Foreign spies are being accused of plotting a series of cyber attacks aimed at destabilising Russia's financial system.

Whether it’s by backing French ultra-nationalists, the Brexit campaign, or Catalan separatists, the Kremlin believes it benefits every time discord is sown in the West, argues Owen Matthews

RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin is not a competitor at the Olympics but he might as well be, considering his undoubted role in the biggest doping scandal in history.

Pictures and plans of Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel’s residence and offices were found on a computer discovered after a raid on a flat used by the men suspected of carrying out last week’s deadly bombings in Brussels, Belgian media reported.

Russian news agencies said yesterday that one of the suspects in the killing of leading opposition figure Boris Nemtsov has admitted involvement in the crime.

The widow of poisoned spy Alexander Litvinenko has told the inquiry into his death that he believed Vladimir Putin was involved in “criminal conduct”.

A video purporting to show a young boy executing two men accused of working for Russian intelligence services has been released by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Vladimir Putin’s nostalgia for the Soviet Union has never been a secret but, post-Crimea, the Kremlin has been actively campaigning for a return to a totalitarian state, writes Owen Matthews.

A tycoon who financed a newspaper critical of the Kremlin has been found guilty of assault after punching a talk show guest and sentenced to 150 hours of community service.

Russia is to expel a US diplomat it claims was caught disguised in a blond wig while trying to recruit a Russian agent in Moscow.

Russia is to expel a US diplomat it claims was caught disguised in a blond wig while trying to recruit a Russian agent in Moscow.

Thousands of opposition supporters gathered today outside the old KGB headquarters in central Moscow today to mark a year of mass protests against Vladimir Putin and his government.

Several thousand opposition supporters have gathered in central Moscow for an unauthorised rally and at least one prominent opposition figure has been detained.

A tycoon whose holdings include a newspaper critical of the Kremlin says he wants to sell his Russian assets because of pressure from the security services.

Russian and Ukrainian special services have arrested a group of suspects over an alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russia’s state television reported today.

A military court yesterday convicted a Russian officer of passing missile secrets to the CIA and sentenced him to 13 years in prison.

Russian military officer has been convicted of passing missile secrets to the CIA and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Tens of thousands of people held the largest anti-government protests that post-Soviet Russia has ever seen today to criticise electoral fraud and demand an end to Vladimir Putin's rule.

RUSSIAN authorities have foiled a plot by militants who were building fertiliser bombs in a suburban apartment and planning to attack a bullet train between Moscow and St Petersburg, a newspaper reported.

The suicide bomber who killed 35 people at Moscow’s busiest airport was deliberately targeting foreigners, investigators said today.

PRIME Minister Vladimir Putin vowed revenge yesterday for a suicide bombing that killed at least 35 people at Russia’s busiest airport and underscored the Kremlin’s failure to stem a rising tide of attacks.

Russian Prime minister Vladimir Putin today vowed: “Retribution is inevitable” over the Moscow airport suicide bombing.

THE head of Russia’s deep cover US spying operations has betrayed the network and defected, a Russian paper said, potentially giving the West one of its biggest intelligence coups since the end of the Cold War.

A suicide car-bomber killed three soldiers and wounded 32 others in an attack on a military base in Russia’s violence-plagued republic of Dagestan today, officials said.

The largest Russia-US spy swap since the Cold War appeared to be underway today as a jailed Russian was freed from a Moscow prison and flown to Vienna.

RUSSIAN security forces have killed three people suspected of organising the suicide bombings in the Moscow metro after they resisted arrest, the head of the FSB security service said yesterday.

RUSSIA has identified a 17-year-old widow of a Caucasus militant as one of the Moscow suicide bombers, while the country remained on high alert after the attacks.

PRESIDENT Dmitry Medvedev made a surprise visit yesterday to the violence-wracked southern province of Dagestan, telling police and security forces to use tougher, “more cruel” measures to fight the “scum” responsible for terrorist attacks.

Flags flew at half-mast on government buildings and at the Kremlin as a day of national mourning for the victims of the Moscow tube blasts began.

Two women suicide bombers killed at least 38 people and wounded dozens more in rush-hour attacks on Moscow’s subway today.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is vowing to "destroy those responsible" for the Moscow metro suicide attacks.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is contacting Irish citizens in Moscow, warning them of the danger of further attacks, in the wake of two suicide bombings in the Russian capital.

At least 34 people were killed and more than 25 injured when two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on subway trains during the morning rush-hour in Moscow, Russian officials said.

Two explosions blasted Moscow’s underground system this morning as it was jam-packed with rush-hour passengers, killing at least 34 people and wounding more than 25, emergency officials said.

Russian officials opened a terror investigation today, saying that a home-made bomb planted on the tracks of the high-speed Moscow-to-St Petersburg route caused a derailment that killed at least 26 people and injured dozens more.

RUSSIAN investigators yesterday sifted through the wreckage of an Aeroflot jet that crashed in the Ural mountains killing all 88 people on board, as the region marked a day of mourning.

Britain’s ambassador to Russia said today that the Government will continue to press for the extradition of the main suspect in the killing of Alexander Litvinenko despite his probable membership in Russia’s new parliament, Russian news agencies reported.

A former KGB agent, who claims he warned Kremlin foe Alexander Litvinenko he was being hunted by a government hit squad, was released from prison today, one of his lawyers said.

The former KGB officer named as a suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London last year said today the British Government’s case against him has collapsed and called the dead man a “traitor”.

Russian president Vladimir Putin warned against political ideas “placed above basic values” as he, for the first time, joined public commemorations on the 70th anniversary of mass killings ordered by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Russia’s security chief said Western spies were working to weaken and break up the country and singled out British agents as the most intrusive, according to an interview published today.

Russia today announced that 10 people had been arrested in connection with the killing of journalist and outspoken Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, including police officers and a Chechen crime boss accused of organising the murder.

The Russian Foreign Ministry today expressed surprise that Russia was being accused of refusing to cooperate with Britain in the fight against terrorism, saying it was Britain that took the first “unfriendly” step.

Russia’s spy agency said today it has opened a criminal investigation into allegations by a Russian man that he was recruited by Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI6.