Reliving the News Highlights of Summer 2019 in Russia (in Pictures)
Sept. 1 in Russia marks the beginning of the school year for Russian students and the unofficial start of fall. But with summer barely behind us, we’re not ready to let the season go just yet.
The past three months have been tumultuous ones for Russia. It seemed like the country was simultaneously burning, drowning and protesting — but also celebrating and having fun. This summer’s high-profile stories ranged from the colorful to the absurd, and from historic natural disasters to equally historic political protests.
Here's a look at the most memorable moments:
The past three months have been tumultuous ones for Russia. It seemed like the country was simultaneously burning, drowning and protesting — but also celebrating and having fun. This summer’s high-profile stories ranged from the colorful to the absurd, and from historic natural disasters to equally historic political protests.
Here's a look at the most memorable moments:
Anti-corruption journalist Ivan Golunov walked free on June 11. His detention over drug charges triggered an unprecedented wave of public backlash, and authorities dropped the charges against him over insufficient evidence.
Andrei Nikerichev / Moskva News Agency
Russia unveiled a combat surveillance drone intended to resemble a menacing owl spreading its wings on June 25.
Marina Lystseva / TASS
Pskov, one of Russia's oldest cities, was added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites on July 7.
Alexander Kozlov / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Instagrammers flocked to the "Russian Maldives," a chemical-laden pool in Novosibirsk that looks like a tropical paradise. The water got its beautiful color from an ash dump at a local coal plant, leading the plant's owners to issue a warning.
tweezer_nsk / Instagram
Moscow was hit by heavy rainfall and historically low temperatures in early July, souring many residents' ambitions to get a tan.
Alexander Avilov / Moskva News Agency
Floods devastated Siberia and the Far East in June and July, leading to the deaths of over two dozen people and prompting authorities to declare a state of emergency.
Irkutsk Segodnya
Unprecedented wildfires hit Russia's Arctic and Siberia, spreading over an area the size of Belgium at their peak. Smoke from the forest fires reached the shores of Alaska.
Pixabay
Moscow's opposition organized mass protests and single pickets to demand free elections nearly every weekend in July and August after the city's authorities declined to register opposition candidates.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
Police detained thousands of protesters at the protests, sometimes using violence.
Mikhail Tereschenko / TASS
Meanwhile, the government arranged weekend music and food events like the notoriously named Meat&Beat festival, which many saw as a tactic to distract people from the protests.
Kirill Zykov / Moskva News Agency
Russia's paratroopers celebrated their national holiday on Aug. 4. In previous years, the day has been marked with street strolling, beer guzzling and swimming in fountains.
Sergei Kiselyov / Moskva News Agency
Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino visited Moscow on Aug. 7 for the premiere of his latest movie and took a guided tour through the Kremlin museums and Red Square.
Valery Sharifulin / TASS
A mysterious explosion at a naval testing site in northern Russia killed seven people and caused a short-term spike in radiation in the nearby city of Severodvinsk (pictured) on Aug. 8. The authorities’ slow, occasionally contradictory response to the blast drew comparisons to the Soviet Union’s handling of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Marina Kruglyakova / TASS
A plane traveling from Moscow to Simferopol made a "miraculous" emergency landing in a cornfield on Aug. 15, with all 234 people on board surviving.
Denis Voronin / Moskva News Agency
Russia tossed the tomatoes at its first-ever Tomatina festival in St. Petersburg in August. The festival has its origins in Valencia, Spain.
Olga Maltseva / TASS
A banner of 2,000 Russian regions and cities’ flags measuring 2,500 square meters was unfurled on Aug. 24, earning a place in the Book of Russian Records.
Kirill Zykov / Moskva News Agency
