Welcome to your Friday morning briefing. Let us ensure you’re up to speed on what’s happening and are prepared for the day ahead.

An artist who previously hammered his scrotum to the cobblestones of Red Square has now cut off his ear lobe to protest against his country putting political prisoners in psychiatric wards.

Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated his 62nd birthday in the wilderness of Siberia as supporters from across Russia create tributes in his honour.

Thousands of Russian troops have marched in Red Square in the annual Victory Day parade in a proud display of the nation’s military might amid the escalating tensions over Ukraine.

History offered another one of its delicious ironies yesterday when a World Bank report suggested that China, hardly 30 years after Communist demigod Mao Zedong’s death, will become the world’s biggest economy and the country with the greatest purchasing power this year, several years earlier than had been anticipated.

With his annexation of Crimea, will Vladimir Putin now turn Russian eyes on other targets? Nina Khrushcheva reports

A Russian performance artist was hospitalised after stripping naked and nailing his testicles to a Red Square cobblestone in protest against the Kremlin’s crackdown on political rights.

"Russian artist what ?!?!?!!?". Yep, you read that right.

It is a matter of taste, or maybe conviction. Either way the relics of St Anthony have prompted the devotion of thousands in all-weathers around the country.

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

A record number of visitors are expected to flock to 34 towns, cities, and regions across the country next month for a free evening of music, dance, theatre, and art.

A bill attacking Russia’s gay community and banning the distribution of information about homosexuality to children has been overwhelmingly approved by the lower house of parliament.

From the glittering new year’s ball dropping in New York’s Times Square to joyous fireworks in London and cheers in a once-isolated Asian country, the world did its best to ring in 2013 with hope for renewal after a year of economic uncertainty, searing violence and natural disasters.

Lavish fireworks displays have ushered in 2013 across the Asia-Pacific region and Europe is holding scaled-back festivities in the hope of beginning a new year that will be kinder to its battered economies.

JOHN B KEANE lived a double life.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told a massive annual military parade in Red Square that the country will stand up for its positions.

Hundreds of helmeted Russian riot police have dispersed a crowd of up to 300 anti-Putin protesters who took over a Moscow square for most of the day.

Police have arrested more than 20 demonstrators as a Moscow court considers extending the detention of three female punk rockers arrested after a surprise protest performance against Vladimir Putin.

Two female punk rockers have been ordered to remain in jail awaiting trial for praying to the Virgin Mary to deliver the nation from Vladimir Putin in a surprise performance in the country’s main Orthodox cathedral.

A MASSIVE fire engulfed a Russian nuclear submarine in an Arctic shipyard yesterday, but there has been no radiation leak or injuries, officials said.

For many Russians, reforms mean not freedom but a slow implosion of life’s possibilities, writes Owen Matthews

MORE than the luxury hotels, upmarket stores, eye-popping skyscrapers, top-of-the-range cars and crippling prices, perhaps the most dramatic measure of how much Russia has changed over the past 20 years is that Moscow is a tough place for an atheist like myself to be these days.

Richard Fitzpatrick reads a fascinating account of tumultuous events in the early 1980s when the Cold War threatened to erupt into all-out confrontation.

BOBBY Farrell, of the 1970s European chart-topping group Boney M, was found dead in his hotel bed yesterday while on tour in Russia, his agent said. He was 61. He failed to respond to a wake-up call by hotel staff.

Bobby Farrell, the lead singer of Boney M, the chart-topping 70s group, has died while on tour in Russia aged 61, his agent has said.

A CHOKING smog from raging wildfires shrouded Moscow, grounding flights, plunging the city’s iconic Red Square into a sea of dirty mist and stinging eyes and throats across the Russian capital.

THERE’S a prison in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St Petersburg.

PRESIDENT Dmitry Medvedev struck a conciliatory note at Russia’s Victory Day military parade yesterday, urging world powers to unite for peace and defending his decision to invite Nato troops to march on Red Square.

British, French and US troops strode across Red Square for the first time today in a Victory Day parade marked both by the usual impressive display of Russia’s military might and by an unusual emphasis on international co-operation.

POLAND steeled itself yesterday for a return to political wrangling after burying president Lech Kaczynski, as hundreds of mourners bid a final farewell at his tomb.

TEN league titles in the bag, a Champions League trophy already tucked away and another one tantalisingly close to being secured.

Dmitry Medvedev won a landslide victory in the election to replace his patron Vladimir Putin as Russia’s president, promising to continue on Mr Putin’s path and to appoint him prime minister.

SAM THOMAS believes the fact that jockey arrangements have already been finalised for Denman and Kauto Star in the Cheltenham Gold Cup is a bonus.

A Moscow court sentenced former chess champion Garry Kasparov to five days in jail today for leading an opposition protest.

THREE hours after delivering a Churchillian battle speech, England coach Steve McClaren was forced into a damage limitation exercise after skipper John Terry was all but ruled out of tonight’s crucial European Championship qualifier with Russia.

Three hours after delivering a Churchillian battle speech, England coach Steve McClaren was forced into a damage limitation exercise after skipper John Terry was all but ruled out of tomorrow’s crucial European Championship qualifier with Russia.

Builders renovating a Moscow house have unearthed more than 30 bodies apparently dating back to the era of Josef Stalin’s political purges.

An ice-cream van stuck in melted asphalt on a Moscow street this week during the hottest five days in the city’s recorded history, freakish weather that triggered minor power failures, caused sunstrokes and led to a spate of drownings.

Russian President Vladimir Putin today told the annual massive Victory Day commemoration in Red Square that desecrating war monuments harmed relations between countries.

President Vladimir Putin presided over an elaborate awards ceremony and government-backed youth parties staged music and dance concerts today as Russia marked an independence holiday recast by the Kremlin as a celebration of Russia itself.

MILITARY parades never really got onto the radar for kids like me in the 1970s, when parades were pretty thin on the ground.

Eric Clapton will close the European leg of his world tour with his first concert in Moscow’s Red Square.

Peter Marsh Chase winner Ebony Light will continue his John Smith’s Grand National preparations with another run at Haydock next month.