A Moscow newspaper that reported Vladimir Putin had divorced his wife and planned to marry an Olympic gymnast was closed by its publishers, just hours after the Russian president angrily denied the report.

Russian president Vladimir Putin today laughed off questions about an affair with a champion gymnast.

OUT on DVD for Valentine’s Day across Russia is a heartwarming drama about a man and a woman who love each other and their country — and who bear an uncanny resemblance to Vladimir Putin and his wife, Lyudmila.

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to build four new nuclear reactors for energy-starved India today, cementing his country’s traditional role as India’s main nuclear benefactor.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in India today, hoping to use the two nations’ decades-long friendship to push for deals in civilian nuclear co-operation, military hardware and trade expansion between the booming economies.

US President George Bush and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin sat down today for lunch and informal talks on ongoing nuclear disputes with North Korea and Iran, as the US leader paid an unusual visit to Moscow en route to a summit of Asian leaders.

Rival candidates Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych faced each other again today in a repeat election.

Voter turnout in Russia’s presidential election exceeded the 50% threshold needed to make the vote valid, Russian news agencies quoted Central Election Commission chief Alexander Veshnyakov as saying hours before polls closed today.

The main pro-Kremlin party competing in Russia's parliamentary elections was leading with a wide margin over the second-polling party, the Communists, the first exit poll results showed last night.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin, formerly head of the KGB, arrived in Britain yesterday to a welcome fit for a tsar. At the start of the first state visit by a Russian leader since 1874, when Tsar Alexander II came to Britain, President Putin basked in the British sunshine.

NATALYA ZABOTNAYA takes a huge breath of fresh air as she emerges from a morgue in western Ukraine, where the body supposed to be her son's turned out to be another "poor man".

Britain and Russia have formed a working group to combat global terror, Prime Minister Blair announced tonight.