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

I found Olga Romanova's comment insightful and refreshing. In my opinion, President Vladimir Putin is well aware that in Russia it's more important to appear strong, charismatic and determined than to have a clear and long-term agenda.

The seemingly interminable six-party talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees and foreign aid are veering dangerously close to absurdity.

Francois Mitterand, when he was a left-wing opposition deputy, once described the French Constitution as a permanent coup d'etat.

Something is very wrong when you read the results of an opinion poll and think, they should have kept this quiet. That is the reaction I found myself having when I read that 28 percent of the people in Moscow's Universitetsky District surveyed by the independent Levada Center were ready to vote for Mikhail Khodorkovsky in the upcoming by-election to fill their district's State Duma seat.

Figure skaters Irina Slutskaya and Evgeny Plushenko will take part in an exhibition on Sept. 24 in the arena that will be used for the upcoming 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.

CSKA Moscow was the first Russian club to win the UEFA Cup. Now it's aiming to become the first team since Real Madrid in 1986 to successfully defend it.

In Nikolai Gogol's comedy ""The Inspector General,"" an impecunious traveler staying in a provincial inn is mistaken for an important government official who has come to check up on the townspeople.

The city is drawing new parents with financial aid and a media blitz.