A day after the first violent clashes between police and demonstrators since rallies began in December, central Moscow on Monday became the focal point of a game of cat-and-mouse as protesters gathered in flash mobs across boulevards and down side streets to show their force and anger. Video of police on Monday raiding the cafe Jean-Jacques, a hangout for liberals and journalists on Nikitsky Bulvar. A day after the first violent clashes between police and demonstrators since rallies began in December...

... Joan of Arc at the stake through the prism of the 20th century. Check out Zhenya Berkovich’s new production on Thursday at the New Stage at the Moscow Art Theater. At 7 p.m. Thursday, May 24th New A Dusty Day (Pylny Den): Sasha Denisova directs her play subtitled “Six Morons in Search of Icy Freshness.” Playwright and Director Center. 8 p.m. New Aksyonov, Dovlatov, Duo (Aksyonov, Dovlatov, Dvoye): Mikhail Levitin’s stage composition based on two short stories — Vasily Aksyonov’s...

... Youth Theater June 10 at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 31st New Anna Karenina: Anzhelika Kholina stages a choreographic composition. Vakhtangov Theater. 7 p.m. New Cloture de l’Amour (Closing of Love, Predel Lyubvi): Pascal Rambert stages his new play with Yevgenia Dobrovolskaya and Andrei Kuzichev. Chekhov Moscow Art Theater New Stage. 7 p.m. Divorce Masculine-Style (Razvod po Muzhski): Sergei Artsibashev and Sergei Poselsky stage a play by Neil Simon. Mayakovsky Theater. 7 p.m. Family Happiness...

... up to authority and following the dictates of one's conscience? What price does an individual pay for standing up to authority and following the dictates of one's conscience? That is an eternal problem, of course. In writing his play "The Lark" Jean Anouilh took an incident from the 15th century — the burning of Joan of Arc at the stake — and applied it to the post-World War II era in the early 1950s. Still, it would be difficult to imagine a timelier question...

We don't know yet what Vadim Levanov will be best remembered for. It has been only six months since his death in December at the age of 44. Levanov wrote more than two dozen plays, many of which have not been staged. This is certain, however: His "Ksenia of St. Petersburg" already made its mark. We don't know yet what Vadim Levanov will be best remembered for. It has been only six months since...

... alien abductee. The World Championship match features the reigning titleholder, India's Viswanathan Anand, against Boris Gelfand, the Minsk-born grandmaster who emigrated to Israel in the 1990s. They belong to the old guard of modern chess, having played each other for the first time in 1989. Anand is characterized as the "tiger from Madras," Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the head of the International Chess Federation, or FIDE, told The Moscow Times. He described Gelfand as a "seasoned cognac...

... corridor down the middle. From time to time a cubicle jutting into the first rows of seats allows actors close access to the spectators. On this stage Pirogov is almost always the center of attention as Sergei Maksudov, the seemingly hapless author of a play that is to be staged at a major Moscow theater. Bulgakov wrote his novel after suffering what he perceived to be horrible indignities at the hands of the famed Konstantin Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theater in the 1920s. In his roman a clef Bulgakov...

... heard playwright Maksym Kurochkin make a fascinating observation. He was in Austin, Texas, attending a festival of new Russian drama. At the time I was listening in on Skype. Kurochkin talked about the "important" but "now unreadable plays" of the late 1980s; works, in his estimation, that had little lasting value but were significant in their response to, and influence on, current events. He declared that his impulse in writing is always to create a work of lasting merit but...

... Holinshed published his historic chronicles in which Shakespeare discovered the story of one of Scotland's kings — Macbeth. Three hundred years later Karamzin was to write his History of the Russian State, from which Pushkin borrowed the plot for his play in the Shakespearean spirit, Boris Godunov. And yet again dim and distant history was re-evaluated as a universal drama. Existentialist searches of the 19th century engendered a swamp of nihilistic works that depicted the human life cycle as one...

Orchestral numbers and military marches by composers Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Mikhail Glinka will be played during Vladimir Putin’s presidential inauguration ceremony Monday in the Kremlin, while the refreshments will include 5,000 bottles of sparkling wine produced by Russian winemaker Abrau-Dyurso. Orchestral numbers and military...

European Union foreign ministers debated Monday whether to boycott this year's European football championship matches played in Ukraine to protest alleged abuse of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko. BRUSSELS — European Union foreign ministers debated Monday whether to boycott this year’s European football championship matches played...

... top of Europe. Tottenham, Arsenal — are you watching? There were times in the Champions League final when Abramovich may have wished that he had bought another superyacht instead. At least it would have been prettier than a lot of the football played by his expensive team. But there's no law against playing ugly football. Chelsea didn't travel to Munich to dazzle as Barcelona and Real Madrid surely would have, had those Spanish clubs not foundered in the semifinals. No, Chelsea came to right...

... time's the charm after a visit from the head of the International Chess Federation and alien-spotter Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. The former leader of the Kalmykia republic famously dropped by Saddam Hussein's Baghdad on the eve of the U.S. invasion in 2003, and played a game of chess with Moammar Gadhafi as NATO bombs rained down on war-ravaged Libya last year. Both of the authoritarian Arab rulers were subsequently killed. Ilyumzhinov spent three hours in talks with Assad in late April after flying in from...

... writer who hasn't seen her pianist mother in seven years; he is a quiet, supportive husband. It seems to promise a snoozy tale about family relations. You couldn't be more wrong to fall for that. Polovtseva provides the first hint that she is not playing by the usual theatrical rules during the entrance of Eva's mother Charlotte, played by the Sovremennik's leading lady Marina Neyolova. As Neyolova comes closer and closer to making her appearance — the coming event is telegraphed in...

... needed. If Putin was seen as getting too close to Obama at Camp David, it would have been a blow to his tough-guy image as someone who stands up to the United States. Video images of a smiling Obama patting an uncomfortable Putin on the back wouldn't play well in Nizhny Tagil and hundreds of other blue-collar cities. In addition, at a time when the protest movement is gaining momentum in Moscow and other cities, Putin could ill afford to be seen schmoozing with Obama — whose administration,...

... inspiration," said the event's curator Anna Nistratova. The day's activities will embrace many cliches related to Amsterdam, according to Nistratova. "Holland makes people think of tulips, the color orange, art and so on. We wanted to have fun playing with these cliches." The entertainment will be divided into several zones, each with its own theme and appeal. The central square will host a food court, musicians and flower stalls. In the entertainment zone, named oddly after Swedish tennis...

... spectators to turn off their cell phones just before curtain time. He virtually chanted the words – "no photos, no recordings, please turn off your cell phones" – as though it were a mantra. His voice hung just below a shout. He played on all the rhythms that the structure of the Russian words would allow. This was not an announcement, it was a performance. And it ended, as all good performances do, with a flourish. He slammed home his message with a forceful, staccato, almost...

... poet-philosopher Abai Qunanbayuli, a group of newcomers — a much older bunch than those who have occupied the area for the past few days — gathered in a circle singing a mix of Soviet songs, from war ballads to childhood classics. One man played a mouth piano and another accompanied on a harmonica, a direct contrast to the camp’s usual mix of young people playing Kino rock songs on an acoustic guitar. There still appeared to be no consensus on the purpose of the camp at Chistiye...

... jubilant tone foresaw the country turning a confident, smiling face to the world in the monthlong Euro 2012 football tournament that it will co-host with Poland, its cheerleader in Europe. That was in December 2009. Now, with the first games to be played on June 9, Tymoshenko lies in prison on hunger strike, nursing bruises after what she said was a beating by prison guards. Images of her show her trademark peasant braids lying in a forlorn tress across her shoulder. Western leaders, some of whose...

... situation on the Russian real estate market, it might be "All Quiet on the Eastern Front." After the celebration earlier this year of record-breaking 2011 investment results, the drop-off predicted months ago is playing out, with deals down across the board. Alec Luhn If one phrase could describe the current situation on the Russian real estate market, it might be "All Quiet on the Eastern Front." After the celebration earlier this year of record-breaking...