Russia Seeks to Revive Coronavirus-Hit Tourism Industry By Cutting Visa Red Tape

Russia’s Federal Tourist Agency (Rostourism) wants to help the industry recover from the coronavirus crisis by relaxing visa rules after the country reopens its borders, the RBC news website reported Friday. Russia grounded international flights, except those that return its nationals from abroad; closed border crossings; and suspended issuing visas and e-visas last month as…

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Putin’s Rumored Confessor Denies Contracting Coronavirus

President Vladimir Putin’s rumored spiritual adviser, Father Tikhon Shevkunov, has denied testing positive for coronavirus, the MBKh Media news website reported Friday. Earlier in the day, the outlet cited religious scholar Sergei Chapnin as saying that Father Tikhon, 61, had allegedly been suffering from Covid-19 for several days. Father Tikhon’s association with Putin has been…

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Libya Blames Chemical Attack on Kremlin-Linked Wagner Mercenary Group

Libya’s UN-backed government has accused Kremlin-linked private military contractors for an alleged chemical attack in southern Tripoli, according to Arab and Turkish media. Interior minister Fathi Bashaga’s charges turn the spotlight back on Russia’s Wagner mercenaries, who are reported to be unofficially helping eastern commander Khalifa Haftar’s year-long offensive to seize the Libyan capital. The…

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Severstal reports Q1 2020 fiacial results

April 24, 2020 PAO Severstal (MICEX-RTS: CHMF; LSE: SVST), one of the world’s leading steel and steel-related mining companies, today announces its Q1 2020 financial results for the period ended 31 March 2020. CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE FIRST QUARTER ENDED 31 MARCH 2020 Notes: EBITDA represents profit from operations plus depreciation and amortisation of…

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Leader project: Аtomflot and shipbuilder Zvezda sign nuclear icebreaker construction contract

Murmansk/Vladivostok, 23 April 2020 – On April 23, Rosatom subsidiary FSUE Atomflot and shipbuilder Zvezda LLC remotely signed a contract on the construction of the nuclear icebreaker Leader (project 10510); the parties were respectively located in Murmansk and Vladivostok. The document was signed by FSUE Atomflot general director Mustafa Kashka and Zvezda LLC general director…

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Moscow Halts Abortions During Coronavirus Outbreak: Activists

More than 100,000 pregnant women will be unable to undergo medical abortions in Moscow because of restrictions during the coronavirus outbreak, the women’s rights organization Nasiliyu.net (“No to Violence”) Center has said. Only three out of the Russian capital’s 44 clinics have said they would continue to provide abortions through the national compulsory medical insurance…

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Russian Prisoner in U.S. Yaroshenko Tested After Cellmate’s Coronavirus Death

U.S. prison officials have sent Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko into observation after his cellmate allegedly died from coronavirus, Russia’s Consulate in New York said Thursday. Yaroshenko is serving a 20-year sentence at the Danbury federal prison in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the United States. Russia’s consulate said it filed a health request…

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The Board Recommeds Q1 2020 Divided Paymet, chages the form of the AGM ad approves the Ageda for the AGM

April 23, 2020 The Board of Directors of Severstal (“Severstal”, “the Company”) (LSE: SVST; MICEX-RTS: CHMF), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and steel-related mining companies, is recommending a dividendof 27.35 roubles per share for the three months ended 31 March 2020. Approval of the dividend is expected at the Company’s AGM which…

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Leading Russian Paper Vedomosti’s New Editor Bans Putin Criticism

The new chief editor of Russia’s leading business newspaper Vedomosti has banned employees from publishing articles that criticize President Vladimir Putin’s proposed constitutional changes, the paper’s media editor said Wednesday in the latest report of recent censorship at the publication. Andrei Shmarov, who was named acting editor-in-chief by Vedomosti’s new owners in March, made news…

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Watch ‘Amerikanki’ Online Tonight

This Wednesday evening at 8:30 p.m. Moscow time (1:30 p.m. in New York, 5:30 p.m. in London) the Vozenesensky Cultural Center is hosting an online performance based on the book “Amerikanki” by Zoya Boguslavskaya. The book, which came out in 1991, was a compendium of Boguslavskaya’s essays and descriptions of meetings with a wide variety…

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Russia’s Coronavirus Outbreak Jeopardizes Care for Patients With Rare Diseases

The lives of thousands of Russian patients with rare diseases are in danger because the country’s hospitals are being repurposed to address the coronavirus outbreak, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday. The government ordered health officials to allocate up to 100,000 hospital beds for Covid-19 patients, the newspaper reported earlier this month. Officials were ordered…

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Coronavirus Hits Hard in Russia’s Volatile Republic of Ingushetia

In late March, as Russia’s coronavirus outbreak fanned out from Moscow to the country’s provinces, Abdurakhman Martazanov, chief mufti of Russia’s autonomous North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, started to worry. Before many Russians had grasped the reality of the pandemic facing their country, Martazanov put together a set of guidelines allowing Ingushetia’s mostly Muslim population…

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Russia’s Hermitage Museum Calls for State Support as Coronavirus Craters Earnings

The head of Russia’s renowned Hermitage Museum said on Tuesday the government should ensure the survival of museums which are struggling during a coronavirus lockdown. Since the introduction of a ban on gatherings of more than 50 people in mid-March, museums across Russia have gradually closed their doors to the public. President Vladimir Putin then declared April a…

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