The lawyer of the man who blew the whistle on Russia's state-sponsored doping programme believes anything other than a ban from February's Winter Olympics would "embolden the cheats".

Eleven people have been killed and 21 others hurt in a fire at a luxury hotel in the Georgian Black Sea resort city of Batumi, officials said.

Hundreds of people were arrested in the centre of Moscow today while trying to gather for an unauthorised demonstration called by an extreme nationalist group.

Scores of people have been arrested in the centre of Moscow while trying to gather for an unauthorised protest demonstration called for by an extreme nationalist group.

Eight people have been injured by a knife attacker in Russia's far northern city of Surgut.

Spain is coming under criticism for reportedly preparing to allow the refuelling of Russian warships en route to bolstering the bombing campaign against the besieged Syrian city Aleppo.

A Russian diplomat has described the decision to ban their Paralympics team from the Rio Games next month as "filthy and inhumane".

The International Olympic Committee has postponed a decision on whether to ban the entire Russian Olympic team from the Rio Games but has announced a raft of measures in response to Monday’s report of state-directed doping.

Some of the strangers stories doing the rounds around the world

Investigators in Moscow said they were unable to retrieve information from the damaged black box of a Russian warplane shot down by Turkey last month, data the Kremlin hoped would support its version of what happened.

The arms trade adviser to President Vladimir Putin said Russia has begun delivering S-300 air defence missile systems to Iran, according to reports.

Russia’s Mission Control has failed to stabilise a cargo ship spinning out of control in orbit and it is plunging back to Earth.

A Russian nuclear submarine that was under repair in a far northern port has caught fire, but officials said there was no danger of radioactive emissions or explosion.

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.

Ukrainian forces and separatist rebels fought fierce street battles for control of the strategic railway hub of Debaltseve, impeding implementation of a peace plan.

Leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany are struggling to reach a deal this morning in marathon talks aimed at ending fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Russian government officials have appealed for calm after predicting budget cuts and a further surge in inflation as the country faces its worst economic downturn in 15 years.

The Ukrainian parliament has renounced Ukraine’s “non-aligned” status with the aim of eventually joining NATO, angering Moscow which views the Western alliance’s eastward expansion as a threat to its own security.

A Russian military jet nearly collided with a commercial passenger airplane in international airspace near southern Sweden on Friday, Swedish authorities said, but Russia insisted its jet had kept at a safe distance.

President Vladimir Putin blamed the West for worsening relations with Russia since the Ukraine crisis and said Moscow would not allow itself to become internationally isolated behind another ‘Iron Curtain’.

Vladimir Putin has said he will not remain Russia’s president for life and will step down in line with the constitution no later than 2024, according to an interview with a Russian news agency released today.

A Russian military plane crashed in the country’s far east late today, killing all nine people aboard, news agencies reported.

Two deep-diving Russian miniature submarines today descended more than two and a half miles to the ocean floor beneath the North Pole, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

Programmes to groom Britain's Olympic stars of the future, in time for London's hosting of the Games in 2012, will be given an extra £1m (€1.4m) a year, it was announced today.

CHECHNYA presents a formidable challenge to the media outlets operating there and journalists attempting to cover events on the ground.

Jennifer Lopez stood up a charity event for orphans when she wed Latin lover Marc Anthony, it was reported today.