Ilya Farber before the verdict. Photo by D. Zizkova/Grani.ru The Moscow District Court of Tver granted the petition of the school teacher Ilya Farber for parole, Echo of Moscow reports. Farber was sentenced to seven years in the colony in the case of a bribe, then he was reduced to three years of strict regime. He must be released in January. Farber said he intends to engage in human rights activities.

Margarita Simonyan and Svetlana Mironyuk. Photo by RIA "News" Margarita Simonyan, the chief editor of the Russia Today Agency Russia Today, was the head of the Russia Today Channel. Such a decision was made by the Director General of Russia Today Dmitry Kiselev. "This key position could only be occupied by a person with a brilliant journalistic reputation and modern managerial abilities," RIA Novosti quoted Kiseleva. Simonyan will also save the post of head of RT.

Explosion in a trolleybus in Volgograd. Photo: press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs The number of people who died in the explosion of a trolley in Volgograd increased to 16, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the regional Ministry of Health. The total number of victims of the two explosions is 34. 65 people are in hospitals, 15 of them are transported for treatment to Moscow. Among the wounded several children, including a chest girl.

Activists of "Solidarity" on New Year's Eve held the action "We have questions" in the center of Moscow. " According to the correspondent of "faces", 10 activists stood opposite the Kremlin, on the steps of Pashkov’s house, with banners dedicated to terrorist attacks, anti -Sirot law, theft of the Olympic budgets and political prisoners. The inconsistent action lasted about 20 minutes, then the police detained all its participants.

Andrey Kuraev. Photo from a personal page on Facebook Protodiacon Andrei Kuraev was dismissed from the Moscow Theological Academy. According to the MDA website , the scientific council expelled him from the university teachers for "scandalous and provocative activities" in the media and the blogosphere. Kuraev was guiltered by "shocking publications." Kuraev connects his dismissal with the Pussy Riot case and the pedophile scandal in the Kazan Theological Seminary.

20 years ago, on December 31, 1993, in the village of Dzveli-Hibul in the mountainous region, Samegrelo was found dead Zviad Gamsakhurdiya, the first president of Georgia, a former participant in the Soviet dissident movement. There he was hiding from the detachments of Mhedrioni, who supported Eduard Shevardnadze. According to the official version, based on the testimony of the victim’s widow, he shot himself in his head with a pistol.

28 participants in the strategy-31 were detained on the triumphal square in Moscow, the press service of the capital's head of the police reports. Among the detainees are activists of another Russia and the left front. According to the correspondent of the "faces", the police acted extremely tough towards polyteactivists and journalists. The applicant of the action, Eduard Limonov, was detained not on the approach to the triumphant, but at the Monument to Mayakovsky.

Frame of the New Year's appeal of Vladimir Putin on 12/31/2013 On December 31, Putin suddenly arrived in Khabarovsk, where, at the reception at the President’s envoy in the Far Eastern Federal District, Yuri Trutnev recorded an appeal in which he mentioned terrorist attacks in Volgograd. It is published on YouTube. Putin was shot in the crowd of other participants in the reception. Meanwhile, the original version of the television point was broadcast in Kamchatka - without mentioning explosions.