Sergei Savostyanov / TASS In a friendly fixture a week before the official start of the Confederations Cup, Russia drew with Chile in a lackluster match. The match was played out in an almost empty Russia’s hosting of the eight-nation World Cup rehearsal this summer has failed to galvanize football fans’ excitement —at home in Russia, or abroad. FIFA has struggled hard to sell tickets to Germany’s fans this year, let alone to Chile’s.

Russia's Foreign Minister has downplayed reports that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may have been killed in a Russian airstrike. Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed in a press conference on Friday that he had "no 100 percent confirmation" on al-Baghdadi's demise. His statement came just hours after t he Russian Defense Ministry announced the terrorist leader may have been killed in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

The Russian Foreign Ministry is investigating reports that a Russian yacht has been seized in the Sea of Japan Wednesday by a North Korean ship. A representative from the Foreign Ministry’s office in Vladivostok said that the government could not confirm or deny the reports. “We are verifying this information and have sent inquiries to the Russian consulate in North Korea," a Foreign Ministry spokesperson told Russia’s Interfax news agency.

Evgeny Granilshchikov Winzavod Evgeny Granilshchikov The Last Song of the Evening Evgeny Granilshchikov is one of Russia’smost prominent video artists and a winnerof the prestigious Kandinsky Award.Granilshchikov’s exhibition is part of the“Farewell to Eternal Youth” series, devotedto the 10th anniversary of Winzavod.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of attempting to interfere in two of Russia’s presidential elections. Speaking in an interview with U.S. movie director Oliver Stone, Putin said that U.S. diplomats had attempted to influence the vote during the 2000 and 2012 elections. “It has always been this way,” Putin said. “The [interference] in 2012 was particularly aggressive.” The president accused U.S. embassy officials of financing opposition movements.

Independent Russian news outlet RBC has been bought by oligarch Grigory Berezkin, Russia's Dozhd television channel reported Friday. Berezkin, who already owns Russia's Komsomolskaya Pravda and Metro newspapers, signed the deal with current owner Mikahil Prokhorov, unnamed sources told the channel. Berezkin told Dozhd said that he could not confirm the deal, while representatives for Prokhorov refused to comment.

Foundry / Pixabay A few weeks ago, I made a long-awaited trip to New York. It was the first after Donald Trump moved into the White House, and roughly a decade after I left the city to return to my native Russia. When I was living in the United States in the mid-2000s, Russia wasn’t on the radar. I did not see any negative attitude towards my homeland, because there wasn’t even an attitude. Most people couldn’t care.

Russia's largest bank has launched a pilot program which could see cash delivered by drone. Sberbank made its first drone-assisted delivery on Thursday, Lev Khasis, the first deputy chairman of the bank's board, said. The money was carried 10 kilometers in a secure container from Sberbank's cash center to a waiting van, Khasis wrote on social media. He reported that the drone reached speeds of 180 kilometers per hour.

Sergei Fadeichev / TASS The setting of Dmitry Sukhanov’s pre-season bootcamp is distinctly medieval. The corporate retreat outside Moscow is designed to look like a Germanic castle. But beyond the hotel’s walls, a very modern scene is playing out. In a dimly lit hotel room, a pack of 20-year-olds in sweatsuits stare into computer screens lining the wall. Their fingers click hundreds of times per minute.