The summer heat set a new all-time temperature record in Moscow on Thursday, a forecasting center said. It also said the unprecedentedly long heat wave may be interrupted Friday.

Officials in the United States have released the booking photographs of the 10 people arrested and booked as unregistered foreign agents of Russia in this summer's spy ring scandal.

Moscow City Hall has allocated $190 per month for every stray dog housed in its animal shelters in 2010. But a review of documents obtained by The Moscow Times found that stray dogs are part of a lucrative — and extremely murky — business that has helped enrich a relative of at least one senior city official.

An Ingush-born businessman kept 104 people waiting aboard an airplane at Domodedovo Airport on Thursday during a 2 1/2-hour standoff. He was eventually detained by police officers disguised as medics.

The government just approved the sell-off of an estimated $29 billion in state assets. But investors beware, a major investment company warns. Russia’s legal system has made little progress, as illustrated by a case unfolding at Prosperity Capital Management.

The government is counting on foreign investors to help it privatize an estimated $29 billion in assets to reduce the state's "excessive" presence in the economy, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina said.

A campaign to protect the Khimki forest took a dramatic turn when dozens of people stormed the Khimki town administration building, pelting it with smoke grenades and smearing slogans on the walls.

Forest fires appearing in western Russia on Friday killed at least 25 people and forced the evacuation of thousands in the hottest weather since records began 130 years ago. The fires have destroyed the homes of more than 2,000 people.

The dog days of summer went to our language columnist's head, and she decided to offer some dog phrases in Russian. Russian dogs often were left outside to fend for themselves, and that has given life to some colorful expressions.

Channel One just started to air “Lie Detector,” a game show in which contestants try to win 1 million rubles by truthfully answering difficult questions. In the first show, a middle-aged nanny and a 23-year-old businessman gave up information usually revealed only to God.

The 10 “illegals” have returned home to official fanfare. But at least one important question remains: Who ratted them out?

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he has sung Soviet-era patriotic songs with the 10 spies deported from the United States and knows the identities of those who betrayed them.

Muscovites sweltered Monday as the temperature soared to 37.4 degrees Celsius, the hottest day on record, all while being forced to endure the capital's worst smog cloud since 2002.

The summer heat set a new all-time temperature record in Moscow on Thursday, a forecasting center said. It also said the unprecedentedly long heat wave may be interrupted Friday.

People in this town used to stare at Jean Gregoire Sagbo because they had never seen a black man, but now they see in him something equally rare — an honest politician.

Moscow weather broke the record for July temperatures by reaching 36.6 degrees Celsius, just two decimal points short of the all-time record, forecasters said.

The average bribe has nearly doubled from 23,000 rubles ($760) last year to 40,000 rubles ($1,320) in the first six months of 2010, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday.

A growth in demand for rental apartments from corporate clients in the second quarter means that foreigners are returning to Moscow, realtors said.

The worst smog to hit Moscow in almost a decade has sent pollution soaring 10 times above safe levels, an air monitoring service said Wednesday.

Prosecutors opened a criminal case against a Scientology center in the town of Shchyolkovo, just outside of Moscow, on charges of inciting hatred, punishable with up to five years in prison.

A 4-year-old boy sickened with pneumonia died in the Primorye region after an exorcism by a Korean shaman, news reports said Wednesday. Investigators didn't immediately know what killed the child, with police saying pneumonia may have been to blame.

Investigators have failed to find the donkey that parasailed over the Sea of Azov for 30 terrifying minutes last week, RIA-Novosti reported Wednesday.

Sports today are highly competitive, with huge amounts of money at stake, and honesty seems to be a second-class consideration. Manuel Neuer's fraud during the World Cup elimination match between England and Germany is just one example of “win at all costs.”

The government is hoping to launch the first version of a "national operating system" for its computers as early as next year, a senior Communications and Press Ministry official said Thursday.

The 10 “illegals” have returned home to official fanfare. But at least one important question remains: Who ratted them out?

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he has sung Soviet-era patriotic songs with the 10 spies deported from the United States and knows the identities of those who betrayed them.

Contractors must now prove that any Russian pornography used in fulfilling U.S. government orders was made without children. That's the bizarre message that the U.S. administration sent out this week when its Labor Department put Russian pornography on a product blacklist.

At the “Khodorkovsky Reading” last week, economists discussed the Yukos affair's effect over the past seven years on public institutions. It has not been a good one.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reprimanded Aeroflot on Saturday for not purchasing enough Russian-made planes, telling the state-run carrier's CEO that growing profits and dividends were not its only concern.

A small bridge drew enormous attention Thursday when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stepped in to resolve a traffic deadlock that has paralyzed the main highway northwest of Moscow.