Contents tagged with Russia
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Russia creates department to fight internet anonymizers and Telegram messenger
Russia’s Federal State Unitary Enterprise “General Radio Frequency Center” (GRFC) has created a special department which investigates and analyses means of blocking websites and online services, and how to bypass the blocking, said Roskomnadzor (Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media) head Alexander Zharov, newspaper Izvestiya reports.
“They [the department] practice blocking all the resources which would have to be blocked if they …
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Khodorkovsky congratulating Putin on his birthday wished him ‘to separate himself from Russia’
In an interview with TV Rain (Dozhd), founder of Open Russia political initiative Khodorkovsky said he was happy to congratulate Putin on his 65th birthday. "If Vladimir Vladimirovich found the strength to separate himself from the country (from the point of view of its management), then I think our country would finally see some prospects for the future, as would Putin himself. I really wish this for him," Khodorkovsky said.
Khodorkovsky recalled that he also had congratulated the President …
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Amnesty International demands the release of people detained at protest rallies in Russia
Amnesty International, an international human rights organization, demanded that the Russian authorities "immediately and unconditionally" release all detained protesters and investigate allegations of police abuse of power in St. Petersburg and Yakutsk, as reported by the Russian broadcast of Radio Liberty.
The Amnesty International statement notes that the rallies took place in many cities in Russia on Vladimir Putin’s birthday.
"The intention of the Kremlin is beyond doubt - to deprive the …
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Pentagon questions ability of Russia and Syria to defeat the Islamic State
Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said that he is skeptical of statements made by the Russian Defense Ministry regarding its successes in the fight against the Islamic state (IS).
TASS quotes Pahon as saying that "The efforts of the authoritarian regime of [Syrian President Bashar Assad], Russia and Iran are unlikely to lead to a complete defeat of IS."
According to Pahon, the emergence of IS "is linked, inter alia, with the repressive measures of the Assad regime." Against this background, he …
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More than 260 people detained during Putin’s birthday protests in Russia
At least 262 people were detained during protests in support of Alexei Navalny in 27 cities across Russia, according to OVD-Info.
As of 8:00 p.m., 66 people had been detained in Petersburg, 54 people in Yaroslavl, and 20 in Lipetsk. Detentions also occurred in Kaliningrad, Krasnodar, Perm, Pskov, Saransk, Selyatin, Sochi, Stavropol, Tver, Tyumen, and Yakutsk.
In Krasnodar, one of the protesters was arrested for three days. In Yekaterinburg, Izhevsk, Nizhny Tagil, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, …
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Ukraine accuses Russian private military company Wagner of involvement in Donbas conflict
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, participated in conflicts in the Donbas in 2014, and subsequently in Syria.
“An evidence base has been collected on the activity of Russian soldiers in the Donbas and in Syria, the activity of the Wagner Group. The campaign’s leader is Dmitry Utkin. This project makes it possible for the Kremlin to tell the international community that there are none of its soldiers there [in Eastern Ukraine],” …
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Russia intends to increase military expenditures while reducing healthcare and education spending
The Russian government has proposed to increase total defense spending in 2017 by 179.6 billion rubles - to 3.05 trillion rubles or $52.4 billion (3.3% of GDP), as indicated in a draft amendment to the budget submitted to the State Duma, Rosbalt.ru reports.
The increase in expenses will be for the closed part of the military budget. The expenditures in all other areas, including social policy, education, and healthcare, are planned to be reduced by 54 billion rubles ($938.5 million). …
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Russian Media: BMW intends to build a full cycle plant in Russia
The German company BMW intends to build a full-cycle car assembly plant in Russia, Vedomosti newspaper reports citing a source familiar with BMW management. The probable location for the production facility is the Kaliningrad region.
The Kaliningrad Region is located in a special economic zone (SEZ), whose residents receive budget subsidies covering the costs of customs payments when importing components. As the interlocutor of Vedomosti specifies, welding and tinting of (cars’) bodies will be …
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Budapest: Hungary will not block anti-Russian sanctions
Budapest does not intend to violate European unity over the issue of sanctions against Russia, despite the conflict with Kyiv over education legislation, as stated by Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in an interview with newspaper Kommersant.
According to him, while the Ukrainian law on education remains in force, Hungary will not support a single Ukrainian initiative or any important for Ukraine issue in any international organization. However, sanctions against the Russian …
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Kremlin threatens to close US news agencies in Russia
The Kremlin has warned again that some US media activities in Russia may be restricted in response to US pressure on Russian state media.
"Clearly, in case of further pressure and violation of our media rights, it is impossible to exclude reciprocal actions," the Russian President’s Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov said on October 6th. This statement was the latest in a series of threats from Russian officials.
On September 30th, the Russian Federal Service for the Supervision of Communication, …