Ruslan Akhtakhanov, a well-known Chechen poet and activist, was gunned down Wednesday night in Moscow. Police suspect the writer may have been the target of a contract killing ordered by Chechen nationalists.
Tag: russia
Russian developers run by local politicians have spent the last decade replacing historic buildings with luxury apartments and shopping malls. Preservationists have long cried foul, but say there’s still time to save some of the city’s endangered landmark
The latest survey found support fading for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev after they announced plans to “swap” top positions in upcoming elections. Though the poll is not expected to unseat their Uni
Six would-be astronauts are confined for an unprecedented 17-month experiment in social confinement that is helping to lay the groundwork for extra long missions in space.
Russia garners top spot in the list of those countries whose businesses try to pay bribes when working abroad. There are two explanations: either Russians pay bribes out of habit, or because they couldn’t sell their products without them.
Ramzan Kadyrov has absolute power over Chechnya. He controls everything from the reconstruction of the capital Grozny to what women are allowed to wear. Behind the pomp, Vladimir Putin’s spiritual heir is “normalizing” the country through terror.
Though the global momentum of the “Occupy” and “Indignados” movement has not hit Russia, a group of self-styled anarchists in St. Petersburg are trying to undermine the establishment in other ways.
Borrowing from a long tradition of Russian protest music, well-known singer Andrei Makarevich has just released a satirical song on YouTube that pokes fun at the country’s powerful prime minister, Vladimir Putin.
After a Russian soccer fan was killed following an argument with an Azerbaijani, ultra-nationalists held a rally near Red Square in Moscow that led to 100 arrests. Soccer stadiums are increasingly the bastion of xenophobic movements in Russia.
With fares as low as 250 rubles, Avianova made a splash when it entered the competitive Russian market two years ago. But plagued from the start by delays and cancellations, the low-cost carrier will be grounding its fleet for good on October 9.
Vasily Aleksanyan is dead at 38. He used to be a lawyer and top executive of oil company Yukos, whose chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky is in jail since 2003. Aleksanyan had long battled with Russian authorities to be released from jail to be treated for AIDS.
Moscow is trying to get people out of their cars, with expanded connections and swanky new subway cars. The project also includes special anti-vibration tracks and tunnels designed to protect the Bolshoi Theater’s brand new underground concert call.
Bad news for Russian tax evaders who’ve counted on Swiss bank accounts, as Switzerland agrees to turn over information to Moscow about account holders, particularly in relation to tax investigations.
After public endorsements aimed at returning Vladimir Putin to the presidency and making current President Dmitry Medvedev the next prime minister, the first of what may be many protests took place away from the glare of TV by Russians demanding true demo
Serving a 13-year sentence for fraud, Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a symbol for Russians seeking real democratic reforms. In this open letter from his prison cell published by Kommersant, the former oil tycoon lays out his vision for a lasting overhaul of the
When Super-Rich Russian opposition leader Mikhail Prokhorov called the country’s party system a “sham,” he subsequently vanished from state TV after months of air time. The last oligarch to push too far was Mikhail Khodorkovsky, now serv
The leaders of Russia and the UK met at the Kremlin for the first time since 2006. But despite the warm public words, behind closed doors the two sides were in tough talks over how the investigation of the death in London of former KGB spy Alexander Litvi
After hockey powerhouse Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s Yak 42 charter crashed at take off, President Medvedev paid homage to the 43 killed, but launched into a harsh critique of an airline industry that counts too many new, untested carriers, and too few
Last week’s crash of Russian space supply ship Progress is the fourth Russian launch failure in nine months. With NASA’s Space Shuttle now decommissioned, there are concerns over whether Russia can be relied on to deliver supplies to the Internat
Another top official in a city north of Moscow was gunned down this week after he took on allegedly corrupt local forces. Some 40 top municipal officials have been targeted over the past decade.
The Russians are launching a project for a commercial space station with a hotel that will supposedly be ready for occupancy by 2016. Guests would pass the night very much under the stars – at 350 kilometers above the Earth.
Analysis: In a recent nationally-broadcast interview, President Medvedev reminisced about Russia’s 2009 war with Georgia. His recollections have Russian pundits wondering if Medvedev is now preparing for a new fight – on the political front.
Russia has just reached a deal that gives Belarus discounted natural gas in exchange for control of the satellite country’s Beltransgaz utility. Will the agreement encourage Ukraine to the same?
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Vladimir Putin Dives Into History
Up close as the Russian Prime Minister takes an archaeology tour, by land and by sea — and resurfaces with some loot. A surreal snapshot of the spectacle of contemporary Russian politics.
Russia has drawn up a list of Americans who will be banned from entering Russia. The move comes as a response to Washington’s blacklisting of Russian officials linked to suspected human rights violations.
Vladimir Putin went to an annual summer camp organized by the pro-Putin youth group Nashi, in what was widely seen as an early stop on his election campaign to retake the Russian presidency.
The Russian President singles out need for “absolutely fair” parliamentary elections amid a regional vote-rigging scandal, and questions about whether he himself will run for reelection.
Greenpeace disputes the Russian government’s forest fire statistics in the region around Moscow. The controversy is especially charged following last summer’s blazes that decimated agriculture and killed hundreds when huge plumes of smoke blew into the ca
Our correspondent dissects the famous lack of overt politeness in Russian society. But things may be getting a bit more pleasant, thank you very much.
As Putin stays mum on his intentions to run for a new term as president, supporters are growing increasingly vocal. And bizarre.
The end of the U.S. space shuttle program could be just what the doctor ordered for NASA’s old rival, the Russian Federal Space Agency, whose Soyuz rockets are now the only show in town when it comes to sending humans into the great beyond.
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Is Russia Really Such A Solid Investment?
Op-Ed: Right now, Russia is ‘in’ with investors. But the giant economy is both less dynamic and more risky than many realize.
A new report by Russian atomic power agency Rosatam paints a grim picture of the country’s aging nuclear power plants, which are ill-prepared for earthquakes and other natural phenomena.
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Putin’s Ambitions
Vladimir Putin came to Geneva to tout his country’s economic prospects, but Russians are wondering whether it was really an early stop on the campaign trail to take back the Russian Presidency in 2012.
The cult of Lenin lives on in modern-day Russia among hardline nostalgics. But new proof revealing Lenin had Jewish roots may not sit well with those who long for a Soviet past that included state-backed anti-Semitism.
An insider with a penchant for ruffling official feathers, popular television host Vladimir Pozner pushes boundaries while still toeing the party line.
One of modern Russia’s most influential cultural figures has made photography a high-art form in the former Communist land. She’s also made some enemies along the way.
A French analysis of global commodity prices, as 2010 quietly finishes with record highs Corn has reached record highs PARIS – Wheat, corn, coffee, sugar, rubber, cocoa, cotton, soy, rice. Each one of these commodities has seen their prices skyrocket this year, some to all-time record highs. The increase accelerated in December, with investors buying […]