Russia & CIS

Russian President Vladimir Putin says a number of "mistakes" committed by the US, Russia and NATO following the break-up of the Soviet Union has led to the current deterioration of relations between Moscow and the West, with NATO's expansion into eastern Europe one of the major damaging factors.

Galina Shirshina, former mayor of the Karelian city of Petrozavodsk who was dismissed by local legislature deputies in December 2015, has filed a suit demanding that the lawmakers' decision be overturned.

The Russian government said that it would investigate the findings regarding a new dead body found at the notorious Dyatlov Pass, while dismissing allegations that the group which spotted it has lost contact.

Authorities in the Moscow region are planning to reconstruct several rail crossings in 2016 to prevent traffic jams and will charge drivers 30-80 rubles ($0.4-$1) for passing through them, the Kommersant newspaper reported.

Almost 100 relatives of those who died in the Russian A321 airliner crash have filed a class action suit against the U.S. company that owned the plane and leased it to the Kogalymavia carrier company.

Crimean Finance Minister Irina Kiviko said that according to the operative data, 25.6 billion rubles were contributed to the budget of Crimea, 10 percent more than the initially predicted contribution of 23.2 billion.

A law outlining the right of a detainee to make a phone call no later than three hours after being arrested has come into force in Russia, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta state-owned newspaper reported Sunday.

Moscow clinics this year will start distributing free medication to drug addicts to treat overdoses, the Health Ministry's top drug specialist, Yevgeny Bryun, told local news website m24.ru.

A powerful storm will strike central Russia on Tuesday and will cover Moscow in heavy snowfall.

A total of 225 kilograms of mandarins imported from Turkey were destroyed in the Stavropol region after the presidential decree banning the import of a number of food items from Turkey came into force on Jan. 1.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an extensive interview to German publication Build. In the interview, the head of state spoke about the relations between Moscow and Berlin, corporation with Angela Merkel, sanctions against Russia and Crimea, about the regulation of the conflict in Ukraine and other actual issues

First two Su-35S jets to enter service with Russia's Eastern Military District.

Russian energy company Gazprom Neft has withdrawn from negotiations over the purchase of a 49-percent share in the Dung Quat refinery, as part of a deal signed with Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation Petrovietnam, local media reported Monday.

Rospotrebnadzor strengthened border controls and organized a continuous monitoring of retail outlets in accordance with a presidential decree on the implementation of restrictive measures against Turkey.

The non-oil deficit in Russia has reached a highly dangerous level, forcing the authorities to reduce spending, but this leads to a recovery of the economy as a whole, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday.

You'd almost think the good people at the New York Public Library were waiting for Christmas. Russian Orthodox Christmas, that is.

Bellingcat is looking to fund a Russian language version of its investigative journalism website in 2016, the citizen journalist site announced Friday on Twitter.

Finland said on Friday it had decided to extradite Russian citizen Maxim Senakh, accused of computer fraud and abuse, to the United States for trial.

U.S. cyber intelligence firm iSight Partners said on Thursday it has determined that a Russian hacking group known as Sandworm caused last month's unprecedented power outage in Ukraine.

Friday morning and Twitter is full of images of Benedict Cumberbatch? Must be "Sherlock" fans at work.