POLITICS

Over 200 Russian and foreign pundits, thinkers and politicians, including President Vladimir Putin, are due to meet next week in northwestern Russia to discuss the country’s role in the modern world.

(Vedomosti)

Leaders of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a post-Soviet Eurasian security bloc, will gather Friday in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to discuss the settlement of the Syrian conflict among other issues.

(Vedomosti, Kommersant)

Pro-Kremlin incumbent Sergei Sobyanin was sworn in as Moscow’s mayor Thursday, following a court ruling earlier in the day rejecting rival candidate Alexei Navalny’s bid to overturn the election result over claims of widespread violations.

(Vedomosti, Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, The Moscow Times)

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed a joint venture with the United Arab Emirates that will invest up to $5 billion in infrastructure projects in Russia.

(Vedomosti)

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Russia would cut planned budget expenditure by at least 5 percent between 2014 and 2016.

(Kommersant, The Moscow Times)

Moscow’s Domodedovo airport officially revealed the name of its beneficiary owner, who turned out to be Dmitry Kamenshchik, billionaire and the chairman of the airport’s board of directors.

(Vedomosti, Kommersant)

WORLD

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov began talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry on the Syrian conflict settlement on Thursday in Geneva. Syria, meanwhile, says it is givnig up its chemical weapons at the request of Russia and not to US threats of armed intervention.

(Izvestia, Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

Real estate tycoon Sergei Polonsky, who is wanted in Russia for embezzlement, was granted Cambodian citizenship.

(Kommersant)

EMERGENCIES

At least 14 people are missing after a fire destroyed a psychiatric hospital early Friday outside the central Russian city of Veliky Novgorod. Investigators allege that one of the patients set the hospital on fire.

(Izvestia, Moskovsky Komsomolets, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

CRIME

More than 50 million rubles ($1.5 million) was embezzled during the renovation of buildings belonging to St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum Complex, according to the Russian Interior Ministry.

(Kommersant)

Police in Russia’s fourth-largest city, Yekaterinburg, conducted searches Thursday at the homes of senior city government officials as part of an ongoing fraud probe, the Interior Ministry said, while denying it had any connection to a recent mayoral election that was won by an opposition candidate.

(Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)

SPACE

The Rokot carrier rocket, launched on Thursday from the Plesetsk state space launch site, put three Gonets-M communications satellites into orbit.

(Kommersant)

SOCIETY

Doughnut fan revels in 22 hour wait. While some people line up outside stores for the release of the new iPhone or other new gadget, others feel the same desire for doughnuts.

(The Moscow Times)

SPORTS

Polar explorer and federal lawmaker Artur Chilingarov will lead an expedition to the North Pole as part of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic torch relay.

(The Moscow Times)

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