The Moscow Times

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insisted that Russia remained open to foreign investment in strategic sectors, accused jailed former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky of having “blood on his hands” and spoke of Washington and Beijing in uncharacteristically warm terms during a meeting with Russia experts.

The State Duma opened its fall session Tuesday looking to pass economic legislation that clarifies tough anti-monopoly regulations and puts further pressure on the country's rampant alcohol consumption.

Russia's top investigator accused a Moscow deputy mayor of fleeing the country to evade corruption allegations, a claim that analysts said put new pressure on Mayor Yury Luzhkov, the last long-serving regional leader.

Flamboyant Kalmykia leader Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who is stepping down after 17 years, will likely be replaced by a pragmatic-minded business manager, analysts said.

LUKoil vice president Anatoly Barkov, cleared by police in a car crash that killed two women, including the mother of a 2-year-old girl, promised on Tuesday to use his own money to support the girl until she reaches adulthood.

Silvinit has sold its 32 percent stake in trading firm International Potash Company, data on its web site showed Tuesday, in another sign that Russia's largest potash producer is headed for a merger with rival Uralkali.

Sochi, host of the 2014 Winter Olympics, faces an environmental disaster because there are no legal garbage dumps, Vedomosti reported Tuesday, citing a report by the Audit Chamber.

Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that the damage from this summer's wildfires would have been less severe if authorities had engaged firefighting aircraft more quickly.

Investigators are obscuring the facts surrounding Sergei Magnitsky’s death in a Moscow prison, the tax lawyer’s former employer said Tuesday, after Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin indicated that there was no evidence of physical or psychological abuse in the case.

St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko called on Tuesday for a ban on child adoptions by foreigners in the city, Interfax reported.

The Moscow Arbitration Court has ruled as illegal the closure of one of the city’s gay clubs, banned from its premises under pressure from Oleg Mitvol, prefect for the city’s Northern Administrative District, GayRussia.ru reported Tuesday.

China agreed last month to lend Russia about $6 billion in exchange for increased coal supplies over the next quarter century, the Russian Energy Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Tuesday proposed the resurrection of a Soviet-era project to divert Siberian rivers southward to provide drinking water for drought-hit regions of Central Asia.

The government on Tuesday raised its estimate for national grain stockpiles, making increased imports unnecessary, and said buckwheat was the only staple with a price that has climbed to a "critical" level.

The country's largest private freight operator, Globaltrans Investment, said Tuesday that it more than doubled first-half profit, beating forecasts, as demand for goods transport increased in a rebounding economy.

The real season is about to begin in Moscow. Let the film, music and art pundits take potshots at me — I don’t care. Because when Moscow’s drama theaters start gearing up for a new season, that’s when serious work is about to be done.