http://uk.oneworld.net/article/country/643/ en_GB_uk Russian Federation http://uk.oneworld.net/article/view/163844/1/ Some fascinating documentaries feature in the Russian Film Festival, including a profile of the Dalai Lama and six films capturing the surreal side of the Russian provinces and providing a window into contemporary life beyond Moscow. http://uk.oneworld.net/link/gotolink/addhit/85610 Chechnya is becoming "a death zone for human rights workers", says a US-based monitoring body. http://uk.oneworld.net/link/gotolink/addhit/85576 Conflicts in Afghanistan, China, Chechnya and Nigeria deteriorated in July 2009 and the situation in Guinea-Bissau improved, according to the International Crisis Group. http://uk.oneworld.net/link/gotolink/addhit/85569 Suppression of human rights groups, which became fashionable in Putin's Russia, is catching on elsewhere as countries introduce laws which make life difficult for civil society. Guardian http://uk.oneworld.net/article/view/162685/1/ BP and Exxon continue to ignore requests to join consultations with an international scientific panel to work to protect the world’s most endangered whales, threatened by oil and gas development around Sakhalin Island in Far East Russia, say campaigners. http://uk.oneworld.net/link/gotolink/addhit/84975 Protected forest in Russia, including a “maternity hospital” for the Amur tiger and unique Korean pine stands, have been sold for logging in controversial circumstances and in the face of protests by the local population and an environmental group. http://uk.oneworld.net/link/gotolink/addhit/84949 Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has proposed outlawing fishing with drift nets, otherwise known as “walls of death”, following a lengthy campaign by fishermen, politicians in Kamchatka and NGOs. http://uk.oneworld.net/link/gotolink/addhit/84918 A petition signed by more than 8,000 people has been handed to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin against the construction of a hydroelectric power station in Siberia that critics say would threaten the indigenous population as well as the local ecosystem. http://uk.oneworld.net/link/gotolink/addhit/84544 The public has been admitted to the trial of four men in connection with the murder of outspoken Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, though no mastermind or hit-man is among the defendants. http://us.oneworld.net/link/gotolink/addhit/83584 "After eight years of Putin, the country has a rubber-stamp parliament dominated by a single party, whose only stated policy is loyalty to the Kremlin," writes Fred Weir in Moscow. http://uk.oneworld.net/article/view/160163/1/ Tovarisch, I Am Not Dead is a son's documentary about his dad. But what a dad! http://us.oneworld.net/link/gotolink/addhit/82799 Although he owes his advancement to Vladimir Putin, Dmitri Medvedev may prove a surprisingly liberal president of Russia, says Andreas Umland. From Prospect http://us.oneworld.net/link/gotolink/addhit/82704 Energy is the key to Europe's new relationship with Russia - and supposedly Moscow's weapon of choice in its plan for European domination. Yet this new Cold War is not inevitable, says Misha Glenny. From: New Statesman http://us.oneworld.net/link/gotolink/addhit/82563 Key members of a smuggling ring trading tiger skins and bear parts into China will face trial in March after a six-month operation in the Russian far east. http://us.oneworld.net/link/gotolink/addhit/82290 Russia's application for a caviar export quota makes nonsense of a commercial caviar harvesting ban intended to help the recovery of the decimated sturgeon populations of the Caspian Sea basin, WWF Russia has claimed.