TheNewsGuru

Tag: Russia

  • Hackers stole $6 million in attack on SWIFT system, Russian Central Bank says

    Unknown hackers stole 339.5 million rubles (six million dollars) in an attack on the SWIFT international payments messaging system in Russia last year, the Russian Central Bank said on Friday.

    The disclosure, buried at the bottom of a central bank report on digital thefts at Russian banks, is the latest in a string of attempted and successful cyber heists using fraudulent wire-transfer requests.

    The central bank said it had been sent information about ”one successful attack on the work place of a SWIFT system operator.

    “The volume of unsanctioned operations as a result of this attack amounted to 339.5 million rubles,” the bank said.

    The central bank declined to provide further details.

    A spokeswoman for SWIFT, whose messaging system is used to transfer trillions of dollars each day, said the company does not comment on specific entities.

    ”When a case of potential fraud is reported to us, we offer our assistance to the affected user to help secure its environment,” said the spokeswoman, Natasha de Teran.

    A central bank spokesman quoted Artem Sychev, deputy-head of the regulator’s-security department, as saying that the hackers had withdrawn the money and this was “a common-scheme, when they take control of a computer.”

    Brussels-based SWIFT said late last year digital heists were becoming increasingly prominent as hackers use more sophisticated-tools and techniques to launch new attacks.

    In December, hackers tried to steal 55 million rubles from Russian state bank Globex using the SWIFT system, and digital thieves made off with 81 million dollars from Bangladesh Bank in February 2016.

    SWIFT has declined to disclose the number of attacks or identify any victims.

    However, details on some cases have become public, including attacks on Taiwan’s Far Eastern International Bank and Nepal’s NIC Asia Bank.

     

  • Rescue operation completed at plane crash site in Moscow – Emergencies ministry

    The search and rescue operation at the site of the crash of Russian passenger plane An-148 has been finished, the regional representative of the Emergencies Ministry told Sputnik on Monday.

    “All search and rescue operations have been finished,” the official said.

    According to the ministry representative, the investigators are still working at the crash site.

    The head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin said earlier in the day that the full examination of the site might take several days.

    The plane en route to the city of Orsk crashed a few minutes after its take-off from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport.

    None of the 65 passengers or six crew survived.

    Earlier, Washington expressed its deepest regret over the crash of Russia’s An-148 plane in Moscow region and offered condolences to the families of the victims.

    The White House’s press service said in a statement: “the U.S. is deeply saddened by the tragic deaths of those on board Saratov Airlines Flight 703.

    “We send our condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and to the people of Russia.”

    The Russian Embassy in the U.S. thanked citizens and the White House for the sympathies to the victims of the tragedy.

    “We are expressing gratitude to American citizens and @WhiteHouse for their condolences over Saratov Airlines Flight 703 crash,” the embassy wrote on its Twitter page.

     

  • Breaking: 71 persons feared dead as Russian plane disappears from radar

    A Russian plane carrying 71 people have been reported to have disappeared from radar after taking off from an airport in Moscow.

    According to reports, Antonov An-148, operated by Saratov Airlines, departed Moscow Domodedovo Airport for the city of Orsk in southern Russia, but crashed after reaching an altitude of 6,400 feet.

    All 71 people on Russian plane that crashed are believed to be dead

     

  • Olympic: Ban on 47 Russian athletes and coaches upheld

    The Court of Arbitration for Sport has dismissed an appeal by 47 Russian athletes and coaches against a ban on participation in the Winter Olympics.

    The Russians had argued that they had been wrongfully excluded from the Games by the International Olympic Committee.

    The decision was made just hours before Friday’s opening ceremony.

    It comes amid a long-running row over Russian doping which has seen the country banned from the games, but 169 Russians will compete as independents.

    The group contesting the decision included 28 athletes who had life bans from the Olympics lifted by the IOC last week, when CAS ruled there was insufficient evidence they had benefited from a system of state-sponsored doping.

    In the aftermath of that decision, the IOC decided not to extend an invitation to those with overturned bans – saying the decision “had not lifted the suspicion of doping”.

    That led to a last-minute appeal for entry on Wednesday and Thursday.

    But in its decision to uphold the ban on entry to the Pyeongchang Games, the CAS panel did not find that the IOC process was “discriminatory, arbitrary or unfair”.

    As a result, none of the affected athletes will compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics, which run from 9 to 25 February in South Korea.

    The 169 sportspeople who have been invited to attend will compete under the banner of “Olympic athletes from Russia” and will fly the Olympic flag rather than the Russian one.

    If they win any medals, the Olympic anthem will be played.

    The ban on Russia was handed down after an investigation into state-sponsored doping during the 2014 Winter Olympics, which were held in Sochi in Russia.

  • Putin, Erdogan discuss military coordination in Syria – Reports

    Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan have agreed to strengthen coordination between the two countries’ military and security services in Syria in the fight against terrorism, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

    According to the statement issued by the Kremlin, Putin and Erdogan, during a telephone conversation, discussed the prospects for new contacts between Russia, Turkey and Iran on Syria.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a possible summit meeting between the leaders of the three countries was discussed, but no date had been agreed upon, RIA news agency reported.

    Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency also reported that following the conversation, “Turkey, Russia and Iran will hold a summit in Istanbul soon.

    “The phone call focused on the Syrian regions of Afrin and Idlib.’’

    The last time such meeting took place in Sochi, Russia, in November.

    Turkey is engaged in an ongoing military offensive in Afrin against Kurdish militants.

    In Idlib, the last province under control of Syrian rebel forces, heavy fighting has been going on in recent days between opposition fighters and the Syrian government forces.

    A Russian warplane was shot down near Idlib, an area dominated by Islamist factions, including militants linked to al-Qaeda, leading to a further escalation.

    The three nations are the guarantors of the Astana process, a forum for holding talks on ceasefires in Syria based in the Kazakh capitals.

     

  • 32 Russians to appeal against Olympic exclusion in Pyeongchang

    32 Russians to appeal against Olympic exclusion in Pyeongchang

    Thirty-two Russian athletes have appealed against their exclusion from this month’s Winter Olympics.

    They include those who had their life bans lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) last week.

    A hearing is set to take place on Wednesday, two days before the Games.

    The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has invited 169 Russians to compete as independent athletes in Pyeongchang after their country was banned over the Sochi doping scandal.

    Forty-three Russians were banned for life from the Olympics following the conclusion of an IOC investigation into evidence of state-sponsored Russian doping at their home Games in 2014.

    On Thursday, Cas overturned the suspensions of 28 of those, and partially upheld 11 other appeals.

    The IOC then turned down a request for 13 of the 28 – and two coaches – to compete.

    A special IOC panel “agreed the decision of the Cas had not lifted the suspicion of doping”.

    IOC president Thomas Bach said: “The absence of sanctions by Cas does not mean that you are entitled to receive an invitation from the IOC because receiving this invitation is a privilege of clean Russian athletes.”

    However, 32 athletes are taking issue with that stance.

    Among them are multiple Olympic champion speed skater Viktor Ahn and biathlon gold medallist Anton Shipulin. Neither athlete has previously served a doping ban.

    IOC member Dick Pound, the former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency – has criticised the IOC over its handling of Russian doping.

    At a meeting in Pyeongchang on Tuesday, Pound said: “The IOC has not only failed to protect clean athletes but has made it possible for cheating athletes to prevail against the clean athletes. We talk more than we walk.

    “The athletes and the public at large in my view no longer have confidence that their interests are being protected. Our commitment to both is in serious doubt.

    “More attention has been paid to getting Russian athletes into the Pyeongchang Games than dealing with the Russian conduct.”

    However, Pound’s view was not shared by the other IOC delegates at the meeting.

    Only Pound and British IOC member Adam Pengilly, who last week called the decision to overturn Russian bans “craven and spineless” – abstained from an otherwise unanimous vote of confidence in how the the IOC has handled the Russian doping issue.

     

    BBC

  • We’ll allow Eagles see their wives, girlfriends in Russia – Rohr

    Super Eagles Coach, Gernot Rohr has said players of the national team will have access to their wives and girlfriends on designated days at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

    Previously, there had been controversies surrounding roles of wives and girlfriends of the players at major competitions, when the team performed poorly.

    Asked if he would allow the players to see their wives and girlfriends, Rohr said he won’t deny them access to their ‘families.”

    “Normally, every team give a day for the players to see their families. It can be their wives or children. When you stay together for six weeks, it’s possible to permit them to see their wives on certain days,” the German stated in Lagos, shortly after sealing a new two-year deal as Eagles coach.

    He expressed confidence that the Eagles stood a chance of advancing from Group D of the World Cup, which also has two-time champions Argentina and European sides Croatia and Iceland.

    “I think we have a good chance to come out of the group. We can beat Iceland, Croatia and even Argentina, though it’s not an advantage that we beat them in a friendly match (in November 2017) because they won’t underrate us now,” he said.

    On the fitness of the players ahead of the Mundial, the former Burkina Faso coach said, “We are depending on the work they do at their clubs because the time is too short (for us) to make them fit for the World Cup. So, they have to play at their clubs.

    “We have a relationship with the coaches of their clubs. I spoke to Arsene Wenger on Alex Iwobi’s problem. I was happy at the way Wenger managed the issue by using him in the next game and he played very well.

    “Our first list of 35 players must be done one month before the World Cup. We have five scouting teams working on the players; they also work on our opponents.”

     

  • Washington’s paranoid fear of Russia’s interference in election only harming U.S. itself – Kremlin

    Washington’s paranoid fears of alleged Moscow’s interference in the U.S. elections harm not only bilateral relations, but also the U.S. itself, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.

    On Tuesday, the Democratic staff on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations produced a report, according to which Washington could be unable to address “complex and growing threat” posed by Russia, including against U.S. election in 2018 and 2020, if urgent measures are not taken.

    “Such paranoid fears do not only damage bilateral relations between Russia and the U.S.

    “They harm the United States itself, because, of course, when it becomes an obsession, it does not create comfortable conditions for normal social development and life,” Peskov told reporters, commenting on the statement.

    The spokesman added that Moscow regretted that the U.S. officials were making such ungrounded statements.

    “We can only express our regrets about the ongoing [anti-Russian] campaign. And remind once again that so far all these fears, all these accusations of our country in the interference have had no grounds and have been absolutely unfounded,” Peskov said.

     

  • Putin says Russia to raise minimum wage May 1

    Russia will raise its minimum wage effect from May 1, President Vladimir Putin, who is running for re-election in March, said on Wednesday.

    Putin said that the monthly minimum wage should be raised from 9,489 rubles (166.47 dollars) at present to be in line with the minimum cost of living, which now stands at 11,163 rubles.

    Labour Minister, Maxim Topilin, was quoted by RIA news agency as saying the ministry would in the near future prepare draft legislation on raising the minimum wage.

    He also said the ministry was working with the finance ministry to establish the cost of the increase, the agency reported.

     

  • Super Eagles can excel at Russia 2018 with our abundant youth talents, lawmaker says

    The Super Eagles can excel at the 2018 FIFA World Cup with the quality of players Nigeria has all over the world, a sports enthusiast, Stanley Osagie, has said.

    Osagie, a lawmaker in the Edo House of Assembly, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja that Nigeria has the advantage of having many overseas-based players.

    “The Super Eagles can shock the whole world in Russia next year. I am not scared of their opponents at all.

    “The team has all the players needed to excel, because of the kind of experience they have playing abroad,’’ he said.

    The APC lawmaker who represents Edo South-East said there was no need to be scared of any threat the likes of Argentina, Croatia and Iceland could pose to the Eagles.

    “They are countries like us. We have what they have, and even more than what they have.

    “If we play well, we will go places in Russia. I am confident about that,’’ he said.

    Osagie noted that quality players abound in many parts of the country, and praised Greenbox Facilities Limited for organising a novelty match to expose hidden talents.

    TNG reports that the Abuja-based company had on Saturday organised the match for its staff, with Team A beating Team B 4-1 after coming from a goal down.

    Cephas Ishaku had in the 19th minute put Team B ahead, before Daniel Gabriel drew Team A level in the 35th minute.

    Moses Ogbu put Team A in the lead in the 41st minute of the 70-minute game, and he extended the lead in the 54th minute.

    Daudu Zaki put the game beyond their opponents with four minutes to go.

    Osagie later described the match and its organisation as encouraging, saying it was a good show of what the youths can do.

    “The players’ performance is exciting, and it is encouraging that we have such talents in the country.

    “With their youthfulness, I believe they can go places,’’ he said.

    The lawmaker who took the match’s ceremonial kick-off also praised the match’s organisers, Greenbox Facilities, for the initiative.

    “If other private organisations can come up with this kind of initiative, Nigeria will be better for it.

    “Greenbox Facilities has pointed the way forward, for us to see new talents and even help out the unemployed,’’ he said.