North Korean leader Kim Jong-il played tourist briefly Sunday, stepping off his train to see Lake Baikal

One Moscow couple, having seen the plight of children from Chechnya, decided to make a difference.

This month marks 10 years since Vaclav Havel chaired the meeting carrying the Warsaw Pact to the grave.

""What kind of stunt is it?"" I wondered, certain that I had had enough ""stunts"" for one day.

Why has North Korea's Kim Jong-il decided to travel in his own train during his state visit to Russia?

Two weekly newspapers reported that the FSB has drafted a plan to take control of the national economy.

President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma attended Russia's Navy Day celebrations Sunday in the once-disputed Black Sea port of Sevastopol.

The Moscow mayor's press office appeared to ditch any chance of the capital having its own Love Parade.

Cases of mental illness among Russians have risen since the collapse of communism, Interfax reported.

Governors in Irkutsk and Nizhny Novgorod may be out of a job as their regions vote in elections.

Review of Rice Talks MOSCOW (AP) — Russian officials heard nothing new from U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that would cause them to temper their opposition to jettisoning the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Foreign Ministry said. But the deputy head of the Security Council put a new spin on the upcoming U.S.-Russian talks on strategic stability, suggesting that North Korea and Iran could join the discussions. The United States has cited both as potential hostile nuclear powers that necessitate U.S. development of the missile shield. ""We are for bringing the maximum number of countries possessing nuclear arms or technologies into the process of discussion of strategic stability issues in the framework of the ABM Treaty,"" the Security Council's deputy head, Oleg Chernov, was quoted by Interfax as saying. 5-Year Cloning Ban MOSCOW (MT) — The Cabinet on Friday decided to impose a five-year moratorium on human cloning but to continue experimentation in animal cloning, Interfax reported.

Guinean President Lansana Conte and President Vladimir Putin signed a wide-ranging declaration of friendship and partnership at a meeting in Moscow on Friday.

After a decade of aid packages, U.S. President Bush has called for focusing on investment into Russia.

The government has agreed to an overhaul of the military that will halve the number of enterprises.

Should Purgaz, which currently accounts for 75% of Itera's gas extraction, be returned to Gazprom?

Kazakhstan's prime minister told Russia he was worried by delays to opening a key new oil pipeline and blamed Russia for the hold-up, the Kazakh government said Friday.

Iraq plans to boost trade with Russia in return for Moscow's support on the UN Security Council.

Russia decided on a set of measures Friday aimed at its full accession into the ranks of the WTO.

Gazprom Plan on Way ALMATY, Kazakhstan (Reuters) — A plan for the liberalization of trading in Gazprom shares will be available sometime in August, Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko said Friday. President Vladimir Putin ordered the creation of a working group to consider liberalizing trade in Gazprom shares in April. It has finished its work, but the conclusions have not been made public. ""In the near future, documents on the nature and volume of the liberalization of Gazprom shares will be finally agreed upon and prepared,"" Khristenko said at a press conference in the Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty. ""I think it will appear as a fully-fledged project next month some time, and its implications can then be discussed,"" he said. Mazheikiu Deal Backed VILNIUS, Lithuania (Reuters) — The Lithuanian government said Friday it had approved a key Mazheikiu Nafta equity-for-crude deal and will back legislative amendments to allow Russian Yukos to take a stake in the concern.

A brief look at the stories making headlines in the Russian-language press