Stories related to: Moscow

Manchester United beat Chelsea in a sudden-death shootout to win tonight's European Champions League Final in Moscow, with goalie Edwin van der Sar saving a shot from Chelsea's Nicolas Anelka to seal the all-British encounter, the BBC reports. "The first penalty shoot-out I've ever won in a big game," exhaled Man U boss Sir Alex Ferguson. "I think there was a bit of fate about it." More »

It's not only humans who get around the Russian capital by subway these days. Stray dogs are now a common sight on the Moscow metro, and, as the Wall Street Journal reports, their lives are pretty cushy. Muscovites are accustomed to seeing them lounging in stations, waiting for someone to toss a scrap, boarding trains, and curling up on an empty seat.  More »

The May 21 Champions League soccer final in Moscow will feature two English powers—but cost might be the least of the worries for British fans hoping to make the trip. An overwhelmed Russian embassy is already farming out applications for visas, and demand was crashing Web sites even before Chelsea won today's semifinal to clinch a meeting with Manchester United for the title. More »

NATO chided Russia today for sending additional troops into the breakaway Georgian provinces, saying the show of force “undermined Georgia’s territorial integrity,” the BBC reports. The alliance also warned Tbilisi against exacerbating the situation: Georgia has warned against Russian intervention, and, according to Moscow, also increased troop levels in a region of Abkhazia still controlled by the Georgian government. More »

Paris Hilton is facing a worldwide Hyatt ban after she scrawled her name on a $12,700-a-night presidential suite's luxury wallpaper in Moscow, the Sun reports. The heirhead, who's on tour with her Good Charlotte boyfriend Benji Madden, was fined $7,100 for the "Paris Moscow 2008" graffiti gaffe, which she scrawled in black marker during a sexy photo shoot. More »

Two journalists have been killed in separate incidents in Russia, AFP reports. A reporter for state-run television was found strangled and stabbed in his Moscow apartment. Only hours earlier he had written a blog post saying "Now I'm a dissident!" The man had worked in Dagestan and elsewhere in the volatile North Caucasus region. Colleagues said he often worked in "combat-like conditions." More »

Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila caused a stir in Moscow last weekend when they paid an unannounced visit to the theater. After the audience gave him a standing ovation, Putin made a foray into theater criticism that stunned the cast. "Why did you show him crying?" asked the notoriously emotionless Putin of the lead actor's portrayal. "You showed him sniveling." More »

Even with the outcome all but certain, Vladimir Putin took to the airwaves today to urge Russians to vote in Sunday’s elections. Putin wants to enable his hand-picked presidential successor, Dmitry Medvedev, to claim a strong mandate, so the government is pushing for turnout of at least 65%, the London Times reports. That puts pressure on regional politicians and factory owners . More »

Russia and the US are hatching a possible follow-up to the Annapolis Mideast summit in Moscow next year; the meeting would be aimed at launching peace negotiations between Israel and Syria, the Washington Post reports. Both sides signaled enthusiasm about reviving talks, centered on the dispute over the Golan Heights, which Israel seized in the 1967 Six-Day War. More »

An international election watchdog agency has canceled its mission to monitor Russia’s December vote because its delegation's visa applications “have continuously been denied,” reports the Washington Post. The lack of oversight by the agency, part of the 55-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, is expected to heighten concerns about the legitimacy of the elections. More »

The Kremlin is going 2.0 by extending its reach into cyberspace, where dissidents have found refuge from the government’s tight censorship. While Putin allies mount pro-government websites and snatch up existing independent outlets, Moscow is considering the creation of a separate Russian network. “The attractiveness of the Internet as a free platform for free people is already dimming,” one expert said. More »

Condoleezza Rice said today Russia shouldn’t use its oil and gas reserves as a “political weapon,” and that the country should move away from authoritarianism and toward democracy. The secretary of state confirmed a “certain distance” between Russia and the US, Reuters reports, but the Soviet scholar said she isn’t concerned about a return of Cold War tensions. More »

Starbucks will finally open its first Russian store next month, the Seattle Times reports, but the coffee giant will need a jolt of caffeine to achieve the brand recognition of Western rivals who've been in the market for years. Traditionally tea drinkers, Russians have warmed up to domestic coffee purveyors, and few expect Starbucks' latest expansion to fail. More »

Timid vacationers whose idea of a good time is a book and a beach chair need not peruse this list of adventures, compiled by Forbes . Dive with sharks in the Bahamas (cagediver.com) Fly a fighter jet in California (incredible-adventures.com) High-altitude skydiving in Memphis (halojumper.com ) More »

Moscow thrust the BBC into the geopolitical limelight yesterday by axing its radio service from Russian airwaves. Media pundits are blaming the decision on rising anger between Moscow and Britain as the head of Russia's BBC called the radio silence “highly irregular and extremely disappointing.” But a Russian regulator denied any political motivation behind the move and promptly hung up on the Guardian .  More »

A Russian court has acquitted the founder of Allofmp3.com of breach of copyright, Reuters reports. The now-defunct Russian website infuriated American and Western European music companies by offering cut-rate downloads that they said infringed on their copyright. EMI, Time Warner, and other major corporations insisted on prosecution, but a judge found Allofmp3 had paid sufficient royalties. More »

Russia suspects terrorism in a bomb that derailed a train on the busy Moscow-to-St. Petersburg line yesterday, reports Reuters. Thirty-eight people were hospitalized and more  treated at the scene, about 170 km from St. Petersburg. The bomb was planted on a bridge; the locomotive and most carriages derailed after crossing. More »

Russia is in the grip of the king of all murder trials, the Guardian reports: A chess player has been accused of luring dozens of opponents away from the board and to their brutal deaths in a Moscow park. Alexander Pichushkin has allegedly boasted of 63 murders, one shy of a chessboard, and each marked on his personal board with a cross. More »

Forty-four-year-old Evander Holyfield will challenge for his fifth heavyweight crown on October 13 against WBO champ Sultan Ibragimov. The Moscow bout was slated to feature Ibragimov and WBA champ Ruslan Chagaev, who withdrew for undisclosed reasons. Holyfield, who downed Lou Savarese in June, says he's ready to unify the heavyweight division ttile. More »

Russia has claimed a massive, oil-rich chunk of the Arctic, despite international laws that block ownership of the territory. The Kremlin based its move on scientists' insistence that an underwater shelf links Russia to 460,000 square miles of the North Pole, which contains 10 billion tons of oil and gas deposits which can be extracted relatively easily. More »