It's the August 31, less than a quarter of an hour to the planned march of the "Strategy 31" opposition movement in the centre of Moscow. The mayor's office and city government are planning to treat the rally as a provocation.

The decision Friday of a Thai appellate to overturn a lower-court decision and allow Victor Bout's extradition to stand trial in the United States on charges of trying to sell weapons to Colombian guerrillas means he should finally get his day in court.

The flow of tourists to alpine resorts in Kabardino-Balkaria has grown much thinner of late, after more than ten police officers and civilians were killed in the region in one month.

President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a law on introducing amendments to the law on the Federal Security Service (FSB) about administrative violations that expands the powers of the FSB under the current law.

The two-month heat wave in Russia took a political turn as protesters tried to gather in front of Moscow City Hall to demand the resignation of Moscow's mayor.

A first step in President Dmitry Medvedev's reform of the notoriously corrupt police force will be to replace its Bolshevik-imposed name "militia" with the tsarist-era "police."

On August 5th, the International Criminal Court in The Hague saw the most beautiful witness in its entire history. Naomi Campbell, a girlfriend of a Russian businessman, testified in the case of one of the most outspoken politicians of our time, the former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

The Khimki forest, a 1000 hectare reserve of birch trees just north of Moscow, has become the scene of dramatic confrontation between environmentalists and road builders. Today is the day of a short rest.

A court in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East has ordered all local Internet service providers to block access to YouTube.com and four other websites for publishing extremist materials. Google

Special programs, potentially dangerous for many mobile phone users, are being sold on the Internet.

It is as a rule useful to analise events after some time has passed. Several weeks ago the “primorsky partisans’” brief campaign came to an end. Police cornered the self-styled group of “partisans” who led a guerrilla war against law enforcement officials in the Primorye Region of the Russian Far East. Members of the group were captured or killed.

All Russian men between the ages of 18 and 27 are obliged by law to perform one year of military service, but people are encouraged to evade conscription.

In tough times the majority of international companies tend to cut jobs and wind down business projects, but it has nothing to do with Coca-Cola strategies – the global leader in the beverage industry says it eyes to start expanding its business empire by acquisition of smaller drink producers unable to survive now and promoting new brands.

Russia has all chances to overcome the financial turbulence almost unharmed.

On Thursday the rouble dived against the dollar, which increased by record 34 kopecks. The Russian national currency’s fall is caused by foreign investors who hurriedly convert roubles to dollars and Euros and leave the Russian stock market due to political risks.

Russian steel giants are gradually expanding their presence on the American market by acquiring U.S. steel producers. No wonder, they are thought to be among potential bidders for AK Steel, the third largest steel maker in the USA.

“We will have our own gas-turbine engine in around 10 years. We have some engineered projects but we need to modernize the industrial base and test facilities. It is going to be an engine of an absolutely new level with which we plan to outstrip the competitors”.

Russian authorities initiated a heavy anti-smoking campaign comparable to the one seen in the USA in the 1990s. Experts believe the campaign is well-timed, but requires to be implemented carefully – some restrictions may cause rebel among numerous smokers.

Last week Russia lost its biggest producer of vodka: Central European Distribution Corporation (CEDC) based in Poland and British Lion Capital LLP closed a transaction on acquisition of 90% of shares in Russkiy Alkogol (Russian Alcohol). The management of the Russian company will hold the rest 10% of the stock.

Talking about children’s morality has become a very popular topic in the Russian State Duma. Russian officials suppose the time has come to think how to protect children from undermining influence of “bad values”.