Complete coverage of the U.S.-Russia summit, being held July 6-8 in Moscow.

Outside the Ritz-Carlton, as a flurry of snow turned Tverskaya Ulitsa to mud, a young man tried to sell a fake designer watch to passers-by for 1,000 rubles.

Sergei Guzev, a train driver from the Vladimir region, said he had always been against the idea of going on strike -- until rising inflation made it difficult for him to meet basic family expenses.

Golos, a group with the country's only independent election observers, says it is the target of a politically motivated attack.

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The country's top election official dismissed complaints that governors and thousands of other state-paid workers have been told to round up votes for United Russia, and said cell phones would help ensure the fairness of Sunday's State Duma elections.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev fired his prime minister on Wednesday in a move condemned by the opposition as an attempt to tighten his grasp on power ahead of snap parliamentary elections.

Former Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili has been arrested in Germany at Georgia's request, prosecutors said Wednesday.

President Vladimir Putin, who steps down next year, said Wednesday that he would not allow foreign powers to upset Russia's stability in the wake of two crucial polls that will decide the country's future.

Up to 20,000 activists from Nashi Vybory, a spinoff from the pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi, will conduct exit polls nationwide during Sunday's State Duma vote.