Protesters gathered across Russia to support opposition leader Alexei Navalny's call to boycott the March presidential election, and Mr Navalny himself was arrested while walking to the Moscow demonstration.

Chelsea 3 Newcastle 1: Eden Hazard maintaining his fitness and form is clearly key to Chelsea hanging on to the coattails of what passes for a title race this season. Getting him to stay at Chelsea long-term is central to any future success the London side might challenge for.

With parliamentary elections looming in less than a month, Putin is backed by a bunch of yes men when he needs experts in politics, writes William E Pomeranz

GERMANY: A pensioner has started digging in Germany’s western Ruhr region for the Amber Room, a priceless work of art looted by Nazis from the Soviet Union during World War Two and missing for 70 years, but says he needs a new drill to help him.

Preventing smuggled cigarettes coming into Ireland is protecting young people from the very high risks of smoking, writes Kathleen O’Meara.

Kaliningrad. Scezezin. Minsk. And now Almaty.

As the Olympic flame makes it way to Russia, Amnesty International activists are highlighting human rights abuses there.

The 11 host cities for the 2018 World Cup in Russia have been announced.

Russia’s top military officer has threatened to launch a pre-emptive strike if Nato goes ahead with controversial plans for a missile defence system in Eastern Europe.

Thousands of protesters took to Moscow’s streets, accusing prime minister Vladimir Putin’s party of rigging Russia’s parliamentary election in which it won the largest share of the seats.

Russia will aim new missiles at US defence sites in Europe if Washington goes ahead with a planned shield, president Dmitry Medvedev said today.

Russia deepened cuts of natural gas supplies to ex-Soviet neighbour Belarus even further today over what it claims is a debt of nearly $200m (€162.8m).

THE Amber Room, Katherine Palace, St Petersburg in Russia was commissioned by Frederick I of Prussia in 1701, and was presented later to Czar Peter the Great.

A secret cargo and not just timber may be on board a missing ship whose last known radio contact was with British Coastguards, it was suggested today.

Tens of thousands of casinos and slot-machines across Russia shut down today as sweeping new laws confining gambling to four remote regions came into effect.

RUSSIA has halted plans to deploy missiles near the Polish border, a Russian news agency quoted the military as saying yesterday, in the clearest sign yet Moscow is seeking better ties with the new US administration.

Russia will be forced to make a military response if the US-Czech missile defence agreement is ratified, the Foreign Ministry said tonight.

A new square in the Baltic city of Kaliningrad will be named after Vladimir Lenin, complete with a restored statue of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution leader.

A new square in the Russian city of Kaliningrad will be named after Vladimir Lenin, complete with a restored statue of the Bolshevik Revolution leader, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported today.

The European Union has ordered restrictions on bird markets and shows and urged nations to present a program of vaccination for zoo birds as part of increased measures to head off the spread of bird flu.

THE European Commission yesterday banned imports of pet birds and feathers from most of Russia in the latest move to combat the spread of avian flu.

The European Union today said it was extending a ban on the importation of pet birds and feathers to cover most of Russia.

A Russian Su-27 fighter bomber crashed today in Lithuania during a flight across the former Soviet republic to the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, and the pilot ejected safely, the Russian Defence Ministry said.

A helicopter carrying two pilots and 12 passengers crashed and sank in the Baltic Sea off the Estonian coast today.

Estonian maritime rescue service divers are searching for survivors in the Baltic Sea after a helicopter with two pilots and 12 passengers crashed off the coast from the Estonian capital today.

Russian President Vladimir Putin today called on the world community to work together to bring stability to violence-wracked Iraq, saying after meeting with French and German leaders that past disputes should not prevent future co-operation.

Five days before its historic eastward expansion, the European Union resolved lingering disputes with Russia about the EU absorbing former Soviet satellites and republics.

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.

Russians were voting today in a presidential poll that incumbent Vladimir Putin is expected to win in a landslide after a lacklustre campaign that gave most people little chance to hear from his challengers.

European Union leaders and Russian president Vladimir Putin were debating economic, political and trade ties at a Brussels summit today, with human rights groups pressuring the EU to persuade Moscow to ease its crackdown on rebels in Chechnya.

President Vladimir Putin has presented EU leaders with a bold proposal to consider visa-free travel between Russia and the EU as a way to resolve the dispute over Russia’s Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad.

A Russian man was killed today when a sign with an offensive slogan exploded as he was trying to remove it from a park in Kaliningrad, police said.

President Vladimir Putin said he will "never agree to the division of the sovereignty of Russia" implied by European Union plans to impose visas on the residents of the country's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.

A train ploughed into a bus at a level crossing in Russia’s western enclave of Kaliningrad today, killing 12 people and injuring 18.

Russia has moved short-range nuclear weapons onto one of its military bases in the Baltics.

Russia is reported to be moving tactical nuclear weapons into a military base in Eastern Europe for the first time since the Cold War.