The latest: Russia’s Main Arms Exporter Says Unaffected by U.S. Sanctions

07.08.2006
Russia’s Main Arms Exporter Says Unaffected by U.S. Sanctions
The newly imposed U.S. sanctions against Rosoboronexport will not affect the company’s work, the general director of the Russian state arms exporter said Monday. The U.S. State Department announced Friday the introduction of two-year sanctions against Rosoboronexport and state-owned aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi over their cooperation with Iran.

07.08.2006
Ties With Moscow Must Be Restored — Ukraine Foreign Minister
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk says Kiev must restore ties with Russia, which have been put on hold by the country’s four-month struggle to form a government. Moscow should be the first destination for the newly appointed prime minister Viktor Yanukovych, he said.

07.08.2006
Guus Hiddink Names His First Russian Squad
Guus Hiddink has named uncapped FC Tom Tomsk striker Pavel Pogrebniak in his first squad as Russia coach for the August 16 friendly against Latvia.

07.08.2006
Jailed Beslan Terrorist’s Name Changed to Avoid Violence in Prison
Nurpashi Kulayev, the only terrorist to face trial in the Beslan school siege case, will be sent to a penal colony to serve a life term under a changed name to save him from possible inmate retaliation.

07.08.2006
Teenage Serial Killer Jailed for 10 Years
A Chelyabinsk city court has sentenced serial killer Dmitriy Kopilov to ten years in a penal colony, the maximum penalty for an underaged person in Russia. An investigation revealed that Kopilov had killed and robbed six women and a man who had accidentally witnessed the last woman’s murder. The juvenile killer “worked” from July 2004 to August 2005.

07.08.2006
Lawmakers Approve Foreign Military Presence in Ukraine
Ukraine’s parliament voted Monday to approve a draft bill moved in by the country’s Western-leaning president Viktor Yushchenko allowing foreign troops’ presence in the country.

07.08.2006
3 Held in Russian Hermitage Art Theft Case
Russian police have detained three people in connection with the theft of artwork and jewelry worth about $5 million from St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, a local police spokesman said.

07.08.2006
Russia Denies Supplying Hezbollah with Anti-Tank Armaments
Russia has not supplied modern anti-tank armaments to the Middle East, so Hezbollah militants cannot possibly be in possession of them, in spite of media reports, a top Russian academic contends.

07.08.2006
U.S. NGO Faces Criminal Suit in Uzbekistan
The Uzbek Prosecutor’s Office has filed a criminal suit against a U.S. non-governmental organization (NGO) that published a book with contents the office deemed “insulting” to Muslim believers.

07.08.2006
Russian Police Looking for Valuable Safes Removed as Scrap Metal
Russian police are trying to track down two huge safes containing classified documents that have been removed from department offices by mistake as scrap metal, the Kommersant daily newspaper reported on Monday.

07.08.2006
Syria Transfers Deadly Russian Weapons to Hezbollah — Paper
The majority of the Israeli Defense Force’s ground-troop casualties, both infantry and armored, were the result of Russian-made anti-tank units of Hezbollah.

07.08.2006
Top South Russian Official Charged With Extorting $410,000 Bribe
Russian authorities say they have busted a ring led by a high-ranking property management official allegedly involved in the extortion of enormous bribes from entrepreneurs in the southern Russian province bidding to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

07.08.2006
Too Early to Speak About Russian Peacekeepers’ Involvement in Middle East Conflict Settlement — MD
It is too early to speak about Russian peacekeepers’ involvement in the Middle East conflict settlement, Russian Defense Minister Igor Ivanov from the military vessel Kruzenstern said.

07.08.2006
4 Russian Soldiers Wounded in Chechnya Blast
An explosive device planted by rebels has wounded four Russian servicemen in Chechnya, officials said Sunday. The soldiers were wounded near the village of Dargo in Chechnya’s southern mountains when the device, a radio-controlled explosive which was planted on a telegraph pole, exploded next to them, the regional branch of Russia’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.

07.08.2006
Sharapova Wins Acura Classic Cup
Maria Sharapova shocked reigning U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters 7-5 7-5 for the first time in five meetings to win the Acura Classic in San Diego. In grabbing her first title on North American summer hard courts, Sharapova earned praise from her opponent who felt the Russian was showing much more maturity on the court.

07.08.2006
Russian Space Agency Needs 5 Volunteers for Mission to Mars
The Russian space agency is looking volunteers to take a trip into “space.” The space agency wants to send five people on a mock trip to Mars and back to test how a real mission would affect the crew’s health.

07.08.2006
Russians Win Inaugural Round of African Off-road Cross Country Championship
Russian crew Sergey Shmakov and Konstantin Mescheschakov, in an RTL Zil Buggy, won the inaugural African Heritage Cross Country, a round of the FIA Cross-Country World Cup, which ended at the Ysterberg Resort Sunday.