Russia

May 16, 2006: Russia is facing an epidemic of AID / HIV , with over 1 million people infected with the virus, around 1 percent of the country's population.

March 16, 2005: Russia said that it paid a $10m bounty for information on the location of slain Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov. This aided in determining the exact location" of Maskhadov, as well as "the carrying out of a special operation" which led to his death. However Maskhadov, is seen as a moderate rebel leader, favored negotiations to end the war, and has repeatedly called for peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Chechen demands for independence.
March 18 , 2004: As widely expected, President Vladimir Putin easily won a second term in elections Sunday with 69 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll. The poll, conducted by the non-governmental Public Opinion Foundation, surveyed 120,000 voters at 1,200 polling stations.
Feb.15, 2004 : Rescuers in Moscow are continuing their search for survivors after a glass roof collapsed at a city water park, killing 21 people and injuring more than 100. It is thought that poor construction or heavy snow piled up on the roof may be responsible for the incident at the Transvaal Park in south-west Moscow . Terrified visitors rushed out into the icy cold in their swimming costumes, as others remained trapped in the debris.
Jan. 15, 2004: Around 5,500 Russian Muslims are expected to arrive for Haj in the next few weeks. This is almost 1,000 more than last year, the head of the Russian Council of Muftis, Ravil Gainutdin, said in Moscow .
" Saudi Arabia had authorized up to 20,000 Russian Muslims to perform Haj but, because of economic reasons, the number is much lower,". Interfax news agency quoted Gainutdin as saying. The journey by air costs more than $1,500, and by land close to $1,400, the agency said. As in previous years, the majority of the pilgrims are expected to come from the southern republic of Dagestan .
Dec. 5, 2003: A shrapnel-filled bomb believed strapped to a suicide attacker ripped apart a commuter train Friday near Chechnya, killing 42 people and wounding nearly 200 in what Russia’s president called an attempt to disrupt weekend parliamentary elections.
May 11,2003: A Chinese airliner carrying some 100 passengers was ordered back to China after landing in Russia’s far-eastern city of Khabarovsk, as part of Russia’s emergency action to prevent the spread of the SARS virus , the RIA-Novosti news agency reported early Sunday. The aircraft, owned by China Northern Airlines, was forced to return to Kharbin in China as the Khabarovsk local authorities banned all air travel between the region and SARS-stricken southeast Asia last week.
May 5,2003:A US-Russian crew stranded in space by the shuttle tragedy were found alive and well yesterday after losing radio contact on re-entry and landing 500km off target in the steppes of Kazakhstan. What a miracle!?
January23, 2003: Russia wants the international community to impose a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli issue. According to former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, Moscow now believes that with the peace process stalemated, the quartet — the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia — should work out a final solution with moderate Arab states which the UN would then impose on the Israelis and Palestinians. We agree that a solution must be imposed as neither the Israeli nor the Palestinians are working for peace.
Oct.26,2002: President Vladimir Putin asked forgiveness from the families of hostages killed when Russian troops stormed a rebel-held Moscow theater on Saturday and blamed the crisis on international terrorism.
Oct. 26,2002: Russian special forces seized control of the Moscow theater where Chechen rebel gunmen were holding hundreds of hostages Saturday morning, killing their leader and freeing hundreds of hostages. But more than 90 hostages died during the ordeal, health officials said. Fifty insurgents were killed, including 18 women.
Oct.24,2002: October — Scores of Chechens armed with guns and grenades held hundreds of Moscow theater-goers hostage today, threatening to blow up the building if police tried to storm it. The group released up to 20 children immediately from among the audience as well as some Muslims. Police said between 400 and 700 people remained hostage while some 150 had been released. One witness said the guerrillas had strapped explosives to the internal supporting columns of the theater to prepare to carry out their threat to blow up the building if stormed by police. These actions are not right , it is another face of terrorism. Islam has no connection to such acts..
Oct.18,2002: The governor of Russia's Far Eastern region of Magadan was assassinated Friday morning on a busy central Moscow street. Valentin Tsvetkov, 54, was fatally shot near the Magadan region's permanent Moscow office on Novy Arbat, not far from the Kremlin, during early morning rush hour.
Oct.16,2002: A judge in Ukraine today ordered a investigation of the country's president, Leonid Kuchma, boosting an opposition movement that has brought protesters into the streets seeking Kuchma's ouster.
Oct.15,2002:A rocket carrying a communications satellite exploded several seconds after liftoff from a launch pad in northern Russia, killing one soldier.
Sept.9,2002: For Russia's estimated 20 million Muslims, the matter of the head scarves has become a symbol of their uneasy status. The leadership in Moscow is waging a long-running war against Chechen rebels it calls Islamic terrorists. Since the attacks last September against the United States, Muslims here have complained bitterly of a backlash, an "Islamaphobia," as Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiev put it to a Russian interviewer.

Such complaints are particularly resonant here in Tatarstan, an independent-minded republic of 4 million located in the center of Russia, 500 miles from Moscow. For a decade, the region has sought as much freedom as it could get from Moscow -- short of going to war to get it -- and leaders here believe that Russian politicians in the central government have seized on the Tatars' Islamic heritage as a pretext to crack down on what is mostly a nationalist movement.

All across Russia, Muslims have reported instances of harassment since Sept. 11. A Muslim cemetery was desecrated in Krasnodar in southern Russia. A mysterious shooting took place inside a mosque in Irkutsk, Siberia. In Volgograd, Valiyev recalled, a gang broke into a mosque construction site an hour before the groundbreaking ceremony, and local officials told the distressed delegation, "We don't need a mosque here."

In Tatarstan, where the population is almost evenly divided between Muslim Tatars and ethnic Russians, some Muslim women reported being harassed on the street, their scarves ripped off their heads. Mullahs were no longer invited to open Tatar political meetings with prayers after Sept. 11 for fear of controversy, and religious activists began arguing that a tolerant, nonviolent version of Islam has always prevailed here.
Sept.8,2002: Russia punished several senior military commanders today for lapses that contributed to the crash of a military helicopter in Chechnya on Aug. 19, which killed 119 soldiers and civilians.
August 17, 2002: Iraq's ambassador to Russia, Abbas Khalaf, said Saturday that Russia and Iraq are planning to sign a five-year, $40 billion economic cooperation agreement. the agreement includes new projects in the field of oil, irrigation, electrical energy, railroads and transportation. He said the accord could be signed in the beginning of September. However secret sources indicate that this agreement might include some arms deal.
April 10,2002: Russia’s main security service said Wednesday it had thwarted efforts by the CIA to obtain classified information about new Russian weaponry and about Russian military cooperation with ex-Soviet republics.
April 9,2002:April 9 — A crowd of angry pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched down a main Moscow thoroughfare to the U.S. embassy Tuesday, demanding an end to Israel’s military offensive in the West Bank. The protest was the latest in a global wave of pro-Palestinian, anti-U.S. and anti-Israel demonstrations.
March 4,2002: Russia has decommissioned some 10,000 tactical nuclear weapons since 1991.
Sept.25,2001: Russian government is standing with the US for its fight against Taliban. Russian government has started to support the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan , by weapons and training , to fight the fanatic Taliban , who launched the Attack against US.
March 22,2001: A spy war is surging between US & Russia, as Russia dismiss 4 US officials from US embassy in Moscow as spies and requested them to leave the country immediately. Russia will order another 46 U.S. diplomats to leave the country by July 1. If Russia moves to expel an even larger number of U.S. diplomats, Washington could end up expelling many of the 200 Russian diplomats in Washington, D.C. Is the cold war over?
Feb20,2001: Russia handed NATO Secretary General George Robertson plans on Tuesday for a Russian-European alternative to the U.S. National Missile Defense system, which Moscow says could wreck existing arms treaties and spark a costly nuclear arms race.
Feb.6, 2001: Russia energy crisis sparks resignations
Moscow - A severe energy crisis which has left tens of thousands of Russians freezing in their unheated homes claimed the first political scalps of President Vladimir Putin's year-old administration yesterday. Energy Minister Alexander Gavrin resigned after Putin signed an unusually blunt decree accusing him of a "chronic inability to solve the Energy problems".
Dec 25, 2000: Over 10 people died in Russia because of cold.
Sept 2, 2000: Over 16 million people in Russia requested that the month of August be deleted from the Calendar. Russian seems to be pessimistic about August and consider it the month of catastrophe.

Aug 17, 2000: A Nuclear submarine sunk in the bottom of the sea , trapping 118 sailors inside. All rescue efforts by Russia has failed & the Russian Government have asked help from UK & other countries. Russian officers , in the beginning ,had rejected offers of aid from the West for fear of being sacked.
Due to a technical problem the crew had to shut off the nuclear reactor , therefore the ship sunk down to the bottom of the sea. The crew are facing the most horrifying kind of death. This incident raises many concern from Western countries as to the fate of many Nuclear Submarines & other Nuclear facilities that may fail and could cause some problems due to the lack of maintenance.
Aids is spreading fast in the former Soviet Union , according to the latest US report. This may cause instability in the area and possibly wars , that the US need to interfere in to stabilize the area.
The War in Chechnya had coasted Russia over $ 380 million so far..
Russian President Putin is trying to improve the Russian Economy and he is fighting the Russian Mafia.
Russian Ships , operated by government Russian Mafia are smuggling oil form Iraq. The ship was monitored by US spy satellite loading oil in Iraqi port and then cruising near the Iranian coast. The Russian are of course demanding that the ship be released immediately. The ship has been diverted to Oman by US Marine. This issue really focus the attention on Iraq unwilling to respect the sanction and the supporting stand of the corrupted Russian government
Due to the Russian Military offensive ,nearly a third of Chechnya's population -- more than 233,000 people -- has fled the region, most across the western border into the Russian republic of Ingushetia.
The Chechens who remain in their homeland run the risk of death and destruction from the constant barrage of Russian missiles.

Moscow has shrugged off the criticism from Western Nations , and rejected international mediation in the conflict, saying it has every right to defend its national integrity. But humanitarian aid, the Russians said, is welcome.

Russia can not continue such a war, Russia is really collapsing......
Russia is still trying to play the roll of World Power but fail even to fix its internal problems.
Russia Economy is in a bad shape. Will a new government make any difference?
Corruption at all level of government and institutions are hampering the economic progress.
The new Russian president might succeed in bringing Russia out of its Economic decline , however he has to fight the Mafia and the KJB old agents and officers.