2018 Russian Figure Skating Championships, Junior Championships
The 2018 Russian Junior Championships (Russian: Первенство России среди юниоров 2018) will be held in Saransk, Mordovia from 23 to 26 January 2018. Competitors will qualify by competing in the Russian Cup series' junior-level events. The results of the Junior Championships are part of the selection criteria for the 2018 World Junior Championships.


2018 Russian Figure Skating Championships, Junior Championships, Entries
The Russian figure skating federation published the full list of entries on 22 January 2018.


2018 Russian Figure Skating Championships, International team selections, European Championships
Russia's team to the 2018 European Championships was published on 24 December 2017.


2018 Russian Figure Skating Championships, International team selections, Winter Olympics
Russia's team to the 2018 Winter Olympics was published on 21 January 2018.


2018 Russian Figure Skating Championships, International team selections, World Junior Championships
Russia's team to the 2018 World Junior Championships. The International Skating Union published the full list of entries on 13 February 2018.


2018 Russian Figure Skating Championships, International team selections, World Championships
Russia's team to the 2018 World Championships. The International Skating Union published the full list of entries on 28 February 2018.


2018 Russian Grand Prix
The 2018 Russian Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 2018 VTB Russian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 30 September 2018 at the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia. The race was the 16th round of the 2018 Formula One World Championship and marked the 7th running of the Russian Grand Prix and the 5th time the race had been held in Sochi.


2018 Russian Grand Prix
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton entered the round with a 40-point lead over Sebastian Vettel in the Drivers' Championship. In the World Constructors' Championship, Mercedes led Ferrari by 37 points.


2018 Russian Grand Prix
The race was one of controversy, as Mercedes enacted team orders to swap their two drivers, handing Lewis Hamilton the win and Valtteri Bottas would move to 2nd place for the race finish.


2018 Russian Grand Prix
The race result sparked discussion regarding the future of team orders in the sport, and some even going as to call for an outright ban on the practice.


2018 Russian Grand Prix, Report, Background
The race was moved from its April date to September to fill the vacancy of the Malaysian Grand Prix, which was discontinued at the end of the 2017 season.


2018 Russian Grand Prix, Report, Background
During the weekend, the first DRS zone was extended by 100 meters so that the beginning of the DRS zone started 95 meters before turn 1.


2018 Russian Grand Prix, Report, Race
At the start, Sebastian Vettel got a better start than Lewis Hamilton, but there was no room to overtake heading into turn one. On lap 4, both Scuderia Toro Rosso drivers Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley suffered brake failures which forced both to retire, they were the only retirements of the race.


2018 Russian Grand Prix, Report, Race
Later on lap 14, Hamilton made his one and only pitstop of the race, putting him behind Vettel. Two laps later, Hamilton made a move on Sebastian Vettel at turn 3 and passed him into fourth place into turn 4.


2018 Russian Grand Prix, Report, Race
The most notable moment of the race came on lap 26, when Mercedes asked Valtteri Bottas to let Lewis Hamilton through into second at turn 13, gifting the Briton the race win. Max Verstappen, who led the race since lap 19, came in for his pitstop on lap 42.


2018 Russian Grand Prix, Report, Race
Hamilton won the race for the third time in his career, with Valtteri Bottas second and Sebastian Vettel completing the podium in third place. As a consequence, Hamilton extended his lead over Vettel in the championship to 50 points.


2018 Russian Grand Prix, Classification, Qualifying
Despite receiving no penalties, both of the Renault drivers elected not to run any laps on Q2 due to them automatically receiving places 11 and 12. They were then able to start the race on fresh tyres of their choice.


2018 Russian National Freestyle Wrestling Championships
The Russian National Freestyle Wrestling Championships 2018 (also known as the Russian Nationals 2018) was held in Odintsovo, Moscow Oblast, Russia by the Russian Wrestling Federation at the Odintsovo Sport Complex from 3–5 August 2018.


2018 Russian National Women's Freestyle Wrestling Championships
2018 Russian National Women's Freestyle Wrestling Championships (also known as the Russian Women's Nationals 2018) was the national ranking tournament for the Russian international wrestling squad for the year of 2018, it was held in Smolensk, Russia from 10 August - 13 August. This event was held in the 1150th Anniversary Palace of Sport.


2018 Russian Open (badminton)
The 2018 Russian Open was a badminton tournament which took place at Sport Hall Olympic in Vladivostok, Russia, from 24 to 29 July 2018 and had a total purse of $75,000.


2018 Russian Open (badminton), Tournament
The 2018 Russian Open was the fifth Super 100 tournament of the 2018 BWF World Tour and also part of the Russian Open championships which had been held since 1992. This tournament was organized by the National Badminton Federation of Russia with the sanction from the BWF.


2018 Russian Open (badminton), Tournament, Venue
This international tournament was held at Sport Hall Olympic in Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia.


2018 Russian Open (badminton), Tournament, Point distribution
Below is the point distribution table for each phase of the tournament based on the BWF points system for the BWF Tour Super 100 event.


2018 Russian Open (badminton), Tournament, Prize money
The total prize money for this tournament was US$75,000. Distribution of prize money was in accordance with BWF regulations.


2018 Russian Super Cup
The 2018 Russian Super Cup (Russian: Суперкубок России) was the 16th annual Russian Super Cup match which was contested between the 2017–18 Russian Premier League champion, Lokomotiv Moscow, and the 2017–18 Russian Premier League runner-up, CSKA Moscow. 2017–18 Russian Cup winner FC Tosno was dissolved in the summer 2018 and was replaced by CSKA in the game.


2018 Russian Women's Football Championship
The 2018 Russian Women's Football Championship was the 27th season of the Russian women's football top level league. Zvezda-2005 Perm were the defending champions.


2018 Russian elections
Elections in the Russian Federation  took place mostly on 9, 16 and 23 September, with the exception of the presidential election, which occurred on 18 March and a special gubernatorial election in Primorsky Krai, which occurred in December.


2018 Russian elections, By-elections to the State Duma
The by-elections in four constituencies took place on a single voting day on 9 September:


2018 Russian elections, Gubernatorial and head elections
Gubernatorial elections in 19 subjects of the Federation were held on 9 September. The second round, if necessary, will be held on September 23.


2018 Russian gubernatorial elections
2018 Gubernatorial elections in Russia were held in 26 federal subjects of Russia.


2018 Russian gubernatorial elections
22 federal subjects had direct elections and 4 federal subjects had indirect elections of governors.


2018 Russian gubernatorial elections
The main election day was held on 9 September. In addition, the second round was held in four regions: in two regions it was held on 26 September, in one region on 11 November. In Primorsky Krai, the second round was held on 16 September, but its results were declared invalid, in connection with which new elections will be held on 16 December. In addition, the election of the Governor of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug was held on 1 October.


2018 Russian pension protests
The 2018 Russian pension protests were a series of country-wide protests and demonstrations in Russia demanding abandoning of the retirement age hike.


2018 Russian pension protests
A plan of the pension reform was unexpectedly announced by Dmitry Medvedev's Second Cabinet on June 14, 2018, which was the opening day of the 2018 FIFA World Cup hosted in Russia. During the tournament, any demonstrations were prohibited but from July 2018 thousands of Russians expressed their negative opinion on the planned reform of the pension system. The anti-reform rallies and other actions were mostly organized by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia party; however, other political parties, trade unions and individuals also contributed to coordination of these protests. The corresponding bill was signed into law on October 3, and afterwards some actions against the reform were continued, although with a lower intensity.


2018 Russian pension protests
An intention to hike the national retirement age and the more so a final decision to launch the reform have drastically downed the rating of the president Vladimir Putin and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev in Russia. In July 2018, just 49% would vote for Putin if the presidential elections were held in that moment; during the elections in March, he got 76,7%.


2018 Russian pension protests, Background
On June 14, 2018, using a start of the FIFA World Cup as a cover, the Russian government announced the plan of the pension reform presuming a substantial increase of the retirement age (for men from 60 to 65 and for women from 55 to 63). Previously, until the 2018 Russian presidential election, this topic was practically silenced in Russian state media, in particular several days before the election the RIA Novosti agency published an article denying existence of any intentions to raise the pension age until 2030. In the previous years the problem was sporadically discussed but with no special accent. So an announcement of the reform plan by Prime Minister Medvedev has shocked the majority of Russian citizens.


2018 Russian pension protests, Background
The pension reform became the central question in Russia at that time. Immediate protests during the World Cup were, however, not allowed (except Internet-activism) from security reasons. The street protest actions were appointed for the end-July and subsequent months. The government was accused of misusing soccer for hiding the unpopular measures. Near 90% of Russian citizens do not approve of the reform.


2018 Russian pension protests, Background
On July 19, during the first reading of the corresponding bill in the State Duma, the pro-Putin political party United Russia (with a single exception of Natalia Poklonskaya) has supported the retirement age hike, while all the opposition fractions, left-wing and liberal, were against it.


2018 Russian pension protests, Key protest events
Statistical studies show that the number of protest actions in the country has nearly tripled in the third quarter from the year before, almost exclusively because of the plan to raise the retirement age.


2018 Russian pension protests, Key protest events, July–August 2018
The first noteworthy street rallies, related with the retirement-age reform, proceeded on July 1. Several thousand people protested across Russia against an extremely unpopular government decision to hike the pension age that has led to a record slump in President Vladimir Putin's approval ratings. No protests were held in World Cup host cities due to a regulation banning protest in the cities for the duration of the tournament.


2018 Russian pension protests, Key protest events, July–August 2018
From mid-July, protest rallies and demonstrations were organized practically every weekend, and sometimes also on working days. They occurred in nearly all major cities countrywide including Novosibirsk, Saint-Petersburg and Moscow. Total number of participants exceeded 200 thousands. These events were coordinated by all opposition parties, who usually have nothing common in political affairs. Also trade unions and individual politicians (Alexey Navalny, Sergei Udaltsov) functioned as organizers of the public actions. The largest protest events of the summer occurred on July 18 and July 28–29. In particular, on July 28, more than 10,000 people attended a rally in the capital, Moscow.


2018 Russian pension protests, Key protest events, September 2018
On September 2, large-scale anti-reform manifestations were led by the Russian communists and some other left-wing oppositional political forces. In Moscow, about 9,000 people attended a rally against the governmental pension reform.


2018 Russian pension protests, Key protest events, September 2018
A week later, on September 9, the demonstrations against the plans to raise the national retirement age were organized by Alexey Navalny all over Russia. The events occurred in more than 80 cities including the capital. The most of actions were not permitted by the authorities, and the police detained in total about 1000 participants. Beyond the anti-reform slogans, the participants chanted "Russia without Putin" and held signs with messages like "Putin, when will you go on pension? ".


2018 Russian pension protests, Key protest events, September 2018
Further rallies were announced for every Saturday or Sunday of September 2018. So, on September 22, the countrywide protest actions were organized by the Communist party. In Moscow, several thousands demanded abandoning the pension reform and blamed the Russian government for this unpopular initiative.


2018 Russian pension protests, Key protest events, September 2018
The reform has heavily affected the Russia's local elections in September 2018: the results of the governmental United Russia party was the worst for more than 10 years.


2018 Russian pension protests, Key protest events, September 2018
United Russia lost the Khabarovsk Krai gubernatorial election and Vladimir Oblast gubernatorial election to the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, and lost Khakassia election to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.


2018 Russian pension protests, Reaction of authorities
The reform was passed by the State Duma on first reading on July 19, with a 328-104 vote.


2018 Russian pension protests, Reaction of authorities
Following strong protests (and a strong fall in Putin's and United Russia's popularity), the president of Russia Vladimir Putin has submitted to the Duma some amendments to reduce the hike of the retirement age for women from 63 to 60 years (i.e. +5 instead of +8). Also some other softenings were foreseen, e.g. for women having 3 and more children. The amendments were unanimously passed by the State Duma on September 26.


2018 Russian pension protests, Reaction of authorities
Nevertheless, the opposition forces and the overwhelming majority of ordinary Russians estimated the presidential changes as by far insufficient and were disappointed at his decision. So in addition to the requirement of abandoning the reform in general and of the resignation of the Government, also the requirement of resignation of Vladimir Putin was raised.


2018 Russian pension protests, Reaction of authorities
Despite the protests, on September 27, the amended version of the bill was passed by the State Duma on second reading with a 326-59 vote and 1 abstention . On October 3, the bill was also passed by the Federation Council with a 149-5 vote, with 3 abstentions. Finally, Putin signed the pension bill into law later on the same day. It entered into force after it was published on the Rossiyskaya Gazeta some days later.


2018 Russian pension protests, After signing the bill into law
The oppositional political parties intended to continue fighting against the reform in order to convince the authorities to stop it. However the activity has gradually diminished and, except on November 5–7 (which commemorated the 101st anniversary of the October Revolution), no large anti-reform rallies were organized. Many people came to conclusion that neither the Government nor the president would react to street protests, if any.


2018 Russian pension protests, After signing the bill into law
A countrywide anti-reform movement was resumed from early spring 2019. Numerous picketing actions and conferences aiming at attracting attention to the potential dangers of the new pension law were organized by the left-patriotic Sut Vremeni group (leader: S. Kurginyan). Furthermore, on March 23, the CPRF called the meetings against the social politics of the Russian government (including the retirement age hike) in the largest cities of Russia, e.g. in Moscow there were several thousand attendees. Nevertheless, an intensity of the street protests has not returned to the level of 2018 — and from 2020 under the COVID-19 pandemic the large-scale actions became impossible.


2018 Russian presidential election
The 2018 Russian presidential election was held on 18 March 2018. Incumbent Vladimir Putin won reelection for his second consecutive (fourth overall) term in office with 77% of the vote. Vladimir Zhirinovsky from the Liberal Democratic Party was the perennial candidate, having unsuccessfully run in five previous presidential elections. Other candidates included Pavel Grudinin (Communist Party), Sergey Baburin (Russian All-People's Union), Ksenia Sobchak (Civic Initiative), Maxim Suraykin (Communists of Russia), Boris Titov (Party of Growth) and Grigory Yavlinsky (Yabloko). Anti


2018 Russian presidential election
-corruption activist Alexei Navalny announced his intent to run in December 2016 but was barred from doing so due to a prior criminal conviction, which is widely seen as politically motivated, for corruption. Consequently, Navalny called for a boycott of the election. He had previously organized several public rallies against corruption among members of Putin's government.


2018 Russian presidential election
The incumbent Vladimir Putin was eligible to run. He declared his intent to do so on 6 December 2017, being widely expected to win. This came following several months of speculation throughout the second half of 2017 as, although he was widely expected to run for another term, Putin made evasive comments including that he had still not decided whether he would like to "step down" from the post of president, that he would "think about running", and that he "hadn't yet decided whether to run for another term". Different sources predicted that he would run as an independent to capitalize more support from the population, and although he could also have been nominated by the United Russia party as in 2012, Putin chose to run as an independent.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background
The President of Russia is directly elected for a term of six years, since being extended from four years in 2008 during Dmitry Medvedev's administration. According to Article 81 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, a candidate for president must be at least 35 years old, hold no dual nationality, have permanently resided in Russia for the past 10 years, and cannot serve more than two terms consecutively.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background
Parties with representation in the State Duma are able to nominate a candidate to run for the office while candidates from officially registered parties that are not in parliament have to collect at least 100,000 signatures. Independent candidates have to collect at least 300,000 signatures with no more than 7,500 from each federal subject of Russia and also from action groups made up of at least 500 people. The nomination process took place during Russia's winter holiday period, and 31 January 2018 was the last day for submitting signatures in support of contested access candidates.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Change of date
On 3 March 2017, senators Andrey Klishas and Anatoly Shirokov submitted to the State Duma draft amendments to the electoral legislation. One of the amendments involves the transfer of elections from the second to the third Sunday in March, i.e. from 11 to 18 March 2018.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Change of date
According to article 5, paragraph 7 of Russian Federal law No. 19-FZ, "If the Sunday on which presidential elections are to be held coincides with the day preceding a public holiday, or this Sunday falls on week including a public holiday or this Sunday in is declared to be a working day, elections are appointed on the following Sunday". The second week of March includes International Women's Day (8 March), which is an official holiday in Russia.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Change of date
The bill passed through the State Duma and Federation Council without delay in May 2017 and was signed into law by Vladimir Putin on 1 June 2017. On 15 December, the upper house of the Federal Assembly, the Federation Council, officially confirmed that 18 March 2018 will be the date of the election, officially beginning the process of campaigning and registration for candidates. This date is significant in the country as it is the fourth anniversary of Russian annexation of Crimea.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Change of date
A total of 97,000 polling stations were open across the country from 08:00 until 20:00 local time.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Nomination of candidates, Free access
Political parties represented in the State Duma or the legislative bodies of not less than one-third of the federal subjects could nominate a candidate without collecting signatures. The following parties could nominate candidates without collecting signatures: Civic Platform, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, A Just Russia, Rodina and United Russia.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Nomination of candidates, Free access
On 1 July 2017, Chairman of Rodina Aleksey Zhuravlyov announced that his party would only support incumbent president Vladimir Putin in the election. On 11 December, the leader of Civic Platform Rifat Shaykhutdinov also said that his party would support Putin. On 24 December, the leader of A Just Russia Sergey Mironov stated that his party would not put forward a candidate. Senior party member Mikhail Yemelyanov confirmed that A Just Russia would support Putin's candidacy.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Nomination of candidates, Contested access
Individuals belonging to a party without any seats in the State Duma had to collect 105,000 signatures to become candidates, while those running as independents had to collect 315,000 and also to form a group of activists made up of at least 500 people. Multiple political commentators, including former presidential hopeful Irina Khakamada, talked about the difficulty of gathering signatures without the support of a political party, a hurdle which cast doubt on many of the claims of the large number of people who said that they would run for president as independents.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Nomination of candidates, Contested access
However, according to CEC Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova, the conditions for contested-access candidates were easier than ever because such potential candidates no longer had to collect 1,000,000 signatures. Pamfilova incorrectly predicted that there could be even more candidates in this election than there were in 2000, when 11 candidates contested the presidency (the largest number of candidates in the history of presidential elections in Russia).


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Primaries, Party of Growth
In July 2017, Party of Growth announced that it would hold primaries to nominate a presidential candidate. Four candidates participated in the primaries: Oksana Dmitriyeva, Dmitry Potapenko, Dmitry Marinichev and Alexander Huruji. Voting was conducted via the internet from August to November 2017.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Primaries, Party of Growth
On 10 August 2017, the party's press secretary told the media that the results of the primaries will be taken into account at the party congress which will be held to decide the candidate for Party of Growth. However, the winner of the primaries would not guarantee themselves the right to run on behalf of the party.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Primaries, Party of Growth
On 26 November, it was announced that the party would nominate Boris Titov, who was not involved in the primaries. According to a person from the party leadership, none of the proposed candidates were able to obtain sufficient support.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Primaries, Left Front
On 2 November 2017, the Left Front headed by Sergei Udaltsov started online primaries for the nomination of a single left-wing candidate. Primaries were held in two rounds, the first round took place from 2 to 23 November, and the second round – from 24 to 30 November.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Primaries, Left Front
The first round included 77 candidates, among whom were representatives of various left-wing political parties and organizations, including Pavel Grudinin, Yury Boldyrev, Gennady Zyuganov, Sergey Mironov (who later supported Vladimir Putin), Sergey Glazyev, Zakhar Prilepin, Viktor Anpilov, Valery Zorkin, Zhores Alferov, Sergey Baburin (who later was nominated as a candidate from the party Russian All-People's Union), Natalia Lisitsyna (who was later nominated as a candidate from the Russian United Labour Front), Maxim Suraykin (who was nominated as a candidate from the Communists of Russia) and others.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Primaries, Left Front
Boldyrev and Grudinin made it through to the second round, which was won by Grudinin, who garnered 4,086 votes (58.4%).


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Primaries, Left Front
At the end of December 2017, Grudinin was officially nominated as the candidate from the Communist Party.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Primaries, Third Force
The bloc Third Force held primaries among candidates from ten non-parliamentary parties to nominate presidential candidates. According to the organizers, the primaries would determine four presidential candidates representing different views.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Primaries, Third Force
The official presentation of the candidates was held on 30 October 2017. The candidates included: Andrei Bogdanov, Andrey Getmanov, Olga Onishchenko, Stanislav Polishchuk, Sirazhdin Ramazanov, Ildar Rezyapov, Vyacheslav Smirnov, Irina Volynets and Alexey Zolotukhin.


2018 Russian presidential election, Background, Primaries, Third Force
However, the block failed to identify a clear winner, then all candidates, except for Olga Onishchenko has declared that they would participate in the elections. Later, however, all of the candidates refused to participate.


2018 Russian presidential election, Candidates
These candidates were officially registered by the CEC. Candidates are listed in the order they appear on the ballot paper (alphabetical order in Russian).


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Sergey Baburin
Sergey Baburin was nominated at the party congress on 22 December 2017. On 24 December, Baburin filed registration documents with the CEC, but the documents were rejected 25 December because the CEC identified violations in the information provided regarding 18 of his party's 48 representatives. On 29 December, Baburin resubmitted the documents and they were approved by the CEC.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Sergey Baburin
Russian All-People's Union started to collect signatures in support of Baburin on 9 January 2018. Signatures were collected in 56 federal subjects. On 30 January 2018, Sergey Baburin handed over the signatures to the CEC. When testing revealed only 3.28% of invalid signatures, Sergey Baburin was admitted to the election.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Pavel Grudinin
At the end of November 2017, Pavel Grudinin won the primaries of Left Front, a coalition of left-wing parties with no representation in the State Duma. Some branch of the Communist Party voted to support the candidacy of Grudinin and did not deny his nomination from the Communist Party.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Pavel Grudinin
Despite the fact that in early November the First Secretary of the Communist party, Gennady Zyuganov, said that his nomination is supported by all left-wing organizations, which the media felt was the official statement from Zyuganov to participate in the election, Zyuganov later denied this, saying that the official decision will be made at the party Congress in December. On 21 December, it was reported that Zyuganov proposed to nominate Grudinin.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Pavel Grudinin
Initially, the Communist Party and the National Patriotic Forces of Russia (NPFR) planned to nominate a single candidate: Grudinin, supported by the Communists, or Yury Boldyrev, supported by the NPFR. Boldyrev also participated in the primaries of the Left Front, where he lost in the second round to Grudinin. According to Deputy Alexander Yushchenko, Gennady Zyuganov was still among the candidates for the nomination. He named the other candidates as Yury Afonin, Sergey Levchenko, and Leonid Kalashnikov. On 22 December, Zyuganov, Levchenko, and Kalashnikov withdrew their bids, and Zyuganov rejected the candidacies of Afonin and Boldyrev, leaving Grudinin as the sole candidate. Grudinin was officially selected as the presidential candidate from the Communist Party at its congress on 23 December.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Alexei Navalny
Russian opposition figure and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny started his presidential campaign on 13 December 2016. In early 2017, he traveled to different cities across Russia to open campaign offices and meet with his supporters, despite his involvement in legal cases that might have barred him from running. As noted in an article by Newsweek and by the former Russian presidential administration adviser Gleb Pavlovsky, the American-style campaign by Navalny was unprecedented in modern Russia as most candidates do not start campaigning until a few months before the election.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Alexei Navalny
The primary focus of Navalny's campaign was combating corruption within the current government under Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. On 2 March, Navalny published a documentary on YouTube titled He Is Not Dimon To You, detailing the corrupt dealings of Prime Minister Medvedev. He then called for mass rallies to be held on 26 March to bring attention to this after the government did not respond to the documentary, which only about 150.000 people attended across Russia. 2017–2018 Russian protests 26 March rally was the largest protest held in Russia since the protests in 2011. Navalny called for another protest to be held on Russia Day, which is 12 June.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Alexei Navalny
On his website, Navalny listed the main principles of his presidential program: combating government corruption, improving infrastructure and living standards in Russia, decentralizing power from Moscow, developing the economy instead of remaining in isolation from the West, and reforming the judicial system.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Alexei Navalny
His more specific economic proposals included instituting a minimum wage, lowering prices of apartments and reducing bureaucracy of home construction, making healthcare and education free, lowering taxes for many citizens, taxing the gains from privatization, decentralization of financial management and increase in local governance, increasing transparency in state-owned firms, implementing work visas for Central Asian migrants coming into the country for work, and increasing economic cooperation with western European states.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Alexei Navalny
In April 2017, it was reported that Navalny's campaign staff had collected more than 300,000 pledged signatures from people across 40 regions of Russia electronically. More than 75,000 people signed up to volunteer for his campaign and nearly $700,000 has been donated. However, his eligibility was put into question by his five-year suspended sentence for embezzlement of timber from the company Kirovles, when Navalny was working as an aide to Governor Nikita Belykh of the Kirov Oblast.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Alexei Navalny
The Russian Supreme Court overturned his sentence in November 2016 after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) determined that Navalny's rights were violated, and sent the case back to a district court in the city of Kirov for review. In February 2017, the district court upheld Navalny's suspended sentence. The Constitution of Russia does not allow convicted criminals to run for office.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Alexei Navalny
Navalny promised to appeal the result to the ECHR, and said he would continue campaigning, while in early May the deputy head of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) commented that he would not be allowed to run unless the sentence is overturned. In August, the head of the CEC, Ella Pamfilova, reinforced this sentiment, saying that it would "take a miracle" for Navalny to be granted permission to run.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Alexei Navalny
She cited two scenarios in which Navalny could run: if his conviction was overturned, or if the federal election law was rapidly changed to allow those with criminal convictions to run. Pamfilova added that the probability of either scenario was "extremely low". Pamfilova later commented that Navalny could legally run for president by "some time in 2028", i.e., ten years after his sentence expires. The Memorial Human Rights Center recognized Navalny as a political prisoner.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Alexei Navalny
Members of the Navalny campaign were harassed and detained by the police, including his chief of staff Leonid Volkov, who was sentenced to thirty days in jail in early December for organizing an unauthorized rally (requests for rallies in city centers are often denied in Russia) in Nizhny Novgorod.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Alexei Navalny
Navalny published his election manifesto on 13 December 2017, two days prior to the official start of campaigning.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Alexei Navalny
He officially submitted his documents for registration as a candidate on 24 December 2017, and was rejected by the CEC the following day due to his conviction. Later that same day, 25 December, Navalny called on his supporters to boycott the election in response. Mass street protests were planned for 28 January 2018.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin announced his run on 6 December 2017, during his speech at the GAZ automobile plant. A Just Russia, Civic Platform, The Greens, Great Fatherland Party, Labor Party, Party of Pensioners, Patriots of Russia, Rodina, and United Russia have endorsed his presidential bid.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Ksenia Sobchak
Rumors about the nomination of Ksenia Sobchak in the 2018 election appeared a month before she officially announced that she would run for president.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Ksenia Sobchak
Sobchak officially announced that she would run for president on 19 October 2017, in a YouTube video. In the video, Sobchak said she is the candidate "against all", because since the 2004 election, the "against all" option (or "none of the above" as it is more commonly known in English-speaking countries) has been excluded from the ballot, and Sobchak wants to give people the opportunity to again vote "against all". At the same time, Sobchak said she will withdraw her candidacy if Alexey Navalny is registered as a candidate by the Central Election Commission.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Ksenia Sobchak
Originally Sobchak put herself forward as an independent candidate. In this case she would have had to collect at least 300,000 signatures in order to be admitted to the election. Soon after, however, Sobchak's campaign team said that would be nominated by a political party, namely the People's Freedom Party or Civic Initiative.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Ksenia Sobchak
On 15 November 2017, it was announced that Sobchak will be nominated by Civic Initiative at its congress in December.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Ksenia Sobchak
On 23 December 2017, at Civic Initiative's congress Sobchak was officially nominated for president. On the same day, she joined the party. Sobchak's team began gathering signatures in support of her candidacy on 27 December, soon after her registration documents were approved by the CEC.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Maxim Suraykin
In December 2017, it became known that the party Communists of Russia nominated Maxim Suraykin as presidential candidate.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Maxim Suraykin
On 28 May 2017, the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communists of Russia took the decision on nomination of Maxim Suraykin as presidential candidate.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Maxim Suraykin
In November 2017, Maxim Suraykin was one of the candidates proposed by the Left Front as a single candidate from the left opposition. The results of the voting on the website of the Left Front Suraikin won 59 votes.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Maxim Suraykin
On 24 December Maxim Suraykin were officially nominated at the Communists Russia National Convention. On the same day he also submitted to the Central Election Commission.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Boris Titov
Initially the Party of Growth conducted primaries which were attended by four candidates: Oksana Dmitriyeva, Dmitry Potapenko, Dmitry Marinichev and Alexander Khurudzhi. Boris Titov did not participate in the primaries. However, at the meeting of the federal council of the party it was decided to nominate Titov. According to a person from the party leadership, none of the proposed candidates were able to obtain sufficient support.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Boris Titov
According to Titov, the main task of participation in election is to promote the party's Growth Strategy economic program, which was prepared by the Stolypin Club and presented to President Vladimir Putin in May 2017. During the campaign Titov and his team intend to travel around the country to promote the program.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Boris Titov
Titov was officially nominated by his party on 21 December. He submitted to the CEC the documents required for registration the next day. Titov's documents were approved by the CEC on 25 December, which meant that he could begin collecting signatures. A party spokesman commented that the collection signatures in support of Titov will begin in early January 2018.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Grigory Yavlinsky
Economist Grigory Yavlinsky announced his presidential bid in February 2016 as the candidate for the liberal party Yabloko, though suggestions that he would run were first voiced in 2013 after he was barred from taking part in the 2012 election. His policies mainly focus on improving the economic situation through governance reforms and stopping involvement in conflicts. He was nominated by the party leader, Emilia Slabunova, who stressed the need to unite all "democratic forces" behind one candidate and noted his political experience, and also received an endorsement from opposition politician Vladimir Ryzhkov.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Grigory Yavlinsky
Yavlinsky had previously run in the 1996 and 2000 presidential elections, getting 7.4% of the vote in the former. He spoke at a party forum announcing the start of the campaign in February 2017. Among the other proposals he made were to give out several acres of free land to families so they can build home there and develop it, which he said would house 15 million families, and to turn the Russian Armed Forces into a fully professional military by abolishing conscription.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Grigory Yavlinsky
In March 2017, Yavlinsky stated that he will be visiting several major cities in fifteen different regions across the country to raise support. He used Alexei Navalny's recent tour of different cities as an example, refusing to use the traditional model of campaigning a few months before the election. Since he is unable to visit more locations, Slabunova, the leader of Yabloko, and Nikolai Rybakov, his chief of staff, will go to other cities to campaign as well.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Grigory Yavlinsky
On 1 November 2017, Yabloko launched the official website of Yavlinsky's campaign.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Vladimir Zhirinovsky announced his participation in the presidential elections on 28 October 2016 as the candidate for the Liberal Democratic Party. In the event of his election, Zhirinovsky promised to amend the Constitution of Russia and to radically change the policies of the country. In particular, Zhirinovsky promised to abolish the federal structure of Russia and to return to the Governorates, rename the post of "President of Russia" to the "Supreme Ruler of Russia" and to restore Russia's borders to the borders of the USSR as of 1985.


2018 Russian presidential election, Campaigning, Vladimir Zhirinovsky
In March 2017, Zhirinovsky promised to declare a general amnesty if elected president.


2018 Russian presidential election, Debates
On 14 February 2018, the CEC set the schedule for the distribution of airtime for presidential candidates. Debates took place on five federal TV channels: Russia 1, Russia 24, Channel One, TV Center and PTR, as well as on three radio stations: Radio Rossii, Radio Mayak and Vesti FM. As in previous election campaigns, incumbent President Vladimir Putin refused to participate in the debates.


2018 Russian presidential election, Debates
Debates occurred from 26 February to 15 March. Vladimir Zhirinovsky was the only candidate to attend the first debate, with the other three candidates sending representatives. The second debate, which didn't actually involve any candidate-to-candidate discussion, was attended by six candidates and Boris Titov's representative.


2018 Russian presidential election, Opinion polls
Opinion polls published in the months preceding the election consistently showed Putin with an overwhelming lead over his competitors.


2018 Russian presidential election, Elections on Crimea
The European Union had already announced in advance that it would not recognize the results of the Russian presidential election on the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said the EU would follow through with its non-recognition policy and called on Russia to respect the rights of Ukrainian citizens. President of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen also warned that Moscow could not hold a legal election on the Crimean peninsula because the annexation of Crimea was illegal.


2018 Russian presidential election, Elections on Crimea
The EU and the OSCE had made it clear that they would not send any election observers to Crimea, as neither organizations see it as a legitimate part of Russia. Russian authorities then invited a number of friendly and sometimes marginalized foreign politicians to give the elections in Crimea the appearance of international acceptance. Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the parliament's foreign affairs committee, named Andreas Maurer from the Left, Hendrik Weber from an organization called People's Diplomacy Norway, Pedro Agramunt and Thierry Mariani. Russia commissioned Slutsky's own organization, the Russian Peace Foundation, and the Polish association European Council on Democracy and Human Rights, which in the past had brought election observers from right-wing populist and right-wing extremist circles to Crimea, to organize their trips.


2018 Russian presidential election, Results
The final results of the elections were approved by the CEC on 23 March 2018.


2018 Russian presidential election, Reactions
India was the first world power to react to the election results, saying in a congratulatory message to Putin that it vowed to push ties with Russia to a "higher level." Other countries which sent their congratulations included: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Egypt, Guatemala, Hungary, China, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Moldova, North Korea, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United States, Uzbekistan and Venezuela.


2018 Russian presidential election, Reactions
Western reaction to the election result was predominantly muted as the election came at a time of heightened tensions between the West and Russia due to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, the ongoing U.S. investigation of the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and a series of other issues. The European Union said that violations and shortcomings in the election flouted international standards while the White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley initially said that there was no congratulatory phone call scheduled between U.S. president Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.


2018 Russian presidential election, Reactions
Donald Trump later congratulated Putin in a phone call while the president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker later congratulated Putin; their actions in turn drew criticism. France and Germany acknowledged Putin's victory but both countries avoided explicitly using the word "congratulate", instead "wishing success" to Putin for his new six-year term in office.


2018 Russian presidential election, Reactions
Voting irregularities were reported by independent election monitoring group Golos. Edward Snowden criticized what he claimed was ballot stuffing and Russian opposition entities Alexei Navalny and Open Russia criticized what they alleged to be voting fraud. Ella Pamfilova, the head of the Central Electoral Commission, said that there were no serious violations and those involved in the violations would be caught; she later said that Putin's level of support showed that society had united in the face of pressure from abroad.


2018 Russian presidential election, Reactions
According to one monitor group who observed voters in a number of voting stations which showed "suspicious" results in previous elections, the actual turnout at these stations was 21-34% while official results from these stations showed 76-86% (in one station 8,765 physical voters were counted, official results showed 13,235 votes). The group concluded that in these elections the government and local administration officers chose to simply falsify the voting protocols rather than use easy-to-spot ballot stuffing or carousel voting. Election statistician Sergey Shpilkin said that while this election was slightly "cleaner" than the preceding ones, there were around 10 million votes added in favor of Putin illegally.


2018 Russian presidential election, Reactions
Prominent Russian dissident Garry Kasparov said that the elections were a "charade."


2018 Russian presidential election, Reactions
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said that the election "took place in an overly controlled legal and political environment marked by continued pressure on critical voices, while the Central Election Commission (CEC) administered the election efficiently and openly."


2018 Russian presidential election, Reactions
The head observer of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation described the election as "transparent, credible, democratic" while Maxim Grigoriev, deputy head of the monitoring group of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation called it "unprecedentedly clean".


2018 Russian wildfires
Dry, warm conditions in the spring set the stage for fires in Siberia. By May, more fires per month were seen in Amur Oblast than any year since 2008.


2018 Russian wildfires, History
In mid-July 2018, smoke from the fires could be seen by satellites reaching North America. The Siberian Times reported 321,255 hectares (793,840 acres) were burning.


2018 Russian wildfires, History
On July 24, the U.S. National Weather Service said smoke had crossed the Canada-U.S. border and reached Bellingham, Washington. Siberian fires were partly blamed by Environment Canada which issued an air quality statement on July 25 for Prince George, BC. On July 29, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency stated the Puget Sound region would experience "moderate air quality at times with some upper level smoke making for pretty sunsets. This smoke comes from distant fires, mostly originating from Siberia."


2018 Russia–United States summit
The 2018 Russia–United States summit, also known as the Trump–Putin summit, was a summit meeting between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 16, 2018, in Helsinki, Finland. The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs officially titled the summit as the #HELSINKI2018 Meeting and it was hosted by the President of Finland Sauli Niinistö.


2018 Russia–United States summit
During a post-summit joint press conference with Putin, Trump did not accept Russian interference was part of the 2016 U.S. elections. Trump's omissions provoked an uproar across the political spectrum, including from some of his usual allies. One day later, Trump amended part of his remarks, contending that he had misspoken due to an incorrectly perceived "double-negative".


2018 Russia–United States summit
Although the proceedings of the summit were orderly and diplomatic, both Trump and Putin were received poorly by both sides of the political spectrum in the United States, with some commentators saying that the summit became the event where Putin "cemented his status, and the status of his country, as public enemy #1 in America," ushering in the lowest point of Russia–United States relations since the early 1980s.


2018 Russia–United States summit, History
Helsinki previously served as the location for the signing of the Helsinki Accords in 1975, following a series of meetings intended to reduce tensions between the Western and Soviet blocs during the Cold War. The U.S. National Security Advisor John R. Bolton met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 27, 2018, to discuss the details of the summit and other bilateral issues. On June 28, the location of the summit was announced by the White House and the Kremlin to be Helsinki.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Background
The summit was officially called the #HELSINKI2018 Meeting by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was hosted by the President of Finland Sauli Niinistö. The summit took place in the Presidential Palace and marked the first official meeting between the leaders after previous unofficial talks between Trump and Putin at the G20 Hamburg and APEC Vietnam summits held in 2017. Topics Trump announced to be discussed at the summit included the situations in Syria and Ukraine. The United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met his Russian and Finnish counterparts Sergey Lavrov and Timo Soini.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Background
Niinistö held bilateral meetings with both presidents on the day of the summit. That morning, Niinistö and Finnish First Lady Jenni Haukio welcomed Trump and U.S. First Lady Melania Trump at their main official residence in Mäntyniemi. During the presidents' meeting, the two women met for a joint breakfast.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Background
The #HELSINKI2018 meeting began at the Presidential Palace after midday (at approximately 1 pm) with Niinistö officially welcoming Putin, followed by Trump. The bilateral discussions between the American and Russian presidents took place in the Presidential Palace's Gothic Hall; Trump and Putin met with only interpreters present. Their meeting was followed by a working lunch including additional officials in the Hall of Mirrors.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Background
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said they welcomed Trump's planned meeting with Vladimir Putin.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Background
On July 13, 2018, three days before the summit, Rod Rosenstein, the United States Deputy Attorney General, announced indictments of twelve Russian GRU officers for their efforts in the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak, through the establishment of false identities as DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, as well as charges of money laundering using bitcoin. The timing of these indictments led to closer scrutiny of the upcoming meeting and pressure for Trump to discuss election meddling with Putin. Bloomberg News reported the day after the summit that Trump permitted the indictments to be announced prior to the summit hoping it would strengthen his position in negotiations with Putin.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Background
Two days before the scheduled meeting, a group of top Senate Democrats urged Trump to not meet with Putin one-on-one. Signers of a letter advising him not to meet alone with Putin included Minority Leader Charles Schumer, Minority Whip Dick Durbin, and the top Democrats on the Senate Intelligence (Mark Warner), Foreign Relations (Bob Menendez), Judiciary (Dianne Feinstein), Armed Services (Jack Reed), Appropriations (Patrick Leahy), and Banking (Sherrod Brown) committees.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Background, Controversial remarks
During an interview on the eve of the summit with CBS News, Trump was asked who America's biggest foe is. He said Russia is "a foe in certain aspects" and called the European Union the biggest trade foe of the United States. Trump tweeted on the morning of the summit that the relationship between Russia and the U.S. has "never been worse". He blamed this on "foolishness and stupidity" on the part of the U.S., and referenced the ongoing Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, calling it a "witchhunt". The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs retweeted Trump's message, adding "We agree". Trump also indicated his inclination to accept Putin's denial of Russian interference, saying "President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be."


2018 Russia–United States summit, Demonstrations
According to the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle, more than 10 demonstrations were planned for the summit. On Sunday 15 July, about 2,500 protesters gathered for the "Helsinki Calling" pro-human rights demonstration at the Helsinki Senate Square. Simultaneously, the youth section of the nationalist Finns Party staged a pro-Trump rally. The "Welcome Trump" event gathered a crowd of 50 people including Finns Party youth and Soldiers of Odin members.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Demonstrations
More demonstrations were planned for Monday 16 July, including the "Stop Putin" and "Helsinki against Trump and Putin" rallies and protests for women's rights, Afghanistan and against Russophobia. The youth section of the right-wing National Coalition Party said they would hold a demonstration against President Trump's trade policy and Russia's annexation of Crimea.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Private meeting
Trump and Putin met privately for two hours, without aides or note-takers, accompanied only by their respective interpreters. The meeting had been scheduled for 90 minutes but lasted two hours. The private meeting was followed by a working lunch that included senior advisors.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Private meeting, Topics discussed
No agenda was published for their discussion, and no communique was issued afterward. Some issues were touched on at the press conference. In the following days Russia issued multiple statements about what it said were agreements made at the summit, "shaping a narrative of the meeting with no confirmation or alternative account from the Trump administration." In the press conference immediately following the meeting, both leaders described some of their positions. On the question of the Syrian civil war, Trump wanted Iranian troops to leave Syria, while Putin would not commit to their departure.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Private meeting, Topics discussed
Both agreed that Iranian troops should be kept away from the Israel-Syria border, with Trump noting that "Creating safety for Israel is something both Putin and I would like to see very much." Trump said he is willing to help Syria with humanitarian aid, even if there is no wider peace settlement. That may contradict the earlier Trump administration position that it will not provide reconstruction assistance to any part of Syria that remains under the control of Bashar al-Assad, whom Russia backs.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Private meeting, Topics discussed
The Russian ambassador to the U.S. later said that Syria had been the major topic of discussion, along with "the removal of the concerns that the United States has regarding the well-known claims about alleged interference in the elections". Four days after the meeting, a Russian military spokesman said Russia has sent formal proposals for a joint U.S.-Russian effort to reconstruct Syria and facilitate the return home of Syrian refugees.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Private meeting, Topics discussed
In a Fox News interview the next day, Putin indicated that the two had agreed to disagree about Crimea. Putin said he wanted acceptance of the disputed 2014 referendum in which Crimeans voted to become part of Russia, and insisted that Ukraine must never become part of NATO. He said they had agreed to hold talks on extension of the START treaty, which expires in 2021, but he wants to see evidence that the U.S. has lived up to the terms of the treaty. He also wants to negotiate on the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Treaty.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Private meeting, Topics discussed
The day after the meeting, a Russian military spokesman said that Russia is "ready for practical implementation of the agreements reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in the sphere of international security achieved at the Helsinki summit." His statement said the agreements include cooperation in Syria and discussions about extending the START Treaty. No agreements were announced at the summit, and White House and Pentagon spokesmen said they were not aware of any new agreements.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Private meeting, Topics discussed
A spokesman for the National Security Council said "As President Trump stated, the two sides agreed that their national security council staffs will follow up on the presidents' meetings, and these discussions are underway. There were no commitments to undertake any concrete action, beyond agreement that both sides should continue discussions." The spokesman said they are also reviewing suggestions by Putin for a "cyber-group" and an anti-terrorism group.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Private meeting, Topics discussed
At a press conference four days after the summit, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats stated, "I’m not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened in Helsinki," and ceded the podium to national security advisor John Bolton, who explained that the issue of election interference was discussed. Despite this, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer remarked, "It is utterly amazing, utterly amazing, that no one knows what was said." Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Representative Bill Pascrell called for Trump's interpreter, Marina Gross, to testify before Congress, while House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff called for her to testify to the Committee in closed session.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Press conference
After the private meeting and the working lunch, Trump and Putin gave a joint press conference. When Trump was asked whether he would condemn Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, he demurred, saying that Putin had denied it.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Press conference
JONATHAN LEMIRE, ASSOCIATED PRESS: President Trump, you first. Just now, President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you sir is, who do you believe? My second question is would you now, with the whole world watching, tell President Putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016 and would you want him to never do it again?


2018 Russia–United States summit, Press conference
TRUMP: So let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server. Why haven't they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee?


2018 Russia–United States summit, Press conference
I've been wondering that. I've been asking that for months and months and I've been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying?


2018 Russia–United States summit, Press conference
With that being said, all I can do is ask the question.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Press conference
My people came to me, Dan Coats, came to me and some others they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Press conference
I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be. But I really do want to see the server but I have, I have confidence in both parties.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Press conference
I have great confidence in my intelligence people but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did is an incredible offer.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Press conference
He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators, with respect to the 12 people. I think that's an incredible offer. Ok ? Thank you.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Press conference
During the press conference, Jeff Mason from Reuters asked whether Putin had wanted Donald Trump to win the 2016 presidential election and had he directed any of his officials to help him do that? Putin replied: "Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the US-Russia relationship back to normal." This contradicted a tweet sent by Trump in which he claimed: "I'm very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don't want Trump!" All reference to that exchange between Mr Mason and the Russian leader was omitted from the official White House transcript.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Press conference
Asked whether Russia possessed any compromising material on Trump, Putin laughed and talked about the number of businessmen who visit Russia, but did not give a direct answer. Trump commented that if any such material existed "it would have been out long ago".


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Reaction
The hours immediately following the summit drew bipartisan criticism in the United States. Criticism focused on Trump's perceived acceptance of Putin's denial of involvement in Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, which contradicted the findings of the United States Intelligence Community, and stood in pointed contrast to the indictment of twelve Russian GRU agents just three days earlier in the ongoing Special Counsel investigation: U.S. media reaction was almost universally negative, even from many commentators on Fox News who normally support the president. International news coverage of the summit was mostly negative in Europe, triumphant in Russia, and muted in China.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Reaction
Democrats universally condemned Trump's performance. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi called it a "sad day for America." Senate Democrats led by Jeanne Shaheen called for American interpreter Marina Gross, who sat in on the private meeting with Putin, to be questioned before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Shaheen added, if the administration is to exert executive privilege, "we need to find another way to get the information." Senator Chuck Schumer said "We need hearings as soon as possible", with testimony from members of Trump's national security team present during the Helsinki summit, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo."


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Reaction
NBC News reported that "key senators were preparing to grill" Pompeo "on Russia and North Korea" when he briefs them and that "tempers flared" during a July 18, 2018 Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing at which this was discussed. New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stated "If the administration is unwilling to consult with this committee in a meaningful fashion on vital national security issues, then we must consider all appropriate responses." Republican committee chairman Bob Corker stated, "On challenging what happened at NATO, what happened at Helsinki, I will take a backseat to no one in this body," after previously stating that "the dam has broken."


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Reaction
Many Republicans in Congress strongly criticized Trump as well. Senator Bob Corker claimed Trump "made us look like a pushover", Senator Ben Sasse called Trump's remarks "bizarre and flat-out wrong", while Senator Tim Scott wondered if "day was a step backwards". Others including Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell reaffirmed support for the U.S. intelligence community without directly condemning Trump. Newt Gingrich, a longtime Trump supporter, said Trump's statements about the U.S. intelligence community were "the most serious mistake of his presidency and must be corrected — immediately".


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Reaction
Senator John McCain and former Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican nominees for president in 2008 and 2012, respectively, both strongly criticized Trump. Romney said Trump's siding with Putin rather than U.S. intelligence agencies was "disgraceful and detrimental to our democratic principles", while McCain called the summit "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory."


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Reaction
Republican Senator Rand Paul was the lone voice in the Senate to support Trump in the matter, saying that Trump should be "lauded and not belittled" for being "willing to meet with adversaries to try to prevent us from having World War 3." A few Republican members of the House of Representatives also made supportive comments.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Reaction
Shortly after the summit concluded, CNN reported that Trump's "stunned aides wonder what went wrong" and "openly admitted they don't know how to respond to questions," quoting one official involved with the summit as saying "this was not the plan."


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Reaction
The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal later reported that there was extensive planning before the summit to confront Putin, with one official saying the plan was for Trump to "shove [the Mueller indictments of 12 Russians] in Putin's face and look strong doing it" during both the private meeting and public press conference, but that Trump "did the exact opposite."


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Reaction
The New York Times, Time magazine, and The New Yorker magazine mocked Trump and the summit. The New York Times' online opinion page displayed homoerotic imagery of Trump and Putin in an animated cartoon by Bill Plympton. A morphed image of a Trump-Putin hybrid was published on the Time magazine cover. The New Yorker magazine cover art displayed a parody of Trump's June 15, 2015 escalator announcement of his candidacy, showing a dead and flattened Trump laid out face down, but giving the "thumbs-up" at the bottom of the escalator.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Reaction
Television commentators presented criticism of Trump and the summit. David Gergen, an advisor to four presidents including Ronald Reagan, stated "I've never heard an American president talk that way, but I think it's especially true that when he's with someone like Putin — who is a thug, a world-class thug — that he sides with him again and again against his own country's interests."


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Reaction
Fox & Friends, a morning program which Trump is known to regularly watch, was critical of Trump's performance, with co-host Brian Kilmeade speaking directly to the president, "I will say this to the president: when Newt Gingrich, when General Jack Keane, when Matt Schlapp say the president fell short and made our intelligence apparatus look bad, I think it's time to pay attention."


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Reaction
On MSNBC, Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks said that the Russian meddling attempts were as serious to her "as the Cuban Missile Crisis...or the 9/11 attack" and further stated that the summit will "live in infamy as much as" the Attack on Pearl Harbor or Kristallnacht. Former national security advisor Susan Rice stated that the US-Russia summit was a bad mistake, citing many reasons, and that any future meeting would be premature.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Reaction
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, one of the founding editors of The Intercept, said that "90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons are in the hands of two countries—the United States and Russia—and having them speak and get along is much better than having them isolate one another and increase the risk of not just intentional conflict, but misperception and miscommunication, as well."


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Trump viewed as being under Putin's influence
The Trump–Russia dossier alleges that the Russians possess kompromat on Trump which can be used to blackmail him, and that the Kremlin promised him that the kompromat will not be used as long as he continues his cooperation with them. Trump's actions at the Helsinki summit in 2018 "led many to conclude that Steele's report was more accurate than not.... Trump sided with the Russians over the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Moscow had waged an all-out attack on the 2016 election,... The joint news conference,.. cemented fears among some that Trump was in Putin's pocket and prompted bipartisan backlash."


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Trump viewed as being under Putin's influence
At the joint news conference, when asked directly about the subject, Putin denied that he had any kompromat on Trump. Even though Trump was reportedly given a "gift from Putin" the weekend of the pageant, Putin argued "that he did not even know Trump was in Russia for the Miss Universe pageant in 2013 when, according to the Steele dossier, video of Trump was secretly recorded to blackmail him."


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Trump viewed as being under Putin's influence
In reaction to Trump's actions at the summit, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke in the Senate:


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Trump viewed as being under Putin's influence
Millions of Americans will continue to wonder if the only possible explanation for this dangerous and inexplicable behavior is the possibility — the very real possibility — that President Putin holds damaging information over President Trump.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Trump viewed as being under Putin's influence
Several operatives, and lawyers in the U.S. intelligence community reacted strongly to Trump's performance at the summit. They described it as "subservien[ce] to Putin" and a "fervent defense of Russia's military and cyber aggression around the world, and its violation of international law in Ukraine" which they saw as "harmful to US interests". They also suggested that he was either a "Russian asset" or a "useful idiot" for Putin, and that he looked like "Putin's puppet".


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Trump viewed as being under Putin's influence
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper wondered "if Russians have something on Trump", and former CIA director John O. Brennan, who has accused Trump of "treason", tweeted: "He is wholly in the pocket of Putin." Former acting CIA director Michael Morell has called Trump "an unwitting agent of the Russian federation", and former CIA director Michael V. Hayden said Trump was a "useful fool" who is "manipulated by Moscow".


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Trump's followup
The next day, Trump, reading from a prepared statement, claimed that he had mistakenly used the word "would" when he had meant to say "wouldn't", acknowledging Russian attempts at meddling in the 2016 election but denying Trump-Russia collusion. Trump paused reading his prepared statement to interject that the interference "Could be other people also. A lot of people out there." In the past, Trump had questioned many times if Russia was responsible, and on several previous occasions when he did say Russia was responsible, he also said that other countries might also have meddled.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Trump's followup
The American intelligence community has consistently concluded that Russia was responsible for the hacking, with three intelligence agencies having "high confidence" that Russian interference was ordered by Putin himself. Trump then suggested on Twitter that his critics would rather go to war with Russia than see him get along with Putin.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Trump's followup
During an interview three days after the summit, Trump told CBS News that he holds the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, personally responsible for Russia's attempts at meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Trump's followup
Trump asked his national security adviser, John R. Bolton, to invite Mr. Putin to Washington, to continue dialogue that began in Helsinki. In a tweet, Trump indicated he looked forward to a second meeting with Mr. Putin "so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed" in Helsinki.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Russian public opinion
Survey results published by Levada-Center indicate that, as of July 2018, Russians increasingly viewed the United States positively following the presidential summit.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Possibility of Russia interrogating U.S. citizens
During his joint press conference with Putin, Trump stated, "And what [Putin] did is an incredible offer; he offered to have the people working on the [Special Counsel investigation] come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 [Russians who were under indictment in America]. I think that's an incredible offer." Trump did not mention the quid pro quo for Putin's offer, which was to have Russians interrogate 11 U.S. citizens.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Possibility of Russia interrogating U.S. citizens
Two days later, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed that Putin and Trump had discussed the possibility of Russian officials questioning Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, as well as Putin critic Bill Browder and others, in exchange for allowing investigators of the Special Counsel investigation to question twelve Russians who are under indictment in America. Sanders stated in a press conference, "The president will work with his team and we'll let you know if there's an announcement on that front." State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert called the Russian request "absolutely absurd."


2018 Russia–United States summit, Followup, Possibility of Russia interrogating U.S. citizens
Critics assailed Trump for even considering subjecting a former American diplomat to questioning by a hostile foreign power. As the Republican-controlled Senate prepared to vote on a resolution opposing the Putin proposal, Sanders stated that Trump "disagrees" with the Putin proposal. The Senate approved the non-binding "sense of the Senate" resolution, which stated that no current or former diplomat or other government employee should be made available to the Russians for interrogation, on a 98–0 vote.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Gallery
Joint photo session (left to right): First Lady of the US Melania Trump, US President Donald Trump, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of Finland Sauli Niinistö and First Lady of Finland Jenni Haukio.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Gallery
Putin gifts Trump a Telstar Mechta, the official match ball for the knockout stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.


2018 Russia–United States summit, Gallery
Advertisement in downtown Helsinki, with a message aimed at President Putin, in light of perceived lack of press freedom in Russia.


2018 Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team
The 2018 Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team represented Rutgers University during the 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Scarlet Knights played their home games at HighPoint.com Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey and competed as members of the East Division of the Big Ten Conference. They were led by third-year head coach Chris Ash.


2018 Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team
Rutgers began the year with a 35–7 victory over Texas State, but things quickly turned south for the team. After a blowout loss to Ohio State in Rutgers' conference opener, the team traveled to play Kansas, who had lost 39 of their previous 42 games against FBS opponents. Rutgers lost in a blowout, 55–14. The next week, the team was blown out 42–13 by Buffalo of the Mid-American Conference. In the remainder of conference play, the Scarlet Knights were mostly outmatched, losing the rest of their games, despite holding fourth quarter leads in games against Northwestern and Michigan State. Rutgers' final record of 1–11 matched the previous school record for losses in a season with their 1–11 2002 team and 0–11 1997 team.


2018 Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team
Freshman quarterback Artur Sitowski led the team in passing, finishing with 1,158 passing yards, 4 touchdowns, and 18 interceptions. Sophomore running back Raheem Blacksheer led the team in both rushing and receiving yards, and had 953 yards from scrimmage on the year. On defense, senior linebacker Trevor Morris finished in sixth in the conference with 105 total tackles. He concluded his career in ninth on the school's all-time leaderboard for total tackles.


2018 Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team, Previous season
The Scarlet Knights finished the 2017 season 4–8, 3–6 in Big Ten play to finish in fifth place in the East Division.


2018 Rwandan Cup
he 2017–18 Rwandan Cup is the 36th season of the football cup competition of Rwanda. The competition is organized by the Rwandese Association Football Federation (RAF) and open to all clubs in Rwanda.


2018 Rwandan Cup, Round of 32
The Round of 32 are played on 6 & 7 February 2018 first legs and 21 & 22 February 2018 second legs.


2018 Rwandan Cup, Round of 32
1–0 on aggregate. Sorwathe FC failed to turn up for the game.


2018 Rwandan Cup, Round of 32
Sunrise won with 3–0 on aggregate, after Miroplast failed to turn up for the game.


2018 Rwandan parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Rwanda on 3 September 2018, with Rwandan overseas voting the day before. The result was a victory for the Rwandan Patriotic Front coalition, which won 40 of the 53 elected seats while losing its absolute majority over the total of seats, whilst the Democratic Green Party and Social Party Imberakuri both entered parliament for the first time. With 49 of the 80 seats in the newly elected parliament held by women (61%), the elections maintained Rwanda's position as the country with the highest proportion of female MPs.


2018 Rwandan parliamentary election, Electoral system
The 80-seat Chamber of Deputies is elected by two methods: 53 seats are directly elected by closed list proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency with an electoral threshold of 5%; seats are allocated using the largest remainder method. The remaining 27 seats are indirectly elected by local and national councils, including 24 reserved for women (six from Eastern, Southern and Western provinces, four from Northern Province and two from Kigali), two for representatives of youth and one for representatives of handicapped.


2018 Rwandan parliamentary election, Results
Ernest Kamanzi and Clarisse Maniriho were elected as the youth representatives, whilst Eugene Mussolini was elected as the disabled representative.


2018 Ryder Cup
The 42nd Ryder Cup Matches were held in France from 28 to 30 September 2018 on the Albatros Course of Le Golf National in Guyancourt, a suburb southwest of Paris. It was the second Ryder Cup to be held in Continental Europe (rather than Great Britain or Ireland), after the 1997 contest, which was held in Spain. The United States were the defending champions, but had lost the last five matches in Europe, having last won there in 1993. Europe regained the Ryder Cup, winning by 171⁄2 points to 101⁄2.


2018 Ryder Cup, Format
The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The competition format was as follows:


2018 Ryder Cup, Format
On the first two days there were four fourball matches in the morning and four foursome matches in the afternoon.


2018 Ryder Cup, Format
With a total of 28 points available, 141⁄2 points were required to win the Cup, and 14 points were required for the defending champion, the United States, to retain the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 18 holes.


2018 Ryder Cup, Bidding for the 2018 Ryder Cup
Ryder Cup Europe confirmed originally six countries—France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden—to be interested in bidding for the 2018 Ryder Cup. The deadline for the submission of bids was set for 30 April 2010; Sweden withdrew from the bidding early that month, while the Spanish bidding host city of Tres Cantos showed poor popular support.


2018 Ryder Cup, Bidding for the 2018 Ryder Cup
France was announced as host on 17 May 2011, despite calls for the Cup to be held in Spain as a tribute to the late Seve Ballesteros.


2018 Ryder Cup, Team qualification and selection, Europe
The European team qualification rules were announced on 18 January 2017. There were a number of changes compared to 2016 with an increase in the number of captain's picks from three to four, based on recommendations from the analytics team behind Team Europe. The team consisted of:


2018 Ryder Cup, Team qualification and selection, Europe
Membership criteria for the European Tour were reduced from five tournaments to four (outside the majors and WGCs) for the 2018 season. As in previous Ryder Cups, all players had to be members of the European Tour to be eligible to play for Europe. Changes were also made to the eligibility of future captains and vice-captains.


2018 Ryder Cup, Team qualification and selection, Europe
Paul Casey became a member of the European Tour at the start of 2018. Since he was not a member during 2017 he did not earn points until the start of 2018.


2018 Ryder Cup, Team qualification and selection, Europe
The leading players in the European Ryder Cup points lists were:


2018 Ryder Cup, Team qualification and selection, Europe
The remaining three players selected as captain's picks, Ian Poulter, Sergio García and Paul Casey, finished in 22nd, 24th and 35th place respectively on the European points list.


2018 Ryder Cup, Team qualification and selection, United States
The United States qualification rules were announced on 8 February 2017. The majority of the team were selected from the Ryder Cup points list which was based on prize money won in important tournaments. Generally one point was awarded for every $1,000 earned. The team consisted of:


2018 Ryder Cup, Team qualification and selection, United States
The qualification rules were similar to those used for the 2016 Ryder Cup. The points given for the 2018 season major championships were reduced from double to 50% extra (except for the winner who still received double points). The dates on which the captain's picks were made were brought forward by one or two weeks.


2018 Ryder Cup, Team qualification and selection, United States
The leading 15 players in the final points list after the final qualifying event, the 2018 PGA Championship were:


2018 Ryder Cup, Team qualification and selection, United States
Players in qualifying places are shown in green. Captain's picks are shown in yellow.


2018 Ryder Cup, Teams, Captains
Thomas Bjørn was named as the European captain on 6 December 2016. He was chosen by a five-man panel made up of the three most recent European Ryder Cup captains (Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley and José María Olazábal), the Chief Executive of the European Tour, Keith Pelley, and European Tour Tournament Committee member Henrik Stenson.


2018 Ryder Cup, Teams, Captains
Jim Furyk was named as the USA captain on 11 January 2017.


2018 Ryder Cup, Teams, Vice-captains
Each captain selected a number of vice-captains to assist him during the tournament.


2018 Ryder Cup, Teams, Vice-captains
Bjørn selected Robert Karlsson as his first vice-captain in May 2017. In May 2018 he selected four more vice-captains: Luke Donald, Pádraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell and Lee Westwood. Raphaël Jacquelin was also on hand for the Europeans, as an assistant.


2018 Ryder Cup, Teams, Vice-captains
Furyk named Davis Love III as a vice-captain, soon after his appointment in January 2017. He later added Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods in February 2018.


2018 Ryder Cup, Teams, Vice-captains
On 4 September 2018, Furyk named David Duval, Zach Johnson, and Matt Kuchar as additional vice-captains. Tiger Woods, who had previously been named a vice-captain, would no longer serve in this position as he was chosen to be one of Furyk's captain's picks.


2018 Ryder Cup, Teams, Players
Thomas Bjørn announced the four captain's picks at 2 pm BST on 5 September. Captain's picks are shown in yellow. The world rankings and records were at the start of the 2018 Ryder Cup.


2018 Ryder Cup, Teams, Players
Captain's picks are shown in yellow. Jim Furyk announced three captain's picks at 5 pm EDT on 4 September. The final captain's pick was announced on 10 September after the conclusion of the BMW Championship. The world rankings and records were at the start of the 2018 Ryder Cup.


2018 Ryder Cup, Friday's matches, Morning fourballs
The opening round of four fourball matches started at 8:10 am local time. Pairings were announced after the Opening Ceremony on Thursday. The first point of the 2018 Ryder Cup was won by Team USA, with Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler winning 4 & 2 against Rory McIlroy and Thorbjørn Olesen. Despite being two up with six holes to play, Jon Rahm and Justin Rose lost out to Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau on the 18th hole, while Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas also won by one against Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton, putting Team USA 3–0 ahead.


2018 Ryder Cup, Friday's matches, Morning fourballs
A spectator struck by Koepka's drive on the 6th hole lost the sight in one eye. Coming back from two down, Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari defeated Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed 3 & 1 to secure Team Europe's first point of the tournament, and to end the first morning 3–1 in favour of Team USA.


2018 Ryder Cup, Friday's matches, Afternoon foursomes
Europe's first clean sweep of the afternoon foursomes in the history of the Ryder Cup saw Team Europe end the day 5–3 ahead of Team USA. Sergio García and Alex Norén won 5 & 4 over Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter came from two down after the first three holes to beat Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson 4 & 2, Fleetwood and Molinari repeated their morning success with a 4 & 3 win over Spieth and Thomas, while Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson beat Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler 3 & 2.


2018 Ryder Cup, Saturday's matches, Morning fourballs
The Saturday fourballs saw Europe continue to dominate with wins for García/McIlroy (2 & 1) against Koepka and Finau, Casey/Hatton (3 & 2) against Fowler/Johnson and Molinari/Fleetwood (4 & 3) against Reed/Woods. Team USA secured their only point of the morning session with Thomas and Spieth defeating Poulter and Rahm 2 & 1, to leave the overall tournament at 8–4 in Team Europe's favour. Despite the strong performance, Team Europe captain Thomas Bjørn reiterated: "Nothing's won, we're just over the halfway stage. There's no bit happiness yet, there's still a determination and work to be done".


2018 Ryder Cup, Saturday's matches, Afternoon foursomes
The afternoon session was drawn 2–2. It saw Team Europe's Molinari and Fleetwood win for the fourth time, a European record in the Ryder Cup, this time 5 & 4 over Woods and DeChambeau. Team USA's Spieth and Thomas defeated Poulter and McIlroy 4 & 3, while Simpson and Watson's green play saw them defeat Europe's García and Norén 3 & 2. The fourth pairing saw Rose and Stenson narrowly beat Johnson and Koepka 2 & 1 as a result of some good putting late in the round.


2018 Ryder Cup, Sunday's singles matches
The United States put their best players at the top of the card on Sunday, and despite the four point deficit threatened a comeback in the singles, as they won 31⁄2 points from the first four matches. Justin Thomas beat Rory McIlroy on the final hole as the latter's approach found the water, and Tony Finau defeated the previously unbeaten Tommy Fleetwood 6 & 4. However, from then on Europe dominated, winning the next six matches to lead 161⁄2–91⁄2.


2018 Ryder Cup, Sunday's singles matches
Guarantees of at least a half-point each for García and Stenson (both of whom later got full points) meant that victory was already assured before the 141⁄2-point winning post was officially reached when Phil Mickelson, already three holes down, found the water on the 16th hole and conceded the hole and match to Molinari, who became the first player for Europe to score what is now the maximum possible five points in a single Ryder Cup. The remaining two matches were shared between the teams, leaving the final score 171⁄2–101⁄2 to Europe. Sergio García's singles win made him the all-time Ryder Cup points leader, with 251⁄2 points in nine appearances, overtaking Nick Faldo's 25 points in 11 appearances.


2018 Ryder Cup, Individual player records
Each entry refers to the Win–Loss–Half record of the player.


2018 Réunion Premier League
The 2018 Réunion Premier League is the 69th season of the Réunion Premier League, the professional league for association football clubs in Réunion, since the league's establishment in 1950. The season started on 17 March and concluded on 16 December 2018.


2018 SAFF Championship
The 2018 SAFF Championship, also known as 2018 SAFF Suzuki Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the 12th edition of the SAFF Championship, the biennial international men's football championship of South Asia organized by SAFF. It was initially scheduled to be hosted by Bangladesh in December 2017, but later rescheduled to 4–15 September 2018.


2018 SAFF Championship, Host selection
On 2 January 2016, SAFF executive committee made a decision that Bangladesh would host the 2017 SAFF Championship at a meeting held in Trivandrum, India. Maldives and Bhutan made bids to host the games but the latter withdrew its bid.


2018 SAFF Championship, Host selection
This was the third SAFF Championship hosted by Bangladesh, after victory in the 2003 edition and semi finalists in 2009.


2018 SAFF Championship, Host selection
The draw ceremony was held on 18 April 2018 in Dhaka.


2018 SAFF Championship, Awards
The following awards were given for the 2018 SAFF Championship.


2018 SAFF Championship, Goalscorers
There were 29 goals scored in 12 matches, for an average of 2.42 goals per match.


2018 SAFF Championship Final
The 2018 SAFF Championship Final is a football match that took place on 12 September 2018 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka. It was announced that the matches during the tournament, including the final, would take place at the Bangabandhu nation stadium, Dhaka. The Maldives came out 2–1 winners against India to secure their second SAFF Championship.


2018 SAFF Championship squads
This article lists the confirmed national football squads for the 2018 SAFF Championship tournament held in Bangladesh, between 4 September and 15 September 2018. The position listed for each player is per the squad list in the official match reports by the SAFF. The age listed for each player is on 4 September 2018, the first day of the tournament. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. A flag is included for coaches that are of a different nationality than their own national team.


2018 SAFF U-15 Championship
The 2018 SAFF U-15 Championship was the 5th edition of the SAFF U-15 Championship, an international football competition for men's under-15 national teams organized by SAFF. The tournament was hosted by Nepal from October 25 to November 3, 2018 at ANFA Complex in Lalitpur, Nepal. Six out of seven teams from the region took part, as Sri Lanka later withdrew their team, and the teams were divided into two groups. On 3 November 2018, Bangladesh beat Pakistan to claim their second SAFF title.


2018 SAFF U-15 Championship, Host selection
A draw for tournament ceremony was held on 13 September 2018 at conference room of Bangladesh Football Federation.


2018 SAFF U-15 Championship, Host selection
BFF general secretary Abu Naeem Shohag, chairman of the BFF Media Committee Amirul Islam Babu and Mindu Dorji, the deputy general secretary of Bhutan Football Federation was also present on the occasion.


2018 SAFF U-15 Championship, Host selection
Initially all of seven countries team participated for the draw, two groups A and B were made, A consisted of Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Pakistan and group B consisted of India, Bhutan and Sri Lanka


2018 SAFF U-15 Championship, Host selection
But later Sri Lanka had its team withdrawn from the tournament and the groups are redefined.


2018 SAFF U-15 Championship, Squads
Players born on or after 1 January 2003 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team had to register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom had to be goalkeepers.


2018 SAFF U-15 Championship, Awards
The following awards were given for the 2018 SAFF U-15 Championship.


2018 SAFF U-15 Championship, Goalscorers
There were 47 goals scored in 10 matches, for an average of 4.7 goals per match.


2018 SAFF U-15 Women's Championship
The 2018 SAFF U-15 Women's Championship was the 2nd edition of the SAFF U-15 Women's Championship, an international football competition for women's under-15 national teams organized by SAFF. The tournament was hosted by Bhutan from 9–18 of August, 2018 at Changlimithang Stadium. Six teams from the region took part.


2018 SAFF U-15 Women's Championship, Host selection
A draw for tournament ceremony was held on 7 July 2018 in Motijheel at conference room of Bangladesh Football Federation.


2018 SAFF U-15 Women's Championship, Host selection
SAFF general secretary Anwarul Haque Helal and BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag, were among others present on the occasion.


2018 SAFF U-15 Women's Championship, Player eligibility
Players born on or after 1 January 2003 are eligible to compete in the tournament.


2018 SAFF U-18 Women's Championship
The 2018 SAFF U-18 Women's Championship was the 1st edition of the SAFF U-18 Women's Championship, an international football competition for women's under-18 national teams organized by SAFF. The tournament was hosted from 28 September – 7 October 2018 at Changlimithang Stadium. Six teams from the region took part (Sri Lanka had its team withdrawn from the tournament).


2018 SAFF U-18 Women's Championship, Draw
A draw for tournament ceremony was held on 7 July 2018 in Motijheel at conference room of Bangladesh Football Federation. SAFF general secretary Anwarul Haque Helal and BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag, were among others present on the occasion. Initially all of seven countries team participated for the draw, two groups A and B were made: group A consisted of India, Sri Lanka and Maldives and group B consisted of Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan. Later, however, Sri Lanka had their team withdrawn from the tournament and the groups were redefined.


2018 SAFF U-18 Women's Championship, Squads
Each team had to register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers.


2018 SAFF U-18 Women's Championship, Players Eligibility
Players born on or after 1 January 2000 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team had to register a squad of minimum 16 players and maximum 23 players, minimum two of whom must be goalkeepers.


2018 SAFF U-18 Women's Championship, Group stage
Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings.


2018 SAFF U-18 Women's Championship, Goalscorers
There were 65 goals scored in 10 matches, for an average of 6.5 goals per match.


2018 SAFF U-18 Women's Championship squads
All team squads must consist of, minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers.


2018 SANFL Grand Final
The 2018 South Australian National Football League (SANFL) grand final was played at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday, 23 September to determine the premiers for the 2018 SANFL season.


2018 SANFL Grand Final
The Grand Final was contested by Norwood and North Adelaide.


2018 SANFL Grand Final
North Adelaide won the grand final, defeating Norwood by 19 points, winning their first premiership since 1991. The Jack Oatey Medal for the best player on the ground was won by Norwood's Mitch Grigg - the first member of a losing grand final side to win the medal.


2018 SANFL Grand Final
This marked the highest scoring grand final since 1983, with both teams kicking over one hundred points.