The Russian National Orchestra was founded by eminent Russian pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev in 1990. RNO For the eighth year in a row, the Russian National Orchestra, one of the country’s very finest symphonic ensembles, inaugurates the classical music concert season with its Grand Festival, which runs from this evening until September 26.

Things could get a lot harder for the activists at “Dissernet,” which has exposed surprising instances of plagiarism in the dissertations of some of Russia's top politicians. Education officials in the federal government have reportedly developed draft legislation that would make it possible to revoke a person's academic doctorate only after a copyright ruling by a court has come into effect.

The environmentalist organization Greenpeace says a group of Cossacks earlier today refused to allow its volunteer firefighters to assist state emergency workers in the southern region of Kuban, where a major blaze threatens internationally protected estuaries. The ecologists reportedly extinguished several fires in the Krasnodar region on Sept. 7, but they were ejected from their cabin before dawn the next day.

Russian lawmakers say they will introduce legislation by the end of the year that would criminalize doping in sports, the TASS news agency reported on Thursday. The decision was reached during talks between Russia’s Olympic Committee (ROC) and the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Craig Reedie. Russian sports have endured a turbulent summer, dominated by an ongoing doping scandal.

Katerina Lobanova In the space of a month, Russia was shocked by several violentsuicides involving terminally ill patients. In a small town in Siberia, an elderly man placed an explosivedevice in his mouth and detonated it. In a Moscow region town, a mandied after blowing himself up with a homemade bomb. In the southernKrasnodar region, a man was reported to have shot himself with ahomemade gun. Another man was found dead in his Moscow apartment:Police concluded he had also committed suicide.

This year's Cosmoscow art fair will be held in Gostiny Dvor, a historic former indoor marketplace near Kitai-Gorod. Cosmoscow Russia’s only international contemporary art fair opens its doors at Gostiny Dvor on Friday. Now in its fourth year, Cosmoscow is out to prove that contemporary art in Russia’s is not only vibrant and creative, but also collectable.

Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev has been named as acting president of Uzbekistan following the death of its long-serving leader, Islam Karimov. Mirziyoyev, who has served as prime minister since 2003, was confirmed as acting president at a joint session of the Uzbek parliament Thursday. Karimov, the country’s authoritarian ruler of 27 years, died of a brain hemorrhage last week at the age of 78. He was buried in his home town of Samarkand on Saturday, but left no obvious successor.

Peggy Marco / Pixabay The Finance Ministry has proposed weakeningcurrency control over transactions involving Russians’ foreign bankaccounts, according to Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev. Thesite www.regulation.gov.ru posted a notice about the draft legislation, although the text of thebill is still in committee. Violations of currency regulations currently carrya fine of 75 percent of the sum involved for the first offense, and100 percent thereafter.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Seth Wenig / AP PalestinianAuthorit yPresident Mahmoud Abbas mayhave been a KGB agent, the New York Times newspaper reported Wednesday . A1983 document from a British archive makes onereference to Abbas, identifying him by the code name “Mole” and“ KGB agent.” The document provides no information on how, where or whenhe was recruited bythe Soviet intelligence agency.

A judge in Yekaterinburg has agreed to release Ruslan Sokolovsky, the blogger jailed for playing Pokemon Go in a cathedral, and place him under house arrest. Sokolovsky will stay at the home his attorney, Stanislav Ilchenko, where he will be barred from using the Internet and telephone.

Athletes from Belarus take part in the opening ceremony. Sergio Moraes / Reuters A Russian official has described the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as "fascist" after the group announced that a Belarusian athlete who carried a Russian flag could face an investigation. The Belarusian athlete unfurled the Russian tricolor at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games. Event officials confiscated the flag as the team entered Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium on Wednesday evening.

RussianForeign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet U.S. Secretary of State JohnKerry in Geneva in fresh attempts to broker a ceasefire in Syria,Russia's Foreign Ministry has announced. TheU.S. State Department did not confirm that the pair would meet, butsaid but that Lavrov and Kerry held a 45-minute phone conversation onWednesday. “Theseissues are complex and we have not been able to reach a clearunderstanding between us on the way forward.” said State Departmentspokesperson Mark Toner.

The Kremlin has increased Russia's recognized cost of living by 1.8 percent, despite inflation averaging 7 percent last month. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev raised the country's cost of living index by 180 rubles ($2.80) to reach 9,956 rubles ($155) a month. The document, published on the government’s website, also sets the monthly cost of living for a working people at 10,722 rubles ($168), for pensioners at 8,163 rubles ($128) and children at 9,861 rubles ($154).

Sokolovsky! / YouTube A court in Yekaterinburg ruled on Saturday to arrest a young manfor playing Pokémon Go in one of the city’s Russian Orthodox cathedrals and posting a video about it on YouTube. Ruslan Sokolovsky, 22, made the video because, he said, he wasannoyed to learn, from a state-run television channel, that playingPokémon Go in a church might carry a penalty of half a millionrubles or up to three years in jail.

State leaders take part in a group photo session for the G20 Summit held at the Hangzhou International Expo Center in Hangzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province, Sept. 4, 2016. Ng Han Guan / AP The G20 meeting in China was a milestone in internationalrelations. Until only recently, world leaders were certain that theglobal economy and increased connectivity had helped stabilize anddefine the new world order.