Punk band goes on trial in Russia for 'prayer' against Putin

MOSCOW -- Three Russian musicians went on trial Monday for less than a minute of political theater in February, when they entered a Russian Orthodox cathedral dressed in colorful outfits and hoods to perform what they called a “punk prayer” begging the Virgin Mary “to drive [Vladimir] Putin away.”

They could face seven years in prison if convicted.

The three women, members of a feminist punk group with a profane name, have already spent five months in jail and have become a cause celebre for those opposed to the Russian leader’s rule. Their fate is being decided in the same courtroom where Putin’s archrival, former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was convicted in a case that activists also charge was politically motivated.

PHOTOS: Russian punk rockers on trial

On Monday, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, were read the indictment accusing them of a premeditated act of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. They pleaded not guilty.

The defendants, who in February were quickly removed from Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral by guards, “intended to cause heavy emotional suffering to persons who found their spiritual beginning in the Orthodox religion,” according to the indictment read by the prosecutor.

The said persons — several burly men, the cathedral guards and two middle-aged women who serve as church aides — nodded and stared at the floor as the prosecutor recited the charge in a monotone.

U.N. Security Council reportedly delays Syria vote after blast

The U.N. Security Council has reportedly delayed a vote on a new Syria resolution in the wake of a bombing in the Syrian capital, Damascus, that killed at least three members of the defense leadership.

Special envoy Kofi Annan reportedly asked the Security Council to delay the vote, which had been scheduled for Wednesday.

Washington and its allies want to impose U.N. sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Assad for refusing to implement Annan's six-point peace plan. But the proposal has run into resistance from Russia, a key Assad ally and a veto-wielding member of the Security Council.

Moscow has used its veto twice to block a resolution seeking to punish Assad.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated Russia’s opposition to additional international sanctions against Syria.

To adopt this resolution against the backdrop of the increasing violence in that country “will be a direct support of some revolutionary movement,” Lavrov told journalists in Moscow. “Instead of calming down the opposition, some of our partners are inciting it to continue [the confrontation].”

In Russia, eight years for leaving baby in the middle of a highway

MOSCOW -- The young mother cried when she heard the verdict Tuesday: eight years for leaving her baby in the middle of a busy highway at night, where she was expecting him to be run over and killed.

She knows it was wrong, she said. If she had a second chance, she wouldn't do it again. But eight years was too much.

"Everyone makes mistakes," she said, tears streaming down her face.     

Last June, after an alcohol-fueled fight with her parents, 24-year-old Yelena Osina and her brother Alexander, 21, took the younger of her two children, 9-month-old Roma, out to the poorly lighted highway, where cars often travel at high speeds. After placing him in the middle of the road, they hid in the bushes nearby.

But 10 minutes later, as Roma crawled on the highway, he appeared in a driver's headlights. The driver stopped and called the police. The siblings were arrested, charged with attempted murder and pleaded guilty.

When they were sentenced Tuesday, Alexander -- who physically placed Roma on the road -- received nine years in a maximum security prison.

Russian news reports said Osina and her family had traveled to Moscow from the Ulyanovsk region, about 550 miles to the east, to look for work. She was unemployed and living in a tiny, ramshackle trailer outside the Russian capital with her brother, mother and father, and two sons -- Roma and 2-year-old Artem.

Roma's father left soon after the boy was born, Osina's father told Channel One television. Osina testified that she decided to kill Roma after a fight with her parents. The newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets reported that the family criticized her for having children who kept the family mired in poverty.  

Roma and Artem are now living with a foster family, who declined to appear in public and told Channel One they have no plans to tell the baby his mother tried to kill him. 

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Protesters flood Moscow's streets despite moves to limit dissent

MOSCOW — Anti-government slogans and calls for change resounded in Moscow’s central boulevards Tuesday, suggesting Russian authorities’ recent moves to suppress dissent haven’t dampened the opposition’s spirits.

In the first major protest since President Vladimir Putin began a new six-year term on May 7, Muscovites of all ages and political convictions flooded the city center, chanting “Russia without Putin” and “Enough of KGB rule.”

The event was dubbed the “March of Millions” to symbolize the wave of discontent that has enveloped Russia’s largest cities since disputed parliamentary elections in December. Protest organizers claimed a turnout upward of 100,000 people, while police — known for giving derisory estimates — guessed about 18,000.

Photos: Protests in Moscow

Pushkin Square, the starting point for the march, was a sea of colors as participants clutching diverse flags, posters and wet-weather gear gathered about noon. But their lively attire didn’t mask their resentment at the prospect of another 12 years of Putin and his ruling United Russia party.

“I have been to all the recent demonstrations because I hate the authorities. They have stolen so much from the people, they’re just traitors,” said 73-year-old Lev Zavaruyev, a retired fisheries worker.

Russian police raid homes of opposition leaders

MOSCOW — Russian police raided the homes of leading opposition figures early Monday, a day before a rally expected to draw tens of thousands to protest President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

Law enforcement officers rifled through papers, confiscated computer equipment and summoned protest leaders for questioning. Anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov and Solidarity activist Ilya Yashin were among those targeted.

Searches were also being conducted at Navalny’s RosPil anti-corruption project and the home of Udaltsov’s parents, journalist Olga Romanova said late Monday.

The raids were linked to the violent clashes between police and protesters on May 6, when more than 400 people were detained in central Moscow, the government’s Investigative Committee said in a statement. Those demonstrations came the day before Putin was inaugurated.

Russia's parliament passes stiff penalties for protesters

MOSCOW -- The Kremlin-controlled upper house of Russia's parliament on Wednesday approved a controversial measure that imposes stiff fines on protests that don't match the government's tight rules.

The bill, which President Vladimir Putin is expected to sign into law in the next few days, levies fines of as much as $20,000 on organizers of demonstrations that have been banned, draw larger crowds than permitted, take place at a time or location not approved or turn violent.

Those who attend such protests would face fines of as much as $10,000. The measure also provides for up to 200 hours of community service as a punishment for violators.

The legislation, which has aroused a public outcry among Russian activists, was passed by the upper chamber, or Federation Council, after just two hours of discussion, following a painstaking and at times fiery debate in the lower house on Tuesday.

Opposition lawmakers in the lower house, or State Duma, which also is controlled by the pro-Putin United Russia party, tried to bog down passage with long debate concerning their almost 400 proposed amendments. After 11 hours of debate, the Just Russia party faction walked out just before midnight rather than join in the vote that sent the measure to the upper chamber.

Russian journalist stabbed outside his Moscow home

MOSCOW — A Russian radio journalist known for reporting on the country’s auto industry and corrupt traffic police and who recently referred to the prophet Muhammad as a businessman was stabbed outside his home, police said Tuesday.

Sergei Aslanyan, a popular anchor for the Mayak radio station, was hit on the head with a heavy object and stabbed multiple times in the chest, neck and arms, said Moscow police spokesman Maxim Kolosvetov.

Police said Aslanyan, who was hospitalized but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, was attacked by an unknown assailant Monday night. The motive was also unknown, Kolosvetov said.

Sergei Arkhipov, a deputy general director of the Russian State Television and Radio Co., who spoke with Aslanyan on the phone Tuesday, said Aslanyan told him the attacker had screamed, “You don’t like Allah!” and “You insulted Allah!”

During a May 14 radio show, Aslanyan referred to the prophet Muhammad as “not a religious leader but a businessman who had accumulated very serious funds from his quite legitimate financial operations and was thinking how to make his way upwards.” He also said Muhammad “decided to rewrite the Bible the way he could and create a religion” that became a successful business.

Arkhipov said Aslanyan was not an expert in Islam and that he later apologized on the air.

Ildar Alyautdinov, the senior imam of the main mosque in Moscow, said in an interview that Aslanyan had used “profanity” and incited strife, but that Muslims are tolerant people who do not profess summary justice. Aslanyan “demonstrated his complete ignorance of the most elementary things,” Alyautdinov said.

“The almighty God used a hooligan’s arm as a tool to punish this man who insulted the feelings of millions of believers in Russia,” he said.

The attack on Aslanyan was the 28th on journalists in Russia this year, according to the Glasnost Foundation, a Moscow-based human rights group. Several hundred journalists have been attacked over the last decade, and more than 100 of them were killed and at least five disappeared, the study showed.

“Whatever the motives for this outrageous attack, I am concerned that this crime will not be solved, same as numerous recent and not so recent ugly crimes against journalists in Russia,” Alexei Simonov, head of Glasnost Foundation, said in an interview.

Oleg Kashin, a journalist with the Kommersant daily newspaper who investigated the activities of pro-Kremlin youth groups, was assaulted by two thugs in front of his house in November 2010. They beat him with metal rods, breaking his jaws, legs and fingers. That crime hasn’t yet been solved.

Anna Politkovskaya, a crusading Russian journalist from Novaya Gazeta, was shot to death in the elevator of her apartment house in 2006, a crime that also remains unsolved.

In the Russian republic of Dagestan, in the troubled North Caucasus, 12 journalists have been killed in the last 10 years, also with no arrests made, Simonov said.

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Wreckage of Russian plane found on Indonesia mountain

This story has been updated. See the note below for details.

MOSCOW -– Wreckage from a Russian passenger plane that disappeared over west Java in Indonesia was found early Thursday morning on the western slope of Mt. Salak at about the 5,000-foot level, Russian television news reported.

No survivors were found among the 45 people on board, including eight Russian crew members and 37 passengers from Indonesia, the United States, France and Italy. Indonesian paratroopers descended on the site from helicopters and found bodies in what was left of the plane, Moscow radio news reported. The remains will be taken to Indonesian clinics for DNA testing, the report said.

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 disappeared from radar Wednesday afternoon about 20 minutes into its second demonstration flight of the day, part of a promotional tour of Southeast Asia for the new aircraft.

The cause of the crash is unknown. The plane had an experienced crew led by the chief test pilot of the production company, officials said.

"The plane conducted about 500 flights with overall flight time of over 800 hours, and passed all kinds of necessary preparation," Vladimir Prisyazhnyuk, president of Moscow-based Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, said in televised remarks.

Putin inaugurated to third term as Russia's president

 
This story has been updated. See the note below.

MOSCOW -- Vladimir Putin was inaugurated Monday to his third term as Russia's president, extending the former KGB officer's 12-year grip on power that most observers considered uninterrupted despite the past four years he served as prime minister.

In the course of a solemn and elaborate ceremony in the Kremlin Grand Palace, the 59-year-old leader was sworn into office under the 1993 version of the Russian Constitution, which was amended by outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev to increase the term of presidency in Russia to six years.

PHOTOS: Putin inaugurated to third term

Putin then quickly submitted Medvedev's name to the parliament as his candidate to be prime minister, a move that had been expected.

In the presence of about 3,000 Russian officials and dignitaries and a few foreign guests -- no leaders among them -- Putin gave an oath “to safeguard the rights and freedoms of man and citizen, to observe and protect the Constitution of the Russian Federation, to protect the sovereignty and independence, the safety and integrity of the state, to loyally serve the people.”

Russian protesters clash with police ahead of Putin inauguration

MOSCOW — Tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets of Moscow on Sunday in protest ahead of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration Monday to a third presidential term, leading to clashes with police near the Kremlin. Several hundred people were arrested, including three opposition leaders, and dozens were injured.

The gathering had been called as the March of Millions to protest alleged cheating in the March presidential election that gave Putin a new six-year presidential term. However, many Muscovites had left the city to celebrate the warm and sunny Victory Day weekend, and turnout was far lower than organizers had hoped.

“It was a mistake to call this a March of Millions, as the opposition movement now is definitely not at its peak,” said one protest leader, Boris Nemtsov. “It gives the authorities a new reason to discredit us and prepare new provocations for us.”

The protest began peacefully as the crowd quietly proceeded through downtown Moscow to the planned site of a rally in Bolotnaya Square, across the Moscow River from the Kremlin.

They carried posters with slogans such as “Let’s not let a thief into the Kremlin” and “Let’s drop the rat off the boat.” Two 4-year-old girls holding hands with their smiling father were chanting, “Russia without Putin!” and “We won’t forget and forgive!” to the crowd’s amusement.