Russia’s state space agency plans to send “outstanding citizens” to the International Space Station (ISS) at no cost in exchange for their achievements, the agency’s head announced on Thursday.
The Roscosmos space agency plans to send tourists to the ISS in late 2021 under a deal signed with the U.S. tourism firm Space Adventures. Dmitry Rogozin, the head Roscosmos, has vowed to bring tourists to the ISS in less time than a Moscow-Brussels flight after a cargo spacecraft set a record last summer to reach the station.

Russian lawmakers have stepped up calls to ban plastic bags over the past week amid mounting concerns about pollution and Russia’s national waste crisis.
Moscow’s plan to export its waste to surrounding regions has riled Russian citizens in recent months, while nationwide trash reforms threaten to shut down garbage collectors in nine regions. In the European Union, plastic items such as straws, forks and knives as well as cotton buds will be banned by 2021, and Russia’s Leningrad region banned single-use plastics last year.

Russian theater director Kirill Serebrennikov received two prestigious theater awards at a ceremony in Moscow on Tuesday, less than two weeks after his release from house arrest.
The Gogol Center’s artistic director was released on bail on April 8 after spending a year and a half under house arrest on criminal fraud charges that his supporters say were politically motivated.
Serebrennikov was given the Golden Mask Award for best drama director during the awards ceremony at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater for his production of “Little Tragedies” at the Gogol Center.

Russia has completed the delivery of Su-35 combat aircraft to China in defiance of U.S. sanctions, Russia’s military and technical cooperation agency told state media Tuesday.
Russia and China signed a $2.5 billion deal on the delivery of 24 Sukhoi Su-35s in 2015, making it the first foreign buyer of the fourth-generation multirole air superiority fighter. The United States imposed sanctions on the Chinese military last September for buying 10 Su-35s in 2017 and missile systems in 2018 from Russia.

Researchers who found the body of a 42,000-year-old foal frozen in the Siberian permafrost have retrieved liquid blood from the extinct animal that might help bring its species back to life, media outlets reported on Tuesday.
According to The Siberian Times, a group of scientists from Russia and South Korea wants to clone an extinct horse species by extracting DNA from the frozen remains of a foal that died 42,170 years ago in Siberia. The foal’s body was found in the permafrost of a Siberian crater called Batagaika in Russia’s republic of Sakha, and was found to be part of the Lenskaya breed which went extinct about 4,000 years ago.

Russian President Vladimir Putin favors a plan to build a high-speed railway line from Moscow to his home city of St. Petersburg rather than Nizhny Novgorod, the Vedomosti business daily reported on Tuesday.
Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin pushed for the high-speed railway to St. Petersburg to be built at the end of last year, according to Vedomosti, saying that a rail journey time faster than the average flight time of about two hours would cut aviation overload.

Russian internet major Yandex has the right to sell its stake in Uber worth $96 million, Prime reported citing documents published by Uber.
In February 2018 Yandex.Taxi and Uber combined their businesses in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. Yandex invested $225 million in the new company and Uber $100 million.  Yandex owns 59.3 percent of the joint venture, Uber 36.9 percent and employees 3.8 percent.

A record 70 percent of Russians approve of Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s role in Russian history, according to a poll published by the independent Levada Center pollster on Tuesday.
Stalin’s image has been gradually rehabilitated in the 2000s from that of a bloody autocrat to an “outstanding leader.” President Vladimir Putin has revived the Soviet anthem, Soviet-style military parades and a Soviet-era medal for labor during his presidency.
Seventy percent of Russian respondents told the Levada Center in 2019 that Stalin played a positive role for Russia. Stalin’s previous record approval rating stood at 54 percent in 2016.
A record low of 19 percent viewed Stalin’s role negatively, down from 32 percent in 2016.