Dmitry Lovetsky / AP A woman calling herself Chechnya’s “first transgender person” has come forward saying she fled illegally last year to the United States, after facing persecution in Russia. The independent TV station Dozhd says it verified the transgender woman’s identity through human rights workers who helped her escape Russia.

HotelPeking.ru Once celebrated as the city of 1,000 churches,these days Moscow is a city of museums. Onthe evening of May 20, over 200 museums,galleries, and art schools will open theirdoors to the public for the 11th annual citywide“Museum Night” festival. From 6 p.m. on, the festival offers a rangeof special events in museum and art spaces:interactive lectures, concerts, master classes,historical reenactments and walking tours.Most venues will be open until midnight.

On Thursday, TIME magazine unveiled the cover of its May 29 issue, which features the U.S. White House being consumed by the red bricks of the Kremlin's walls, beneath the iconic domes of St. Basil's Cathedral. This is just the latest display of the Western media's sustained, perhaps growing, fear and resentment of Russia's supposed meddling in world affairs. The Moscow Times collects other covers from Western mass media outlets published in the last couple of years.

Students at one of Russia's largest universities are calling for the resignation of a campus official who made homophobic comments online.

The Russian State Duma on Thursday approved the nomination of former Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov as Moscow’s next ambassador to Washington. He will succeed Sergey Kislyak, the Russian diplomat at the heart of the Trump-Russia scandal in Washington D.C.

Vova Zhabrikov / URA.RU / TASS Since Russian video blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky was sentenced to three years probation in a Yekaterinburg court this month, the debate in Russia is on — the debate about whether it’s even lawful in Russia not to believe in God. This national conversation came to a head this week when major Russian television anchor Vladimir Pozner asked if he was breaking the law simply being an atheist.

For John Lavell, it is the everyday human interactions that make Moscow what it is. JOHN LAVELL / PERSONAL ARCHIVE Raised in working-class Liverpool in the UK, John Lavell has been on the move for many years. After teaching English in Japan, installing his art in Shanghai, and doing a Ph.D. in Northumbria, UK, he is now putting down roots at Moscow’s British Higher School of Art and Design, where he is a professor in the Fine Art department.

Kremlin plans to boost voter turnout in the country's regional elections have been scrapped over fears that opposition candidates could be pushed into victory. The Russian government had planned to launch initiatives encouraging Russians to head to polls in 16 regions scheduled to hold gubernatorial elections this September, Russia's Vedomosti newspaper reported Thursday.

Alexei Danichev / RIA Novosti For the last few days, oil prices have been on the rise. The spike was market reaction to Russia and Saudi Arabia's apparent readiness to extend oil production restrictions for at least half a year. Imposed last year by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia, and other producer countries, the supply-side pact has buffered flagging oil prices.

Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has published a video tirade against opposition leader Alexei Navalny, branding him a “loser” in a 12-minute online rant. Usmanov, who is currently suing Navalny for libel, labeled the presidential hopeful a “criminal,” unable to grasp basic business concepts. The businessman published the clip on Wednesday evening, the day before case appeared in court. "[Navalny is] just an ignoramus.

A North Korean cruise ship has dockedin the Russian port of Vladivostok as part of a new ferry servicebetween the two countries. Tourists desperate to take a trip to Pyongyang will be able to take the Mangyongbong ship once a weekto the port of Rajin. Guests will be ableto spend the 9-hour journey in the ship's restaurant, bar or sauna. The Mangyongbong, which was used to ferry goods between Japan and North Korea until 2006, will also carry cargo and North Korean laborers.

A protester arrested at AlexeiNavalny's anti-corruption rally in Moscow on March 26 has beensentenced to eight months in prison. Yuri Kuliy is the first demonstrator toface the court after the protest, which saw more than 1,000 peopledetained by police in Moscow alone. The demonstration, which was led byopposition presidential hopeful Alexei Navalny, had not been givenofficial permission to take place. Kuliy, a Moscow-based actor, pleadedguilty to assaulting a member of Russia's national guard.