• President: Vladimir Putin
• Prime Minister: Dmitry Medvedev

January edit

• 1 January – The presidential decree on dissolving of Russian Federal Space Agency and transforming it into the Roscosmos Space Corporation has come into force.
• 19–23 January – Junior 2016 Russian Figure Skating Championships in Chelyabinsk.

February edit

• 8–15 February – 2016 St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.^[1]
• 16–20 February – 2016 Russian Figure Skating Championships Final in Saransk, Mordovia.
• 25–29 February – Vorkuta mine disaster: Ignition of leaking methane gas caused a series of explosions that caused the deaths of 36 people, including 31 miners and five rescue workers, in a coal mine near the city of Vorkuta, Komi Republic, Russia.

March edit

• 14 March – Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War: Putin announced that the mission which he set for the Russian military in Syria "has been accomplished" and he ordered the withdrawal of the "main part" of the Russian forces from Syria.
• 19 March – Flydubai Flight 981 with Boeing 737-800 made two unsuccessful landing attempts at Rostov-on-Don Airport in inclement weather. It reached an altitude of 4,000 feet (1,200 m) (during its second go-around), but then suddenly went down and crashed into the ground at a high speed. All 62 people on board the aircraft were killed in the crash.

April edit

• 5 April – Internal Troops became the newly formed National Guard of Russia. The Federal Migration Service and the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia were subordinated to MVD.
• 28 April – Vostochny Cosmodrome.^[2][3]

May edit

• 6–22 May – 2016 IIHF World Championship.

August edit

• 17 August – Federal Security Service (FSB) officers kill at least four suspected North Caucasus Islamic militants during a counter-terrorism raid on an apartment building in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg.^{[citation needed]}
• 27 August – A fire at a warehouse in Moscow, Russia, kills at least 17 people, all migrant workers from Kyrgyzstan. The Investigative Committee of Russia, which reports directly to President Vladimir Putin, says a criminal inquiry has been launched.^[4]
• 25–28 August – 2016 Extreme Sailing Series in St. Petersburg.^[5][6]

October edit

• 3 October – President Putin suspends the 2000 nuclear pact with the United States on cleaning up weapons-grade plutonium.^[7]
• 5 October – Vladimir Putin suspends the 2013 nuclear pact with the United States on uranium research.^[8]
• 9 October – Eight militants, who planned attacks in Chechnya, were killed in a shootout with police. Four officers were injured as well.^{[citation needed]}
• 8 October – Russia deploys the nuclear-capable Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missile system to the Kaliningrad Oblast.^[9]
• 23 October – A gas explosion in the Russian city of Ryazan kills at least 3 people and injures 13 others^{[citation needed]}
• 24 October – The Tolmachevy Sisters Concert in Minsk airs live on TV Channels Worldwide, including Freeform in the United States, Urging Viewers to vote for Donald Trump.

November edit

• 6 November – Explosion killed 6 people in Ivanovo a city in Russia.^{[citation needed]}

December edit

• 25 December – A Tupolev Tu-154 crashes near Sochi, Russia, killing all 92 people on board, including 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble.^{[citation needed]}

January edit

• 1 January – Fazu Aliyeva, 83, Russian Avar poet and journalist, heart failure.^[10]
• 3 January – Igor Sergun, 58, Russian military officer, Director of the GRU (since 2011).^[11]
• 5 January –
  • Lev Nikolayevich Korolyov, 89, Russian computer scientist.^[12]
  • Anatoly Roshchin, 83, Russian heavyweight wrestler, Olympic champion (1972).^[13]

February edit

• 3 February – Valery Postnikov, 70, Russian ice hockey player and coach.^[14]

  Media related to 2016 in Russia at Wikimedia Commons