BDSM-Style Graduation Video Divides Russians

A controversial high school celebration in which students dressed in revealing outfits has divided Russian society over questions of morality and freedom of expression. Police issued fines and a headmistress submitted her resignation in the Far East city of Vladivostok after video of the would-be graduates celebrating the last days of school in leather shorts,…

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Kosovo Releases Russian UN Worker After Moscow Demand

Kosovo released a Russian national working for the United Nations on Tuesday, the United Nations mission in Kosovo said, after Moscow demanded that Pristina release him. The Russian was detained in a Serb-populated municipality in Kosovo’s north during a police operation there. The UN mission said the Russian and another UN staff member who was…

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Chinese Officials Are Searching Russian Travelers’ Phones at Border, Consulate Warns

Russia has requested an official explanation from China over a reported new policy in which Russian citizens’ phones are randomly seized and searched by Chinese border guards. The Russian Consulate General in Guangzhou issued an advisory last week, warning that border guards at China’s Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport had begun to randomly select Russian travellers to…

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Kokoshnik: Not Just For Fairy Tales

Pick up a book of Russian fairy tales, and you’ll notice something very distinctive in the costume of the female characters.  Spend Christmas in Russia, and you’ll see the same distinctive circlet on the head of every incarnation of Snegurochka – the Snow Maiden. We refer, of course, to that most iconic Russian headdress: the…

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Sibneftegaz Celebrates 25th Anniversary

Sibneftegaz JSC celebrates the 25th anniversary of its operation. This is one of the key gas-producing subsidiaries of Rosneft Oil Company with the accumulated output exceeding 118 billion cubic metres. At the moment, the entity produces approximately 12 bcm annually. In order to expand its production, Sibneftegaz carries out the construction of major production facilities:…

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Deputy Director General of ROSATOM Nikolai Spasskiy held a meeting with Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan Ramin Guluzade

On the 23rd of May 2019 in Moscow Deputy Director General for International Relations of ROSATOM Nikolai Spasskiy held a meeting with Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ramin Guluzade. President of Rusatom – International Network A.A. Merten, President of JSC Rusatom Overseas E.M. Pakermanov and Chairman of CJSC…

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Russia Demands Kosovo Release Detained Russian UN Worker

Russia‘s embassy in Serbia on Tuesday demanded that Kosovo immediately release a detained Russian national working at a United Nations mission in Kosovo, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported. The Russian national was detained in a Serb-populated municipality in Kosovo’s north during a police operation there, RIA said. “We demand the immediate release of the Russian and…

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On This Day: Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born in the southern Russian city of Kislovodsk in 1918. He studied both mathematics and philosophy, literature and history before serving in the Great Patriotic War (the Soviet part of World War II) as an officer, later decorated for personal heroism. But despite his record, his criticism of Josef Stalin’s conduct of…

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Russia Rejects New ‘Monroe Doctrine’ of U.S. in Latin America – Lavrov

The United States’ new foreign policy approach in Latin America goes against international law, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said after talks with his Cuban counterpart. U.S. national security advisor John Bolton has invoked the 1823 policy established by then-President James Monroe to warn other countries, including Russia and Cuba, against interfering in Venezuela.…

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Russia Builds 3 New Churches a Day, Orthodox Leader Says

Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill has claimed that Russia constructs three new churches per day less than two weeks after mass protests erupted over the construction of a new cathedral in Yekaterinburg. The Orthodox Church’s influence has grown in recent years as it has received increased support from the Kremlin. Last year, Patriarch Kirill announced…

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PhosAgro Board Elects Independent Director Xavier Rolet as Chairman

Moscow – PhosAgro (“PhosAgro” or “the Company”) (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, announces that its Board of Directors has elected Independent Director Xavier Rolet as its Chairman. The Board of Directors also re-elected as its Deputy Chairman Andrey G. Guryev, Vice President of the Russian Union…

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Kremlin Rebuffs Call to Release Detained Ukrainian Sailors

The Kremlin on Monday rebuffed a call by an international maritime tribunal for Russia to release 24 Ukrainian sailors, saying the court had no jurisdiction over the strait where Russian security forces captured them. The Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on Saturday said Moscow should release the sailors immediately and that both nations…

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Third ROSATOM LK-60Ya-class ship launched at Baltic Shipyard

25 th May 2019, St. Petersburg. With the ceremonial launch of the nuclear-powered arctic ice breaker ‘Ural’ today, Russia’s nuclear energy giant, ROSATOM, has completed another step towards ensuring all-year round navigability of the Northern Sea Route (NSR). The 173 metre-long ‘Ural’ is equipped with two highly efficient and compact RITM-200 nuclear reactors on board,…

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Dagestan’s Last Tightrope Walkers: A Photo Essay

Dagestan, a mountainous republic in Russia’s North Caucasus, has long been known for its tradition of tightrope walking. Now the preserve of a few devoted practitioners, it is said that the practice was originally born out of the need for mountain peoples to commute between different auls, or villages. As legend goes, locals simply strung…

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Russian Army Introduces New Military Rank

Russia’s armed forces have introduced a new military rank of sergeant major, “experimenting” with 370 of the new recruits in the southern district. Plans to add the new rank as part of Russia’s military reform have been considered since the early 2010s. A sergeant major would undergo grueling recruitment procedures and oversee the military’s sergeant…

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PhosAgro AGM Approves Dividends

Moscow – The Annual General Meeting of shareholders (AGM) of PhosAgro (“the Company”) (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR) has approved a final dividend payment for 2018 of RUB 6.6 billion, which represents RUB 51 per ordinary share (RUB 17 per GDR) from undistributed net profit for 2018. The dividend record date was set as 10 June…

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Russia’s High-Tech Nuclear Submarine Delayed By Design Flaws

The delivery of Russia’s most expensive and technically advanced nuclear submarine to the Russian Navy is being delayed by design flaws, Russian media have reported. “Kazan” (K-561) is the first modernized multipurpose submarine of the Yasen-M class after “Severodvinsk” was handed over to the Northern Fleet in 2013. There are considerable changes in the auxiliary systems on…

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On This Day: Mikhail Sholokhov

Born on May 24,1905, Mikhail Sholokhov was a Russian writer and winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize for Literature for his massive work on the Cossacks of southern Russia, “And Quiet Flows the Don.” After joining the Red Army at the early age of 15, Sholokhov returned from Moscow in 1925 to his home: a…

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Russian Police Official Decries Falling Living Standards for Police, Declares $600K Salary

Russia’s deputy chief of police declared an income of 38 million rubles ($588,000) two days after complaining that law enforcement officers’ living standards are falling. Deputy Interior Minister Arkady Gostev’s income grew tenfold between 2017 and 2018, according to declarations published on Thursday, making him the richest police officer in Russia. Police spokeswoman Irina Volk…

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Oleg Vakhovsky put in charge of Gazprom Transgaz Surgut

Release May 24, 2019, 13:45 Oleg Vakhovsky has been appointed Director General of Gazprom Transgaz Surgut. Oleg Vakhovsky was born in 1971 in Artyomovsk, Donetsk Region. He graduated from the Gubkin State Academy of Oil and Gas, majoring in Oil and Gas Field Development and Operation, and received an MBA in Human Resource Management from the Academy of National Economy under the Government of the…

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Dreams, Death and Beyond at Zverev Center of Modern Art

Dreams, death, the subconscious, the gap between what’s alive and what isn’t. These are some of the themes explored in subCONSCIOUS, an exhibition of art by five Moscow artists working with paint, photography, poetry, video and illustration. In different media, Ilmira Bolotyan, Polina Gisich, Liza Neklessa, Saida Sattarova and Jane (Zhenya) Sharvina all ask questions…

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Russia Plans to Import Polluted Oil Back From Belarus

Russia plans to take back around 1 million tons of contaminated oil from Belarus, cleaning up the Druzhba export pipeline section leading to Poland and Germany, four industry sources familiar with the plan told Reuters. The plan was discussed at talks in Warsaw on Thursday between Russian, Belarussian and European companies. Another roughly 1 million…

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Nationalist Activists Harass LGBT Film Fest in Moscow

Pro-Kremlin activists tried to shut down the opening of an LGBT film festival in Moscow on Thursday. Two fringe nationalist groups called the National Liberation Movement (NOD) and SERB harassed attendees and poured ammonia on an employee of the Canadian Embassy in Moscow, organizers said. The two groups are known for attacks on opposition activists…

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Okroshka: Summer’s Simple Pleasure

Late spring and early summer are all about change and transition. Glass windows are swapped out for screens, kids flee school for summer holidays, and wool sweaters and coats take their annual trip to the dry cleaner. In Russia, for many the summer months mean the slower, simpler life of the dacha, where there are…

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Venezuela Turns to Russia, Cuba and China in Health Crisis

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government is increasingly turning to allies Cuba, China and Russia to offset a health crisis caused by U.S. sanctions, a minister said on Wednesday. Venezuelans have been suffering dire shortages of medicines and health equipment for several years as it has spiralled into economic chaos and political conflict. The opposition blames…

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