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Heavy fighting raged as Georgian troops surrounded the capital of its separatist region of South Ossetia, and President Mikheil Saakashvili accused Russia of arming the rebels and bombarding its territory.
Russia said Georgia had launched a "dirty adventure" and warned of unspecified retaliation, the foreign ministry said in...
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South Ossetia has appealed to its ally Russia for military aid in violent fighting with Georgian troops who surrounded the capital Friday.
"Heavy fighting in and around Tskhinvali is ongoing," the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee reported. "The people of South Ossetia request the president and the...
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet with his Polish counterpart in September despite recent tensions and threats from Moscow over a proposed US anti-missile shield to be hosted in Poland, it was reported Thursday.
Citing anonymous sources Wyborcza, Poland's largest daily, said that Lavrov is to discuss the...
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Dissident Soviet writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn
was laid to rest with a three-gun salute on Wednesday in a service
attended by President Dmitry Medvedev at Moscow's 16th-century Donskoy
Monastery. The funeral procession of several hundred was led by goose- stepping guards, who carried a black-and-white portrait of Rusia's literary...
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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday that Russia should restore Soviet-era alliances with Cuba, news agencies reported.
'We need to rebuild position in Cuba and other countries,' Putin said
during a meeting with his deputy Igor Sechin on his return from talks
in Havana. The head of Russia's federal security...
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Tributes to Soviet dissident author Alexander Solzhenitsyn poured in on Monday as the world mourned the death of one of Russia'sgreatest literary figures.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the Nobel literature laureate
as 'an outstanding writer and committed citizen,' in a letter of
condolence sent to Russian President...
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Sergei Kislyak, Russia's deputy foreign minister, was named the country's new ambassador to Washington, news agencies reported Tuesday.
Kislyak, 57, has headed difficult negotiations with the United States
in recent months over Washington's plan to install parts of a missile
defence shield in Eastern Europe.
The countries'...
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Italian President Giorgio Napolitano met with
Russia's ruling duo president Dmitry Medvedev and Premier Vladimir
Putin in Moscow Wednesday for talks a Kremlin spokesman said would
focus on international diplomacy, as Italy assumes the G8 presidency
next year. 'In the discussions on international affairs,
particular attention was...
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 Dmitry Medvedev was sworn in Wednesday as Russian president
by his powerful mentor, Vladimir Putin, AFP reports. The inauguration of Russia’s new
president took place at midday in the Andreyevsky hall of the Kremlin palace.
The question is whether the 55-year-old ex-KGB officer, who
led Russia
for eight years, is willing to...
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 The United States,
Britain, Germany and France
mentioned they were “highly concerned” about Russia’s moves, BBC News reports. Russian
President Vladimir Putin ordered last week to
forge closer links with Abkhazia and South Ossetia angered Tbilisi.
According to Russia’s
Ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, called the request...
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 Newspaper “Moskovski Korrespondent,” which reported that President Vladimir Putin divorced his wife in order to marry former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva was closed by its publishers on Friday, just hours after Putin denied the allegations. “In what you said, there is not one word of truth,” he declared, quoted by Reuters.
According...
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 Russian media claims President Vladimir Putin divorced his
wife in order to marry a former gymnast less than half his age. Putin, 55, is said
to have secretly divorced his wife, Ljudmila to tie the knot with 24-year-old
Olympic gold medalist Alina Kabaeva, who is now a member of the Russian
parliament. According to the Russian...
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 President Vladimir Putin is expected to remain Russia’s
predominant political figure, as he accepted the leadership of the dominant
United Russia party. Nearly 600 party delegates at Tuesday’s congress approved
his candidacy in unanimous vote. The position secures his power and Putin, 55,
will be able to maintain his influence after...
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 Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at the NATO summit in
Bucharest, Romania
on Thursday and managed to score a major diplomatic victory, as the Alliance leaders backed the membership bids of Ukraine and Georgia even before he arrived.
Putin previously warned the military alliance against moving
to bring Ukraine and...
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 Despite U.S. President’s George W. Bush efforts to offer a
membership action plan (MAP) for Ukraine and Georgia, NATO leaders
failed to reach consensus over the issue. Bush’s position directly contradicted
French and German government positions previously stated, which were supported
by Italy, Hungary and the Benelux
countries, a...
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 U.S. President George W. Bush opened the meeting of NATO
leaders in Bucharest, Romania on Wednesday. He held a speech
at the Palace of the Deposit and Savings Bank and demanded the alliance to “finish
the fight” in Afghanistan
and fortify its military forces in order to defeat Al Qaeda.
Bush also said that efforts must be made...
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 U.S. President George W. Bush stopped Tuesday in Kiev on his way to the NATO summit in Romania and declared his support for both Ukraine and Georgia to be allowed to start the
process of joining NATO despite alliance’s European members’ skepticism.
Speaking at a news conference with President Viktor
Yushchenko, Bush declared...
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 Dmitry Medvedev crushed his opponents and won the presidential elections to become Russia’s new president. However, his landslide victory was overshadowed by rigging accusations.Medvedev, formerly Vladimir Putin's chief of staff and also the Chairman of Gazprom's board of directors, was voted by 70.2 percent of voters. The nearest of his...
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 Russia’s Election Commission disqualified a former prime
minister from the March 2 presidential election, claiming many of the signatures
of support submitted were not valid.
The Election Commission has announced its refusal to register Mikhail Kasyanov, an ardent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, EuroNews.net reported...
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Russian prosecutors have opened an investigation which is expected to
disqualify presidential opposition candidate Mikhail Kasyanov for
allegedly forging the signatures he needed to run, Interfax news agency
reported Tuesday.
Former prime minister Kasyanov said any move to block his joining the ballot was a case of "political...
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 Russia would not recognize a unilateral declaration of independence by
Kosovo, President President Vladimir Putin said Friday in Sofia.
Unlike the United States and most European Union countries that see
the Kosovo talks between Belgrade and Pristina as failed and finished,
Russia wants the negotiations to continue.
Kosovo...
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 On the second day of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit in Sofia,
Bulgaria on Friday signed a deal and took a stake in the project of a
huge pipeline to supply Western Europe with Russian gas.
Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev's cabinet passed the deal in an
emergency session earlier Friday, held just before meetings with...
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 Russia announced putative measures against Britain's cultural offices
on Monday as they came back to work from holiday break, defying Russian
orders to shut down.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called Britain's move a "deliberate
provocation," in spiralling bilateral relations since the 2006
poisoning in London of former...
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 Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili secured re-election Wednesday
according to official vote counts vehemently rejected by the
opposition, which vows to continue its ongoing protest.
With barely two per cent of the vote left to tally, the election
commission website showed Wednesday that Saakashvili led decisively
with 52.21...
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 Time magazine named Russian President Vladimir Putin its person of the
year, citing his "steely and determined" imposition of order in a
nation seeking renewed superpower status.
Putin stands for "stability in a country that has hardly seen it
for a hundred years" and is carving out a post-presidential...
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 Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he would become prime
minister if his hand-picked successor Dmitry Medvedev was elected in
his stead - setting a blueprint for power when his term ends in 2008.
"If citizens give a vote of confidence to Medvedev and elect him
Russia's president, I will be ready to lead the...
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 Russia on Wednesday suspended participation in a key Cold War treaty
limiting armed forces in Europe amid mounting East-West security
tensions.
Russia has suspended all activities towards observing the treaty on
Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) since midnight on December
12, The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a...
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 Dmitry Medvedev, the most likely successor to the Kremlin presidency,
called on President Vladimir Putin Tuesday to become prime minister,
resolving months of uncertainty over Russia's future power
constellation.
"I declare my readiness to stand as candidate for the presidential
elections, and I consider it crucial for our...
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 President Vladimir Putin upheld the candidature of First Deputy Prime
Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday to succeed him in office when his
presidency ends in March.
Putin meeting with party leaders Monday, including United Russia
which won by a landslide in the recent parliamentary election, said he
"fully and completely...
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 Former Russian premier Mikhail Kasyanov was nominated Saturday to run
as a candidate in the March 2008 presidential elections, Echo Moskwy
radio reported.
Kasyanov, 50, who had served as premier from 2000 to 2004 before
falling into disfavour with President Vladimir Putin, was nominated at
a congress of a citizens' voter...
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 NATO and Russia failed Friday to make any progress on the key issues
dividing the two sides, leaving relations between the West and its Cold
War-era antagonist at a low ebb.
"It was a most lively and interesting discussion, and that should
not come as a surprise given the number of important issues on the
agenda," said...
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 European Union officials pledged Monday to analyse the massive election
victory of the United Russia party following accusations of
vote-rigging and intimidation.
"We take note of the situation and are obviously aware of the
allegations of irregularities. These will have to be assessed by the
relevant bodies in Russia and we...
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 According to exit polls conducted by Russian
state-controlled companies, President Vladimir Putin's party winning more than
60 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections.
The vote projections were released Sunday evening by Russian
media, just minutes after the last polling stations closed in the Baltic
enclave of Kaliningrad....
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 Russian voters went to the polls Sunday in parliamentary elections
expected to deliver a sweeping victory to President Vladimir Putin's
party.
Accusations that Putin's party United Russia enjoyed an unfair
advantage were echoed by all 11 parties participating in the vote,
which is seen as a referendum on Putin's political...
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 Russia's parliamentary elections on Sunday will be accompanied by an
unprecendented level of security by police and soldiers, reports said
Saturday.
The deployment of nearly half a million Interior Ministry staff and
the armed forces is being co-ordinated by the Russian secret service
for the first time, the Komersant daily...
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 Russia's impending presidential polls once again took centre stage in
the run-up to December 2 parliamentary elections when the government
newspaper Rossiikaya Gazeta on Wednesday published the official date
for the vote.
The declaration immediately launched the application process for
the presidential election, to be held on...
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 Just one week before Russia elects a new lower house, or Duma,
opposition politician and former chess world champion Garry Kasparov
and dozens of others have been arrested during a rally in Moscow, Echo
Moskvy radio reported on Saturday.
After the protest against President Vladimir Putin and his
government in Moscow, which was...
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 According to recent reports, President Vladimir Putin has
launched an attack on the west and Russia's marginalized political opposition,
accusing them of plotting together to weaken the country and return it to the
chaos and thievery of the 1990s.
On Wednesday, at a Moscow rally of 5,000 supporters that was
a centrepiece of...
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 Russian President Vladimir Putin told an audience of ardent supporters
Wednesday that the main challenge faced by the nation going into the
December 2 parliamentary elections was "to ensure the continuity" of
the current policy course.
"We should do everything possible to resolve this problem ... that
it is...
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On Monday night, Russian president Vladimir Putin made some
rather drastic changes in the Russian government, which since September 14 has
been ruled by Viktor Zubkov.
By changes I mean, three ministries got new leaders, and two
new state committees were created, the committee for the affairs of the youth
and the committee...
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 Andrei Lugovoi , a former KGB spy accused of murdering the
Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko made a surprise public announcement in
which he stated his wish to candidate for the Kremlin-supporting ultra-nationalist
Liberal Democratic party.
This new path he has chosen in a political career has
already begun to take...
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 Russia is voting for a
new prime minister on Friday, Viktor Zubkov, financial adviser and Russia’s
lower house president’s nominee.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has surprised the government and nominated
little known Zubkov, 65 for premier on Wednesday, three months before
parliamentary and six months before presidential...
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The Russian military proudly states to have developed and tested
the world’s most powerful non-nuclear bomb.
According to the Russian military scientist, the thermo
baric bomb creates powerful vacuums and overpressure level similar to a nuclear
bomb.
The thermo baric bomb is the latest in a series of new
Russian...
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According to Russia's prosecutor general, Yury Chaika, ten
suspects in the murder of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya were
arrested. He added that significant progress had been made in the investigation
and assured that the suspects would go to trial very soon.
Chaika revealed the information in a television meeting...
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 A PR adjustment for Nicolas Sarkozy has brought smiles on
everyone’s faces. Though they may be ironic grins from the opposition or
genuine liking smile, Sarkozy’s image achievement brought him in the public eye
again.
Paris-Match magazine does miracle work when it comes to
friends - this is what might explain how the photos...
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 After months of arguments with Western powers, Russia pulled out of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) on Saturday.The suspension comes in a time when relation between Kremlin and Washington are very strained, pressure mounting with each controversial decision like this one. Moscow said the decision was forced by...
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 The US missile defence system that due to be built in Central Europe will create a chasm between Russia and the old continent, first deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov warned.Russia is a bitter opponent of US’ plans to deploy troops in Europe and tries to avoid this measure by pledging to cooperate with Washington over the controversial...
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 Even if President Vladimir Putin met with his American counterpart George Bush, Kremlin doesn’t hold back on new threats aimed at Poland and the Czech Republic.Russian first deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov veiledly threaten Moscow will direct its missiles towards the two Central European countries if a US missile defence system is...
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 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez doesn’t miss any chance to publicly clobber the capitalism and foreign policy promoted by US leader George W Bush, as his latest anti-imperialism speech was held Thursday in Moscow.The left-wing leader warned the “American imperialism will destroy the world” and the capitalist era exponential for the US...
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Moscow authorities announced Friday that they will have a closer look at the alleged activities undertook by British secret services in Russia, following the statements gave by Andrei Lugovoi.“A criminal case has been opened in relation to signs of espionage as a result of a review of statements of Andrei Lugovoi and additional...
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