Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it is studying US statements about the arrest of 10 alleged Russian spies.

Russian president Vladimir Putin vowed today to strengthen his country’s military capability and intensify spying abroad.

Russian intelligence officials today claimed Western powers had given tacit consent to the Soviet Union’s 1940 occupation of the Baltic States, judging it a “necessary step” to counter Nazi aggression.

A senior Kremlin spokesman dismissed allegations that Russia’s government was involved in the alleged poisoning of former security officer Alexander Litvinenko as “sheer nonsense.”

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service denied as “baseless” Pentagon claims that Moscow provided information to Saddam Hussein’s regime on US troop movements and plans during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, in the latest spat in an increasingly tense bilateral relationship.

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service today denied that Moscow provided information on US troop movements and plans to Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Interfax news agency reported.

AN ITALIAN parliamentary commission has concluded “beyond any reasonable doubt” that the Soviet Union was behind the 1981 attempt to kill Pope John Paul II.

FORMER Chechen president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, who has been linked to al-Qaida and was accused by Russia of maintaining international terrorist ties, was killed yesterday after his car exploded in the Qatari capital Doha.

Senior Russian and US officials began consultations in Moscow today that were expected to focus on potential terrorist threats coming from groups based in Afghanistan.