News Black Black Sea By Kirill Bessonov Five ships have sunk in the strongest storm the Black Sea has seen in 30 years. An oil tanker was broken in half by 6-meter high waves in Kerch Strait and now Russian and Ukrainian parts of the coast face the threat of unprecedented pollution.

News Russian Troops Leave Georgia A top Russian general said early Thursday that Russia has completed its withdrawal of troops that had been based in Georgia since the Soviet collapse, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

News Russia May Deploy Missiles in Belarus, General Says Russia may deploy its newest Iskander tactical missiles in neighboring Belarus in response to U.S. plans for a missile shield in Eastern Europe, Russian media quoted a senior general as saying on Wednesday.

News In Brief - Russia, India Settle $1 Billion Debt Deal... Russia, India Settle $1 Billion Debt Deal, Top Police Official Killed in North Caucasus , $12 Million Batch of Heroin Seized in Moscow, Russian Woman Gives Birth to Quintuplets in UK

News Russia Blames OSCE over Visa Delay for Poll Monitors MOSCOW (AFP) - Moscow blamed Europe's main election watchdog Tuesday for delays in getting visas for its monitors ahead of Russian parliamentary elections next month.

News Mass Suicide Threat from Russian Doomsday Sect By Tatyana Ustinova Reuters At least 30 members of a Russian doomsday cult have barricaded themselves in a remote cave to await the end of the world and are threatening to commit suicide if police intervene, officials and media said on Thursday.

News Revenge Killer Freed from Jail By Kirill Bessonov A Russian man who was serving prison sentence in Switzerland for killing an air traffic controller he blamed for his family's death in an air crash, has returned to Russia and was greeted by relatives, reporters and a rally of young supporters.

News Crime Briefs - Eight Militants Killed In Dagestan Police Assault Eight Militants Killed In Dagestan Police Assault, German Citizen Faces Drug Charges in Siberia, Car Worth $777 000 Hijacked in Moscow, Murder Victim Served as Snack at Drinking Party

Local Staying in Moscow: Stumbling Through the New Visa Rules By Theodore Merz For expats living in Russia, it is a tale as old as time itself. Your visa expires. You take a trip the Ukraine or one of the Baltic States to get a new one. Everything is completed in one day, and you're back in Moscow in time for breakfast the next morning.

Local Dogs in Space By Nathalie Cooper Fifty years ago this month the Soviet Union rocked the world by sending the first living creature into space. On November 2, 1957, as the superpower "space race" raged, the USSR launched a large satellite into space with a little canine passenger, setting the precedent for future manned space travel.

Local Moscow to Restrict Outdoor Ads By Nathalie Cooper Moscow is to gradually rid itself of street advertisements, said Vladimir Makarov, the chairman of the committee for advertizing, information and Moscow city decoration at a press-conference on Tuesday. The growing number of advertisement posters and banners splashed around the city and across main streets is being considered by many to be unprincipled and has been blamed more and more for spoiling the appearance of the capital.

Local A Slice of Italy By Tom Washington Just over 200 kilometers northwest of Moscow, near Tver, lies a little piece of Italy. Fattoria del Sole is a family run farm, creamery, restaurant and general cultural excursion for Muscovites seeking some Mediterranean dolce vita. Pietro and Zhanna Mazza are the proprietors here, and they oversee their glimpse of warmer shores with a watchful gaze and well-ordered hospitality.

Local Sotheby's Ready For Rush on Russian Art By Nathalie Cooper Sotheby's growing involvement in Russian art continued last week as the world famous auction house opened one of its most significant exhibitions of Russian art in Moscow so far, at the Russian State History Museum.

Local Beating the Daycare Shortage By Anton Razmakhnin Parents who decide to sign their child up for kindergarten at age two have acted at least two years too late. Savvy parents are queuing up the moment a child is born - sometimes even before birth.

Local In Search of Pushkin's Paradise By Phoebe Taplin This is the season Pushkin loved. His famously favorite time of year is not a fecund, Keatsian autumn, but something much harsher, embracing naked branches, frozen ponds and skies of "rippled gloom." He admits that it is almost perverse to love a time that others hate, but continues to champion the Russian frost as a tonic for physical and creative well-being. Pursuing this spirit of celebration in adversity, the next two weeks will retrace Pushkin's footsteps in and around Moscow. Much of the poet's early childhood was presided over by his maternal grandmother, Maria Hannibal, at whose house in the country he spent several summers and even some winters and it is here that we will begin.