Russia, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are home to the wealthiest expats, with euro-zone countries falling behind when it comes to paying for foreign expertise, according to a survey of expats released Wednesday.

The opposition's attempts to stage rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg got an unexpected boost when Russian emigrants took to streets in London, Berlin, New York and Tel Aviv to express solidarity.

Russia's hybrid regime, which combines elements of authoritarianism and electoral democracy, makes the nation an unattractive potential partner for global alliances. To improve relations, Russia must modernize and adopt a more predictable political system.

Aeroflot has filed a lawsuit against the Moscow city government, seeking compensation for losses caused by a days-long traffic jam on a highway leading to Sheremetyevo Airport, court documents showed Wednesday.

Police have opened a software piracy investigation into the Russian branch of LG Electronics, in the first anti-piracy case against a major foreign company. The investigation could carry serious implications if expanded beyond the South Korean firm.

A pregnant mother of four who was charged with embezzlement has become a cause celebre after a court sentenced her to three years. Champions for her cause include former Yukos lawyer Svetlana Bakhmina and children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhov.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair describes his discomfort at receiving a long bearhug from an "unpredictable" President Boris Yeltsin in a new book.

When President Dmitry Medvedev arrives in Azerbaijan Thursday for a two-day visit in yet another bid to strengthen the Kremlin’s influence in the South Caucasus, he will face all the unsolved problems that have troubled the region since the Soviet breakup.

German federal prosecutors have charged a 54-year-old Austrian man on suspicion of spying for Russia to obtain sensitive material on helicopter technology.

Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft-drink maker, said Wednesday that it had acquired one of Russia's biggest juice producers, Nidan Soki, as part of its plans to expand in the fast-growing market.

President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered a halt to the construction of a highway through the Khimki forest, marking a rare victory for a grassroots effort that the authorities tried to squash but that still swelled into a movement, even attracting an appeal by U2's Bono.

Putin's macho trip to the Far East, where he has shot gray whales, studied mammoth bones and palled around with brown bears, has left government watchers speculating why the prime minister has chosen this moment to burnish his image.

Glamorous secret agent Anna Chapman has posed provocatively for a Russian magazine shoot in her first public appearance since she was deported from the United States in a major spy swap.

Police detained dozens of protesters attempting to rally late Tuesday at the closed Triumfalnaya Ploshchad in central Moscow, including rally leaders, but did not exert additional force despite a warning from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that the protesters deserved to be beaten.

Every night, TNT airs a show called “Sex With Anfisa Chekhova,” whose curvaceous host promises that she knows “everything about sex.” That's debatable, especially since reporters found out that the show in fact is discontinued.

Rather than global warming, it may have been a combination of jet streams, blocking effects and solar activity that caused this summer's drought, the director of an economic think tank suggests.

A university lecturer is suggesting in a new book that Moscow drivers take cues from the Japanese to unsnarl the city's traffic. But Moscow traffic the night of the book's presentation to city officials showed how difficult that may prove.

Moscow’s horrendous daily traffic jams and this summer’s wildfires have something in common: The roots of both of these problems can be found in the government’s gross incompetence, Yulia Latynina says.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin got behind the wheel of a Glonass-equipped Lada Kalina to test the new Amur highway over the weekend, but he complained that the quality of the “historic” road was unsatisfactory and that gas prices were too high.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin dipped a careful toe into the high-stakes battle for control of Russia's largest miner on Tuesday, telling Norilsk Nickel's warring shareholders that it paid unusually high dividends last year.

A suffocating smog from wildfires hung over Moscow, raising the concentration of dangerous pollutants to a new high as exasperated residents donned face masks. The thick haze engulfed Moscow for a second straight Saturday.

Firefighters battling intense blazes across Russia got a welcome boost when aircraft, firetrucks and personnel arrived from Italy and five former Soviet republics. France, Germany, Poland and Bulgaria also offered help.

The country's top doctor implored foreigners not to be scared off by intense smog that has blanketed Moscow for the past three days, even as embassies evacuated staff and at least one closed altogether.

Moscow residents choked on a thick, gray smog that seeped into apartments, offices and even underground metro stations Wednesday as wildfires burned. Meanwhile, President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed five senior military officials.

Forty minutes. Just five minutes less than halftime in a football match and about the length of a TV show. It was enough time for a village of 341 houses to burn to the ground in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took the pilot's seat in the government's fight against wildfires Tuesday, hopping on a firefighting plane to put out two blazes in the Ryazan region.

Russia looked ready to exchange one natural disaster for another as cold winds swept across the country's northwest on Monday and weather forecasters said hurricane-like gales might replace wildfires and drought.

Taking a new tact in fighting wildfires, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin granted a fire bell to a blogger who accused the government of incompetence. But the story resembled a publicity stunt aimed at younger voters, an analyst said.

The authorities conceded Tuesday that wildfires were burning out of control as another 47,000 hectares went up in flames and fires ravaged a military base, threatened a nuclear research center and left hundreds of people homeless.