• Five employees of pro-democracy organization Open Russia detained in Moscow

    Five employees of the pro-democracy organization Open Russia were detained on Friday night. According to the advocacy group’s human rights manager, Pauline Nemirovskaya, the two vehicle carrying the employees were pulled over by Moscow police shortly after leaving the office.

    Dozhd reported that police officers declared that the cars were wanted, and six people (five employees and one driver) were taken to the Basmanny police station.

    Shortly after, lawyer Sergei Badamshin attempted to enter …

  • Russia to construct gas pipeline under the Black Sea

    Russian company Gazprom, Italian company Edison and Greek company DEPA have signed an agreement to transport gas from Russia to Europe via a route under the Black Sea, as stated in a press release by Gazprom.

    The Russian company emphasized that the parties were interested in natural gas supply routes from Russia to Greece, as well as from Greece to Italy.  The results of work carried out by Edison and DEPA under the ITGI Poseidon project will be used “to the fullest extent” for these purposes. …

  • Open Russia's St. Petersburg office evacuated during Yashin presentation

    The offices of Open Russia in St. Petersburg were evacuated during the presentation of Ilya Yashin, the Deputy Chairman of the People’s Freedom Party (PARNAS).  Yashin was presenting his report, “The threat to national security”, which detailed the situation in Chechnya and the life of its leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.  This was reported to Dozhd on the 25th of February by the co-chair of PARNAS' St. Petersburg division, Natalia Gryaznevich.

    Yashin had already presented the report and was in the …

  • Azerbaijan issues note of protest over Russia's arms deal with Armenia

    Azerbaijan demands that the Kremlin provide assurance that weapons supplied to Armenia won't be located in Nagorno-Karabakh.

    The Azerbaijani authorities handed over a note of protest to Russia in connection with the arms deal signed between Moscow and Yerevan, according to a report by BBC Ukraine, with reference to the official representative of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hikmet Hajiyev.

    "Weapons acquired by Yerevan are usually situated in the separatist region of Azerbaijan, …

  • Only two Duma deputies observe moment of silence in memory of Nemtsov

    Russian Duma Deputy Dmitry Gudkov proposed that those in attendance of Friday’s legislative session in Moscow share a moment of silence in memory of Boris Nemtsov on the eve of the anniversary of his assassination. As Glavnoe reported, only Gudkov and one other, Ivan Grachev, stood up to honor Nemtsov, who was assassinated on February 27th of last year.

    “I suggested that we hold a moment of silence in the Duma in memory of Boris Nemtsov. As a result, two people stoop up- myself and Ivan …