Theater: Life, Rehearsed English-language comic tragedy If you fancy laughing through tears this Friday, head down to "Life, Rehearsed," a play by Peter Heavenheld premiering at the Art-Cafe Durov. The play's protagonist Daniel Nash, played by Jonathan Bex, is an actor so consumed by his art he finds himself struggling to juggle the conflicting commitments of his his love life, friendships, career and Hollywood aspirations. Don't we all? Art-Cafe Durov art-durov.ru 6 Ulitsa Pavlovskaya.

A total of 59.8 percent of residents of Russia's single-industry towns consider their socio-economic situation to be unbearable or hardly bearable, the RBC newspaper reported Thursday, citing a poll by the Federal Guard Service (FSO). Only 3.9 percent of respondents said the socio-economic situation in their town was favorable and 31.3 percent told FSO the conditions in their town were normal.

UNESCO does not recognize Russian ownership of the Chersonesus museum-reserve in the southwest of the Crimean Peninsula, Russia's representative to UNESCO Eleonora Mitrofanova told the Interfax news agency Thursday. The organization's decision is based on a vote held among the members of the United Nations, according to Mitrofanova. "Crimea has not been recognized as Russian territory in international legal terms yet," she said, Interfax reported.

Russians have shown increased interest in opening dollar and euro accounts in Belarusian banks due to higher interest rates and local insurance conditions, the Kommersant newspaper reported Thursday, citing Belarusian subsidiaries of Russian banks. Belgazprombank, a Belarussian subsidiary of Russia's third-largest lender Gazprombank, has registered a 30 percent increase in the value of deposits made by Russian clients, Kommersant said.

Переми́рие: cease-fire Yevgeny Parfyonov Michele A. Berdy I haven't been very hopeful about the negotiations in Syria, particularly last week when Syrian President Bashar Assad was quoted as saying, "Regarding a cease-fire, a halt to operations, if it happens, it doesn't mean that each party will stop using weapons." I mean, isn't the definition of a cease-fire when each party stops using weapons? Perhaps, I thought, it's a translation problem. And it might be.

Four family members in the Siberian region of Irkutsk have been found guilty of murdering elderly retirees and stealing their money, Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement Wednesday. The killers comprised a 26-year-old woman, her husband, her mother and grandmother, the Irkutsk regional branch of the Investigative Committee said. An Irkutsk regional court found them guilty of multiple murders committed by an organized crime group, aggravated robbery and arson.

Jihadist opposition groups in Syria claimed to have set off a car bomb at a Russian military base outside Latakia, killing several Russian generals, the Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Ahrar al-Sham opposition group said that its fighters, along with members of Bayan movement and jihadists inside the Russian base, detonated the car bomb after spotting a gathering of senior Russian officers at the base, the report said.

The Russian Constitutional Court has granted women the right to be tried by a jury, the RAPSI legal news outlet reported Thursday. The decision was made after investigating a complaint by Alyona Lymar — a woman accused of murdering her daughter. According to Russia's Criminal Code, regional courts only hold jury trials when the accused faces life imprisonment. However, women cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment under Russia's Criminal Code.

Russian businessman and judo partner of President Vladimir Putin, Arkady Rotenberg, holds first place in this year's ranking of “the kings of state orders,” published by the Russian edition of Forbes magazine Thursday. Rotenberg has featured in the ranking every year since it was first published five years ago. Last year his construction company StroiGazMontazh received state orders worth 555 billion rubles ($7.3 billion), according to Forbes.

Two cakes were thrown by unidentified men at Russian opposition leader and head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) Alexei Navalny near his office on Thursday, the oppositioner wrote on his Twitter account. "Some clowns just chucked two cakes at me and fled," he wrote in the tweet.

The City Hall of Lithuania's capital Vilnius has decided to perpetuate the memory of slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov by naming a street or square in his honor, regional news website Delfi reported Wednesday. The former prime minister and outspoken critic of the Kremlin, Nemtsov was fighting for a better world and a democratic Russia, the City Hall resolution said, Delfi reported.

A woman holds a sign with an image depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and a photograph of Boris Nemtsov. The sign reads, "You". Sofia Miroyedova Ilya Yashin Boris Nemtsov never believed he would be murdered. Of course, he understood he might be harassed in one way or another. He knew the authorities might have plans to send him to prison. He felt this even more keenly after they called him in for questioning and searched his apartment.

Russia's economic troubles have led bread manufacturers to use low-quality wheat, originally intended only as cattle fodder, to bake bread, the head of the country's grain trade union was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying Wednesday.

The Russian Constitutional Court is considering easing punishment for migrant registration violations in the Moscow and the Leningrad regions, the state-run Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper reported Wednesday, citing the court's online statement. The decision was made after a Moldovan national Mikhail Tsurkan filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court, claiming that the deportation of migrants who failed to complete the necessary paperwork in time was a violation of the Russian Constitution.

Moscow's 2016 Photo Biennale that recently opened has exhibitions ongoing throughout the city. One of the main venues this year is the Central Manege Exhibition Hall, where no less than seven exhibitions opened last week. One of the most interesting projects this year is "Evolution of Sight. 1991-2016," devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Russian Union of Art Photographers. The exhibition is very comprehensive and covers the post-Soviet evolution of both documentary and art photography.