Outspoken U.S. Senator John McCain has criticized President Vladimir Putin for a recent crackdown on protesters, as well as for oligarchy, corruption and activities in the Baltics and Ukraine. Outspoken U.S. Senator John McCain has criticized President Vladimir Putin for a recent crackdown on protesters, as...

... explanation, given that the Kremlin has presumably been preparing for the Cabinet reshuffle at least since Putin won the presidential election in early March. G8 leaders have angered the Kremlin recently by criticizing elections in December and March and a crackdown on subsequent pro-democracy protests. Obama, who is hosting the summit, would seem to be the most immediate target, given that the meeting would have been the first between him and Putin as presidents. To make matters worse, the Obama administration...

Amid a state crackdown on smoking, the country's top addictions doctor said Friday that long-time smokers cannot be cured and should not be "treated like animals" as they indulge in their habit. Amid a state crackdown on smoking, the country's top addictions...

In an attempt to deflect criticism against crackdowns on political protests at home, senior Russian officials on Monday shot back at Western critics, lambasting racism and xenophobia in Europe. In an attempt to deflect criticism against crackdowns on political protests...

Vladimir Kolokoltsev, named as interior minister on Monday, has drawn criticism for supporting Soviet-era residency registration rules and overseeing crackdowns on anti-Kremlin protesters during his two years as Moscow’s police chief. Vedomosti Kolokoltsev TULA — Vladimir Kolokoltsev, named as interior minister on Monday, has drawn criticism for supporting Soviet-era residency registration...

... was organized by "a group of former oil workers aided by a number of young people," but this is patently untrue. Even the European Parliament in early March "strongly condemned the violent crackdown by the police forces." Six people were convicted last week for instigating riots on Dec. 16 in the Kazakh city of Zhanaozen. Kazakh leaders and prosecutors claimed all along that the massacre was organized by "a group of...

... at least one Molotov cocktail at riot police. Gleb Pavlovsky, a one-time Kremlin insider, said the violence will forever be welded together in the public mind as a part of the inauguration. "Putin can't escape … the pointlessness of the crackdown, the sporadic savagery combined with absurdity," he said in comments published by Kommersant. Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev have not commented on this week's protests, but Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, angered the opposition...

... Union and U.S. firms from buying Syrian oil or doing business with Syrian companies handling imports of crude and refined products. Most former suppliers have dropped out for fear of violating measures designed to punish President Bashar Assad for his crackdown on opponents. That has forced Syria to rely for transportation and heating fuel on a narrowing pool of allies, including Iran, which faces its own tightening sanctions because of a nuclear program it says is peaceful, but the West says aims...

... Sergei Martynov said Putin's visit is "a signal sent to confirm the importance of ties and processes between the countries of this region," the Telegraf.by news site reported on Wednesday. Belarus has grown increasingly isolated following a crackdown on demonstrators protesting against the 2010 re-election of Lukashenko — who has been called Europe's last dictator — which observers said was flawed. Earlier this month Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Putin plans...

... appealed by the prosecutors and overturned by a higher court in February. The Harvard-educated Alexanyan died of AIDS-related illnesses in October at the age of 39. In 2006, he was charged and convicted of tax evasion and embezzlement as part of the crackdown on Yukos, which was once Russia's biggest oil company. Alexanyan suffered persistent health problems while spending more than 30 months in prison. He and his lawyers accused authorities of using his illness as a bargaining chip — threatening...

... media in March. But Syria and Iran will almost certainly lead Putin's agenda. Russia has long been a strong ally of both countries, which are among Israel's staunchest enemies and are under increasing international pressure — Syria for a violent crackdown on the opposition and Iran for a nuclear program that Israel, the United States and other countries fear is designed to build a bomb. When Putin last visited Israel in April 2005, he defended Russian arms sales to Syria and the shipment of nuclear...

... that Putin had used the formation of the new government — a responsibility that is, incidentally, tasked to the prime minister — as a flimsy excuse and that he might have other reasons, like wanting to avoid criticism about a violent police crackdown on protesters in Moscow this week. "President Putin was just sworn into office and is obviously forming a government, and the [U.S.] president absolutely understands that," Carney said. "We're not disappointed," he said....

... place during the May 6 opposition march that ended at Bolotnaya Ploshchad. "After the dispersal of the rally at Bolotnaya, the aggression of the protesters and their determination to carry on are on the rise," the study concluded. A further crackdown on the protests would put at their head the more extreme members, such as radical leftists, anarchists and nationalists, the study said. It said another wave of the global economic crisis, if triggered by the Greek debt crisis, would slash energy...

... residents’ complaints of filth and an unsafe environment for children, a Moscow court ordered police to do something about a protesters’ camp in a Chistiye Prudy park on Tuesday. While the Basmanny District Court ruling stopped short of demanding a crackdown, it did say city authorities were guilty of inactivity, meaning that the police were all but certain to dismantle the camp within hours. The camp, whose numbers range from several dozen during the night to hundreds during the evenings, has been...

... rule. Of course, Putin is capable of ordering much harsher measures than mass arrests, detentions and OMON truncheons beating the heads of protesters. But I would not rush to conclude that his regime will tighten the screws and carry out a systemic crackdown on the opposition. This is not because Putin does not have such a plan prepared or because he is opposed to harsh measures in principle. It is simply because Putin knows perfectly well that the system of government he has built over the past...

... uncomfortable and unpleasant questions that may be raised by journalists and some participants, such as electoral fraud in recent elections, Magnitsky blacklists, Kremlin threats of preemptive strikes on U.S. missile defense installations, recent police crackdowns on protests and the failure during Medvedev's four years as president to liberalize the country. Putin clearly prefers warmer receptions, like the one he received in Nizhny Tagil two days after his inauguration. Putin went to the city to visit...