Russia has sharply criticised the conclusions of a UK inquiry into the 2006 poisoning death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

Russia wants to question former oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky as a suspect in a murder case that has been reopened because of new evidence, federal investigators announced.

The main suspect in the killing of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov has signs of torture on his body and was forced to confess to the shooting, a human rights activist said.

Russia’s top investigative body is looking into several possible motives for the killing of prominent opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, including an attempt to destabilise the state, Islamic extremism, the Ukraine conflict and his personal life.

Russian investigators have raided the office of anti-corruption campaigner and leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny after he was taken for questioning by a dozen policemen who intercepted him outside his Moscow apartment building.

Russian anti-corruption campaigner and leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny has been taken in for questioning, escorted by a dozen police who he said intercepted him outside his Moscow apartment building.

Russian investigators have detained two employees of the Moscow subway where 22 people died and more than a hundred were injured in a train derailment.

A collision between a cargo train and a passenger service near Moscow has left at least six people dead and 45 others injured.

A criminal investigation has been launched into breaches of hygiene at a cheese factory after footage of bare-chested workers bathing in vats of milk went viral on the internet.

A teacher and policeman have been killed by an armed teenager who burst into his Moscow school before being arrested.

Fifteen people died and scores were wounded when a female suicide bomber struck at a railway station in southern Russia.

A female suicide bomber killed at least 14 people and wounded scores more at a railway station in southern Russia.

Two hard-line Muslims suspected of planning to attack a chemical weapons plant have been arrested in Russia.

Russia has charged Greenpeace activists who tried to board a state-owned offshore drilling platform in the Arctic with piracy.

The body of a Russian politician has been found cemented in a barrel, and a former government official has been accused of ordering the killing over an $80 million (€59 million) debt, officials say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has fired the country's defence minister two weeks after a criminal probe was opened into alleged fraud in the sell-off of military assets.

Russian investigators have filed charges against a left-wing activist, making him the most prominent opposition figure to face prison under an increasingly severe Kremlin crackdown against the anti-Putin protest movement.

In a new sign of a widening crackdown on Russian opposition, a criminal investigation has begun into leftist leader Sergei Udaltsov and several other opposition activists for allegedly plotting mass riots.

The bodies of two murdered women were found beneath a scrawled message demanding freedom for jailed members of Pussy Riot, Russian officials said today.

One of president Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics has been charged with theft and is facing a 10-year prison sentence as the Kremlin steps up a crackdown on dissent.

Four people have been detained on suspicion of killing a top Muslim cleric and injuring another in Russia’s Tatarstan province, prosecutors said today.

Tens of thousands of Russians flooded Moscow's tree-lined boulevards today in the first massive protest against president Vladimir Putin's rule since his inauguration in May - a rally that came even as police interrogated key opposition leaders.

A 17-year-old stowaway survived a 50-minute flight hidden in the plane’s landing gear, Russian investigators said today.

Russian investigators say two police officers were killed today by a suicide bomber in a restive North Caucasus province near Chechnya.

Russia’s top investigative body said the number of people who died in a nightclub fire in the Urals city of Perm has risen to 109.

An explosion apparently caused by pyrotechnics tore through a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm, killing more than 100 people, according to emergency officials quoted by state television.

A HUMAN rights lawyer who fought against the early release of a Russian colonel convicted of murdering a Chechen woman was shot dead on a Moscow street yesterday, days after the officer left prison, law enforcement authorities said.

A passenger jet travelling from Moscow to the Ural Mountains city of Perm crashed while preparing to land early today, killing all 88 people aboard, officials said.

A passenger jet travelling from Moscow to the Ural Mountains city of Perm crashed as it was preparing to land early today, killing all 88 people aboard, officials said.

Authorities in Russia have brought tax evasion charges against a well-known British investor who has been barred from the country for nearly 30 months, it is reported.

The eircom League Board of Control has decided to fine Bohemians €3,000 and Shamrock Rovers a total of €2,000 after considering the report of the Investigations Committee.

The role the courts played in placing children in institutions will be examined in a major probe, it was revealed today.

JUSTICE Mary Laffoy’s resignation letter yesterday developed into a political time bomb for Education Minister Noel Dempsey.