Former U.S Secretary of State Henry Kissinger briefs newsman on the upcoming state visit of Soviet Communist Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev in Washington, June 14, 1973. Bob Daugherty / AP Former U.S Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has been elected an international member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This was announced at a conference in the academy, during which new members of the institution were voted in. The 93 year-old German-born diplomat served as secretary of state in the 1970s.

President Vladimir Putin has rejected a request by the Russian Defense Ministry to resume the bombing of Aleppo, saying humanitarian relief efforts need more time, according to the RIA Novosti agency.

The Russian Government has proposed a federal budget for 2017 plus a budget projection for 2018-2019, and they’re guardedly optimistic about the future. According to the State Duma press website , deficits will continue, but they will gradually decrease. The government expects a deficit of 2.75 trillion rubles ($43.71 billion) in 2017, followed by 2.01 trillion rubles ($31.95 billion) and 1.14 trillion ruble ($15.95 billion) deficits in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Pettson and Findus come back to the screen, this time with "The Best Christmas Ever." Tradewind Pictures, Senator Film Munchen The 10thannual Grand Festival of Animation has opened in Moscow with films for all agesand every taste. For nearly two weeks until Nov. 7 you’ll have a chance to see50 animation programs for kids and adults held at 20 venues around the city.You can also meet with some of the creators, and attend all sorts of masterclasses and lectures.

Religious groups and conservative politicians in Russia attempt to ban Halloween every October. They say the holiday is anti-Christian and cannot coexist with Russian national traditions. The number of attempts to do so have been increasing since Moscow’s standoff with the West.

Pixabay Twitter’s partnerships manager in Russia, the company’s only official employee in Russia, was laid off on Friday, as part of global cutbacks announced earlier this week. Alexey Shelestenko joined Twitter’s workforce three years ago. “It’s been an invaluable experience, friends,” he tweeted, saying that the company’s media partnerships staff is one of the worst-hit departments in Twitter’s restructuring effort.

Двор : yard, court, outside Thankheavens that the Russian language isn’t just made up of words that areimpossible to understand and translate like жупелизация (bogeymanization). There areall kinds of down-home, basic words and concepts —like двор (courtyard). If in St.Petersburg visiting students soon learn what парадное is (the main entrance to anapartment building in the idiom of the northern capital), in Moscow we alllearn what двор is: the courtyard of your apartment building.

Sokolovsky! / YouTube A court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg has ruled to move 21 year-old video blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky from house arrest to jail until January 23rd 2017. Sokolovsky was arrested on the 3rd of September for playing Pokemon Go in a Russian Orthodox church and for leading a blog deemed "extremist" by authorities. A few days later, a court ruled he would be placed under house arrest. But on Oct. 28, the Yekaterinburg court ruled to send him back to prison.

The logo of Russia's top crude producer Rosneft is seen at the company's headquarters, behind the Kremlin wall, in central Moscow. Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters Sometimes having half the pie isn’t enough; you just want the whole thing. That may be the case with Rosneft, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, which today applied to the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) for the right to purchase 100 percent of shares in the Bashneft oil company, the Kommersant newspaper reported .

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev reviews the police honor guard upon his arrival at the Serbia Palace to meet with Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic in Belgrade, Serbia, Oct. 26, 2016. Darko Vojinovic / AP An alleged spying incidental threatens to cause a scandal in Russian-Serbian relations.

Denis Abramov / Vedomosti A group of 24 prominent academics have declared their support for efforts to rescind Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky’s doctorate over accusations of plagiarism and academic dishonesty, the Kommersant newspaper reported .

Valeria Lanskaya in the role of Anna Karenina Moscow Operetta Theater Wrapped up warm against the autumn chill, a line of expectant Muscovites stretches along Bolshaya Dmitrovka toward the entrance of the Moscow Operetta Theater. There’s a new adaptation of Anna Karenina in town — and this time it’s all singing, all dancing.

Many Russians know about Halloween, and a growing number plan to dress up, don masks or celebrate it in other ways this Weekend. Halloween is celebrated on the night of Oct. 31 to Nov. 1, and its roots go back centuries to harvest festivals and festivals of the dead. It is named after the Western Christian feast of All Hallows, or All Saints' Day.

Russia's military has successfully tested a hypersonic aerial vehicle known as "Production 4202," according to the Izvestia newspaper. The weapons, which are capable of reaching speeds of up to 7 kilometers per second, were launched from the the Dombarovsky area of the Orenburg region. The salvo successfully reached its targets in the Kura test range in the Kamchatka peninsula.

Moscow authorities have rejected applications from ultra-nationalists to hold their yearly “Russian March,” a far-right demonstration that takes place on Nov. 4 on National Unity Day. City Hall rejected an application made by Dmitry Demushkin, the former leader of banned far-right organization “Russians,” who is currently under house arrest.