OAO Russian Railways is planning more than 5 trillion rubles ($157 billion) of high-speed rail links as the world’s largest country by land mass plans to host the 2018 soccer World Cup. “Building high-speed rail links is a brand new trend for the development of our economy,” Russian Railways Chief Executive Officer Vladimir Yakunin said in Sochi, the Black Sea city that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Russia’s ambitions to hold world sporting events is forcing the government to expand the national transportation system. The country doesn’t have a single high-speed rail line, while Japan introduced the world’s first service in the 1960s, according to data from OAO High-Speed Rail Lines, a unit of RZD as the Russian rail monopoly is known. State-owned Russian Railways plans the routes from Moscow to St. Petersburg, Sochi and Kazan, with an extension to Yekaterinburg near the border of Europe and Asia. The company is trying to start the pilot link to Kazan in time to race soccer fa...

MOSCOW, November 26 - RAPSI. Prosecutors are seeking sentences of 16 to 19 years for defendants implicated in the case of the planned terrorist attack on a high-speed train between St. Petersburg and Moscow, defense attorney Abusupyn Gaytayev told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Monday. He added that prosecutors believes that all four defendants are guilty. The case is being considered by a three-judge panel. Islam Khamzhuyev, Fail Nevlyutov, Mansur Umayev, and Mansur Edilbiyev have been accused of attempting to commit acts of terrorism, as well as illegally acquiring, transferring, selling, transporting, and possessing arms and explosive devices. Khamzhuyev, Umayev, and Edelbiyev have also been charged with illegally manufacturing explosives. Nevlyutov has been charged with taking part in an illegally armed enterprise. Khamzhuyev has also been accused of financing an illegally armed criminal enterprise. On July 18, 2011, Federal Security Service (F...