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.

RUSSIA’S ruling party swept regional elections in several provinces at the weekend, maintaining its grip on power.

The largest US-Russian spy swap since the Cold War happened less than a month after an idea was secretly hatched in the Oval Office, and reached fruition on a remote stretch of Vienna airport tarmac.

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.

It is being reported that a plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski has crashed, with 87 people feared dead.

Tottenham outcast Roman Pavlyuchenko has accused boss Harry Redknapp of having a laugh at his expense.

A suicide bomber attacked a Russian police station today killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 100 others.

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.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV has won Russia’s presidential election with more than 70% of the vote, according to final results released yesterday.

An exhibition at the Royal Academy looks set to open as scheduled on January 26 after a Russian government agency approved the transport of paintings to London.

Russian authorities have cancelled a major exhibition of French and Russian paintings set to open in London in January, fearing the art could be seized to settle private legal claims, a museum official said today.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin insisted yesterday he would travel to Iran today despite reports about a possible assassination attempt, arguing direct contact and “peaceful means” were the only way to deal with the country’s nuclear program.

US missile defence experts today visited a Russian-operated radar station in Azerbaijan that Moscow is offering to share to counter potential missile threats from nations including Iran, but a top US general suggested its technology was outdated.

The BBC World Service is to be removed from FM radio in Russia at the request of the Russian authorities, the BBC said today.

An idea first mulled in the czarist era – a tunnel under the Bering Strait – is being revived as part of an ambitious project to build a 3,700-mile transport corridor linking Russia with Alaska.

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 Federal Security Service today said it had uncovered a ring selling newborn babies in the Chechen capital, Grozny.

Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has lost an appeal against his eight-year jail term for fraud and tax evasion.

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 expressed limited hope today as Russian and Iranian officials started talks in Moscow on an offer to enrich uranium for Iran, seen as a final opportunity for the Islamic regime to avoid the threat of international sanctions over Western concerns it is developing nuclear weapons.

A government panel has found that the failed launch of a booster rocket that resulted in the loss of a European satellite earlier this month had been caused by a faulty computer program, Russian officials said today.

Russia’s Supreme Court today convicted three federal judges of fraud for a series of illegal real estate deals, news reports said.

Former Russian Nuclear Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov was arrested at the request of US officials who have demanded his extradition, a Swiss official said today.

Russia’s Federal Security Service said today that it had paid a reward of $10m (€7.5m) for information on the exact location of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov.

A top Russian air force commander today said Russia can use cruise missiles fitted with conventional warheads to strike terrorists all over the world.

Russia may use its strategic bombers to unleash preventive strikes against terrorists outside its borders.

Russia’s school siege ended in a chaotic bloodbath today with more than 150 hostages and some of their captors killed when special forces stormed the building in an unplanned onslaught.

More than 90 people were killed and 120 wounded in the attacks in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, the regional government said today.

The crew of the international space station have been alarmed by a possible collision with space debris, but Russian space officials said today the men were safe and there was no immediate sign of any damage.

Election officials in the vast Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk today invalidated the results of this month’s local election, citing numerous campaign and electoral violations, an official said.

A chartered Russian airliner heading from Israel to Siberia exploded at 36,000 feet today and plummeted into the Black Sea coast with 78 people on board.

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.