MOSCOW (Reuters) – Corruption, bureaucracy and a lingering Soviet mindset are big obstacles in Moscow’s drive to boost science and technology to diversify its economy, this year’s Russian-born Nobel Physics Prize winner said.

Andre Geim, 51, who shared the prize for his work on ultra-thin carbon that may have uses in touch screens, light panels and solar cells, left Russia in the early 1990s.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Over a thousand anti-government protesters were allowed to rally on Sunday in Moscow’s central Triumph Square for the first time in years as authorities granted their opponents a moment to air their grievances.

Though veteran human rights defender Lyudmila Alexeyeva was granted permission by authorities to hold a rally for 800 people, scores of armed police stood by as the square filled up with more people than allowed, many of them chanting “Russia without (Prime Minister Vladimir) Putin!”

By Amie Ferris-Rotman

MOSCOW (Reuters Life!) – Italian menswear designer Umberto Angeloni, unveiling his new Uman label in Moscow, sees a renewed thirst for luxury in the world’s fourth-largest market but said it could do with a re-style.

“In Russia, they hunger once again for luxury,” Angeloni told Reuters before opening his first Russian Uman boutique at Moscow’s plush TSUM department store late last week.

MOSCOW, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Russia is preparing legislation
to set up private security firms using ex-soldiers and police to
protect its oil, gas and mineral holdings in conflict zones
abroad, a lawmaker and ex-KGB officer said in an interview.

Gennady Gudkov said up to 1,000 security personnel would
operate along the lines of U.S. and British private security
firms, said Gennady Gudkov, a deputy in Russia’s lower house of
parliament, known as the Duma.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The European Court of Human Rights said on Thursday it had fined Russia for banning homosexual parades in Moscow, marking a victory for the country’s marginalized gay community.

Gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev had lodged three cases with the court arguing that Russia had violated the European Convention on Human Rights, to which it subscribes as a member state of the Council of Europe.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A small group of activists held the first gay rights demonstration in Moscow without hindrance from city authorities on Friday, saying there had been a change of policy since the dismissal of Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.

Luzhkov, an opponent of gay rights, was sacked after 18 years in office on Tuesday by President Dmitry Medvedev.

MOSCOW, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Russia is stepping up its
efforts to solve the murders of 19 reporters, a leading media
rights watchdog said on Thursday, adding it saw a new attitude
in a country it ranks among the most dangerous for journalists.

The unsolved murders of journalists focusing on corruption
and rights abuses are a black mark on Russia’s leaders in the
eyes of Western governments and Kremlin critics who say failure
to find their killers creates an atmosphere of impunity.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian regional leader who says he was once abducted by aliens was re-elected on Wednesday as president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) in a vote that opponents said was rigged.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the impoverished Buddhist region of Kalmykia, beat former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov with 95 of 167 votes cast, an official at the Athens headquarters of the FIDE federation told Reuters.

MOSCOW, Sept 28 (Reuters) – The sacking of Moscow’s veteran
mayor means the vast construction empire belonging to his
billionaire wife could become decentralised, more transparent
and more affordable, experts said on Tuesday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev early on Tuesday abruptly
sacked Yuri Luzhkov, a powerful political opponent who had ruled
the Russian capital for 18 years and who criticised the Kremlin
and then defied pressure to resign. [ID:nLDE68R012]

By Amie Ferris-Rotman

MOSCOW (Reuters Life!) – Russia’s famed Bolshoi Theater opened its 235th season on Tuesday, presenting a new musical director and putting an end to more than a year of infighting that had thrown its future into chaos.

“I have come to the Bolshoi for a seriously long time,” grey-haired conductor Vasily Sinaisky told reporters in a marble-lined hall adjacent to the main building, which is undergoing a grand $1-billion rebuild.