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.

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.

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.

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.

After Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cruised around the Far East in a Lada Kalina for 11 days, political pundits claimed that it was the start of his presidential campaign. But what is the point of conducting an election campaign in a country that has no real elections?

In a village in the Leningrad region, there is a large bronze statue of a strong, stocky man in a long coat and cap on a high red granite pedestal. An inscription reveals that it is a monument to Sergei Kirov, whose murder gave Josef Stalin an excuse to unleash the Great Terror.

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

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.

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

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.

Russia's hybrid regime, which combines elements of authoritarianism and electoral democracy, makes the nation an unattractive potential partner for global alliances. To improve relations, Russia must modernize and adopt a more predictable political system.

The deputy chief of the Moscow metro police force was fired Thursday after two of his officers were detained on suspicion of abducting and raping a Belarussian woman this week.

Russia has done little to reduce its high number of fake diplomas ― but at the same time it requires foreigners to prove that their degrees are valid before they can get a work permit.

Russia, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are home to the wealthiest expats, with euro-zone countries falling behind when it comes to paying for foreign expertise, according to a survey of expats released Wednesday.

Sukhoi has broken into the coveted U.S. aircraft market with its new Superjet 100, winning an order for six jets and an option for four more that could be worth $300 million, a spokesman for SuperJet International said.

Police arrested a 28-year-old suspect on suspicion of stealing $41 million from the federal pension fund in an elaborate scheme that involved Cyprus bank accounts, 23 cell phone numbers and a travel regime that avoided the use of trains and planes.

Tabloids have been reporting that Russian-born model Natalia Vodianova is about to get divorced from her husband, British aristocrat Justin Portman. Vodianova has the ultimate rags-to-riches story, going from a market worker in Nizhny Novgorod to a top model.

The head of the European Parliament's subcommittee on human rights harshly criticized Russia's human rights record and said the country would be better off without Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The opposition's attempts to stage rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg got an unexpected boost when Russian emigrants took to streets in London, Berlin, New York and Tel Aviv to express solidarity.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin abruptly extended the grain export ban by at least several months from the end of this year because farmers and wholesalers sent grain prices up by holding the latest harvest.

Forty minutes. Just five minutes less than halftime in a football match and about the length of a TV show. It was enough time for a village of 341 houses to burn to the ground in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took the pilot's seat in the government's fight against wildfires Tuesday, hopping on a firefighting plane to put out two blazes in the Ryazan region.

Russia looked ready to exchange one natural disaster for another as cold winds swept across the country's northwest on Monday and weather forecasters said hurricane-like gales might replace wildfires and drought.

Bloggers took issue with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's decision to pilot a firefighting aircraft this week, saying he should be fined for operating a plane without a license.

Now, 20 years after the end of the Cold War, what is hindering a close partnership between Russia and the West? A professor with the Foreign Ministry's Diplomatic Academy names some of the reasons. Cold War memories and economic disputes are just two.

Rock group U2 will be in Sochi to meet President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday, a day before its first concert in Russia. The group is set to discuss its anti-poverty campaign with the president, although Bono joked about canceling the meeting after hearing that Medvedev was a Deep Purple fan.

A dramatic nighttime shootout between policemen and car thieves in southwestern Moscow left two people dead and two others injured — and was captured on a video posted on YouTube.

Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev have used controversial tactics in responding to wildfires that have killed 53 people and smog that has sickened millions. But political analysts say public backlash over the fires will be minimal.

Facing an uproar from foreign businesses, the government has promised to scrap a new customs duty on the personal belongings of foreigners moving to Russia. The duties have resulted in foreign households receiving customs bills running into the thousands of dollars.

Putin's macho trip to the Far East, where he has shot gray whales, studied mammoth bones and palled around with brown bears, has left government watchers speculating why the prime minister has chosen this moment to burnish his image.