Israel hopes Russian leader will visit this year

As Americans ponder the merits of Obama vs. Gingrich, Paul, Romney or Santorum, Russia will be electing its own president on March 4.

As Americans ponder the merits of Obama vs. Gingrich, Paul, Romney or Santorum, Russia will be electing its own president on March 4.

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa was due Thursday to discuss energy and defense cooperation with Russian leaders on a visit that the media said may lead to Ecuador's recognition of Georgia's rebel regions as independent.On a first official visit by an Ecuadoran leader to Russia, Correa, who last year said he wanted closer ties with Moscow, was scheduled to meet with the Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW — Russia is preparing to put lawyer Sergei Magnitsky on trial, even though he died in 2009, in the latest twist in a case that has become a byword for rampant Russian corruption and has severely strained U.S.-Russian relations. The posthumous trial has already provoked outrage among rights groups who see the whistleblower’s case as indicative of the rampant judicial abuse, skyrocketing graft, and blurred boundaries between the state and organized crime that have plagued Russia under President Vladimir Putin.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday launched an unprecedented attack on the party that has ruled Russia for the past decade, saying its dominance has left the country stuck in "stagnation."United Russia -- whose overall leader is prime minister and Medvedev's Kremlin predecessor Vladimir Putin -- has held an overwhelming majority in parliament since its creation in 2001.Russia's liberals have been sidelined to the point of having no members in parliament and the ruling party controls almost every legislature and governorship across the country's 11 time zones.