News Putin’s Central Asian Power Trip By Oleg Liakhovich President Vladimir Putin has started his week-long trip to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, Central Asia's two prime gas and oil exporters. The Russian leader arrived in Astana on May 10 for a meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev with whom he was scheduled to attend a summit in Turkmenistan from May 10-12 before returning to Kazakhstan.

News Russia Celebrates Victory Day MOSCOW (AP) - Russia marked the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany with soldiers bearing hammer-and-sickle banners goose-stepping through Red Square and President Vladimir Putin sending a veiled warning to Estonia over its relocation of a Soviet war memorial.

Business Rosneft Buys YUKOS’ Remaining Production Assets MOSCOW (AP) - A subsidiary of Russia's state-controlled Rosneft oil company on Thursday bought the remaining production and refining assets of bankrupt YUKOS at an auction for 165.5 billion rubles ($6.42 billion).

News Moscow Tourism Enjoys Jump By Nathalie Cooper The number of foreign tourists visiting Moscow has risen dramatically, the city's Committee for Tourism announced at a press-conference on May 10.

News Russian Photojournalist Killed in Iraq By Oleg Liakhovich A Russian photographer was killed in the Iraqi province of Diyala, Russian Newsweek editor Leonid Parfyonov said. Dmitry Chebotayev, 27, was killed on Sunday northeast of Baghdad by a roadside bomb that also killed six U.S. troops. Chebotayev was travelling in a patrol vehicle with American troops on a road between Baghdad and Baqouba.

News Russian Language Tests? Da! By Oleg Liakhovich The Russian parliament has developed a bill to introduce compulsory language tests for foreign citizens applying for work in Russia, the local media reported.

News Traffic Police Chief Facing Corruption Charges Dies By Oleg Liakhovich The chief of the Volgograd region's traffic inspection department (GIBDD) arrested on corruption charges last week, died in the hospital on Wednesday, a source in the local law enforcement agencies told RIA Novosti.

National Maiden Trip for Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) - On Monday the Golden Eagle, the Trans-Siberian de luxe express departed on its inaugural 14-day trip from Moscow across Siberia to the Far East, the press service of the Russian Railways said.

Politics How to Become an MP By Igor Yefimov This year, political parties don't intend to sell deputies' mandates, as they have done in the past. The value of a State Duma seat is no longer measured in cash. It's not rubles, dollars or even euros that are now the principal "currency" of Russian politics, but the number of votes that a name can bring.

World Tony Blair Throws in the Towel TRIMDON, England (AP) - Tony Blair said Thursday he is stepping down as prime minister on June 27, closing a decade of power in which he fostered peace in Northern Ireland, presided over an unprecedented period of prosperity and followed the United States to war in Iraq.

World A Look at the British PM’s Political Highs and Lows LONDON (AP) - The bitter end is near for Tony Blair, whose decade of achievements have faded into the shadows of the Iraq war.

World Olmert Blames Army for Lebanon Fiasco By Amy Teibel JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told an investigative panel that the Israeli military "seriously let itself down" in last summer's war in Lebanon, according to censored minutes of his testimony released on Thursday.

World Japan Denies China Compensation TOKYO (AP) - Japan's Supreme Court has rejected compensation claims by Chinese victims of atrocities committed by Japan in the 1930s and 40s, which included the use of biological weapons and a massacre in the city of Nanjing, defense lawyers said Thursday.

Comment Is it Time for Estonian Sanctions? By Yevgeny Primakov Why has Russia not imposed large-scale economic sanctions in response to the blasphemous behavior of the Estonian authorities? On the eve of VE Day, Tallinn defiantly removed its Bronze Soldier memorial statue - dedicated to Soviet soldiers who were interred in the capital city's center - to an outlying military cemetery. Why, after Estonian police ruthlessly dealt with young ethnic Russians who were protesting against this move, have we not blocked Estonian sea ports, which depend on shipments from, and cargo imports to, Russia?

Business BazEl Buys Magna Stock MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's Basic Element conglomerate has agreed to pay $1.54 billion for a large stake in auto parts maker Magna International, the companies announced Thursday - a move that could give the Canadian company a bigger role in one of the fastest-growing auto markets in the world.