AN oil drilling rig with 67 crew on board capsized and sank off the Russian far eastern island of Sakhalin yesterday when it ran into a storm while being towed, leaving 49 of the crew unaccounted for, the regional Emergencies Ministry said.

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’s opposition will test Vladimir Putin’s grip on power today in nationwide protests that promise to be the largest demonstration of public outrage since the dying days of the Soviet Union.

PRIME Minister Vladimir Putin strongly criticised US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday, accusing her of encouraging and funding Russians protesting election fraud.

VLADIMIR PUTIN’S ruling party clung to a much reduced majority in parliament after an election that showed growing weariness with the man who has dominated Russia for more than a decade and plans to return to the presidency next year.

VLADIMIR PUTIN’S ruling party suffered a big drop in support in a parliamentary election yesterday and was not certain even of holding on to a majority of seats, an exit poll showed.

Russia’s long dominant party appeared likely to lose its edge as voters across the sprawling country cast ballots for Parliament today, many of them frustrated over corruption and the gap between ordinary Russians and the super-rich.

RUSSIA’S political parties enjoy “free and equal competition” ahead of tomorrow’s parliamentary election, President Dmitry Medvedev insisted, as voters complained of record violations by the Kremlin party and the only independent election monitoring group was prosecuted.

RUSSIA delivered a vote of no confidence yesterday in Europe’s approach to resolving its sovereign debt crisis, as the head of the International Monetary Fund visited Moscow to seek support.

Russia’s influential finance minister was forced from office following a televised confrontation with President Dmitry Medvedev.

RUSSIA’S finance minister rebelled yesterday against Vladimir Putin’s plan to make President Dmitry Medvedev his prime minister if he returns to the Kremlin by saying he would not serve in the next government.

Vladimir Putin said today he will run for Russia’s presidency in 2012, almost certainly ensuring he will retake the office he previously held and foreshadowing years more of a strongman rule that many in the West have called a retreat from democracy.

David Cameron insisted that Britain would not give up on bringing Alexander Litvinenko’s killer to justice as he kicked off his visit to Russia today.

RUSSIA’S President Dmitry Medvedev called for immediate changes in his country’s troubled aviation industry — including sharply reducing the number of airlines — as the country mourned a crash that killed 43 people and devastated a top ice hockey team.

President Dmitry Medvedev has called for rapid changes in Russia’s troubled air transport industry as the country mourned a crash that killed 43 people, among them most of a leading hockey team.

A PLANE carrying a Russian ice hockey team to a season-opening match crashed after takeoff from a provincial airport, with 43 people feared dead.

A Russian airliner carrying an ice hockey team has crashed on take off killing 36 people.

The Kremlin has confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has arrived in Russia and will meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during his trip.

RUSSIAN authorities have foiled a plot by militants who were building fertiliser bombs in a suburban apartment and planning to attack a bullet train between Moscow and St Petersburg, a newspaper reported.

AN overloaded motor boat crashed into a docked barge on the Moscow River in pre-dawn darkness yesterday, killing nine of the 16 people on board, officials said.

An overloaded motor boat crashed into a docked barge on the Moscow River in pre-dawn darkness today, killing nine of the 16 people on board, officials said.

RUSSIAN President Dmitry Medvedev has recently signed a bill that officially classifies beer as being ‘alcoholic’.

RUSSIA said there was little hope of finding any more people alive after an overloaded tourist boat sank in the Volga river, killing as many as 128 people in Russia’s worst river accident in three decades.

More than 100 people, many of them children, were feared drowned today after an overloaded Russian cruise ship sank on the Volga river.

RUSSIAN Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday invited motorists, home owners and charity volunteers to join a movement which should help his United Russia party win a parliamentary election later this year.

FORMER Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev yesterday described Russia as an imitation of democracy and accused its rulers of conceit and contempt for voters, in his harshest criticism of the government yet.

A website affiliated with Chechen rebels has released a video in which insurgent leader Doku Umarov claims responsibility for last month's deadly suicide bombing at Russia's largest airport and threatens more bloodshed if Russia does not leave the region.

PRESIDENT Dmitry Medvedev fired Moscow’s transport police chief yesterday and lashed out at “passive” officers who guard airports and rail stations after an airport suicide bombing killed 35 people.

A SUICIDE bomber carrying a suitcase walked into Moscow’s busiest airport yesterday and set off a huge explosion, killing at least 35 people, reportedly including two Britons.

A suicide bomber killed 35 people and injured more than 140 when he blew himself up in a packed terminal at Moscow’s busiest airport today.

A LAWYER for jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky yesterday appealed his sentence of six more years in prison, a punishment seen as payback for challenging Vladimir Putin’s power and which was widely condemned in the West.

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama has capped a crisis-strewn first two White House years by flexing restored power at home and abroad as he secured big wins in Congress on nuclear arms and gay rights.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says Russia’s stability is threatened by anti-democratic trends.

A new arms race will erupt if Russia cannot agree with the West over a joint European missile defence program, President Dmitry Medvedev warned today.

SECOND World War Katyn massacres were committed on the direct order of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, Russia’s lower house of parliament said yesterday — a statement hailed by Polish officials.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama pledged yesterday that US forces would stand by Afghanistan even after Nato-led troops hand control of the fight against Taliban insurgents to Afghan forces in 2014.

PRIME MINISTER Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff was confirmed as the new mayor of Moscow yesterday, cementing the powerful Russian leader’s influence over the capital.

RUSSIAN spy Anna Chapman has stripped off for a cover spread in a men’s magazine, striking a number of James Bond-style poses in her latest stunt since she left the United States.

The Russian sleeper agents deported from the US were today awarded the country’s highest state honours by President Dmitry Medvedev.

Russia may extend its ban on grain exports until next July.

MOSCOW’S ousted mayor yesterday launched a withering attack on President Dmitry Medvedev, accusing him of promoting a climate of repression and censorship reminiscent of the Stalin era.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in China today for talks with leaders, amid growing energy co-operation between the neighbours.

A BAN on Russian grain exports ordered by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin came into force yesterday, with the government battling to keep down prices of basic foodstuffs amid a record drought.