The high-stakes hearing is the first major case involving Russia since the State Duma voted in January to ratify Protocol 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights, allowing the court to proceed with reforms.

Bloggers are seething over what they interpret as insensitive comments made by the company after one of its vice presidents, Anatoly Barkov, was involved in a car crash that killed two people. Some have called for a boycott of LUKoil gas stations and a popular rapper has written a song declaring that Barkov will go to hell.

Russian Olympic Committee chief Leonid Tyagachyov had been the subject of much confusion Wednesday after his own spokespeople contradicted each other on whether he had resigned and his aides said he had fallen ill with pneumonia.

Senior Russian and U.S. officials promised on Thursday to look into the death of Ivan Skorobogatov, a Russian boy who died while under the care of his adoptive American parents.

A lenient sentence for a St. Petersburg man convicted of raping his niece for four years starting when she was 5 provoked an outcry Thursday. A State Duma deputy called the verdict "inhuman" and said he had asked law enforcement agencies to investigate whether the defendant had bribed the judge.

Mobile phone retailer Yevroset attempted to trademark the word Khalyava, a slang Russian word etymologically linked to criminal lingo that can be translated as "freebie."

The government will increase pensions by 6.3 percent next month despite warnings from Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on Thursday that the budget cannot afford it.

The party of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych moved to change the law on the formation of a majority coalition Thursday, trying to quickly fill a governing vacuum after ousting Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.