Russian News From Russia…

Thousands of opponents of president-elect Vladimir Putin rallied on Pushkinskaya Square in downtown Moscow on Monday evening, denouncing his victory at the presidential polls as illegitimate. Opposition rally at Pushkinskaya Square Protests were kicked off by a rally by the Communist party, whose presidential candidate Gennady Zyuganov was the runner-up on Sunday with 17.2 percent [...]

About 100 activists of the radical opposition group The Other Russia were detained during an unsanctioned protest near the office of the Central Elections Commission in downtown Moscow on Monday. Novelist-turned-politician Eduard Limonov, who heads The Other Russia, was among those detained, the group’s spokesman said. The event was to protest the outcome of Sunday’s [...]

With all ballots counted, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gained 63.6 percent of the vote and his closest rival Gennady Zyuganov 17.18 percent in Sunday’s presidential election, the Central Election Commission reported on Monday. Independent candidate Mikhail Prokhorov secured 7.98 percent, Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, 6.22 percent, and A Just Russia Party leader Sergei [...]

The opposition gather at an authorized rally on Pushkinskaya Square to protest against the results of the elections that they say were allegedly fabricated in favor of Putin. Another opposition demonstration is expected at Lubyanka Square.

A construction crane fell on a power transmission line in Surgut on Monday, briefly blacking out nearly half of the Urals city, the SIA-Press news agency reported. Operations at the city’s leading enterprises were suspended and telephone communications, the internet and traffic lights in some parts of Surgut did not work for a few hours. [...]

Several mass events are being held in Moscow on the night of March 5. A rally in support of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who won the presidential election, began at 6:00 p.m. on Manezhnaya Square. Putin’s supporters held another rally in the form of a concert starting at 7 p.m. on Revolution Square.

Russian companies will show more than 70 models of arms and military equipment at the international Defense Security – 2012 exhibition in Bangkok, the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation said on Monday. The exhibition, which opened on Monday, will last through March 8 with more than 250 companies from 30 countries taking part. The Izhmash [...]

International monitors gave different assessments of Russia’s presidential elections that secured Vladimir Putin a third term in the Kremlin. While observers from former Soviet states hailed the vote as “transparent” and “fair,” their colleagues from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) pointed [...]

Russian president-elect Vladimir Putin said on Monday he plans to instruct the Central Election Commission (CEC) to investigate all suspected violations during the vote. “I have not yet spoken to [CEC chief Vladimir] Churov… I will surely have a conversation with him and will ask him to thoroughly probe all the possible violations that you [...]

Russian art dealers are among those vying to get their hands on Rembrandt’s masterpiece Bust of a Man in Gorget and Cap, estimated at £12 million and offered at auction for the first time in nearly 40 years. ­The painting by one of the greatest and most influential artists in history will be brought to [...]

Thirteen French officers have been captured by the Syrian Army, according to Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper. It claims it received the information from a pro-Syrian Palestinian in Damascus. ­According to the source, the officers were taken captive in the city of Homs – the heart of the internal conflict between forces loyal to President Bashar [...]

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin held out an olive branch to Russia’s opposition Monday before protesters take to the streets to challenge Vladimir Putin’s victory in a presidential election they said was a “declaration of war.” Putin celebrated his victory Sunday by telling tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters near the Kremlin that his triumph [...]

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria’s state newspapers have lauded the return of Vladimir Putin to the presidency of Russia, one of the few countries to stand by the Damascus regime despite international condemnation. A headline in the Tishrin daily Monday reads: “Russia brings back the strong man to the Kremlin.” In an editorial, the paper [...]

Russia’s March 4 presidential election , which was won by Vladimir Putin, was transparent and conducted fully in accordance with Russian law according to an observer mission from the CIS states. An interim statement from the mission was given at a briefing on Monday by its head, Nauriz Aidarov. “International observers from the CIS came [...]