At the end of the 1991 coup attempt the crowd needed some relief. They found it in Felix Dzerzhinsky.

In August 1943, Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko was collected by the NKVD secret police and taken to Lyubanka, where he was charged with ""anti-Soviet agitation"" and sent to the gulag.

German prosecutors say they have the evidence to charge a former Russian citizen with money laundering.

Only a month ago the media praised President Vladimir Putin and his policy of openness with the media.

Many former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact countries do not like the idea of Russian influence.

Last week Russian housewives had the opportunity to watch a home-grown version of ""Santa Barbara.""

Despite the tumult Russia has suffered in the past decade, Inessa Krichevskaya still believes her son did not die in vain 10 years ago, when he was facing down the coup.

In the first hours of the 1991 coup Yeltsin set up a shadow government and sent it out to the Urals.

If some politicians in the city of Volgograd have their way, the city may be called Stalingrad again.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has resumed ruling one of the world's most tightly controlled regimes.

Budanov in Moscow MOSCOW (MT) — Colonel Yury Budanov, who is being tried for abducting and killing a Chechen woman in March last year, has arrived in Moscow to undergo psychiatric tests at the Serbsky Institute of Forensic Medicine. If the tests, ordered by a Rostov-on-Don military court, show that the tank regiment commander had temporarily lost control of himself when he killed Elza Kungayeva, 18, it could mean that any sentence the colonel receives will be reduced. The evaluation is expected to take about a month, press reports said. Budanov has admitted killing Kungayeva, but his version of events has varied. Coal ‘Self-Ignited’ DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — The number of deaths in the Zasiadko mine explosion reached 37 when a worker died overnight, the Ukrainian Emergency Situations Ministry said Tuesday.

The government expects to be able to tackle urgent issues and pave the way for future growth next year.

An Economic Development and Trade Ministry plan to raise tariffs next year is still under discussion.

Norilsk Nickel said at least 95 percent of its stock had been swapped for shares in its core unit.

Bureaucracy Reform MOSCOW (MT) — President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a decree forming a commission on the reform of the public service sector. The commission, to be headed by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, is to deal with questions regarding the appointment, payment and promotion of state officials. According to Izvestia newspaper, the main goal of the reforms is to make career advancement of state workers more stable and predictable. Presidential administration deputy head Dmitry Medvedev is to be responsible for preparing the legislative changes needed to carry out the reforms. The reforms are long overdue, according to the Troika Dialog brokerage, since the Russian government is top-heavy with people who have been promoted out of longevity rather than competence. Furthermore, reform of the bureaucracy will further aid the reform progress, Renaissance Capital said.

Russian Anastasia Myskina pulled off a shock victory over Amanda Coetzer at the Pilot Pen Tennis event.

WASHINGTON — A program conceived by the Clinton administration to rid the world of 100 tons of U.S. and Russian weapons-grade plutonium is likely to be abandoned by the Bush administration, according to people who have been briefed about the project. Under the plan, which was first proposed in the mid-'90s, 50 tons of U.S. plutonium and 50 tons of Russian plutonium would be taken out of nuclear weapons and either converted into fuel for nuclear reactors or rendered useless for weapons by mixing it with highly radioactive nuclear waste, a process known as immobilization. When the plan was drafted, officials in former U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration said the program would reduce the risk that the plutonium would fall into the wrong hands, where it could easily be turned into weapons.

A brief look at the stories making headlines in the Russian-language press