Moscow's policy in Chechnya will create two dangerous enemies for Russia: the clan surrounding Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and the Chechen people as a whole. The Open Russia organization that I founded released a film called "Family" last week that documents daily life in Chechnya under Kadyrov.

Yelena Gremina, in red, giving a television interview before “The Bolotnaya Square Case” premiered on May 6. The news should be that on Tuesday Teatr.doc, Moscow's smallest but noisiest playhouse, begins guest performances in Berlin with "Two in Your House" at the Schaubuhne. But circumstances and the Moscow authorities have again conspired to make us look to the past even as we wish to look to the future.

On May 20, the leaders of the Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics (LNR and DNR) announced the abandonment of the Novorossia project, a hypothetical confederation of states in southeastern Ukraine stretching from Kharkiv to Odessa. DNR Foreign Minister Alexander Kofman said that the idea hadn't attracted enough support outside the separatist territories.

Russia's government said on Friday that the new tax was intended to stop exports surging if the ruble drops steeply Russia approved the launch of a new wheat export tax from July 1, which traders say could threaten profits on advance contracts for the new crop if the ruble weakens in coming months. Russia's government said on Friday that the new tax was intended to stop exports surging if the ruble drops steeply.

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in Kiev in 2013 Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko has appointed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to be governor of Ukraine's southern Odessa region, in a surprise move that is certain to raise hackles in Moscow. President Poroshenko made the announcement on Saturday, standing alongside Saakashvili at a ceremony in Odessa, where he described him as "a great friend of Ukraine." He granted Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship to facilitate the move.

The exact cause of the gas explosion remains unclear, the regional branch of the Investigative Committee said in a statement Sunday. A woman and child were killed and 11 others were injured in a blaze that raged through an apartment building in downtown St. Petersburg following a gas explosion, the Interfax news agency reported Sunday, citing the Interior Ministry.

Last month German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier dismissed calls to invite Russia to the G7. BERLIN — Russia should be invited to rejoin a summit of the Group of Seven industrial powers next weekend, the heads of two German business lobby groups were quoted as saying on Sunday. The leaders of the G7 nations held a summit without Russian President Vladimir Putin last year in protest against Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region.

Russian regions will get 50 billion rubles ($953 million) in federal subsidies next year to develop their road networks as the country's growing economic crisis slashes local budgets, news agency TASS reported Friday. "[We have] specified the source for replenishing road budgets next year in the range of another 50 billion rubles," Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said at a transport forum held in Novosibirsk, TASS reported.

The brainchild of President Vladimir Putin, the bill is one element in a wider drive to steer the capital that has fled Russia over recent decades back into the country. With a revamped amnesty for people and companies who declare their foreign assets just steps away from becoming law, the Russian government would appear to be offering a prodigious olive branch to the business community. If only the companies saw it that way.

Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra performs Haydn's Symphony No. 102, Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 and Kraft's Cello Concerto. Soloist Alexander Rudin, conductor Matthew Halls. Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. 4/31 Triumfalnaya Ploshchad. Metro Mayakovskaya. 495-232-0400. At 7 p.m. First Flash (Pervaya Vspyshka): Jorma Elo's ultramodern dance piece to Sibelius' music, staged by Christophe Dozzi.

The loan market has also been boosted by increased government support. Around 35 percent of cars purchased in April were bought on credit, a steep rise over the first quarter of the year as the Central Bank slashed interest rates and government measures made loans more affordable, a report said Friday.

A soviet propaganda poster from 1954 urges against snitching which, the poster says, may "help the enemy." Last week Anna Reshyotkina, editor-in-chief of a glossy magazine in Yekaterinburg, was unexpectedly summoned to the Prosecutor's Office for a 30-minute conversation about the cover of the May issue.

This is not the first time the government has mulled giving out free land in an effort to boost agricultural production. The Agriculture Ministry has proposed leasing state land to agricultural investors for free for up to five years in order to reduce the amount of vacant agricultural land, newspaper Vedomosti reported Friday, citing an unnamed source within the Agriculture Ministry.

Sotheby's office on New Bond Street, London. The international auction house Sotheby's said on Sunday it would proceed with the auction in London next week of a painting by a famous Russian artist that the Russian authorities have said was stolen. Russia's Interior Ministry said on Saturday that "Evening in Cairo" by Ivan Aivazovsky had been stolen in 1997 from a private collection in Moscow, and that the Russian branch of Interpol had asked British police to block the auction.

“We must make FIFA taste the vengeful might and fury of the United States military,” Borowitz “quoted” McCain as having said. Popular American satirist Andy Borowitz appears to have fooled the Russian government's official newspaper into believing that U.S. senator John McCain has sincerely called for a military invasion of FIFA, football's governing body. "We must make FIFA taste the vengeful might and fury of the United States military," Borowitz "quoted" McCain as having said.