This week, crooner Iosif Kobzon had to cancel his tour of the United States after yet another refusal of a visa, based on his alleged links to organized crime and drug trafficking. That did not stop Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin from dropping into his son's beer joint on Novy Arbat. This week, crooner Iosif Kobzon had to cancel his tour of the United States after yet another...

... Caucasus. You'll get vaccinated against tolerance! The local wogs will slit your family's throats while you stand by saying, 'Don't yell, dear, be tolerant.'" Bloggers and posters who supported the police request generally cited the problem of ethnic crime. And it's true that criminal groups from the Caucasus have largely defeated Slavic crime syndicates. But even Sherlock Holmes couldn't find a connection between crime and a Chelyabinsk high school that is considered to be the third-best math school...

... The kidnappers had been careful to cover their tracks, starting from the moment that they took the victim from Milayeva's apartment in the Odintsovsky district to a garage, where they kept him tied up, the court statement said. "To cover up the crime, Skorodumov and Milayeva drove the victim's car to another district, making telephone calls from his cellphone along the way," it said. Even after the victim was dead, the kidnappers continued to demand the money, it said. The statement did...

... that we must find the criminals as soon as possible and they must be punished," Yanukovych said after meeting top law enforcement officials in Dnipropetrovsk, where he arrived on Saturday. "We must understand what motivations and goals this crime had." Yanukovych said city authorities would pay 2 million hryvna ($250,000) for any information that would help find the bombers. The president and other officials declined to say what direction the investigation was taking. The opposition...

... “If authorities don’t find the courage to go this way, political catastrophes will happen.” Council members did see some positive developments, including the creation of a department in the Investigative Committee to look into police crimes; the abolishment of a three-year probation period for judges, which allowed their bosses to exert pressure on them; the distribution of cases between judges with a random-number generator in order to prevent corruption; and the cancellation of...

... government cannot sanction the practice of stoning, chopping off a hand for theft and other Sharia practices. In 1997, when Chechnya had Sharia courts, it was impossible to convict a single murderer or traitor. This is because any Muslim accused of a crime could tell the court, "I swear on the Koran that I was not the one who committed the crime." And even if his accusers were to produce a document with his signature that proved his guilt beyond a doubt, the man would go free because he...

... the Investigative Committee said. His body was found the next day with more than 30 stab wounds, the statement said. The motive does not appear to be robbery, as the victim's belongings, including his motorbike, cell phone and money, were left at the crime scene. (MT)

An unemployed former shareholder of a major ammunition plant in the Moscow region is suspected of embezzling 25 percent of its shares. An unemployed former shareholder of a major ammunition plant in the Moscow region is suspected of embezzling 25 percent of its shares, police said Wednesday. The suspect, a 48-year-old man whose identity hasn't been revealed, is accused of forging documents together with a group of other unidentified former shareholders to obtain 25 percent...

... corruption and sexual politics. Satirikon Theater. 7 p.m. Donky Khot: Dmitry Krymov’s whimsical, inventive show based on Cervantes’ “Don Quixote.” School of Dramatic Art. Project Otkrytaya Stsena. 7 p.m. MT Pick K.I. From “Crime” (K.I. iz Prestupleniya): Kama Ginkas’ influential production of the segments of Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” that concern Katerina Ivanovna, the widow of the drunken Marmeladov. Stars Oksana Mysina. Theater...

A former general of Georgia's armed forces was gunned down by motorcycle assailants in Moscow Monday. A former general of Georgia's armed forces was gunned down by motorcycle assailants in Moscow Monday. The two assailants drove alongside former General Roman Dumbadze as he walked along the Rublyovskoe Shosse, and after a brief exchange of words, the assailants shot Dumbadze twice — in the head and the abdomen, RIA-Novosti said, citing law enforcement sources. Dumbadze died at the scene....

A team of high school students are facing charges after breaking into an apartment in northern Moscow armed with guns and demanding gold and money from Tajik migrant workers, according to police. A team of high school students are facing charges after breaking into an apartment in northern Moscow armed with guns and demanding gold and money from Tajik migrant workers, according to police. The incident took place on May 21 around 11 p.m., Newsru reported...

A South African pilot who testified against a former associate, jailed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, was sentenced Wednesday to five years in a federal prison. A South African pilot who testified against a former associate, jailed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, was sentenced Wednesday to five years in a federal prison. Andrew Smulian, 71, was arrested in 2008 in Thailand along with Bout in an undercover sting operation by U.S. agents posing as Colombian guerrillas looking...

... taking a bribe in exchange for extending a shop's lease at Sheremetyevo Airport, police said. The employee, identified only as the company's top manager for lessee relations, was arrested in a sting operation after the Interior Ministry's economics crime department received a tip that the suspect had demanded a bribe of 4 million rubles ($125,000), police said in a statement Friday. A criminal case with charges of large-scale fraud has been opened. The charges carry a maximum punishment of 10 years...

An argument between two fishermen in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk ended in tragedy when a man stabbed his friend after the pair failed to bring in a satisfying haul, police said Thursday. An argument between two fishermen in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk ended in tragedy when a man stabbed his friend after the pair failed to bring in a satisfying haul, police said Thursday. The men, both drunk, began arguing while driving home from the disappointing fishing trip, police representative...

A 24-year-old mother who mistakenly fed poisonous mushrooms to her daughter and her friend's daughter faces five years in jail after the girls died in an Ulyanovsk hospital. A 24-year-old mother who mistakenly fed poisonous mushrooms to her daughter and her friend's daughter faces five years in jail after the girls died in an Ulyanovsk hospital. The unidentified mother handpicked the wild mushrooms in a forest and ate them together with the girls, aged 4 and 10, on Sept...

A 36-year-old woman in a fit of jealous rage kills her common-law husband by smacking him in the head with a frying pan. A 36-year-old woman in a fit of jealous rage killed her common-law husband by smacking him in the head with a frying pan, the Investigative Committee said Friday. But death did not come instantly to the 50-year-old Orenburg resident. The man suffered for more than a month until succumbing to brain injuries on April 24. Though struck on March 17...

Russia took second place for pirated software use, after China. Russia took second place for pirated software use, after China, according to an analysis by Business Software Alliance, Vedomosti reported Tuesday, but overall pirating is down. The cost of the software illegally used worldwide in 2011 reached a record $63.4 billion, the report said. In 2010, that figure was estimated at $58.8 billion. Among developing countries, the highest piracy rate was in China — 77 percent. Its inhabitants...

Founder of the MMM-2011 pyramid scheme Sergei Mavrodi is under investigation for "aiding and abetting illegal business activity," after the Novosibirsk prosecutor's office opened a criminal case in relation to the scheme. Founder of the MMM-2011 pyramid scheme Sergei Mavrodi is under investigation for "aiding and abetting illegal business activity," after the Novosibirsk prosecutor's office opened a criminal case in relation to the...

Police in the Sverdlovsk region have detained three men on suspicion of murdering and robbing a tourist from Moscow. Police in the Sverdlovsk region have detained three men on suspicion of murder and robbery. According to a statement on the website of the region's Investigative Committee, the victim was an engineer from Moscow who made the fatal mistake of asking three intoxicated men for directions. The investigation started after the body of an unidentified male...

Banks are reporting a sharp increase in ATM skimming, a fraud in which perpetrators steal information from bank cards to make fake cards. Banks are reporting a sharp increase in ATM skimming, a fraud in which perpetrators steal information from bank cards to make fake cards. A total of 362 cases of skimming have been registered in the first three months of this year, compared to just 40 cases in the same period last year and 397 cases for all of 2011, Kommersant reported Friday, citing data from...