Ballistic missiles, battle tanks and other heavy weaponry have rolled through Moscow’s Red Square in the annual Victory Day parade, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany more than 60 years ago. But this year’s parade, seen as a revival of a Soviet era tradition, was also there to demonstrate the growing military confidence of the new Russia. Jonah Hull reports from Moscow.
The Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, has confirmed Vladimir Putin as prime minister a day after his protege Dmitry Medvedev replaced him as president of the country.
Members of parliament voted 392-56 for Putin’s appointment, with the communists the only party voting against. Jonah Hull reports from Moscow.
Dmitry Medvedev has been inaugurated as Russia’s president, taking over from Vladimir Putin, who was soon afterwards nominated the country’s prime minister.
Medvedev took the oath of office in an inauguration ceremony on Wednesday at Andreyevsky Hall in Moscow, becoming Russia’s third president since the end of the Soviet era. Jonah Hull reports.
Twenty-two years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the UN is planning to return hundreds of thousands of residents to surrounding regions, now declared safe.
Al Jazeera’s Tessa Parry-Wingfield reports on one man who has decided to return to a deserted village in Belarus.
Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull reports on a controversial technique in Russia, the so-called leg-lengthening procedure. It was originally designed to correct deformed and badly broken bones, but is now being used, on otherwise healthy people, to make them taller for aesthetic reasons.