Russia announces new $50 billion space program

via theverge.com

Russia is celebrating its Day of Cosmonautics in grand fashion today. President Vladimir Putin has announced a new multi-year plan to develop the country's spacefaring efforts, which will be funded to the tune of some 1.6 trillion roubles (just over $50 billion) between now and 2020. Underlining Russia's proud heritage of space exploration and engineering, Putin describes this new drive as being instrumental to Russia's economic competitiveness as well as maintaining its position as a leading space power...

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Meteorite shower crashes into Russia (video)

via engadget.com

A meteorite shower has crash landed across Russia's Ural region, injuring over 250 900 people and damaging buildings in six cities. Residents in Chelyabinsk reported shaking ground, windows shattering and car alarms going off as the rocks fell to Earth. Officials in the country say that the shower began after a larger meteor disintegrated in the lower atmosphere, causing the fragments to wreak the (currently) non-lethal havoc. If you'd like to compare how wrong (or right) Michael Bay got it in Armageddon, head on past the break for some footage.

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Is Vladimir Putin Behind An Army Of Internet Trolls?

via businessinsider.com

We noticed a number of complaints from Russian opposition figures last year who claimed to be have been targeted by bots and online trolls, seemingly run by Kremlin-sympathizers.

Today, it looks like proof has arrived. Miriam Elder at the Guardian reports that Russia's Anonymous collective appear to have hacked and publicized a variety of correspondence within the pro-Kremlin youth group.

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Tens Of Thousands Rally Against Putin

via foxnews.com

Tens of thousands of Russians flooded downtown Moscow on Saturday to demand an end to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's rule, braving sub-zero temperatures to keep the protest movement alive one month before a presidential election that Putin is still expected to win.

The protest -- which drew 120,000 people, according to organizers -- was the third mass demonstration since Putin's party won a parliamentary election Dec. 4 with the help of what appeared to be widespread fraud.

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Russian, U.S. crew blast off for space station

via theglobeandmail.com

Three astronauts blasted off on Monday to return a full crew to the International Space Station as Russia seeks to restore confidence in its space program following the recent crash of a cargo spaceship and several botched launches.

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U.S. Report Cites 'Persistent' Chinese, Russian Spying for Economic Gain

via online.wsj.com

The U.S. government accused the Chinese of being the world's "most active and persistent" perpetrators of economic spying, an unusual move designed to spur stronger U.S. and international action to combat rampant industrial espionage threatening U.S. economic growth.

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U.S. report rips China, Russia on economic espionage, hacking

via theglobeandmail.com

China and Russia are using cyber espionage to steal U.S. trade and technology secrets to bolster their own economic development and that poses a threat to U.S. prosperity and security, a U.S. intelligence report said on Thursday.

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The world in photos #10: Russia

via thedphoto.com

Russia (or the Russian Federation) is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the United States by the Bering Strait.

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Russian Aims for a Space Hotel in 2016

via ibtimes.com

Plans have just been unveiled in Moscow for the first ever space hotel that will we be perched 217 miles above the Earth.

Due to open its doors by 2016 and officially called, The Commercial Space Station, the out-of-this-world vacation destination will have room for seven guests in four cabins and come with views so astounding, they may actually make the incredibly excessive price tag worth every penny.

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Russia and Europe to Send Man to Mars?

via news.discovery.com

It's usually the assumption that the first man or woman to first set foot on Martian dirt will be American. After all, the only men to walk on the lunar surface were employed by NASA.

This assumption could be turned on its head if a recent announcement by the head of the European Space Agency (ESA) follows through.

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Russian Tycoon Prokhorov Is Running For Prime Minister And He Wants To Join The Euro

via businessinsider.com

Mikhail Prokhorov, metals billionaire and owner of the New Jersey Nets, has announced he is ready to run for Prime Minister in his native Russia, reports RIA Novosti.
Prokhorov supports radical reform in the country.
“I think our country should make a decisive step toward rapprochement with Europe by first of all joining the Schengen zone and secondly entering the euro zone,” told a press conference in Moscow.

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