It seems public protest actions have sense even in Russia. Dmitriy Medvedev ordered the suspension of plans to construct a toll highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg through the centuries-old forest on August 26. But now there is a new turn of the story.

Russia expects significant progress from NATO in the fight against Afghan drug trafficking. Afghan drug production has increased dramatically since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban in 2001. Russia has been one of the countries most affected by the increase in supply.

Vinton G. Cerf, vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google visited Moscow on Friday. During his stay he gave an open lecture at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations. "Ways of communication via the Internet are becoming more and more accessible while at the same time more technically complicated," Cerf said.

Four Russian road police officers were detained in Moscow after a man who had been reported kidnapped by his wife was discovered in their car's boot.

Mikhail Schneider, a leader of Russia's opposition Solidarity movement, intends to file a claim to the European Court of Human Rights over his detention on charges of attempting to stage an unsanctioned march.

A Ukrainian delegation headed by Ukrainian energy minister Yury Boiko, arrived in Moscow on Friday for talks with Gazprom management on gas issues.

The World Political Forum in Yaroslavl, which this year has become a more ambitious rostrum for an opinion exchange between politicians, experts and businesspeople in time can reach the Davos Forum level.

Yevgeny Chichvarkin, a fugitive Russian businessman living in the U.K., said he would join a Russian opposition rally in defense of the right for peaceful assembly to be held outside Moscow's embassy in London on August 31.

A police officer in Russia's city St. Petersburg has been charged with excessive force after forcibly breaking up an opposition rally on July 31.

A couple accused of the murders of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova want to get married and face their trial as husband and wife.