Zhirinovsky visiting a meat market in the city of Stavropol on Saturday. Eduard Korniyenko A stamp in his passport almost cost Vladimir Zhirinovsky the chance to lead his Liberal Democratic Party at the polls in the Oryol region. Zhirinovsky, 65, tops the electoral list for the party in regional legislature elections in Oryol, which are to take place on Dec. 4, the same day as the State Duma vote.

On the heels of Kremlin statements against the extended rule of Igor Smirnov — leader of the breakaway Moldovan republic of Transdnestr — Russia's consumer protection chief Gennady Onishchenko has announced a possible ban on imports of cognac from the region. "In the near future, we will be taking a whole row of measures in regard to Transdnestr. Questions have arisen in regard to the infamous KVINT cognac. We may be imposing limits on its importation," Onishchenko said Friday.

Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest miner of the metal, said first-half profit fell 23 percent as it booked a one-time loss from the sale of power utility OGK-3. Net income dropped to $1.79 billion from $2.33 billion a year earlier, the Moscow-based company said Friday in a statement. Revenue rose 24 percent to $7.3 billion, with nickel sales making up half that amount. In March, Norilsk completed the sale of its 79 percent holding in OGK-3 to state-controlled utility Inter RAO UES.

President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia might boost its harvest to 95 million metric tons of grain this year, allowing the country to increase exports. Medvedev also said Russia has become a net exporter of sugar from domestic beets, with shipments reaching 50,000 tons so far this year. "Record crops bring joy," the president said at a meeting with agriculture officials and producers on Friday. (Bloomberg)

MINSK — Belarus will lift administrative caps and shift back to free-float currency trade next week, a senior government official said, as the crisis-hit former Soviet country struggles to obtain a loan from the International Monetary Fund. Belarus maintains a separate official exchange rate, which is tightly controlled by the central bank and stood at 5,725 rubles per dollar in the main trading session on Friday.

Jailed former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky may be investigated for money laundering, a German news report said. A money-laundering case against Khodorkovsky was opened in Germany several months ago, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported Saturday. The paper did not say whether the case was still open. German investigators accidentally found accounts under Khodorkovsky's name worth between 15 million euros and 20 million euros ($20 million to $27 million) during a tax evasion raid, the report said.

Many jaws dropped when Dmitry Peskov declared that the Brezhnev years of stagnation had been a time of great achievement for Russia. But, of course, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s press secretary does not really believe that, as he put it, “Brezhnev was a huge plus for Russia.” Peskov was just 15 when Brezhnev died, and he did not experience that era at first hand. But he is smart enough to know that to discuss Brezhnev’s achievements in such terms is laughable.

Michael Posner, left, speaking with Konstantin Fetisov in the village of Gavrilkovo near Moscow on Saturday. Jonathan Earle GAVRILKOVO, Moscow Region — The U.S.-Russian "reset" has yielded no meaningful progress on human rights, and the United States needs to "redouble" its efforts to press Russia on the issue, a senior American diplomat said Saturday. The unusually harsh rebuke of Russia's rights record was made by U.S.

Producer prices, an early indicator of inflation, rose less than economists estimated in September. Prices of goods leaving factories and mines grew 18 percent from a year earlier after an 18.5 percent advance in August, the State Statistics Service in Moscow said in an e-mailed statement Friday. The median forecast of eight economists surveyed by Bloomberg was 18.9 percent.

ASHGABAT — Turkmenistan, courted by Europe as an alternative natural gas supplier able to cut its dependence on Russia, announced late last week that it was getting down to business on building the Nabucco pipeline backed by the European Union. Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, meeting his counterpart from Austria, the future hub from where gas from the Caspian region will flow deeper into Europe, was in an upbeat mood.

I say "the odd souvenirs" because the objects of my topic this week are random — whatever I could put my hands on quickly. But we could just as well leave the "the" out and call this piece "odd theater souvenirs" – because what theater souvenir isn't going to be odd? I'm not talking about programs or picture post cards, all of which I have written about in this space in the past. This time I mean the stuff you wouldn't expect.

UNITED NATIONS — Russia's ambassador to the UN has responded cautiously to U.S. allegations that Iran tried to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador in Washington. "I'm not an expert, but we're going to look at it very, very seriously," Vitaly Churkin told reporters late last week. "We have sent all the information received to Moscow. There will be contacts, and they'll look at it very seriously." China's deputy ambassador, Wang Min, said only, "They're still investigating, right?" But U.S.

Mikhail Prokhorov, owner of gold mines in Siberia and a professional basketball team in the United States, is one of Russia’s richest men, with a net worth of $18 billion. In June, he agreed to lead the Right Cause party to contest December’s State Duma elections. Prokhorov, 46, seemed to believe that his business success would boost his political prospects. Prokhorov was wrong, and he resigned in September from the party he had led.

UNITED NATIONS — European members of the UN Security Council have clashed with Russia and China by raising concerns about Syria and the looming specter of civil war during a closed-door meeting, council diplomats said.

Lavish celebrations for Grozny City Day earlier this month were financed almost entirely by private sponsors, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said. "I did not give a single ruble for an artist, actor or the fireworks. I just made it possible for this event to be held," Kadyrov told Komsomolskaya Pravda in an interview published Friday.