capitalization and russian news stories

[fiachasorcha.livejournal.com]

This is perhaps a silly question, but one I've always wondered about.

Different languages have different rules on capitalization, and nobody ever really bothered to teach them to us in my Russian classes. I know names and cities should be capitalized, as well as the beginning of each sentence, but what about months (in a date for example)? Any other strange and unusual capitalization rules?

Also does anyone have any suggestions for websites where I can find Russian news stories (i.e. in the original russian)? I have to read and summarize them for my class, so it would be helpful if they were not incredibly long and used vocabulary at a high-intermediate level, although I can work my way through anything. I already use BBCRussia, Gazeta.ru, and ITAR-TASS.

thank you!

Comments

[laertid.livejournal.com]

President, Governor and so on are generally NOT capitalized -- президент, губернатор, мэр, вице-мэр, etc, although official press and official websites do capitalize them, but it's more of the politics, not grammar :)

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

In the laws president IS capitalized however - in the constitution, for example http://www.constitution.ru/10003000/10003000-6.htm

[laertid.livejournal.com]

In official papers such as laws -- yes, you are right. But not in the press. You can tell the difference between the private and the state-owned newspaper by the way they spell the name of the local governor :).