Moscow Street Protests Are About More Than Elections

For the past three weeks, thousands of protesters have been demonstrating against the exclusion of opposition candidates from the ballot for city elections in September. As the Kremlin ramps up the pressure on demonstrators, Muscovites who don’t usually attend protests, have been joining the movement. Meet Zhenya, a 25-year-old protester who has vowed to keep…

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Russia Investigates Alleged Money Laundering by Opposition Politician Navalny

Russian investigators said on Saturday they had opened a criminal investigation into the alleged laundering of 1 billion roubles ($15.3 million) by an anti-corruption foundation set up by jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny. Russia‘s Investigative Committee made the announcement in a statement while an opposition protest organised by Navalny’s allies was taking place in Moscow.

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‘It’s Only a Joke, Comrade!’

Saturation There is no doubt that many Soviet citizens venerated Stalin, but in political humour we can hear many others sharing critical opinions about him and his Cult on a day-to-day basis that rapidly presents us with a very different, more complex image. Let’s consider two  anekdoty which turned up numerous times in the archival…

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U.S. Imposes New Sanctions on Russia over Skripal Poisoning

U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed another round of sanctions on Russia over the poisoning of a former spy in Britain, the White House said on Friday, a move Moscow said would hurt already strained U.S.-Russia ties. The move came hours before a landmark Cold War-era arms control treaty expired, after Washington withdrew, accusing Moscow of violating it, which Russia denies. Washington…

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Moscow’s Opposition Protests, In Photos

Nearly 1,400 demonstrators were detained, some violently, during last Saturday’s rally to demand that independent candidates be allowed onto the ballot in Moscow’s city council elections. While officials warned citizens not to attend the unauthorized protest, thousands of people took to the streets to voice their discontent. The ensuing scenes of riot police dispersing protesters soon became powerful…

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Andrey Ivchenko’s Truly ‘Stranger Things’

After two seasons, fans of the hit Netflix series “Stranger Things” were used to things being pretty strange — whether it’s the threat of creatures from an alternate dimension or a young girl with psychokinetic powers.  But few expected that in the third season, released on July 4, a vast Russian conspiracy would descend upon…

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Riot Police Brutally Beat FC Spartak Fans

Russian football fans clashed with riot police on July 20 at Russia’s Rostov Arena. Video footage posted online showed police brutally beating fans, with around 30 people injured as a result. FC Spartak was outraged by the police’s actions and has since filed a complaint with Russia’s Prosecutor General.

Russia’s HIV Patients Panic Over Drug Shortage

Hundreds of thousands of HIV patients in Russia face a severe shortage of antiretroviral therapy medication under new government procurement rules, health officials say. Russia centralized HIV medication-buying procedures in 2017 in a bid to provide more patients with treatment, empowering the Health Ministry instead of regional authorities to carry out drug tenders. The changes…

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Japan Says Russian Prime Minister’s Visit to Disputed Island Is Regrettable

A visit on Friday by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to an island claimed by both Japan and Russia was extremely regrettable, Japan’s foreign ministry said, urging Moscow to take constructive steps to advance ties. In his first visit since 2015, Medvedev traveled to one of four Russian-held islands off Japan’s northern region of Hokkaido, known as Iturup in Russian…

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Russian Defense Chief’s Reported Ex Made $100M From Ministry Deals, Media Reports

A former associate of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has allegedly earned 6.5 billion rubles ($101.9 million) from deals with the ministries of defense and emergency situations, according to an investigation by Russia’s The Insider news website. The Insider’s investigation follows the high-profile sentencing for embezzlement and quick parole in 2015 of Yevgenia Vasilyeva, a Defense…

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Gazprom Dobycha Yamburg helping children’s oncology center in Yekaterinburg

Background Gazprom Dobycha Yamburg is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom. It operates in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area. The company is focused on gas and gas condensate production. Gazprom Dobycha Yamburg holds licenses for the development and production of hydrocarbons from the Yamburgskoye and Zapolyarnoye fields and is preparing for commercial production the Severo-Kamennomyssky, Kamennomysskoye-Sea, Obsky, Chugoryakhinsky, Tazovsko-Zapolyarny and Yuzhno-Parusovy subsurface areas, and, as part of joint ventures, the Parusovy,…

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Russia Tests Encrypted ‘Military Internet,’ Media Reports

Russia has tested its high-speed military internet that can send encrypted data over long distances, the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper reported Thursday. The secure military internet tests come three months before parts of a Russian law tightening state control over the internet come into effect. Lawmakers say “internet sovereignty” will protect the Russian-language segment of the…

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Russia to Investigate Arson in Siberian Wildfires

Russia’s law enforcement authorities will look into whether arson was a factor behind the raging wildfires across Siberia, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday as emergency officials decried insufficient firefighting efforts. The vast wildfires that have engulfed forest areas the size of Belgium were initially thought to be triggered by a combination of dry lightning and…

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Trump Offers Putin Help With Siberian Wildfires

U.S. President Donald Trump offered his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin help in putting out vast wildfires that are raging in Siberia, the Kremlin said late on Wednesday, a move it said Putin took as a sign that battered ties can be restored. The Kremlin said the two leaders had spoken by phone at Washington’s initiative, hours…

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Twitter Suspends Russian Embassy in Syria’s Account

Update: The embassy’s account has been re-activated as of late Wednesday night. Twitter has suspended the account of Russia’s Embassy in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry has confirmed, with fellow Russian embassy accounts saying it was suspended for its “factual” criticism of Syrian rescue workers. Syrian rebel commanders and rights groups said Monday that Russia…

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On This Day in 1930 Oleg Popov Was Born

On July 31, 1930, Oleg Popov was born in Moscow, where he would start work early as an apprentice typographer for Pravda newspaper at age 12. This led him to join Pravda’s athletics club, a move that would provide a useful foundation for his later career.  When Popov was 15, he applied to Moscow’s State…

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Passenger Union Eyes BlaBlaCar Ban in Russia – Reports

The popular ride-sharing service BlaBlaCar risks being banned in Russia as a passenger association seeks legislative help in cracking down on illegal buses, the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper reported Tuesday. About one-third of 900,000 bus carriers in Russia are uninsured and operate without undergoing checkups, obtaining the required permits or paying taxes, according to the All-Russian…

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Russia’s Navy Day Sets Sail in St. Petersburg

On Saturday, Russia’s Navy Day was celebrated across the country, with the main events taking place in St. Petersburg. The first Navy Day was held in 1939. By 1980, Navy Day was traditionally celebrated on the last Sunday of July. In 2006, the day received status as an official Russian holiday, and the annual commemoration…

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PhosAgro 2Q 2019 Fertilizer and MCP Output up 5.8% y-o-y to 2.4 mln t

Moscow – PhosAgro (MOEX/LSE ticker: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, announces its operating results for 2Q and 1H 2019. Overall output of phosphate-based and nitrogen-based fertilizers in 2Q increased by 6.4% and 3.9% year-on-year respectively, while sales declined by 3.9% year-on-year to 2.2 million tonnes. PhosAgro’s production and sales…

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