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Still from the film "Planet Murino" Film from the Artdocmedia platform Murino, a suburb of St. Petersburg that has become a site of mass development in recent years, attracts young people with the relative affordability of prices for purchasing and renting housing in relative proximity to the center of St. Petersburg. They like the city with modern high-rise buildings, although they complain about difficulties with transport and a lack of infrastructure such as a clinic and kindergartens.

Former world chess champion Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in New York after being suspended in the 9th round. The reason was the athlete’s failure to comply with the dress code of the tournament. The rapid chess championship is taking place in New York and began on Thursday. Immediately after, the blitz chess championship will begin there with a three-minute time limit for the game.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law limiting the admission of migrant children to schools and kindergartens. The document introduces a complete ban on the reception of children of illegal migrants. In addition, children of foreigners who do not know Russian well will not be accepted; testing before enrollment will become mandatory.

Ukraine survived. Could the new year be a year of success for Ukraine? Will Trump bet on Kyiv's victory? What could the first year of Donald Trump's second presidency look like? We are discussing these and other questions today with political scientist from the Kennan Institute in Washington, William Pomerantz , and American journalist and publicist David Sutter .

Photos of those killed in the Baku-Grozny plane crash Turkmenistan Airlines has canceled flights from Ashgabat to Moscow from December 30 to January 31. She did them twice a week. Passengers who purchased tickets on the carrier's website were offered a refund of the ticket price. The reasons are not given. However, the decision was made against the background of the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane, which probably came under air defense fire near Grozny during an attack by Ukrainian drones.

Founder of PMC "Wagner" Evgeny Prigozhin and Vladimir Putin, archival photo President Vladimir Putin signed a law toughening penalties for organizing and participating in an armed rebellion. The document was prepared by parliament after the Wagner PMC mutiny in June 2023. Organizing or leading a rebellion is punishable by 15 to 20 years in prison, and participation in a rebellion is punishable by 12 to 20 years.

Members of the RDK, archival photo Police in St. Petersburg detained a 16-year-old schoolgirl on suspicion of justifying terrorism. She faces a real prison sentence for hanging photographs in school with soldiers of the Russian Volunteer Corps, a unit fighting within the Armed Forces of Ukraine, recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia. As Fontanka reports , the schoolgirl, whose name has not been released, was detained on Friday evening in the Vyborg district in the north of the city.

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane. The Kremlin press service reported about the conversation. The report said Putin apologized for the “tragic incident” in Russian airspace and expressed deep condolences to the families of the victims, wishing the victims a speedy recovery. After negotiations with Aliyev, Putin telephoned the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.