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

The RFU chief is eyeing several European managers as candidates for the next national team coach.

Every year $250 million is spent on the salaries of foreign athletes who play on Russian teams, said Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sports chief Vyacheslav Fetisov at a State Duma ""Government Hour"" session Wednesday, Interfax reported.

When we visited Moscow earlier this fall, almost everyone we talked to agreed that Russia is becoming steadily less democratic.

There will be a march against fascism in Moscow on Dec. 18, and I'm not sure I am going to go. One of the organizers called to let me know about the march, and my reaction confused me: I found myself wishing there would be no march.

Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan triumphed in Sunday's presidential elections, securing a further seven years in office on top of the 14 he has already served.

Rarely has a local election generated as much interest in political circles as last Sunday's City Duma contest. Muscovites and the local press have traditionally shown even less interest in the makeup of their municipal legislature than the residents of major provincial cities. The process was tightly controlled by the mayor's office, so the names and political affiliations of future deputies were known in advance. Voters in the capital, saturated with big-time politics, paid little attention to local races.

The number of Russian households with high-speed Internet access is doubling every year, turning broadband into the fastest-growing sector in the country's telecoms industry.

Peter Aloisson has been forced to give up a common stereotype about rich Russians. The Austrian craftsman, who makes a living turning cell phones into jewel-encrusted accessories, hardly hides his disappointment that his potential customers in Russia demand more ring than bling.