MOSCOW, July 13 (Reuters) – A sunken riverboat at the bottom
of the Volga River is a deadly illustration of Russia’s failure
to shake off its Soviet legacy of corruption and systematic
neglect.

The circumstances that led to the disaster that likely
killed 129 people last Sunday — decrepit infrastructure,
regulatory corner-cutting and an obsession with turning a quick
profit at the expense of human life — are all too familiar as
the former superpower struggles to modernise.

MOSCOW, July 6 (Reuters) – Russia said on Wednesday it would
formally submit an application to the United Nations next year
to redraw the map of the Arctic, giving itself a bigger share.

The plan follows a pledge last week to send troops and
weapons north to guarantee its Arctic interests. The formal
application to the United Nations would change the region’s
borders and allow exploitation of energy-rich Arctic territory.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Wednesday it would formally submit an application to the United Nations next year in the hope of redrawing the map of the Arctic, giving itself a bigger share of the resource-rich territory.

The plan follows a pledge last week to send troops and weapons to its icy north to guarantee its Arctic interests. The formal application to the United Nations would change the region’s borders and allow exploitation of the energy-rich Arctic territory.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi’s oldest son has said the Libyan leader is willing to negotiate with rebels to end the violence that has gripped the country since February, a Russian chess official said on Tuesday after a trip to Tripoli.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the head of the World Chess Federation and a previous visitor to Libya, told Reuters in an interview that he met with Gaddafi’s eldest son Mohammed throughout his three-day visit.

MOSCOW, July 1 (Reuters) – Moscow will create two brigades
to protect its valuable Arctic resources, Russia’s defence
minister said on Friday.

Moscow has walked a fine line between cooperation and
aggression in the Arctic which the world’s top energy producer
believes could hold huge reserves of natural gas and oil.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian and NATO forces conducted joint counter-terrorism exercises Tuesday aimed at preparing for the type of hijacked aircraft attack that destroyed New York’s World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001.

Polish fighter aircraft delivered a hijacked airliner to their Russian counterparts above the two countries’ shared border, simulating the level of cooperation they are aiming for in case of attack.

BAKU, June 5 (Reuters) – President Ilham Aliyev is opening
the tap from Azerbaijan’s oil revenues, boosting salaries and
building schools, aiming to ensure bubbling discontent does not
boil over into the kind of unrest that has swept the Arab world.

Sitting astride large oil and natural gas reserves which it
pumps to Europe and Russia, Azerbaijan has come a long way since
the collapse of the Soviet Union. It has refurbished its capital
Baku, attracted massive foreign investment and funded its
brightest to study at Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Interior Ministry troops were fed dog food earlier this year to save money, a former officer in the ministry said Thursday.

A rare whistleblower in Russia’s expansive security forces, ex-Major Igor Matveyev said officers tried to cover up the scandal and other alleged wrongdoing at the Interior Ministry troops base where he served in the far east city of Vladivostok.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – An al Qaeda online magazine has been translated into Russian in what analysts said on Wednesday was an attempt to strengthen ties with insurgents aiming to carve an Islamic state out of Russia’s North Caucasus.

The English-language web journal, Inspire, launched by al Qaeda’s Yemeni wing last year to reach out to Muslims living in the West, stoked U.S. and European concerns with articles such as one entitled “make a bomb in your mother’s kitchen.”

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Dmitry Medvedev marked the anniversary on Monday of victory over Nazi Germany with a promise to arm Russian troops with the latest weapons and push reform of a military plagued by low morale and poor equipment.

Medvedev made the pledge as Russia’s biggest missiles and most advanced tanks rumbled through Moscow’s Red Square to celebrate the 66th anniversary of the end of World War Two.