Only July 19, five more American adoption agencies were accredited to work in Russia. The decision by the Ministry of Education brings the total number of accredited American agencies to 12. Two agencies from France and one each from Spain and Israel have also been accredited. Let's hope that the MoE keeps working on this through the traditional August slow season and gets the rest of the waiting agencies their paperwork soon.

In political news, on Monday, Britain announced plans to expel four Russian diplomats over Britain's efforts to extradite a Russian suspected in the death of a former KGB officer in London. Russia responded Thursday by tossing out four British diplomats. None of this does anything to solve the death of Alexander Litvinenko, who died from radiation poisoning in a London hospital last November, but it is the classic diplomatic response to a thorny situation. But Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he believed that relations between his nation and Britain would continue to develop normally.

The political party that backs Putin released a list of its candidates for the December elections to the State Duma, and it is packed with celebrities. According to The Moscow Times, United Russia's list includes several Olympic champions, such as rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabayeva, pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, figure skater Irina Rodnina, gymnast Svetlana Khorkina and hockey player Vladislav Tretyak. There are also at least two members of Forbes' magazines list of the world's billionaires: Andrei Kozitsyn, the head of Urals Mining and Metallurgy Co. and Viktor Rashnikov, chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works. The Moscow Times says the list also includes several members of Nashi, the youth movement I told you about recently.

In business news, the InterContinental Hotels Group said Wednesday that it will build a Holiday Inn in Novosibirsk with a Moscow real estate group. That's welcome news for a key adoption destination that is somewhat lacking in Western quality hotels. Look for a December 2009 opening.

Also on Wednesday, a food business Web site reported that Kraft Foods is stepping up production of chocolate at its Pokrov plant located in central Russia. The $12 million investment will help Kraft make 4 tons of chocolate bars per hour.

And while most of you are focused on the cost of your two adoption trips to Russia, you might be interested to know that the cost of space trips from Russia is going up. According to The International Herald Tribune, flying to the international space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship will jump to $30 million in 2008 and $40 million in 2009. That's up from about $25 million now. The CEO of Space Adventures, the company that arranges the trips with Russia's space agency blamed the hike on the weaker U.S. dollar. Even so, the higher price tag shouldn't put much of a dent in the fortune of Bill Gates, who is rumored to be eyeing a trip. Charles Simonyi, who made billions as a Microsoft exec, traveled to space this past April.

Finally, on Tuesday Russia released a disturbing report on missing artifacts from Russian museums. According to Canada's CBC News, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on television that 160,000 items have disappeared from Russian museums over the last 80 years. Medvedev said that that was one quarter of Russia's museum inventory. Russian authorities launched the investigation after a widely reported theft of $5 million of items from the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg.