Russian volunteers are sending cats to fight off rodent infestations in the battlefield trenches during the country’s invasion of Ukraine, local media reported Monday. “The soldiers complained to me that they’re plagued by mice,” volunteer Vladimir Malygin told the state-affiliated media outlet Tatar Inform. “Cats saved the Hermitage during the Great Patriotic War [World War II],…
Details
This year’s Pitrau festival came and went in the republic of Tatarstan. Celebrated by the Kryashens, an Orthodox Christian ethnic sub-group of the Volga Tatars, the holiday has a deep folk and religious meaning. While Pitrau is largely to observe the Day of Saints Peter and Paul, the festival also has pre-Christian roots. The day…
Details
A U.S. citizen jailed in Russia for kicking a police officer two years ago has complained of being tortured by his fellow inmates, local state-run media reported Monday. Robert Gilman, 30, was sentenced to four years and six months in Russian prison for allegedly kicking a law enforcement officer in October 2022, a sentence that was…
Details
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Russia should be represented at a second summit aiming to secure lasting peace with the Kremlin, after more than two years of war. Dozens of world leaders voiced support for a just peace in Ukraine after a high-level summit convened by Zelensky last month in Switzerland, to which…
Details
“Limonov: The Ballad,” directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and will be released in the US in September. The screenplay, written by Serebrennikov with Ben Hopkins and Paweł Pawlikowski in an adaptation of Emmanuel Carrère’s 2015 fictionalized biography, tells the story of the poet, writer and Soviet dissident who became…
Details
A Russian soldier who was medically discharged from Ukraine was accused of firing at a group of children in southern Russia’s Volgograd region, local media reported Monday, citing authorities and the victims’ relatives. A 12-year-old boy was hospitalized with a gunshot wound in the leg, according to the news website v1.ru. The outlet said several anonymous…
Details
Russia’s state-run Rossiya 1 TV channel ran a segment threatening to strike European capitals during its primetime broadcast on Sunday evening. “Almost all European capitals will be under threat if our missiles are stationed in Kaliningrad: Berlin, Warsaw, all the Baltic states, Paris, Bucharest, Prague, and of course, the American bases in Germany,” TV host and…
Details
The Dutch holding company of Russian tech giant Yandex has closed a deal to sell its remaining stake in Russia, the company said on Monday. The $2.8 billion sale of a 28% stake completes the Amsterdam-based Yandex NV’s exit from Russia, after most of its assets in the country were sold to a Russian consortium…
Details
Russian television will for the first time in 40 years not broadcast the Olympics due to the near-total absence of its athletes, the news outlet sports.ru has reported, citing unidentified sources. Russian and Belarusian athletes are only allowed to compete in the Paris Olympics this month as neutrals without national flags and anthems. Additional vetting…
Details
A Moscow court has sentenced Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen to eight years in prison in absentia for spreading fake information about Russia’s military, the human rights NGO Net Freedoms Project reported Monday. Moscow’s Basmanny District Court found Gessen, who was born in Russia but lives in the U.S., guilty of “disseminating knowingly false information about…
Details
Russia on Monday denied a plea from a Siberian shaman for transfer out of a severe psychiatric hospital over three years after being confined for protesting against President Vladimir Putin, his lawyer said. Alexander Gabyshev, 55, was sent to a psychiatric hospital in January 2021 after repeatedly attempting to walk from his native republic of…
Details
The Kremlin strongly condemned any violence in the context of politics, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday following an attack on Donald Trump. The former U.S. president was hit in the ear in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally on Saturday that saw the shooter and a bystander killed and two spectators critically injured.…
Details
China and Russia conducted a joint naval patrol in the northern and western Pacific, Beijing’s Defense Ministry said Sunday, adding that the exercise was not “targeted” at any other nation. The two countries have drawn closer in recent years and tout their friendship as having “no limits.” Both share hostile relations with U.S.-led Western defence…
Details
Two Russian warships have arrived in the southern Chinese port city of Zhanjiang to take part in joint naval exercises, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday. China and Russia have greatly reinforced ties since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022. Their common goal is also to reduce…
Details
An oil depot caught fire Saturday in Russia’s Rostov region after a Ukrainian drone attack, its governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram. Both Moscow and Kyiv have used drones, including larger self-detonating craft with ranges stretching hundreds of kilometers extensively throughout the conflict, which began in February 2022. “After a drone attack, a fire broke…
Details
The fig might seem to be an exotic fruit, but it has been a culinary treat in Russia for ages. Hundreds of years ago it was brought by Asian merchants to Muscovy. Most commonly called a wine berry, this fruit was written about in many ancient books. Figs are an amazing fruit. They are harvested…
Details
Artist Artiom Loskutov, like many Russians, had to leave the country after the invasion of Ukraine. Born in 1986 in Novosibirsk, Loskutov is one of the creators of the annual “Monstration” parade, known for its absurdist slogans like “Enough tolerating this, let’s tolerate something else!” and “Our hearts demand dumplings!”, as well as dubinopisy —…
Details
A Russian student artist has been sentenced to nine years in prison on treason charges for sending $30 to the Ukrainian army, the independent Mediazona news website reported Thursday, citing the court’s press service. Tatiana Laletina, 21, was arrested in the Siberian city of Tomsk in late February and charged with state treason, a crime punishable…
Details
Russia’s flagship Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional airliner crashed outside Moscow, killing all three pilots on board, state news agencies reported Friday. The Gazpromavia SSJ 100 crashed in the Moscow region’s Kolomensky district during a test flight after “planned repairs,” TASS quoted anonymous emergency services as saying. The Russian-made jet was flying from its base at…
DetailsThe reactor vessel, components of the pressurizer and the pipeline valves will be manufactured from blanks weighing more than 650 tons. Metallurgical plant AEM-Special Steels (Mechanical engineering division of Rosatom) has manufactured and shipped a large lot of blanks for the equipment of El Dabaa NPP Unit 1, which is being built in Egypt by…
Details
A court in Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Donetsk region on Friday jailed a member of the OSCE monitoring mission to Ukraine for “espionage” in a judgment condemned by the European security organization. The Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic found Vadym Golda, 56, guilty and sentenced him to 14 years in a strict-regime penal colony,…
Details
China said Friday it was conducting joint military drills with Russia along its southern coast, after a U.S.-led Western defense alliance met in Washington and Japan warned of a growing threat from Beijing’s strong ties with Moscow. China’s Defense Ministry said the two militaries had begun the exercises, called Joint Sea-2024, in “early July” and…
DetailsThe second field season of hydrobiological research organized by Rosneft and Innopraktika, a non-governmental development institute, started in the White Sea
YouTube will be slowed down in Russia due to “technical problems” with Google’s equipment in the country, state-owned telecom giant Rostelecom announced Friday. Rostelecom said in a statement that “growth in traffic” had led to a “serious overload” of equipment that is used to speed up the loading of YouTube videos and other Google services. “This…
Details
A shooting at a military deployment site in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine has left a number of Russian soldiers dead and wounded, media reported Friday. Baza, a Telegram news channel believed to have links to Russia’s security services, said a manhunt was underway for a serviceman armed with a Kalashnikov automatic…
Details
Australian police have charged a married Russian-born couple with spying for Moscow, top officials said Friday, accusing them of accessing national security-related material from the military. The 40-year-old woman, Kira Korolev, and her 62-year-old husband Igor — both holders of Russian passports — had lived in Australia for more than 10 years and obtained citizenship,…
Details
Russia had plans to assassinate the CEO of German defense company Rheinmetall, a key producer of artillery shells and military vehicles for Ukraine, CNN reported Thursday, citing five anonymous U.S. and Western officials familiar with U.S. intelligence. U.S. intelligence had informed Berlin of these plans, allowing German security services to foil the plot against Papperger, the…
Details
Russian lawmakers have called on the country’s largest lender Sberbank to remove a rainbow-colored unicorn from its bank cards for kids, saying that “rainbow symbols” are an attribute of the “international LGBT movement.” In an appeal to Sberbank head German Gref, the lower-house State Duma’s Family, Women and Children Committee said that it had received…
Details
Three EU citizens were detained this week for illegally entering the Russian-controlled Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Kazakhstan, local authorities said Thursday. The secretive space launch facility in a remote area of the Kazakh steppe has become a magnet for daredevil tourists, many of whom attempt to break into the hangars housing old Soviet-era spacecraft. The…
Details
A Russian court Thursday sentenced a student in the Far East city of Birobidzhan 6,000 kilometers from Ukraine to five years in prison for passing troop locations to Kyiv. The unidentified man collected information “using the internet” on “Russian troops and locations of military units in the zone of the special military operation” in Ukraine…
Details
Exiled Russian opposition politician Leonid Gozman has been sentenced to 8.5 years in prison in absentia for criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Moscow judicial press service said Thursday. Gozman, 73, was charged in connection with his criticism of the invasion of Ukraine on his Facebook profile and Telegram channel, as well as in appearances on political shows…
Details
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday granted Russian citizenship to 22 foreigners including a Serbian national who said he faced prosecution in his native country for fighting on Russia’s side in Ukraine. Aleksandar Jokic recorded a video appeal to Putin this spring to ask the Russian president to help him avoid serving 25 years in Serbian prison on mercenarism…
Details
Russian authorities have added exiled opposition figure Yulia Navalnaya to the federal list of “terrorists and extremists” days after issuing a warrant for her arrest, media reported Thursday. A Moscow court said this week that it placed Navalaya, who currently lives outside Russia, in pre-trial detention in absentia for “participating in an extremist organization.” Russian authorities…
Details
Russian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov has called on foreign leaders to facilitate the exchange of political prisoners from Russia in a rare video appeal published Wednesday. “Let’s start exchanging civilians imprisoned on politically motivated charges. Many of them simply won’t survive [in prison],” Muratov said in a 20-minute long YouTube clip. “Let’s exchange…
Details
A court in Latvia has sentenced a pro-Kremlin activist to three years in prison for publicly displaying Russian and Soviet flags, media reported Wednesday. Jelena Kreile has previously been seen wearing pro-war symbols and holding pro-Russian signs at anti-war rallies in the Latvian capital of Riga. The Latvian-born housewife, who only speaks Russian, faces 15 administrative cases for…
Details128 steel ropes will ensure the safety and maximum strength of the reactor building. Installation of the containment prestressing system (CPS) has been completed in the reactor building of Power Unit No. 1 of the Akkuyu NPP (being built by Rosatom State Corporation in Turkey). This is a part of a sealed structure that creates…
DetailsRosneft Oil Company’s Board of Directors has approved the 2023 Sustainability Report
A Moscow court on Thursday rejected an appeal by jailed human rights defender Oleg Orlov against his imprisonment for criticizing the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine. Orlov, 71, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison this year on charges of “discrediting” the Russian military with his anti-war pickets and the 2022 article titled: “They Wanted Fascism.…
Details
Russia will not attend a second planned international summit on peace in Ukraine because it will ignore Moscow’s proposals, a senior diplomat said Thursday. Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told the state-run news agency RIA Novosti that the first summit attended by more than 90 countries in Switzerland last month had “failed.” Moscow and its ally…
Details
Kyiv said Thursday that it had seized a foreign cargo ship and detained its captain, alleging that the vessel had illegally exported Ukrainian grain from the annexed Crimean peninsula. Since Russia’s capture of swaths of agricultural land in Ukraine in early 2022, Kyiv has accused Moscow of illegally harvesting and shipping grain produced on occupied…
Details
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told the European Union that Russian and Chinese leaders expect Ukrainian peace talks by the end of 2024, the Spanish daily El Pais reported Wednesday, citing his confidential reports filed after visiting the countries. One of President Vladimir Putin’s closest Western partners, Orban has sparked the ire of the EU…
Details
Editors’ Note The Moscow Times was founded in 1992 in Russia with the mission of delivering independent, high-quality news about the country, newly emerged from the Soviet Union, to English speakers. For over 30 years, we have stayed true to this mission, expanding with a Russian-language service in January 2022. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine…
Details
Over the weekend, people across Russia and Belarus gathered to celebrate Ivan Kupala Night – an ancient Slavic festival to mark midsummer. This folk holiday has both pagan and Christian roots, coinciding with the birth of John the Baptist. As such, water is a key motif during the festivities. Revelers often douse each other, and…
Details
NATO allies announced Wednesday they had started the long-promised transfer of F-16 jets to Ukraine as leaders meet for a summit in Washington clouded by political uncertainties in the United States. With the pomp of the three-day gathering in the US capital, President Joe Biden is aiming to rally the West and also reassure U.S.…
Details
NATO allies on Wednesday announced they had started transferring F-16 jets to Ukraine while stepping up promises to Kyiv on eventual membership in the alliance, at a 75th anniversary summit clouded by political uncertainties in the United States. With the pomp of the three-day gathering in the U.S. capital, President Joe Biden is aiming to…
Details
A Moscow-based sex party organizer has said that it has resumed events and pledged to donate money to soldiers who fought in Ukraine after previously shutting down due to Russia’s ban on the so-called “international LGBT movement.” “In this difficult time for our country, we will work with a limited entertainment program, and we will…
Details
Female students in Russia’s republic of Karelia will be paid 100,000 rubles ($1,100) in exchange for giving birth to a healthy baby, according to a new decision by regional lawmakers. Experts warn that the policy — one of several across Russia aimed at boosting the country’s flagging birth rates — is an insufficient and short-sighted…
Details
Jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza is in “relatively stable” condition after being transferred to a prison hospital last week, his lawyer said Wednesday. This is the first update on Kara-Murza’s condition since he was hospitalized, with his wife saying prison and hospital staff had prevented his lawyer from seeing him for six consecutive days. “Kara-Murza’s…
Details
Japan has arrested a Russian trade firm executive suspected of illegally exporting more than two dozen goods that could be converted for military use, Japanese media reported Wednesday, adding that it is the first such case since Russia invaded Ukraine over two years ago. Andrei Sova, who heads the trading company Astrade in Osaka, is…
Details
The Kremlin said Wednesday that it could not intervene in the situation of imprisoned government critic Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was hospitalized last week without access to lawyers or family, raising fears over his state. Kara-Murza, one of President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics and a dual British and Russian citizen, is serving a 25-year sentence…
Details
Western-designed components are used in the type of Russian missile that struck a Kyiv children’s hospital this week, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing experts and Ukrainian officials. At least 43 people were killed and almost 200 wounded in a Russian missile barrage across Ukraine on Monday, including a direct hit at the Okhmatdyt children’s…
DetailsRN-Vankor (a subsidiary of Rosneft’s oil and gas production complex), started delivery of cargo via the Yenisei River and the Northern Sea Route to production facilities located in the north of the Krasnoyarsk region
The BN-800 reactor at the Beloyarsk NPP has been loaded with MOX fuel containing americium and neptunium. During the scheduled refueling at the Beloyarsk NPP’s Unit 4, its BN-800 fast neutron reactor has been for the first time loaded with lead-test assemblies of uranium-plutonium MOX fuel also containing the so-called minor actinides, the most radiotoxic…
Details
Saudi Arabia privately warned it could sell off European debt holdings if the G7 seized nearly $300 billion in frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing unidentified sources familiar with the matter. In what one source described as a “veiled threat,” the kingdom’s finance ministry reportedly implied it would start selling debt…
Details
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Wednesday that it had prevented “terrorist attacks” against high-ranking Defense Ministry officials in Moscow and on the flagship Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier in northern Russia. The FSB detained a Russian citizen who was allegedly sending bombs disguised in gift packaging to three Defense Ministry division heads in the Russian…
Details
Russian strikes killed three people in southern Ukraine, including at the Black Sea port of Odesa, authorities said on Wednesday. Russia has carried out nightly attacks on cities across Ukraine since launching its invasion in February 2022. “The aggressor targeted port infrastructure in the Odesa region. Unfortunately, two people were killed — a security guard…
Details
The United States has disrupted a Russian disinformation campaign involving AI-powered bots used to create fake profiles on the social media platform X, the Justice Department said Tuesday. Officials seized two internet domains and searched 968 social media accounts that Russian operatives allegedly used to create an artificial intelligence “bot farm” and peddle disinformation in…
Details
Only 16 Russians and 17 Belarusians have accepted invitations to compete under a neutral banner at the Paris Olympics, according to the latest count on Tuesday. The updated list, which covers 10 disciplines ranging from cycling to swimming and tennis, could change if competitors withdraw, a spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) told AFP.…
Details
Over two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the share of Russians who favor peace talks to end the war has reached an all-time high of 58%. This is one of the key findings from the latest survey by the Levada Center, Russia’s last major independent pollster, conducted at the end of June. Levada Director Denis…
Details
Nearly 600,000 people in southern Russia have been left without electricity amid an abnormal heat wave that led to a spike in energy consumption, the Energy Ministry said Tuesday. The power cuts have affected the Rostov region (324,000 people affected), the Krasnodar region and the republic of Adygea (181,000), and the Astrakhan region (94,300). “Energy workers…
Details