The mother of 18-year-old St. Petersburg resident Yevgeny Yefimov, who was detained on suspicion of organizing an IS cell to undermine the Kazan Cathedral, denied the accusations against him and said that he could be used. In an interview with The Insider, Oksana Yefimova said that she herself contacted the FSB and the Investigative Committee when she suspected that her son could fall under the influence of Islamists.

Three former police officers accused of inaction during a shootout outside a restaurant on Rochdelskaya Street in Moscow received two to four years in a penal colony, BBC Russian Service reports. The court found the ex-policemen guilty of abuse of power.

December 26. Vladimir Shainsky died Composer Vladimir Shainsky is the author of music for 300 to all your favorite children's songs and Soviet hits. It was he who wrote the “blue car”, “clouds”, “smile”, “chung-chang”, “do not cry, girl”, “I will go to the far station”, “We start KVN” and “Parental House”. We made a selection of his most striking works. Two weeks ago, Shainsky was 92 years old.

American Taylor Burkhalter told how his parents celebrated Catholic Christmas: his father moved the furniture so that his wife could fit on the carpet and make a "snow angel". The man also had to film the "angel" on his phone to post the video on her Instagram. There are two details. First of all, this obviously did not give much pleasure to the father. Secondly, the post was intended for 29 subscribers.

Stoyan Vasyev / TASS Head of the Fair Help charity organization Ksenia Sokolova On December 25, it turned a year, as Elizabeth Glinka did not, also known as Dr. Lisa, the founder of the charity organization “Fair Help”.

Roskomnadzor asked Facebook to explain why the accounts of the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, were removed from Facebook and Instagram. Roskomnadzor's official request was sent on December 26, the department's press service said. The blocking of Kadyrov's accounts was commented on by Russian Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov.

Dmitry Serebryakov / AFP / Scanpix / Leta Alexey Navalny at the entrance to the Central Election Commission, December 25, 2017 On December 25, the Central Election Commission decided that Alexei Navalny could not be a candidate for the presidential election. This was preceded by a prolonged polemic of Navalny with the head of the CEC Ella Pamfilova. After the refusal, Navalny announced that he would call his supporters to boycott the elections.

JADA IMAGES / ALAMY / VIDA Press Storage of the UK National Archive The National Archive of Great Britain cannot achieve the return of thousands of documents that were once transferred to state bodies for a while. The departments say that the documents were lost; How is unknown.

A second expert examination of photographs Yuri Dmitriyev took of his adopted daughter has found that the images do not constitute pornography. Dmitriyev, the head of the Karelia branch of the human rights group “Memorial,” has been charged with the illegal possession of firearms and committing “depraved acts,” including the creation of child pornography. Dmitriyev’s lawyers say the new expert review is a “major victory,” but prosecutors are demanding another study of the case materials.

A study by Mediascope says the broadcast of Moscow’s Victory Day Marchthrough Red Square scored the highest television ratings of the year in Russia. Another military parade — the Navy Day celebration in St. Petersburg and Kronstadt on July 30 — took seventh place. The third most-watched TV broadcast all year was the first episode of Oliver Stone’s “The Putin Interviews,” which aired on network television on July 19.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin couldn’t get the Federation Council to pass his draft legislation prohibiting cruelty against animals in the training of hunting dogs, but he’s got a backup plan, and the bill is now headed for a mediation committee. On December 26, the upper house of Russia’s parliament broke with the State Duma and rejected Volodin's law. The Duma's speaker insists that his bill has the support of President Putin.

Vladimir Putin says “ external constraints ” are partly to blame for Russia’s growing number of people living in poverty.

A voters’ committee gathered at Moscow’s VDNKh amusement park on December 26 to nominate Vladimir Putin as a presidential candidate. Putin did not attend the event. Russian election law states that independent presidential candidates need the nomination of “initiative groups” composed of at least 500 people. After submitting a formal application to the Central Election Commission, independent candidates must collect 300,000 signatures endorsing their candidacy, in order to appear on the ballot.

Discussion in the Federation Council. Video The Federation Council on December 26 rejected the bill prohibiting the brutal handling of wild animals during the training of hunting dogs. The co -author of this document was the speaker of the lower house Vyacheslav Volodin. During the discussion of the bill in the Federation Council, Senator Sergei Kalashnikov compared the ban on cruelty to animals with the “protection of the rights of sexual minorities”.

"Blue car", "clouds, white -heated horses", "at long -standing station" and many others Gennady Prokhorov / TASS On December 26, at the age of 92, one of the most famous Soviet and Russian composers Vladimir Shainsky died. "Medusa" recalls his brightest songs - more precisely, several of them: Shainsky wrote so many eternal hits that it is simply impossible to fit into one selection.