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Putin wants control of Russian scientists

Since it was founded by Tsar Peter I in 1724, the Academy has enjoyed immunity from government interference. Freedom to think and work unfettered has enabled 17 of its alumni since 1904 to win science's highest plaudit, the Nobel prize. Of those, 14 have been within the past 50 years and the most recent, Vitaly Ginzburg and Alexei Abrikosov, shared the prize for physics in 2003.

Now, however, its autonomy is threatened by a proposed new charter which would give the government control of its management, funding and multi-billion pound property holdings.

Source: The Telegraph (online), May 7, 2007

Putin media decree arouses press freedom worries

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has decreed the creation of a new super-agency to regulate media and the internet, sparking fears among Russian journalists of a bid to extend tight publishing controls to the relatively free web. Putin signed a decree this week merging two existing agencies into one entity that will license broadcasters, newspapers and websites and oversee their editorial content.

Source: SABC News (online), March 15, 2007

Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors

The Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents.

Source: The Scotsman, December 20, 2005

Police raid Pentecostal church

Twenty masked special and plain clothes police raided an evening seminar at a church in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia autonomous republic in Russia.

According to the Forum 18 News Service, police forced about 70 people outside the Work of Faith church April 14, calling them "sectarians" and "prostitutes," while they searched the building.

Source: WorldNetDaily, April 23, 2005