Vodka is a major cause of early death in Russia and has a direct impact on mortality rates in men, research has shown.

Neil Robinson on a biography of Vladimir Putin which concludes that he has turned into another Russian leader who promised more than he could deliver.

Putin governs Russia with all the panache of a Bond villain, says Dave Kenny. Or so his photoshoots suggest

KNIGHTSBRIDGE, London. 2007. Boris Berezovsky, aka “the Godfather of the Kremlin”, is shopping at Dolce & Gabbana.

HELICOPTER trips, smart skiing holidays and plush properties are just a few of the luxuries that changed Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich’s mind about not imitating a rival’s “extravagant lifestyle”, a London court has heard.

CHELSEA Football Club owner Roman Abramovich is “good at appearing to be humble”, a British High Court judge was told.

RUSSIAN leader Boris Yeltsin was once found near the White House late at night dressed in his underwear, seemingly drunk and looking for pizza, according to a new book detailing Bill Clinton’s presidency.

WHEN Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich appeared in the literary magazine Novy Mir back in November 1962, taboos were shattered. Secrets were unearthed. And the Soviet Union was shaken to its foundations.

NEXT week’s G-8 summit will probably be the last such meeting for Presidents George W Bush and Vladimir Putin.

Russia bid a solemn farewell today to Boris Yeltsin, its first post-Soviet leader, in a funeral presided over by some two dozen white-robed priests and a crowd of dignitaries including President Vladimir Putin and two former US leaders.

Dignitaries from around the world will attend the funeral of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Moscow today.

Hundreds of mourners – some weeping, many clutching flowers – filed through a soaring, gold-domed Moscow cathedral today, past the open casket for Boris Yeltsin, paying tribute to a man who brought epochal changes to Russia but left behind a tarnished legacy.

The funeral of former President Boris Yeltsin – who engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union and pushed Russia toward pluralism and a market economy – will take place tomorrow.

AFTER 13 years Boris Yeltsin’s explanation for events at Shannon Airport finally emerged yesterday — it was his aide’s fault.

Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds managed to extract two favours out of the late Russian president Boris Yeltsin in return for famously snubbing him at Shannon Airport in 1994, it emerged today.

Tributes were paid to "larger than life" former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin today after the announcement of his death, aged 76.

The European Union and the Nato alliance hailed Boris Yeltsin today as a healer of the Cold War divide who opened up Russia to the rest of Europe.

Former President Boris Yeltsin - who engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union and pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy - has died, a Kremlin official said today. He was 76.

Boris Yeltsin has died aged 76, a Kremlin official said today.

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin has died aged 76, a Kremlin official said today.

Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin has been enjoying a holiday with a difference in the west of Ireland.

Boris Yeltsin marked his 75th birthday today, with more than 200 guests expected to honour Russia's first post-Soviet president at an evening Kremlin gala.

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin is recovering well after undergoing hip surgery last week, reports said today.

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin was in stable condition today following hip surgery, Russian news agencies quoted doctors as saying.

Doctors at a Moscow hospital have conducted a hip operation on former President Boris Yeltsin who suffered a fall during a holiday on an Italian island, a Russian news agency said today.

WHEN the champagne and lager stops flowing down the Kings Road, when the tears are wiped away, and heads have cleared in about four weeks’ time, there will be opportunity to reflect on the double act which has dominated the European football scene this season.

Police were investigating multiple theories today following the murder of a former top Russian spy and his wife, who were gunned down in Moscow.

Former president of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev called for a new “glasnost” - openness – on the environment today.

RUSSIA’S first post-Soviet leader Boris Yeltsin issued a veiled warning that President Vladimir Putin’s decision to hand sweeping new powers to the Kremlin in the wake of the Beslan hostage crisis could roll back democratic freedoms.

THE images of children being carried naked and covered in blood from Middle School 1 in Beslan, beamed live on the main TV networks in Russia, are traumatising the nation.

Brushing off US criticism of a one-sided election campaign, Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed victory early today after voters handed him an expected landslide win for a second four-year term.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sacked Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and his Cabinet today, saying he made the move in order to reshuffle the government ahead of next month’s presidential election.

Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire owner of Chelsea soccer club, will face checks by Russia’s highest auditing body starting next month, its chief said in Moscow today.

A former Russian media mogul who clashed with the Kremlin and fled under fraud accusations three years ago was in Greek custody after being arrested during an airport check, authorities announced tonight.

Alexander Lebed, the governor of the Krasnoyarsk territory and a former presidential candidate, died today when his helicopter crashed after hitting a power line, Russian emergency officials said.

Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev has told American university students the communism he served most of his life was ‘‘pure propaganda’’.

Ten years after the demise of the Soviet Union, former leader Mikhail Gorbachev has launched an attack on his successor Boris Yeltsin.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the former leader of the Soviet Union, tonight marked a decade since the demise of the USSR by launching a stinging attack on his successor, Boris Yeltsin.

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin travelled today to Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula for a holiday, his spokesman said.

In a renewed attack on former Kremlin insiders, authorities in Russia issued an arrest warrant for tycoon Boris Berezovsky and charged railways minister Nikolai Aksyonenko, the state prosecutor said yesterday.

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin travelled to China today for a holiday and medical treatment based on traditional Chinese medicine.

Vladimir Putin has been visiting Boris Yeltsin in his country home outside Moscow, a day after he was released from hospital.

Boris Yeltsin is recovering normally from pneumonia and should be home from the hospital early next week, an aide said today, denying speculation that the former Russian president’s condition had worsened dramatically.

Boris Yeltsin, who was admitted to hospital more than a month ago, had fallen ill with pneumonia but has fully recovered.