Local Russians Across the Nation Query President Putin Live By Kirill Bessonov On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held his traditional televised question-and-answer session, in which he responded to questions and concerns from people across the country.

News Israel PM Visits Moscow By Ron Bousso Agence France Presse JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was scheduled to arrive yesterday in Moscow for urgent talks to win President Vladimir Putin's backing for new sanctions against archfoe Iran over its nuclear drive.

News in Brief Russian Millionaire Farmer Briefly Held in Afghanistan, Russia Test Fires Ballistic Missile, Prosecutors Looking for Serial Killer of Pensioners, Soviet Exile Returns to Launch Presidential Bid

News Russian-Born U.S. Economist Oldest-Ever Nobel Winner By Doina Chiacu Reuters Economist Leonid Hurwicz thought he was too old to win the Nobel Prize at age 90 - until his telephone began ringing on Monday morning.

News Three Dead in Urals Prison Riots YEKATERINBURG (Combined RIA Novosti) - A state employee and two detainees have been killed in a riot at a juvenile correctional facility in the Urals, local prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Local Sudden Snow Causes Trouble By Sergei Dmitriyev Moscow, the Moscow Region, and three other Russian Regions experienced some of the hassles of midwinter on Sunday and Monday this week. An unusually early snowstorm moved through the area causing thousands of traffic accidents in Moscow alone, and left thousands of people without power. Temperatures dropped to an unexpectedly chilly zero degrees Celsius.

News Crime Brief Former Prisoner Kills Prosecutor In Her Office, British Football Fans Beaten In Moscow, Two Chechens Shot Near Restaurant in Moscow Center on Monday, Car Kills Elderly Woman in Volgograd

Local Blue Line Extension Set for December By Nathalie Cooper Final construction is underway on the extension of the blue Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line. Line number 3, which now only goes to Park Pobedy, will soon be running all the way up to Strogino. The Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line is often confused with the light blue Filyovskaya line (line number 4) since they are both shades of blue, they each have a Smolenskaya and Arbatskaya station, and both pass through Kievskaya.

Columnists Is America Ready for an Intelligent Leader? By Robert Bridge I am not exactly sure when the tradition began, but we Americans have a natural fondness for folksy, down-to-earth, unsophisticated men to lead us to wherever the hell we are going. Our commander-in-chief should be a man of the people, unpretentious, preferably male and chummy. We want to feel that it would be almost natural to toss back beers with him at the bar while discussing last night's college football game. A Ulysses S. Grant type of guy: whisky, whiskers, cigars, the full nine yards. A real man's man.

Local Tastes of Home By Emily Fertig Odds are every American expat living in Moscow has had a moment - maybe on Thanksgiving, Super Bowl Sunday, or a late night out with no Taco Bell Drive Thru in sight - when food from home would have really hit the spot.

Local National Groceries By Nathalie Cooper| Fed up with the same old produkty stores around Moscow? It may be time to spice up your kitchen with a more exotic range of ingredients.

Local Heroic Deeds Define City's Cat Woman By Nathalie Cooper As you step into Lyuba's apartment, it is the silence that strikes you. This is not what you would expect, since Lyuba Zausalina - who has become something of a Moscow celebrity - shares her one-room flat in Vykhino with 45 cats and 2 dogs. Dozens of eyes follow you as you move from the door to the main room and yet not a meow, bark or squeak is heard. There are cats everywhere: they are perched on the cupboard, the chests of drawers, the benches, the tables, the television, the hat stand; they huddle together on bookshelves, form a heap on the bed; the two fattest and most mature cats assert their dominance over the rest by securing the comfiest spots on the bed.

News This week in russian history... By Daria Chernyshova

Local Gastro Delight By Tom Washington Moscow's appetite for invention and exploration is nourished this month by the third Moscow Gastronomic Festival, which opened on October 4 and lasts until the end of the month. Participating are big names on the Moscow Gastronomie scene, including Globus Gurme, the Balchug and Cipollino.

Local Moscow's Buried Treasures By Phoebe Taiplin With the weather worsening and snow already on the ground, why not enjoy a different kind of exploration? This week's "walk" passes through some of the metro's most spectacular stations, as well as a couple of hidden gems above ground, which provide a nice contrast to Moscow's subterranean crowd.