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The Russkiy Mir foundation will next week name a park avenue in the U.S. city of Houston after the first man in space, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the historic first manned flight to space, Russkiy Mir, which promotes Russian language and culture abroad, has launched an international campaign under the title First in Space.

The foundation, along with its U.S. partners, plans “to plant an alley of trees in honor of Gagarin’s flight and establish a monument to the first man to travel into space.”

Russian space agency Roscosmos also plans to set up a memorial plaque in NASA’s Johnson Space Center, with the historic Gagarin quote “Let’s go!” engraved in Russian and English. The Soviet cosmonaut used the phrase during liftoff of the first manned space flight in 1961.

Russia’s budget air carrier Avianova on Thursday said clowns, musicians and actors will appear on flights to keep passengers entertained on the way to their destination.

The first gig will be held February 19 onboard a Moscow-Krasnodar-Moscow flight.

The creative advertising campaign was launched following shifts in the Russian customs policy which forced commercial air companies to reduce the number of passenger seats in western-made aircraft from 180 to 159. Avianova set up a stage in place of the seats removed.

Officially declared as the “biggest ever defence program in the history of India”, costing an estimated $35 billion from the Indian side, the fifth generation stealth fighter project is called the Perspective Multirole Fighter and will be an advanced version of the Russian Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft.

The Project involves design and development of a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft that will have advanced features such as stealth, supercruise, ultra-maneuvrability, highly integrated avionics suite, enhanced situational awareness, internal carriage of weapons and Network Centric Warfare capabilities.

The aircraft to be jointly developed is termed Perspective Multi-role Fighter (PMF). PMF draws upon the basic structural and system design of the Russian FGFA Technology Demonstrator with modifications to meet Indian Air Force specifications which are much more stringent.

APA-Moscow (Russia) Aeroflot, Russia’s biggest airliner, has stopped selling tickets for flights to the Egyptian resorts of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh and will suspend flights to the two cities starting Sunday, the airline said in a statement availed to APA on Thursday in Moscow.

Another major carrier, Transaero, stopped selling tickets to the Egyptian resorts on Tuesday.

The decision was made on the recommendation of the Russian Foreign Ministry, which is seeking to stop the inflow of Russian tourists to Egypt which is continuing despite rallies by hundreds of thousands of people to demand the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

Reports said Tuesday that there may be up to 75,000 Russians in Egypt, with only a tenth of them looking to leave.

A special plane bound for Cairo departed Wednesday from Bashkortostan’s capital, Ufa, to evacuate some 200 Russian students stranded there, Interfax reported.

More than 300 people have died in the anti-government protests, and new clashes between opposition activists and Mubarak’s supporters flared in Cairo on Wednesday, Interfax said.

The 82-year-old Mubarak said that he would not seek re-election after his term expires in September, but the promise has not quelled the protests.

Russia may well not be a great selection for the majority of travelers who need to go to Europe. With its questionable peace and order situation particularly in the regions of Chechnya, the Communist rule impression still resides to many, and frigid climate throughout the country particularly throughout the wintertime, Russia ought to be uninviting for most. But that was just before. Now, while you can locate still dark areas of an earlier period Soviet, Russia is a place worth to be visited.

Travelers wouldn’t be disappointed with several historical sites that tell how rich Russia’s culture is. You will find numerous museums, monuments, and untouched nature.

Low priced travel to Russia
Visiting Russia can be really costly thinking about the distance of country. But with a number of online travel businesses, the cost tag is considerably lower that it was before.

The New Start nuclear arms treaty limiting the number of atomic warheads the US and Russia are allowed to possess, has come into effect.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exchanged ratification documents at a conference in Munich.

The treaty replaces the 1991 Start treaty which expired in December 2009.

It was approved by the US Senate in December and by the Russian parliament last month.

The papers exchanged in Munich had been signed by US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev following an agreement made last April.

Before the ceremony at the Munich Conference on Security Policy, Mrs Clinton said the treaty was “another example of the kind of clear-eyed co-operation that is in everyone’s interests”.

She said that Washington was also was in talks with Russia about how the two countries can work together on other issues affecting their common security.

Mr Lavrov called New Start “a product of the understanding that unilateral approaches to security are counterproductive”.

“The treaty that enters into force today will enhance international stability,” he said.

The New Start treaty limits each side to no more than 800 deployed nuclear warhead delivery systems including bombers, missile launchers and nuclear submarines – a cut of about 50%.

It limits each side to 1,550 deployed warheads.

It will also allow each side to visually inspect the other’s nuclear capability, with the aim of verifying how many warheads each missile carries.

Thanks to a promotion from Lufthansa, you can now book a flight on one of their routes for $100 off.

The promotion requires you to enter your name and email address, and minutes later, you’ll have a unique promo code in your inbox.

The fine print is pretty simple – book and redeem between now and February 21 for travel between now and March 31. Promo codes can only be used on Lufthansa flights (so no codeshares) and only on flights that depart in the US. According to the terms and conditions, the promo can be applied to any ticket code! Promotions like this don’t last long – so snag yourself a code as soon as possible.

Contrary to the popular belief, Russia does not consist of just two parts, the first being the Kremlin with the Red Square and the second one being the vast Siberia much publicized by Hollywood films.

1. Let’s start with the simple truth. Bears do not walk down the streets in Russia. It’s a difficult reality to come to terms with, but sometimes the truth hurts. Same goes for kangaroos in Australia and moose in Sweden.

2. It’s not always cold in Russia and certainly not everywhere. The South of Russia is warmer than most European countries, there are also palms growing in some areas near the Black Sea (which means the climate there is subtropical). In the summer, the South of Russia (Krasnodar region, for instance) has an average temperature of 32-35C, reaching 40-43C from time to time; in the winter, the temperature is almost never below zero and snowfalls are extraordinary. Also for the public transportation as each snowfall is usually followed by a transport collapse.

3. It has woods, steppe, taiga, tundra but less known is the fact that Russia has a desert as well, namely the Caspian lowland desert (beside the Caspian Sea that is actually a lake) that looks exactly like the Sahara desert.

4. Oh, the Transsiberian! The Transsiberian Railway trip is on many a traveler’s to-do list, however some don’t do their research properly and once on the train, they realize there are no showers on the trains that serve the Transsiberian. Well, there are showers on the luxurious train specifically tailored for foreigners who can afford to pay for it, but it’s not a real experience anyway! You’re going to have to think of ways of how to take an improvised shower with the help of a sink and make use of a lot of wet wipes, but chances are you’re still going to stink once you’re at your destination. Still part of the charm though, right?

5. This is one is a personal favorite. Not all Russians drink vodka. And in a broader sense, not all Russians are alcoholic. In fact, the Irish and the Germans and the French and perhaps a dozen of other nations consume much more alcohol per capita than Russians. Sure, in some remote villages almost cut off from civilization with high unemployment rate people drink more than in big cities, but really, not in the amounts portrayed by the media.
And while I’m on the subject, Russians don’t say “Na Zdorov’ye!” before drinking. It’s either a short toast proposing to drink for the meeting/evening/long-standing friendship/somebody’s birthday or a long(ish) toast at a wedding or anniversary highlighting all positive characteristics of the toasted person or persons.
Also keep in mind that as of several years ago, drinking is not allowed in public places. If you violate this law, be prepared to cash out either officially or unofficially.

6. Continuing the topic of vices, cigarettes are quite cheap in Russia. A pack of Marlboro will cost you $1.37 (1EUR), therefore it’s not unpopular to stock up on cigarettes here. However, don’t forget that one person is not allowed to have more than 200 cigarettes (10 packs) on them at the time of crossing the border. But… you guessed it, it’s not uncommon to purchase more than that and then ask your fellow passengers to help you out with a couple of hundreds of cigarettes for the duration of your flight/ride.

7. What do Russians eat? Well, of course, borsch, pelmeni, bliny and caviar, what else? In reality of course the food selection is a bit more diverse than that. However, borsch remains a favorite dish of many a Russian. But did you know, for instance, that borsch can be green? Yes, the typical version includes cabbage, root-beet, carrots, potatoes and sometimes meat, however the green borsch is made from sorrel, parsley, potato and egg and is deemed the summer version, better served cold. Not to be missed on a hot summer day.

8. Russian hospitality is either overrated or a myth altogether. The truth is, Russia was cut off from the entire planet for so long that in some federal subjects (and there are 83 of them) when people see a foreigner, they can hardly contain their excitement and want to get to know this person, find out if they’re real or not and if the grass is really greener on the other side. Thus the invitations, the openness, the chats and all what is referred to as Russian hospitality. This is not to say that homo homini lupus est and every man is for himself, but it’s just that this hospitality exists thanks to the Iron Curtain.

9. The Soviet Union has seized existing almost 20 years ago and yet some of the leftovers of that time are still ever-present. For example, queues are a Russian reality. Want to send a postcard to your family from the post office? Or maybe buy a ticket for the subway? Well, be prepared to wait in a line of rushed and unhappy people who seem to want to push you or throw a demeaning look at you all the time. The one advice is: breathe! And don’t let those cunning people with “I just have a small question to ask” squeeze ahead of you, otherwise standing in queues will be your full-time job.

10. Most Russians actually approve of the government and the tandem in charge. But that’s because the media is under full control of the government and most people only know what they are told and they are told what somebody wants them to know. Therefore, they are convinced that they have a democracy and that they are well taken care of. In any case, a political discussion is not recommended, at least not with people you just met.

With the price of oil above $100 a barrel, Russia’s federal budget is starting out 2011 in the black. The country’s budget balances at about $95 per barrel and it will be interesting to see how it uses its windfall oil surplus.
Most analysts believe it will go towards more election-year social spending, designed to buttress the chances of either Prime Minister Vladimir Putin or President Dmitry Medvedev (pictured), whichever of them should run in the spring 2012 presidential elections. In the autumn, meanwhile, United Russia, the political party headed by Putin, competes in parliamentary elections.

“At this level of oil prices, it is possible to increase spending, and given that this is an election year I would say that is very likely,” said Alexei Moisseev, an economist at VTB Capital.

Higher oil prices will also do much to encourage the rebound in Russia’s stock market. Capital flows were negative in Russia for the fourth quarter – but a steadily rising rouble suggests that the problem of capital outflows has turned around, according to a research report by Capital Economics. Many analysts refer to the rouble as an “oil derivative” for its close correlation to the oil price.

Mr Medvedev has made it clear that, in the long run, he sees Russia’s dependency on oil export revenues as a debilitating weakness which keeps the country a backwards, resource-focused economy. But the need to spend these revenues on ensuring political stability means the state has little left over to devote to infrastructure or other investments. At about 20 per cent of gross domestic product, Russia’s rate of investment is one of the lowest among the world’s big economies. It doesn’t seem set to do anything about this urgently, no matter what the oil price is.

Instead, it is consumers who are cashing in on Russia’s good fortune, and import growth has picked up rapidly since the and of the summer, leading to some predictions that Russia’s current account may eventually turn negative if the trend continues – though that now seems unlikely given the high oil price.

Polar tourism center will open in Salekhard (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous area ). It will include a five-star hotel for 1000 guests, with concert hall and swimming pool.

The main provider of capital is Finnish consortium of SOFI. Moreover, administration of the region has plans for creating of mountain ski center in Novy Urengoy and creation of ethnographic complexes, dealing with life and customs of ingenious peoples of the Russian extreme North, like Nenets and Khanty.

Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area is a prosperious region, because of developing the hydrocarbon deposits the area are very rich. However, traditional northern crafts and industry live together amicably.

New Polar tourism center is supposed to take 60, 000 tourists every year. The prognoses look very optimistic.