Thousands of people spent four nights in the open air, sometimes under heavy rain storm, to enjoy alternative arts and music during “Pustiye Holmi” (Empty Hills) hippie-style festival . Five years ago (in 2003) a successful open-air gathering of 300 people gave birth to the event which later turned into a festival and finally into a movement demonstrating an advanced alternative to the “main stream” approach to music and art in general. Bulgakovo settlement, 250 km southwest of Moscow.

After weeks of low-level hostilities, the conflict in South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia backed by Moscow, escalated dramatically in the early morning of August 8, 2008. Georgia declared that it intended to restore constitutional order and launched a large-scale military offensive. Russia sent additional troops to South Ossetia, saying they were reinforcements to Russian peacekeepers who are in the area to monitor a 1992 ceasefire between Georgian and South Ossetian forces.

This is a short Christmas story about people who respect their traditions. During a celebrating of Orthodox Christmas in the Carpathian villages adults and children in traditional dress walk door-to-door to perform Christmas carols, known locally as “Kolyadki”, attend church services and mourn their deseased relatives.  Ukraine, january 2008-2009

The 2006 “Second Lebanon War” began on July 12, 2006 and concluded on August 14 with a UN brokered cease fire. The conflict began when Hezbollah terrorists opened fire with rockets on mortars on the Israeli border towns of Zar’it and Shtula, wounding several civilians. During the war, about 1,200 Lebanese were killed, of whom about 500 - 700 were estimated by Israel or the UN to have been Hezbollah guerillas. About 149 Israeli soldiers and 44 civilians were killed. Upward of 4,000 civilians on each side were injured, and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from their homes temporarily or permanently. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 terminated the hostilities by securing Lebanese agreement to take control of Southern Lebanon from the Hezbollah with the help of an enlarged United nations emergency force. July-August 2006

Paintings of masterpiece copier Konstantin Ekshibarov are seen in his house in the town of Chudovo, some 600 km northwest of Moscow. Ekshibarov, a former Red Army toxicologist during World War Two, decided to recreate the beauty of old paintings on his own canvases after witnessing soldiers trampling a French masterpiece during the war. The 82-year-old repeatedly extends his house, which currently holds over 400 copies of the likes of Titian, Rubens and Rembrandt, to make room for more pieces. Ekshibarov, who said he had never received a formal art education, claimed he does not sell his works, wanting to fill his personal museum with his own paintings. August 2007

St. Nikolas nunnery

Since the National Bolshevik Party (NBP) was refused registration as an official party, its preferred political activity has consisted of direct action stunts, mostly against prominent political figures. One of its most famous direct actions consisted of taking over the Ministry of Health in Moscow on August 2, 2004 in order to protest the cancellation of social benefits in Russia. On the national arena, the party is highly critical of the government of Vladimir Putin and considers state institutions such as the bureaucracy, the police and the courts to be corrupt and authoritarian. In return the Russian authorities often employ repressive methods against the NBP, although they have not officially proclaimed it to be an extremist organization. 2004-2009