Today in History May 24

The Moscow Times - Friday 24th May, 2013

Wikicommons The Aurora, 1903. 113 years ago today, on May 24, 1900, the cruiser Aurora was launched by Nicholas II in St. Petersburg. The Aurora has since become synonymous with the Russian Revolution because it was a blank shot fired from this ship that heralded the storming of the Winter Palace in October ...

Patrons pilfering local bars’ pricey Moscow Mule mugs

The Seattle Times - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Some local watering holes may need to install metal detectors for those on the way out of the bar. Or train their doormen in the fine art of sniffing out copperware being spirited away, hidden in purses and trench coats. Maybe a Moscow Mule user fee is in order. The theft of those lovely tankards is getting absurd. Seattle-area cocktail spots have lost as much as $1,000 worth of the vintage ...

Suspects confess to killing of three Chinese workers in Russia

SINA - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

The four suspects, who were arrested for the murder of three Chinese women in Russia's southern Siberian Republic of Khakassia, have confessed their crimes. A local investigation committee says a pretrial has been held. According to local police, the suspects confessed they committed crimes of robbery, kidnapping and murder. Police say they're gathering further evidence and will later ...

Venezuela Russia in joint oil venture

The West Australian - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

BARCELONA, Venezuela (AFP) - Venezuela and Russia formed a joint venture to produce 120,000 barrels of oil a day by 2016 in two fields in the Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt.Russia will loan Venezuela $1.5 billion to finance the development of the fields under the terms of the agreement, and put up $1.1 billion for a 40 percent share in Petrovictoria.The agreement establishing Petrovictoria was signed by ...

Guns for people in Russia To be or not to be

Pravda - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Incidents of attacks against common people with the use of guns may push Russian authorities towards revising the rules of possession of weapons and approving stricter standards for civilian firearms trafficking in the Russian Federation. At the same time, it would be advisable to raise the responsibility of gun owners via civic associations, such as shooting clubs. ...

Russia detains 74 Chinese workers

China.org.cn - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Russian law enforcement authorities have detained 74 Chinese labor workers who allegedly have no identity documents in the Volgograd region, said the Interior Ministry of Russia ...

Russian rejects parole request by hunger-striking Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina

Global Post - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

A Russian court has rejected a parole request by hunger-striking Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, despite pleas for leniency from former Beatle Paul McCartney, Patti Smith and Peter ...

Several killed in shootout in Russias Dagestan

Global Post - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

reportedly said a Russian commander also "got a lethal wound." "The two suspects were killed while resisting police," an unnamed Russian inspector told Russia's ...

Russia Admits Crimea Consul’s Words Were ‘Incorrect’

RIA Novosti - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

MOSCOW, May 24 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has admitted that recent statements by Vladimir Andreyev, the Russian consul general in Simferopol, Ukraine’s Crimea, about Crimean Tatars were inappropriate. Moscow "understands [Ukraine’s] reaction to certain… incorrect wordings used by the Russian representative without proper account for the sensitive issue ...

Father of Chechen shot by FBI says he thinks son was tortured

C News - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Ibragim Todashev is pictured in this undated booking photo courtesy of the Orange County Corrections Department. An FBI agent shot and killed a Florida man with suspected links to the Boston Marathon bombings early on May 22, 2013, NBC News reported. The Orlando Sentinel said a friend had identified the dead man as 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev of Orlando. REUTERS/Orange County Corrections ...

More than 70 Chinese workers detained in Russia

China Daily - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

/enpproperty--> MOSCOW - Russian law enforcement authorities have detained 74 Chinese labor workers who allegedly have no identity documents in the Volgograd region, said the Interior Ministry of Russia Thursday. The workers, who are incapable of speaking Russian, were said to have been employed by a farm in the Nikolayevski district since last winter. They have been transferred into custody ...

City Room A Soviet Spy in Congress Still Has His Street

New York Times - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

A block in Lower Manhattan is named in honor of Samuel Dickstein, a former United States representative and State Supreme Court justice. It also turns out that Mr. Dickstein was a secret agent for the Soviet ...

QA Anti-Drug Crusader Roizman Wears Many Hats

The Moscow Times - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Igor Tabakov / MT From right to left: Drug Free City founder Roizman and his allies in the Civil Platform ...

Surkov Replaced by Trusty Technocrat

The Moscow Times - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

kremlin.ru Prikhodko, right, attending a Kremlin ceremony with Putin and foreign diplomats in 2009. Sergei Prikhodko, a foreign policy advisor to Russia's leaders for more than 15 years, has been appointed a deputy prime minister and government chief of staff. He assumes the role of head organizer for a government that has been battered by accusations of poor work in recent months. ...

Security Conference Identifies Obstacles to Russia-West Cooperation

The Moscow Times - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

U.S. Embassy in Estonia Rose Gottemoeller speaking in Tallin, Estonia last year. Despite repeated calls for cooperation and resolute declarations of common goals, long-standing divisions and divergent views on the nature of security were still visible between Russian and Western officials at the Moscow European Security Conference on Thursday. The annual conference, organized for the ...

Russian Premier Urges Industry to Supply Superior Weapons

MENAFN - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

(MENAFN - Qatar News Agency) Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called on the country's defence industry on Wednesday to provide the military with state-of-the-art weapons superior to their Western analogs. "It is essential to offer weapons which are superior to our world counterparts, and pay special attention to strengthening cooperation, primarily with our partners in the ...

‘No chance of surviving’ Russia to evacuate drifting polar research station

RT - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Science An evacuation of the North Pole 40 (SP-40) research station drifting on an ice floe near Canada has been ordered by the Russian Natural Resources Ministry. There are fears the situation could become an emergency amid rapidly declining Arctic ice coverage. Not only does the break-up of ice pose a threat to the SP-40 station, it could also cause environmental pollution in the area, ...

US Religious Freedom Report ‘Politicized’ - Russia

RIA Novosti - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Religious Freedom Report recently published by the US Department of State and said that such documents incite religious conflicts. The annual report, released on Monday, mentions Russia among several countries around the world including Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Cuba, Iran and China that it says imposed restrictions on freedom of religion last year. Konstantin Dolgov, the Foreign ...

Positive Data No Spark For Russia Stocks

General Sources - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Positive industrial production data out of Russia today was surely no spark for the general market. Over the last five days, the Market Vectors Russia ...

Violence in Russias North Caucasus kills four

Reuters - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Police killed two suspected Islamic militants on Thursday after one of them threw a grenade at a group of officers and two others died in a separate shootout in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, Interfax ...

Russia leads Europe in bank card fraud

RT - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Russia Russia was top among European countries in the rate of growth of bank card fraud in 2012. Damage evaluations increased by 35%, according to a study by FICO. Back in 2006, the volume of Russia's part in total European losses was no more than 2% which accounted for 12.6 million euros. Today the situation has changed and according to Euromonitor International statistics, Russia now ...

Two Georgian Priests Charged Over LGBT Rally Violence

RIA Novosti - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

TBILISI, May 23 (RIA Novosti) - Two high-ranking Georgian priests have been charged in connection with the May 17 attack by conservative activists on a gay rights rally in downtown Tbilisi, the News Georgia news agency reported on Thursday. The head of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi, Antimoz (Tamaz) Bichinashvili, and the head of the Ioane-Tornike Eristavi Monastery, Iotam (Irakli) ...