A list ranking the 100 most polluted cities in Russia put Norilsk, Moscow, and St. Petersburg in the top three. On a positive note, the ratings show that emissions have decreased in 56 cities in the past 2 years, and have increased in only 36, according to data from the state statistics service Rosstat. Norilsk, an industrial city 2,890 kilometers northeast of Moscow, is by far the worst offender, RIA Novosti reported.

NATO membership would not give Georgia any advantages for further development and would only strain relations with Russia, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said. "This would give nothing to Georgia as a sovereign and dynamically developing state, but would create a long-term source of tensions between our countries," Medvedev said in an interview with Georgia's Rustavi-2 television channel on Tuesday.

A dog sporting a T-shirt in support of Alexei Navalny’s bid for mayor at one of Navalny’s campaign “cubes.” M. Stulov More than 30 business owners and top executives have come together in support of opposition mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny in a country where the government has routinely retaliated against such moves.

Osnova Telecom will be able to test a 4G LTE communication network in six major Russian cities after a court verdict resolved a dispute with a government radio wave regulator. The Moscow Arbitration Court sided with the company on Tuesday, saying that the Main Radio Frequencies Center had no right to change its opinion on the electromagnetic compatibility of Osnova's equipment.

Building on the likes of this restaurant in St. Petersburg, KFC plans to nearly double the number of its outlets. KFC is going to nearly double the number of its outlets in Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to 450 by 2015, a news report said Wednesday. The chicken fast food company’s latest outlet opened in Moscow the day before, bringing the region’s total to 250. In announcing further expansion plans, Oleg Pisklov, chief of Yum!

Former San Jose Sharks assistant coach Vasily Tikhonov, who was part of one of Russia's great hockey families, died Wednesday outside his home in downtown Moscow. Investigators said Vasily Tikhonov plummeted from his fourth-floor apartment on 23 Novy Arbat while trying to repair a protective screen. He was 56. The Russian Ice Hockey Federation confirmed the death early Wednesday in an online statement.

Novosibirsk locals were left bewildered after witnessing a hysterical naked woman running along the city's streets while trying to bite passersby, a news report said Wednesday. The incident occurred near the Marx Square metro station at about 7:40 p.m. on Saturday. Witnesses said that the naked female was spotted running along the tram lines. She then turned and ran across the road, throwing herself with all her might into the window of a nearby store, Sibnovosti reported.

MELBOURNE — BHP Billiton's new boss Wednesday shrugged off Russian potash producer Uralkali's exit from one of the world's two big potash cartels, saying BHP was taking a long-term view on its planned entry into the industry. In the wake of Uralkali's surprise move, there has been speculation it may make more sense for BHP to take over U.S. potash producer Mosaic Co. instead of building a $14 billion potash mine in Canada, up for a decision this year. "We think very long-term.

Obama and Putin at the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland, June 17, 2013. Evan Vucci U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday canceled an upcoming meeting with President Vladimir Putin in the latest sign of souring relations between the two countries, days after NSA leaker Edward Snowden was granted asylum and as the international outcry against Russia's anti-gay propaganda law gains momentum.

The mayor of a city in the Volga Federal District has broken up a brawl. The incident took place in the center of Penza on Tuesday, when the mayor was returning to the administration building from a regional government meeting. Mayor Roman Chernov stopped the fight and turned two of the people involved into the police for a check. "Penza is a cultured city, it is no place for fights," Chernov told the offenders, according to the municipal administration's website.

Shares in Russian oil producer Exillon Energy, in takeover talks with founder and Kazakh businessman Maksat Arip, fell 9 percent after paper maker Kazakhstan Kagazy said it obtained a court order freezing Arip's assets in a separate dispute. Exillon, which has assets in Russia's oil-rich regions of Timan-Pechora and western Siberia, said in July that it had been approached by Arip, its former chairman and its largest shareholder who owns 30.17 percent of the company.

KIEV — A U.S. musician who apparently desecrated the Ukrainian flag has been banned from entering the country for five years, the Ukrainian Security Service reported. The ban followed an incident on July 30 in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, when U.S. rock group Bloodhound Gang's bassist Jared Hasselhoff allegedly urinated on a Ukrainian flag, a YouTube video shows. The next day, the bass player also apparently desecrated a Russian flag.

TV channel TNT has become the first company to successfully file claims against illegal distributors of their content under new anti-piracy legislation. The Moscow City Court has ruled that the popular sitcoms "Interny (Interns)," "Sasha, Tanya" and "Univer. Novaya Obshchaga (University. New Dorms)" are to be deleted from the torrent site rutor.org. The British comedy series, "The IT Crowd," is to be deleted from turbofilm.ru, Prime reported Wednesday. This is TNT's second petition to the court.

A Foreign Ministry official said Russia had prevented several U.S. officials from entering the country. Russia's recent legislation closes the country to Americans implicated in human rights abuses at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo and is a response to U.S. law that punishes Russian officials suspected of wrongdoing in the prison death of whistle-blowing Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

NOON AGAINST PUTIN Russians Abroad Take Part in Anti-Putin Election Protest, In Pictures Russians living across the world took part in the anti-Putin protest on the last day of voting in the presidential election. 1 Min read