Kalashnikov Concern Good news forforgetful travelers: Russia's most iconic weapons maker, Kalashnikov,has opened a flagship souvenir store in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. Located on the concourse connecting the Aeroexpress stationto the main terminals, the store features full-scale models ofKalashnikov assault rifles, branded clothing, and related kitsch. The store is part ofKalashnikov's effort to move into the world of civilianmerchandising.

Russians who practice female genitalmutilation (FGM) could face ten years imprisonment under a new bill,the Meduza news website reported Friday. The bill says thatFGM “has no place in a civilized society,” and was presented t o parliament by United Russia deputy MariaMaksakova-Igenbergs. “FGM is mutilation based on sexualdiscrimination,” said Maksakova-Igenbergs.

vampirov-bal.ru Moscow audienceswill soon have the chance to see “Dance of the Vampires,” a musical that tookSt. Petersburg by storm during a three-year run that ended in 2014. Directed byCornelius Baltus, the show is second in popularity only to “Phantom of theOpera” in Europe. The song-filled story of vampires, lust, and love will do ashort run in St. Petersburg at the city’s Musical Comedy Theater later thismonth before arriving at Moscow’s MDM Theater.

Andrei Makhonin / Vedomosti Russia'seconomy needs powerful external stimuli or fundamental domesticreform in order to avoid further stagnation, a report from the Centre ofDevelopment at the Higher School of Economics (HSE) has claimed.

German budget airline Eurowings is pulling outof the Russian market, the Kommersant newspaper reported Friday. At the end of October, Eurowings will ceaseoperating in Russia for “economic reasons,” Kommersant reported,citing a Eurowings representative. “The route has not met thecompany’s high expectations,” he said. Alternative solutions are being looked into forpassengers holding Eurowings tickets for the fall-winter periodstarting in November, Kommersant reported.

Moscow candidates in this September's State Duma elections will not take part in televised debates, the Moscow City Electoral Commission announced Thursday. Debates are only obligatory under Russian law if each candidate receives over five minutes of allotted broadcasting time. The state-controlled Moscow Media group is devoting 300 minutes on their channels to candidate’s election broadcasts, or 100 seconds to each of the 180 candidates.

Russian Education Minister Dmitry Livanov has resigned from his post less than a month before the country's parliamentary elections. President Vladimir Putin has appointed Olga Vasilieva, a former education representative within the presidential administration, to the position. Livanov is to continue his work as the president's special representative on economic relations with Ukraine. Livanov and of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev have both declined to comment on the matter.

A handcuffed man identified as Yevgeny Panov, suspected of being involved in a group that Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) identified as Ukrainian "saboteurs," is led by FSB officers in Crimea, Aug. 11, 2016. Russian Federal Security Service Press Service / AP With tensions rising again between Russia and Ukraine, Turkeymay well be forced to decide which side of the fence it wants to sit on. It is a decisionthat may mean falling out of love with Russia again.

U.S. television star Larry King received $225,000 from Ukraine’s disgraced former ruling Party of Regions, Ukrainian journalist and politician Serhiy Leshchenko has claimed. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Leshchenko said that he had uncovered evidence which proved that the Party of Regions had paid King using shadow assets.

Laundry Day, Performance in Three Parts (1996)/The New Blockheads Alexander Lyashko New Blockheads Novie Tupie (New Blockheads) is one of the most original art groups to have emerged from St. Petersburg during the 1990s. In the six years of the group’s existence artist members produced around 70performances. This unique retrospective exhibition at MMOMA celebrates the group's legacy through archival footage and reconstructions of their work.

Andrei Solovyov / TASS It would be difficult to call the events of August 1991 a revolution. To begin with, there were no revolutionaries, only counter-revolutionaries. The then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had been aware for some time that a group of hardliners had been manoeuvring to remove him. Some time before September, Gorbachev had put in place plans to defend himself. He looked to reduce the influence of the Communist Party leadership.

On Aug. 19, 1991, a number of hard-line members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union staged a coup in an attempt to wrest power from Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The coup leaders were opposed to Gorbachev's program of reforms, but they were met with a short but effective campaign of civil resistance. Though the coup failed within two days and Gorbachev returned to power, it is widely regarded as contributing to the destabilization and later collapse of the Soviet Union.

A North Korean official who went missing from his country’s embassy in St. Petersburg has been found with his family in the South Korean capital of Seoul, the South Korean radio station KBS reported Friday. Kim Cheol Sung was reported missing on July 6 when embassy officials told police that he had not been seen since leaving the embassy in an official car on July 1. Russian media reports claim that Kim had traveled to Seoul via Minsk airport in Belarus.

IMDB One of Hollywood ’s newest moviemoguls is attracting plenty of attention these days. Timur Bekmambetov — the founder ofMoscow’s Bazelevs Productions — has directed“Ben-Hur,” a $100 million budgeted epic re-adaptation of the 1959 CharltonHeston classic. The Russian-Kazakhproducer-director’s two-hour “Ben-Hur” is backed by two mega studios —Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer — and will hit the screens across Russia onSept. 8.

The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group has claimed responsibility for an attack on Moscow's traffic police, online monitoring organization the Site Intelligence Group reported Thursday. Two men armed with guns and axes were killed after assaulting a traffic police patrol office on Schyolkovskoe Shosse to the capital's northeast on Wednesday. Two officers were wounded, with one still in hospital. IS released a video urging its followers to carry out attacks in Russia earlier this month.