Kamchatka. Marcelo Figueras, Atlantic Books; €10.21

Authorities on Russia’s far-eastern Sakhalin Island and nearby territories have evacuated some 11,000 residents from coastal areas in anticipation of tsunami waves unleashed by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake off Japan’s north-eastern coast.

Two volcanoes have erupted on Russia’s far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, tossing massive ash clouds miles into the air, forcing flights to divert and blanketing one town with thick, heavy ash.

The Russian Navy successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile today, officials said.

Eleven fishing boat crew who had been stranded since October in a remote part of Russia’s Far East have been rescued after sheltering nearly three months at an abandoned military base, according to television and Russian news agency reports.

Russia today successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads - the weapon intended to replace ageing Soviet-built missiles.

Russian authorities seized several fishing boats off the country’s north-east coast, but none of the boats were Japanese in origin, a news report said today.

Russia’s navy today denied reports that a fire had broken out aboard a Pacific Fleet nuclear submarine that was docked at a repair yard on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

A Russian mini-submarine that was trapped for nearly three days under the Pacific Ocean surfaced today after a remote-controlled vehicle cut away the undersea cables that had snarled it.

Rescue crews managed to loop cables under the structure trapping a mini-submarine deep in the Pacific Ocean today and will try to lift the vessel closer to the surface, Russian navy spokesman Captain Igor Dygalo said.

THE submarine accident occurred almost exactly five years after the nuclear submarine Kursk sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea after explosions on board, killing all 118 seamen aboard in a painful blow to the Russian navy.

Crews are racing to save a Russian mini-submarine trapped in the remote Pacific with seven sailors on board and oxygen supplies dwindling, navy officials said today.

A deep-sea diving vessel with seven sailors aboard was stuck on the sea floor off the Kamchatka Peninsula yesterday after becoming caught on an unidentified object, Russian navy officials and news reports said.

The fate of four contested islands in the fertile fishing waters of the Sea of Okhotsk was expected to dominate talks today between Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

A Russian seaman has died in an accident on board a nuclear submarine at a Pacific base.

A Russian seaman died in an accident on board a nuclear submarine at a Pacific base, a navy spokesman said today.

A SERIES of undersea earthquakes hit off the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia yesterday, but no injuries of damage on land was reported, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.

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.

Two military helicopters collided over an airfield in Russia’s Far East today, killing five people and injuring one, in the second fatal copter crash in a week, Russian news agencies reported.