Russian News From Russia…

Two alleged terrorists from Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region who failed to carry out an attack during the 2011 New Year celebrations on Red Square in Moscow signed pretrial cooperation agreements with investigators, Kommersant business daily reported on Monday.   According to the daily, 31-year-old Timur Akubekov, who is accused of aiding terrorists to prepare [...]

A senior government official in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk has been charged with embezzling 29 million rubles ($980,000) in state funds, investigators said. In 2009, Krasnoyarsk Region Industry and Energy Minister Denis Pashkov used fake documents to allow a privately-owned plant to receive state subsidies as it had suffered losses, the Investigative Committee said [...]

Russian gold and silver miner Polymetal increased its gold output 24 percent in the first quarter of 2012 to 101,000 ounces or 3.14 tons year-on-year, the company said in a statement on Monday. Silver output skyrocketed 74 percent in January-March 2012 to 5.7 million ounces or 177,300 tons. Copper production increased 11 percent in the [...]

Shareholders of Russia’s state-controlled oil giant Rosneft approved a discount of $1.5 per barrel for oil supplies to China, Rosneft said in a statement on Monday. Rosneft’s shareholders made the decision at their extraordinary meeting held in absentia on April 10, the statement said. In early 2011, Rosneft and Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft started [...]

Georgia’s refusal to fulfill its obligations to Russia under the 1992 Open Skies Treaty violates Moscow’s rights and may break the treaty, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Monday.   Lukashevich’s comment came after Tbilisi announced on April 6 that it ceased “performing its obligations vis-à-vis the Russian Federation under the Open Skies [...]

Russian pop icon Alla Pugachyova has joined a growing chorus of voices calling for the release of three members of the Pussy Riot punk group, who face years behind bars over an anti-Putin protest in Moscow’s largest cathedral. Pugachyova said a custodial sentence for the suspects would be like “shooting sparrows with a canon” and [...]

Moscow needs a total of 907 active churches to reach the Russian average, said Vladimir Resin, who along with church leaders oversees a program to build 200 new churches in the capital. The average Russian ratio is approximately 11,000 residents per church, while in Moscow every church has a total of 40,000 potential visitors and [...]

Russia’s largest port operator Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP) saw 2011 net profit decrease 49.6 percent year-on-year to $130.3 million to IFRS, the company said in a statement on Monday. The NCSP, Europe’s third biggest port operator, said its revenue grew 65 percent last year to $1.05 billion. Earnings Before Interest, Taxation, Depreciation, Amortization (EBITDA) [...]

Iran has released two detained Russians, but their health is “unsatisfactory,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday. “The Russians are currently in a hotel in Tehran. Their physical condition is unsatisfactory,” the Russian ministry said in a statement. “We expect the Iranian authorities to give thorough explanations about this incident,” the statement reads. Employees [...]

Two people were hospitalized after a fight in a central Siberian prison over Easter, the regional prisons administration said on Monday. A total of 30 convicts started a brawl during Easter festivities in the Irkutsk region. One the groups received “support” from the outside with unidentified individuals in some 30 vehicles arriving outside the prison [...]

Russian stocks are likely to prove sensitive to the uncertain global background, burdened by Spanish debt worries and Asia’s weak performance. But some experts say, Russian stocks managed to overcome the downward trend and could go higher in the short term. “A number of states in the US will approve the budget for the next [...]

09:50 GMT: After the 12-minute video the court will break for lunch. 09.45 GMT: Breivik’s propaganda video is being shown in court right now. The video was uploaded to YouTube before the bombing. Holden warned the media to turn off the cameras if they want to. 09:32 GMT: Pictures of Breivik’s farm are shown. This [...]

What they would never say on mainstream TV – Julian Assange promises delicious revelations from his guests in The World Tomorrow on RT, hours before the world premiere. RT: Why did you decide to do your own show and become a TV host? Julian Assange: There are two reasons. First of all, being under house [...]

Russian weightlifters have topped the medals count at the European Championships taking place in Antalya, Turkey. ­After 15 events the Russian men’s and women’s teams have jointly won five golds, two silver and four bronze medals. David Bedzhanyan, Ruslan Albegov as well as Oksana Slivenko, Olga Zubova and Tatiana Kashirina were the athletes who won [...]