Russia

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Chess-Playing Killer Goes on Trial in Russia

Says he tallied victims on a board, but cops are at a stalemate

(Newser) - Russia is in the grip of the king of all murder trials, the Guardian reports: A chess player has been accused of luring dozens of opponents away from the board and to their brutal deaths in a Moscow park. Alexander Pichushkin has allegedly boasted of 63 murders, one shy of...

US Expedition Heads to Arctic
US Expedition Heads to Arctic

US Expedition Heads to Arctic

Expedition joins scramble to lay claim to the Arctic

(Newser) - Diving into the international scramble to grab parts of the Arctic, a US Coast Guard cutter is voyaging north this week to determine if any of the underwater territory can be claimed for America. The four-week expedition, which starts Friday, will use sonar technology to map the northern Chukchi Cap,...

Danes Join Scramble for Arctic
Danes Join Scramble for Arctic

Danes Join Scramble for Arctic

Denmark to launch expedition to Arctic to defend territorial claims

(Newser) - A Danish expedition is set to head for the Arctic tomorrow, joining the scramble to claim polar territories. A team of 40 scientists and massive icebreakers are heading north to prove that a 2,000-kilometer underwater mountain range stretching to the pole is an extension of Greenland, and accordingly belongs...

Reuters Posts 'Titanic' Frame in Arctic Gaffe

Agency pinched movie still for North Pole report

(Newser) - Reuters was caught in another photo pas today, when it revealed pics used in a report on Russia's flag-planting at the North Pole last week were actually lifted frames from the 1997 blockbuster Titanic. An image captioned with descriptions of Russian submersibles on an Arctic seabed was actually a still...

Canada Vows to Defend Pole
Canada Vows to Defend Pole

Canada Vows to Defend Pole

New patrol vessels to venture out as Arctic tensions escalate with Russia

(Newser) - As Russia presses claims to the North Pole, Canada is stepping up its defense of its Arctic territory and will no longer take its sovereignty "too lighty," PM Stephen Harper declared yesterday during an Arctic tour. Canada is building six patrol vessels to guard the icy territory where...

Russians Hot for Cold War Habit
Russians Hot for Cold War Habit

Russians Hot for Cold War Habit

Nuclear-capable bombers again tweaking US, NATO forces

(Newser) - Russia's air force has revived the Soviet-era practice of flying to areas policed by NATO and the US, Reuters reports. A Tu-95 bomber "exchanged smiles" today with American pilots who raced to track it as it flew over Guam. As during the Cold War, Russian officials called the incident...

Georgia Claims Russian Attack
Georgia Claims Russian Attack

Georgia Claims Russian Attack

Missile fired on ex-Soviet republic lands without exploding

(Newser) - Georgia has accused the Russian military of launching a missile at a small village in its territory. Reuters reports that the missile narrowly avoided a town west of Tbilisi and landed in a farm. The Georgian interior minister decried what he called an "act of aggression" but the Russian...

Russian Hackers Attack Websites for a Fee

'Online mercenaries' target clients' business, political foes

(Newser) - Hackers across Russia are executing crippling attacks against enemy websites—and they work for hire, Der Spiegel reports. For only a few hundred dollars, clients can retain Russian hackers to disrupt business transactions by launching barrages of pernicious data into their enemies' systems. But a disturbing trend is evident in...

Sub Crew Plants Russian Flag
Sub Crew Plants Russian Flag

Sub Crew Plants Russian Flag

Expedition reaches North Pole seabed in quest to get jump on turf battle

(Newser) - A Russian expedition reached the North Pole today and symbolically called dibs on the Arctic in the race to secure the oil-rich territory. Explorers sank a titanium Russian flag into what the team leader called the "yellowish mud" of the sea floor 3 miles deep, which a spokesman likened...

Look Out, Santa: Russia Claims North Pole

Rich oil and gas reserves lie beneath ownership dispute

(Newser) - Russian ships will arrive at the North Pole today as part of Moscow's effort to claim a 1,240-mile area of the Arctic—and with it, more than $2 trillion in oil and gas reserves. The Telegraph reports that the fleet will deposit a Russian flag at the bottom of...

Russian Kids Spend Summer Goose-stepping

Youth movement an avatar of Putin propaganda

(Newser) - In a Soviet Era throwback, a new Russian youth group is said to be providing more than fun and games in its summer camp, the Weekly Standard reports. Nashi, Russian for “Ours,” is said to be an elite indoctrination program; while Russian officials liken it to the Boy...

Russia Reportedly Strikes Fighter-Jet Deal With Iran

(Newser) - Israel is investigating reports that Russia will supply Iran with $1 billion in long-range fighter jets and aerial fuel tankers, the Jerusalem Post says. Israeli officials say the pact could be a partial response to a billion-dollar US arms deal with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

Russians Advance on North Pole
Russians Advance on North Pole

Russians Advance on North Pole

With eye on energy-rich seabed, submarines make test dive

(Newser) - In a race to claim rich natural resources under the North Pole, two Russian submarines successfully dove several thousand feet in Russia's northern territorial waters today, Reuters reported. Though US and Russian subs have long plied the waters under the pole, none has reached the seabed there, at a depth...

Russia Expels UK Diplomats
Russia Expels UK Diplomats

Russia Expels UK Diplomats

Tensions rise amid tit-for-tat retaliation

(Newser) - Russia has expelled four British diplomats in what the Kremlin called a "proportionate response" to the expulsion of four Russian diplomats from Britain earlier this week. Russia says it will stop cooperating with British counterterror efforts as well. Relations between London and Moscow have been strained since Russia denied...

Russians Flock to New Religions
Russians Flock to New Religions

Russians Flock to New Religions

Followers of the 'new' Jesus head to Siberia to build a town

(Newser) - Is a former traffic cop named Sergei Tropov really the reincarnation of Jesus? Five thousand devoted followers of the Church of the Last Testament believe so, and they've relocated to a remote corner of the Siberian wilderness, where they are constructing a new town founded on the 18-year-old religion. The...

Russians Gun for AK Profits
Russians Gun for AK Profits

Russians Gun for AK Profits

Others reap rewards of the Russian achievement

(Newser) - The Kalashnikov, the world's most popular firearm, has been a source of mixed emotions in Russia since it was invented 60 years ago, the New York Times reports. Putin calls the killing machine a "symbol of the talent and creative genius of our people." But almost none of...

AK-47 Turns 60
AK-47 Turns 60

AK-47 Turns 60

(Newser) - In 1941, while hospitalized for wounds received fighting the Nazis, Russian soldier Mikhail Kalashnikov designed a rifle that combined the best of the American M1 and the German StG44.  The "Avtomat Kalashnikov," first produced in 1947, became known as the AK-47.   It is prized by...

Putin Wants in on Missile Shield
Putin Wants in on Missile Shield

Putin Wants in on Missile Shield

Russian premier pushes plan for joint anti-missile defense system in lieu of bases in Poland, Czech Reppublic

(Newser) - Vladimir Putin yesterday pushed his proposal for cooperating with the US on a joint missile defense system, part of which would be built on Russian soil, the Washington Post reports. The offer, first broached in Germany last month,  was welcomed by President Bush as he and the Russian premier ...

Billionaires Flee Putin's Russia
Billionaires Flee Putin's Russia

Billionaires Flee Putin's Russia

For mainly Jewish oligarchs, wealth and power has given way to prison and exile

(Newser) - A cadre of 50 or so Russian businessmen struck it rich when the USSR's state-owned industries went up for grabs. But most of these billionaire oligarchs are now in prison or have fled, hounded and hectored by the KGB-style tactics of president Putin. The Guardian profiles 7 deposed plutocrats, who've...

Bush, Putin Get Off to Chummy Start

Russian leader's brief visit to Maine starts with lobster, protests

(Newser) - The US-Russia mini-summit kicked off with flowers and kisses, but the subtext was less collegial. Vladimir Putin presented bouquets to the current and ex-First Ladies, then joined the Bush family for a lobster and swordfish dinner last night in an atmosphere that exceeded his expectations. "We could not have...

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