Tag: Russia

From space, Russian cosmonauts fight chess grandmaster to a draw

https://youtu.be/uV5AhzVpHaE MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Two Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station played chess against an Earth-bound grandmaster on Tuesday, in a celebration of the first such game half a century ago. Equipped with an electronic chessboard, cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner played in zero gravity against 30-year-old Russian former child prodigy Sergei Karyakin. The game was broadcast live and ended in a draw after about 15 minutes. It was organized by the […]

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Russia sees melting permafrost behind Arctic fuel spill

by Maria ANTONOVA Agence France-Presse MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — An unprecedented fuel spill that has polluted huge stretches of Arctic rivers was caused by melting permafrost, Russian officials said Friday, ordering a review of infrastructure in vulnerable zones. The spill — which has coloured remote tundra waterways with bright red patches visible from space — has highlighted the danger of climate change for Russia as areas locked by permafrost for centuries thaw amid warmer temperatures. […]

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Russia struggles to clean up Arctic river fuel spill

by Maria ANTONOVA Agence France-Presse MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Thursday intensified efforts to clean up a major fuel spill that environmentalists say is the worst such accident in the Arctic, as investigators made their first arrest. A diesel reservoir collapsed at a power station outside the northern Siberian city of Norilsk on Friday, releasing 15,000 tonnes of fuel into a river and 6,000 tonnes into the soil, according to Russia’s state environmental watchdog. […]

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Putin declares state of emergency over Siberian fuel spill

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered a state of emergency and criticised a subsidiary of metals giant Norilsk Nickel after a massive diesel spill into a Siberian river. The spill of over 20,000 tonnes of diesel fuel took place on Friday. A fuel reservoir collapsed at a power plant near the city of Norilsk, located above the Arctic Circle, and leaked into a nearby river. The accident is the second largest […]

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Russia to spend over $70 billion on virus recovery plan

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia plans to spend about $72 billion (65 billion euro) on a plan to restore the economy following the coronavirus shutdown, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Tuesday. The program to boost employment, incomes and economic growth “contains over 500 measures, its cost over two years will be about five trillion rubles,” Mishustin told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting. Putin described the plan as a “foundation” for repairing the economy […]

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Russia plans rocket tests, lunar programme resumption

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Sunday put a brave face on the loss of its space travel monopoly, saying it planned to test two new rockets this year and resume its lunar programme in 2021. The comments from the Russian space agency Roscosmoc came after US entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX became the world’s first commercial company to put humans into orbit, signalling the dawn of a new era. Russia had for many years enjoyed […]

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Military helicopter crashes outside Moscow, crew killed: ministry

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — A Russian army Mi-8 helicopter crashed outside Moscow during a training flight on Tuesday, killing the crew, the defense ministry said. “As a result of a crash landing the crew of the helicopter died of their wounds,” the defense ministry said. Defense ministry spokespeople, reached by AFP, declined to specify how many crew members had died. But Russian news agencies, citing emergency services, said three people died. The helicopter, which did […]

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Russia coronavirus cases edge towards 300,000

  MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — The number of coronavirus cases in Russia hit nearly 300,000 on Tuesday as authorities registered more than 9,000 new infections after saying the virus situation had stabilised. Health officials reported 9,263 new infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 299,941, the second-highest in the world after the United States. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who along with several other senior officials has tested positive for the virus, said […]

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Russian newborn has coronavirus: health officials

  MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — A baby was born with the coronavirus in Russia’s Caucasus region, health officials were quoted by TASS news agency as saying on Sunday, to a mother who is also infected. The birth in the North Ossetia city of Beslan follows one in mid-April in Peru, which health officials there said was the second known case of a COVID-19 positive newborn worldwide. In North Ossetia, “a pregnant woman was infected by […]

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100-year-old Russian beats coronavirus

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia celebrated a rare bit of good news on Wednesday as a 100-year-old woman left a Moscow hospital after fully recovering from the coronavirus. In the country’s first reported case of a survivor that old, the woman, Pelageya Poyarkova, was discharged on her 100th birthday, the Moscow clinic treating her said. Russian television showed the elderly woman wearing a face mask and clutching a bouquet of red roses as she exited […]

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Russia records more than 10,000 new virus cases

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia registered more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday continuing a grim trend that has seen the country become a global virus hotspot. Health officials reported 10,028 new cases over the last 24 hours, bringing Russia’s total number of infections to 242,271. The Kremlin this week eased a national lockdown to slow the spread of the virus, despite a steady rise in numbers that has brought Russia to second place […]

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New virus cases threaten world’s moves back to work

  by Michael Mainville with AFP bureaux Agence France Presse World powers including Russia and India pushed on with easing coronavirus restrictions on Tuesday, despite upsurges in infections in parts of the world and warnings of a second wave epidemic. Chinese authorities, meanwhile, moved to test the entire 11-million strong population of the city of Wuhan, cradle of the global pandemic, after new cases were reported there. In Russia, the government began to gradually ease […]

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