News Highlights

Former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov has found a new job as head of a testing center at state-run technology corporation Rostec, his lawyer said Friday.

The main Western-backed Syrian opposition group is yet undecided on Russia’s invitation to visit Moscow to discuss a forthcoming peace conference in Geneva, a spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition said Friday.

Ukraine is buying Russian gas again and has stopped taking gas from its underground storage facilities, the chief executive of the Russian state gas major OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) Alexei Miller said Friday.

Jordan is interested in locally assembling Russian-designed helicopters and anti-tank missile systems, an official from Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said Friday.

The Russian authorities have launched a hooliganism probe against a performance artist who nailed his scrotum to the ground on Moscow’s Red Square last week, police said Friday.

The state’s media watchdog suspects a regional newspaper of violating of the “gay propaganda” law after it published an article about a local teacher who was fired because of his sexual orientation.

The husband of jailed Pussy Riot band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has told the BBC that he has spoken to her for the first time since she went missing 26 days ago.

A member of the Pussy Riot punk band has called for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi to oppose what she called a campaign of “tightening the screws” against opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Moscow City Court on Thursday disbanded the jury in the Anna Politkovskaya murder trial, setting a new round of jury selection for January 14, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

A group of academics from Moscow State University has begun collecting signatures in support of an open letter it wrote asking President Vladimir Putin to halt mass dismissals at Russia’s leading university.