Jewish & World News

Vladimir Putin, banned in Finland? Finnish police say the Russian president's name was mistakenly placed on a secret criminal register that could theoretically have gotten him arrested at the border. TV station MTV3 reported Wednesday that Putin was placed there for his contact with Russian motorcycle gang Night Wolves, though he wasn't suspected of a crime in Finland. But National Police Board spokesman Robin Lardot told the AP the listing was a mistake and that Putin's name was removed from the list.

The Russian Jewish Congress and one of the country’s leading Internet companies are partnering to deliver free matzah to Moscow's Jews. The collaboration with the online marketing giant Vigoda.ru will allow the Jewish organization to send 2 million emails on Thursday offering the matzah for the cost of delivery -- an offer RJC hopes will help introduce the Passover staple to the homes of young professionals who otherwise would not receive matzah.

A Jewish community center in Perm, a city in central Russia, sustained minor damage in what police suspect was attempted arson with fire bombs. Firefighters in Perm, a municipality located on the banks of the Kama River near the Ural Mountains, put out a small fire inside the local Jewish community center on March 9, the government-owned Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily reported.

The shock wave from Friday's (Feb. 15) meteor explosion above Russia sent subsonic waves through the atmosphere halfway around the world. Up to 11 sensors in Greenland, Africa, Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula and other far-flung regions detected the Russian meteor blast's infrasound, or low-frequency sound waves. The sensors are part of the global network of 60 infrasound stations maintained by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

The cost of the Winter Olympics in Russia next year will exceed $50 billion, a government official said Monday in Moscow, making the Games one of the most expensive in history. The government and private investors will share the cost, the bulk of which is being spent upgrading infrastructure in the host city of Sochi on Russia’s Black Sea, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak was quoted as saying Monday by Russian news agencies.

Russia has starkly warned Israel and the United States against attacking Iran, saying Moscow sees no evidence that Tehran's nuclear program is aimed at developing weapons, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday. "We warn those who are no strangers to military solutions ... that this would be harmful, literally disastrous for regional stability," Interfax quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.

The body of Netanya resident Dimitri Sapozhnikov was pulled out of the Blue Lake in south Russia last week. The 42-year-old diving instructor, married, with a teenage daughter, went on vacation in Russia last month. Last week, Sapozhnikov disappeared while diving in Blue Lake, located near the city of Nalchik in south Russia.

Netanya resident Dimitri Sapozhnikov disappeared while diving in Blue Lake, located near the city of Nalchik in south Russia. The 42-year-old diving instructor, who is married and has a teenage daughter, never came out of the water.

More than 1,000 people gathered at Rostov-on-Don, which 70 years ago witnessed the worst Holocaust atrocity in Russia. Wearing arm bands marked with a Star of David, the crowd on Sunday marched to the mass grave of approximately 27,000 people executed by German soldiers near the city in 1942. Most of the victims were Jewish, according to the Russian Jewish Congress. Leading the procession was Rabbi Meir Lau, a Holocaust survivor and former chief rabbi of Israel.

In a move that echoes the American anti-Stop Online Piracy Act blackouts from earlier this year, Wikipedia shut down its Russian page on Tuesday in a 24-hour protest against a proposed bill that would grant the Russian government power to blacklist certain Web sites. The Russian page now displays a black “censored” rectangle over the Wikipedia nameplate. A statement warns that the Russian parliament will hold “a second hearing to amend the ‘Law of Information,’ which can lead to the creation of extra-judicial censorship of the Internet in Russia, including the loss of access to Wikipedia in Russian.” The hearing is slated for Wednesday, according to the Guardian.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday published a report finding that Russian arms imports to Syria contributed to a 580 percent increase in the volume of Syrian arms imports from 2007-2011 as compared to 2002-2006. Russia supplied 78% of Syria’s arms imports in 2007–11. During 2011, Russia continued deliveries of Buk-M2E SAM systems and Bastion-P coastal defense missile systems to Syria, as well as securing an order for 36 Yak-130 trainer/combat aircraft.

On March 6, 1953, at the height of the Cold War, two American Jews accused of passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union were put on trial in New York. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, later sentenced to death, would become one of the most famous cases of Cold War spying in the United States. They became a cause célèbre for people around the world who believed them to be innocent, or at least the victims of injustice. Julius Rosenberg was the son of Polish immigrants to New York. A member of the Young Communist League in the United States, he had been fired from his job as a civilian inspector from the US Army Signal Corps during the Red Scare, in which Communists and Communist sympathizers were sought out and purged from a wide range of industries and government positions.

Vladimir Putin has been elected Russian president for the third time, exit polls suggest, after spending the last four years as the country's PM. The exit polls gave Mr Putin about 60% of the vote, meaning that he should avoid a run-off with his nearest rival, Communist Gennady Zyuganov. Officials say turnout was higher than for the last election in 2008.

Most of Russia's Jews will likely vote for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Sunday's presidential elections, according to that country's chief rabbi. "Maybe if there were a more serious choice of candidates they would vote for someone else. But I haven't yet met a single Jew who is voting for [Russian tycoon Mikhail] Prokhorov, for example," said Chabad Rabbi Berel Lazar, in an interview with Haaretz.        He added, "I think the fact that a new, young leader has not yet stepped forward in Russia is a problem. All these people - [Gennady] Zyuganov, [Vladimir] Zhirinovsky [presidential candidates for the Russian Communist and Liberal Democratic parties, respectively] - we've already heard their sermons before. It's the same old people."

A fake news report placing Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the dock has become an online hit, getting nearly 3 million views in just three days. The digitally altered clip posted on YouTube this week used news footage of the 2010 trial of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky to put Putin on trial instead of the businessman. The prosecution of Khodorkovsky, which began with his arrest in 2003, is widely seen as retaliation for challenging Putin's power.

The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia would like built no less than five synagogues in Moscow, Federation President Alexander Boroda told a Monday press conference, during a break of the Federation congress. "The question will be asked at today's meeting of Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin," he said.

A new international Jewish organization tagged “The World Forum of Russian  Jewry” was announced Wednesday at the United Nations during a ceremony commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 70th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacres. Nearly 600 American Russian-speaking Jews participated in the ceremony, including Holocaust survivors.

The leaders of Muslim and Jewish groups in Russia have responded to a recent call to form an Orthodox Church party by rejecting all religion-based parties. Deputy Chair of Russia 's Union of Muftis Farid Asadullin, and Chairman of the Russian Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations Zinovy Kogan, on Friday condemned the proposed formation of an "Orthodox" party, voiced earlier this month by Orthodox Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin.

T-Platforms, a Moscow-based tech company that has built some of that nation's largest systems, is developing a 10-petaflop supercomputer for M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University , the company said this week. This large system puts it in the ballpark of similarly announced systems being developed in the major supercomputing countries, and may signal Russia 's intent to become a major participant in the race to exascale.