France has a long good relationship with Russia and Russians. Before Soviet Union, the Russian elite spoke French and even among other Russians. Most of them were educated in France, many emigrated to France when the Bolsheviks took power and a lot died there.
The good relationship between the French and the Russians lasts to this day. So, when the news first broke that France could sell Russia an advanced war ship, I had no doubt …

A suicide terrorist blew up an explosives-laden car at a police station in Russia’s troubled region of Dagestan, killing at least six policemen and wounding 16.
The terrorist detonated the car bomb at the police staten gate in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. The police had prevented him from driving through the gate into the compound and those killed were guards at the gate.
Police estimate that 110 to 440 pounds of TNT was packed in the …

An undercover policeman in Russia shot a 23-year-old man in the head after someone had thrown snowballs at the policeman’s vehicle.
The incident took place on 1st January at 5:30am local time in Yuzhno-Sakhalinski.
The father of the victim told newsru.com news portal that his son went to New Year celebrations with his friends, and when they came back in the morning, a man jumped out of a car and started yelling profanities at the youngsters. Apparently, …

Russia’s space chief says his agency will consider sending a spacecraft to a large asteroid expected to pass close to Earth, the AP reports.
Anatoli Perminov said the space agency will assess the project soon, adding that the mission’s goal will be to knock the asteroid off its path and prevent its possible collision with Earth.
When Apophis was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated the chances of it smashing into Earth in its first flyby in …

Russia and Ukraine yesterday agreed on the terms of a new deal governing the transit of oil exports to Europe, Reuters reports.
The deal will be signed in the coming days and no interruption in supplies is expected, Russia’s energy ministry’s spokeswoman Irina Yesipova said.
“Within the framework of intensive negotiations the terms of a transit deal have been agreed,” she told Reuters.

Georgia and Russia, who fought a brief war last year, have agreed to re-open their land border to traffic three years after it was closed, AFP reports.
The two countries have reached a deal to re-open the Upper Lars checkpoint, which was closed in 2006, Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze said.
It is the only land border crossing that does not go through Georgia’s Russian-backed rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia which were the focus …

The grandson of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin is suing the radio station Ekho Moskvy in a second attempt to stem media criticism of the murderous leader whom many Russians still revere, Reuters reports.
Yevgeny Dzhugashvili is seeking 10 million roubles’ (£207,411) compensation and an apology from Ekho Moskvy over comments made by presenter Matvey Ganapolsky on a program in October, who said: “Stalin signed an order that children can be shot from the age of 12 …

Drunken punks murdered an archpriest in Russia yesterday after he had told them not to urinate in an apartment building’s entrance hall.
Archpriest Alexander Filippov, who served at the Ascension Church in the village of Satino-Russkoye in the Podolsk District outside Moscow, died after being shot in the heart, Interfax reports.
“Father Alexander was killed only because he reproached those people who were urinating in an apartment building’s entrance hall,” priest’s widow Yelena told the agency.
Father Alexander …

Staff in a Russian circus neglected eight Bengal tigers and a lioness during their transportation in freezing Siberia, the rare animals died.
The animals were in a container on board a Kamaz truck travelling from Khabarovsk to Yakutsk and were completely neglected by the circus staff who accompanied them on the trip, RIA Novosti reports.
“The exotic animals were kept in a container without air-conditioning or heating. The lioness and tigers had inhaled exhaust fumes and froze …

A group of Russian lawmakers are backing new legislation to ban swearing in public as part of a Kremlin-backed drive to clean up Russia’s morals, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The law would be based on an existing scheme in the Russian region of Belgorod where police hand out on-the-spot fines for anyone overheard using foul language in public. The fines there range from 500 roubles (£10) to 1,500 roubles (£30). People heard cursing in front of …

Yegor Gaidar, the architect of Russia’s market reforms in the 1990s, has died aged 53, the BBC reports.
A spokesman for Gaidar said that he died of a blood clot.
Gaidar was Russia’s acting Prime Minister in 1992, launching the “shock therapy” reforms after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He is credited with carrying out the first wave of privatisations under President Boris Yeltsin.
His lifting of price controls was highly unpopular. The policies angered millions of …

The death toll from last weekend’s nightclub fire in Russia has risen to 136, Fox News reports.
The blaze at the Ural Mountain city of Perm’s Lame Horse nightclub broke out early Saturday when an indoor fireworks display ignited the plastic-and-wooden ceiling. The flames spread while hundreds of customers tried to flee through a single exit.
Almost 100 people remain hospitalized, scores of them in critical condition.
Four people have been jailed pending the investigation into negligence, and …

Russian authorities are in possession of a skull fragment that they persistently claim to have belonged to nazi Germany’s dictator Adolf Hitler. And despite the fact that scientists say the skull is really that of a woman, the Russians keenly insist that the scientists are wrong and that the skull really belonged to the feared mass murderer. Why on Earth is it so important then for Russians to own this “Hitler’s skull”?

Two Israelis were hospitalised in one of two antisemitic attacks in Moscow in the past week, JTA reports.
The Israelis were attacked near a religious Jewish youth community center.
In another attack, a neo-nazi beat a Jewish man in Moscow. The victim, 25, was travelling on the underground on 30th November when the assailant approached him, asked if he were Jewish and threatened to kill him.

Flags flew at half mast and entertainment programs were canceled across Russia today as the country mourned 112 victims of a weekend nightclub inferno and dozens more fought for their lives in hospitals, Reuters reports.
Mourners heaped red and white flowers in a long line outside the snow-covered entrance to the scene of the disaster at the Lame Horse club in the Urals city of Perm, 720 miles east of Moscow. Some said corruption had allowed …

Russian Foreign Ministry say they are close to an agreement with US negotiators on a successor to a Cold War-era treaty to cut nuclear weapons, the BBC reports.
The ministry’s statement came hours before the expiry of the Start I Treaty, signed in 1991. Talks on a new accord are expected to continue after the treaty expires.
US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitri Medvedev agreed in July that a new treaty should bring deep …