Chechen rebel chief says not stepping down: website
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Chechen rebel Doku Umarov said in an Internet video posting on Wednesday that he will not step down as leader of the Islamist insurgency in Russia’s North Caucasus, in an apparent U-turn from his earlier resignation.
Umarov was shown speaking in a video on the unofficial Islamist website www.kavkazcenter.com, which had reported on Sunday that he was stepping down for health reasons and would hand over leadership of the insurgency to Aslambek Vadalov.
New Russia holiday marked as Kremlin boosts Church
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia marked its adoption of Christianity in 988 on Wednesday with a new public holiday, the latest show of Kremlin support for an Orthodox Church that has grown increasingly powerful since the fall of Communism.
Rights groups have criticized the new holiday, approved by President Dmitry Medvedev, as undermining Russia’s secular constitution and members of the country’s large Muslim minority have complained that it excludes them.
Jolie spurs Russian patriotism at “Salt” Moscow show
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Angelina Jolie whipped up Soviet-era nostalgia and patriotism for Mother Russia at the Moscow premiere of her spy thriller “Salt.”
Clad in a floor-length Versace gown she described as “Russian Red,” Jolie blew kisses to thousands of fans who came to watch her play a suspected Russian double agent in the blockbuster, which opened at No. 2 in the U.S. at $36.5 million.
Kremlin says to fire security aides if Caucasus attacks recur
MOSCOW/ATAZHUKINO, Russia, July 22 (Reuters) – President
Dmitry Medvedev threatened on Thursday to sack top security
officials if they fail to prevent more attacks on strategic
assets in Russia’s North Caucasus after suspected Islamist
rebels bombed a hydropower plant there.
Six masked men stormed the power plant in Kabardino-Balkaria
on Wednesday, shot dead two guards and set off remote-controlled
bombs beside the main generator units, investigators for the
prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Russia swelters in heatwave, many crops destroyed
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Soaring temperatures across large swathes of Russia have destroyed nearly 10 million hectares of crops and prompted a state of emergency to be declared in 17 regions.
On Friday the state-run Moscow region weather bureau said it expected the heatwave, which has gripped the country since late June and is estimated to have already cost the agricultural sector about $1 billion, to continue into next week.
Chechnya’s leader hails paintball attacks on women without headscarves
The Kremlin-backed head of Russia’s Muslim Chechnya region has praised assailants who targeted women with paintball pellets for going bareheaded, prompting outrage from rights activists. Eyewitnesses have said men in camouflage, often worn by police and security forces in the volatile region, fired paintball guns from cars about a dozen times last month at women who were not wearing headscarves. (Photo: Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, dressed in the national costume, in Grozny on April 25, 2010/Denis Balibouse)
“I don’t know (who they are), but when I find them I shall announce my gratitude,” Ramzan Kadyrov said in a weekend interview on the state-run regional television channel Grozny. He called the victims of the paintball attacks “naked women” who had most likely been forewarned. “Even if they were carried out with my permission, I wouldn’t be ashamed of it,” he said of the paint-pellet attacks.
Russia’s Muslim south triples sharia bride price as Islamic law advances
The pricetag on a bride in Russia’s Ingushetia province has been tripled by the regional government, in a sign the Muslim North Caucasus region is slipping out of Kremlin control as sharia eclipses Russian law.
Against the backdrop of a bubbling Islamist insurgency, the revival of Islam in the North Caucasus following the break-up of the Soviet Union almost 20 years ago has brought sharia law to the region, revered by both rebels and ordinary citizens alike.
Russia’s Muslim south triples sharia bride price
MOSCOW (Reuters) – The pricetag on a bride in Russia’s Ingushetia province has been tripled by the regional government, in a sign the Muslim North Caucasus region is slipping out of Kremlin control as sharia law eclipses Russian.
Against the backdrop of a bubbling Islamist insurgency, the revival of Islam in the North Caucasus following the break-up of the Soviet Union almost 20 years ago has brought sharia law to the region, revered by both rebels and ordinary citizens alike.
Cold War support for Russian “spies” on networking site
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Patriotic, anti-American messages adorn the pages of two alleged Russian spies on Russia’s answer to Facebook, a reminder of historic suspicions and resentments that have survived the end of the Cold War.
“Russia will never abandon you!” is the repeated message on the pages of Mikhail Semenko and Anna Chapman, arrested in the United States on suspicion of being part of a Russian spy ring. Over 100 people left similar messages of support on the Russian language social netowrking site odnoklassniki.ru on Wednesday.
Gaddafi’s artist son shows off paintings in Moscow
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Artist and reformer Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the Libyan leader’s son credited with brokering Tripoli’s stand-off with the West, kept Russian relations warm on Monday when he showed off his paintings.
“It is good here, we are friends,” said the shaven-headed 38-year-old, before guiding Russian officials through the exhibit “The Desert is Not Silent,” made up of around 50 of his own paintings along with Roman and Libyan antiques.
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