The Beast from the East brought an unexpected gift; a brambling turned up in the mist net in my back-garden.

A Russian fishing trawler has sunk in just 15 minutes in the icy waters off Russia’s Far East coast, killing at least 56 of its 132 crew members.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has overseen a military exercise involving Russia's nuclear forces amid escalating tensions over Ukraine.

A powerful earthquake has hit Russia’s Far East with tremors felt as far away as Moscow, about 7,000 kilometres (4,400 miles) west of the epicentre.

Ten people were killed and four injured today in a plane crash in Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka peninsula, officials said.

Thousands of protesters took to Moscow’s streets, accusing prime minister Vladimir Putin’s party of rigging Russia’s parliamentary election in which it won the largest share of the seats.

A LOOK at the world’s most powerful earthquakes and tsunamis:

Authorities on Russia’s far-eastern Sakhalin Island and nearby territories have evacuated some 11,000 residents from coastal areas in anticipation of tsunami waves unleashed by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake off Japan’s north-eastern coast.

Two volcanoes have erupted on Russia’s far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, tossing massive ash clouds miles into the air, forcing flights to divert and blanketing one town with thick, heavy ash.

Kamchatka

Two people died and three others were missing after a group of snowmobiles was caught in an avalanche on the Russian Pacific peninsula of Kamchatka today.

Russian sailors rescued with British help after three days trapped in a mini-submarine deep in the Pacific revealed today how they struggled with rapidly decreasing water and oxygen supplies while waiting anxiously in the darkness and cold.

SEVEN Russians were rescued yesterday after spending three days trapped in a submarine under the Pacific Ocean.

A British remote-controlled vehicle cut loose a Russian mini-submarine that had been snarled on undersea cables for three days deep in the Pacific, and it surfaced today with its crew safe.

A Russian mini-submarine that was trapped for nearly three days under the Pacific Ocean surfaced today after a remote-controlled vehicle cut away the undersea cables that had snarled it.

Crews are racing to save a Russian mini-submarine trapped in the remote Pacific with seven sailors on board and oxygen supplies dwindling, navy officials said today.

Russian news agencies have reported that Japan is to send four ships to help rescue seven Russian sailors trapped on a naval mini-submarine on the sea floor off the Pacific Coast.

A deep-sea diving vessel with seven sailors aboard was stuck on the sea floor off the Kamchatka Peninsula yesterday after becoming caught on an unidentified object, Russian navy officials and news reports said.

A SERIES of undersea earthquakes hit off the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia yesterday, but no injuries of damage on land was reported, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.