Special report: In Russia, a glut of heroin and denial
TVER, RUSSIA (Reuters) – In her one-room flat, as a small shelf of porcelain cats looks on and the smell of mold hangs in the air, Zoya pulls down the left shoulder of her black blouse and readies herself for her next hit.
A friend and ex-addict uses a lighter to heat a dark, pebble-like lump of Afghan heroin in a tiny glass jar, mixes it with filtered water and injects it into Zoya’s shoulder. The 44-year-old widow is a wreck: HIV-positive, overweight and diabetic. After 12 years of dealing and drug abuse, the veins in her forearms and feet are covered in bloody scabs and abscesses, too weak and sore to take fresh injections.
In Russia, a glut of heroin and denial
TVER, RUSSIA (Reuters) – In her one-room flat, as a small shelf of porcelain cats looks on and the smell of mould hangs in the air, Zoya pulls down the left shoulder of her black blouse and readies herself for her next hit.
A friend and ex-addict uses a lighter to heat a dark, pebble-like lump of Afghan heroin in a tiny glass jar, mixes it with filtered water and injects it into Zoya’s shoulder. The 44-year-old widow is a wreck: HIV-positive, overweight and diabetic. After 12 years of dealing and drug abuse, the veins in her forearms and feet are covered in bloody scabs and abscesses, too weak and sore to take fresh injections.
Moscow prison opens first prayer room for Muslims
A prison where Soviet-era writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn was jailed and a third of inmates are Muslims from the North Caucasus and Central Asia, has become the first in Moscow to open a Muslim prayer room.
Nineteenth century Butyrka prison in central Moscow, which also held Adolf Hitler’s nephew Heinrich among other high-profile prisoners, held its first prayers on Friday, in a hall near a Christian church that has operated since 1989.
Suicide bomber kills 31 at Russia’s biggest airport
MOSCOW (Reuters) – At least 31 people were killed and more than 130 injured Monday in a suicide bombing at Russia’s biggest airport, state-run TV reported.
Russia’s rouble-dominated stock market MICEX fell by nearly two percent following the blast, which ripped through the arrival hall at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport at 1332 GMT, the airport’s press office said in a statement.
Suicide bomber kills 31 at Russian airport – reports
MOSCOW (Reuters) – At least 31 people were killed and more than 100 injured on Monday in a suicide bombing at Russia’s biggest airport, Russian news agencies reported.
Russia’s rouble-dominated stock market MICEX fell by nearly two percent following the blast, which ripped through the baggage claim area at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport at 1332 GMT (1:32 p.m. British time).
Orthodox Church asks Russian women to dress modestly
Russian feminists have expressed outrage after the country’s increasingly powerful Orthodox Church proposed an official dress code to ensure that women dress more modestly.
A top Church official, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, called for the code in a letter in which he said: “Either scantily clad or painted like a clown, a woman who counts on meeting men on the street, in the metro or a bar not only risks running into a drunken idiot but will meet men with no self-respect.”
Russia to launch Muslim TV channel to promote tolerance
(Photo: Workers clearing snow during windy weather in front of the Kul-Sharif mosque in Kazan, capital of the Tatarstan republic, March 11, 2010/Denis Sinyakov)
Russia will soon launch a Muslim television channel in the hope it will foster tolerance after the capital saw some of the worst clashes since the fall of the Soviet Union, state-run media have reported.
Proposed by President Dmitry Medvedev two years ago, the satellite channel will go on air in February or March across Russia, home to some 20 million Muslims, or a seventh of the country’s population.
Art or propaganda? North Korea exhibit in Moscow
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Chubby-cheeked, hard-working and joyous but also ready for military action is how North Korea presents its people at a major show of official art from the secretive state in Moscow.
“And Water Flows Beneath the Ice” exhibits 40 works by 39 state-commissioned artists which have never been shown abroad and span 25 years of tight North Korean rule.
Exhibitions: Art or propaganda? North Korea exhibit in Moscow
MOSCOW (Reuters Life!) – Chubby-cheeked, hard-working and joyous but also ready for military action is how North Korea presents its people at a major show of official art from the secretive state in Moscow.
“And Water Flows Beneath the Ice” exhibits 40 works by 39 state-commissioned artists which have never been shown abroad and span 25 years of tight North Korean rule.
Kremlin aide says Medvedev wants second term – report
MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin’s top economic aide said he believes President Dmitry Medvedev wants to seek a second term in Russia’s 2012 presidential election, the BBC reported Friday.
When asked whether the president wanted another term in the Kremlin, Arkady Dvorkovich answered: “I believe he does.” He also said he believed Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had not yet decided who will run.
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