Medvedev nominates top Putin aide as Moscow mayor

In perhaps the oddest news of the day, workers in the Chelyabinsk region in the Russian Urals were greeted this morning with a spectacular show: an exploding meteor. Bloomberg reports "A meteor exploded in the skies above Russia’s Urals region and sent shock waves that shattered windows, hurting hundreds of people, hours before an asteroid half the size of a football field hurtles past the Earth. The meteor broke apart above the Chelyabinsk region at about 7:25 a.m.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev over the weekend released a short list of candidates for mayor of Moscow, including a top aide to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, highlighting the Kremlin's tightening of control over the capital since Mr. Medvedev ousted Yuri Luzhkov from the job last month.

A Russian court on Friday convicted a police major for killing two people in a supermaket shooting rampage that heightened outrage over police brutality, news agencies reported.Denis Yevsyukov, former head of police of the Moscow district of Tsaritsyno, was found guilty on two counts of murder and 22 counts of attempted murder, the Interfax news agency reported.The verdict by Moscow City Court came a day after President Dmitry Medvedev announced sweeping reforms to Russia's powerful interior ministry and outlined broad reforms to combat police corruption.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday after a meeting with Moscow's top diplomat that he hoped Russia's president or prime minister would visit the Jewish state in 2010."I hope that by the end of the year there will be a visit by President Dmitry Medvedev or Prime Minister Vladimir Putin," Lieberman said at a press conference with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday it was too early to discuss the 2012 presidential elections but added he and President Dmitry Medvedev would agree on whether to stand in the polls."We will jointly agree, we will think about it, we'll see," Russian news agencies quoted the powerful prime minister, and former president, as saying."It's too early to talk about it," Putin said. "As soon as we talk about it everybody stops working, expects changes, reshuffles."