Former Russian premier Primakov dies

Former Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov, whose career included journalism, diplomacy and spycraft, has died at the age of 85.

The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin has offered his condolences to Mr Primakov’s family. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Mr Primakov had deep experience in the Middle East, where he worked as a correspondent for the Soviet daily newspaper Pravda, and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Mr Putin used him as point man to try to head off wars with Iraq.

As premier, he sought but failed to prevent Nato from bombing Yugoslavia in the war over Kosovo.

However, Mr Primakov was more influential at home, and in 1999 was widely seen as a likely successor to Boris Yeltsin as president, before being undermined by negative television coverage orchestrated by supporters of Mr Putin.