CHITA, Russia — A Russian man who was tortured by police in 2009 has been awarded the equivalent of $12,500 in compensation by a court in the eastern city of Chita, RFE/RL’s Russian Service reports. Last summer, three local policemen were found guilty of torturing Vitaly Rubtsov in 2009. Investigators said in court that police [...]
Archives: 05 May 2011
May 5, 2011
May 5, 2011
Bin Laden’s Demise Weakens Militants, Ingush Leader Says
The killing of Osama bin Laden will dent the Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus, Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov said. “[His] elimination … will significantly reduce international terrorist activities in Russia and in particular, the North Caucasus,” said Yevkurov, who had survived an assassination attempt by a suicide bomber in 2009. Web sites loyal to the insurgency have reported on bin Laden’s death but not yet discussed [...]
May 5, 2011
Russia Supports Palestinian Reconciliation
Palestinians celebrating the reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas in the West Bank city of Nablus. Russia has welcomed the reconciliation between the two main Palestinian factions, saying a unified administration of the West Bank and Gaza Strip will help promote a peace settlement with Israel. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who also heads the secular Fatah faction, and Khalid Mashaal, leader of the [...]
May 5, 2011
Army Starts Drafting Full-Time Students
The Defense Ministry has dealt academia a new blow by starting to enlist full-time postgraduate students who were previously exempt from mandatory military service, Gazeta.ru reported Thursday. The odd situation was enabled by recent changes to educational legislation that now require colleges to get accredited to teach postgraduates but do not spell out procedures for obtaining the accreditation, the report said. The bureaucratic confusion, which Gazeta.ru said was the fault [...]
May 5, 2011
City Seeks Targeted Investments
Moscow is looking to tap Western health care companies to build diagnostic centers, the city government’s chief for foreign investment said Wednesday. “Few people trust domestic diagnostics,” Sergei Cheryomin said at a meeting with predominantly foreign press. “Those who have money travel abroad.” The problem is acute in Moscow despite its plethora of state and private clinics, he said. The city will also support foreign [...]
May 5, 2011
Survey Says Russia Most Pious Nation in Europe
Former first lady Lyudmila Putina, center, and first lady Svetlana Medvedeva leaving an Easter service in the Christ the Savior Cathedral on April 24. Russians are the most pious nation in Europe, most atheists are male, and Orthodox Christians outnumber Muslims overwhelmingly, according to two recent polls. The surveys, however, also indicate that the country’s leading religious denomination, the Russian Orthodox Church, [...]
May 5, 2011
Court Backs Arrest of Magnitsky Colleague
In an escalation of a legal battle between Hermitage Capital and the Interior Ministry, a Moscow court on Wednesday ordered the arrest of one of the firm’s partners, and the case’s investigator said Hermitage founder Bill Browder was on an international wanted list. The Tverskoi District Court sanctioned the arrest of Ivan Cherkasov, a longtime partner at the investment fund based in London since 2006, on charges of tax fraud worth 2 [...]
May 5, 2011
May 5, 2011
Beatings, Torching in Newest Khimki Forest Scuffle
A new skirmish over efforts to clear part of the Moscow region’s Khimki forest for a new highway saw two environmental activists beaten and an expensive forest harvester torched Wednesday — all with little apparent reaction from police. Activists said they were able to stop the deforestation, which they called illegal, but the company clearing the trees denied the accusations, saying it had all necessary clearance [...]
May 5, 2011
Putin Picks 30 Caucasus Projects Worth $5Bln
The government has selected 30 investment projects worth 145 billion rubles ($5.3 billion) in agriculture, tourism and information technology as part of an ambitious program to develop the North Caucasus through 2025, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday. A total of 50 billion rubles in state guarantees will be provided this year to support the investment projects in the restive region, Putin said at a government meeting [...]
May 5, 2011
Putting Dog Owners on a Leash After a Brutal Attack
With a series of dog attacks making the headlines in recent months, the State Duma approved a bill in a first reading in March that would require dogs of “potentially dangerous ” breeds to be walked with a leash and muzzle and their owners to pass a class on keeping the dogs. 1 of 2 [...]
May 5, 2011
2011 Victory Day Parade in Moscow
2011 Victory Day Parade in Moscow 15:10 05/05/2011 Russia will celebrate the 66th anniversary of Soviet victory in World War II (known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War) on May 9, 2011.
May 5, 2011
Author of middle-fingering Jesus poster detained in Urals
Police in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg have detained an artist who supposedly made a poster depicting Jesus Christ giving the middle finger and displayed it near a church. The insulting poster was hung near Yekaterinburg’s Church on the Blood, the city’s largest and most beautiful church, shortly after Easter. An unknown art group, which [...]
May 5, 2011
Markelov, Baburova murder case
The prosecution called for a life sentence for Nikita Tikhonov on Thursday for the killing of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova in 2009.