Russia's Supreme Court has filed a petition with the country's Constitutional Court asking for a ruling on whether Russia should continue with its self-imposed moratorium on capital punishment. Russia has maintained a moratorium on capital punishment since 1999, when the

Russia's ailing car industry took another blow on November 4, as America's General Motors unexpectedly cancelled the proposed sale of its German Opel unit to a consortium of Russia's Sberbank and Canada's Magna. The collapse of the deal, which comes

Two former members of an obscure neo-Nazi organization have been arrested for the murder of Stanislav Markelov and Natalia Baburova, Russian media have reported. But is it not just the slightest bit suspicious that somebody chose to leak this information

Abkhazia has started preparing for the main political event of 2009 - the presidential elections. November 2 was the deadline to nominate candidates for the main governmental post of this partially-recognized republic. The upcoming elections are the fourth following the

The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev lambasted Josef Stalin's regime of terror in his video blog on October 30, distancing himself from the recent efforts some Russians have undertaken to gloss over the crimes committed by the Soviet dictator. Institutionalized attempts

When David Miliband arrived in Moscow yesterday, his visit was heralded by both sides as an opportunity to "reset" relations. Borrowing a phrase from their relations with the United States, the Russians have heralded the visit as an opportunity to

At the end of October, the Russian Ministry of Public Health and Social Development and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) signed a Memorandum of Cooperation, which will allow these organizations to work together on studying, detecting, and

President Dmitry Medvedev has decided to make "modernization" his platform for re-election in 2012. Medvedev is investing a tremendous amount of political capital in promoting a vision of Russia as an innovation-driven economy, where knowledge, intellect and desire for experimentation

Russia's campaign against the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic relies too heavily on treating sufferers and lacks effective preventive measures to stop the spread, experts said on October 29 at an international AIDS conference held in Moscow. Out of the million people

Today's Russia is not the late Brezhnev-era Soviet Union. But the suspicion with which Russians regard social institutions, the passivity with which they greet the lack of development, and the short-term thinking that characterizes both political and private life, all

The pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi filed a lawsuit against four European newspapers last Friday, over coverage of the organization's picketing of Alexander Podrabinek, a human rights activist and journalist who published an attack on the reputation of Soviet war veterans

As the presidential electoral race kicked off in Ukraine last week, both frontrunners pledged to revive severed ties with Moscow. While Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko promised a new phase of "equal and honorable" relations with the Kremlin in her opening

Maksharip Aushev, the Ingush opposition figure and human rights activist murdered on Sunday, was buried yesterday in his ancestral cemetery in the village of Surkhakhi. Aushev's associates insist that his murder was connected to his human rights and political activism.

Despite the heavy blow that the recent economic downturn has dealt to Russia's job market, the latest signs are those of recovery, analysts say. The number of available vacancies is slowly growing, and salaries in some segments of the job

On October 23, the chief voter of the country Vladimir Churov made a speech at the State Duma and responded to questions from the dissatisfied factions. But the main problem is not the factions, and the main questions are not

Last Sunday, voters went to the polls in 75 out of 83 Russian regions to elect local and regional governments, including the Moscow City Duma, the legislative council of Russia's largest and richest city of over ten million people. The

Russia is the biggest target market for heroin distribution, and consumes one fifth of all heroin produced in the world, a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime released on October 21 claims. Now, every third person killed

As the nights draw in and Russians turn up their collars against the looming threat of winter, the country's rulers turn once again to the task of drafting the budget for the coming year. Yesterday the State Duma overwhelmingly approved

On October 15 in Geneva, delegations from Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan announced their intention to bid to join the World Trade Organization separately, scrapping plans to accede together as a customs union. After Russia proclaimed in June that it would

Last week, Russia's liberal establishment was perplexed by the announcement of changes at REN TV and the St. Petersburg Channel Five. The two stations, lauded as the last bastions of independent broadcasting on Russian television, are undergoing restructuring, which could