Russia & CIS

The Russian government could broaden the list of excisable goods to include palm oil, soda and chips, the Vedomosti newspaper reports.

The Foreign Ministry on Thursday said Russia will take "compensatory measures" in response to U.S. plans to expand its military presence in Europe, news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Mercury, the luxury brand distributor that manages Moscow's TsUM department store, is developing a tourist shopping tour to increase the number of Chinese customers, the RBC news website reported Thursday.

The European parliament has named the return of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, to Ukraine as one of the necessary conditions for lifting sanctions against the country.

An international team of hackers, who were exposed in November by Russian special police services, managed to infiltrate the world’s biggest payment systems including VISA and MasterCard, a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs said Thursday.

Russia suspects Turkey may be secretly preparing to invade northern Syria after Ankara denied a Russian military plane access to its airspace as part of a treaty-mandated surveillance flight on Feb. 3.

A Russian military adviser was killed in a mortar attack in Syria on February 1. According to sources in the Syrian army, the shelling could be conducted from the side of Turkey. The shelling of command posts of Syrian armed forces in the north of the country has become more frequent during the recent several weeks

Navy's deputy commander-in-chief f said that Russian Navy high command and representatives of leading shipbuilding enterprises will discuss the outlook for submarine and above-water shipbuilding during a conference in Saint Petersburg.

The possibility of the Zika virus entering Russia is being controlled, it will be immediately isolated should it be brought into the country, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said on Thursday.

Thirty-six percent of Russians consider their country to be one of most powerful in the world, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday, citing data from the independent Levada Center pollster.

Ural Works of Civil Aviation (UWCA) in 2017 is going to start production of four H135 Airbus Helicopters, according to the department of information policy of the governor of Sverdlovsk Region.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova is holding a weekly press briefing in Moscow.

US European Command (USEUCOM) has recently unveiled its updated security strategy document 'Theater Strategy', where it labelled “revanchist Russia” as its top priority threat; however a UK-based journalist and blogger thinks that the document would actually make more sense, if you swap the words Russia with US.

Russia's military on Thursday revealed plans for a United Nations-backed plan for a global non-aggression pact, banning cyberwarfare attacks in peacetime between all leading powers.

Republican voters in Iowa may have thwarted Russian President Vladimir Putin's wish to see the "doubtlessly talented" Donald Trump as the next U.S. president.

The champagne corks were already popping for New Year's Eve celebrations when several thousand Crimeans received an unexpected phone call.

Another airspace violation raises the spectre of conflict between Russia and Turkey.

Turkey has introduced visa requirements for Russian journalists starting from Feb. 15, the Interfax news agency reported, citing a representative of the Turkish Embassy in Moscow.