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Only tend stands out of two thousand to be installed by the Victory Day will be devoted to Joseph Stalin’s role in the Great Patriotic War (WW II) victory, reports Interfax news agency. The event organizers also make the point that the information featuring on Stalin-related stands will be neutral and non-biased. Other stands and posters will tell about the input of the Soviet nation, the partisans movement, the crypto movement, the civil population, artists, actors and singers, architects and builders, doctors...

Abdulkhakhim Ismailov, one of the three Soviet soldiers who hoisted a Victory Banner over the Reichstag in the spring of 1945 passed away in Dagestan (a Russian North Caucasus Republic), the Voice of Russia reports. The WW II veteran was 94. A photo taken by the war correspondent Yegeny Khaldey shows Ismailov and two other soldiers – Alexei Kovalyov Leonid Gorychev – hoisting a red banner on one of the Reichstag towers. This photo is much less known to the public than another one, in which sergeants Mikhail Yegorov...

A a Soviet-era diva Irina Arkhipova has passed away in Moscow at the age of 85, The Associated Press reports. Arkhipova, a mezzo-soprano and later contralto, sang leading roles for the Bolshoi for decades after joining it in 1956. She reached the peak of her career in the 1960s and 1970s, making guest appearances throughout Europe and the U.S. Her most celebrated roles included Carmen in Bizet’s Carmen, Amneris in Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, Marina and Marfa in Mussorgsky’s Boris...

February 12 will mark the launching of an Olympic Tram in St. Petersburg, which will coincide with the opening of the 21 Winter Olympic games in Vancouver. At midday the tram decorated with the Olympic symbols will begin its journey from house #50 on Sadovaya Street. Among its first passengers will be St. Petersburg Olympic athletes - winners of previous Olympic games. During a short press conference to be conducted in the tram, the athletes will share the most memorable moments of their sport career, victories and defeats; will tell about their hometown, and...

A Czech company UPS begins broadcasting of a Russia Today channel in the Czech Republic, the website prague-express.cz reports. Russia Today will be included in Standard and Supreme packages of the digital channel. Of note, Czech cable networks stopped broadcasting Russian-language channels in 2006. The English-language Russia Today launched its trial broadcast on September 14, 2005 and switched to official broadcasting in December 2005. The channel aims at promoting Russia’s viewpoint on the international policy and to keep the audience...

Russian pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Vladimir Aksenov has turned 75, reports Voice of Russia. Back in 1976 he blasted off on his first flight as a SOYUZ spacecraft flight engineer along with Valery Bykovsky. The spaceflight lasted for over 7 days. Aksenov took off on his second space flight four years later, and it was then that his spaceship docked with the SALYUT-6 – SOYUZ-36 orbital research complex, whose main crew was Leonid Popov and Valery Riumin....

The Russian conductor and pianist Vladimir Ashkenazi together with another Russian pianist Evgeny Kisin have won Grammy awards for the Best Instrumental Performance with an Orchestra of Prokofiev's Piano Concertos No. 2 and 3. Maestro Valery Gergiev with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra was up for "Grammies" in five categories of the classical music section, but was not granted any of the awards. The Grammy Awards are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding...

January 25 Paris hosted first events in the frame of the Year of Russia in France. Vyacheslav Nikonov, Executive Director of the Russkiy Mir Foundation took part in one of these events entitled “Contemporary World as seen by Russia and France”, which brought together Russian and French intellectual elite. The goal of the project organized by the Russian Academy of Science and the French Academy is to develop cultural cooperation and to strengthen the ties between the two countries. Participants of the event – scientists,...

January 25 Paris hosted first events in the frame of The Year of Russia in France. Vyacheslav Nikonov, Executive Director of the Russkiy Mir Foundation took part in one of these events entitled “Contemporary World as seen by Russia and France”, which brought together Russian and French intellectual elite. The goal of the project organized by the Russian Academy of Science and the French Academy is to develop cultural cooperation and to strengthen the ties between the two countries. Participants of the event – scientists,...

Russia will push for reforming the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference on January 22. He believes that OSCE can function efficiently only after having being transformed into a full-scale organization. Kazakhstan, which has assumed the rotating chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe this year, is supporting Russia’s initiative. Among Russia’s suggestions is to work out clear regulatory papers stipulating OSCE...

The first Russian-French Student Forum opens today at a Paris-based Russian Center of Science and Culture, reports Vesti channel. The forum marking the launch of the Year of Russia in France will be attended by delegates from over a hundred Russian and French universities. Among the participants will also be Head of the Administration of Russia’s President Sergei Naryshkin, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, and leading Russian and French politicians and public figures. A number of roundtables on politics, energy, environmental protection...

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) overseeing Internet domain names on Thursday said Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates can begin creating online addresses in their native languages. Interested parties could file such requests starting from November 16, 2009, when ICANN announced the launch of the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process enabling non-English speakers across the globe to access Internet addresses in their own language. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit...

The iconic first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin tops the list of Russia’s 20th-century idols, according to a the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center opinion poll held in January. Gagarin was chosen by 35% of the respondents. In second comes the actor and songwriter Vladimir Vysotksy with 31% and the WWII-era military commander Marshal Georgy Zhukov closes the top three with 20%. The survey covered 140 communities in 42 Russian regions....

January 19 noted Russian filmmaker Vadim Abdrashitov turns 65. President Dmitry Medvedev has already congratulated the filmmaker on this event. The Russian leader specifically cited Abdrashitov’s considerable contribution to his country’s cultural heritage, praising the filmmaker’s ability to uncover social problems in his films. For the past fifteen years Abdrashitov has lectured at the legendary Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK)....

Russia Today began broadcasts from its new Washington-based bureau, reports Lenta.ru. In addition to new programs the DC studio will produce The Alyona Show, a daily news and talk program hosted by Alyona Minkovsky. The content offered by the DC studio will be aimed at the US audience and will report the latest local news and cover the events, which are of interest for the local audience. Chief Editor of RT channel Margarita Simonyan hopes that the initiative will...

A ceremony took place at the Kremlin conferring the title of City of Military Glory on Arkhangelsk, Kozelsk and Pskov. The titles were conferred by presidential executive order of December 8, 2009 “for the courage, steadfastness and mass heroism the defenders of these cities displayed in fighting for the freedom and independence of the Fatherland”. When presenting the cities' mayors with this honor, President Medvedev said: "Our task is to ensure that the glorious history of Pskov, Arkhangelsk, and Kozelsk is not...