Russia’s healthcare and consumer protection watchdog believes that most of the country’s “imported” coronavirus cases came from Turkey, Interfax has reported. “Our general monitoring showed that out of the total number of detected (imported cases) — more than 10 thousand positive tests for coronavirus, some 90%, are people who returned from Turkey,” Interfax quoted the…
Details
As the second wave of the record-breaking coronavirus pandemic tears through Russia, the government has reinstated a national mask mandate as well as a decree requiring establishments to close between 11 pm and 6 am. Moscow, however, has kept its nightlife going past 11 pm, requiring Muscovites only to register their phone number with a…
Details
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan — now in its sixth week — shows little sign of easing after both sides accused the other of breaking an agreement not to target residential and civilian areas with missile strikes. The United Nations warned Monday evening those attacks “may amount to war crimes.” Nagorno-Karabakh and areas under…
Details
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called the Vienna shooting a “cruel and cynical” crime in a condolences telegram to the Austrian leadership. Four people were killed in multiple shootings in Vienna on Monday evening in what Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz described as a “repulsive terror attack”. In the telegram to Kurz and Austrian President…
Details
The second record-breaking wave of coronavirus infections battering Russian regions has been accompanied by distressing stories and images of patients struggling in a strained health system. Cities including St. Petersburg and the western enclave of Kaliningrad have seen their highest caseloads since the spring outbreak, while the Moscow region has doubled Covid-19 hospitalizations over the…
Details
Europe’s football governing body UEFA might make Russia the sole host of the Euro 2020 football championship that was postponed by the coronavirus pandemic until 2021, the French daily Le Parisien reported Monday. UEFA’s Euro 2020 is currently scheduled to be staged in 12 cities, including St. Petersburg, between June 11 and July 11, 2021.…
Details
Moldova’s pro-European presidential hopeful Maia Sandu won a surprise first-round victory, a major setback for Moscow-backed incumbant Igor Dodon that suggests a tight second round later this month. The small former Soviet country voted under the watchful eye of Russia, which wants polarized Moldova to remain in its sphere of influence as several nearby Kremlin-aligned governments…
Details
Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to strike another ceasefire in talks brokered by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), as Baku pledged to “fight to the end” to recapture territory which has been controlled by Armenia-backed separatists since 1994. Meanwhile, Yerevan formally opened consultations with Moscow over when Russia would come to the…
Details
Belarus faced harsh criticism at the UN on Monday, with diplomats slamming arbitrary detentions and torture allegations in the response to months of protests against President Alexander Lukashenko. During a review of Belarus’s rights record at the United Nations in Geneva, many diplomats urged Belarus authorities to halt the crackdown on demonstrators, who since August have…
Details
Russia has confirmed 1,655,038 cases of coronavirus and 28,473 deaths. Nov. 2: What you need to know today Russia has confirmed 18,257 new coronavirus cases and 238 additional deaths. Only 36% of Russians are ready to vaccinate against Covid-19, according to the results of an independent Levada Center poll published by Russia’s Open Media news Monday. The share of Russians unwilling to…
Details
New coronavirus cases are spiking in 40% of Russian regions, Russia’s top public health official said Monday amid reports of hospital bed, staff and drug shortages hitting far-flung areas outside Moscow. Infections are on the decline in only two regions, Anna Popova, who heads Russia’s consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said during a Covid-19 government task…
Details
Russia’s attempt to overturn its four-year ban from international sport got underway in Lausanne Monday, the latest chapter of a long-running and controversial saga over state-sanctioned doping. Global anti-doping body WADA in December last year declared the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) to be non-compliant after being accused of manipulating testing data. The ban meant the…
Details
Russia’s Arctic Laptev Sea has not yet frozen for the first time since records began, according to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Centre. The sea, which is known as the “birthplace of ice,” thawed much earlier in 2020 than in any previous year since 1979, and has not yet re-frozen as of late…
Details
Masked assailants murdered Russian meat magnate Vladimir Marugov with a crossbow at his countryside estate outside Moscow in the early hours of Monday morning, Russia’s Investigative Committee reported. Marugov and his partner were in an outdoor sauna hut on the estate about 25 miles west of the capital when the attack happened. The woman managed…
DetailsSamotlorneftegaz, an enterprise of Rosneft’s oil production complex, together with the Institute for Biology of the Tomsk State University, has successfully launched the Air Probe (Aeroshchup) technology for cleaning hydrocarbons off the bottom of reservoirs through flotation and airlifting.
Ryazan Oil Refining Company, an enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company’s refining complex, has celebrated 60 years of its operation. In October 1960, the first batch of motor gasoline was produced at the crude distillation unit
More Russians distrust their homegrown coronavirus vaccine now than they did in the summer, a new independent poll cited by Russia’s Open Media news website said Monday as authorities raise hopes of mass vaccination in the coming months. The share of Russians unwilling to vaccinate against Covid-19 has risen to 59% in October from nearly…
Details
Можно? How do you approach a stranger on the streets? How do you ask to take a photograph without speaking the language? What seem to be barriers at first make it easier in the end. You just ask. It’s easier to speak a few words, but it works just as well without. You show the…
Details
Fugitive U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden said Monday he had applied for Russian citizenship but would keep his U.S. nationality. The former American intelligence contractor, who revealed in 2013 that the U.S. government was spying on its citizens, has been living in exile in Russia since the revelations. Snowden’s tweet comes weeks after he was granted…
Details
November 2, 2020 PAO Severstal, one of the world’s largest vertically integrated steel and mining companies, has completed its first ever delivery of large-diameter pipes (LDP) to the USA, an order of 2,350 tonnes. Severstal’s high-quality LDP products are produced at the IzhoraPipe Mill, which is part of Severstal’s Russian Steel Division, to ASTM A252,…
Details
Moldovans went to polls on Sunday to elect a president under the watchful eye of Moscow which wants the polarised country to remain in its orbit amid political and security crises on Russia’s borders. Polling stations opened at 0500 GMT and will close 14 hours later. Despite its small size, politics in tiny Moldova, which is…
Details
Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets of Georgia’s capital Tbilisi on Sunday to demand snap polls after the ruling Georgian Dream party claimed victory in a parliamentary vote. The ex-Soviet nation’s opposition rejected the results of Saturday’s vote, which showed Georgian Dream with a narrow lead in the tightly contested election. The demand…
Details
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Sunday there was no reason for Russia to intervene in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh because Baku is not threatening Armenian territory. Fighting has been raging over Karabakh — an ethnic Armenian region of Azerbaijan — for more than a month and on Saturday Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked Moscow for “urgent…
Details
Russia has confirmed 1,636,781 cases of coronavirus and 28,235 deaths. Nov. 1: What you need to know today Russia has confirmed 18,665 new cases and 245 new deaths. Over 150 patients were evacuated from a coronavirus hospital on Saturday in the Ural city of Chelyabinsk following an oxygen explosion and fire. All of Russia’s regions are currently experiencing shortages of doctors to…
Details
For several long years now, the European Union has been waging onerous trench warfare on two fronts. On the eastern front, Brussels has been in conflict with a malign Moscow since 2014: refusing to repeal sanctions against Russia, deflecting all the Kremlin’s new information attacks, and attempting to maintain a unified position among its disorderly…
Details
For millions of people around the world who dabble in the occult, Halloween is one of the most important — and fun — holidays of the year. But while younger Russians might wear costumes and go to Halloween parties today, it’s not a traditional or widespread holiday for much of the country. Despite the lack…
Details
Russia said Saturday it would provide “necessary” assistance to Yerevan in its conflict with Azerbaijan if fighting reached Armenian territory after its ally requested help. Earlier Saturday Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan formally asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to begin “urgent” consultations on security assistance in its conflict with Azerbaijan over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.…
Details
Halloween as we think of it — jack-o’-lanterns, children dressed up trick-or-treating, scary decor — is a relatively recent import to Russia. Apart from the expatriate enclaves where they take trick-or-treating very seriously indeed, the holiday has found its most fertile soil in the grown-up playgrounds of nightclubs and bars. And this makes sense, since…
Details
Protesters gathered outside the French Embassy in Moscow on Thursday and Friday to picket against French President Emmanuel Macron. In comments that angered many Muslims this week, Macron defended the right to publish controversial cartoons as part of France’s secular tradition following the beheading of a French teacher who had shown a Charlie Hebdo cartoon…
Details
At least one-third of Russians are actively preparing for a second coronavirus lockdown despite officials’ continued assurances that there are no plans to enact stricter measures, the RBC news website cited a survey as saying Friday. Russia has seen record-breaking surges in new coronavirus infections over the past two months as the outbreak gradually shifts from…
Details
A Russian technology entrepreneur on Friday lost a UK libel case against a former MI6 intelligence officer whose dossier on Donald Trump’s alleged links to Moscow played into attempts to impeach the U.S. president. Aleksej Gubarev had sued Christopher Steele for defamation for claiming he had “knowing involvement” in the hacking of Democratic party emails…
Details
Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko ordered his security chiefs Friday to crack down on protesters and “take no prisoners” in his grimmest warning yet after months of demonstrations. The ex-Soviet nation has witnessed mass protests since the 66-year-old authoritarian leader claimed a landslide victory in August presidential elections that critics and Western leaders say was rigged.…
Details
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny returned to his popular YouTube show for the first time after his poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent, accusing President Vladimir Putin of his attempted murder and vowing to return to Russia as soon as he recovers. Navalny, 44, appeared to his show’s 2 million subscribers on a video call from…
Details
Belarus has seen weekly mass protests against the disputed presidential re-election of Alexander Lukashenko for nearly three months. On Monday, exiled Belarusian opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called for a national strike after the deadline she set for Lukashenko to resign and free all political prisoners expired the previous day. Here’s more of the latest news…
Details
Our friends and neighbors at the Hyatt Regency Petrovsky Park have brought back the gastronomic stay-at-home travel experiences that kept many of us happy and well-fed during the spring lockdown. Now they’ve doubled their culinary geography. Instead of one, now there are two sets of delicious food available for order every weekend. The new offerings,…
Details
Russian MMA fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov has joined a growing chorus of protests by prominent Muslims against French President Emmanuel Macron’s defense of secular values in the wake of two deadly terrorist attacks with a withering Instagram post. Macron became the target of widespread anger in the Islamic world for defending the display of cartoons of…
Details
Russia has confirmed 1,599,976 cases of coronavirus and 27,656 deaths. Oct. 30: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 18,283 Covid-19 cases Friday, bringing its official number of cases to 1,599,976 and setting a new one-day record for infections. In the past 24 hours, 355 people have died. All of Russia’s regions are currently experiencing shortages of doctors to…
Details
Police in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan have shot and killed a teenager after he attacked a police station with Molotov cocktails and injured one officer with a knife while calling the officers “enemies of Allah,” authorities said Friday. Police said officers chased after the suspect who threw at least two Molotov cocktails at the station’s…
Details
Azerbaijani forces were closing in on the key town of Shusha on Thursday evening — the capture of which could transform the conflict at a time when analysts fear a “war of attrition” could be about to set in as winter approaches the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region. Meanwhile talks in Geneva will attempt to move towards…
DetailsAngarsk Petrochemical Company, an enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company’s refining complex, has become a laureate of the 2nd Russian Contest ‘Reliable Partner in Ecology’.
On October 30, 2020 at the Belarusian NPP (General Designer and General Contractor: Engineering Division of ROSATOM), specialists brought the turbo aggregate rotors to the nominal idle speed (without grid connection), which is one of the most important and crucial operations at the stage of the unit preparation for electricity generation. The rotation start is…
Details
On Thursday evening Pushkin House announced that Sergei Medvedev is this year’s winner of the 2020 Pushkin House Book Prize for his collection of essays called in English “The Return of the Russian Leviathan.” The book was translated by Stephen Dalziel. The prize, which carries a monetary award of £10,000, is given every year for…
Details
Russia’s coronavirus vaccine faces equipment shortages that could delay it from entering mass production, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday as reports suggested that developers have paused clinical trials due to the shortages. Staff at eight of the 25 trial clinics in Moscow said that they temporarily halted the vaccination of new volunteers with Sputnik V,…
Details
Russia confirmed a record daily increase in coronavirus infections for the second consecutive day Friday, reporting more than 18,000 new cases for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The 18,283 new coronavirus cases pushes the overall number of Covid-19 cases in Russia to 1,599,976, the world’s fourth-highest number. The new milestone…
Details
Russia is open to Azerbaijan reclaiming seven areas surrounding the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh that Armenia has controlled for 26 years, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. Azerbaijani forces have been making gains against Armenian separatist fighters since the heaviest fighting since a 1994 ceasefire over the South Caucasus region erupted last month. The Armenia-controlled districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh,…
Details
Fighting continued Thursday in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region after the third attempt at a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan — a U.S. brokered deal — fell apart within minutes of coming into effect earlier in the week. Oct. 29: What you need to know today The leader of Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh said Azerbaijani forces…
Details
The multimillion dollar settlement reached in the Baring Vostok civil case shows strong-arm tactics and criminalization of business disputes are still an effective ways to settle corporate conflicts in Russia, analysts told The Moscow Times. Warring parties in the most high-profile business dispute of recent years — between U.S. investor Michael Calvey’s Baring Vostok investment…
Details
A multi-domed Russian Orthodox cathedral will be constructed at Moscow State University for students and staff, the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church announced Tuesday. The new Saints Cyril and Methodius cathedral, designed by architect Dmitry Pshenichnikov, will be crowned by a 46-meter (150 feet) bell tower surrounded by more than a dozen domes. The…
Details
Belarus has seen weekly mass protests against the disputed presidential re-election of Alexander Lukashenko for nearly three months. On Monday, exiled Belarusian opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called for a national strike after the deadline she set for Lukashenko to resign and free all political prisoners expired the previous day. Here’s more of the latest news…
Details
October 29, 2020, 16:40 The Gazprom Management Committee took note of the information on the projects being designed and implemented for the widespread adoption of digital technologies and other technological solutions. It was highlighted that the introduction of digital technologies is an important tool to improve the effectiveness of the corporate governance and achieve the strategic goals of the Gazprom Group. Today, the Company is at the final stage…
Details
A satirical magazine that mocks religion, politics and culture like France’s Charlie Hebdo would not be able to exist in Russia, the Kremlin said Thursday after France saw its second deadly terror attack in two weeks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Thursday’s killing of three people in a Nice church — which came after a Chechen…
Details
October 29, 2020, 16:30 Daily deliverability of the UGS facilities has been maintained at the record level of 843.3 million cubic meters. All 13 sets of planned preventive maintenance and repair operations were performed. The Gazprom Management Committee reviewed the operational readiness of the Unified Gas Supply System (UGSS) facilities for peak loads expected in late 2020 – early 2021, as well as the measures necessary to ensure uninterrupted gas…
Details
A former German language professor, Olga Shirnina is best known worldwide by her online alias, klimbim, with which she signs her unique artwork. Shirnina colors historical photographs using Photoshop, offering a new take on history and the figures that shaped her world. Behind this seemingly straightforward coloring exercise are hours of meticulous research — after…
Details
Alleged Russian agents offered to send 10,000 soldiers to Catalonia during its failed bid for independence from Spain in 2017, Spanish and European media reported Wednesday. The claims are based on audio recordings from one of the 21 Catalan businessmen detained this week on suspicion of corruption and incitement of public disorder, according to Politico…
Details
Like virtually every other international symposium, congress or conference this year, the 10th Anniversary Symposium of Traditional Polyphony that was to be held in Tibilisi, Georgia, could not welcome singers in person. So the Yale Russian Chorus gave up their travel plans but joined with their Alumni Association and the Kartuli Ensemble to sing for…
Details
An annual commemoration held in honor of victims of Stalinist repressions has moved online Thursday due to the coronavirus pandemic, its organizers said. Participants of the “Returning the Names” ceremony traditionally gather outside the former KGB headquarters in central Moscow every Oct. 29 to read the names, ages and professions of those who died in Stalin’s…
Details
Alexander, a German citizen, first met Anna on Valentine’s Day during a break from his studies in Russia’s grand imperial capital St. Petersburg. She had offered to show him around her home city during his two-week course after they connected on the Couchsurfing platform. As they ate dinner at a Soviet-style restaurant with rugs decorating…
Details
Russia has gradually moved to re-open its borders after grounding nearly all international flights this spring due to the coronavirus pandemic. On Aug. 1, Russia resumed direct flights to Tanzania, Turkey, and the U.K. Nearly four months later, regular international flights now connect Russia with more than 10 countries and additional air links with Cuba,…
Details
Russia confirmed a new record of 17,717 coronavirus cases and 366 deaths Thursday as the second wave of the disease overwhelms the country’s regions outside Moscow. The latest record increase in infections smashes the previous single-day highs set last Friday and this Monday by at least 370 cases. Russia’s overall Covid-19 caseload now stands at…
Details
A disgruntled Russian PR executive had provided some of the key unverified allegations for a controversial report at the heart of 2016 U.S. election meddling claims known as the Steele dossier, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. British counterintelligence specialist Christopher Steele’s report that leaked in 2017 alleged, among other things, that Russian security services…
Details