The liberal opponents of the decision to restore the verse from the Soviet anthem to Kurskaya offer the same, weak argument: If it would be unthinkable in Germany to reinstate the swastika on renovated buildings dating back to Hitler’s rule, why is it acceptable for Russia?

There is no doubt that the nonaggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union was a major catastrophe for millions of people. But perhaps the more important question is what is happening to us today?

To prove that its gestures are genuine, Pyongyang should first make a bold decision to abandon its nuclear weapons program altogether and return without delay to the six-party talks in Beijing.

Russian rapper Noize MC, who will perform Saturday at Club Tochka, is tipped to become one of the country's top hip-hop stars.

One of the banned opposition candidates said the Moscow election committee had rejected all 4,555 signatures that he had collected in support of his bid over what it deemed a mistake in how they were documented.

Abkhazia's leader on Wednesday threatened to destroy Georgian ships that entered the breakaway Georgian region’s “territorial waters," saying the move is a response to the Georgian navy commandeering ships entering Abkhaz waters.

RusHydro expelled an Interfax reporter from its Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant, where a flood last month killed 75 people, over what the news agency said Wednesday was the journalist’s refusal to let the company edit his stories.

Former Yevroset chairman Yevgeny Chichvarkin, who is living in self-imposed exile in London, denied prosecutors’ charges of smuggling and extortion Wednesday and said he had no plans to return to Russia.

Turkmenistan has banned its citizens from attending foreign private universities.