Russia News in English - Expat Guide to Russia

February 20, 2019

Putin to give annual address as popularity slides

Russian President Vladimir Putin will deliver his annual state of the nation address on Wednesday as he faces an unprecedented fall in his approval ratings. It will be the 66-year-old leader’s first address to both houses of parliament since he…

February 19, 2019

Danske Bank to close branches over money laundering scandal

Denmark’s largest lender Danske Bank said Tuesday it would follow the Estonian banking watchdog FSA’s order to shut its Estonian branch within eight months, after a money laundering scandal. The bank also announced it was closing its operations in Latvia,…

February 19, 2019

Ukrainian Church in Crimea faces closure

The only major Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Russian-annexed Crimea is set to close, its head told AFP, following a historic religious split between Kiev and Moscow. For more than 300 years the Ukrainian Church was linked to the Moscow Patriarchate,…

February 19, 2019

‘Invasion’ of polar bears in Russian Arctic over

An “invasion” of aggressive polar bears in inhabited areas of Arctic Russia has come to an end, officials said Tuesday, ten days after the animals came to the area looking for food. Officials in the remote northeastern Novaya Zemlya archipelago…

February 19, 2019

One-time US head of Russia probe to leave office soon: reports

The US Justice Department official who once oversaw the Russia probe, Rod Rosenstein, plans to resign in mid-March, US news outlets reported. Rosenstein’s departure from his post as deputy attorney general has been expected for some time. CNN late Monday…

February 19, 2019

Trump tells Venezuela military to back Guaido or ‘lose everything’

US President Donald Trump on Monday urged Venezuela’s military to accept opposition leader Juan Guaido’s amnesty offer, or stand to “lose everything,” as a crisis deepened over President Nicolas Maduro’s refusal to let in desperately needed humanitarian aid. Bringing in…

February 18, 2019

Russia’s RT fumes after Facebook blocks ‘wildly popular’ page

Facebook has blocked a popular page run by Russian state TV channel RT, the channel’s editor said Monday, criticising the move as an attack on media rights. “We had a subsidiary project in English, In the Now. The project was…

February 18, 2019

Facebook ‘digital gangsters’ who spread fake news: British MPs

A scathing British parliamentary report on Monday branded Facebook “digital gangsters” who failed to fight the spread of fake news and violated data privacy. Lawmakers’ 18-month investigation into technology companies and disinformation also accused the world’s largest social media platform…

February 18, 2019

US sanctions force Russia to delay MC-21 plane: Rostec CEO

Production of the MC-21 plane, which Russia hoped could revive its civil aviation industry, has been delayed for a year due to US sanctions, the head of the Rostec conglomerate said Monday. “Due to the fact that the Americans have…