A vast network of Armenian gangsters and their associates used phantom health care clinics to try to cheat the government medical insurance program Medicare out of $163 million, the largest fraud by one criminal enterprise in the program's history, U.S. authorities said.

If you are single, in a sexual relationship and working in the business empire of Vasily Boiko-Veliky, you had better say your marriage vows before a clergyman this week. Otherwise, you'll be fired.

A senior Kremlin official blasted Tver Governor Dmitry Zelenin for "imbecility" on Wednesday, after the regional leader posted online a photo of a worm he found in his salad during a state dinner for German President Christian Wulff.

A German businessman has claimed success in a multiyear effort to confiscate Kremlin property, saying a court in Stockholm has ordered an arrest on Russian state assets in Sweden.

The Investigative Committee has detained three men suspected of committing a string of robberies on Moscow region commuter trains that have left at least 17 dead and 15 crippled, the agency’s transport branch said Thursday.

Prosecutors think former Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky should be convicted of embezzlement but suggested leniency because of legislative changes.

We are now at the two-year mark of President Dmitry Medvedev’s modernization program, and if you look at where perestroika was two years after it was initiated, you will see an amazing parallel — both projects amounted to little more than hype and empty slogans.

Russia's security services have changed a lot since the late Soviet days. They are much worse. That's the view of Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, two young Russian journalists who have just published a book on the FSB.

A wealthy businessman unveiled plans to create a new party, sparking debate about whether it was another Kremlin-backed project for the 2011 parliamentary elections or the independent initiative of an ambitious entrepreneur.

The size of the average bribe has surged by a third as the government's war on corruption faltered this year, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said Wednesday. Chaika berated senior officials involved in the graft fight.

Former Mayor Yury Luzhkov lashed out at President Dmitry Medvedev on CNN, accusing the president of not fulfilling any of his promises and of negligence in connection with terrorist attacks and this summer's drought.

A Jehovah’s Witness member faces a year in prison over her refusal to allow her son to receive a blood transfusion that might have prevented his death in August, Interfax reported.

Every year in October, as the cold, damp weather sets in, it is time for the fall call-up of new draftees. The goal is to conscript 278,000 young men by Dec. 31, but this year the army is supposed to institute new humanitarian measures to make the one-year mandatory service more civilized.

A vast network of Armenian gangsters and their associates used phantom health care clinics to try to cheat the government medical insurance program Medicare out of $163 million, the largest fraud by one criminal enterprise in the program's history, U.S. authorities said.

Sitting on a bench close to St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, former Mayor Yury Luzhkov and his billionaire wife, Yelena Baturina, were listening to street musicians when they were spotted by two Russian reporters.

If you are single, in a sexual relationship and working in the business empire of Vasily Boiko-Veliky, you had better say your marriage vows before a clergyman this week. Otherwise, you'll be fired.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called President Dmitry Medvedev "a great visionary" and compared Russia to a "gold mine" of business opportunities in comments to a room full of entrepreneurs and journalists in Moscow on Monday.

Norilsk Nickel, the world's biggest producer of autocatalyst metal palladium, said Friday that it expected Russian state stocks of the white metal to be "finished" next year.

Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony announced on Thursday that his country would make hefty purchases of military aviation produced jointly with Russia.

President Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow's next mayor will be one of four candidates nominated by United Russia over the weekend, and analysts said the clear front-runner is Sergei Sobyanin, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's chief of staff.

As world military powers look to develop the biggest, baddest weapons, Russia's armed forces are toying with an alternative: inflatable missiles, tanks and planes.

In 2005, then-President Vladimir Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. As time passes, I find myself agreeing with him more and more.

Former Mayor Yury Luzhkov lashed out at President Dmitry Medvedev on CNN, accusing the president of not fulfilling any of his promises and of negligence in connection with terrorist attacks and this summer's drought.

A self-proclaimed alien from the star Sirius has been arrested in Novosibirsk on charges of organizing a nationwide totalitarian sect that brainwashed and sexually abused members, police said Tuesday.

In a throwback to pre-revolutionary days, Russian Railways this week will kick off a regular train service between Moscow and Nice, a southern French city popular among Russian glitterati and wealthy businessmen.

"Wow! It looks like we've got a president after all." This was the typical reaction from political commentators in the Russian blogosphere after the news emerged that President Dmitry Medvedev had fired Mayor Yury Luzhkov.

Eleven Russian students are among 20 people detained in the United States on suspicion of working for an international group of hackers that stole at least $70 million from bank accounts worldwide.

An extraordinary battle between Mayor Yury Luzhkov and President Dmitry Medvedev gathered steam Wednesday as the City Duma issued a motion supporting the mayor, the Kremlin warned that his resignation was imminent, and media reported that more damning television coverage was on its way.

A tug of war around Yury Luzhkov persisted unabated Tuesday as Kremlin officials maintained that the mayor's political fate had been sealed even as he celebrated his birthday in the Austrian Alps.

Yury Luzhkov arrived at his City Hall office on Tuesday morning just as the Kremlin released a decree signed by President Dmitry Medvedev from overseas that ordered his dismissal for a “loss of confidence” in his ability to remain in the job.