Russian pensioner pays $1,300 for ex-lover's murder

Russian pensioner pays $1,300 for ex-lover's murder: "SAINT PETERSBURG - A 70-YEAR-OLD retired Russian woman has been charged with offering to pay 30,000 rubles (S$1,300) for the murder of her former lover, a policeman less than half her age, an official said Tuesday.
'The woman plotted the murder of a 32-year-old policeman with whom she had an intimate relationship some time before,' a spokesperson for the regional investigative committee in the Far North city of Murmansk told AFP.

Russia's top pyramid schemer makes comeback

Russia's top pyramid schemer makes comeback - The Vancouver Sun: "The man who created the biggest pyramid scheme in Russia's history announced Monday that he was making a comeback with a new investment vehicle that brings in monthly returns of 20 to 30 percent.
Sergei Mavrodi said in a message on his website that he was creating an international 'financial network' called MMM-2011 - with the three Russian letters standing for 'we can do anything.'
'You all know my situation. I do not have the right to perform any transactions with any valuables - with any sorts of securities,' the man who created the original MMM investment pyramid in 1994 said in the video message.

Russia - $50 Million Art and Gem Theft

Russia - $50 Million Art and Gem Theft - NYTimes.com: "The owner of a chain of jewelry stores lost about $50 million worth of paintings, diamonds and antiques in one of the more brazen recent thefts at country homes of the wealthy outside of Moscow. The burglars tied up security guards, retrieved keys from a caretaker’s house and made off with paintings by the 19th-century Russian masters Ilya Repin, Ivan Shishkin and Ivan Aivazovsky, Russian television news reported. Their owner, Aleksandr Tarantsev, said the paintings were insured."

Robbers with guns in baby carriage kill Russian dog-walker

Robbers with guns in baby carriage kill Russian dog-walker - wsbt.com: "MOSCOW (AP) — Russian investigators say that robbers carrying assault rifles in a baby carriage fatally shot two guards and a man walking his dog and got away with more than $800,000 worth of cash in St. Petersburg.
Andrei Lavrenko, the head of the local branch of Russia's Investigative Committee, said on NTV television the robbers stole more than 25 million rubles (over $817,000) on Tuesday.
NTV said the attackers waited outside a commercial bank, one of them holding a baby carriage where two Kalashnikov assault rifles were hidden.