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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, 59, is returning to the Kremlin for a third non-consecutive term in office. He trounced the rivals with 63.6 percent of the vote, according to final figures from Central Election Commission. Election and police officials have acknowledged violations, but insisted they were too small to have a significant impact on the vote’s outcome. The opposition is adamant that Putin's landslide victory was achieved with a wide array of violations and fraud. Now the controversial election is followed up by protest rallies clashing with riot police and Putin's supporters.

Anna Politkovskaya was well known for journalistic investigations on human rights offenses in Chechnya. She was killed in Moscow on October 7, 2006. Investigators believe her journalistic activities prompted her murder.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has charged Yulia Tymoshenko with abuse of power in connection with her approval of a Russian gas contract in 2009, when she served as prime minister. Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison, on October 11, for abuse of power in signing gas contracts between Ukraine's Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom.

American jury found Russian businessman Viktor Bout guilty on all four accounts related to a conspiracy to kill Americans and U.S. officials, illegal acquisition and export of surface-to-air missiles, and support of terrorism through cooperation with the Colombian guerilla organization FARC.

However, Bout denied all charges. The jury returned a verdict unanimously in accordance with the legal practice of the United States.

Bout faces from 25 year to life in prison

The “Law and Modernization: Experience, Prospects, Trends” International Legal Conference opened in Moscow on Thursday. The two-day event is organized by the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) jointly with RIA Novosti.

The conference organizers – including the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program – hope the event will help participants exchange experiences, enhance legal service standards and define legal business development trends in Russia. The conference's primary objective is to create a forum to launch a dialogue between the many parties affected by the legal sector, such as lawyers, economists, scholars and businessmen. Among the invitees are leading legal experts from the Justice Ministry, international law firms, business associations and legal publications.

The European Court of Human Rights has deemed the trials against the YUKOS oil giant unfair, but found no political bias, according to the court's website.The YUKOS case has been one of the most high profile in Russia in recent years.

The jury found the defendants - Nikita Tikhonov and Yevheniya Khasis - guilty of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov’s murder and illicit arms trafficking. Tikhonov was also found guilty of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova’s murder and using forged documents. The jury did not consider the defendants deserving of leniency.