80% of Russia’s Female Murder Convicts Acted in Self-Defense – Study

Four out of five women convicted for premeditated murder in Russia had been defending themselves from domestic violence, according to machine-learning research published by the Novaya Gazeta newspaper and the Mediazona news website Monday. Critics say Russia’s 2017 decriminalization of some forms of domestic violence has eroded protections for women, while supporters defend it for…

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9M 2019 Financial Results: PhosAgro Revenue Rises 12% year-on-year to Record RUB 195.0 Billion

Moscow – PhosAgro (“the Company”) (Moscow Exchange and LSE: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, today announces its interim consolidated IFRS financial results for 3Q and 9M 2019.   Revenue in 3Q 2019 rose by 3% year-on-year to RUB 64.6 billion (USD 1.0 billion) mainly due to higher sales in priority…

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Russia’s ‘Orthodox Tycoon’ Is Bankrolling a Monarchist Movement. But Where Does He Get His Money?

Konstantin Malofeyev rose to fame in Russia’s corporate wars of the late 2000s. He became one of the most powerful people in telecommunications, but the devoutly Orthodox tycoon almost lost everything in a bitter dispute with state-owned bank VTB. In 2014, he was sanctioned by the West for providing support to rebels in eastern Ukraine.…

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Russia Again Faces Olympic Ban After Non-Compliant Recommendation

Russia is again facing a possible Olympic ban after the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Compliance Review Committee (CRC) recommended on Friday that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) be ruled non-compliant. The CRC put forward the recommendation after WADA’s Intelligence and Investigations Committee found evidence of manipulation of data retrieved from a tainted Moscow laboratory in January. A report…

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PhosAgro Board of Directors Approves Development Priorities for 2020 and Recommends that Shareholders Approve Dividend Payment

Moscow – The Board of Directors of PhosAgro (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, at today’s meeting approved the company’s priority areas for 2020 and has recommended that the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (“EGM”) approve a dividend payment of RUB 6.216 billion, or RUB 48 per…

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Year-to-date gas exports to Austria exceed record supplies of 2018

Background OMV AG is Gazprom’s main partner in Austria. The companies cooperate in gas production, transportation and supplies. In 2018, Gazprom supplied to Austria 12.3 billion cubic meters of gas, an increase of 34.8 per cent (3.2 billion cubic meters) from 2017 (9.1 billion cubic meters). In June 2018, an Agreement was signed to extend until 2040 the existing contract between Gazprom Export and OMV Gas Marketing & Trading GmbH for Russian gas supplies…

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Results of selling 3.59 per cent of Gazprom’s ordinary shares

Release November 22, 2019, 16:05 Gazprom Gazoraspredeleniye, a company controlled by Gazprom, successfully completed the sale of 850,590,751 ordinary shares of Gazprom (3.59 per cent of the share capital). The placement was carried out using the trading platform of the Moscow Exchange. Gazprombank (Joint Stock Company) acted as the arranger and broker of the offering. As the shares were sold in their totality, Gazprom Gazoraspredeleniye reduced…

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Islam and Orthodox Christianity Have the Same Values, Putin Says

Orthodox Christianity and Islam are based on the same fundamental values, President Vladimir Putin said in an address to a religious conference in Kyrgyzstan. The conference, titled “Orthodoxy and Islam — Religions of Peace,” aimed to promote interethnic and interreligious dialogue between Russia and Kyrgyzstan. “Islam and Orthodox Christianity, just like other world religions, are…

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Spain Probes Russia’s Role in Catalonia Referendum – El Pais

Spain has opened an investigation into the role of a secret Russian military unit in Catalonia’s 2017 independence referendum, the country’s El Pais newspaper reported Thursday. The Spanish government tried to prevent Catalonia’s independence referendum that it declared illegal, leading to hundreds of injuries. Spanish ministers said in 2017 that Russia-based groups promoted the referendum…

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Baring Vostok Cancels New Fund Launch

Baring Vostok — the Russian investment house at the centre of the high-profile fraud case involving its founder U.S. citizen Michael Calvey — has cancelled plans to launch a new investment fund, bne IntelliNews has reported. The company suspended plans to launch a sixth fund, citing investor fears over “contradictions in Russian and international arbitration…

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Russian Athletics Federation President Provisionally Suspended

The president of Russia’s athletics federation and several other federation officials were suspended on Thursday by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for serious breaches of anti-doping rules, adding to the federation’s woes ahead of next year’s Olympics. The AIU, which oversees integrity issues in global athletics including doping, said the provisional suspensions were linked to…

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PhosAgro announced as a Global Compact LEAD for its commitment to the UN Global Compact

New York – PhosAgro, a Russian vertically integrated company and one of the world’s leading producers of phosphate-based fertilizers, has been included on the list of Global Compact LEAD companies for its commitment to the United Nations Global Compact and the Compact’s Ten Principles on corporate sustainability. Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has…

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PhosAgro Named a Leader in Corporate Responsibility Under the UN Global Compact

New York – PhosAgro, a Russian vertically integrated company and one of the world’s leading producers of phosphate-based fertilizers, has been included on the list of Global Compact LEAD companies for its commitment to the United Nations Global Compact and the Compact’s Ten Principles on corporate sustainability. Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has…

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Russian Public Wi-Fi Provider to Supply Moscow’s Facial Recognition System

The Russian company that provides free public Wi-Fi in Moscow and St. Petersburg will also supply the capital’s facial recognition network, the Kommersant business daily has reported.Maxima Telecom company won a 1.15 billion-ruble ($18 million) contract to provide the servers for Moscow’s facial recognition system, which authorities have been establishing for the past two years,…

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Russian Mercenaries Linked to Gruesome Syrian Torture and Beheading Video

This article contains graphic content which may be disturbing to some readers. Four Russian-speaking men who were filmed beheading, dismembering and setting fire to a Syrian man in 2017 are believed to be private mercenaries for the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, the investigative Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported Wednesday. Novaya Gazeta said it has identified one of…

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Russian Airlines ‘Desperate’ After $50M Losses in Georgia Flight Ban

Russian airlines are ‘desperate’ for compensation from the government after its ban on direct flights to Georgia cost them a combined 3.2 billion rubles ($50 million), the Vedomosti business daily reported Wednesday.  President Vladimir Putin ordered the temporary ban of passenger flights from Russia to Georgia this summer following an outbreak of unrest in Tbilisi…

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Video of Russian Spy Allegedly Bribing Serbian Agent Sparks Probe

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic ordered an investigation on Wednesday into a video clip that purportedly shows a Russian intelligence officer handing over money to a Serbian man, in an incident that could strain normally warm bilateral relations. A Bulgaria-based investigative reporter, Christo Grozev, said on his Twitter account at the weekend that the clip, posted on…

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FSB Detains Russian Solider Suspected of Spying for Ukraine

Russia‘s FSB security service has detained a Russian serviceman suspected of spying for Ukraine, the RIA news agency reported on Wednesday. The serviceman was allegedly gathering secret information for Ukraine’s intelligence service and is being investigated for treason, RIA reported, citing the FSB.  The independent CIT outlet identified the suspect as Ruslan Artykov, born in 1991.…

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Alexey Miller and Moldova’s Prime Minister Ion Chicu review cooperation-related issues

Background In 2018, Gazprom’s gas deliveries to the Republic of Moldova totaled 2.9 billion cubic meters of gas, an increase of 8.4 per cent against 2017 (2.7 billion cubic meters). The contracts between Gazprom and Moldovagaz for gas supplies to and gas transit across Moldova are valid until the end of 2019. Moldovagaz is a joint Russian-Moldovan company set up by Gazprom, the Moldovan Government, and the Ministry of Industry…

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State-Run Bank Says Russia Unlikely to Meet Economic Targets ‘Without More Active Policies’

President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to meet most of his flagship economic and development goals during his final term without a significant increase in spending and better performance on a host of key indicators, a new report from a government-owned bank said Wednesday. The National Projects program — a $400 billion package of investments covering…

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State-Run Bank Says Putin Unlikely to Meet Economic Targets ‘Without More Active Policies’

President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to meet most of his flagship economic and development goals during his final term without a significant increase in spending and better performance on a host of key indicators, a new report from a government-owned bank said Wednesday. The National Projects program — a $400 billion package of investments covering…

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Widow of Ex-KGB Agent Backs Legal Action for Release of UK’s Russia Report

The widow of a Russian dissident murdered in London has backed a legal challenge to force Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government to publish a report on alleged Russian meddling in British politics. The report by parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) was cleared by Britain’s security services but Johnson’s office has not yet released it, meaning it…

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PhosAgro Awarded Gold Medal for Responsible Approach to Production from International Fertilizer Association

Paris – PhosAgro (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR) (“PhosAgro”, the “Company”), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, announces that it has been awarded the Gold Medal from the International Fertilizer Association (IFA) for its responsible approach to production. The IFA’s first ever gold medal awards ceremony took place at the IFA Annual…

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Meet Ivan Savkin, Russia’s Human Mountain

Bogatyrs play an important role in the Russian literary and artistic imagination. Epic poems of the exploits of these fierce and powerful warriors are part of Russia’s rich oral tradition, first written down in the early 19th century. At first, warriors were basically gods or shape-shifters with superhuman strength. Then they became very strong human beings. Ivan Savkin…

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Swedbank’s High-Risk Russian Secrets

Russian oligarch Mikhail Abyzov built a complex network of offshore companies that were used to move a fortune out of Russia, according to a Swedbank internal draft report obtained by OCCRP and its Swedish partner, national public TV channel Sveriges Television (SVT).  Today he’s charged with defrauding the Russian government and investors of US$60 million,…

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Board of Directors reviews prospects of shale gas and LNG industry

Release November 19, 2019, 19:00 Shale gas production is expected to continue in just a few countries around the world besides the United States. In 2019, Europe’s last remaining project for shale gas development was abandoned. Most of growth in LNG imports up to 2030 will come from Asia-Pacific. The Gazprom Board of Directors took note of the information about the growth prospects of the shale gas and liquefied natural…

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Both strings of TurkStream filled up with gas

Release November 19, 2019, 18:50 Gazprom is successfully implementing major investment projects. Preparations are being made for first pipeline supplies of Russian gas to China via Power of Siberia gas pipeline. Welding is finished at linear part of gas pipeline extending to Slavyanskaya compressor station, starting point of Nord Stream 2. The Gazprom Board of Directors expressed its approval of the Company’s ongoing work on its major investment projects. The…

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Russian Lawmakers Discouraged From Foreign Contacts at Victory Day Events – Reports

The Kremlin wants Russian lawmakers to refrain from inviting high-level foreign guests to Victory Day commemorations next spring, the Open Media news website reported Monday. President Vladimir Putin has invited several foreign leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, to attend Russia’s parade marking the end of World War II on…

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Russia’s Domestic Violence Problem Is ‘Exaggerated,’ Justice Ministry Says

The Russian government doesn’t see domestic violence as a “serious problem” and believes that its scale is exaggerated, the country’s Justice Ministry said in an official response to Europe’s human rights court obtained by the Kommersant business daily. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) this summer had asked Russia to respond to questions regarding…

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