11/20/2000

When Spanish police announced the arrest of about 80 reputed mobsters across Europe last week, many media reports trumpeted the development as the latest crackdown on the Russian mafia.

About 20,000 protesters called for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to resign at dozens of rallies over the weekend. Opposition groups had hoped for a larger turnout that would increase pressure on the government.

A private U.S. institute has awarded $1 million to a low-profile Russian mathematician who rejected the world's highest honor in the field in 2006.

A Moscow police colonel was detained after he fired two shots from an air gun, injuring two people, amid an argument with a male passenger who refused to give up his seat on the metro to an elderly woman.

The rising importance of China in Ukraine will have a direct impact on Moscow’s geopolitical position in the former Soviet republics.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin demanded that the U.S. administration lower hurdles to Russian investment and offered U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a list of trade complaints during a meeting Friday.

Georgia's rugby team stood holding candles before a priest Saturday to receive words of encouragement all too similar to those issued during the country's short 2008 war — beat Russia.

President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will continue ruling Russia in a tandem after 2012, when Medvedev's first presidential term expires, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said Friday.

Shale gas, which has transformed the U.S. market, could soon be flowing in Europe, shifting the balance of power in the continent's energy relationship with key supplier Russia.

The Russian Orthodox Church made a request to the government that it lower gas prices for Ukrainian chemical companies, saying it was a "sensible initiative" to assist the companies, which help the Ukrainian church.

Many believe that Moscow should have copied China’s reforms. But what made China’s reforms a success was inapplicable to Russia.

Foreign-based Internet shopping sites are drawing increasing numbers of Russian consumers looking for deals, but as delays mount at the country's notoriously inefficient postal service, many are finding that securing delivery of their items is no simple task.

Extortion by corrupt officials in Russia has gotten so bad that some Western multinationals are considering pulling out altogether, the head of a U.S. anti-bribery group said in an interview.

Some construction workers complain that they are going hungry after pawning their documents and valuables to get food at grocery stores, while sympathetic locals have organized a soup kitchen.

In a rare interview, the editor of Russia Today explains that the growing channel thrives on controversy as its provides an alternative to mainstream media, and polishing Moscow's reputation is not one of its tasks.

The "black box" from a LUKoil executive's Mercedes involved in a fatal crash last month will be sent to Germany for analysis, a source close to the carmaker's Russian office said.

Russian Newsweek editor Mikhail Fishman and opposition politician Ilya Yashin cried foul Thursday after a video surfaced on YouTube that seemingly shows them giving bribes to traffic police officers.

Traffic police and prostitutes have a lot in common. Both stand by the side of the road and try to get what they can from passing motorists.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin won support for Rosatom to build a dozen ultrasafe nuclear reactors in India, part of more than $10 billion in deals in energy, arms, telecoms and other cooperation signed during his visit Friday.

President Dmitry Medvedev warned federal and regional officials on Tuesday that they could find themselves out on the street for not fulfilling his orders in a timely manner, in his latest initiative to raise his profile as the country's top politician.

Many believe that Moscow should have copied China’s reforms. But what made China’s reforms a success was inapplicable to Russia.

Bloggers are seething over what they interpret as insensitive comments made by the company after one of its vice presidents, Anatoly Barkov, was involved in a car crash that killed two people. Some have called for a boycott of LUKoil gas stations and a popular rapper has written a song declaring that Barkov will go to hell.

The case promises to reignite Russian anger over U.S. adoptions, a delicate issue in U.S.-Russian relations in recent years, and could tangle efforts by U.S. President Barack Obama to "reset" ties that deteriorated under the previous administration.

Moscow has a right to protect its own security, but it does not have the right to interfere in the affairs of its neighbors.

The Kremlin is clearly not content with its diminished power status. But one way it can still project its power globally is to be the spoiler.

Foreign-based Internet shopping sites are drawing increasing numbers of Russian consumers looking for deals, but as delays mount at the country's notoriously inefficient postal service, many are finding that securing delivery of their items is no simple task.

Putin’s Olympics will put on display the system he has built, which is why I have so many doubts about the outcome.

The financial collapse in Greece and Spain has compelled the authorities to adopt unpopular measures — measures that Moscow officials refuse to even discuss.

A recent report in Versiya claims that up to 300,000 members of Russian criminal organizations have succeeded in pushing aside local groups and establishing their own “spheres of influence” throughout the world, from Australia to Mexico.

Extortion by corrupt officials in Russia has gotten so bad that some Western multinationals are considering pulling out altogether, the head of a U.S. anti-bribery group said in an interview.