US prosecutors will not object to a petition for a retrial filed by Viktor Bout’s defense attorneys in the Supreme Court, a representative of the defense team told reporters.
The Russian parliament is set to consider a new bill that would fast-track naturalization for people born in Russia or whose ancestors were born within the current borders of the Russian Federation.
The Russian Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by ex-parliamentary deputy Ilya Ponomaryov, who argued that his 2016 ousting from the Lower House for regularly missing sessions and failure to perform other work was discriminatory.
About 150 thousand people returned to Russia from foreign countries in 2016, the interior ministry said. State support for repatriates and the anti-Russia campaign in Western countries were the top reasons given.
Russia’s parliamentary majority United Russia party and Italian Euroskeptics Lega Nord (North League) have signed an agreement pledging to promote peace and cooperation with respect to other nations’ traditions and interests.
President Vladimir Putin has pardoned Russian citizen Oksana Sevastidi, who was sentenced to seven years behind bars in 2016 for passing information about the Russian military to her Georgian friend who worked for intelligence.
Russian lower house Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has supported a motion seeking to set the date of 2018 presidential elections as March 18 – the day after the fourth anniversary of Crimea’s reunification with Russia.
The Russian government has approved a bill introducing criminal punishment for anyone propagating suicide among young people or promoting dangerous hobbies that might end in death, such as riding on the outside of suburban trains.
The blockade imposed by right-wing Ukrainian radicals on cargo trains coming from Russia is more proof that the current Kiev government is neither stable nor recognized by its own citizens, a senior Russian senator has said.
About 33 percent of Russians support having a female president, but the percentage of opponents of this idea has increased over the past year, independent polling center Levada reports.