MOSCOW - Russia’s federal guard service launched an investigation after photos appeared in the media of a disgraced former employee posing behind Vladimir Putin’s desk in the Kremlin, an official said Tuesday.Pictures of the man, named Alexei Ustimchuk, sitting diminutively behind the ...

MOSCOW British PM David Cameron and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday sought to forge a joint approach to the crisis in Syria, as a row over Moscow’s weapons deliveries to Damascus showed up the divisions between the Kremlin and the West.Cameron’s rare call on Putin at his ...

moscowUS Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday sought to narrow differences over the conflict in Syria with President Vladimir Putin, urging the Russian strongman to find common ground to help end the bloodshed.Kerry is making his first trip to Russia since taking over as the chief US diplomat ...

MOSCOW: Thousands of protestors on Monday filled a square in centralMoscowto denounce Russian President Vladimir Putin one year into his new Kremlin term, as the opposition seeks to recover the momentum of their challenge to his rule. Organisers said tens of thousands attended the rally, which ...

MOSCOW : When Vladimir Putin returned one year ago to the Kremlin for a historic third term, Russia could boast robust if unspectacular growth, a budget flush with cash from high oil prices and the world’s most profitable company. But in the space of just 12 months, growth has slipped that ...

KIROV, Russia Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny went on trial Wednesday on charges he says were ordered by President Vladimir Putin to eliminate a top opponent, but the process was swiftly adjourned for a week to allow the defence more time to prepare.Hundreds of journalists and Navalny ...

MOSCOW, Russia  - President Barack Obama's national security advisor on Monday handed a "constructive" message from the US leader to Russian President Vladimir Putin, days after the former foes exchanged Cold War-style blacklists in a row over human rights.The Kremlin praised the note, ...

MOSCOW  - President Vladimir Putin on Friday unveiled a new $50 billion drive for Russia to preserve its status as a top space power, including the construction of a brand new cosmodrome from where humans will fly to space by the end of the decade. Fifty-two years to the day since Yuri Gagarin ...

BERLIN - Rights groups and opposition leaders called for a strong turnout at planned protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin when he arrives in Germany for a trade fair Sunday.Activists and critics said Putin should be held to account for a recent crackdown on non-governmental ...

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed into law controversial parliamentary legislation banning the adoption of Russian children by American families, the Kremlin said.The United States on Friday expressed deep regret after Putin signed the law, and said it hoped cases ...

MOSCOW  - Russia’s President Vladimir Putin vowed on Thursday to sign a bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children that has added new strains to the uneasy relations between the former Cold War foes. An aide separately raised the spectre of the Kremlin eliminating all foreign ...

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian investigators Monday opened their third criminal case in five months against an opposition leader who poses one of the main challenges to President Vladimir Putin in opinion polls. The Investigative Committee said it had charged anti-corruption blogger and lawyer Alexei ...

MOSCOW (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday backed a tough bill making it illegal for Americans to adopt Russian children in a reprisal for a new US human rights law.But he also used the first major press conference of his third term to deny running an “authoritarian system” in ...

MOSCOW/DAMASCUS  - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday denied propping up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and stressed that Moscow was only seeking to avert a perpetual civil war.“What is our position? Not to leave Assad’s regime in power at any price, but to first (let ...

ISTANBUL- Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Monday that any deployment of US-made Patriot missiles on Turkey’s volatile border with war-ravaged Syria would exacerbate tensions, and said the two countries had failed to overcome their sharp differences on the conflict.“Creating ...

MOSCOW  - US President Barack Obama and Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed during telephone talks Tuesday to move relations forward following a tense year-long diplomatic spell, the Kremlin said. “The presidents confirmed their desire to advance bilateral relations in all areas, ...

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday fired his defence minister over a corruption scandal, the most dramatic change to the government since he returned for a third Kremlin term amid rising discontent.Putin replaced defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov — who had been implementing an ...

MOSCOW  - Russia’s opposition went online Saturday to vote for new leaders to spearhead the drive against Vladimir Putin and regain the momentum lost since his thumping return to the presidency in May. But hacking scuppered voting in the early hours while nearly a dozen police vans ...

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday waded into a controversial debate over a hijab ban at a Russian school, saying that the country’s secular nature should prevail over religious feelings.“We must always treat the religious feelings of people with great respect. That ...

The Russian President has pulled out of a scheduled visit to Pakistan, just days before he was expected in Islamabad. As a result the Quadrilateral Summit to be attended by delegations from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and hosted in the capital, has also had to be put off. The move marks a ...

VLADIVOSTOK - President Vladimir Putin on Friday said Russia and a new bloc with ex-Soviet states were well-positioned to become a bridge between Europe and Asia, as he hosted a Pacific regional summit, while the US officials said the United States and Russia will cut down on paperwork and fees for ...

MOSCOW  - One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal and influential parliamentary critics said Saturday that prosecutors had asked lawmakers to expel him so that he could be charged with business crimes. Gennady Gudkov of the leftist A Just Russia party said he had received a ...

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin on Saturday urged the Russian Olympic team to bring victory for the country as he wished the sports stars well for the London Games at a glittering Kremlin ceremony. To give extra inspiration, the special guest at the ceremony was the two-time Olympic discus ...

MOSCOW  - Russian President Vladimir Putin will miss the upcoming G8 summit in the US as he is busy forming a government after just starting his third term as head of state, the Kremlin said Thursday. Putin will however meet US Presideny Barack Obama at the G20 summit in June in Mexico, the ...

MOSCOW  - Vladimir Putin on Monday began a historic third term as Russian president in a glittering Kremlin ceremony overshadowed by the arrests of hundreds in protests against his 12-year domination of Russia. Putin, head of state from 2000-2008, took over from outgoing president Dmitry ...

RUSSIAN president-elect Vladimir Putin has given the go-ahead to a gun that uses electromagnetic radiation to attack a victims’ central nervous system, a British media report said. The “psychotronic” can effectively turn people into zombies - a dead person that can be given the ...

The point of elections is that their outcome should be uncertain. But everybody in Russia knows that Vladimir Putin, who is now prime minister, will be elected president. This is not because he is overwhelmingly popular, but because his support will be supplemented by a potent mixture of ...

Whenever the world seemed to start caving in around them, Syrian politicians have leaned on the Russians for support. Moscow, both now and during the Soviet era, has always been Syria’s “security blanket”. Syrian leaders, however, have almost equally misjudged how far Russia was ...

MOSCOW - Russia’s opposition expressed concern on Tuesday that Vladimir Putin was resorting to old tactics to crush dissent after riot police detained hundreds of protesters challenging the legitimacy of his presidential election victory.After three months of peaceful anti-Putin protests, ...

ISLAMABAD  - Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his election as the President of Russia for the third time. “Your election testifies the trust and faith of your people in your leadership,” said the PM in a telephonic ...