Russia

Following an architectural competition, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has been given the nod to head a 13.9 hectare (34 acre) development of Russia's largest shipping port, Novorossiysk. The project is due to begin construction in the second half of 2019.

Russian firm DublDom recently installed an off-grid cabin in Kandalaksha, Russia, that sleeps up to eight people. Located north of the Arctic Circle, the remote area features a harsh landscape. Owing to these challenges, the cabin had to be delivered in sections by helicopter.

Last weekend, Russia's floating nuclear power plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, was towed out to sea for the first time, beginning its voyage from St Petersburg to Murmansk, where it will be eventually loaded up with nuclear fuel and started up sometime in 2019.

The Pleistocene Park project is aiming to rebuild a lost Ice Age ecosystem in Siberia, and its directors, Sergey and Nikita Zimov, say it could help slow the effects of climate change. Now, the initiative is running a crowdfunding campaign to help transport a new herd of animals to the park.

Thorium reactors have long been proposed as a cleaner, safer alternative to nuclear energy. Now Russian scientists propose a new thorium reactor design that can burn weapons-grade plutonium, producing power and thermal energy while disposing of nuclear waste at the same time.

Forever synonymous with the AK-47 assault rifle, Russian company Kalashnikov has been branching out in all sorts of interesting directions of late. Hoverbikes, UAVs, boats, autonomous gun turrets... And now, an electric off-road motorcycle for police and military use.

​To experience life in and around the ISS requires years of astronaut training, but technology does continue to bring us closer to the experience. The latest example is a 360-degree video that places the viewer in the thick of the action as Russian cosmonauts carry out a spacewalk.

Here at New Atlas we love a good hoverbike. So when Kalashnikov, the Russian weapons manufacturer best known for its infamous AK-47 assault rifle, released a video demonstrating a strange hoverbike prototype it certainly piqued our interest.

At the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia, this week, NASA and the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, signed a joint statement making the US space agency's deep space gateway concept a common goal for the two major powers.

The ESA’s Sentinel-5P satellite has arrived in northern Russia ahead of its scheduled launch in October. Once in orbit, the satellite will monitor air pollution over the entire planet every day, gathering environmental data and helping authorities make more accurate air-quality forecasts.

The mass extinction event that occurred at the end of the Permian period is the worst in Earth’s history, wiping out a staggering 95 percent of sea life. New research points the finger squarely at a huge volcanic region known as the Siberian Traps – but not in the way previously expected.

Look upwards tonight and you might just see a new “star” streaking across the sky. A Russian CubeSat called Mayak (meaning "lighthouse") was successfully launched on Friday, and is set to be one of the brightest objects in the night sky.