A 49-year old Russian with a big spoon in hand swallowed a pound (500 grams) of caviar in about 90 seconds to win what was billed as the world’s first eating contest featuring the pricey fish roe.

InterContinental has announced ambitious plans to open 100 hotels in Russia by 2020, an expansion of almost ten times the number operating there today.

The hotel chain announced September 12 that it aimed to capitalize on growing tourism to the country by significantly adding to the number of hotels it operates, across brands such as InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Hotel Indigo.

Among the new properties will be Europe’s largest Holiday Inn, a 1,000-room behemoth in Moscow set to open in 2014.

Global hotel chain Best Western, which runs over 4,000 hotels, has opened its largest property in the world in the Russian capital, Moscow.

The chain announced August 9 that the Best Western Vega Hotel & Convention Center had officially opened its doors in the historical district of Izmaylovo in Moscow.

Originally built in 1980, the building has been significantly remodeled and will now operate as a three-star hotel, with 970 guest rooms.

After the John Galliano debacle, Christian Dior can use all the positive publicity it can get, and a new retrospective of its history at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts sets out to bring back the fashion house’s magic.

Opening on April 28, the exhibit showcasing the brand’s 64-year history will not only present its collections over the years — designed by the founder itself as well as the likes of Yves Saint Laurent or Gianfranco Ferré — but also juxtapose them with works of art by Van Gogh or Klimt as well as photographs by Richard Avedon and Man Ray.

Once the world’s top exporter of black caviar, Russia is building fish farms to harvest the gourmet delicacy as it aims to bring its sturgeon stocks back from the brink.

In Gamzyuki, a tiny village in the Kaluga region, around 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Moscow, a fish farm has the ambitious goal of producing 16 tons of the sturgeon eggs per year by 2014.

It is one of dozens of sturgeon farms that have opened in Russia recently, aiming to rebuild the nation’s reputation as the world’s premium exporter of caviar.

Russia has resumed sturgeon caviar exports to the European Union after a nine-year ban, a fisheries watchdog said Monday.

Russia has decided to allow exports to Europe of up to 150 kg (330 lbs) of black caviar from farmed fish as “a symbolic volume,” said Alexander Savelyev, a spokesman for the Federal Fisheries Agency.

“The goal is to break the ice which has formed over the past nine years when not a single permit was issued for exports of the black caviar from Russia,” said Savelyev.