I needed a break from a tech magazine story I was writing tonight and my channel surfing landed me on a great program about Russia that I hadn't seen in a long time.

The History Channel's affiliate, History International, is re-running its excellent 2003 series Russia: Land of the Tsars. It traces the history of Russian rulers from Prince Vladimir through the last of the Romanovs. If you have... more

Ever since Russian legislators enacted the so-called maternity incentive law late last year, I've been wondering how it would turn out. Recently, I've gotten a little bit of a glimpse.

By way of background, last December 27 the legislators approved a plan to create a long-term savings account (similar to our Individual Retirement Accounts in the United States) that would be offered to families who have a second child, or more. The government would deposit... more

OK, I'll skip right over what didn't happen this week (again)(sigh)(channel frustration), and get on to what did.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave broad hints in an interview with the newspaper Kommersant that he may run for office again in 2012. The constitution that Russia adopted in 1993 bars presidents from serving more than two consecutive four-year terms, which Putin wraps up next year. But the constitution does not prevent past presidents from running again.... more

Almost half of all the deaths of working age men in Russia may be caused by the drinking of alcohol not meant to be a beverage. So says a study released this morning by Britain's national school of public health.

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found that the percentage of deaths caused by the drinking of so-called hazardous alcohol--alcohol-containing substances that were not supposed to be beverages--was significantly higher than previously thought. The study, which was carried out in Izhevsk, Russia by... more

I don’t know why it is that the key conversations in our family seem to occur in traffic. It's not like we spend a lot of time on the road; I probably have fewer miles on my three-year-old car right now than most families have after 12 months.

But you might remember that my older son, who was adopted from Vladivostok, started asking questions about his birth mother... more

Maybe, just maybe, this week brought us one step closer to a better relationship between the United States and Russia.

Yesterday, after weeks of heated exchanges between Washington and Moscow over America's plans for installing a missile defense system in eastern Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin came up with a surprise. Rather than base the system in the former Warsaw pact countries of Poland and the Czech Republic, Putin told Washington, put it in Azerbaijan. And, according to the... more

One small bit of good news on the adoption front: Sean and Robin, who are blogging at "His, Hers & Ours", are in Russia for Trip 1. Best wishes for a happy trip.

But once again, no news on accreditations. And frankly, if anybody in Washington is paying attention, I don't think all the very undiplomatic diplomacy that's going on now is of much help.

On Thursday, David Kramer, a State Department Russian expert rebuked... more

Where is it? Pskov Oblast, or region, is located in the northwest corner of Russia about 12 miles from the border of Estonia. Latvia and Belarus are also on its borders. It is in the same time zone as Moscow.

What's the biggest city? Pskov, which accounts for 202,000 of the region's 760,810 people. Other major cities are Velikie Luki, Ostrov and Nevel.

Who lives here? Overwhelmingly ethnic Russians. Pskov was an independent republic in the Middle Ages, but it was annexed by Moscow... more

There was, alas, no news on the adoption front in Russia this week. But there was lots of political and business news.

On Tuesday, British prosecutors asked Russia to extradite former KGB agent to face a murder charge. Andrei Lugovoi is the chief suspect in the death of another former KGB operative Alexander Litvinenko, who died in Britain last Nov. 23, after being poisoned by the radioactive substance polonium-210. Litvinenko was a British citizen at his death. Lugovoi has repeatedly... more

Whether you are a prospective adoptive parent needing motivation because Moscow is taking so long to sign off on the re-accreditations or a parent already home needing some inspiration, you'll be in luck this weekend: Dateline NBC is going to re-run a remarkable story on Russian adoption.

Correspondent Keith Morrison's story originally aired last June. It is the story of Lisa and Hythem Salem, "two regular people in an average suburb in America", as Morrison called them. Not... more