News Poisonous Politics Hurt Relations Andrei Lugovoi, accused by the U.K. of poisoning to death a former Russian intelligence officer, said Thursday that the murdered Alexander Litvinenko and fugitive tycoon Boris Berezovsky worked for the British secret services. The U.K. applied Monday for the extradition of Lugovoi, a former security officer turned businessman, saying it had enough evidence to charge him with the murder of Litvinenko, Berezovsky's associate who died of radioactive poisoning in London in November.

News Putin Accuses U.S. of Starting New Arms Race MOSCOW (RIA Novosti, AFP combined reports) - Russia's president said Thursday the country's recent tests of new ballistic missiles and its possible withdrawal from the CFE treaty are a direct response to unilateral, ungrounded actions of Western countries in the sphere of missile defense.

News Exiled Oligarch Denies Wrongdoing MOSCOW (AFP) - Exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky on Thursday denied a report he was funding a Russian opposition group led by chess legend Garry Kasparov, saying he was misquoted in a newspaper article.

News New Rules for Schengen Visas By Nathalie Cooper Russian citizens will now be spared some of the bureaucracy involved in the application procedure for a Schengen visa. The visa is issued to citizens of countries who are required to obtain a visa before entering European countries.

News The Return of the Carrier Pigeon By Oleg Liakhovich Pigeon mail - a time- honored, but seemingly extinct tradition - is making a comeback in Russia with the recent opening of a pigeon coop in central St. Petersburg.

News Teenager Confesses to Killing 37 MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) - A young nationalist suspected of killing an Armenian businessman confessed to killing, together with his friend, 37 other people, a popular Russian daily reported Monday.

News Russia Bans Medical Specimens Abroad MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia has banned the shipment of medical specimens abroad, threatening hundreds of patients and complicating drug trials by major companies, the Kommersant newspaper reported Wednesday.

News Moscow Temps Hit All-Time High MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) - Wed­nes­day has gone down in history as the hottest May 30 in 116 years in Moscow, the city's meteorological service said. It is the fourth daily record broken since an unprecedented heat wave descended on the region early in the week.

National The Schism of Elites By Alexey Titkov It seems that the slapstick battle known as the creation of a multi-party, or at least a bipartisan system, has produced some unexpected results - a split of Russia's ruling elite.

National Is Zurabov’s Cure a Very Bitter Pill? By Vladimir Maximov Two months ago, Zurabov promised to solve the problem of unavailability of discounted medicines for social-benefit recipients by mid-April. When the time came, he declared: "We cannot say that we have uprooted the problem. But we are certain that within the next two weeks, three at the most, we will succeed in bringing down the number of people awaiting their prescription drugs in the Russian regions." Now that the three weeks had passed, it is clear how Zurabov plans to solve the problem: he will simply abolish cut-price medicines for social-benefit recipients.

National Free Love By Anna Arutunyan We can dream all we want of having babies in an all-natural, non-intrusive, flower-power climate, but there's really no way to get around it. Love might be free, but procreation inevitably involves medical personnel. A lot of foreigners and rich peoples' wives tend to go abroad to have their babies, but there are exceptions. And it's quite possible - as well as safe - to procreate in Russia.

CIS Kazakhstan’s Family Feud VIENNA (AFP) - Kazakhstan has asked Austria to extradite the son-in-law of its President Nursultan Nazarbayev on charges of kidnapping, a justice ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

CIS Kiev Minister Remains in Serious Condition KIEV (RIA Novosti, The Moscow News) - Ukraine's interior minister, a key figure in an ongoing political crisis, who was hospitalized Wednesday after a heart attack, remains in a serious condition, the ministry said Thursday.

CIS Ukraine Races to Break Crisis Deadlock KIEV (AFP) - Ukrainian lawmakers on Thursday raced to approve legislation aimed at ending a two-month political crisis by paving the way for early parliamentary elections.

CIS South Ossetia without Water By Kate Roach Georgia's refusal to repair a drinking water pipeline on its territory has caused "a critical situation" in the capital of breakaway South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, which has been without water for six days, South Ossetian information and press department said Wednesday.