Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters
A woman poses with a painting, depicting Russia's President Vladimir Putin, in front of graffiti illustrating Moscow's Kremlin during an opposition procession organized by painters protesting against Putin's presidency, in Moscow, Russia, May 19.
Andrey Smirnov / AFP - Getty Images
A woman looks at an elk standing on a lawn at a residential area in eastern Moscow, May 16. An elk family of bull, cow and calf wandered into a residential area in the eastern part of the Russian capital, close to Losiny Ostrov (Elk Island) National Park, Russian media reported.
Apparently the elk that live in nearby Losiny Ostrov National Park have been roaming beyond the park's borders and coming into close contact with Moscow residents. It looks like this woman had a very close encounter with one of them.
[note: if you live in North America, you likely know the Eurasian elk as a moose].
AFP - Getty Images
A Proton-M rocket carrying a Nimiq 6 communication satellite is transported to the launch pad at Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome on May 14, 2012. The launch of the Proton-M has been scheduled for May 17, according to Russian media reports.
Anatoly Maltsev / EPA
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA: Members of military-historical clubs wearing Soviet World War II-era uniforms dance at the Warsaw train station in St.Petersburg on May 9, 2012, marking Victory Day celebrations.
Sergei Supinsky / AFP - Getty Images
KIEV, UKRAINE: A boy climbs on a World War II monument at an open air museum in Kiev on May 9, 2012.
Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP - Getty Images
MOSCOW, RUSSIA: Russia's newly-inaugurated President Vladimir Putin and new Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev watch a Victory Day parade at Red Square on May 9, 2012.
Maxim Shipenkov / EPA
MOSCOW, RUSSIA: Russian WWII veterans drink during celebrations marking the 67th anniversary of victory over Germany on May 9, 2012.
Reuters reports — President Vladimir Putin, speaking in Moscow's Red Square with military generals at his side, said he would promote Russia's might on the world stage in a patriotic speech on Wednesday glorifying the Soviet victory over Germany in World War Two.
Two days after being sworn in for a six-year term that has drawn protests against his return to the Kremlin, Putin used the address to troops and war veterans at the annual military parade on Red
400 protesters arrested hours before Putin's return to Russian presidency
"Russia consistently follows a policy of strengthening global security and we have a great moral right to stand up determinedly for our positions because our country suffered the blow of Nazism," Putin said on a podium flanked by military chiefs bristling with medals under the Kremlin's red walls. Read the full story.
Abir Sultan / EPA
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL: Relatives of Israeli veterans who fought against the Nazis wear Soviet uniforms as they march in Jerusalem on May 9, 2012.
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA: People meet the 'Victory train, a vintage locomotive with members of a historical military club aboard, at Varshavsky railway station on May 9, 2012.
Ilmars Znotins / AFP - Getty Images
RIGA, LATVIA: A boy wearing an old military hat looks on as his father makes tea at the World War II monument in Riga on May 9, 2012.
Vladimir Rodionov / Pool via AFP - Getty Images
Russia's president-elect Vladimir Putin walks down Andreyevsky (St.Andrew's ) Hall of the Great Kremlin Palace in Moscow May 7, as he arrives to take his oath of office and become Russia's president for a historic third mandate at a glittering ceremony inside the Kremlin.
Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP - Getty Images
Russian people march along a street during an opposition's protest rally in Moscow on May 6. Russian riot police violently clashed with protesters at a rally on the eve of Vladimir Putin's return for a third Kremlin term, arresting over 400 people including opposition leaders.
Alexander Zemlianichenko / Pool via AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin and former President Dmitry Medvedev, right, during the inauguration ceremony at the Cathedral Square in the Kremlin in Moscow, May 7. Vladimir Putin took the oath, saying he considers "service to the fatherland and our nation to be the meaning of my life."
Andrey Smirnov / AFP -Getty Images
Russian Police officers detain opposition supporters during a rally in Moscow on May 6.
By msnbc.com staff and news services: MOSCOW -- Vladimir Putin was sworn in as Russia's president at a glittering ceremony on Monday, hours after clashes between police and thousands of protesters in the country's capital laid bare the deep divisions over his return to the Kremlin for six more years.
In the latest demonstrations on Sunday, police detained more than 400 people, including three opposition leaders, after tensions boiled over at a rally attended by about 20,000 people across the Moscow river from the Kremlin.
Putin, a former KGB spy, took his oath before nearly 2,000 guests in the Kremlin's St Andrew Hall, the former throne room with sparkling chandeliers, gilded pillars and high Gothic vaults, before being blessed by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and taking charge of the nuclear suitcase. Full story.
Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA
Spekhov Yevgeny, editor of correspondence department, shows an issue of paper 'Pravda' from 10 May 1945 after the capitulation of Nazi Germany in the editorial office of Russian Communist party newspaper 'Pravda' (Truth) in Moscow, Russia on Friday. Russian celebrate 100 year anniversary of the first issue of the newspaper 'Pravda' which was published on 05 May 1912 in St. Petersburg, becoming the biggest newspaper during the Soviet period of the Russian history and the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party from 1912 until 1991 when the paper was closed down after the decree of the President Boris Yeltsin. In 1997 Russian communists recovered 'Pravda' as an official paper of the Russian Communist party.
Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA
A journalist works near the memorial working place (R) of the wife of Vladimir Lenin Nadezhda Krupskaya in the editorial office of Russian Communist party newspaper 'Pravda' (Truth) in Moscow.
Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA
Pre-anniversary issues of paper 'Pravda' (Truth) are pictured while on the production line at the printing works outside Moscow.
Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters
Boris Komotsky, editor of Pravda newspaper, works at his desk in an office, with an image of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin seen in the background, at Moscow.
Reuters reports that the 100-year-old Russian newspaper is still 'urging the workers of the world to unite':
Times are hard. But its editor says that battling hostile authorities, the threat of closure and financial problems is how Pravda spent its early years after first appearing in St Petersburg on May 5, 1912, until the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
"In many respects our role and purpose has gone back to what it was before 1917," Boris Komotsky said in his office in Moscow's Pravda Street, a huge photograph of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin reading Pravda on the wall behind him.
"We are the opposition's main organ, fighting for power, for policy changes. We've gone though so many problems. Now each of the workers here is a hero. At times they've had to work without getting a paycheck."
There's a newspaper in America with the same name - in English. The Elkhart Truth, in northern Indiana, worked together with msnbc.com to produce the Elkhart Project, a yearlong series of reports about a region hit particularly hard by the recent recession.
AvtoVAZ via Reuters, file
An undated photo of an AvtoVAZ Lada Klassica (Classic) 2103. "The Classic was an unattainable dream for many men" in Soviet times, says Vyacheslav Lysakov, the head of a motorists' association.
Reuters reports — Russia is ending its long love affair with a car that was once prized by the nation but has come to symbolize the decline of its automobile industry and, for some, the country itself.
Although the outmoded box-like series of family cars is ridiculed abroad, many Russians consider it a last link with an era when they believed the Soviet Union could win the Cold War, and see its demise as a sign of Russia's diminished status. Continue reading.
Dita Alangkara / AP
Indonesian workers shout slogans during a rally to mark May Day in Jakarta on May 1, 2012. Thousands of Indonesian workers staged the rally demanding the government raise the minimum wage and reject outsourcing.
The Associated Press reports — May Day moved beyond its roots as an international workers' holiday to a day of international protest Tuesday, with rallies throughout Asia demanding wage increases and marches planned across Europe over government-imposed austerity measures.
Thousands of workers protested in the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan and other Asian nations, with the demand for wage hikes amid soaring oil prices a common theme. They said their take-home pay could not keep up with rising consumer prices, while also calling for lower school fees and expressing a variety of other gripes. Read the full story.
Andrey Smirnov / AFP - Getty Images
A man carries a poster reading "Putin is our President!" during the May Labor Day rally of the Russian Trade Unions and United Russia party in Moscow on May 1, 2012. Russia's president-elect Vladimir Putin and outgoing head of state Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday joined over 100,000 people in a Soviet-style mass march through Moscow.
Bullit Marquez / AP
Protesters dance around the burnt effigy of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III during a May Day rally near the Presidential Palace in Manila on May 1, 2012. Thousands of workers marched under a brutal sun in Manila to demand a wage increase amid an onslaught of oil price increases, but the Philippine President rejected a $3 daily pay hike which the workers have been demanding since 1999 and warned may worsen inflation, spark layoffs and turn away foreign investors.
AFP - Getty Images
Bahraini Shiites attend a demonstration celebrating Labor Day in the village of Muqsha'a on April 30, 2012. Many Shiite employees were either dismissed or indefinitely suspended from their jobs in the wake of a brutal crackdown by the Bahrain government.
Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP - Getty Images
Indian sex workers hold candles and posters as they march in a May Day rally asking for their rights and the recognition of their profession in Kolkata, late on April 30, 2012.
Vincent Thian / AP
Visitors takes picture in front of Tiananmen gate in Beijing, China, on May 1, 2012. Tens of thousands of visitors flock to the area around Tiananmen Square to enjoy a public holiday to mark May Day.
Alexey Druzhinin / AFP - Getty Images
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (2nd L), Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (2nd R), Independent Trade Unions' Chairman Mikhail Shmakov (L) and State Duma deputy Viktor Pinsky (R) toast in a bar after attending a rally in Moscow on May 1, 2012.
Abir Abdullah / EPA
Garment workers attend a rally to mark May Day at Paltan in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on May 1, 2012. Different workers organizations have arranged programmes inluding a rally, seminars and cultural events as they demand the establishment of workers' rights.
Farooq Khan / EPA
Laborers drilling a mountain to extract rocks inside a stone quarry on May 1, 2012 in Srinagar, Kashmir. Local labor leaders told media their colleagues at many construction sites were denied a May Day public holiday by their employers.
Maxim Shemetov / Reuters
Ilya Naymushin / Reuters
An Orthodox priest talks to a woman in front of the church carriage of the Doctor Voino-Yasenecky Saint Luka train, a free mobile consultative and diagnostic medical center, on April 27 at a railway station in Zaozyorny, 81 miles east of Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.
Ilya Naymushin / Reuters
A doctor checks a pregnant woman aboard the Doctor Voino-Yasenecky Saint Luka train on April 27 during a stop at the railway station in Zaozyorny, Russia.
Ilya Naymushin / Reuters
Patients stand in the registry line aboard the Doctor Voino-Yasenecky Saint Luka train, which serves as a free consultative and diagnostic medical center, at a railway station in Zaozyorny, Russia on April 27.
Ilya Naymushin / Reuters
A doctor checks a patient aboard the Doctor Voino-Yasenecky Saint Luka train on April 27 during a stop in the Siberian town of Zaozyorny, Russia.
Ilya Naymushin / Reuters
A pediatrician checks two children aboard the Doctor Voino-Yasenecky Saint Luka train at a railway station on April 27 in the town of Zaozyorny, Russia.
The Doctor Voino-Yasenecky Saint Luka train serves as a free, mobile consultative and diagnostic medical center that carries medics and medical equipment yearly from the main regional city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia to distant settlements of the Krasnoyarsk and Khakassia regions in Siberia where hospitals and clinics are scarce. The train, named after outstanding Russian surgeon Valentin Voino-Yasenecky, an orthodox bishop and a Gulag prisoner, also has a carriage that operates as a mobile Orthodox church.
Ilya Naymushin / Reuters
An Orthodox priest baptizes a family at the church aboard the Doctor Voino-Yasenecky Saint Luka train, a free and mobile medical center, at a railway station of the town of Zaozyorny, Russia on April 27. The train also has a carriage that operates as a mobile Orthodox church.
Ilya Naymushin / Reuters
An Orthodox priest rings the bells on the church carriage of the Doctor Voino-Yasenecky Saint Luka train on April 27 during a stop in the Siberian town of Zaozyorny.
Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP
Russian military vehicles make their way down a Moscow street on April 26 during a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade which will take place in Red Square on May 9. The parade commemorates the 67 years since victory over Nazi Germany in WWII.
Mikhail Voskresensky / Reuters
Russian soldiers practice on April 26 in Moscow's Red Square for a Victory Day military parade marking 67 years since victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP
A Russian soldier stands guard in heavy rain during a rehearsal on April 26 for the Victory Day military parade in Moscow.
Mikhail Voskresensky / Reuters
Russian soldiers practice on April 26 in Moscow's Red Square for a Victory Day Military Parade marking 67 years since victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.The parade is scheduled for May 9.
Sergei Chirikov / EPA
Russian military servicemen are pictured on top their armored personnel carrier as they travel down Tverskaya street to Red Square during the evening Victory Day parade rehearsal in Moscow on April 26. The parade, to commemorate the 67th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945, is scheduled for May 9.
Related Content:
NBC News article on Texan teen graduating from premier Russian ballet school
When Joy Womack arrived at Moscow's elite Bolshoi Ballet Academy at 15, she spoke limited Russian and was one of a number of foreigners allowed to train at the school. Now 17, she is poised to become the first American to graduate from the Russian academy.
Ivan Sekretarev / AP
Russian veteran fire fighters lay flowers at Mitino Memorial to commemorate those who died after the Chernobyl 1986 nuclear disaster, in Moscow on April 26. Russians marked the 26th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which was the world's worst ever nuclear accident.
Gleb Garanich / Reuters
Men walk near a containment shelter for the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26. Belarus, Ukraine and Russia mark the 26th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst civil nuclear accident, on Thursday.
Sergei Supinsky / AFP - Getty Images
Victims of Chernobyl nuclear accident's widows hold pictures of their late husbands during a memorial ceremony at the Chernobyl victims memorial in Kiev on April 26.
AP reports -- "The Chernobyl disaster underscored that mankind must be extra careful in using nuclear technologies," Ukraine's president Viktor Yanukovych said during a ceremony Thursday inaugurating the initial assembly of a gigantic arch-shaped steel containment building to cover the remnants of the exploded reactor. "Nuclear accidents lead to global consequences. They are not a problem of just one country, they affect the life of entire regions."
The April 26, 1986, explosion spewed a cloud of radiation over much of the northern hemisphere, forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes in heavily hit areas of Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia. The Soviet government initially tried to hush up the explosion and resisted immediately evacuating nearby residents. It also failed to tell the public what happened or instruct residents and cleanup workers on how to protect themselves against radiation, which significantly increased the health damage from the disaster.
A shelter called the "sarcophagus" was hastily erected over the damaged reactor, but it has been crumbling and leaking radiation in recent years and a new confinement structure is necessary.
Yanukovych said 2 million people have been hurt by the tragedy and it was the state's obligation to protect and treat them.
But his reassurances fell flat with some Chernobyl cleanup workers and victims. About 2,000 protesters staged an angry rally Thursday outside parliament in Kiev, demanding an increase in compensations and pensions.
Sergei Supinsky / AFP - Getty Images
A Chernobyl's handicapped person cries in front of the Chernobyl victims memorial in Kiev during a memorial ceremony on April 26. Ukraine launched today construction of a new shelter to permanently secure the stricken Chernobyl plant as it marked the 26th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear disaster.
Andrew Kravchenko / EPA
The widow of a victim holds a child during a ceremony, commemorating the 26th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Kiev, Ukraine, on April 26. On April 26, 1986 reactor number 4 blew apart at the Chernobyl power station. Facing nuclear disaster on an unprecedented scale Soviet authority tried to contain the situation by sending thousands of men into a radioactive area.
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