• Moscow, capital of oil-rich Russia, targets electric car growth
• Saved by alert waste-sorting plant worker, Russian cat lands on its feet in minister's chair
• Russian government recommends banning Wi-Fi and cell phones in primary schools

• Russia: New websites increase interest in Transcendental Meditation
• New centre in Fairfield, Iowa, USA supports programmes for peace, harmony, and progress in Russia
• Russia: Coherence-creating power of large groups of Yogic Flyers demonstrated

• Russian ransomware gang breaches the Energy Department and other US federal agencies
• BBC, British Airways, Novia Scotia among first big-name victims in global supply-chain hack
• Exclusive: Russia's secret document for destabilizing Moldova

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Moscow, capital of oil-rich Russia, targets electric car growth
22 July 2021 - Moscow, capital of one of the world's biggest hydrocarbon exporters, plans to boost the use of electric cars by rolling out a raft of charging infrastructure in the coming years, the city's top transport official told Reuters. The use of electric cars in oil and gas giant Russia lags far behind other European capitals. But Moscow plans to install 200 electric charging stations annually starting this year, said Maxim Liksutov, head of the city's transport department. (more)

Saved by alert waste-sorting plant worker, Russian cat lands on its feet in minister's chair
24 December 2020 - When a worker at a Russian waste-sorting plant rescued a cat from imminent death, he had no idea it would end up with an honorary title and napping in a government official's chair. Surveillance footage at the plant in Ulyanovsk, a city located around 700 km (435 miles) southeast of Moscow, on Monday showed worker Mikhail Tukash scooping up a white plastic bag from a conveyor belt and slashing it open to discover a black and white male cat inside. ... The cat's rescue, broadcast on television and on social media, has made him a local celebrity. He has been adopted by the Ulyanovsk region's environment ministry and unofficially given the position of deputy environment minister. (more)

Russian government recommends banning Wi-Fi and cell phones in primary schools
20 July 2020 - On July 17, 2020, the Russian Ministry of Health published recommendations to schools to ban the use of Wi-Fi and cell phones in elementary schools. The Medical Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, prepared the recommendations together with the Russian Ministry of Health. Numerous studies show profound adverse effects from Wi-Fi. (more)

Food retailer feeds off Russia's appetite for healthy eating
2 April 2020 - In just over 10 years, upstart Russian organic food retailer VkusVill has gone from selling dairy products in a dingy market on Moscow's outskirts to aiming for omnipresence. The chain's main innovation has been its wide assortment of inexpensive organic food. VkusVill works with more than 800 suppliers -- owner Andrei Krivenko describes his company as a 'platform for local producers' -- to stock own-brand food without additives. (more)

Russian alcohol consumption down, life expectancy up, WHO report says
1 October 2019 - Russian alcohol consumption decreased by 43 per cent from 2003 to 2016, a World Health Organization (WHO) report says. It attributed the decline to a series of alcohol-control measures implemented by the state, and a push towards healthy lifestyles. The WHO said the drop in alcohol consumption was linked to a significant rise in life expectancy. It noted that Russia had previously been considered one of the heaviest-drinking countries in the world. (more)

Russians drinking less, living longer, WHO says
1 October 2019 - Russia remains a nation of heavy drinkers, but alcohol consumption has fallen 43 percent from 2003 to 2016, a key factor in the country's rapid rise in life expectancy, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday [1 October]. (more)

World Cup fans enjoy Tatar culture at Summer festival
23 June 2018 - Football fans from around the globe visiting Kazan for the World Cup got a taste of traditional Tatar culture at the Sabantuy Summer festival on Saturday (23 June). The holiday, which celebrates the planting of the crops, has origins going back more than a thousand years and the festival on the outskirts of Kazan attracts thousands of visitors every year. (more)

Giant snowballs appear on Russian beach in Siberia
5 November 2016 - A strange and beautiful sight greeted locals in the Gulf of Ob, in northwest Siberia, after thousands of natural snowballs formed on the beach. An 11-mile (18km) stretch of coast was covered in the icy spheres. The sculptural shapes range from the size of a tennis ball to almost 1m (3ft) across. They result from a rare environmental process where small pieces of ice form, are rolled by wind and water, and end up as giant snowballs. (more)

25 years on, Russians tell of how they defeated a coup
17 August 2016 - On August 19, 1991, a group of eight senior hard-line Communist leaders, including the KGB chairman, had seized power from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, declaring that Gorbachev was unable to continue as head of the party due to illness. In fact, Gorbachev was under arrest and the 'Gang of Eight' intended to roll back his reformist policies of glasnost and perestroika, which they believed had set the Soviet Union on a path of disaster. For a few days, the fate of the superpower hung in the balance. As the 25th anniversary of the August Coup draws near this Friday, The Associated Press has talked to participants and witnesses of those critical days when Muscovites turned out to defend the spirit of democracy that Gorbachev had unleashed, and many Soviet officers defied their orders and sided with the people, ensuring that that the plotters failed. (more)

Russian State Duma passes total ban on GMO crops and animals
25 June 2016 - Russia's Agriculture Minister, Alexander Tkachev, stated Friday; 'The Ministry of Agriculture is strongly against GMOs, Russian products will remain clean.' In December 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Russian Parliament that Russia should become the world's largest supplier of organic foods. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Russia: New websites increase interest in Transcendental Meditation
21 July 2013 - Transcendental Meditation has grown steadily in popularity in Russia since it was first introduced in the country over 20 years ago. In recent years the organization teaching the technique has expanded rapidly in bringing the programme to people throughout the nation. Several new websites have been created this year to make widely available the knowledge and technologies of consciousness developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to improve the quality of life of individuals and the whole society. (more)

New centre in Fairfield, Iowa, USA supports programmes for peace, harmony, and progress in Russia
13 January 2011 - A new centre to support expansion of the programmes of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Russia has been established in Fairfield, Iowa, USA. The centre will create Russian translations of audio, video, and written materials relating to all of Maharishi's programmes for every area of society, and will also support Russian citizens wishing to join the Invincible America Assembly. (more)

Russia: Coherence-creating power of large groups of Yogic Flyers demonstrated
13 January 2011 - Two recent World Peace Assemblies in Russia demonstrated the power of large groups of practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme to create harmony and coherence in collective consciousness. The Assemblies were held simultaneously last fall in two major Russian cities. In the past year, many people have been taking advantage of other courses and advanced programmes of Transcendental Meditation being made available across the country. Fifty Transcendental Meditation Teachers have attended recent Recertification Courses and are contributing to this expansion of programmes for development of consciousness and increased positivity in the nation. (more)

Drought, fires ease in Russia following extended practise of Maharishi's technologies of consciousness
14 August 2010 - Extended practice of Transcendental Meditation and the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme by groups of people in Russia contributed to alleviating the recent extreme heat, drought, and fires in Moscow, said a leader of the Global Country of World Peace: functioning from the level of their own Transcendental Consciousness, their group practice enlivened the field of total Natural Law, bringing the refreshing influence of rain to the whole area. (more)

Russia: Transcendental Meditation sparks unprecedented interest
16 June 2010 - An article in the Russian magazine Passport describes the great surge of interest in the Transcendental Meditation Programme following the 2009 visit of David Lynch to Russia. It also explores projects in business, agriculture, education, and health care that are flourishing in Russia in cooperation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's organizations in the country. (more)

Russia: Goals set to train more Maharishi Ayur-Veda health practitioners; new Transcendental Meditation Centres inaugurated
7 June 2010 - Four new Centres teaching the Transcendental Meditation Programme were recently inaugurated in Russia. Many other new plans and initiatives are being developed with the goal of creating an invincible state of good health, happiness, and prosperity for everyone in the nation through Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes, by 12 January 2012. Plans include training more Maharishi Ayur-Veda health care technicians, as well as inviting Vaidyas (expert Ayurvedic physicians from India) to tour the country. (more)

Passport Magazine reports on Transcendental Meditation in Russia
4 April 2010 - Enthusiasm for the Transcendental Meditation Programme, which has been enjoyed by thousands in Russia over the past 20 years, was re-enlivened by the visit of renowned filmmaker David Lynch. (more)

Transcendental Meditation popularity increases 450 per cent in Russia
23 January 2010 - The programmes of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi expanded rapidly in Russia during the year 2009, and the establishment of a new Maharishi Invincibility Centre in the nation's capital will help accommodate rising numbers of people seeking to learn Transcendental Meditation in the new year. (more)

Visit to Russia by Global Country of World Peace leader inspires expansion of programmes
3 December 2009 - The first-time visit to Russia by the Administrator of Invincible Russia for the Global Country of World Peace gave great impetus to the expansion of programmes of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the nation, and included a celebration of the third-year anniversary of the coherence-creating Invincible Russia Assembly. (more)

Russia: Global Country of World Peace programmes expanding
15 November 2009 - Raja Bjarne Landsfeldt visited Russia, one of the countries in his domain, for the first time in mid-October, visiting a World Peace Assembly of Yogic Flyers, as well as connecting with many members of the Global Country of World Peace in the country. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Russian ransomware gang breaches the Energy Department and other US federal agencies
17 June 2023 - The [US] Department of Energy and several other federal agencies were compromised in a Russian cyber-extortion gang's global hack of a file-transfer program popular with corporations and governments, but the impact was not expected to be great, Homeland Security officials said Thursday [15 June]. ...The Cl0p ransomware syndicate behind the hack announced last week on its dark web site that its victims, who it suggested numbered in the hundreds, had until Wednesday to get in touch to negotiate a ransom or risk having sensitive stolen data dumped online. (more)

BBC, British Airways, Novia Scotia among first big-name victims in global supply-chain hack
15 June 2023 - U.S. and British cybersecurity officials warned Wednesday [7 June] that a Russian cyber-extortion gang's hack of a file-transfer program popular with corporations could have widespread global impact. Initial data-theft victims include the BBC, British Airways, and Nova Scotia's government. ...The Cl0p ransomware syndicate announced on its dark web site late Tuesday that its victims -- who it suggests number in the hundreds -- had until June 14 to get in touch to negotiate a ransom or risk having sensitive stolen data dumped online. (more)

Exclusive: Russia's secret document for destabilizing Moldova
16 March 2023 - Yahoo News [obtained] Putin's strategic plan for promoting Russian interests in Ukraine's next-door neighbor. On Friday, John Kirby, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, made a surprise announcement at a White House press briefing. U.S. intelligence, he said, had determined that the Kremlin was plotting to topple another European democracy. 'Russian actors, some with current ties to Russian intelligence, are seeking to stage and use protests in Moldova as a basis to foment a manufactured insurrection against the Moldovan government,' Kirby declared. (more)

Putin: Russia suspends participation in last remaining nuclear treaty with U.S.
21 February 2023 - President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday [21 February] that Russia was suspending its participation in the New START treaty with the United States that limits the two sides' strategic nuclear arsenals. ... The New START treaty was signed in Prague in 2010, came into force the following year and was extended in 2021 for five more years just after U.S. President Joe Biden took office. (more)

Lavrov: Ukraine must demilitarize or Russia will do it
27 December 2022 - Russia's foreign minister on Tuesday [27 December] warned anew Ukraine that it must demilitarize, threatening further military action and falsely accusing Kyiv and the West of fueling the war that started with Moscow's invasion. (more)

Norway puts military on raised alert level in response to Ukraine war
31 October 2022 - Norway is putting its military on a raised level of alert, moving more personnel on to operational duties and enhancing the role of a rapid mobilization force in response to the war in Ukraine -- although the Prime Minister said there was no reason to believe Russia intended to invade. 'This is the most severe security situation in several decades,' Jonas Gahr Store told a news conference on Monday [31 October]. (more)

Russia hits Ukraine's Black Sea port despite grain deal
23 July 2022 - Russian missiles hit Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa just hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals to allow grain exports to resume from there. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry denounced Saturday's airstrikes as a 'spit in the face' to Turkey and the United Nations, which brokered the agreements. (more)

Satellite spots world's 'largest' methane leak in a Russian coal mine
15 June 2022 - A coal mine in a remote part of Russia is spewing out huge amounts of a very potent greenhouse gas in what has been described as the 'biggest' leak of methane ever detected from a single facility. The Raspadskya Mine in Kemerovo region in southern Russia is releasing nearly 90 tonnes of methane every hour, according to new data from GHGSat, a company that uses satellites to monitor methane leaks from space. ... After carbon dioxide, methane is the second largest contributor to climate change caused by humans. (more)

Inside the secretive world of shipping Russia's tainted oil
12 June 2022 - From clandestine transfers to tankers 'going dark', Moscow has found a way. (more)

Russia uses new generation of laser weapons in Ukraine
18 May 2022 - Russia on Wednesday [18 May] said it was using a new generation of powerful laser weapons in Ukraine to burn up drones, deploying some of Moscow's secret weapons to counter a flood of Western arms supplied to its former Soviet neighbor. (more)