Biting sanctions and a proposed increase in the retirement age are two of the factors that have impacted on the popularity of the Russian leader, writes Nina L Khrushcheva.

There may still be a chance for Ireland to bring home the gold from Russia this summer.

In the White House, there resides a vain, bombastic, dictatorial, strange, narcisstic and unpredictable character, whom the world at large is still coming to terms with.

The Kremlin has denounced Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's statement comparing the World Cup in Russia to the Olympics hosted by Nazi Germany as "utterly disgusting".

A weekend-long snowstorm in Moscow has delayed flights, cut power supplies to nearby villages and even prompted authorities to call a snow day - a highly unusual occurrence in the frost-resistant Russian capital.

Boris Johnson has clashed publicly with his Russian counterpart over Crimea and Moscow’s alleged cyber attacks on the West, as the two men met in Moscow.

Latest: Five defendants at a Moscow courthouse attacked their guards in a bungled escape attempt, leading to a shootout that killed three people and wounded four others, officials have said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the Kremlin in Moscow.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said he aims to clear up "sharp differences" with Moscow as he opened a tense meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Boris Johnson will push leading nations to demand Russia withdraws its forces from Syria when he meets counterparts for talks in Italy next week.

About three dozen people have been arrested at unauthorised rallies in Moscow, a week after anti-government protests broke out across Russia.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been jailed for 15 days for resisting police orders.

A French musician and his lawyer have been detained in Moscow after a Russian pop star accused them of extorting a million euros (£850,000) from him in a plagiarism row.

A top Russian diplomat says Moscow had contacts with the campaign of Donald Trump ahead of his election as US president.

Several dozen demonstrators have rallied outside the British Embassy in Moscow in a tit-for-tat response to a protest in London against Russia's action in Syria.

Joggers, taxi drivers, Pokemon Go players and senior Russian officials are seeking answers as to why mobile phone apps that use GPS are malfunctioning in central Moscow.

The New York Times said its Moscow bureau was targeted by a cyber attack this month but there was no evidence that the hackers, believed to be Russian, were successful.

A nanny accused of decapitating a four-year old girl in Moscow has said during an apparent interrogation that the killing was an act of revenge against President Vladimir Putin for Russian air strikes in Syria.

A nanny accused of decapitating a four-year old girl in Moscow has said during an apparent interrogation that the killing was an act of revenge against President Vladimir Putin for Russian air strikes in Syria.

A nanny accused of killing and decapitating a four-year-old girl was not acting on her own, Russian prosecutors have said.

A nanny accused of killing and then decapitating a four-year old girl was not acting on her own, Russian prosecutors have said.

The babysitter who beheaded a four-year-old girl in Moscow carried out the shocking murder after learning her boyfriend was married, according to reports.

Floral tributes have been left at a Moscow subway station after a nanny was arrested on suspicion of killing a four-year-old girl and waving the child's severed head outside the station.

Russian police wrestled to the ground a woman in a hijab brandishing the severed head of a child outside a Moscow metro station and charged her with murder, in an incident that stirred fears of an Islamist terrorist attack.

Police in Moscow have reportedly arrested a woman who was waving around the severed head of a small child outside a subway station in the Russian capital.

More than 20,000 people have marched across Moscow city centre in memory of the slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on the first anniversary of his killing.

A fire at a textile workshop in Moscow has killed 12 people, including three children.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned Moscow that it will “endure the consequences” if its jets continued to enter his country’s airspace, after Ankara reported a new border infringement incident by a Russian plane.

Heavy snowfall and strong winds have hit the Russian capital, slowing traffic and causing numerous flight delays.

European leaders are meeting later with the Balkan countries to discuss the escalating refugee crisis.

US secretary of state John Kerry said Washington is planning direct talks with Russian military officials over Moscow's growing involvement in Syria.

This may open some eyes.

Masked police have raided the Moscow offices of a civil society organisation funded by former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Talks between representatives of the Syrian government and some mainstream members of the opposition concluded yesterday in Moscow with no sign of progress towards ending a four-year-old conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people.

A married television actor working in Russia woke up to find his testicles stolen by a ‘young blonde woman’ he shared a sauna with.

However superficial the comparisons between Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin may appear, the chilling similarities between their mutual strategies have become more ominous by the day.

Vladimir Putin wants to restore Russia to what he claims is its former glory. And Ukraine is the starting point, writes Richard Haass

Crimea, officially annexed by Russia, is experiencing turbulent times as Vladimir Putin puts his mark on all facets of life on the peninsula, writes Alissa de Carbonnel

President Vladimir Putin completed the annexation of Crimea yesterday, signing the peninsula into Russia at nearly the same time his Ukrainian counterpart sealed a deal pulling his country closer to Europe.

The EU leaders have much to ponder as the crisis increases, writes Europe Correspondent Ann Cahill