The Moscow Times

World oil prices rose Monday on news of parliament's approval of a deal that will allow Greece to escape default on its $360 billion debt.

United Russia is developing a system of rating party members' effectiveness that will factor in the use of Twitter.

Members of the political opposition put in an application Monday to hold a rally on Feb. 26 called "Farewell to the Political Winter" on Ploshchad Revolyutsii next to the Kremlin.

Irina Prokhorova, editor of the journal New Literary Review and sister of businessman and presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov will represent her brother in a televised debate with Nikita Mikhalkov, film director and backer of presidential candidate Vladimir Putin.

Mixed-martial-arts world champion Rasul Mirzayev, who is accused of manslaughter in the death of a 19-year-old man, was freed on bail Monday.

The fifth-generation PAK FA T-50 jet fighter will have a higher maximum speed, longer maximum flight time and greater freight capacity than the American-made F-22 and the Chinese J-20.

A senior lieutenant serving on the Gepard atomic submarine, part of the Northern Fleet, hanged himself in his cabin.

Vladimir Putin's campaign manager Stanislav Govorukhin quoted Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in calling the liberal intelligentsia "the filth of the nation" in an interview published Monday.

A prominent French writer and journalist has been kicked out of the country on the grounds that she did not have the right to research a book while on a business visa.

Ukraine accused Russia on Monday of blocking Ukrainian cheese imports for political reasons in an escalation of a food-quality dispute.

Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov won a new five-year term by capturing 97 percent of the vote, election officials said Monday, but a Western expert called the vote a democratic sham.

Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned the Azeri ambassador Sunday, accusing Azerbaijan of assisting Israeli intelligence in the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist last month.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin unveiled his plan on social policy Monday, focusing on how Russia will boost its dwindling population amid a demographic crisis that threatens to turn the country into "void space."

Corruption in Russia was "normal" and "civilized" during Vladimir Putin's first stint as president and support for him has grown stronger as a result of recent opposition rallies, the prime minister's campaign manager has boasted.

Russians joined the world Sunday in mourning the death of singer and actress Whitney Houston, who passed away suddenly at the age of 48.