Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed the governor of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Valery Shantsev, the second regional leader to lose his job this week amid reports that more could go as the Kremlin gears up for a presidential election in March.

The reports said that the planned shakeup was connected to preparations for the March 18, 2018, presidential election in which Putin is widely expected to seek and secure a fourth term even though he has not announced his candidacy.

 

A film about Russia’s last tsar has created violent tensions as erotic scenes shown in trailers have enraged religious conservatives in Russia, who call the film blasphemous for depicting Nicholas in love scenes with the teenage ballerina. The film depicts the true story of a love affair between the future Czar Nicholas II and a young ballerina, Matilda Kshesinskaya, in St. Petersburg’s famed Mariinsky Theatre. 

 

Sputnik celebrating 60th anniversary. Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957 sixty years ago, and is regarded as the start of the US-Soviet space race. 

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