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The [Russian] Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the acquittal of three suspects in the killing of American journalist Paul Klebnikov and ordered a new trial, a court spokesman said. The court, hearing an appeal by prosecutors and the victim's lawyers, said a new trial should be held with a new judge, court spokesman Pavel Odintsov said.

MOSCOW, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - The presidents of Russia and Belarus said Friday they will be guided by free market principles as they seek to broaden bilateral economic ties, the Kremlin press office reported.

MOSCOW, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - A total of four sailors have now been found dead, and 11 have been found alive from the 18-man crew of a Russian cargo ship that sunk in the West Pacific three days ago, after rescuers found another three dead on Thursday. The Russian ship Yury Orlenko, which had sailed from the country's Far East port of Vladivostok to join the rescue effort, pulled a body out of the water in the Sea of Japan at 5:30 a.m. GMT on Thursday, according to Russia's Transportation Ministry.

MOSCOW, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's defense minister highlighted Moscow's concern Thursday that Georgia could try to tackle disputes with the self-proclaimed republics on its territory militarily. Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which proclaimed independence from Georgia in the 1990s, have contributed to tensions in relations between Russia and Georgia, which accuse one another of plans to unleash a new bloody conflict in the region and to annex territory, respectively.

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kolesnikov) -President Vladimir Putin has left the audience intrigued once again. He is not ready to name his successor yet, he said, and believes that Russian people have to "determine who is the strongest candidate." At the same time, he did promise to name someone. "Of course, as any Russian citizen, I reserve the right of choice at a vote and I do not believe that I should give up my right to express my opinion in mass media," he said. "I will talk about it when the time is right." It is not...

The government of Turkmenistan has for years practiced a domestic policy that can only be described as "Turkmenization." Most non-ethnic Turkmen officials have been purged, and authorities have gone further in insisting, unofficially, that residents speak Turkmen and dress in what is regarded as a Turkmen fashion. Even schoolchildren are subject to the unwritten policies, which have led to the emigration of ethnic Russians, Kazakhs, and Uzbeks. The latest manifestation is the arrival in neighboring Uzbekistan of young women who married Turkmen citizens but were rejected registration and tossed out of the country, along with their children. Ziyoda Ruzimova lived...

Ukraine will be paying Russia $130 per 1,000 cu. meters of gas in 2007, Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said in Kiev on Tuesday. The parties did not comment reports that Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich managed to secure moderate gas prices for his country in exchange for political trade-offs. In any case, successful talks with the Russian premier helped Viktor Yanukovich show his abilities in putting relations with Russia back on track.

Various theories have circulated regarding who might have murdered the journalist Anna Politkovskaya on October 7, and why. According to these, she was targeted by nationalist extremists, or by Russian military officers that she had named in connection with human rights abuses in Chechnya, or by Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, whose alleged abuses she had chronicled in great detail. Two days after her murder, the website of Politkovskaya’s newspaper, Novaya gazeta, said it was either an act of revenge by Kadyrov or carried out by “those who want suspicions to fall on the current Chechen premier, who, having passed...

Russia is correct to argue that energy security is a two-way street, former U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania Keith Smith told the Prague Energy Forum today. However, he noted, many in the Kremlin seek not merely security, but control. Below, RFE/RL presents the complete text of Smith's remarks to the forum.Keith Smith: The prominent attention given energy issues at the EU-Russia "summit" in Lehti, Finland, on October 20 was quite illustrative. The summit demonstrated that there is a converging perception in Western and Central Europe regarding the risks of energy dependency on Russia. This may or may not be fair,...

BRUSSELS, October 25, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- At a European Parliament debate on South Ossetia and Transdniester today, EU officials had two distinct messages. First, that the bloc’s involvement in Moldova will remain strong. Second, that Georgia's requests for greater EU involvement are "unrealistic." From the EU’s point of view, not all frozen conflicts are alike. It continues to acknowledge Russia’s key role in attempts at resolution. But when it comes to its own involvement, Brussels is clearly more enthusiastic about Moldova than it is about Georgia. Moldova will share a border with the EU as of January 1, 2006, when...

Russian President Vladimir Putin faced his nation today in a live multimedia appearance broadcast on Russian television and radio, the fifth of its kind since he came to office in 2000.

WASHINGTON, October 23, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Last winter, Ukrainians were left shivering after Russia cut off gas supplies. This year, there's a chance it could be Russians feeling the freeze. Some observers are concerned that Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom will be unable to supply domestic electricity-generating companies with enough gas. If that happens, it could mean brownouts and blackouts this winter. Such a scenario nearly occurred last year. Mosenergo, the majority shareholder in Russia's Unified Energy Systems (EES) electricity monopoly, supplies electricity to the Moscow region. In the winter of 2005-06, it was faced with a severe lack of...

Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Lahti, Finland, to meet with European Union leaders and European Commission officials. Many expected the Europeans to greet Putin in an aggressive mood. Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov did not see any signs of a battle among the participants in the informal summit, but neither was any evidence of agreement evident – not on the Energy Charter, human rights or the Russian-Georgian conflict. At dinner, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested negotiating an Agreement on Strategic Partnership and Cooperation between Russia and the European Union to replace the old one that is about to expire....

KYIV, October 13, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Professor Francis Fukuyama is best known for his idea that the world settled on liberal democracy after the ideological struggle of the Cold War. After giving a lecture at the 10th Anniversary of the Economic Education and Research Consortium in Kyiv, he spoke to RFE/RL Ukrainian Service correspondent Marianna Dratch about the unrealistic expectations of the Orange Revolution, the development of civil society in Ukraine, and how his ideas on liberal democracy have been misunderstood and misused.

Kazakhstan has conducted military exercises in its western region, partly to demonstrate more effective coordination of its security forces, but also to convey a powerful signal to Islamic extremists and confidently display its ability to protect its facilities in the Caspian Sea. These exercises, though showing practical progress for Kazakhstan’s armed forces, were held at a time when more corruption scandals marred the reputation of the Ministry of Defense. Moreover, the authorities are showing increasing concern about the activities of Islamic extremists and their networks within Kazakhstan, revealing uncertainty regarding the precise nature of the threat and the capabilities of...

Vladimir Putin’s visit to his old stumping ground, Germany, after he hosted Chancellor Angela Merkel in Siberia earlier this year, was delightful. Putin dropped by the old haunt, Dresden, where he used to run agents, then attended meetings with Bavarian officials and a dinner in Munich. The Green Party leaders boycotted the affair because of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya murder. Still, the Greens in the past gave hand to the massive German energy partnership with Russia – so that the Vaterland can shut down the much-hated nuclear reactors. Better be Red than dead; better be Green and pro-Russian than anti-environment....

UN Security Council Resolution 1718, adopted Saturday, includes serious international sanctions aimed against Pyongyang. At the same time, the original draft resolution as submitted by Japan was softened somewhat to address objections from Moscow and Beijing. But are such attempts at leniency in Russia's strategic interests?

Foreign executives appealed to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and senior economic officials for clarity and transparency Monday amid a major review of many of the country's largest foreign investment projects. They warned that corruption, administrative barriers, entangled bureaucracy and selective application of the law were casting a shadow over the country's strong economy and scaring away potential investors. Yet state officials failed to provide the clarity foreign investors sought. "There is a strong sense of optimism here, but also a strong sense of nervousness," said Ernst & Young CEO James Turley, who co-chaired the conference with Fradkov.

It is rare to hear good things about Russia's Kaliningrad region on the Baltic Sea. Cut off from the rest of Russia, tucked between Poland and Lithuania, during the 1990s Kaliningrad became notorious for smuggling and epidemics of heroin abuse and HIV. It was the first place in Russia to be hit by widespread HIV infection. During Soviet times Kaliningrad was a closed military zone, and after the fall of the USSR the exclave suffered one of the worst economic collapses anywhere in Russia. But things are quietly changing in Russia's smallest region, because Kaliningrad is experiencing an economic boom...

The latest crisis in the chronically uneasy relationship between Moscow and Tbilisi is not likely to fizzle out any time soon, as the positions of the two sides appear to be irreconcilable. This poses a painful dilemma for the West: do the United States and the European Union want to make the fate of Georgia and its breakaway regions a central issue in their relationship with Russia?