The Moscow Times

Climate was a recurring theme at a forum Thursday with government officials and investors discussing Moscow's severe frost and the impact next month's presidential election will have on the business environment.

Forecasts say the temperature in Moscow will be about minus 16 degrees Celsius Saturday when tens of thousands of people will take to the streets, both in support of and in opposition to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's run for the presidency.

The Moscow Times will be covering Saturday's rallies in Moscow with a live blog on our website beginning at 11 a.m.

As the anti-election fraud protest at Prospekt Akademika Sakharova raged around her, Yelena Bogush seemed out of place.

The official in charge of Russia's pro-Kremlin youth groups found himself embroiled in scandal Thursday after hackers posted links to what they claimed were thousands of his private e-mail messages.

There's much glitter in Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik's reception area. Some of the sheen emanates from a gold-colored frame around a full-length mirror. More radiates from a nearby silvery imitation of an apple tree with shiny white fruit.

Besides the bitter cold, demonstrators and observers at Saturday's opposition rally could once again be facing quality issues with telecommunication services.

Distinguished opposition leader Mikhail Kasyanov excoriated the government in a documentary aired Wednesday night on state-controlled Channel One.

Almost 14 million foreigners and stateless people legally arrived in Russia last year.

A high-ranking United Russia party official said he believes liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy broke the law in publishing what he called an extremist letter by exiled tycoon and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's presidential campaign said it would be willing to work with election observers from the newly formed civic group League of Voters, which was created in the wake of alleged mass falsifications by United Russia, the party Putin leads, in last year's State Duma elections.

Shares of Internet company Mail.ru Group could rise as a result of the initial public offering planned by social-networking site Facebook.

Rusnano still plans to sell 10 percent of shares to investors in 2012 and expects the proceeds to be reinvested in the company.

The father of FSB-officer-turned-Kremlin-critic Alexander Litvinenko called his son a "British spy" and said he no longer believes Russian authorities were responsible for his death.

All five presidential candidates will be provided an equal amount of free airtime on state-owned TV channels when campaigning in the mass media begins Feb. 4.

The Defense Ministry plans to spend 729 million rubles ($24.5 million) on eight underwater drones made by Icelandic firm Teledyne Gavia.

Oil output from Russia hit a record high last month thanks to higher pumping rates at Rosneft and Gazprom.

The daughter of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko told U.S. lawmakers that her mother is being tortured in prison.

Norway's Statoil wants to sell its stake in the West Qurna-2 oilfield to LUKoil and the Iraqi oil ministry has no objection "in principle."