The Russian Orthodox Church has launched a competition for the decoration of 200 modular churches that are being speedily built with state support in the Russian capital. Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church has said that the churches are desperately needed in crowded districts of unsightly Soviet high rises.

A Russian businessman has donated more than 70 icons with an estimated value of Ru 30m (around $1m) to the Russian Orthodox Church. Property mogul Sergei Shmakov has spent over a year tracking down the icons—which were taken out of Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution and during the second world war—at auctions, antique stores and flea markets abroad. The icons include a rare mid-18th-century icon, St John the Theologian in Silence, which depicts the apostle with his fingers over his lips and an angel peering over his shoulder as he contemplates the gospel he is composing.

Moscow. Sergei Kapkov, who was appointed last spring as the director of the iconic Stalin-era Gorky Park and transformed it, within months, from a symbol of post-Soviet decline into a trendy venue for nature and public art—thanks to funding from billionaire Roman Abramovich—has been appointed head of Moscow's culture department. Kapkov replaces Sergei Khudyakov, who has directed the department since 2001.