THE cruises sector of the global travel industry has been defying recessionary trends and growing non-stop, with average annual growth of 9%.

The last of the 26 foreign Greenpeace activists who were detained after an Arctic protest left Russia yesterday, the group announced, finally ending a saga that had caused global concern.

You would think when you reach the age of 101 you would start to slow down, but Alexander Kaptarenko is gearing up for a very special day.

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.

THERE is a saying, too often used in interpreting international relations, that my enemy’s enemy is my friend. Sometimes it proves true, often it does not.

Thousands of drivers in Russia have been stuck in a 190km traffic jam — some for up to three days in temperatures of minus five degrees Celsius.

Madonna will appear in court to defend allegations she encouraged gay sex between minors during a gig in Saint Petersburg.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Moscow today in the first anti-Putin demonstration in months.

A group of Russian activists has filed a $10m (€8.1m) lawsuit against Madonna, claiming they were offended by her recent show in St Petersburg.

US pop icon Madonna drew the wrath of Russian ministers and the Church again as she took her gay rights activism to a city that has just banned “homosexual propaganda”.

THE Russian protest movement yesterday vowed there would be new demonstrations this week after a leading anti-Kremlin activist was given a fresh jail sentence following the latest mass rally against Vladimir Putin.

Ericsson 4 has tightened its grip on the Volvo Ocean Race, reaching Galway in the early hours of this morning ahead of the field.

LONDON accused Moscow of “reprehensible” conduct yesterday after the British Council suspended the operation of Russian offices following a secret police crackdown on the cultural body.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin called for a leading UN role in post-war Iraq yesterday as the leaders of France, Germany and Russia held a summit to try and limit US control in Baghdad after the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

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.