POLITICS
With official results of South Ossetia’s November 27 runoff presidential election yet to be announced, the two participants of the race on Monday both claimed victory
(Vedomosti)
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev paid a visited to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, where he inspected housing construction for military personnel
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov severly criticized heads of the Russian regions, which were subjected to heavy forest fires this summer
(Kommersant)
Campaign ads by opposition parties have been banned on state television by order of the head of the Central Election Commission, who has no authority to do so
(The Moscow Times)
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Foreign direct investment in Russia reached $36 billion in the first 10 months of the year, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday during a meeting of the government's commission on foreign investment, citing the Central Bank
(The Moscow Times, Kommersant)
The EurAsEc, a regional economic grouping of ex-Soviet republics led by Russia, has approved the disbursement of a second tranche worth $440 million to crisis-hit Belarus
(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
IT
Yandex purchased the SPB software company and experts believe that Russia’s most popular search engine would be producing a full-featured operating system for smart phones in the near future
(Vedomosti)
WORLD
People have formed unprecedented long lines at voting stations during the first stage of the parliamentary elections that started in Egypt on Monday
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
The Swanland cargo vessel with 3,000 tons of limestone onboard sank 20 miles north-west of the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales after making a distress call at about 02:00 GMT on Sunday. One sailor died, five went missing, and two other members of the eight-strong Russian crew were rescued. Britain's Prince William was the co-pilot of the first rescue helicopter to arrive at the scene
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta, The Moscow Times)
CRIME
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has arrested a group of stockbrokers for illegally diverting 100 billion rubles ($3.2 billion) into offshore accounts. The group, led by Roman Nedyalkov, consisted of several professional participants of the stock market
(Vedomosti, Kommersant)
Hermitage Capital investment fund on Monday released an in-depth and documented report accusing Russian officials of the false arrest, torture and pre-trial death of its auditor Sergei Magnitsky and the subsequent cover-up by Russian officials
(Vedomosti)
SOCIETY
The Krishna holy book faces ban in the Russian city of Tomsk. The book may be accused of expressing religious hatred, suppressing human dignity and declaring one religion superior to all others. But "Bhagavad Gita As It Is" can hardly be called Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf."
(The Moscow Times)
CULTURE
The Virgin Mary's Cincture, a belt Christians believe was worn by Jesus' mother, was on display from November 19 through 28 at Moscow’s Christ the Savior cathedral, the country’s largest Orthodox church. It was taken home to Mount Athos in Greece on Monday
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
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