Successful test of the "missile defense killer";
Thousands gather to protest on Russia Day

Only Russian aircraft carrier moves to Mediterranean;
Former chess champion leaves Russia

Kremlin announces plans to ship weapons to Syria?;
$30 billion stolen from Sochi Olympic funds

Gazprom to be split?;

Russian authorities detain American “spy";
Moscow ships missiles to Syria
 

Ever since last month’s bombings at the Boston Marathon, speculation has abounded as to what led the perpetrators — suspected to be ethnic Chechens 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar — to carry out the most significant act of terrorism on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001. By all accounts, both were largely homegrown radicals who received inspiration, and perhaps even dangerous instruction, from jihadist elements in the United States and abroad. The roots of the Tsarnaevs’ militancy can be traced back at least in part to Russia’s own troubled “war on terrorism” — a struggle that Moscow, more than two decades after the Soviet collapse, is in real danger of losing.

The opposition movement a year later;
Former top political advisor “resigns”
 

Only Russian aircraft carrier moves to Mediterranean;
Former chess champion leaves Russia

China’s growing influence pushes Japan and Russia closer;
Threat of adoption ban too much for Ireland

President Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, recently set a September date for bilateral discussions. The goal is to mend ties between the U.S. and Russia, badly frayed by the recent passage of tit–for–tat human rights sanctions, and attempt to put the administration's "reset" of relations with the Kremlin back on track. The White House has already suggested disarmament, Iran, North Korea and Syria as the main topics for the talks.