MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s world first floating nuclear power station on Saturday completed a 5,000-kilometre (3,100-mile) Arctic transfer to the country’s far east, the Rosatom nuclear agency said. “The Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear plant arrived … at Pevek, in the autonomous district of Chukotka,” where it is to start operating by year end once connected to the local electricity grid, Rosatom said. What will be the world’s northernmost nuclear power plant left Murmansk […]
Tag: Russia
DFA: President Duterte to visit Russia next month
(Eagle News)–President Rodrigo Duterte will visit Russia next month. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Locsin Jr. made the revelation in his introductory remarks before the Senate finance committee hearing the proposed Department of Foreign Affairs budget on Thursday, Sept. 12. According to Locsin, the visit was to “make up for his first state visit that was aborted within half a day of arriving by the fall of Marawi to jihadis including foreign fighters.” Maute terrorists who […]
Telegram secretly plans ‘Gram’ cryptocurrency
by Andrea Palasciano MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Working in secrecy for a year, the Telegram messaging service has a plan: to beat Facebook in the race to launch a cryptocurrency with its new project “Gram”. Little is known about Gram, but media reports say Russian-founded Telegram aims to create an accessible service that is easier to use than various cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin — still confined to a relatively small market. In a document leaked […]
Putin, Modi to talk economy in Vladivostok
by Maria Panina VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday will host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks on boosting investment and trade, with a special emphasis on energy and arms deals. The two will meet on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum, which Russia has hosted in Vladivostok since 2015 to boost partnerships with Asian countries amid Western sanctions its 2014 annexation of Crimea. Politically, there are no […]
Russia sends its first humanoid robot Fedor into space
by Maria ANTONOVA MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Thursday launched an unmanned rocket carrying a life-size humanoid robot that will spend 10 days learning to assist astronauts on the International Space Station. Named Fedor, short for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research, the robot is the first-ever sent up by Russia. Fedor blasted off in a Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft at 6:38 am Moscow time (0338 GMT) from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz is […]
Russians hail ‘hero’ pilot after Moscow emergency landing
by Michael MAINVILLE MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — A Russian pilot was hailed as a hero Thursday for safely landing an Airbus carrying more than 230 people in a Moscow cornfield after a bird strike. The Ural Airlines A321 flying to Crimea hit a flock of seagulls shortly after take-off from Moscow’s Zhukovsky airport early Thursday, the Rosaviatsia air transport agency said in a statement. Birds were sucked into the engines and the crew decided to […]
‘Siberia is burning’: Russians choke on forest fire smog
by Ekaterina ANISIMOVA BOGUCHANY, Russia (AFP) — Svetlana Tuflyakova is in a hurry as she pushes her small son in his pram, keen to get back inside her house and away from the permeating smoke of Siberian wildfires: “It feels like it fills your whole body,” she says. Tuflyakova lives in the village of Boguchany in Krasnoyarsk region, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from raging fires which have engulfed vast territories and filled residential areas […]
Demise of US-Russia nuclear treaty fuels fears of new arms race
by Sebastian Smith / with Anna Smolchenko in Moscow and Francesco Fontemaggi in Bangkok Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States vowed to upgrade its cruise and ballistic missile capability as the collapse Friday of a Cold War nuclear pact with Russia triggered fears of a new arms race. As Washington placed the blame firmly on Moscow over the demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, President Donald Trump […]
Putin calls in army to fight Siberia forest fires
by Theo MERZ MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called in the army to fight forest fires that have been raging across vast expanses of Siberia for days, enveloping entire cities in black smoke. Environmentalists have warned that the scale of the blazes could accelerate global warming, aside from any immediate effects on the health of inhabitants. Around three million hectares (7.4 million acres) of land in the centre and east […]
Siberia forest fires spark potential ‘disaster’ for Arctic
by Maria PANINA MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Gigantic forest fires have regularly raged through the vast expanses of Russia’s Siberia, but the magnitude of this year’s blazes has reached an exceptional level with fears of a long-term impact on the environment. As fires sweep across millions of hectares enveloping entire cities in black smoke and noxious fumes, environmentalists warn of a disaster threatening to accelerate the melting of the Arctic. More than 3.2 million hectares […]
Russia says North Korea holding ship with 17 crew
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — North Korea is holding a Russian fishing ship with a crew of 15 Russians and two South Koreans since detaining it last week, the Russian embassy in Pyongyang said Wednesday. North Korean border guards took control of the ship belonging to the Russian North-Eastern Fishing Company on July 17. “According to the North Korean foreign ministry, the ship was detained for ‘violating rules of entry and stay’” in North Korea, […]
FBI chief: Russians still trying to meddle in US elections
WASHINGTON, DC (AFP) — FBI Director Christopher Wray warned Tuesday that Russia continues to threaten US elections, 16 months before the next presidential polls. “The Russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections,” Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “My view is until they stop they haven’t been deterred enough.” US intelligence and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation have documented a broad effort by Russian intelligence and a Russian social media […]





