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At least three people were killed in a massive turf war brawl at a Russian cemetery over who controls the graveyard’s burial services. About 200 people clashed inside the Khovanskoye cemetery in southwest Moscow. The fighters fired guns and used shovels, baseball bats and steel bars to bash their opponents, police said. Video of the wild fight showed dozens of people rushing past headstones while clutching bats and poles as weapons.

A Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft on Thursday in the latest military provocation by Moscow over the Baltic Sea, the U.S. European Command said Saturday. “On April 14, a U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft flying a routine route in international airspace over the Baltic Sea was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 in an unsafe and unprofessional manner,” said Navy Capt. Danny Hernandez. “This intercept comes shortly after the unsafe Russian encounters with USS Donald Cook,” he added. “There have been repeated incidents over the last year where Russian military aircraft have come close...

A massive fire raged at a former headquarters of the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow on Sunday before it was brought under control several hours later. Hundreds of firefighters and several cranes were seen battling the blaze Sunday afternoon after the fire broke out hours earlier. […] The Defense Ministry moved to a new headquarters on the Moskva River in 2014, but still kept the old building near the Kremlin. …

A fire ripped through a Russian Defense Ministry building in central Moscow on Sunday, sending plumes of smoke over the Russian capital as fire fighters battled to extinguish the blaze. Around 50 people were reported to have been evacuated from the administrative building, which dates from the end of the eighteenth century. Nobody was reported to have been hurt. Photographs from the scene showed fire fighters scaling ladders to access the building’s upper floors with fire engines pumping water through hoses placed on the ground floor. Traffic through central Moscow was diverted. Major-General Igor Konashenkov, on the scene, told the...

This Russian TV news report details a raid on an apartment in Moscow that allegedly served as the headquarters of a cell of operatives for the Islamic State. The men who were arrested were all Uzbeks, but there may well be a Turkish connection, judging by the presence of forged Turkish IDs among the fake documents. It seems that the cell’s function was to facilitate the movement of people to and from Syria and Iraq through Turkey, and within the Russian Federation as well.

Moscow, March 30, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) will hold a World Summit of Christian Leaders in Moscow, on October 28-30, in support of persecuted Christians. The forum is expected to gather about a thousand delegates from 150 countries, a spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox Church said. "The reason for conducting such a large-scale event are the mass persecutions, unprecedented in contemporary history, of Christians in the Middle East, Africa and other world regions, comparable to the persecution of Christians in the early centuries and mass repressions by atheist authorities in the...

MOSCOW — Donald J. Trump, the leading Republican presidential candidate, was widely condemned when he called for the United States to “take out the families” of terrorists. His approach — even after he clarified that he was not talking about killing the relatives — was dismissed by many as immoral and unlawful. Yet, it is the very tactic that Russia has pursued for decades. It is the signature, though officially unacknowledged, policy behind Moscow’s counterinsurgency and counterterrorism strategies, and Russia’s actions in smashing a Muslim separatist rebellion in the Caucasus provide a laboratory for testing Mr. Trump’s ideas. The family...

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is hosting an international summit on religious persecution in Moscow in collaboration with the Russian Orthodox Church. The summit, called 'The World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians,' will be taking place from October 28-30, 2016. Franklin Graham announced on his Facebook page on Wednesday morning that 'The World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians' is called in view of rapidly increasing persecution of Christians around the world in recent years, as also documented by last year's study on persecution by Open Doors, which found that 2015 was the worst year of Christian persecution.

Moscow (AFP) - A nanny accused of decapitating a young girl in her care then walking through the street brandishing the head, on Wednesday said "Allah ordered" the killing as she appeared at a Moscow court. Suspect Gyulchekhra Bobokulova from Muslim-majority Uzbekistan was detained on Monday as she was waving the child's severed head outside a metro station in northwestern Moscow. "It was what Allah ordered," the 38-year-old told journalists as she was brought into the district court . At times, she smiled, flashing a few golden teeth. Speaking in broken Russian from the suspect's cage, Bobokulova said: "Allah is...

Russian investigators arrested a nanny and charged her with murdering a young child in her care on Monday after local media broadcast footage of a woman brandishing a severed infant's head near a busy Moscow metro station. Moscow investigators said in a statement the unnamed nanny was from Central Asia and that she was undergoing psychiatric testing to see if she was mentally sound and understood the significance of the crime they said she had committed. Lifenews.ru, an online news portal with close contacts to the police, published video footage of a woman it identified as the nanny. Clad in...

I had never heard about this story before, but a clever and competent reader shared it on our Facebook page, and I thought some of y’all might enjoy it too. Back in 1989, card-carrying Communist and Politburo member in the Soviet Union Boris Yeltsin visited Johnson Space Center, and then took a tour of a grocery store in Clear Lake, Texas. According to a Houston Chronicle reporter, Yelstin was far more affected by the grocery store visit than he was the space center. He apparently was stunned by the aisles and aisles of supermarket products, and told the other Russians...

Moscow Anti-Smoking Campaign Uses Obama's Image as Deterrent The Moscow Times Feb. 16 2016 17:34 Last edited 17:34 Anti-smoking posters in Moscow have used the image of U.S. President Barack Obama smoking to deter smokers -- saying that both he and cigarettes are killers. The poster has a photoshopped image of the U.S. president and the words: "Smoking kills more people than Obama, although he kills a lot of people. Don't smoke -- don't be like Obama." Russian State Duma opposition deputy Dmitry Gudkov published a photograph of the bus stop poster on Facebook, adding a Soviet joke about freedom...

Church architecture reflects the faith of the people who build churches.These days many of the modern Catholic churches I have seen look more like municipal airport buildings than structures to house the most sacred thing humans can undertake, the place where heaven and earth meet.I was recently sent a link to a site about a new church in Moscow. The church was recently completed and consecrated by Patriarch Kirill in December 2015. A Miracle of Liturgical Art: The Church of the Protection of the Mother of God at Yasenevo[…]But most astonishing by far was the project to decorate the interior...

Moscow, Fabruary 2, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has said the inquiry into the killing of the family of Nicholas II will be completed once the truth is found. "I have received highest-level reassurances that there will be no hurry and no tying down of the end of the inquiry to any particular date. The inquiry will last as long as is necessary in order establish the truth," the patriarch said at the current Bishops' Council in Moscow on Tuesday. Unlike the situation in the 1990s, the state has given representatives of the Church - archbishops,...

A record amount of snow has fallen this January in Moscow as the Agency of the city news "Moscow" learned from the Director General of the Moscow's and Moscow Region's Meteobureau Mr. Alexey Lyakhov. "An analysis of our last 50 years' records allows us to say that this January is the most snowy since the January of 1970 with its 100 cm of snow (39 3/8 inches). This January's total snowfall has already risen to 104 cm (41 inch) and the month isn't over yet, so the total can grow more. The 50 years average is 40-45 cm (15 3/4-17...

Baku-APA. Moscow will not leave the United States' further anti-Russian sanctions unanswered, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS on Tuesday, APA reports quoting TASS. "This situation can be characterized by such proverbs as 'a wise man changes his mind, a fool never will' or 'you might as well be talking to a brick wall,'" he said. "Being absolutely aware that all their attempts to influence us through sanctions are doomed to failure, colleagues from Washington nevertheless are sticking to their false opinion. It is a 'shot in one's own leg' from the point of view of Russian-US relations,...

Organization of delight is here this day, The Body of Christ coming together to form The Bride, lock in and stay, Fear and Doubt is not part of this wardrobe, The Tailor of Virtue has bought this design of Virtue and this dress is sold, Bringing it together with the thread of Unity, Every part of The Body, All in agreement to walk down the isle and meet The Groom, A picture of Delight and The Bride is swooned, So in love with her Boaz and King! She begins to sing ~ ~ ~ The Song of The Lamb and...

Western countries do not identify themselves with the Christian tradition and harass those who defend Christian values, said Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill on Wednesday at a meeting with US preacher Franklin Graham at the St. Daniel Monastery. "Russian Church during the Cold War was actively developing relations with Western Christians. We were living in difficult conditions of atheistic ideology and perceived Western civilization as Christian civilization. We appreciated the freedom in which they lived, Christians in the West, and considered them our brothers and allies" - said the Patriarch. He stressed with regret that in recent years...

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi says Baghdad is willing to share anti-ISIS intelligence with Russia, Iran and Syria Oct 4, 2015 08:06 GMT Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi announced on Saturday that Iraq will share anti-ISIS intelligence with Russia, Iran and Syria if cooperation is requested. “We have been fighting ISIS more than a year and we have some important security information that no other country has regarding ISIS,” Abadi stated during a press conference which took place at the presidential office in the capital. Abadi also stated that he would welcome military equipment assistance from Iran, Syria...

In Washington’s ongoing attempt to discredit Russian airstrikes in Syria, a senior US Air Force official has claimed Moscow lacks the technology for precision-guided missiles. Footage of the strikes proves his statement to be demonstrably false. Read more: http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151002/1027943624/USAF-Slam-Moscows-Dumb-Bombs.html#ixzz3nS4vsfYD