Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov formally approved a proposal for a Formula-1 car race around the Moscow Kremlin on 13 July. The Russian capital has already hosted two Formula-1 show races by Renault.
Russia defeats Switzerland 5:3 at IIHF World Hockey Championship
Russia defeated Switzerland 5:3 in a tense showdown on Monday, thus, finishing first in its group and dropping the Swiss to fourth place at the IIHF World Hockey Championship in Québec City, Canada. The two teams will have a rematch in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Russian sail training ship Pallada begins the final stage of its round-the-globe voyage
The Russian sail training ship Pallada is beginning the final stage of its round-the-globe voyage. Today, it will leave Sevastopol, where it took part in the festivities marking the 225th anniversary of the Black Sea Fleet, to go to the seaport of Novorossiisk. Once a new group of naval students has replaced the old one, the Pallada, as soon as it passes through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean, will call at the seaports of Malaysia, China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. The Pallada left Vladivostok in November 2007 to begin its round-the-globe voyage. During its voyage, it crossed the equator and visited 13 countries.
The Russian Zenit team will play for the first time in the final of the UEFA Cup. In a decisive game for the Cup, the team coached by Dick Advocate from Holland will play against a Scottish team from Glasgow. It is the second time that a Russian team took part in a match for the Federation’s Cup. Earlier, only the Moscow Central Army Club team played in the finals in 2005 and beat the Portuguese Sporting team.
President Medvedev decrees visa-free entry for British football fans
President Dmitri Medvedev (1965- )
President Dmitri Medvedev decreed visa-free entry for British football fans so that they can attend the UEFA Champions League finals. All the fans will have to present to border guards are their passports and tickets to the game. Manchester United and Chelsea are due to fight it out on the 21st of this month at Luzhniki, one of Moscow’s best-equipped stadiums. Over 40,000 British football fans are expected to attend.
Editor’s Note:
I predict no trouble from the infamous English football yobs. They shall find out that the OMON means business, and, if they do try anything, the Butyrki is not a rest home.
Mexican cellist and film director receive medals of Aleksandr Pushkin
Statue of Aleksandr Pushkin
The Mexican cellist Carlos Prieto and the film director Sergio Olhovich received medals of Aleksandr Pushkin. The ceremony was at Mexico City’s biggest cultural centre on the 63rd anniversary of the Allied Victory over Nazism on 9 May. The award marks their achievement in promoting the Russian language and culture. Olhovich is of Russian extraction, and he holds a degree from the Moscow Movies Academy.
Renowned Russian bass Yevgeny Nesterenko to celebrate his jubilee on stage
The renowned Russian bass Yevgeny Nesterenko, who has turned 70, shall celebrate his jubilee on stage. Tonight, he will sing the part of archpriest Zakharia in Verdi’s Nabucco at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre. Nesterenko has been a Bolshoi soloist since 1971, starring in both the Russian and foreign classical repertoire. His best known parts are Boris Godunov, Konchak, Kocubei, Ruslan, Mephistopheles, Kutuzov, and Ivan Susanin.
Festival of Russian films to kick off in St Petersburg
The biggest festival of Russian films in Russia is due to kick off in St Petersburg later today. Audiences shall enjoy over 90 films of various genres, ranging from traditional stylistics to avant-garde. The festival is timed for the centenary of the Russian film-making industry.
Antea (Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola), 1534)
An exhibition of just one canvas, Antea, by the 16th century Italian painter Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, 1503-40) kicked off at the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum in Moscow. The Capodimonte Museum in Naples offered for display the world-famous portrait of a woman of dazzling beauty. The private view took place in the framework of a popular art festival that has the poetic name Bosco diCiliegi, or Sweet Cherry Forest. During the festival, visitors to the Pushkin Museum are traditionally treated to sweet cherries. A classical music concert shall be given in one of the Museum’s halls.
Declan Donnellan brought the play Boris Godunov to theatre fans in London
Declan Donellan (1953- ), leading British theatre producer
Top British director Declan Donnellan brought the well-known and popular play BorisGodunov to theatre fans in London, giving the 16th century Russian tsar a contemporary relevance. Since its première at the Chekhov International Theatre Festival in 2000, Mr Donnellan’s Boris Godunov has been a regular feature of Moscow cultural life. Speaking ahead of the London premiere, Mr Donellan said the play’s success in Russia was one of the best things that ever happened to him. The play, which is part of the repertoire of the Declan Donellan Cheek by Jowl Company, features leading Russian actors and shall run at London’s Barbican centre until Saturday.
Monument to Ss Cyril and Methodius in Moscow on Slavyanskaya Square
A scientific conference, a song and dance festival, exhibitions, and roundtables shall be held in the southern Volgograd oblast today as part of a festival of the Slavic written language and culture dedicated to the founders of the Slavonic (Cyrillic) alphabet, Ss Cyril and Methodius. The day of Slavic language and culture shall be held on 24 May.
Rudolf Nureyev International Classical Ballet Festival opens in Russia
The renowned Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev (1938-93)
The 21st Rudolf Nureyev International Classical Ballet Festival shall open in Kazan in Russia. This year, it is dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the birth of this renowned Russian ballet dancer. Famous ballets will be shown at the festival in Kazan, and ballet stars from Russia, Britain, Austria, France, Germany, the Ukraine, and many other countries shall take part. Nureyev was called the “lord of dance”, creating his own unique sand distinctive style. In 1961 he refused to return to the USSR after a guest performance in Paris, where he died in 1993.
Sergei Mikhalkov (1913- ), famous children’s writer and lyricist
A festival of Russian children’s books involving famous children’s writer Sergei Mikhalkov and artist, producer, and scriptwriter of animated cartoons Sergei Alimov shall be held in the Stockholm on 14-15 May. Anatoly Kargapolov, the press-attaché of the Russian embassy in Stockholm released this to the media. A meeting with Sergei Mikhalkov shall be held in the Stockholm international library on 15 May. As a part of the festival’s programme, the Russian Council on Children’s Books shall give some 100 children’s books by Russian authors as a gift to the library. Mr Mikhalkov composed the lyrics to the Russian national anthem, both in Stalin’s time and for President Putin. He is most famous for his poetry cycle portraying “Uncle Styopa”, a giant, and is the father of the famous director Nikkita Mikhalkov.
The 61st Cannes Film Festival kicks off in France later today, and first on the programme is the screening of the mythical thriller Blindness by the Brazilian film-maker Fernando Meirelles. This year, 22 films will contend for the festival’s main prize, the Palme d’Or, including Palermo Shooting by Wim Wenders, Changeling by Clint Eastwood, and Che, Steven Soderbergh’s four-hour film about Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Russia is not on the contest programme, but, two Russian films are due to be screened, outside of the competition, namely, Tulip by Sergei Dvortsevoy, and the psychological drama All Will DieBut I’ll Survive by Valeria Gai Germanika. It is a first this year that a Russian pavilion opened at the Festival’s International Village for the film-makers Aleksei German Sr. and Sergei Bodrov to give master classes.
Russian cinema industry to hold its second annual film show in cities across Brazil
This coming September, the Russian cinema industry shall hold its second annual film show in cities across Brazil. The retro section includes The Cranes Are Flying by Mikhail Kalatozov, War and Peace by Sergei Bondarchuk, and Andrei Rublyov by Andrei Tarkovsky. Packed audiences are expected for the screenings.
The political parties represented in the Narodna Skupstina, the Serbian parliament, are holding talks on the formation of a ruling coalition. On Tuesday, the Radical Party and a coalition consisting of the Democratic Party and the New Serbia Party coordinated the top priorities of the future government’s policy. This was announced by Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolić after consultations with Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica, the leader of the Democratic Party. The Socialist Party, headed by Ivica Dačić, is expected to join today. If these three major political forces, which have a majority in parliament, come to agreement, they’ll form a new coalition cabinet. Chances are high for that, given the similarity of positions held by the Radicals, Kustunica’s supporters, and the Socialists on the issue of European integration and the future of Kosovo. Aleksandr Karasev, an expert at the Institute for Slavic Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, commented on this, saying, “What should come first… Serbia’s accession to the EU, and, then, the issue of Kosovo recedes into the background, or, shall it be the struggle to retain sovereignty over Kosovo, as insisted upon by the Radicals? They aren’t against European integration, but only if the EU accepts their demand that Kosovo be recognised as part of Serbia”. The Socialists will have the final say. Meanwhile, they’ve received a tempting offer from the For A European Serbia party, which has the biggest faction in parliament. Whether this will please those who voted for the Socialist Party remains to be seen.
About 30 million people in Russia use the Internet. Users of RuNet (the Russian-language version of the global net) have increased 30 times!Since children are visiting the global network ever more frequently these days, RuNet is launching more sites for kids and teenagers. Parents can feel reassured that in visiting such a site a child won’t run into indecencies or obscenities. The programme “Net Watch”, which deals with the children’s RuNet, comes out every Tuesday at 15.00 UTC on the site of the Voice of Russia Radio Broadcasting Company at www.ruvr.ru
The first children’s resources appeared on RuNet 10 years ago. Today, RuNet offers a wide variety of sites designed to educate and develop children. According to Sergei Stepanov, the author of a kids’ portal and a search system for kids, children enjoy chatting with one another in specialised forums. The youngest visitor to a children’s forum was 6, he said. The boy chatted with the other participants in the forum together with his mother, who had registered him at the forum first.
Mr Stepanov said that Russia, like other countries, is consistent and serious about building kids’ resources. Naturally, a kids’ site should boast a good design, he says. A moderator must check for indecent references. Mr Stepanov says he thoroughly checks all references to other sites for bad language and a special filter in the search system checks it for obscene words and coarse expressions.
On the kids’ site of the Russian president all the texts, so they say, were edited by Vladimir Putin personally. Guiding the young users through the site are three fairytale characters, the pretty girl Alyonushka travels with the youngest, the prankster Ilyusha of Murom travels with older children, and the brainy Dobrynya works with kids between 11 and 13. The choice of a character influences the content of chapters which tell the children in understandable expressions about the Russian Constitution and statehood. RuNet offers historical games, such as building the Moscow Kremlin from scratch…
Learn what’s new on the RuNet from “Net Watch”, which goes on the air every Tuesday at 15.00 UTC on the Voice of Russia Website at www.ruvr.ru
Voices from Russia 
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