Russia has hit back at the head of MI5's claims that Moscow is adopting an "increasingly aggressive" approach to pursuing its foreign policy goals, including cyber-attacks.

The Kremlin yesterday dismissed allegations that Russia had run a sophisticated doping programme at the last winter Olympics as treacherous slander, calling the ex-head of the country’s anti-doping laboratory “a turncoat.”

The head of a major Russian state-owned bank dismissed as nonsense reports that President Vladimir Putin is linked to as much as €2bn in offshore transactions allegedly involving people close to the Kremlin leader.

The offshore financial dealings of the rich and famous have been exposed by a cache of 11.5 million leaked records, an international coalition of media outlets said.

SCOTLAND: A mascot from the first Commonwealth Games held in Scotland almost half a century ago has been uncovered.

Russia has said it will be at least six months before it can deliver a missile system to Iran, but the Kremlin confirmed a barter deal to supply Russian goods in exchange for Iranian oil was already being implemented.

A leading Russian opposition politician, former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, has been shot dead, Russian officials say.

President Vladimir Putin has met with his Chinese counterpart in a diplomatic boost for the isolated Russian leader, but his spokesman said the two sides are yet to agree on a widely anticipated multibillion-euro natural gas sale.

The Kremlin gave gifts to heads of state at a G20 meeting in St Petersburg that were actually bugging devices, it has been reported.

Specialist police with nuclear and chemical training gave the all-clear at the British home of former Russian business magnate Boris Berezovsky yesterday, a day after the fervent critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin died in unclear circumstances.

French actor Gerard Depardieu has flown to Sochi where he is likely to meet with President Vladimir Putin and receive a Russian passport.

ONE of Russia’s richest tycoons and the owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, Mikhail Prokhorov said he will run against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the March presidential election.

PRESIDENT Dmitry Medvedev ordered an investigation yesterday into allegations of fraud in Russia’s parliamentary election, one day after tens of thousands of protesters demanded it be annulled and rerun.

Russia denounced Kosovo’s independence declaration today and called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is embarking on the first ever visit by a Kremlin leader to the Jewish state in an historic bid to cement improving relations after decades of Soviet-era strain.