Tag Archives: Russia

Russia tells Afghan neighbors to say no to U.S., NATO presence

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s top diplomat told Afghanistan’s neighbors on Wednesday to refuse to host U.S. or NATO military forces following their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Kremlin is worried by the risk of Islamist militants spilling into Central Asia from Afghanistan and bristles at the idea of the West gaining a foothold in a region that used to be part of the Soviet Union.

“We … call on Afghanistan’s neighboring countries not to allow a military presence of U.S. and NATO forces which plan to move there after leaving Afghan territory,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The diplomat made the remarks in a speech by video link at a conference held in Tehran on Afghanistan attended by China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Lavrov said it was important to curb and control migration flows from Afghanistan and that criminal and terrorist elements were already trying to enter Afghanistan’s neighbors disguised as refugees.

Moscow sees the ex-Soviet region as its southern defensive flank, but in June President Vladimir Putin offered Washington the use of Russian military bases in Central Asia, according to the Kommersant newspaper’s sources.

Russia operates its largest foreign military base in Tajikistan, which has a long border with Afghanistan, and has expanded its own troop and military hardware presence there since the Taliban takeover.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Russia close to using natural gas as weapon in Europe’s gas crunch – Biden energy adviser

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden’s global energy security adviser said on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is getting close to using natural gas as a political tool if Russia is holding back fuel exports to Europe as it suffers an energy crunch.

“I think we are getting close to that line if Russia indeed has the gas to supply and it chooses not to, and it will only do so if Europe accedes to other demands that are completely unrelated,” Amos Hochstein, Biden’s adviser, told reporters, when asked if Putin was using gas as a weapon.

Hochstein said gas prices in Europe have been driven higher not just by events in the region but also by a dry season in China that has reduced energy output from hydropower and increased global competition for natural gas.

Still, while several factors have led to the European gas crisis, Russia is best placed to come to the aid of Europe, he said.

“There is no doubt in my mind, and the (International Energy Agency) has itself validated, that the only supplier that can really make a big difference for European energy security at the moment for this winter is Russia,” Hochstein said. Russia can increase upstream production of gas, and should do it quickly through existing pipelines, he said.

Putin has rejected suggestions that Moscow was squeezing supplies for political motives, saying it will increase flow as much as partners ask.

Putin has blamed record high prices on the EU’s energy policy and said Russia can boost supplies to Europe once its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline gets approved.

Yuriy Vitrenko, the head of Ukraine’s state energy company Naftogaz, this month said Russia was trying to blackmail Europe into certifying its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline by keeping fuel supplies low. The pipeline, which Washington opposes because it would circumvent Ukraine, is finished but needs approvals from Germany to start delivering Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Europe.

Approvals from Germany and the European Commission for Nord Stream 2 will likely take until March, so if Russia says it can quickly boost gas flow through Nord Stream 2, it should be able to do so now through existing pipelines, Hochstein said.

“You can’t have it both ways,” Hochstein said

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Mark Porter)

Russian COVID deaths hit 4th straight record a week before new curbs

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia reported a fourth straight daily record of COVID-19 deaths on Friday, with still a week to go before the start of a nationwide workplace shutdown ordered by President Vladimir Putin to try to curb a rise in infections.

Authorities said 1,064 people had died in the previous 24 hours, with new infections hitting a second successive daily record at 37,141.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin’s decision to declare the period from Oct. 30 to Nov. 7 as “non-working days” would provide an opportunity to break the chain of infections, but described the situation as “extremely difficult.”

Asked if more drastic measures might be considered, he said: “Right now, no… There is not a single person who can predict the trajectory of the pandemic with a high degree of confidence.”

He did not rule out the possibility of further measures being taken beyond Nov. 7 if necessary, and once again blamed the situation on negative public attitudes towards getting vaccinated.

“Our vaccination program is going worse than a number of European countries. Fewer people are being vaccinated and more people are getting sick as new, more aggressive strains emerge. That is the reality that is taking place,” he said.

Putin has told regional authorities they can introduce further restrictions at their discretion.

Moscow has ordered unvaccinated over-60s to stay at home for four months from Monday, and from next Thursday will reimpose the strictest lockdown measures since June last year, with only essential shops like pharmacies and supermarkets allowed to remain open.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov and Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Russia reports cases of more contagious COVID-19 Delta subvariant

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia has reported “isolated cases” of COVID-19 with a subvariant of the Delta variant that is believed to be even more contagious, the state consumer watchdog’s senior researcher said on Thursday.

The researcher, Kamil Khafizov, said the AY.4.2 subvariant may be around 10% more infectious than the original Delta – which has driven new cases and deaths to a series of record daily highs in Russia – and could ultimately replace it.

However, he said this was likely to be a slow process.

“The vaccines are effective enough against this version of the virus, which is not so different as to dramatically change the ability to bind to antibodies,” he said.

The AY.4.2 subvariant is also on an increasing trajectory in England and had already accounted for about 6% of all sequences generated on the week beginning Sept. 27, a UK Health Security Agency report released on Oct. 15 said.

British Health Minister Sajid Javid on Wednesday said there was no reason to believe the subvariant posed a greater threat than Delta.

Russian immunologist Nikolay Kryuchkov said Delta and its subvariants would remain dominant and might in the future adapt in some ways to vaccines, especially where vaccination rates are below or just above 50%.

“But it seems to me that a revolutionary jump will not happen, because the coronavirus, like any organism, has an evolutionary limit, and the evolutionary jump has already happened,” he said.

The Russian health ministry had no immediate comment.

Moscow’s mayor on Thursday announced the strictest lockdown measures since June of last year, a day after President Vladimir Putin approved a government proposal for a week-long workplace shutdown at the start of November.

(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov, Polina Nikolskaya and Angelina Kazakova; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Giles Elgood)

Putin approves week-long Russian workplace shutdown as COVID-19 surges

By Alexander Marrow and Darya Korsunskaya

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday approved a government proposal for a week-long workplace shutdown at the start of November to combat a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Coronavirus-related deaths across Russia in the past 24 hours hit yet another daily record at 1,028, with 34,073 new infections.

Speaking at a televised meeting with government officials, Putin said the “non-working days” from Oct. 30 to Nov. 7, during which people would continue to receive salaries, could begin earlier or be extended for certain regions.

“The epidemiological situation is developing differently in each region,” Putin said. “In light of this, the heads of regions are given the right to impose additional measures.”

Authorities have stepped up the urgency of their efforts to slow the pandemic as they confront widespread public reluctance to get injected with the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine. Moscow’s mayor announced four months of stay-home restrictions for unvaccinated over-60s on Tuesday.

The mayor’s office was seeking to force shopping centers to connect their security cameras to a centralized facial recognition system that would allow authorities to enforce protective mask-wearing in public, the Kommersant daily reported.

Half of Moscow’s 600 shopping centers have not connected to the system, Kommersant cited Bulat Shakirov, president of the Union of Shopping Centers, as saying.

“But now, due to growing infections, authorities have decided to tighten control,” he said, adding that shopping centers that failed to comply could be ordered to close.

Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said the healthcare system was operating under great strain. Around 650,000 medical professionals across Russia were involved in treating patients suffering from COVID-19, Interfax news agency cited Murashko as saying on Wednesday.

Russia began a revaccination campaign in July, one of the first countries to do so, but Putin has yet to receive a booster shot, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

“The president has not been revaccinated yet,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. “He will do this when doctors and specialists tell him to.”

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, Alexander Marrow, Darya Korsunskaya, Gleb Stolyarov, Dmitry Antonov and Maria Kiselyova; writing by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Timothy Heritage)

Russia says it chased U.S. naval destroyer away from its waters

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said one of its military vessels chased away a U.S. naval destroyer that attempted to violate Russian territorial waters during Russian-Chinese naval drills in the Sea of Japan on Friday.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. side.

The Russian defense ministry said the crew of a Russian anti-submarine vessel, the Admiral Tributs, had radioed a warning to the USS Chafee that it was “in an area closed to navigation due to exercises with artillery fire”.

The U.S. destroyer failed to change course and instead raised flags indicating it was preparing to launch a helicopter from its deck, meaning it could not turn or change speed, the Russian ministry said in a statement.

“Acting within the framework of the international rules of navigation, the Admiral Tributs set a course for ousting the intruder from Russian territorial waters,” it said.

The Chafee eventually changed course when the two vessels were less than 60 meters apart, it said. It said the incident lasted about 50 minutes and took place in Peter the Great Bay in the west of the Sea of Japan.

RIA news agency said the Russian defense ministry summoned the U.S. military attaché, who was told the of the “unprofessional actions” of the destroyer’s crew, which had “rudely violated international laws on the prevention of collisions of vessels at sea”.

It was the second time in four months Russia has said it chased a NATO-member warship from its waters. In June, Russia accused a British destroyer of breaching its territorial waters off Crimea in the Black Sea, and said it had forced it away. Britain rejected Moscow’s account of that incident, saying at the time its ship was operating lawfully in Ukrainian waters.

Earlier on Friday, Russia said it had held joint naval drills with China in the Sea of Japan and practiced how to operate together and destroy floating enemy mines with artillery fire.

Relations between Russia and the United States are at post-Cold War lows, although President Vladimir Putin said this week he had established a solid relationship with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden and saw potential for ties to improve.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Catherine Evans and Peter Graff)

Russia says at least 49,389 people died from COVID-19 in Aug

MOSCOW (Reuters) – At least 49,389 people died in Russia in August due to the coronavirus and related causes, taking the toll to around 418,000 people since the pandemic began, state statistic service Rosstat said on Friday.

Russian authorities blame the spread of the more contagious Delta variant and a low vaccination rate for the third wave of coronavirus infections, which peaked in July.

In July, Russia saw the highest monthly coronavirus death toll of the pandemic as 51,044 people died from COVID-19 or related causes that month, the figure revised recently after the first publication.

The number reported by Rosstat exceeds the official total death toll of 214,485, published by the Russian coronavirus task force earlier on Friday.

Authorities explained the discrepancy between Rosstat and coronavirus task force data by the fact that the latter reports deaths from COVID-19 on a daily basis that do not need additional confirmation from medical examiners, whereas Rosstat publishes full data on a monthly basis.

Some epidemiologists say that measuring excess mortality is the best way to assess the death toll during a pandemic.

Based on the new data, Reuters calculated that the number of excess deaths in Russia between April 2020 and August 2021 had reached 575,000 in comparison with the average mortality rate in 2015-2019.

(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Alison Williams)

Turkey’s Russian air defense systems and U.S. response

(Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan this week flagged potential further cooperation with Russia on defense industry projects including fighter jets and submarines even as the United States warned it could respond with more sanctions.

Turkey received the first deliveries of the S-400 surface-to-air systems in July 2019, prompting Washington to begin removing the NATO ally from its F-35 stealth fighter program over security concerns.

The following timeline presents the main developments in the program and Ankara’s relations with the United States.

Dec. 29, 2017 – Turkey and Russia sign an accord on deliveries of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile batteries, reportedly worth around $2.5 billion.

June 19, 2018 – A U.S. Senate committee passes a spending bill that includes a provision to block Turkey’s purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets unless it drops the plan to buy the S-400s.

March 28, 2019 – U.S. Senators introduce a bipartisan bill to prohibit the transfer of F-35s to Turkey unless the U.S. administration certifies that Ankara will not take delivery of the S-400s.

June 7, 2019 – The United States decides to stop accepting any additional Turkish pilots to train on F-35 fighter jets.

July 17, 2019 – The United States says it was removing Turkey from the F-35 program; Ellen Lord, Undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and sustainment, says Turkey would no longer receive more than $9 billion in projected work.

July 25, 2019 – Russia completes the first shipment of its S-400 systems to Turkey, according to Turkish military officials.

Sept. 15, 2019 – Turkey’s defense ministry confirms delivery of a second battery of S-400s.

Nov. 12, 2020 – Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar says Turkey is ready to discuss U.S. concerns about the technical compatibility of Russian S-400 defense systems and U.S.-made F-35 jets, renewing Ankara’s call for a joint working group with Washington on the issue.

March 24, 2021 – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, urges Ankara to drop the S-400 system. In the same meeting, Cavusoglu told his U.S. counterpart that its purchase was “a done deal.”

July 21, 2021 – U.S. President Joe Biden is committed to maintaining sanctions on Turkey under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for buying Russian missile defenses and would impose further sanctions if Ankara bought further major arms systems from Moscow, according to a senior U.S. diplomat.

Aug. 23, 2021 – The Interfax new agency reports the head of Russia’s arms exporter as saying Russia and Turkey were close to signing a new contract to supply Ankara with more S-400s in the near future.

Sept. 26, 2021 – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey still intends to buy a second batch of missile defense systems from Russia.

Sept. 30, 2021 – Turkey is considering more joint defense industry programs with Russia including fighter jets and submarines, President Erdogan says after talks with President Vladimir Putin. Erdogan did not mention further S-400 purchases or U.S. sanctions, but said “Turkey would not back down.”

(Compiled by Oben Mumcuoglu and Berna Syuleymanoglu in Gdansk; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Daren Butler)

Russia arrests top cybersecurity executive in treason case

By Tom Balmforth and Anton Zverev

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian authorities have arrested the chief executive of a leading Russian cybersecurity company on suspicion of state treason, a court said on Wednesday, sending a chill through Russia’s IT and business sectors.

Ilya Sachkov, 35, who founded Group IB, one of Russia’s most prominent cyber security firms, was arrested on Tuesday, the RTVI TV channel reported as law enforcement officers carried out searches at the Moscow offices of the firm.

State news agency TASS cited an unnamed security source as saying Sachkov was accused of working with unspecified foreign intelligence services and of treason that hurt Russia’s national interests. He denied both allegations, it said.

Group IB said in a statement it was sure Sachkov was not guilty of the allegations, but that it was unable to comment further on them. There was no official comment about the case from the security services.

Moscow’s Lefortovo district court said it had ordered Sachkov to be held in custody for two months.

State treason is punishable by up to 20 years in jail. The details of such cases seldom come to light in full because of their classified nature.

Global IB focuses on investigating high-tech crimes and online fraud, with a global client base that includes banks, energy companies, telecoms firms and Interpol.

More searches took place at the St Petersburg offices of Group IB and other unnamed companies on Wednesday, the RIA news agency cited a security source as saying.

Sachkov is a well-known figure in the business and IT sectors and has also met President Vladimir Putin at least once.

He is the latest in a long series of people, including scientists, soldiers, officials and a former journalist, to be accused of treason in recent years.

Boris Titov, presidential commissioner for entrepreneurs’ rights, called on investigators to disclose information about the case against Sachkov.

The Kremlin rejected the idea the case could hurt Russia’s business climate during a conference call and said it was linked to state treason, not business.

Group IB said the searches at its offices had begun on Tuesday morning, with law enforcement officials leaving that same evening. It said it had no information about why the searches were being conducted.

The RTVI TV channel said Sachkov had been detained on Tuesday, citing a source in law enforcement. An RTVI correspondent also reported that men were dragging things from Group IB’s office to a van parked outside.

Group IB said all services were still running as normal and that the security of client data was ensured by the company’s geographically distributed infrastructure.

(Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy, Anton Zverev, Alexander Marrow; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Nick Macfie)

‘Loss and pain’: Families testify at Dutch MH17 trial

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -A woman whose daughter was among 298 people who died when a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over Ukraine said on Friday she wanted to look the suspects in the eye and “make them feel our loss and pain.”

Relatives of the victims of flight MH17, brought down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine in 2014, denounced the “senseless and brutal” deaths of their loved ones during the trial of four suspects accused in the disaster.

Their testimony concluded three weeks of statements from 90 relatives from eight countries. They told the judges about the impact of the loss on their lives and their hopes for justice.

Prosecutor Alwin Dam said many relatives have issues with the “amount of misinformation and conspiracy theories that are spread about MH17” and the fact that no one has claimed responsibility.

The plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was hit by what international investigators and prosecutors say was a Russian surface-to-air missile.

Jeanne Hornikx’s daughter Astrid, 31, and Astrid’s partner Bart, 40, were among those on board.

Hornikx showed the judges a tattoo of her daughter’s fingerprint, saying “that is how she was identified”.

“I would like to look the suspects straight in the eye and make them feel our loss and pain. That our suffering becomes their suffering, that maybe grief shared – and remorse – can become grief halved,” Hornikx said.

Dutch prosecutors have brought charges against three Russians and a Ukrainian citizen, all suspected of having key roles in transporting the missile system. They went on trial for murder last year.

Two-thirds of the victims were Dutch citizens and the Netherlands blames Moscow for the attack.

Russia, which maintains that it has not funded or supported pro-Russian rebels fighting Ukrainian government troops, has refused to extradite the suspects. Only one defendant has appointed a lawyer.

The court adjourned until November with the prosecution closing statement expected on Nov. 15, judges said. A verdict will likely be handed down late next year.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Anthony Deutsch and Giles Elgood)