the Trest RossSEM LLC branch have laid 976 m3…
Details
More Russians are legally deprived of the right to run for office today than they were during the Soviet period, according to newly published research by the Golos independent election monitor. Golos estimates that at least 9 million Russians, or 8% of the population, have been stripped of so-called “passive suffrage” even before Russian lawmakers tightened…
Details
This week’s visit by Myanmar’s junta chief to Moscow “legitimizes” the country’s “brutal and unlawful attempted coup,” Justice for Myanmar, a leading human rights group that investigates the military’s business interests, told The Moscow Times. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing arrived in Moscow on Sunday for a three-day international security conference starting Tuesday that brings…
Details
Russia has declared Bard College an “undesirable” organization in a move that risks significant jail time for anyone affiliated with the U.S. liberal arts college. The Prosecutor General’s Office accused the institution Monday of “threatening Russia’s constitutional order and security.” Once blacklisted, any “undesirable” organization must cease all activities in Russia or anyone affiliated with…
Details
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has traveled to Moscow for a three-day international security conference kicking off Tuesday which brings together defense officials from across the globe. Russia’s Security Council said its chief Nikolai Patrushev had met with Min Aung Hlaing and discussed the “fight against terrorism, issues related to regional security” and foreign interference…
Details
Ancient layers of Siberian permafrost are more resilient to rising global temperatures than previously thought, according to a study by an international team of scientists at the University of Sussex. Permafrost, which covers roughly 65% of Russia’s territory, holds roughly twice as much carbon than is found in Earth’s atmosphere, according to the U.S. National…
Details
Russians who were vaccinated against the coronavirus over six months ago should revaccinate themselves for extra protection as the country grapples with the third wave of the pandemic, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Monday. Moscow, the epicenter of the pandemic in Russia, reported its highest-ever number of Covid-19 cases in a single day this weekend…
Details
Two weeks after 82-year-old Kirill Kruchkov died of Covid-19 in the Tula region, 200 kilometers south of Moscow, his family received a phone call from Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s state consumer protection watchdog. “They told us lab tests showed that grandpa died of the Indian strain. I was very confused. He hasn’t been to India,” said his…
DetailsRosneft Oil Company’s refining complex has fully switched to hydroprocessing catalyst manufactured by RN-Kat, a specialized enterprise of the Company
By approving sanctions on potash fertilisers and petroleum and petrochemical products, European Union foreign ministers are targeting two mainstays of the Belarus economy. The sanctions – to be formally adopted by the 27-nation bloc in the coming days – target major sources of revenue for the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. Potash Belarus is the world’s…
Details
Argentina and Mexico are facing a shortage of second doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine despite Moscow’s pledge to supply 10% of the world’s population, according to several media outlets. Argentina’s La Nacion daily reported Sunday that its government is in “intense talks” with Russia on new deliveries because many first-dose recipients between late…
Details
The UN rights chief said Monday she was “dismayed” by the Kremlin’s moves to undermine the right to voice critical opinions and participate in Russia’s forthcoming elections. “I am dismayed by recent measures that further undermine people’s right to express critical views, and their ability to take part in the parliamentary elections scheduled in September,” Michelle…
Details
Hundreds of leading Moscow doctors and healthcare professionals staged a decadent “Medics’ Ball” as the Russian capital struggled to get the third wave of the pandemic under control. Over 400 doctors, pharmacists and heads of clinics and pharmacies attended Sunday’s black-tie event just a day after Moscow recorded its highest number of new Covid-19 infections…
Details
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Monday scored a decisive victory in snap parliamentary elections, bolstering his rule after months of discontent and protests following a historic military defeat to Azerbaijan. Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party swept to an easy victory with almost 54% of the vote, overcoming anger at his handling of the devastating fight…
Details
German police have arrested a Russian scientist working at an unidentified university, accusing him of spying for Moscow, prosecutors said on Monday, in a case that risks further inflaming bilateral tensions. Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the suspect, identified only as Ilnur N., had been taken into custody on Friday on suspicion of “working…
Details
The United States is preparing fresh sanctions against Russia over the near-fatal poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, a top White House advisor warned Sunday. Jailed opposition leader Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent, was arrested in January upon returning to Russia after recovering from a poisoning he says was orchestrated by Moscow. “We…
Details
Russian workers who refuse Covid-19 vaccinations in areas where they are compulsory could be forced to take unpaid leave, the labor minister has warned as infections spike and inoculation drives slow. Anton Kotyakov’s comments come as Moscow and other cities introduce an array of curbs, including for the Euro 2020 football tournament. “If the health…
Details
The Russian ambassador in Washington flew back Sunday to the United States saying he hoped to build “equal and pragmatic” ties after a U.S.-Russia summit in Geneva aimed at reducing tensions. The plane transporting ambassador Anatoly Antonov, who was recalled in March for consultations, took off at 9:20 a.m. (0620 GMT) from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport…
Details
Russian youth climate protester Arshak Makichyan will run for a seat in the lower-house State Duma in this September’s high-stakes parliamentary elections, he announced Saturday. Makichyan, 26, rose to prominence over the past two years by staging weekly solo pickets on central Moscow’s Pushkin Square that called for greater action against climate change. Inspired by…
Details
President Vladimir Putin proposed Saturday at his United Russia party congress billons of rubles in spending ahead of September parliamentary polls that could see the deeply unpopular party struggle. Addressing several hundred of his mostly mask-wearing and socially-distanced loyalists in a Moscow convention center as the capital set a pandemic high for new Covid cases for the…
Details
Expats develop oddly obsessive attitudes towards food. After a few months in a foreign country, spot something that screams “I’m from your home country!” on the shelves of a cash-and-carry and chances are you’ll scoop it up and carry it home regardless of whether you need it or even like it. In my Moscow flat,…
Details
Russia’s capital Moscow on Saturday registered 9,120 new coronavirus infections in 24 hours, a second consecutive high, according to government figures. Saturday’s record topped the previous day’s total of 9,056 new infections, according to the government’s coronavirus tally, ballooning from 3,000 daily just two weeks ago. The new cases are being driven by the highly…
Details
Four people were killed and four others seriously injured on Saturday after a plane carrying parachutists crashed in Siberia, Russian authorities said. The L-410 plane carrying 19 people crashed around 10:00 a.m. local time (03:00 GMT) during a training flight at the Tanay airfield in the Siberian region of Kemerovo — also known as Kuzbass…
DetailsRussian police have found the body of U.S. citizen Catherine Serou after she went missing in the city of Nizhny Novgorod 400 kilometers east of Moscow, investigators announced Saturday. Serou, 34, a master’s student at Lobachevsky University and a former Marine, disappeared Tuesday evening after getting into an unidentified vehicle outside her residence in Nizhny…
Details
Ukraine on Friday imposed sanctions on controversial tycoon Dmytro Firtash for selling titanium products to Russian military enterprises, the presidency said in a statement. The ex-Soviet country has been fighting pro-Russia separatists in its eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions since 2014, following Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula. Kiev accuses Moscow of sending troops and…
Details
Russia’s parliamentary elections in September will be held over three days to limit the spread of coronavirus, the head of the poll body said Friday, as new cases hit a record in Moscow. Voting will be staggered from September 17 to September 19, Ella Pamfilova told a commission meeting. “Three days will guarantee sanitary and…
Details
In Armenia’s upcoming elections, Russia’s choice would appear to be obvious. One of the two main contenders is a proudly pro-Russia friend of President Vladimir Putin. The other is a former journalist who came to power via street protests and then surrounded himself with figures from the liberal NGO world. And yet, the Kremlin appears…
Details
Moscow hospitals will no longer provide routine treatment to unvaccinated patients, health authorities announced Friday. The announcement is the latest unprecedented measure taken as the Russian capital, a metropolis of 12 million people, saw a record number of new Covid-19 infections Friday. Officials link the drastic surge over the past week to new, more-contagious mutations…
Details
The Crimean city of Yalta on Friday announced a state of emergency, closed entry points and appealed to the Russian Navy for support after heavy rains battered the Moscow-annexed peninsula, triggering floods. Yalta’s declaration followed a region-wide state of emergency on Thursday after a cyclone struck the Black Sea peninsula and began lashing it with…
Details
Background The Oranienbaum park and palace ensemble, the one park and palace residence to have come out unscathed from the Great Patriotic War, is Russia’s only architectural ensemble in the rococo style. In the postwar period, the Chinese Palace was left unrestored and gradually fell into disrepair because conservation specialists focused their efforts on restoring major Peterhof assets that had…
DetailsThe cumulative gas production of RN-Purneftegaz reached 120 bcm
Belarus has denied press credentials to state media from close ally Russia over what it called “biased” coverage that rivals Western media, its foreign minister said during talks in Moscow on Friday. Vladimir Makei said two out of three TASS news agency correspondents have been denied press accreditation as part of an overhaul last October…
Details
New coronavirus restrictions As Moscow experiences another surge in cases, the city has implemented a series of restrictions. Outdoor theaters, playgrounds, food courts, children’s playrooms in malls, and zoos will remain closed through June 29. Restaurants and bars must close from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Theaters, movie theaters, museums and other cultural venues will…
Details
A Russian military research unit that was involved in the development of Sputnik V is working on a new coronavirus vaccine in the form of chewing gum, the RBC news website reported Friday. The Defense Ministry’s 48th Central Research Institute collaborated with the state-run Gamaleya Research Institute in Moscow to develop and trial Sputnik V…
Details
Pavel Chikov has had a hectic year. As the Russian authorities’ crackdown on dissent has widened, so has the workload of one of the country’s leading human rights lawyers. “It’s been a busy few days…months,” Chikov said in an interview in a central Moscow cafe this week. Chikov, 41, is the head of Agora,…
Details
Moscow reported its highest-ever number of new coronavirus infections Friday, as the city’s health authorities warned “new, aggressive mutations” of the virus were spreading at an alarming pace. Russia’s national coronavirus task force confirmed 9,056 new Covid-19 cases in Moscow over the last 24 hours — a 46% surge on the previous day. Mayor Sergei…
Details
Moscow has introduced new coronavirus restrictions in an attempt to stop a surge in infections that officials say is driven by new variants and sluggish vaccination rates, according to a decree signed by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin Friday. The announcement comes as infections in Moscow, the epicenter of the pandemic within Russia, are expected to surpass 9,000…
Details
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s networks were not accused of teaching supporters how to make Molotov cocktails contrary to President Vladimir Putin’s claims, the groups’ lawyers told the independent Dozhd broadcaster. A Moscow court last week declared Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and the affiliated Citizens’ Rights Protection Organization as “extremist,” effectively dismantling Russia’s most effective opposition…
Details
New variants of Covid-19 are suspected of causing a sudden jump in the number of cases in the Russian capital, the mayor said Thursday, amid a sluggish vaccination drive. “It’s most likely we are facing new, more aggressive variants which spread more quickly,” said mayor Sergei Sobyanin during a video conference with government officials battling…
Details
June 17, 2021, 20:20 The Gazprom Management Committee took note of the information about the progress of the Amur Gas Processing Plant (GPP) construction project. Particular attention was paid to the launch of the first production train, which took place on June 9, and to the ongoing start-up and commissioning operations at the second train, where the auxiliary and core equipment is now fully assembled. It was highlighted…
Details
June 17, 2021, 20:05 A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of State Space Corporation Roscosmos, took place in St. Petersburg. The parties reviewed the current issues of cooperation, including the creation of a unified system for geotechnical monitoring of hazardous industrial facilities in Russia. The relevant Cooperation Agreement was signed at the St. Petersburg International…
Details
Moscow’s business community is calling on the government to relax restrictions on foreign citizens being vaccinated in state clinics to ensure thousands of couriers, delivery staff, taxi drivers, construction workers and others can get the coronavirus jab. The city tightened rules earlier this year to ensure Russian citizens and residents would be prioritized in its…
Details
The makers of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine have vowed to offer rival manufacturers a “booster shot” against the more contagious and vaccine-resistant Delta variant first identified in India. Russian authorities have claimed that Sputnik V is effective against the Delta variant, whose spread amid an uneven global vaccination campaign is raising concerns about how…
Details
U.S. President Joe Biden is nothing like his portrayal in the media, President Vladimir Putin said during a televised meeting Thursday. Putin and Biden held their first summit since the U.S. president took office in Geneva on Wednesday in a bid to ease tensions between the two nuclear powers that had hit Cold War highs…
Details
A member of Russian activist group Pussy Riot has been jailed Thursday on suspicion of planning to disrupt the ongoing 2020 UEFA European Football Championship in St. Petersburg. Veronika Nikulshina’s arrest comes three years after she and three fellow activists ran onto the pitch during the 2018 FIFA World Cup final hosted in Russia to…
DetailsKondaneft Company, a part of Rosneft’s upstream complex, commissioned a mobile laboratory for monitoring technical condition of pipelines and the company’s surface facilities
On the morning of June 16, employees at Moscow coffee-shop chain Skuratov were told they’d have to get vaccines against the coronavirus if they wanted to keep their jobs. “We got a message from our management that we’ll need to schedule our appointment,” said Masha Zubrilina, a twenty-three-year-old barista. “The majority of my coworkers will…
Details
While reporters and pundits were analyzing the Biden-Putin summit to glean meaning from their body language and words, I was checking out their clothes. As a fashion editor and style consultant — sometimes for politicians — I wanted to know what the suits were saying to each other. As it turned out: they said a…
Details