Moskovskiy Komsomolets has an article on a new technology, which allows to essentially transform roads in giant solar panels. An American company Solar Roadways has a technological solution, which would allow to produce more renewable energy that a country consumes if deployed on roads on a national level. The article reports that a working prototype has already been tested; now the company has launched a crowdfunding campaign to improve it and launch mass production. The daily explains that the company produces hexagonal solar panels equipped with LEDs which can be installed on a variety of surfaces, including roads and sidewalks. These panels are cost-effectives as they can power adjacent buildings and even the power grid if the power yield is high enough. They are also outfitted with heating elements which melt ice and snow; the LEDs can be used as road markings. The company behind the product has estimated that the US has 31 thousand square miles which can be paved with the energy-producing panels; this would create three times as much energy as the whole country requires.

RBC Daily writes that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Moscow is ready for a dialog with Ukraine’s new government which will be created after the May 25 presidential election. “Even today we work with the people who control the power, but after the election we will work with the newly elected officials.” He added that the the leader of the presidential race Petr Poroshenko would have to repay Kiev’s gas debt to Moscow which is calculated at three and a half billion dollars. Putin also noted that Russia respected the choice of the Ukrainian people May 25. He said: “We understand and see that people in Ukraine want the country to leave the prolonged crisis behind. We also want calmness in Ukraine,” adding that he hoped that military actions initiated by Kiev would be ceased after the election. The article reminds that governments of self-declared republics in Ukriane’s east have announced they would not recognize the election as legitimate.

Izvestia reports that Russian journalists, Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saychenko, who were arrested in Ukraine when visiting with their assignment from LifeNews media company, have been released and arrived in Moscow on Sunday. The jounralists were detained May 18 in the vicinity of Kramatorsk, the city where Ukraine’s armed forces were engaged in combat action with the local militia; Russian citizens were accused of abetting terrorism. The news of their release were first announced through the Instagram account of Ramzan Kadyrom, head of the Chechen Republic. The newspaper explained that Kadyrov’s representatives were in Kiev throughout the last few days negotiating release of Russian correspondents. The newspaper also published an interview with Ramzan Kadyrov himself, who said that he was spearheading the negotiations securing the release of Russian journalists. He did not name the officials with whom the Russian side was in talks, as it is confidential information.

If the U.S. special services had acted professionally, National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden would be in jail, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin told the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The Moscow Times reports that in his keynote speech at the forum, Putin also referred to Snowden as a “champion of human rights” and said the former NSA contractor has not shared any secret information with Russia. Russia’s President Putin suggested that while handing over intelligence might have been a fair trade for Russia’s provision of asylum, Snowden “is not our agent, and gave up no secrets.” Putin also blamed the United States for the fact that Snowden is still in Russia. The newspaper reminds that days after leaking thousands of classified U.S. documents to journalists in Hong Kong last summer, Snowden turned up in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, from where he planned to fly on to a third country. But then, Putin said, the U.S. stepped in and quote unquote “scared the whole world,” guaranteeing that no country would give asylum to the leaker on the run.

The New York Times reports that Thailand’s military junta on Saturday ordered two dozen professors and writers to turn themselves over to the military authorities, broadening a sweep in which nearly 200 political officials have already been detained, and sent more troops into the streets of Bangkok and other cities to discourage protests. The junta continued to consolidate power, “terminating” the upper house of Parliament and purging the bureaucracy of senior officials who were seen as allies of the deposed government. Meanwhile, the Pentagon, responding to Thursday’s military coup, announced Saturday that it was halting a military exercise with Thai armed forces that was already underway and canceling the visit of a top American admiral to the country. The Obama administration, which suspended military aid to Thailand last week, called off other projects for police and military cooperation. The commander of Thailand’s army overthrew the country’s elected government on Thursday, a move applauded by members of the Bangkok establishment but one that risks a violent backlash from voters in northern Thailand who supported the overthrown government, the article notes.

On the first day of his visit to the Holy Land, Pope Francis spoke three times against the violence “lacerating” Syria and singled out for criticism those supplying and profiting from weapon sales to the embattled country. The Washington Post reports that straying from his prepared remarks, the pope told an audience of Syrian refugees: “May God convert those who have projects of war. May he convert weapons manufacturers and traffickers so they become constructors of peace.” The newspaper reminds that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been provided with weapons by Russia and Iran. The rebels have been supported with arms from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Libya. The U.S. Congress has also approved transfer of “light weapons” to rebels, but a large flow of U.S.-supplied arms has not been reported. The pope called for a “peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis and a just solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.”