Russian authorities pulled hundreds of opposition activists off buses and trains and detained them along with scores of others on Saturday ahead of a rare anti-government rally in Moscow, organizers are quoted by the Associated Press news agency.
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December 17, 2006
The skating rink was unveiled in Moscow’s Red Square, Sunday, December 3, 2006.
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December 5, 2006
Marat Safin overcame a surface he hated and a stubborn Argentine opponent give Russia its first Davis Cup title on home soil, beating Jose Acasuso 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) on Sunday for a 3-2 victory.
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December 4, 2006
One of the many differences between human beings and computers is that computers do not have blind spots, as world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik did in game two of his match against the Deep Fritz software on Monday.
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November 28, 2006Nikolay Davydenko and Marat Safin will lead Russia in next month’s Davis Cup final against Argentina in Moscow, the Reuters news agency reports.
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November 20, 2006Russia enjoyed a 2-0 victory in Macedonia Wednesday to bolster their chances of qualifying for the 2008 European Championships.
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November 16, 2006Russian women`s volleyball team has won the world championship title beating Brazil in the final match, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported on Thursday.
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Evgeni Malkin will remain with the Pittsburgh Penguins after a U.S. federal court judge denied a claim by the rookie’s former Russian club to block him from playing in the NHL, the Reuters news agency reported Thursday.
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Maria Sharapova won her fifth title of the season Sunday, beating defending champion Nadia Petrova 7-5, 6-2 in the Generali Ladies final and advancing to No. 2 in the rankings, AP reports.
Sharapova has won 16 straight matches and has not lost since before the start of her successful run to the U.S. Open title.
The top-seeded Russian overtook Justine Henin-Hardenne in the rankings and now trails only Amelie Mauresmo. Sharapova needs to win the season-ending WTA Championship in Madrid, Spain, to finish on top.
“It is my dream to end the year on the No. 1 spot again,†Sharapova said.
Petrova, seeded second, won her first career title in Linz last year.
“I am so disappointed,†the Russian said. “I really got my chances in the first set. But after missing them, I just did not play up to my usual standards anymore.â€
Sharapova dominated from the start, breaking serve in the first game. But at 4-3 she double-faulted and lost her serve. Sharapova then saved two set points and later held serve and broke before serving out the set.
In the first game of the second set, Petrova lost serve again. She then had few chances against Sharapova’s strong serve.
“I started very well, but got a bit tired towards the end of the first set,†Sharapova said. “Saving the two set points gave me a huge boost. I always play my best tennis when under pressure.â€
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October 30, 2006Activists of several Russian youth movements gathered in Moscow downtown to protest against hosting Olympic games-2014 in Russia. Most sports of the winter Olympics are alien to Russia, and there is no need to plant foreign culture where there is lots of own nice traditions, activists said.
The protesters chanted “Seoul — yes! Sochi — no!†indicating that they saw South Korean city as a much more suitable bidder than Russia’s Sochi.
Many of the young people were wearing t-shirts with the Olympic bear, famous symbol of Russian Olympics, crossed out.
Sochi, a city on the Black Sea coast, bade to host the Games, and is now up against the Austrian city of Salzburg and the South Korean city of PyeongChang. However some youth activists, as well as environmentalists, are not at all happy about Sochi making it to the shortlist.
“Mountain skiing is an alien sport for Russia,†one of the action’s participants, head of Green Patrol in Krasnodar region, told RIA Novosti. “Russia keeps trying to take up alien habits and hobbies. â€
“Russia has own traditional winter sports — playing snowballs, making snowmen. Mountain skiing is an intellectual sport that will take ages to sink in Russia. This is why we think the Olympic Games should be held in Seoul,†he said.
Meanwhile, Russian environmental researchers have also voiced concern about the impact of staging the Games in Sochi. They say the sports venues worth billions of dollars that are to be built for the Olympics will seriously disturb migrating birds, who stop at the Black Sea bays on their way to the south.
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October 27, 2006
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