An adviser to Dmitry Medvedev said the outgoing Russian president should abandon plans to become prime minister and make way for the man he fired last year as finance minister.

Most of Russia's top 30 lenders don't have sufficient capital to support expected lending growth this year because of their "high risk appetites" and lack of diversification.

One of the hottest topics of 2012 will likely be the legislative changes that await us in the new year, with many hoping that such changes will bring solutions for at least some of the "sore spots" in employer-employee relations.

Labor migration in Russia has been developing particularly actively recently. According to data by the Federal Migration Service, 7 million foreign citizens entered Russia in the first half of 2011, which is a 10 percent increase year on year.

As is well known, ignorance of one's legal responsibilities, be it either foreign employees or the organization that employs them, does not absolve them from their legal responsibility and often leads to serious consequences.

The Russian Labor Code prescribes that employers having more than 50 employees should have a position of the labor safety specialist or labor safety department in its staff schedule, the government regulations require that a special person shall be responsible for maintenance of labor books, etc.

Russia's armed forces would be within their full rights to use nuclear weapons if any threats to the integrity of the country arise, Russian General Staff head Nikolay Makarov said Wednesday.

Katya moved to Moscow seven years ago and three years later — when she was pregnant with her first child — discovered she was HIV-positive.

Monaco-based potash tycoon Dmitry Rybolovlyev has bought the priciest piece of residential real estate in New York City, paying $88 million for a Manhattan penthouse.

While the Russian authorities are, for the time being, using kid gloves to deal with the opposition at home, they have not shown the same constraint in South Ossetia.

"I'm probably not going to move back for a couple of decades," said Yekaterina Paramonova, a third-year undergraduate majoring in nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, echoing the sentiment of many Russians who have tasted life outside the motherland.

"Let's look at the history of human development," he begins. "Somebody always has to be first. That person says, 'We need to develop in this way,' and nobody believes him; they're suspicious of him. Nobody believed Steve Jobs or Bill Gates at first."

The campaign rhetoric in Russia's presidential election has grown increasingly harsh. This happens in many countries, but the difference with Russia is that "external factors" play a disproportionately greater role in the political process. In most other countries, voters evaluate candidates based on their domestic policies or track records, especially with regard to the economy.

Nikita Mikhalkov, film director and official backer of presidential candidate Vladimir Putin, admitted during a debate that he would vote for his opponent Irina Prokhorova, sister of billionaire presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov, if she were on the ballot.

An HSBC investment report released Friday made a glowing case for Russian equities, ridiculed concerns about political risk ahead of the March 4 election and said macroeconomic support was flowing Moscow's way.

A slew of Moscow real estate players unveiled a reconstructed Moskva Hotel on Tuesday, relaunching the premier Soviet hotel as a commercial center with 70 shops, a department store, underground parking and a hotel.

In a city that was once the cradle of Russian democracy, an unprecedented new campaign kicked off over the weekend to install web cameras in every polling station around the country in an effort to prevent voting fraud.

Pussy Riot, a feminist punk collective from Moscow, creates protest through its dissident songs and unsanctioned performances, including a brief unauthorized concert in late January on Red Square.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin unveiled his plan on social policy Monday, focusing on how Russia will boost its dwindling population amid a demographic crisis that threatens to turn the country into "void space."

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin got very angry last Wednesday when he met with the editors-in-chief of Russia's top media outlets.

In Tuesday's second presidential debate of the campaign season, firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky harangued Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's levelheaded proxy over her patron's refusal to debate and alleged desire to rule for life.

A prominent French writer and journalist has been kicked out of the country on the grounds that she did not have the right to research a book while on a business visa.

Demographics make it a candidate’s market, but foreigners have to offer something unique to find their place.

A schmaltzy music video hailing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as Russia's savior became a hit on the Russian Internet on Tuesday, with many bloggers and YouTube users poking fun at the song's hyperbolic lyrics.

The history of successive authoritarian regimes in Russia reveals a recurring pattern: They do not die from external blows or domestic insurgencies.

Putin has always been the ultimate "Teflon president" — but certainly not in the Ronald Reagan sense of the word. Putin's brand of Teflon is clearly made in Russia. Because he wants to avoid uncomfortable questions about his decade-long rule, Putin is once again refusing to participate in presidential debates.