An established arms-producing plant fired four employees — including its deputy director for safety — after a stockpile of Kalashnikov rifles was mistakenly sold to a pensioner for $15 last month. An established arms-producing plant fired four employees —...

President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday fired Volgograd's unpopular governor just two years after he appointed him to the post, marking the third time he has dismissed a governor after last month's State Duma elections. President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday fired Volgograd’s...

Arkhangelsk Governor Ilya Mikhalchuk was dismissed by President Dmitry Medvedev, becoming the second governor to lose a job after United Russia posted poor results in region in State Duma elections. Arkhangelsk Governor Ilya Mikhalchuk was dismissed on Friday by President Dmitry Medvedev, becoming the second governor to lose his job after United Russia posted poor results in the regions in last month's State Duma elections. In a statement, the Kremlin said Mikhalchuk resigned on "his own...

The editorial offices of Perm region weekly newspaper Vecherny Krasnokamsk were badly damaged over the weekend in an arson attack. The editorial offices of Perm region weekly newspaper Vecherny Krasnokamsk were badly damaged over the weekend in an arson attack, police said. Closed circuit cameras show an unidentified assailant breaking a window of the paper's offices at around 4 a.m. Saturday and throwing a firebomb into the newsroom, destroying equipment and files, Interfax...

Bryansk Governor Nikolai Denin sacked the regional utilities chief Alexei Tolstykh on Thursday over last week's fatal accident involving a 1 1/2-year-old child in a sewage tank. Bryansk Governor Nikolai Denin sacked the regional utilities chief Alexei Tolstykh on Thursday over last week's fatal accident involving a 1 1/2-year-old child in a sewage tank, RIA-Novosti reported . Three other officials, including Bryansk Deputy Mayor Vladimir Voronin, have previously resigned of...

Gas canisters were to blame for the deadly fire in a Moscow restaurant that killed two and injured dozens on Monday afternoon. Gas canisters were to blame for the deadly fire in a Moscow restaurant that killed two and injured dozens on Monday afternoon, the Emergency Situations...

Kazakh opposition leaders set fire to copies of voting results on Tuesday in a public repudiation of weekend elections that reinforced President Nursultan Nazarbayev's grip on power only a month after deadly clashes in a mutinous oil town. ALMATY — Kazakh opposition leaders...

Dozens of animals suffocate when an electrical fire fills a pet store with smoke. Dozens of animals suffocated when an electrical fire filled a pet store with smoke on Sunday afternoon in the west Siberian city of Novokuznetsk. Firefighters were alerted at 3:38 p.m. as thick, black clouds billowed...

Officials say a gas explosion and fire at a Moscow restaurant on Monday killed two people and injured at least 26. The explosion occurred Monday afternoon in the kitchen of Italian restaurant Il Pittore. A fire spread quickly through the three-story building. Emergencies services official...

Police have filed a new criminal case against the award-winning Voina art group for setting fire to an armored police truck on New Year's Eve. ST. PETERSBURG — police have filed a new criminal case against the award-winning Voina art group for setting fire to an armored police truck on New Year's Eve. Late on Dec. 31, a Voina...

... oil tanks to fly off the cars. Side frames of freight cars on a train carrying oil through the Amur region in the Russian Far East broke Tuesday morning, causing 17 oil tanks to fly off the cars, RIA-Novosti reported. Thirteen of the tanks caught fire and spread oil over an area of 600 square meters, Interfax reported. The fire was extinguished Tuesday morning. No deaths or injuries were reported. This was the fourth time in the past week that side frames of freight cars have broken off on Russian...

... major supplier of oil and gas, and the country also is key to the northern delivery route for supplies to the U.S.-led military operation in Afghanistan. It has strenuously attempted to project itself as a rapidly modernizing country but has come under fire for its lack of political reforms. "Kazakhstan, as a former chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, must live up to its promise to the international community that it will advance democracy and human rights,"...

... "Ntvshniki" talk show — frequently featured opposition voices and independent reaction to recent political events. Kartozia is the second senior NTV employee to leave the company this year. Earlier this month, host Pavel Lobkov was fired. Lobkov, a veteran of the station said earlier that his departure came after NTV management expressed displeasure at his decision to speak at post-election opposition rallies and give interviews to "rival channels." It is unclear if Kartozia's...

... "consultation with the president" essentially means "with the president's approval." In this way, the Kremlin very much retains the "filter" that it claims it had removed. In addition, the bill allows the president to fire a governor who was elected by the people if the president has "lost confidence" in him based on just allegations of corruption or a conflict of interest. No court decision is required. Thus, the mere threat of being accused of corruption...

... clashed with protesters in the town on Independence Day last month. 
 The Constitutional Council had ruled on Friday that the vote should not take place in Zhanaozen due to an extended state of emergency in the town, where a months-long strike by fired oil workers erupted into Kazakhstan's worst violence in decades. "The president of Kazakhstan took into account the disquiet and concern of Zhanaozen's residents at the fact their electoral rights were limited by the Constitutional Council's...

... Party of Kazakhstan 7.2 percent. Turnout among the country's 9.3 million registered voters was 75 percent, the Central Elections Commission said. 
Nazarbayev, 71, hailed his party's victory as a sign of national unity one month after protests by fired oil workers in the western town of Zhanaozen erupted into clashes that killed at least 16 people on Kazakhstan's Independence Day. 
 "Someone or other wanted to turn this to their advantage, to use the Zhanaozen events for political gain...

... Five militants were killed and two wounded in the ensuing firefight, the ministry said. A battalion of Interior Ministry troops patrolling with local police late Sunday tripped mines set by the militants, the ministry said. The two sides then exchanged fire, but as darkness fell the surviving militants were able to slip away. (AP)

... deputy police head who coordinated the action in Zhanaozen is being sued for dereliction of duty, while three other senior officers will stand trial for abuse of power, the Kazakh Prosecutor General's Office said. A seven-month labor dispute between fired oilmen and their employers erupted into fierce clashes with police in the western oil city of Zhanaozen on Dec. 16. Officially, 16 people were killed that day and another person died in clashes in a nearby village the following day. (Reuters)

... month went viral online, prompting Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to promise stricter security at such facilities. Sator was paid to break into the factory and take photographs of it by the facility's former management as a response to their being fired, an unnamed source told Izvestia. Sator's LiveJournal blog, devoted largely to photography, is titled "Abandoned factories, incomplete buildings, military installations, abandoned machinery, industrial sites". 179742

... had foiled his escape attempt. A Chelyabinsk entrepreneur killed a lawyer and her husband, a prosecutor, and injured another man before shooting himself dead after police had foiled his escape attempt, media reported Wednesday. Alexander Bak, 48, fired a Makarov handgun at Oleg and Irina Ukhins, attacking them after they dropped off their 3-year-old son at a kindergarten, Interfax said. Bak then headed to his sister's apartment building, shooting and injuring her unidentified husband in the lobby...