Russia has made an unofficial New Year's resolution: this year, it's time to cut down on the booze. On Jan. 1, the Kremlin adopted new minimum-price standards for vodka that will nearly double the cost of a half-liter bottle of the national spirit, from $1.69 to $3. The move, part of President Dmitri Medvedev's anti-alcoholism campaign, is designed to curb Russians' excessive drinking. With a per capita alcohol consumption twice as high as that of the U.S. ...

On April 5, a little-known Russian Senator and diplomat, Mikhail Margelov, published an article called "The Arab World Is Changing," in which he argued that Russia is well-placed to act as mediator in the war in Libya, but it should think hard about the political risks. "We have too much going on in our own country," he wrote. "We have elections coming up." Two months on, the junior diplomat is starting to look prophetic. With the war at ...

It was impossible to pinpoint the exact moment of the transformation, but by the time Russian President Dmitri Medvedev left the podium after his first big press conference on Wednesday, he had morphed into a lame duck. The problem was not so much that he failed to state his plans for re-election next year, but, as some members of his own circle now admit, the President seemed to be courting a constituency of just one man — ...

The raid looked like something out of a Hollywood action movie. On July 7, Russian special forces dropped down on ropes from a helicopter to storm a luxury yacht on the Pirogovsky reservoir outside Moscow, arresting three dozen mobsters, including the group's alleged ringleader, Tariel Oniani. But within days, nearly all of them, including Oniani, had to be set free because prosecutors couldn't charge them with anything. Russia's laws have long been weak and unspecific when it comes to combating organized crime, part of the ...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed Tuesday that Washington and Moscow are working together to ensure Iran's nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes, but Russia has stopped short of committing to Iranian sanctions. Speaking to reporters after a closed-door meeting, Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated there has been no agreement between the countries on any sort of sanctions plan, even though Russia is not opposed to sanctions in principle. The United States is using a ...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has invited U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to his private residence in suburban Barvikha for a discussion Tuesday on a broad range of issues in what one senior State Department official called a "relaxed setting." Issues on the agenda for the two-hour meeting include the next steps on Iran, the Mideast conflict, cooperation on Afghanistan, possible joint work on a missile defense system, Russia's "neighborhood" and climate change. Clinton also will meet with ...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embarks Friday on a six-day trip to Europe and Russia that comes at a crucial time in the Obama administration's decision-making on a strategy for Afghanistan. She will depart one day after the inaugural flight of the "lethal transit" agreement, signed in July by President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, which allows transport of military personnel and equipment across Russia to support the U.S.-NATO mission in Afghanistan. On the trip, the secretary ...

Imagine if the Empire State Building were to be placed smack in the middle of Venice or Jerusalem. Jutting out from the ancient streets, a skyscraper of that size would seem absurdly out of sync with the iconic beauty of the cities. Developers would likely never get such a proposal approved. But in Russia the rules are different. Last month, officials in St. Petersburg approved the construction of a 400-meter-tall skyscraper in the historic center of the city. The city's beautiful Baroque and neoclassical ...

A rare meeting of U.N. Security Council heads of state, led for the first time by a U.S. president, adopted a resolution Thursday focused on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. President Obama challenged the gathering, which included leaders of nuclear powers including Russia, China, Great Britain and France, to overcome cynicism against the goal of ridding the planet of nuclear arms. "We harbor no illusions about the difficulty of bringing about a world without nuclear weapons," Obama said, adding ...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met Wednesday with U.S. President Barack Obama, then signaled he could support sanctions against Iran over its efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. "Russia's position is clear: Sanctions rarely lead to productive results, but in some cases sanctions are inevitable," Medvedev said in a joint appearance with Obama after their talks. The statement bolsters U.S.-led efforts for increased international pressure on Iran to adhere to nonproliferation agreements in pursuing the development of nuclear energy. ...